Blood Potency

Although the Kindred each call upon the Blood in different ways, not all wield the same levels of power. Blood Potency determines the degree of power the Blood bestows upon a vampire. Having more dots of Blood Potency allows characters to learn more advanced Disciplines and to develop their traits to superhuman levels. Further, vampires with more dots in this advantage can hold more itae within their bodies, as it is more potent and therefore more concentrated. !n short, the higher a character"s Blood Potency, the greater her potential. All newly #mbraced vampires start at Blood Potency $, regardless of their sire"s potency, with nowhere to go but up. Blood Potency can be purchased during character creation %at & Freebie points per dot', but after play begins, it can be increased only by e(perience, diablerie or age. )he purchase of additional Blood Potency at character creation needs to be rationali*ed before play begins. Perhaps the character engaged in diablerie or had already spent many years as a vampire before the start of the chronicle. Players who want their characters to start with more dots of Blood Potency must thoroughly e(plain what in their character"s history +ustifies the additional dots and have it approved by the ,toryteller before play begins. As Blood Potency increases, feeding re-uirements become more stringent. .nly blood of potency a certain degree lower than a character"s can provide sustenance. !n fact, some elders" blood is so potent that they can"t feed on mortals at all, re-uiring the itae of other vampires to nourish them. .nly those with the fewest dots of Blood Potency can feed from animals. #ventually, a vampire"s blood becomes so potent that he is unable to find regular prey and falls into torpor, the duration of which is based on his current Blood Potency and Humanity. /hile in torpor, a thinning of the blood occurs. )orpor also causes fever dreams and a general distortion of the mind. A vampire"s Blood Potency increases by one every 01 years. !n torpor, however, it decreases by one every 20 years. As Blood Potency is rated on a $ to $1 scale, a vampire will more than li3ely fall into torpor in about 011 years 44 as blood re-uirements grow ever more refined and hard to fulfill 44 sooner for those who engage in diablerie. 5haracters who diableri*e several vampires in a short span of years can remain active through seven to nine diableries before the potency of their blood causes them to succumb to torpor. ,uch Kindred tend to have short but violent bouts of activity between long periods of torpid idleness. /hen Blood Potency decreases %through torpor, for e(ample', any traits that e(ceed the character"s new capacity disappear. !f Blood Potency increases again during the chronicle so that a character could once again gain access to them, the player automatically 6re4learn6 what was lost. 7umors persist of truly ancient vampires who have found a way to stave off torpor, seemingly defying the effects of Blood Potency. ,ome swear that such a thing is possible through intensive study of blood magic with such faith a3in to the belief in 8olconda, creating a sort of religious fervor in those see3ing to attain transcendence.

The Effects Of Blood Potency Chart*

Blood Potency Rating $ 2 & ; 0 < = > ? Max. Trait Max Vitae/ Vitae per T rn 0 $19$ 0 $$9$ 0 $29$ 0 $&92 0 $;92 < $09& = 2190 > &19= ? 019$1 Feeding Restriction Animals : Animals : Humans Humans Humans Humans ampires ampires ampires

$1

$1

$119$0

ampires

@)a3e the better of 8eneration9Blood Potency for Aa( )rait 7ating, Aa( itae, and itae per )urn.

Torpor
)he ancients called sleep the brother of death. )his is even more true for vampires than for mortals. #very day, the Kindred enter a sleep that mortal senses and science cannot distinguish from death. )he Kindred e(perience it much as mortals e(perience sleep. )he Kindred can also enter a deeper sleep, however, in which their souls come even closer to death. )he Kindred call this state torpor. A vampire"s daily sleep lasts a few hours, but torpor can last for centuries.

!o nding
/ounds sufficient to 3ill mortals send the Kindred into torpor, instead. !f a vampire"s last Health bo( is occupied by a lethal wound and ta3es damage again before healing, she enters torpor instead of dying. %7ecall that sufficient bashing damage can convert to lethal damage, so a good beating with, say, baseball bats can send a Kindred into torpor.' )he duration of this torpor depends on the character"s Humanity and her Blood Potency. A high Blood Potency e(tends the torpor"s durationB so does having a low Humanity. High4Humanity vampires spend much less time in torpor than Kindred who have given most of themselves to the Beast. )o calculate the length of time a wounded Kindred spends in torpor, consult the following table. )he character"s Humanity score determines a base time spent in torpor. Aultiply that span by the character"s Blood Potency to find the total duration of the slumber. Cero4Humanity vampires form an important e(ception to this system. /hen they enter torpor from wounding, they sleep for an even millennium, regardless of their Blood Potency. " #anity $1 ? > = < 0 ; & 2 $ 1 Base Ti#e $pent %n Torpor .ne day )wo days )hree days .ne wee3 )wo wee3s .ne month .ne year .ne decade Five decades .ne century .ne millennium

