A Larger Universe

## The Tier System

Most people familiar with the World of Darkness are familiar with the Tier system for classifying chronicles. This is explored further in *Hunter: The Vigil, Geist: The Sin-Eaters, The God-Machine Chronicle,* and the fan book *Hunter: The Vigil: Cults*, but is briefly described here.

> Tier 1: Local
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> At Tier 1, the characters are unlikely to affect more than one city. There are likely to be only a handful of important places and characters, and all of them have some depth to them.
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> Tier 2: National
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> At Tier 2, the characters' actions affect the course of a large geographic area. They may move between a number of locations within this area, and not all of the characters they meet will appear again.
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> Tier 3: Global
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> At Tier 3, the entire Earth is the setting. The characters may travel between countries or between continents, and the outcome of the chronicle can be world-shaking.
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> Tier 4: Cosmic
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> At Tier 4, the chronicle can go beyond Earth. Mortals can treat with the God-Machine, hunters can try to assassinate gods, mages can walk into the Supernal and change reality with a careless thought... and xenos can visit other planets, warding off the Empire or drawing its attention.
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### Sidebar: The Tiers, at a Glance

So what happens when a UFO crashes in the characters' backyard?

At **Tier 1*,*** the characters raid the crashed UFO for parts and help out the survivor. Someone sees them, and the characters have to decide whether to kill him, discredit him, or let him in on their secrets.

At **Tier 2,** the characters raid the crashed UFO for parts. The Men in Black show up, and take its wounded pilot into custody. The characters are now involved in a shadow war against the Men in Black.

At **Tier 3,** the UFO makes the evening news. A Congressional investigation starts. The Men in Black try to cover up the UFO, while Network Zero or a similar group tries to expose it.

At **Tier 4,** the UFO contains an Imperial agent who sees the characters' Tech and reports in. It's time to stop the apocalypse!

## Tier 1: Local

Tier 1 focuses on the characters. How do they fit following their Instincts into their need to interact with human society? How do they deal with other xenos that they can't avoid being around? When someone uncovers their secrets, do they try to cover them up or bring him into the xeno community as an abductee?

## Tier 2: National

Tier 2 is about interactions between the characters and large shadowy organizations. How do they deal with a religious sect that believes them to be living blasphemies? What do they do when using Tech ends up on the local news station?

## Tier 3: Global

Tier 3 is about interactions between large organizations, and what the characters do to shift or survive those interactions. Do they discredit the cover-up, or the leaked video? Can they keep Plan NINE from starting a war to forcibly progress human weapons technology?

## Tier 4: Cosmic

The Cosmic Tier is the one least often described in other World of Darkness books (since it tends to be an endgame tier), but a game about refugees fighting an intergalactic empire would be incomplete without it. So, a brief description of how a Tier 4 game works:

* **Cosmic Scope:** At Tier 4, chronicles extend beyond the Earth, or at least have the potential to reshape it forever. In a *Xeno* game, this is easy: put a jump gate on another planet and let the characters link to it.
* **Without Division:** Characters in Tier 4 games don't care about the petty squabbles of the lower Tiers. In *Xeno*, all of the refugees fight the Empire. Conflict between Plans isn't a thing at Tier 4; the resources exist to use all plans simultaneously.
* **Potent Cast:** In most Tier 4 games, the characters begin the Tier at godlike levels and just keep getting stronger. This isn't as likely in *Xeno*, given the difficulty of building new powers; but in a default Tier 4 game, the characters are in the Empire, which *can* invent new Tech and *is* godlike in power, making obtaining a godlike Tech a matter of getting in, obtaining an appropriate Memory, and getting out. Simple in theory, but not easy in practice.
* **From Here, They Look Like Ants:** At cosmic levels, it's easy to forget the "little people": the ones who don't go star-hopping, who don't buy or steal phenomenal powers, who aren't warring directly against the Empire. It's not to far from there to writing off some of them as "collateral damage" or "necessary casualties".
* **Everyone Knows Your Name:** At Tier 4, the characters are separated from the world they used to know by their power and the scope of their adventures. On Earth, a xeno who makes daring raids against the Empire is a celebrity, and gets more attention than anyone can handle. Away from Earth, a xeno in the Empire is a desperate fugitive, evading anyone who could identify her as outside of the Imperial Races. In both worlds, she can only trust a small handful of allies and enemies; anyone else on Earth is an adoring fan, and anyone else in the Empire is a security risk.

Tier 4 is about godlike characters: their goals, how those goals are achieved, who tries to stop them, and how their actions affect the universe. How do they deal with an Imperial agent who vastly outclasses them in terms of Tech and has no need to worry about Alienation? If they build an Empire of their own, what separates them from Her Undying Excellence?