Vampire Basics



=Overview= This page will provide a brief overview on the most salient and intrinsic facts of vampiric existence. Newly created vampires may not always known the exact terms for the phenomena below, but instinctively, they would understand the truth.

Properties of the Blood
More than anything else, blood defines the Kindred. Within seconds after a vampire consumes blood, the vital fluid changes into something quite different that Kindred call Vitae. Vampire Vitae looks like mortal blood, but it doesn't flow like mortal blood. A vampire's Vitae moves through her body at the behest of the character's will, not because of a beating heart.

Kindred employ their Vitae for many purposes. As a vampire calls upon the occult power in her stolen blood, the actual mass and volume of Vitae in her body decreases. As a character uses up her Vitae, her skin tightens and pales. Feeding enables her to restore her lifelike appearance, and even provide a deceptive 'glow' of health immediately after.

Spending Vitae is always a reflexive action.

Blood Addiction
Even mortals can taste the stolen life that charges Vitae with power. That power makes Vitae the most delicious taste in the world. What could satisfy more than life itself? Stolen fruit is always sweetest. Anyone -- mortal, animal or vampire -- who drinks a vampire's blood risks becoming addicted to it. A character might know perfectly well that this bloodthirst could enslave her, maybe even destroy her, but knowing doesn't make the thirst easier to resist. Just like an alcoholic offered a shot of whiskey, it's all too easy to swear that you'll quit - after this last one.

Addicted mortals and animals risk becoming obsessively dependent on any vampire who supplies their Vitae, becoming willing to do anything -- anything! -- for another fix. The Kindred exploit such addiction, but doing so carries its own risks. Obsession can take many strange forms. Those mortals or animals that are fed substantial and regular doses of Vitae become ghouls, taking on a tiny fraction of the supernatural strength of their vampiric master or mistress.

Addicted Kindred are all the more dangerous. The sharing of Vitae between two vampires is considered an act of unparalleled intimacy, which in moderation creates bonds that may endure through the ages known as Vinculum. Yet taken to an extreme, a vampire may be unable to resist wounding herself to lap at her own blood, or to hunt down other Kindred and take their vitae by force - known as the act of Diablerie, which is the gravest sin a vampire can commit. At best, such degenerates may find themselves a blood slave, enthralled by an older, more powerful vampire.

Blood Sympathy
Vampires call themselves "Kindred," but some are closer kin than others. The closest of these relations are found between a vampire and her sire, or between two or more vampires who were Embraced by the same sire.

On some occasions, Kindred can feel the proximity of these blood 'relatives', or experience a brief flash of what's happening to them. This normally happens spontaneously, when a 'relative' feels some strong emotion or sensation such as frenzy, a grave wound or intense pleasure.

Counterfeiting Life
Although vampires are dead, they can imitate some of the things that living people do. The Damned know this process as "the blush of life". A Kindred can force Vitae into her outer tissues to give his skin a lifelike flush, or to force his heart to beat and his lungs to inhale and exhale in a normal rhythm. This is also how Kindred engage in sexual intercourse, whether to feed upon a suitably distracted mortal vessel, or for simple pleasure.

Normally vampires vomit up any food or drink they consume immediately. If a Kindred wishes to consume food or drink, her player must spend a Vitae. This provides no true sustenance to the vampire and must be retched up eventually.

Imitating the appearance and functions of life or the ability to consume food for one scene costs a character one Vitae.

Discipline Use
Most Disciplines do not cost Vitae to use. However, some of the more formidable powers do.

Healing Wounds
A vampire can use Vitae to heal wounds. Although a vampire is virtually immune to most types of damage, it is this ability that makes them seem truly immortal. A Vitae point can be spent to heal 2 bashing levels or 1 lethal level. Aggravated damage, such as suffered from fire or sunlight, require both Vitae and rest to heal.

Physical Augmentation
A vampire can call upon her Vitae to enhance her muscular power, speed and agility, or the ability to withstand harm, even beyond what her Disciplines are capable of.

In rules terms, for each Vitae a player expends, they may add five dice to any Physical dice pool for one turn.

Waking Up
A vampire expends one Vitae with each new night of their existence. If circumstances force them to be awake during the day, they will spend two Vitae. If a vampire falls asleep without any Vitae in her body, (an unlikely event, but it could happen) she enters a longer period of torpor, whose duration is determined by her Humanity and Blood Potency.

Feeding
It is the undeniable, dreadful truth of the Kindred condition: Vampires must hunt, and vampires must feed. How a vampire goes about this is often a very personal choice. In time, most grow to rely upon a favorite ploy, such as through seduction, assault or the keeping of a devoted 'herd'. As a vampire ages, their palette grows increasingly picky. They may lose the ability to sustain themselves off animal blood entirely, or prefer to feed solely upon a certain type of mortal, such as virgins, the clergy or runaways. Yet to a young vampire, the world is more often seen as a smorgasbord of possibility, heady with the promise of one more ecstatic drop of blood, each tasted in a new and exciting way.

A vampire can take a few Vitae without harming a mortal unduly. Taking all the blood, of course, risks killing the vessel.


