Boons
What is a Boon?
Boons are the coin of the Kindred and have been since they first gathered in the First City of Enoch. The Kindred race, no matter how humane one might be, is a pragmatic lot and therefore never does any favor for altruistic reasons. A favor given for free is a favor that has no expectation of ever being returned. The currencies of mortal government come and go, a favored ghoul will eventually pass away, and even the most treasured piece of art will eventually crumble away, but as the Kindred race are immortal, boons are the only true currency that will last. Yes, individual Kindred may come and go, but the boon still lives on.

As boons are currency, unless you owe or are owed boons you are beneath worth. Only Justicars and Archons are above boons in the Camarilla as it is assumed that any request for favors done are in service to securing the Camarilla. It may be nice to say that no other Kindred has any hold over you, but at the same time there is nothing that would stay the hand of a would-be attacker either. Many Kindred over the course of time have offered a boon in return for the protection that a powerful Elder might provide them. A boon is time invested in another and as such if someone slays a Kindred that you have made such investment in, then according to the rules of Kindred society you are at liberty to demand that the person who slew your investment now owes that investment to you in the form of the same level or higher of boon. How higher, well let’s assume that you petitioned the prince to sire a childe and the prince charged you a major boon for the right to do so. Along comes a Brujah that kills your childe who owed you a minor boon. Your childe was a major investment and such it would be well within your power to demand a major boon in recompense for your loss though your childe only owed you a minor. Such is the ways of Prestation amongst the Kindred.
What constitutes a boon?

There are various levels of boon and the vast majority of them are Major or less, with the biggest majority of those Minor or Trivial in nature. Each level of a boon constitutes the level of imposition that is invested in completing the favor. The more time, resources, or involvement that it requires to make a certain favor come true the higher the boon that a Kindred can expect to receive in compensation. There are five levels of boon that are recognized in almost all Kindred societies: Trivial, Minor, Major, Blood, and Life. While the write ups for each level can be found in Laws of the Night I want to provide a few examples of each.

Trivial Boons –
William, a neonate Brujah, is looking for an answer to a question about Carthage and asks Maxwell, the Brujah elder, if he can answer it for him. Maxwell could require a trivial boon for the information as it is a small matter for him to give the answer, but he doesn’t want to share all his knowledge so freely.

Garrus, a Nosferatu, is needing to get information out of one of his contacts, but he doesn’t believe the individual to be completely trustworthy. He asks Gregoire, a Malkavian in his coterie, if he would use his Auspex to see if the contact is telling the truth or not. Gregoire, requires a trivial boon for this as he has to take time out of his evening and use a gift that Garrus doesn’t have any affinity with.

Minor Boons –
Casper, a Gangrel neonate, is looking for a consistent contact for Occult matters, but really doesn’t know where to start looking. He approaches Genevieve, a well known Tremere, and asks for her help in getting himself established in the Occult circles. Genevieve finds some information out that Casper can use to make his inroads into the Occult community. Since Genevieve had to use her own resources, though a small amount, and some time she could have been pursuing her own interests she could call upon Casper for a Minor Boon.

Tibault, the Brujah Primogen, needs to have something to hold over the Toreador Primogens head in an upcoming vote upon domains for the clans. His clan has steadily been losing ground to the Toreador clan. He goes to Samuel, the Nosferatu Primogen and asks if the Nosferatu have any information to that he could use for his goals. Samuel knows of such information, but asks for a Minor boon as the information he has could cause a small amount of trouble for his clan from the Toreador if it were to be found out that he provided the information in the first place.

Major Boons –
Malichi, a Nosferatu Loremaster, has long sought fragments of the Book of Nod. He has several different translations and copies, but when a fragment is mentioned by Beckett, a Gangrel Noddist, as having been found by him. Malichi calls in the Major boon that Beckett owed him for having been taught the mastery of Obfuscate that was no doubt a major part of Beckett having found and escaped with the fragment. Though Beckett is loath to give the newly found piece away he relinquishes it to Malichi, possibly with a promise of a Minor boon to be able to study the fragment beside the Nosferatu or receive a translation once it is completed.

A new nightclub opens in Lamar and it is getting a majority of the business and attention from the previous hotspot owned by Vincent, a Toreador ancilla. Vincent looks into it and finds out it is owned by a recent arrival to the city, a Brujah named Cash. Vincent tries several times through his influences and contacts to procure the nightclub away from the Brujah, but Cash has to tight a grip on those same influences to allow it to happen. Vincent in frustration goes to Carmella, the eldest of the Toreador in the city, and whining to her ask for her intervention in the matter. Seeing how the rivalry is starting to affect the image of her clan she agrees, but requires a major boon to pull Vincent’s failed attempts out of the fire of scandal. She invests a lot of time, influences, and resources of her own into procuring the nightclub and making it look as if Vincent had done it himself. Some night she will expect the same level of imposition on his part, but she can wait and hold it over his head until she does.

