Post by Iota on May 24, 2010 9:29:35 GMT -5
What happens when a vampire loses a limb? Does it grow back?
Severing appendages affects vampires much the same way it affects others - a vampire isn't likely to pick anything up if she's had her hand severed. If a vampire loses a limb, consider it gone. However, when the vampire heals the health levels associated with the limb removal, the limb is considered regrown. In some cases, particularly those in which the character heals damage quickly, the limb doesn't actually regrow, but rather knits itself back to the body. If the healing happens very quickly, the severed bit may never even touch the ground, as the vitae "holds" the limb in place and reattaches it. Disgusting.
A severed limb that's left behind or otherwise not immediately healed takes on characteristics appropriate to the age of its former owner. A lopped-off hand of a newly-turned neonate may simply turn grey and clammy while a thousand-year-old elder's severed hand crumbles to ash instantly.
Regrowth does not apply in cases of decapitation - one reason why the Inquisition employs the tactics and why duels between Kindred are grave matters. A beheaded vampire is a vampire who has met Final Death.
· What if a vampire eats food but doesn't have the Eat Food Merit?
A vampire may consume food, but it refuses to stay down - unless the vampire spends a Willpower point, she vomits within the scene. The same rules apply for drinking, as well. Note that other vampires find the practice of eating mortal food utterly disgusting - "like eating a pig's slop," in the words of one rural Gangrel - and one who makes a practice of doing so will probably earn the derision of his undead peers.
· Do vampires leave fingerprints?
Yes and no. A vampire still has the ridges and whorls on the end of her fingers that constitute "fingerprints," but her dead body does not secrete the oils that leave such tell-tale marks behind. This means that, while the character does not leave normal fingerprints, her fingers will still leave their unique marks in, say, piles of printer toner, coagulated honey, dust on a computer monitor, etc. Firing a gun does not leave enough gunpowder behind to have to worry about fingerprints, though coridte will stick to a vampire's hands for a few nights (as it would for a mortal), which may identify him as having used a firearm to forensic experts.
· Can a vampire take elder blood, use it to create a new vampire, then diablerize the fledgling?
No (And thank God). Vampire blood, once removed from the vampire, becomes inert, dead blood. While it may be used to sustain ghouls or even vampires - rumors of sealed vessels of elder's blood circulate like wildfire through the vampiric community - such vitae cannot be used to create childer. The Embrace must be performed by a vampire using her own blood, which must be given directly to the prospective childe. Although the sire need not press her wrist to the childe's mouth, the blood cannot come from storage, out of a squirt gun, from a bottle of wine, etc. - it needs to flow directly from sire to childe.
· So, then, what's a "mixed-blood" Embrace?
A vampire sired by two (or more) Kindred, who must remove the victim's blood and drip both of their vitae into the childe's mouth, most often becomes a Caitiff. In cases that involve one vampire of significantly lower generation, the childe usually exhibits the characteristics of the low-generation Kindred's clan.
· To what extent does a vampire's body revert to it's original form each day while he sleeps?
As static, timeless creatures, vampires return as closely to the state in which they were Embraced as possible. A simple mechanic involves considering how many health levels of damage a character sustained for a given change. If the change causes no appreciable damage - shaving, cutting one's hair, piercing a body part, getting a tattoo - the vampire's body eliminates the change during the day. Hair grows back (let your childe shave before you embrace him), piercings push themselves out, tattoo ink rises to the surface of the skin, etc.
If the change is appreciable enough to do health levels of damage (see limb loss, above, for example), the vampire reverts to her original form once healed.
Aggravated damage, even when healed, almost always leaves a telling scar.
· Do vampires have any fluids other then blood in their bodies, like saliva or tears?
Let me praface this by saying, "suspend disbelief." We are talking about creatures of fantasy, after all.
