Effect: Your character lives like a millionaire or better, regardless of her actual  Resources. She wears fine clothes, drives  expensive cars and can always get a spot at  exclusive restaurants and resorts. She doesn’t  pay for any of it through cash transactions.  Instead, her social ties and backers provide  these creature comforts.

The •• version of this Merit provides the  luxuries someone with US$5 million in assets  (or Resources 5) could enjoy without breaking  the bank. She always flies first class or in a  chartered plane. There’s a Porsche waiting  for her at the airport, and she can always get  past the bodyguards at a nightclub.

The ••••  version of the Merit provides the kind of life- style that alternately fascinates and disgusts  the rest of the world. The character has jets  and helicopters at her constant disposal, rubs  shoulders with celebrities and can count on a  staff of assistants willing to cater to her every legal whim — and a few illegal ones (recreational drugs and prostitutes, for example).

Drawback: Your character’s luxuries  ultimately belong to somebody else. They are  for her personal use. She can have guests,  of course, but can’t support them for an  extended period of time. If she tries to resell  or earn money using this Merit she finds that  she either can’t move her borrowed assets,  or is punished with the loss of this Merit. This  Merit cannot be used to acquire weaponry or  illegal items.