Blood Boons –
Marius, a Ventrue ancilla, asked Georgette, a Gangrel ancilla, to come meet him at his warehouse to discuss a business venture they were going to be embarking on shortly. As Georgette came upon the warehouse in the form of a bat she saw Marius in battle with several Anarchs. One Anarch was coming up behind Marius and it was obvious that he didn’t see it. She swooped in and before the Anarch could strike took the claws of the Anarch into her chest rather than the back of Marius. Had the Anarch landed the blow on Marius it could have turned the tide of the battle. Instead the two of them drove the Anarchs off. Marius was grateful, but Georgette understood the opportunity and asked for a Blood Boon. She stated that without her help, and she showed him where her chest was ripped wide open from the anarch’s claws and strength, Marius could have been quite overwhelmed. Marius reluctantly agrees.

Felicity, a Brujah elder, has decided that she no longer supports the prince’s policies towards the Brujah and plans to remove the prince by force. Using several boons that have been owed to her over the course of the last few decades she calls upon various Kindred to help her set up the prince to be destroyed. As the punishment for reneging on a boon is political suicide the various Kindred agree. The time comes for the attack on the prince and though all the machinations of the Kindred involved the Prince is brought to a deserted part of town and a battle ensues. Felicity didn’t count on the Prince having learned Fortitude from a Gangrel elder and is destroyed instead. The Prince holds on to his power and when all the conspirators are found demands a Blood Boon from each of them in payment for his blood that was shed in the failed attempt. Other punishment would also happen, but the blood boon would ensure that they were not involved in another coup attempt.

Life Boons –
The Sabbat had been in the city for a few nights and the Camarilla Kindred were instructed not to go out alone. The Prince and his Sheriff had decided to go out and scout the city, being the most powerful members there they felt confident they could handle anything the Sabbat had in the city. They were wrong and a pack had caught them off guard and the sheriff was already destroyed. The prince was in the arms of one of the few remaining pack members and it’s fangs were at his incapacitated neck. That’s when the Malk Anarch Millie struck and nutbombed the whole pack. In their insanity induced fury they tore into each other and the majority of the pack destroyed itself. Millie grabbed the prince and high tailed it out of there before any more returned or the remainder of the pack came back for the Prince. Returning the Prince to his court Millie says to all, “Oh Princey, you and me are going to be the bestestest friends forever.” The Prince seethed in fury, but knew he owed his life to this Anarch.

Repayment of Boons
There are many ways that a boon can be paid back. Kindred tend not to like to owe another and so are always seeking ways to pay them back without the other asking for the payment. Somehow gaining a boon of the same level from a Kindred you owe is a good way to try and pay one back without having to do what another Kindred wishes. Swapping boons is also a favorite way to pay back a boon and at the same time show your feelings on one Kindred. An example of this would be a Brujah elder that is owed a minor boon from their rival elder a Gangrel trading the boon to a Toreador that the Gangrel has nothing but complete enmity for. The Brujah has paid off a boon and at the same time has shown just how much contempt he has for the Gangrel. The Toreador also now has some small control over an elder that hates him so much.

There is also the ability to combine multiple boons into a larger boon. Say that a Kindred owes you two minor boons. That is a considerable investment of your time. If the favors were sufficient enough in themselves you could combine them into a single major boon if needed. Sometimes it is better for multiple smaller favors, but the precedent is there for combining smaller favors into something larger.

Next to violating any of the Traditions, and sometimes even worse, is trying to renege on a boon. There a many ways that a Kindred could try to get out of paying for a boon. From simply refusing to pay up and thinking that the Kindred owed doesn’t have enough political clout to make a difference or even trying to destroying the Kindred that you owe, it has been tried and it has failed. Once a boon breaker is found out the entire weight of the Camarilla comes down on their backs. All their status is stripped and banishment from the Domain they broke trust in is a light punishment. If the boon was of a substantial nature, say Major and above, many traditionalist Princes can be persuaded to Bloodhunt the individual that would not pay up on a boon they owed. Even an Elder beholden to a neonate with a Blood Boon follows through with his bargain knowing that if he or another Elder were to ignore his boons that soon all the boons would fall apart. Were that to happen Kindred society as the Camarilla knows it would cease to exist.
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