Ranking Characters

There are several criteria for measuring success in Inferno. Which you will judge as the most important is up to you: here's a brief summary of each.

• Sinister -- the indicator of your seniority within your House. Means slightly different to members of different Houses, but in general you will gain Sinister from doing what your House wishes, forwarding its aims and so on. Some Houses are amenable to being sucked up to, others demand more concrete evidence of success. Everyone starts with the same Sinister, and gaining it faster than your Housemates has the added advantage that you gain authority over them -- which they may or may not wish to respect, of course.
• Status -- the indicator of your social rank. Initial Status is one of the nine basic character stats: changing it is rather difficult, particularly in the entrenched societies of Western Europe. A character with low initial Status who manages to make his or her way up to the higher echelons of society has truly achieved something.
• Influence -- the indicator of your raw power in society at large. Includes positions of authority, the ear of the mighty, spending power and so on. It is assessed by the Libran Calculation Engines, which are claimed to be infallible and omniscient. Some characters will start the game with more Influence than others. Note that some of a character's Influence may be hidden to the world, and even to the members of the Inferno Club, but not necessarily to the Libran Calculation Engines.
• Prestige -- the indicator of the respect in which you are held by the Inferno Club in general. This too is assessed by the Libran Calculation Engines, and it is totally determined by the relative success or failure of your plans -- taking into account their ambition. It is essentially a measure of how effective you are as an Inferno member.

All four of these measures above are apparent within the game -- that is, the characters are told them. Finally, though, there is a purely out-of-game measure, which you are told as a player but which has no meaning to your character:

• Victory Points -- this is what will determine who has won the game, when it finishes. Victory Points are allocated by a set of secret criteria related to the completion of plot -- what this is all about will become apparent during the course of the game!

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