Most of the liquids in a vampire's body are replaced by blood - Kindred sweat and cry vitae. Other fluids remain fairly true to their original form. Vampires do possess "normal" saliva, otherwise their mouths would be a bloody mess. Likewise, the vitreous and acqueous humors in vampire's eyeballs aren't replaced by blood, or their eyes would be red instead of white. Other then these few examples, common sense applies. Vampires obviously do not have reproductive fluids, and when female vampires spend a Blood Point to engage in sexual acts, their lubrication is a thin coat of blood.
The science of it all takes a back seat to the setting. If vampires all had red eyes and drooled blood, the whole Masquerade would be rather pointless.
· How do Blood Bonds work?
One of the most wondrous and terrible properties of Kindred vitae is its ability to enslave nearly any being who drinks of it three times. Each sip of a particular Kindred's blood gives the Kindred in question a greater emotional hold over the drinker. If a being drinks three times, on three separate nights, from the same Kindred, she falls victim to a state known as the blood bond. A vampire who holds a blood bond over another being is said to be that victim's regnant, while the being subordinate to the bond is called the thrall.
Put simply, blood bond is one of the most potent emotional sensations known. A blood bound victim is absolutely devoted to her regnant and will do nearly anything for him. Even the most potent uses of Dominate cannot overcome the thrall's feelings for her regnant; only true love stands a chance against the bond, and even that is not a sure thing.
The blood bond is most commonly used to ensnare mortals and ghouls, but Kindred can bind each other as well. Such is the blood bond's power that a mighty elder can be bound to a lowly neonate; in this respect, the blood of a 13th-generation fledgling is (presumably) as strong as that of Caine himself. As such, the blood bond forms an essential strategy in the Jyhad; some Ancients are said to hold dozens of influential Kindred in secret thralldom.
First Drink: The drinker begins to experience intermittent but strong feelings about the vampire. She may dream of him, or find herself "coincidentally" frequenting places where he might show up. There is no mechanical effect at this stage, but it should be role-played. All childer have this level of bond toward their sires, for the Embrace itself forces one drink upon the childer; they may love their "parents," hate them, or both, but are rarely indifferent toward them.
Second Drink: The drinker's feelings grow strong enough to influence her behavior. Though she is by no means enslaved to the vampire, he is definitely an important figure in her life. She may act as she pleases, but might have to make a Willpower roll to take actions directly harmful to the vampire. The vampire's influence is such that he can persuade or command her with little effort (Social rolls against the thrall are at -1 difficulty).
Third Drink: Full-scale blood bond. At this level, the drinker is more or less completely bound to the vampire. He is the most important person in her life; lovers, relatives and even children become tertiary to her all-consuming passion.
At this level, a regnant may use the Dominate Discipline on a thrall, even without the benefit of eye contact. Merely hearing the regent's voice is enough. Additionally, should the thrall try to resist the Dominate for some reason, the difficulty of such resistance is increased by two. Naturally, a higher-generation vampire still cannot use Dominate on a lower-generation thrall.
The blood bond is true love, albeit a twisted and perverse version of it. Ultimately, we can't reduce the vagaries of love down to a simple "yes/no" system. Some thralls (particularly people with Conformist or other dependent Natures or with Willpower 5 or less) will commit any act, including suicide or murder for their beloved; other characters have certain core principles that they will not violate.
A full blood bond, once formed, is nearly inviolate. Once bound, a thrall is under the sway of her regnant and her regnant only. She cannot be bound again by another vampire unless the first blood bond wears away "naturally." A vampire can experience lesser (one- and two-drink) bonds towards several individuals; indeed, many Kindred enjoy such bonds, as they create artificial passion in their dead hearts. Upon the formation of a full blood bond, though, all lesser sensations are wiped away. Vampire lovers occasionally enter into mutual blood bonds with each other; this is the closest thing the undead can feel to true love. Even this sensation can turn to disgust or hate over the centuries, though, and in any event, few Kindred are trusting enough to initiate it.
