The process of racking up a prestation debt is a simple one. Either a vampire asks another of her kind for assistance in a matter, in return for a favor of some sort at a later date, or a vampire renders another assistance in a crisis, with it being understood that the help will be repaid later. Sensible Kindred keep very close tabs on whom they owe favors to, and take great care not to rack up more debts than they can afford to pay back at any given time. Prestation debts can be called in at literally any time, so it pays to make sure that you have the resources to pay, regardless of circumstance. Some Kindred do make a habit of racking up as many debts as possible as a form of protection, operating on the theory that their manifold creditors will want to keep them in one piece in order to collect.
Not all debts are accrued voluntarily, however. Elders are past masters at maneuvering younger Kindred into positions where they have no choice but to ask for help, thus placing themselves in an elder's thrall. For example, a corporation controlled by an elder might purchase the building a promising neonate lives in and immediately start harassing her with maintenance checks, surprise inspections, fumigations and the like. Eventually the neonate has no choice but to seek relief, which leads her to the elder's doorstep. The favor is extended, and the neonate has placed her first foot on the elder's spiderweb.
Expert players at the game of prestation also like placing potential debtors into perilous situations and then rescuing them dramatically, thus placing the "hapless victims" in their debt. A favorite tactic involves letting knowledge of a vampire's haven slip to a hunter, then swooping in as the hunter makes his move. From the rescue it's only a short step to helping the neonate find a new haven ("This one is clearly unsafe,"), and, inch by inch, the victim is thus ensnared.
Interest
It is not in a vampire's best interest to cash in the favors she has acquired immediately. After all, a vampire who is known to owe you a favor is likely to come under suspicion if you disappear (see page 149), with potentially fatal consequences. As a result, any Kindred is as safe as can be expected from any of her debtors.
Surety of safety isn't the only reason to hang onto a favor. As long as one of the Kindred has a debt hanging over him, he must always be aware of the possibility of having his marker called in. He can's act as freely as he might otherwise, for fear of being called on to repay his debt. Holding a debt over a vampire and insinuating that repayment might be due at any moment is a superb method of paralyzing a Kindred, stripping him of his maneuverability and forcing him to reserve some of his resources against the possibility.
Furthermore, a vampire who owes another a debt is perceived as being inferior to the vampire whom she owes. This perception only applies to those who know about a debt - but any Kindred who gets a line on a powerful peer lets the whole world know about it as quickly as possible. As a result, the creditor gains prestige, the debtor loses it. Even better, the longer the debt can be sustained, the more prestige accrues to the creditor. It is in the interest of the vampire holding the favor to hang onto it as long as possible, then, though most creditors take care to avoid yanking their debtors' leashes too hard or too often. Once the debt is discharged, it's socially permissible for an abused debtor to take vengeance on an overly harsh creditor.
Paying Off
Few Kindred like the idea of having lingering debts. It's embarrassing socially, painful financially and potentially hazardous. As a result, most vampires attempt to pay off their prestation debts as soon as they can safely do so. As creditors have a vested interest in stringing those debts out, the result can be a game of cat and mouse, with the debtors frantically attempting to do their creditors favors and the creditors dodging anything that might conceivably be construed as a kindness from their debtors.
Debts among the Kindred rarely take specific shape, as it were. It is uncommon for a vampire to request a detailed service. Rather, debts are kept nebulous - "I'll simply ask for your help with something down the road." This ambiguity works both for and against the creditor. The indistinct nature of the debt helps keeps those on the short end of prestation on their toes, as they never know what they might be asked for. On the other hand, since the nature of the debt is fuzzy, it is common for Kindred to perform some sort of favor for their creditors in hopes of canceling the prestation debt. Particularly energetic or devious vampires maneuver their creditors into situations wherein they can appear on the scene and render assistance, thus wiping out the imbalance. Such attempts should be made very carefully, though - if they backfire or are found out, the instigator just sinks deeper into debt and becomes a target of derision as well.
What form payback takes depends on the size and type of debt incurred. It is considered bad form to ask for excessive repayment of minor debts; in such cases, the debtor is usually free to laugh off the request, and the debt itself is canceled, more often than not. On the other hand, no vampire wants to let a debt go frivolously by asking for too little. Doing so is a sure path to being made a target by the harpies, more than canceling any status gain made by acquiring the debt in the first place.
In truth, the actual repayment of the debt is almost incidental to the process of prestation. It is the debt that matters, the artistry of the creation or dispersal of the obligation and the webs of allegiance strung by favors owed. Actually paying off whatever is demanded is somehow anticlimactic in all but the most dire circumstances.
When a debt is finally repaid, however, more often than not it is done so publicly. Sample forms of payments include boons (especially that of creation, if the prince is the debtor), favorite ghouls or mortal pawns, assistance in financial or martial arenas, tutoring in Disciplines or even just the performance of publicly humiliating acts. Often favors involve one Kindred lobbying another on a third vampire's behalf, usually as regards matters of creation or interference in the mortal world. Asking for a service that is overly hazardous, or demanding that one's debtor break the Traditions is forbidden by long custom; if nothing else getting one's debtor killed ensures that you can't use him again. On the other hand, a sufficiently subtle vampire can get around these restrictions, and prestation has been used to eliminate any number of incautious Kindred. The harpies usually end up being the ultimate arbiter of whether the repayment is suitable, though they hold no official capacity in this matter.
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Swaps
As with everything else, the Kindred trade prestation debts like children trade baseball cards. They are constantly swapped, retrieved, dangled and otherwise moved around so that it becomes dizzying to keep track of who owes what to whom. While there is no formal system for trading favors - all such arrangements operate more along the lines of, "Hmm, Desmond owes me some consideration; I'll tell him to talk to you if you let Reese know that I could use his assistance with my little Gangrel problem." - there is one sine qua non involved in the process. The vampire whose debt is being traded must be informed as to his new creditor, otherwise he runs the risk of blowing off a perfectly valid request for what he thinks is a perfectly valid reason, and instead causing the whole system to break down.
Besides, letting an inferior know that you didn's even feel his debt was worth hanging on to is a wonderful way of reinforcing his social status beneath you. The transmission of debt is as much a part of the game of prestation as anything else.
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Formality
At first glance, it seems that the weight that the Kindred place on incurred favors and the like is completely ludicrous. Don't like owing a Nosferatu a favor? Blow him off! He's only a Nosferatu! He can't do anything if you don't pay up, right?
Wrong.
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