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Hunting and Feeding, Status
A Guide to Hunting and Feeding
The Blood is the Life
All Kindred need a minimum amount of blood to sustain their nightly existences. In game terms, that's 30 blood points: enough to ensure that the character can at least rise each night. It's assumed that even the most luckless or friendless vampire can manage to scrounge up enough blood every month to cover this basic level of sustenance, but the assumption ends there. To arrive at a game session replete with vitae, Kindred must acquire blood in excess of this basic level of consumption.
All vampires begin each game session with 5 blood points, plus any extra blood points he or she managed to acquire during the downtime, up to her normal blood pool capacity. These extra blood points can come from:
- Hunting in a territory with the permission of its owner (free blood)
- Hunting in the city barrens or outskirts (dregs)
- Hunting in a territory without permission (poaching)
Characters who have learned the First or Third Tier of the Coil of Blood gain blood differently; see below.
This system assumes safe, secure and secret disposal of any deceased vessels except as noted below.
Free Blood
Prince Cortez has divided the city into territories. Each territory produces a finite number of free blood points each month that can be acquired quickly and easily from mortals without any threat to the secrecy and security of the Kindred. Some territories produce more blood than others, and some territories also generate downtime bonuses.
A Kindred who controls a territory may award any number of its free blood points to other Kindred in the city. The controlling character may demand favors, loyalty, payment or any other compensation in return for allowing others to hunt in his or her territory, if desired (collecting on those demands is another matter entirely, and is left completely in the realm of roleplaying). A Kindred who receives blood in this manner from a territory owner is in control of the blood and may use it as she sees fit: she can use it for her own sustenance, harvest it to power blood sorcery, or even share it with other Kindred under any conditions she wishes to attempt. Note that what's being given from one vampire to another is the right to hunt and take a specific amount of blood from a certain part of the city: the vampires aren't handing over plasma bags or kegs of actual vitae.
Not all vampires will be content with the blood that they receive from those who control territories. Some characters will also prefer to remain free of obligation, and therefore may have less blood. If your character desires more blood than he's currently getting for free, or doesn't have a means to get free blood points, she must hunt for dregs or poach (see "Hunting for Dregs" and "Poaching," below).
Contested Territories
If opposing vampires vie for control of the same territory, that territory is considered contested. A contested territory produces only half its normal supply of free blood per month (rounded down). This lesser amount is then split equally among all of the contesting vampires to distribute or hoard as they wish. While a territory is contested it produces no downtime bonuses whatsoever. The Storyteller will determine when a territory is contested.
Hunting for Dregs
Characters who want to scour the barrens and outlying areas for what little blood hasn't been claimed are hunting for dregs. To hunt for dregs, conduct a hunting draw with a Storyteller during the check in period prior to a game session.
Hunting draws are described in MET Vampire: The Requiem, pp. 230-232. All draw bonuses and penalties noted therein apply to the challenge. Each success gains 1 blood point. Every dot of Haven (Location) and Herd adds a +1 bonus to the draw. A character suffers a –1 penalty for each time he attempts to hunt after his first attempt.
If a player draws an ace while hunting for dregs, his character has made a mistake or suffered some mischance, possibly even violating the Tradition of Secrecy. Perhaps too much feeding in one neighborhood has finally brought suspicion, or maybe the character was simply unlucky. The Storyteller has sole discretion to determine the nature of the breach based on the actions of the character.
Poaching
Poaching is sneaking into a territory where you don't have permission to feed and stealing blood by hunting the mortals therein. To poach, conduct a feeding challenge with a Storyteller during the check in period prior to a game session. Conduct a hunting draw as noted above; each success gains 1 blood point. The Haven and Herd Merits do not apply, as the character is choosing deliberately to violate the hunting grounds of another. Your character gains 1 blood point per success. If your hunting draw nets no successes, you fail to find a vessel.