A blood bond is a mighty force, but it is at its most potent when perpetually reinforced with further drinks. Feeding a thrall often reinforces the bond, while depriving the thrall of vitae may cause the relationship to grow tepid over time. As well, like any other relationship, treatment and courtesy play a part in the dynamics of the bond. A thrall who is treated well and fed often will likely fall even more deeply in love, while a thrall who is degraded and humiliated may find resentment and anger eating away at the bond.
It is possible, though difficult, for a vampire to temporarily resist a blood bond. Doing so requires the player to make a Willpower roll (difficulty is typically 8, although this can be modified depending on the regnant's treatment and the thrall's Nature) and accumulate a number of successes equal to the number of times the thrall has partaken of the regnant's blood. The thrall must then spend a Willpower point. Upon doing so, the bond is negated for a variable amount of time: from one scene (if the thrall merely wishes to plot against the regnant, deliver confidential information to an enemy, etc.) to one turn (if the thrall wishes to attack the regnant physically). The thrall can continue to expend Willpower to extend the duration of "freedom," but once she ceases doing so, the blood bond resumes at full force.
A blood bond can be broken, although this requires the thrall to not only avoid the regnant entirely for an extended period of time, but also spend great amounts of Willpower to overcome the "addiction." As a general rule, a thrall who neither sees nor feeds from her regnant for a period of (12-Willpower) months finds her bond reduced by one level (so, a fully bound thrall with a Willpower of 5 has her blood bond reduced to the equivalent of two drinks if she goes seven straight months without any contact with the regnant). If the bond is reduced to zero in this fashion (a feat typically accompanied by the expenditure of a great deal of Willpower on the thrall's part, as she resists the gnawing urge to seek out her sire), it is nullified entirely.
Another, though somewhat less certain, way to be rid of the bond is to kill the regnant. Such a choice is extremely perilous on many levels, and makes no guarantees that everything will go smoothly. Those who have been released by such means claim the bond shatters like spun glass upon the moment of the regnant's Final Death. The thrall's Nature may play a large part in whether the control is completely ended, and such aftermath is best left in the hands of the Storyteller.
Severing appendages affects vampires much the same way it affects others - a vampire isn't likely to pick anything up if she's had her hand severed. If a vampire loses a limb, consider it gone. However, when the vampire heals the health levels associated with the limb removal, the limb is considered regrown. In some cases, particularly those in which the character heals damage quickly, the limb doesn't actually regrow, but rather knits itself back to the body. If the healing happens very quickly, the severed bit may never even touch the ground, as the vitae "holds" the limb in place and reattaches it. Disgusting.
A severed limb that's left behind or otherwise not immediately healed takes on characteristics appropriate to the age of its former owner. A lopped-off hand of a newly-turned neonate may simply turn grey and clammy while a thousand-year-old elder's severed hand crumbles to ash instantly.
Regrowth does not apply in cases of decapitation - one reason why the Inquisition employs the tactics and why duels between Kindred are grave matters. A beheaded vampire is a vampire who has met Final Death.
· What if a vampire eats food but doesn't have the Eat Food Merit?
A vampire may consume food, but it refuses to stay down - unless the vampire spends a Willpower point, she vomits within the scene. The same rules apply for drinking, as well. Note that other vampires find the practice of eating mortal food utterly disgusting - "like eating a pig's slop," in the words of one rural Gangrel - and one who makes a practice of doing so will probably earn the derision of his undead peers.
· Do vampires leave fingerprints?
Yes and no. A vampire still has the ridges and whorls on the end of her fingers that constitute "fingerprints," but her dead body does not secrete the oils that leave such tell-tale marks behind. This means that, while the character does not leave normal fingerprints, her fingers will still leave their unique marks in, say, piles of printer toner, coagulated honey, dust on a computer monitor, etc. Firing a gun does not leave enough gunpowder behind to have to worry about fingerprints, though coridte will stick to a vampire's hands for a few nights (as it would for a mortal), which may identify him as having used a firearm to forensic experts.
