Presumably an Elite's ranking is a reflection of his "Influence" background (if someone has a different idea please say so).

Influence 0: Newbee.

So... what's appropriate for one dot? two? Any suggestions?

I believe that the Elite Ranking is mesured on Enemys Killed.

Thus, Totenzan is #1 because on his first mission he killed 2 Novas, and not any Nova, but T2M members. The Top 100 Elites probably have 5+ Nova kills each. (Which is a great help on filling the 4,000 Nova missing by 2010 XD)

Thus, if Brickman wants to up his Ranking, I reccomend you start writting mission based stories where he has to go up to an elite. Of course, not every mission ends in succes or on an enemy Kill, so it's up to you.

As far as the Influence goes, I have always tought that it represents Reputation and Conections within the area of Influence you have picked. So as an Elite Brickman could pick Influence (DeVries) or Influence (Elites) which would go to show just how important he is to the company or how strong other elites think he is.

X Unknown – You have yet to make any sort of name for yourself.
● Maggot – You are well known in your particular set.
●● Grunt – Your name is bandied about in your part of the world.
●●● Merc – Everyone in your nation speaks of your skills.
●●●● $oldier of Fortune – Tales of your elite exploits have spread to many parts of the globe.
●●●●● Elite – Your legend precedes you. There are none in the world who have not heard of your name or screamed it out loud with their clothes crumpled at the foot of your bed.
●●●●● ● Canon NPC - You will never be this good. We only use this many dots to make sure you are aware that the NPCs we make are (and forever will be) better than anything you make because they do not follow the rules we’ve printed. We are White Wolf. Submit.

Try that on for size. Hope it helps to shape a few ideas.

Elite Ranking and Influence in the Elite community don't (necessarily) have anything to do with each other. Just as an example, consider Anna DeVries. If anyone has Influence 5 or 6 in the Elite community, it's her. Yet she isn't an active Elite, and has no place at all on the Elite Ranking. For a less extreme example, consider Joe Smack (random example Elite) who has an impressive reputation for daring snatch-and-grabs or intelligence operations. His Elite Ranking (nova kills) is going to be quite low, but he could have a great deal of influence in the Elite community based on his high mission success rate and his considerable personal wealth from all those contracts. Not to mention all the Elites who owe him for his recon saving their asses.

Essentially, Elite Ranking is just one of the many parts of an Elite's status within the Elite community. It does, however, have a lot to do with his or her status with the public. Since nova-on-nova combat is what gets the most play on N! and common people read the Elite Rankings like they would the box scores, a nova who breaks into the top tier on the Elite Rankings sees his fame among non-elites take a massive jump. Hence its importance. However, there are other ways to have that kind of fame: hitting the right nightspots, having a famous hobby, making the right marketing deal. Elite Ranking is a big deal, but it's not actually a requirement to make a big splash inside or outside the Elite community.

Thank you all for responding...

It seems more than a little twinkish to pop out 5 fictions (or even 1 fiction) where he kills 5 other elites and makes the top 100 without paying any exp for it given the 2009 environment. (I could say the same thing about the top 10).

Right now Josh has Backing 1 (DVNTS) & Resources 5. Granted, Influence isn't a perfect fit, but it does seem that Joesh should be paying something. Our cannon examples are pretty meaningless on this subject. Totentanz has no influence (and no attunement either). Lotus has influence 3. Persuer has a 5. I should probably give Josh *something*...

Not sure. I'll have to think about it for a while.

Make a background "Reputation"...

(Page 142) "The Influence Background reflects your character's pull and status in society."

OK, so I have 3 exp now, that's one dot of influence... making him a "local celeb" or "well known in his particular set" (thank you Contessa).

The irony is for him to obsolutely need a second dot he'd need another dot in Temporal Manip... in which case he couldn't affort his first dot in influence.

Well... fine. Josh is viewed as an up and coming elite, more into unmasking than killing, but definately the real deal. He's not in the top 100 but he's probably in the top 250. He'd be more influencal if he could unage people on a more normal basis, or if he weren't "stupid and shallow" I think was the words used.

I think it's better to place him in the top 250 than the top 100. Simply put the top 100 are pretty impressive nova. No insult to you or the character Josh, but he's not impressive.

Stop crying...

Stop it...

Stoooooooop...

Done? Can I continue now?

Okay.

Top 100 should be a great accomplishment, top 10 even more so. He's only been a nova for a year, and to be honest hasn't had alot of opportunity to prove that he's on par with those other top 100 novas (I highly doubt a 30NP nova could compete with any of the top 100, they are at the minimum of 50NP) .

Milk it. Make it last, let us see him whoop ass and struggle his way kicking and screaming through the blood and visera. Let us hear the cracking of bone, the tearing of sinew and ripping of muscle fiber as Josh "Break My Foot Off In Yo Ass" Brickman takes the Elite world by storm!!!!!!!!! MUAHAHAHAAHHAHAHAHAHAHAhahahahahahahahaha!!!!

<pant>

<wheeze>

And when it's all said and done we'll have another reason to throw a 2009 party.

I already said that.

Agreed.

I Disagree. First of all, at the moment he's not a 30NP character, he's 43NP.

But even ignoring that, I know how WW tends to build characters and I'd be very surprised if out-of-the-box Josh couldn't beat 60% of the top 100 (that's basically what he was built to do). By the end of the year I'd be willing to up that to 80%.

For the top 100, you're pretty much selecting on ruthlessness rather than power. For the top 10 to 20, yeah, you're selecting on both. But Gorehound was a frontline elite and he got one punched by a BFG. We've seen a fairly large number of elites with Vlad's crew and the various other listings, and while some of them are impressive, most are not. I think Josh is probably more than a match for any two of Vlad's crew.