 * A vampire can consume a number of Vitae from a living vessel per turn equal to her Stamina rating. Although most, if not pressed for time, prefer to savor and draw out the duration of the 'Kiss' as long as possible.
 * A mortal vessel has a number of Vitae equal to its Health dots. In game terms, an average adult human contains seven points worth of Vitae. When a vampire feeds from a vessel, each Vitae taken inflicts one point of lethal damage.
 * In most cases, a mortal vessel will not resist, as the ecstasy of the Kiss overwhelms the shock the Kindred places on the mortal's system. This depends on the environment, however. A vessel seduced or even surprised and subjected to the Kiss will lose herself in it, while a foe bitten in combat, or who even feels threatened, does not yield to the pleasure as often.
 * When a vampire feeds from a living source, it automatically heals two points of bashing damage per point of Vitae consumed, or one point of lethal damage.
 * A vampire need only lick a wound to heal any mark left by her own fangs. This is done to hide the evidence of feeding.
 * Vampires feeding from other Kindred do not inflict or heal damage, they simply drain a direct quantity of Vitae.

Blood Potency
Blood Potency determines the degree of power the Blood bestows upon a vampire. Having more dots in Blood Potency allows characters to learn more advanced Disciplines and to develop their traits to superhuman levels. Further, vampires with higher Blood Potency can hold more Vitae within their bodies, as it is more potent, and therefore more concentrated. In short, the higher a character's Blood Potency, the greater her potential.

It is unknown, how exactly Blood Potency increases. A vampire's starting Blood Potency is thought to be a combination of the strength of their sire, and their own willpower. After that, all agree that older vampires are generally more potent, but few agree on the rate at which this happens. It is generally thought that subsisting on animal blood will slow the process, and frequent drinking from other vampires will increase it.

It is also thought that creating progeny will lower the Potency in one's blood, which is why elder vampires do so to hold onto their Humanity.

Disciplines
Blood Potency determines the rate at which new Disciplines are learned. The only other way to learn new disciplines is through diablerie. There are ten core disciplines, which are: Animalism, Auspex, Celerity, Dominate, Majesty, Nightmares, Obfuscate, Protean, Resilience, and Vigor. Virtually all vampires created in North America or Europe exhibit the ability to learn any of these disciplines. There are rumors of more bizarre or exotic powers, though these seem reserved to the most ancient of kindred.


 * At Blood Potency 1, vampires gain access to Auspex, Celerity, Resilience, Vigor and a fifth, core discipline of their choice.
 * At Blood Potency 3, vampires may either choose a new core discipline to learn, or raise the lowest of Celerity, Resilience or Vigor for free.
 * At Blood Potency 5, vampires may again, either choose a new core discipline to learn, or raise the lowest of Celerity, Resilience or Vigor for free.
 * At Blood Potency 6, vampires acquire access to Domus and Tenure, and a free dot in each, as the weight of their blood encourages their 'nesting' instinct.
 * At Blood Potency 7+, a vampire is more often characterized by an exquisite mastery of many Disciplines, though some have reported particularly venerable elders as displaying many frightening powers.

Health
Kindred encounter many of the same hazards that mortals do. They have less to fear, perhaps, from ordinary combat involving fists, broken bottles, guns and the like. On the other hand, as supernatural creatures, vampires suffer from anathemas — conditions benign to mortals but deadly to the undead, or that present special dangers and difficulties in healing. Kindred anathemas are fire and sunlight. In addition, sufficient damage of almost any kind can trap a vampire in a deathlike trance called torpor, or it can destroy her.

Bashing Damage
Fists, clubs and falls are all examples of bashing damage. Anything that inflicts bashing damage on mortals also inflicts bashing damage on Kindred. Unlike mortals, vampires are never knocked unconscious by bashing damage. The vampiric body just doesn’t have the same limitations that a living one does.

Rolls for unconsciousness are not made for a vampire when her Health boxes are filled with bashing damage. However, further bashing attacks will be treated as lethal.

Lethal Damage
Knives, axes, chainsaws and other sorts of melee weapons that inflict lethal damage on mortals also inflict lethal damage on vampires. Chopping and slicing is almost as bad for the undead as for the living.

Unlike mortals, however, the undead take merely bashing damage from firearms. A vampire has only two vital organs, the head and heart, and their importance is as much supernatural as physical. The other organs in a vampire’s body don’t actually do anything, so it doesn’t matter if a bullet drills a hole through them. Thus, for Kindred, getting shot is no worse than getting hit by a club.

The undead do not bleed to death like mortals do when their Health boxes are filled with lethal damage. However, further lethal attacks will be treated as aggravated.

Aggravated Damage
Various rare Discipline powers, rituals and other magical effects might deal aggravated damage as well. Such special cases are explained in the description of the relevant power or ritual. Attacks that deal large quantities of lethal damage can also be “upgraded” to aggravated damage if they would destroy large chunks of a character’s body. For example, if a vampire throws herself on a hand grenade. For the most part, though, Kindred suffer aggravated damage because of the special anathemas to the undead: direct sunlight and fire.

The only way for a vampire to meet Final Death is to have her Health boxes filled up with aggravated damage.

Recovery from Damage
Mortals heal wounds through time, rest and medical treatment. The undead heal supernaturally, using their stolen blood to repair their bodies. Ordinary medical treatment offers them no benefits whatsoever.


 * Kindred heal bashing damage quite easily. In one turn, a Kindred character can expend one Vitae to heal two Health points lost to bashing damage.
 * Lethal damage heals less easily, since it requires building new tissue to replace and rejoin parts of the character’s body. In one turn, a vampire can expend one Vitae to heal one Health point lost to lethal damage.
 * Aggravated damage presents much greater difficulties. Each Health point lost to aggravated damage costs five Vitae to heal, and the process takes a night of rest per point healed.