If a player draws an ace, her character has made a mistake or suffered misfortune. She may or may not be implicated in a breach of the Tradition of Secrecy, or suffer some other negative consequences at the discretion of the Storyteller.
Did You Get Caught?
Immediately after resolving the poaching challenge, conduct a second challenge with the Storyteller to determine whether or not there's a chance that the Kindred who normally hunt the territory may have detected your character.
Your test pool = Wits + Stealth; +1 for Obfuscate 3 or higher; +1 for Majesty 3 or higher; +1 for Dominate 3 or higher; -1 for each poaching attempt after the first in the same territory.
If you draw an ace during this challenge, the vampires who control the territory automatically become aware that you have raided their turf and taken some of their precious blood. Otherwise, the Storyteller will record the number of successes you generate and will later conduct challenges with each of the territory's occupants present at game that night to see if anyone detects your raid.
The challenge to detect poaching is conducted as follows:
Test Pool = Intelligence + Investigation; +1 for Animalism 3 or higher; +1 for Auspex 3 or higher; +1 for every three points of Retainers; +1 for every blood point taken.
If any of the territory’s occupants generate more successes than the poaching vampire, they discover that their turf has been violated and will be given some clues to help them figure out who was responsible. The value and clarity of the clues will depend on how many more successes they generated compared to the poaching vampire. If the poaching vampire generates more successes then all of the territory’s occupants attempting to detect him, he sneaks in and out of their turf without leaving any traces of his presence behind. When comparing the successes generated by all players involved, ties are resolved in favor of the territory’s occupants.
Hunting for Animals
If your character feeds exclusively from animals, she starts with the same number of blood points as if she'd been feeding from mortals (5), and gains the customary +2 bonus to hunting draws when trying to get more animal blood by hunting for dregs or poaching. However, the risk of violating the Masquerade is somewhat lessened when feeding solely from animals, as is the risk of being detected when hunting in somebody else's turf. If the player draws an ace when hunting exclusively for animals, she immediately draws another card: if this second card is also an ace, a hunting mishap occurs as described above. Likewise, when determining whether or not the character is detected poaching animal blood on somebody else's territory, add +2 to the test pool. If a character gets caught poaching for animal blood, it’s up to the vampire who owns that territory to decide what, if anything, to do about it. Some won’t care, and some may guard all sources of blood with equal jealousy.
Coil of Blood
If your character is one of the Kindred who has mastered the First or Third Tier of the Coil of Blood, he doesn't follow all the rules above.
First Tier: Make a draw with a Storyteller exactly as described in the Coil of Blood rules found in MET Vampire: The Requiem, p. 209. Your character may add any free blood gained from territory owners to the blood pool generated by the draw; likewise, he may hunt for dregs or poach to increase his blood pool if he desires more than the draw gives him for the night.
Third Tier: Your character gains 2 blood points for every success earned in a hunting draw, rather than the normal 1 blood point.
System Examples
Example 1: The Prince grants his Sheriff control over the Fisherman's Wharf Territory. This territory produces a total of 40 free blood points per month. The Sheriff is an ancillae with a Blood Potency of 4, so he skims 8 of the free blood points right off the top, guaranteeing that he'll arrive full at the next gathering (a Kindred with BP4 has a blood pool of 13; the Sheriff gets 5 blood points automatically at the start of the game session, and needs 8 more to fill his pool to capacity). The Sheriff then puts the remaining free blood points to good use. He starts by giving 5 free blood points each to his two deputies as part of their monthly "salary." He gives 10 more free blood points to Oswald, a Nosferatu legbreaker, in exchange for a promise of physical support against a certain mouthy Harpy. All three of these recipients collect the blood by hunting in the Waterfront Territory with the Sheriff's permission. Finally the Sheriff decides to keep the remaining 12 points in reserve, to use in case any hungry vampires show up at Elysium willing to make deals in exchange for food.
