Prestation/Boons

What is Prestation?

Prestation is the formal exchange of favors, or boons. If you exchange a boon with another Kindred, you have acknowledged that they have done a service for you, a favor, or something else that has caused you to acknowledge that you will pay them in kind at a later date. This boon is a formal way of acknowledging that you will, at some time in the future, pay back this favor. Boons are also not a private thing, and are open for public knowledge. If it's not public? It's not a boon. Simple as that.

Rarely does one Kindred do a favor for another simply out of the kindness of his heart. We are predators, and altruism is not something that is bred in the world we live in.

Trivial Boon:

These are the easiest boons both to acquire and to satisfy. A trivial boon might consist of aiding a hungry Kindred in the finding of blood, talking a hostile vampire down from a potential frenzy, getting a neonate past the bouncer at the hottest club in the Rack, or offering crash space for a blood-drunk acquaintance who stayed out too close to sunrise.

Trivial boons are easy to perform and usually have very little downside other than the effort required to execute them. Still, the Kindred observe their passage and exchange. After all, no one knows when a fellow might suddenly turn truculent and need to be reminded of the myriad little things others among the Damned do for her sake.

Minor Boon:

Minor boons require a Kindred to go out of her way to perform or pay off. They may have a small but permanent downside associated with them, or they may involve some amount of risk. This risk needn’t be physical. In fact, for many Kindred, the risk of social embarrassment or loss of an academic resource might be more distressing than physical harm.

Examples of minor boons include casting a vote in favor of another Kindred during a convocation of elders, providing a vessel in a desperate hour, or hiding a Kindred (no questions asked) from a revenge-crazed Malkavian howling for her blood.

Major Boon:

A major boon can alter the flow of Kindred affairs in a domain, directly or indirectly. Boons like these invariably invite some amount of personal risk or a significant investment of effort.

Again, risks taken need not be physical — a cagey Toreador might bankroll a wild pack of Caitiff to run amok in a hated Tremere’s domain, risking exposure and loss of her own status and income. (Then again, once the Caitiff stake and dispose of the Tremere, the Toreador will be able to swoop in and take the Tremere’s holdings... until the Caitiff tire of her and beg another boon to erase their debt to her or cover up their involvement in her unfortunate disappearance.)

Major boons don’t often take place on the spur of the moment, instead representing a steady investment of time or resources with an expected long-term outcome. That said, a Cainite desperate enough for a favor may well pledge a major boon for a quick but momentous action. Examples of major boons include having a vampire declared the subject of a clan-wide vendetta, convincing a Prince to rescind a grant of hunting grounds, providing another vampire’s police Allies information on the illicit activities of a Kindred gang, or casting the opposite of an expected vote in a policy council with the other Bishops.

Life Boon:

The life boon is the rarest and most valuable of the boons observed by the Damned. Ironically, these are usually the boons most often promised or called in on a moment’s notice, despite their gravity. As their name intimates, these boons are often all that stands between a Cainite and Final Death.

They don’t have to arise under those circumstances — a contentious Anarch may promise a life boon to a rival pack of Anarchs in the interests of taking down a mutually despised Baron in exchange for honoring her own claim after the deed is done — but the majority of life boons are dire and sworn under great and imminent duress. Some Kindred relish the additional irony of the boon’s title: Given that vampires are undead, it’s a delicious schadenfreude to determine just what another Kindred would give up life to obtain.

Examples of life boons include the obvious salvation of a Kindred from peril, but may also involve hiding a grievous secret, protecting a mortal lover, or offering an alibi without knowing what sort of horrific crime the boon-pledging Cainite is trying to hide. Some honor-bound vampires will even die to fulfill a life boon, so great is their sense of duty or their debt. Of course, such Kindred are rare in the World of Darkness.

Status, Prestation and Being Polite

This is something that we often don't think about... so think about it now. Who do you owe a boon to? Who owes you? If you owe a boon to someone, regardless of Status, you're generally expected to be polite to them, especially in public. This does not mean that a neonate gets to be snide to an Elder that owes him a boon, but it does mean that an Elder that owes a neonate a boon should endeavor not to smear said neonate with his boot.