When two characters come into conflict, but the situation remains conversational, or even verbally confrontational, They Came From uses the Influence system. Influence encompasses everything from convincing a friend to do you a favor to intimidating an enemy into giving up a valuable secret. And remember: on the screen, it often makes more sense to resolve a conflict with words than fists (though fists can be fun in the right situation).

Any time one character attempts to influence another character into taking an action he would rather not do, that’s influence. If they are willing to go along with whatever the character wants, then there’s no reason to roll the dice anyway.
Refusing Influence

Players do not have to accept the result of an influence action against their character if they feel it is too far outside the bounds of the character’s nature, or if it would make them uncomfortable. Whenever a character is unwilling to go along with the result of an influence action, the player has two choices: accept a hard bargain or ignore it entirely.

A hard bargain is a narrative tool that allows a player to resist a social influence at a cost to the character. The character might suffer a setback, open themself up to a different kind of influence, or accept a Social Status Effect as a result.

A player can choose to ignore the influence completely, which grants the influencing character +2 Enhancement on their next action against her. If the character who refuses the influence is a SG character, the player who used the influence may opt to add 2 Momentum to the pool instead of gaining Enhancement.

Influence

People make impressions on one another as they interact, forming Attitudes toward each other. We measure Attitudes as one of three levels: negative, neutral, or positive. Attitudes convey modifiers to actions, and all characters start with a neutral Attitude toward people they just met. Attitudes grant Advantage to influence and defensive actions, depending on how someone feels about the character attempting the influence action.
• A positive Attitude grants +1 Social Advantage on the Influence action of the acting character.
• A negative Attitude grants +1 Social Advantage on the action of the defending character.
• A neutral Attitude conveys no Advantage one way or the other.
If the character being influenced is made to do something she would rather not do, or is out of character, and she does not refuse the influence, her Attitude toward the acting character shifts down one level. If it was already a negative Attitude, she gains a Bond (see Bonds, p. XX) of animosity toward the acting character. If she already had a negative Bond, it is strengthened by 1, but if they shared a positive Bond, it is decreased by 1.

Bonds

Bonds are the connections between two characters. The buddy cop movie. The secret agent and his rival working for the other side. The pair of star-crossed lovers. For good or ill, Bonds tie characters together and make them important figures in each other’s lives. Character Bonds play an important role in a character’s life, and include best friends and nemesis alike. Bonds are listed as positive or negative, and rated 1 to 5 depending on the intensity of the connection.
Positive Bonds

Each session players gain a pool of Enhancement equal to the Bond rating of the character’s Bond to another character, which they can use when taking teamwork actions with the bondmate. Each member gains their own personal pool based on their Bond’s rating. Enhancement from Bonds can be spent to overcome Advantage if the characters are acting together against a character or situation who has Advantage over them. The acting character must spend 2 Bond Enhancement to counteract one level of Advantage. (See Advantage, p. XX)
Negative Bonds

If the characters are at odds with one another, they can instead use their Enhancement from the Bond on actions taken against the other. They know how to get under each other’s skin, or goad them into acting even when they don’t want to. This Enhancement can be used to overcome Advantage that might be granted by a negative Attitude between the characters.

Characters with a negative Bond may still use their Bond Enhancement for teamwork actions if they are working towards the same goal together, though this is a much more unlikely scenario with characters in a negative Bond.
Forging Bonds

At character creation, characters form Bonds with the other players’ characters at the table, assigning Bond ratings to each person (see Chapter Two). As the game progresses, these Bonds can strengthen or weaken, and the character can forge new Bonds.

To form a new Bond with a character, the character must spend time with that character. It might be a fight scene in which a new NEMESIS is formed, or a long trek where a friendship is forged. The characters must interact in a scene together before the Bond can be created. To create the new Bond, the player simply declares it so, and the Bond is forged with a level 1 rating. Bonds can also be weakened. Characters may choose to break or decrease a Bond without any roll. The Bond will weaken in the next scene.

A Bond can change from positive to negative or back again without changing intensity. A character may choose to change the nature of a Bond without any roll, and it changes immediately in the same scene. Characters in a Bond do not necessarily have the same rating toward each other, similar to Attitudes, meaning one character may feel as though someone is their best friend, while that person views them as merely an acquaintance.

Characters have a limit on how many Bonds they can have at each rating. A character may have one Bond at rating 5, two at 4, three at 3, four at 2, and an unlimited number of Bonds at rating 1.