Example 2: Oswald, the legbreaker from Example 1, received 10 free blood points from the Sheriff. He can do whatever he likes with this blood: trade it, give it away, fuel a blood ritual, or use it to fill his own blood pool. His own Blood Potency is 2, giving him a blood pool of 11. Oswald chooses to keep 6 points for his own use (guaranteeing himself a full blood pool at the next gathering), and then gives 2 points each to a couple of neonates who will be helping him rough up the Sheriff's little Harpy problem. These neonates collect their free blood by hunting in the Fisherman's Wharf Territory with the Sheriff's permission (the Sheriff gave the blood to Oswald; when Oswald gives the blood away, the Sheriff's permission to hunt for the blood goes with the points).
Example 3: Miranda, a Gangrel with Blood Potency 1, has been in a spot of trouble lately, and despite several attempts at cutting deals she's able to get only 2 points of free blood this month, both from the unsavory legbreaker Oswald. She shows up at the next gathering with only 5 blood points in her pool, plus the 2 she got from Oswald, for a total of 7 out of a possible 10. She's not starving, but if she wants more blood she must either get it from somebody who has a little extra to spare, hunt for dregs or poach.
Example 4: The bold Miranda decides, just this once, to poach. She wants a full blood pool and she's ticked off at Oswald, so she chooses the Fisherman's Wharf Territory, hoping that if she gets caught she can either claim to have misunderstood the amount of blood Oswald told her she could take, or bluff the territory's occupants by dropping the Nosferatu's name and letting him take the rap later. Her test pool is Wits 2 + Stealth 3 + a draw of 8, for a total of 13, or 1 success and therefore 1 blood point. The Storyteller determines that she finds and surprises a derelict sleeping near an old boathouse. Miranda decides that's probably enough risk for one night, and heads off for the gathering with 8 blood points in her pool.
Later, the Storyteller conducts challenges with each of the three occupants of the Fisherman's Territory, to see if any of them are aware of this violation of their turf. First he conducts challenges with each of the two deputies. Their test pools are identical: 2 Intelligence + 2 Investigation + 1 blood point taken + a draw of 3 and 4, respectively, for totals of 8 and 9 – no successes versus Miranda's 1 success, so they don't have a clue that somebody's been drinking from their well. The Sheriff, on the other hand, has a test pool of Intelligence 2 + Investigation 4 + 1 for Auspex 3 + 1 blood point taken + a draw of 8, for a total of 16 or 2 successes. That beats Miranda's 1 success, so the Sheriff is aware that somebody had been poaching in his territory. Based on the circumstances, the Storyteller tells the Sheriff about a rumor in his neighborhood: an old vagabond who sleeps on the docks wandered down the boardwalk tonight, holding a hand to his throat and muttering something about raven-haired monsters with sharp claws. The Sheriff might match this description to Miranda, or he might not. She'd better hope he doesn't.
Status
Player characters will start with no City Status unless the Storytellers have indicated otherwise in specific cases. City Status will be earned and lost in game. This will be based on roleplaying interactions and positions held in the city, subject to the rules in MET Requiem.
Players may purchase Clan and Covenant status at character creation which is discussed in the Character Creation section.
Status is something that can change through the course of play. It can be earned and taken away. Politics are an important aspect of Kindred society and status frequently reflects the amount of respect a character has earned in the game. At character creation players may spend experience points on Clan and Covenant status. If you lose status in game you do not get to cash that status in for the experience points you put into them. As a result it is strongly recommended that if you are planning to play a highly respected character from the beginning that you plan to maintain that respect. If your Covenant or Clan should begin to question the respect they hold for you, it is likely that you are going to lose status. In addition once game is on you may not spend experience points on status of any kind. At that point it is completely an in character matter. If you gain status for helping the Prince you do not have to pay the requisite experience points for that status trait. If you are a highly respected member of the Invictus and you insult the Prince and thus embarrass your Covenant you are likely to lose a Status trait even if you paid experience points for it at character creation.
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