Feeding
Contents
Feeding
“She did not seduce, she ravished.” — George Meredith, Diana of the Crossways
A vampire typically replenishes her Blood points by feeding. Your character can take Blood points from mortals, other vampires, or other creatures with blood, such as animals or werewolves. When a vampire bites someone to drain blood, she invokes the Kiss. The Kiss is an overwhelming sensation of rapturous helplessness in mortals, and it is pleasurable even to other creatures. Consumption of blood from some supernatural creatures may cause unusual problems. For more information on drinking the blood of supernaturals, please see the specific information about each creature type.
After feeding, a vampire can close a wound made during feeding by licking the wound, thus repairing the surface injury (but not healing any damage). Note that a vampire cannot lick to heal aggravated damage inflicted by a bite meant to damage, and she cannot not heal damage to mortals caused by blood loss.
Feeding During Game Sessions
Directly managing feeding scenes for every player at a game session is impractical and can cause a number of pacing problems. To feed at a game, log your intent to feed with the Storyteller (or a Narrator), acquire approval, and then wait 15 minutes out of game to simulate the hunt. When you return to game, you refresh 2 points of Blood. Environmental factors such as plot, influences, pacing, or other players may require that the Storyteller personally run the feeding session.
(See also: Herd on the Backgrounds page.)
Feeding from Lesser Blood
Vampires prefer to feed on the warm blood of a living human, taken directly from the vein. Feeding from an animal or from stored blood may provide a meager sustenance, but it does not satisfy the Beast. A vampire must consume 2 points of animal blood in order to equal 1 Blood point taken from a living human.
Example
Claudia the Toreador needs to feed and seduced Matt the mortal into following her to a private area of the bar. She establishes a firm grip and pulls him close, winning a Physical opposed challenge, spending a Willpower to Grapple, and biting him to feed. Claudia drains 1 point of Blood per standard action, and may stop any time she wishes. Matt, now experiencing the Kiss, does not resist once the bite has been established.
Unfortunately for Claudia, Matt’s lover, James, walks past and sees them. Although he doesn’t understand what’s going on, James is outraged and starts to yell at Matt. The sway of Claudia’s Kiss might be broken by this awkward interruption, and therefore the Storyteller may require Claudia to make another challenge. If she loses that challenge, Matt will recover his senses and realize what’s going on.
Feeding and Downtime Actions
Finding safe ways to drink the blood of mortals is often time-consuming; to reflect this, you must spend 1 downtime action between each session to feed. If you fail to spend an action feeding, you enter every game at half your normal Blood pool (round up). For example, a Neonate who did not spend 1 of her downtime actions feeding enters game with only 5 Blood in her pool. For more information see Downtime.
