Boons are the real currency of Kindred society. Keeping track of one's boons and working to increase one's wealth and power with them consumes many a Kindred's nights. City of Hope has a coded +boon system to help keep track of them. As important as these are to Kindred, the following is to help make the system easier to understand and less daunting to use, to encourage the actual use.
Use +boon/offer when you do a favor for someone. You will gain points of Status, and the Kindred who accepts the favor will lose those points, equal to the value of the boon until the boon is repaid (with +boon/forgive).
So the person receiving the initial favor uses +boon/accept to aknowledge their debt by lending their Status points until they repay the debt.
The Harpy Primer pages 14-15 has some additional information about boons that can be useful.
Currently only you and staff can see your +boons information directly. Typically ICly harpies keep careful track of boons, which being the main means of oversight typically in everyone's best interests and it's rare that boons are not registered with the harpies. Effectively that is what +boon is doing. Harpy PCs do not have direct access to see your +boons, but can make inquiries to staff as assumed IC knowledge. If one wishes to handle their debts entirely privately, and assuming the attendant risks, you will wish to avoid +boon.
Because +boon is a behind-the-scenes record-keeping tool is that its use is the end result of IC efforts. So one would negotiate terms with the other party and then register the result with +boon.
Oversight of boons is an important harpy function. However a result of the code being OOCly invisible there are several implications. First, as mentioned above, harpy PCs must +request information about boons to see it, so they won't have immediate access in a conversation; they will have to go consult with the other harpies and get back to you. Additionally harpies will not be making comments on what you have negotiated or behavior toward one's creditors or debtors.
If you need harpy help with negotiating a boon or its repayment enter a +request to ask that staff assign the harpies to discuss their opinions on the proper value. Less formally you can speak to your local harpy(ies), IC or OOC, for at least one perspective and advice.
If you have issues with how one's creditor or debtor is handling their part of the deal then +harpyreq is strongly recommended as the best tool. This is a close approximation of how harpies oversee boons, and improper behavior regarding those should definitely affect Status.
Examples: (Names have been inserted to implicate the innocent-of-this.)
- Lillian really wants to get involved with a crime family operating in the Brujah territory. So she goes to Sharpe, Vegard's ghoul, to arrange an introduction to a "family" member, using his Underworld influence, offering a boon for that one-time favor for which Vegard would like a particular vote on an agenda item on the next primogen council meeting. The purchase of more Underworld Influence and setting the details is handled through a +request, to which staff gets added to take care of his Influence action. Then Lillian would +boon/offer Vegard=1/I will vote x way on y agenda item. Next month after the primogen meeting Vegard would then +boon/forgive <#> after Lillian voted the requested.
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