· Can a vampire take elder blood, use it to create a new vampire, then diablerize the fledgling?
No (And thank God). Vampire blood, once removed from the vampire, becomes inert, dead blood. While it may be used to sustain ghouls or even vampires - rumors of sealed vessels of elder's blood circulate like wildfire through the vampiric community - such vitae cannot be used to create childer. The Embrace must be performed by a vampire using her own blood, which must be given directly to the prospective childe. Although the sire need not press her wrist to the childe's mouth, the blood cannot come from storage, out of a squirt gun, from a bottle of wine, etc. - it needs to flow directly from sire to childe.
· So, then, what's a "mixed-blood" Embrace?
A vampire sired by two (or more) Kindred, who must remove the victim's blood and drip both of their vitae into the childe's mouth, most often becomes a Caitiff. In cases that involve one vampire of significantly lower generation, the childe usually exhibits the characteristics of the low-generation Kindred's clan.
· To what extent does a vampire's body revert to it's original form each day while he sleeps?
As static, timeless creatures, vampires return as closely to the state in which they were Embraced as possible. A simple mechanic involves considering how many health levels of damage a character sustained for a given change. If the change causes no appreciable damage - shaving, cutting one's hair, piercing a body part, getting a tattoo - the vampire's body eliminates the change during the day. Hair grows back (let your childe shave before you embrace him), piercings push themselves out, tattoo ink rises to the surface of the skin, etc.
If the change is appreciable enough to do health levels of damage (see limb loss, above, for example), the vampire reverts to her original form once healed.
Aggravated damage, even when healed, almost always leaves a telling scar.
· Do vampires have any fluids other then blood in their bodies, like saliva or tears?
Let me praface this by saying, "suspend disbelief." We are talking about creatures of fantasy, after all.
Most of the liquids in a vampire's body are replaced by blood - Kindred sweat and cry vitae. Other fluids remain fairly true to their original form. Vampires do possess "normal" saliva, otherwise their mouths would be a bloody mess. Likewise, the vitreous and acqueous humors in vampire's eyeballs aren't replaced by blood, or their eyes would be red instead of white. Other then these few examples, common sense applies. Vampires obviously do not have reproductive fluids, and when female vampires spend a Blood Point to engage in sexual acts, their lubrication is a thin coat of blood.
The science of it all takes a back seat to the setting. If vampires all had red eyes and drooled blood, the whole Masquerade would be rather pointless.
· How do Blood Bonds work?
One of the most wondrous and terrible properties of Kindred vitae is its ability to enslave nearly any being who drinks of it three times. Each sip of a particular Kindred's blood gives the Kindred in question a greater emotional hold over the drinker. If a being drinks three times, on three separate nights, from the same Kindred, she falls victim to a state known as the blood bond. A vampire who holds a blood bond over another being is said to be that victim's regnant, while the being subordinate to the bond is called the thrall.
Put simply, blood bond is one of the most potent emotional sensations known. A blood bound victim is absolutely devoted to her regnant and will do nearly anything for him. Even the most potent uses of Dominate cannot overcome the thrall's feelings for her regnant; only true love stands a chance against the bond, and even that is not a sure thing.
The blood bond is most commonly used to ensnare mortals and ghouls, but Kindred can bind each other as well. Such is the blood bond's power that a mighty elder can be bound to a lowly neonate; in this respect, the blood of a 13th-generation fledgling is (presumably) as strong as that of Caine himself. As such, the blood bond forms an essential strategy in the Jyhad; some Ancients are said to hold dozens of influential Kindred in secret thralldom.
First Drink: The drinker begins to experience intermittent but strong feelings about the vampire. She may dream of him, or find herself "coincidentally" frequenting places where he might show up. There is no mechanical effect at this stage, but it should be role-played. All childer have this level of bond toward their sires, for the Embrace itself forces one drink upon the childer; they may love their "parents," hate them, or both, but are rarely indifferent toward them.