/hile in torpor, a wounded vampire can e(pend itae but can ta3e no other action. )he character can also e(pend itae to heal himself. Any damage that the vampire cannot heal remains on the character"s withered body until he can rise and feed again. !f the vampire lac3s sufficient reserves of itae to heal the damage %whether lethal or aggravated' that sent her to torpor, that torpor lasts longer than usual. 5alculate the torpor"s duration as if the character"s Blood Potency were one higher than it actually is. !f the character succumbs to torpor with no itae left and has lost all of her Health points to lethal or aggravated damage, she awa3ens having recovered one Health point as a result of the torpor, which she doesn"t have to pay for with itae. !n effect, the character recovers this Health point for free, as a result of the stabili*ing sleep of torpor.

$tar&ation
A Kindred who sleeps during the day and who has no itae 44 but who is not truly in torpor 44 fails to rise. All itae in him has been e(hausted, so he has none to spend to rise the ne(t night. For every night that passes under these circumstances, the character suffers a point of lethal damage in lieu of spending itae. !n this state, the character is incapable of functioning at all, yet is not in torpor. )his is important because this vampire does not need e(ceptionally potent itae to be roused yet. At this point, any itae given to him allows him to rise as normal %fed only a few itae, the character probably rises in a hunger fren*y'. Denied any itae from an outside source, a starving character continues to suffer one lethal wound a night until he slips into torpor. )he character sleeps in torpor for a duration determined by the preceding chartD )he base duration set by the character"s Humanity, multiplied by a number one higher than the character"s Blood Potency. At the torpor"s end, the character awa3ens with only one Health point restored.

Vol ntary Torpor

Kindred can also enter torpor deliberately. ,ometimes unlife +ust gets to be too much and a Kindred decides to sleep in hopes that some of her problems will be solved by the time she wa3es again. #lder vampires also sometimes use torpor to reduce their Blood Potency when feeding becomes too inconvenient. ampires seldom enter voluntary torpor lightly. An e(tended torpor usually re-uires abandoning all responsibilities in the Kindred world and all the influence so painsta3ingly built in the mortal world. A Kindred might hope that his childer remain reasonably loyal and greet him with respect when he rises again. He might also hope that his centuries of e(perience bring him honor among other Kindred and win him at least a minor title in his covenant and city"s undead community, but he cannot realistically hope to resume his old offices as if he"d never left. oluntary torpor lasts at least as long as the base duration set by the character"s Humanity. At the end of that time, the character wa3es if his player ma3es a successful /illpower roll %difficulty $1 minus the vampire"s Humanity'. !f the roll fails, the character remains in torpor for another increment of time, and so on, until the number of increments e-uals the Blood Potency the character had when the torpor began. At that point, he rises automatically. After the first increment passes, the character can also try to wa3e up if something disturbs his body. )he character can recogni*e a disturbance if the player succeeds at a Perception : Auspe( roll %if that Discipline is possessed' at a :2 penalty. !f trouble is recogni*ed, a Humanity roll is made for the vampire to rouse himself. !f the disturbance is at night, a successful roll means the character wa3es completely. During the day, the character can stay awa3e for one turn per success rolled. An e(ceptional success allows the character stay awa3e for the rest of the scene. )he player can also ma3e e(tended Humanity rolls to prolong the character"s period of activity. )he character achieves full wa3efulness if the player accumulates five successes in the e(tended action, but the character falls asleep again if the player fails any of these rolls. %)his is the same as the normal system for a character to wa3e up during the day, but under more challenging circumstances for rousing from voluntary torpor rather than from normal sleep.' Eote that no itae is spent upon wa3ing from torpor, as it is upon wa3ing from a day"s sleep.

$ta'ing
Finally, a vampire enters torpor when a wooden sta3e penetrates his heart. .nly wood has this effect. 7ods of metal, plastic or other substances can damage the vampire by piercing the heart, but only wood induces torpor. Kindred mystics offer a number of religious and occult theories for why wood has this power. Aost Kindred simply accept it as a fact of unlife. Driving a sta3e through a vampire"s heart is e(traordinarily difficult.

