Request: Downtime System + Hunting/BP System

[boneghazi]

I think this thread is veering off of the topic and most of this should be addressed in our other thread, but once again, thank you for the interest in the questions.

I think the issue has been resolved and answered very thoroughly, but I would like to maybe retract a word I used. I think I used "scarce" earlier, I think people interpreted this as "man its really hard to find a human to drink from" when what I really meant was that the Masquerade is a real thing and taking pints of blood from people is A) Dangerous, B) strange enough to be noticed, and C) Something other vampires can and will use as a pretext to kill/have you killed for.

The average human body contains...what, 5 pints of blood? Each pint of blood is a single blood point. Take 1/5th of someones blood and you just fucked them up
Combine that with your beast constantly screaming that you need to take more blood, not just one, but all of it!
Now you lost control because you decided to feed from 7 different people and couldn't beat the beast back 7 times and you have some corpses on your hands and the Sheriff is not a happy camper.
Now, imagine all the vampires of a city trying to pack themselves into the same fashionable nightclubs and doing the same thing. This is why Vampires have Domains that say "Mine only or i gut you".

In conclusion, blood is the currency of Vampires. It shouldn't be too hard to too easy to get it (that's why the writers supplied us with rolls to use). But regardless it needs to be kept track of, it's as simple as that. The STs need to keep track of where it comes from and how it's obtained, because Vampires should care about that. Otherwise, it basically sucks out the political underpinnings of the entire game and where it's not kept track of and you can find games full of two things, rather than politics and plot:

1. Debauchery. Bored vampires on MUs usually do nothing but TS. Most venues are lacking in their political ambitions because "Meh whats the point? I'm fed!" There's no motivation to be politically ambitious or even inclined.
2. Seriously Silly Shit. Like when the STs of one MU decided to insight RP by killing off a major NPC. (Not a terrible idea in and of itself). One PC stepped up and took his place with no political backing (only the fact he was connected more than anyone else) and the other players had no idea how to oppose him other than running him off the chat. Without the political underpinning and motivation of blood, it turned into a place where I didn't necessarily want to play because the way you played politics was to have the biggest dick waver on your side as well as the best OOC shit talkin'/back stabbin' game.
   A game not based on being a vampire is not my idea of a good vampire game. What I am trying to achieve with IPD is an actual game with actual plot where provided Vampire thematics are not only there but enforced so that no one goes full retard.

[Coin]

A bloodpoint is actually a Lethal Health Level. So mortals will have anywhere between 6-10 blood points in their system. Just a nitpick, but an important one, I think. People with higher Stamina can handle more bloodloss, etc.

[boneghazi]

@Groth said:

The two most distinguishing features of vampires are the sunlight allergy and the fact they feed on human blood. So if you're playing Vampire instead of Mage, Werewolf, Hunter or D&D, it's expected that you're somewhat interested in the idea of playing an undead monster that preys on people at night.

From a game design perspective you then want the player to care as much about preying on humans as the vampire does, the player should be thinking about how to get their next fix of blood. The way most games choose to do this is by making all the vampires special powers fueled by blood, requiring the player to regularly find a source to renew themselves. In VTR/VTM the vampire also loses blood daily requiring them to find blood sources even if they're not actively using their powers.

Since being a predator is such a big thing about vampire, you ideally want feeding to be something that's done on screen, in video games you'll usually have a feeding attack you're expected to use regularly. However in TTRPG's or MU* it's not practical to have every feeding event on-screen however since it's still a big thematic point, you'll want some mechanic that makes the player pay attention to when/where they feed. In TT that usually means making a roll with some sort of modifiers and if you fail, then your feeding went awry in some fashion. In MU* however you can take the opportunity to play up another part that's a big part of being a predator, territoriality.

By making blood limited on a grid-square basis (Abstractly representing the difficulty of getting away with several feedings in the same area in a short amount of time) you make the players care very much about who feeds where and when. It's in their interest to control some part of the grid and determine who feeds their in order to guarantee their own supply of blood as well as being able to offer blood supply to others in return for favours.

Talking about the chances of getting away with feedings based on population numbers is missing the point. Handwaving feeding in Vampire is like handwaving breaking&entering in Shadowrun or exploring the dungeon in D&D. Regardless of your chances to get away with it, it's something you're expected to care about and you want complications to happen somewhat regularly so you have the opportunity to use your fancy vampire powers to make them go away.

Also, yes. Thank you Groth!

[TNP]

@nyctophiliac said:

The average human body contains...what, 5 pints of blood? Each pint of blood is a single blood point. Take 1/5th of someones blood and you just fucked them up

Actually, it's 10 pints or so. When you give blood, they take a pint and there's little effect from it.

[boneghazi]

This is why I didn't go into medicine. >_>

[Coin]

@TNP said:

@nyctophiliac said:

The average human body contains...what, 5 pints of blood? Each pint of blood is a single blood point. Take 1/5th of someones blood and you just fucked them up

Actually, it's 10 pints or so. When you give blood, they take a pint and there's little effect from it.

Yeah. That's why I forewent the "pint" measurement in my clarification above. 1 Vitae is an abstract amount of blood--enough that it's nourishing for a vampire, basically. The more Stamina you have and the bigger you are, the more Vitae their blood is worth. This is the same reason, as far as I can tell, that some vampires have more Vitae than others: the actual mystical power of the viae is concentrated the higher your Blood Potency (hence the term "blood potency") and each Vitae is less actual amount of physical blood.