Second Drink: The drinker's feelings grow strong enough to influence her behavior. Though she is by no means enslaved to the vampire, he is definitely an important figure in her life. She may act as she pleases, but might have to make a Willpower roll to take actions directly harmful to the vampire. The vampire's influence is such that he can persuade or command her with little effort (Social rolls against the thrall are at -1 difficulty).
Third Drink: Full-scale blood bond. At this level, the drinker is more or less completely bound to the vampire. He is the most important person in her life; lovers, relatives and even children become tertiary to her all-consuming passion.
At this level, a regnant may use the Dominate Discipline on a thrall, even without the benefit of eye contact. Merely hearing the regent's voice is enough. Additionally, should the thrall try to resist the Dominate for some reason, the difficulty of such resistance is increased by two. Naturally, a higher-generation vampire still cannot use Dominate on a lower-generation thrall.
The blood bond is true love, albeit a twisted and perverse version of it. Ultimately, we can't reduce the vagaries of love down to a simple "yes/no" system. Some thralls (particularly people with Conformist or other dependent Natures or with Willpower 5 or less) will commit any act, including suicide or murder for their beloved; other characters have certain core principles that they will not violate.
A full blood bond, once formed, is nearly inviolate. Once bound, a thrall is under the sway of her regnant and her regnant only. She cannot be bound again by another vampire unless the first blood bond wears away "naturally." A vampire can experience lesser (one- and two-drink) bonds towards several individuals; indeed, many Kindred enjoy such bonds, as they create artificial passion in their dead hearts. Upon the formation of a full blood bond, though, all lesser sensations are wiped away. Vampire lovers occasionally enter into mutual blood bonds with each other; this is the closest thing the undead can feel to true love. Even this sensation can turn to disgust or hate over the centuries, though, and in any event, few Kindred are trusting enough to initiate it.
A blood bond is a mighty force, but it is at its most potent when perpetually reinforced with further drinks. Feeding a thrall often reinforces the bond, while depriving the thrall of vitae may cause the relationship to grow tepid over time. As well, like any other relationship, treatment and courtesy play a part in the dynamics of the bond. A thrall who is treated well and fed often will likely fall even more deeply in love, while a thrall who is degraded and humiliated may find resentment and anger eating away at the bond.
It is possible, though difficult, for a vampire to temporarily resist a blood bond. Doing so requires the player to make a Willpower roll (difficulty is typically 8, although this can be modified depending on the regnant's treatment and the thrall's Nature) and accumulate a number of successes equal to the number of times the thrall has partaken of the regnant's blood. The thrall must then spend a Willpower point. Upon doing so, the bond is negated for a variable amount of time: from one scene (if the thrall merely wishes to plot against the regnant, deliver confidential information to an enemy, etc.) to one turn (if the thrall wishes to attack the regnant physically). The thrall can continue to expend Willpower to extend the duration of "freedom," but once she ceases doing so, the blood bond resumes at full force.
A blood bond can be broken, although this requires the thrall to not only avoid the regnant entirely for an extended period of time, but also spend great amounts of Willpower to overcome the "addiction." As a general rule, a thrall who neither sees nor feeds from her regnant for a period of (12-Willpower) months finds her bond reduced by one level (so, a fully bound thrall with a Willpower of 5 has her blood bond reduced to the equivalent of two drinks if she goes seven straight months without any contact with the regnant). If the bond is reduced to zero in this fashion (a feat typically accompanied by the expenditure of a great deal of Willpower on the thrall's part, as she resists the gnawing urge to seek out her sire), it is nullified entirely.
Another, though somewhat less certain, way to be rid of the bond is to kill the regnant. Such a choice is extremely perilous on many levels, and makes no guarantees that everything will go smoothly. Those who have been released by such means claim the bond shatters like spun glass upon the moment of the regnant's Final Death. The thrall's Nature may play a large part in whether the control is completely ended, and such aftermath is best left in the hands of the Storyteller.