)he feat re-uires a melee or ranged attac3 with the sta3e. !n combat, the attac3er suffers a :& penalty to stri3e so precisely. )hen the attac3er must inflict at least three points of lethal damage %post4,oa3' for the sta3e to actually thrust through the vampire"s body and into the heart. )he sta3ed vampire immediately collapses into torpor, appearing stone dead for all that a mortal could tell. A sta3ed vampire remains in torpor indefinitely. )he Kindred awa3ens only when someone or something removes the sta3e from his heart. An unwary mortal might remove the sta3e from what loo3s li3e a mummified corpse. A rat might gnaw at the sta3e enough to dislodge it, or termites might eat the sta3e away completely. Fntil something li3e this occurs, however, the vampire sleeps. 8rim tales among the Kindred tell of vampires who wor3 around Princely edicts forbidding murder and Humanity erosion by trapping their enemies with sta3es through the heart and burying them in secure and secret crypts, there to sleep until the Day of Gudgment.

Effects Of Torpor
During torpor, a vampire"s body seems utterly inert. .ver the decades, it slowly shrivels in on itself until it seems li3e a mummified corpse. )his happens more -uic3ly if the character lac3s the itae to heal all the damage he suffered when forced into torpor. A vampire starved into torpor loo3s withered already. )he vampire dreams slowly during torpor. )hese dreams tend to reflect the Kindred"s state of mind when he entered torpor. !f he slumbered willingly, his dreams remain largely peaceful, if not particularly sensible. !f the Kindred entered torpor during a struggle %as is often the case', his dreams are full of wrath and terror. His mind can stay fro*en on one thought or emotion for centuries. Kindred might awa3en obsessed with Kindred or 3ine who became dust long ago. )hen there"s the culture shoc3. Aost of the world has changed more in the last century than it did in the previous thousand. Kindred who awa3en from centuries of torpor often seem out of their minds, +ust because they are so out of touch with the modern world. Decades or centuries of torpid dreaming scramble a Kindred"s memory. #vents from his past lose order. Fantasies and nightmares from dreams mi( into real memories, so a vampire cannot tell which is which. Did he really hear two Primogen plotting against him 44 or was that +ust what he feared was happeningH Did unbound Kindred really destroy his hated sire, or did he merely wish they hadH ,ome Kindred write diaries and memoirs to refresh their memories in case they must endure a long torpor, but no memoir can capture everything. ,ome Kindred also wonder if open or hidden rivals might have found their diaries and rewritten them as part of subtle schemes to manipulate them. .ther Kindred rise from torpor to find their memoirs gone, looted by savvy witch4hunters who used the notes to hunt down other Kindred 44 a Pyrrhic victory at best over one"s enemies, and a considerable ris3 to one"s progeny and allies. ,uch is the paranoia bred by the Danse Aacabre. Hunger fren*ies are e(tremely li3ely after a vampire rises from torpor. )he ,toryteller may call for a ,elf4 5ontrol roll to resist fren*y the first time the character encounters any creature upon whom she can feed. For every 20 years in torpor, a Kindred"s Blood Potency drops by one dot, though never to less than $. )his decrease does not affect the length of torpor, though. )he total duration of the slumber depends on the character"s Blood Potency when torpor begins, no matter how the trait changes during the long sleep.

Forced Re&i&al
Kindred can awa3en early from torpor if someone feeds them sufficiently potent blood. .ne must force at least two itae into the torpid vampire"s mouth. !f the blood comes from a Kindred with a Blood Potency at least two dots higher than the torpid vampire"s current Blood Potency %ta3ing into account time already spent in torpor', the sleeping character awa3ens, no matter how much longer her torpor would have lasted on its own. !f the vampire is fed itae that isn"t potent enough, she remains in torpor, and the taste of blood li3ely permeates her dreams. !n either case, blood fed to a vampire to revive her counts toward a inculum over her as well as potentially creating blood addition.

Blood fed to a torpid vampire that"s not potent enough to rouse her can still be useful to the slumbering Kindred. )he itae can be spent refle(ively to heal wounds. ,ome Kindred believe that certain )heban ,orcery rituals can rouse a Kindred from torporI or force one into the long sleep. 7umor has it that the potent blood of Jupines can also bring a vampire out of torpor early. As always, ,torytellers must decide on the truth or falsehood of such legends.