The Blood is the Life
Fast info:
Dycrasias, gives you bigger effects or possible 1 EXP one time if you choose this option (read below).
Resonance, only gives you 2 EXP in 1 Discipline if victim is drained and killed.
Human blood powers a vampire’s body. Without fresh juice, a Kindred lies still, torpid, and powerless. Its dead heartbeats only when fueled by the stolen essence of life. Its eyes only work when the corona and the viscous body flows with Blood. All vampires know vital fluids consist of far more than plasma, blood cells, and platelets. Some unknowable link to a kine’s soul gives every person’s redrum its particular kick and effect. Perhaps it’s just hormones and the traces of the incessant bio-electrical current of mind, but a victims feelings profoundly affects the Kindred system.
Drink deep enough, and the Resonance of a victim rises to the surface: first as a sharp taste in the blood, then as images, whispers, and feelings; clots of unresolved trauma or clusters of rising hopes. Crisp memories, a ghostlike presence, or visions of heart-rending moments can occur just as blood loss nears the fatal amount. A kill always gives the strongest, most lasting rush, so the temptation is always there.
The rush of blood is not just a high, it’s a state where the blood changes a vampire’s own Resonance a bit. Plain melancholic blood is a good buzz to be on when Obfuscating, but that uniquely subservient dog- walker with deep mommy-issues owns a special breed of submission that makes Dominate possible without eye contact. That’s what Kindred call a Dyscrasia, licks call a clot, and players call a “must-drink” SPC.
Resonance Blood type is expressed as Resonance. Unless looking only for survival or fuel, a drinker should care what prey they feed from and how. Vampires drink blood. Mortals eat food. Resonance flavors the blood, turning drinking into dining. It’s not about genetics, even if family often does carry a tendency toward a certain Resonance. It’s more about a combination of the vessel’s temperament and the victim’s state of mind in the moment of feeding. Kindred employ dozens of different frameworks to describe Resonance, from Japanese adolescent blood- type astrology to American business-school Myers- Briggs phrenology. Indian licks talk about ayurvedic gunas, decadent Toreador fans of Gurdjieff map their meals on the Enneagram; a Sewer Rat in Geneva claims to use Jung’s original notebooks to construct a “unified theory of Blutfunktion.” But the most common method, used by Tremere thaumaturges and Duskborn street cookers alike, relies on the four humors of classical medicine and medieval alchemy. The Crucible of Alchemy, say the Warlocks, limns a metaphor for the vampiric body. The salts and metals in the crucible represent the elements of the blood, refined by the fire of the emotion in the moment. According to these Tremere, alchemy is all about scaring or inflaming kine in just the right way and drinking at just the right moment. It may be medieval mystification, but as the Mercurians can confirm, it does reliably get you high. To vampires whose Blood does in fact hold magical ingredients and shape personalities, these latter-day alchemists make a compelling argument.
The four humors
The four humors go back to ancient Egyptian and Babylonian medicine, but Hippocrates codified them for the West around 400 B.C. He described them as Choler or Xanthecholia (yellow bile), Melancholia (black bile), white Phlegm (not just modern phlegm, but also saliva, lymph, and the liquids of lungs and brain), and red Hema (blood). Thus, as the various humors predominate in the human system, people turn Choleric, Melancholy, Phlegmatic, and Sanguine. Modern alchemists point out that a blood sedimentation test demonstrates the existence of all four humors in the blood: black platelets and clots at the bottom, red blood cells above that, white cells governing them, and finally clear plasma colored yellowish with bilirubin. Licks more thirsty than scholarly just break the four humors down as “angry, sad, lazy, and horny.”
Temperament and dyscrasia
Resonance comes in three temperaments: fleeting, intense, and acute. Fleeting temperament occurs in the moment, thanks to momentary stimuli. Humans in basic emotional equilibrium (“well-adjusted”) experience fleeting bursts of all four Resonances in their day-to-day lives.
An intense temperament indicates a human with
a very strong tendency toward one or another Reso- nance. This connection might be due to mental illness, age, past trauma, drug addiction, or just a very active reward loop; a good-looking person who enjoys sex can easily become intensely Sanguine, thanks to seeking and getting their kicks every night.
An acute Resonance is so intense that it creates a self-sustaining reaction in the blood. Kindred have adopted Hippocrates’ term Dyscrasia, or “bad mixture,” to refer to this effect. Younger licks, careless of alchemy and hematology alike, refer to it as a clot.
Resonance and Disciplines
Why should a lick care about Hippocrates? Because Resonance gives blood more than flavor and savor – intense Resonance gives it power. And a Dyscrasia, well, that gives the best hit of all. Resonances don’t just give flavor to the victim’s blood and personality, but also blend with vampiric Blood to energize Disciplines.
People all taste and kick different, and certain people make certain powers easier while a vampire is drunk on them. After hundreds of victims, patterns begin to emerge to any feeder. The sad kills help you fade from sight, the horny kills boost the pull, and the angry ones fuel the punching. Blood accretes though time, combining and subliming through the strange alchemies that generate the supernatural effects of the gifts of Caine.
This is the way the Kindred overtly learn and develop disciplines: with a combination of feeding from a teacher and practicing conscious and often learned feeding habits. Vampires complement this process with undead biofeedback, pushing vitae through the vampiric system, revivifying Kindred organs, chakras, or nerve clusters at just the right moment. What you eat lays the foundation of what you can do.
And that goes for your enemies as well. Smart fangs study feeding habits and figure out the strengths and weaknesses of other Kindred. Every drinker in the world has their own pattern of feeding: changing or static over time. Perhaps all vampires, irrespective of age, generation, skill, and learning, intuitively look for the kind of blood that hones their curse and their disciplines to perfection.
Effects of temperament
Fleeting temperament provides storytelling juice and savor to the hunt, but it has no immediate mechanical effect except as Thin- blood Alchemy ingredients. That said, even fleeting temperaments flavor the blood sufficiently to justify buying dots in their associated disciplines (see Resonance and Experience, p. 231).
Drinking blood with intense temperament gives the drinker one additional die for dice pools involving a discipline that corresponds to that Resonance. This bonus lasts until the vampire’s next drink of blood dilutes it, or until the vampire’s system empties of blood when their Hunger reaches 5.
Tapping a dyscrasia
Vessels with an acute temperament provide the same Discipline bonus as an intense Resonance. They also incorporate a Dyscrasia, which conveys a more sublime or powerful benefit to the drinker.
The requirements to gain its effect varies between different Dyscrasias, but unless otherwise stated the vampire must kill and drain the vessel or feed from
them over the course of three nights. Some Dyscrasias can only be tapped once before leaving the blood of the victim, others linger and can be gained on repeated occasions.
The effects of a Dyscrasia usually lasts until the Kindred feeds again or reaches Hunger 5.
Hunting and Humors
Determining what Resonance a vessel has makes feeding more than just a pit stop. Most vampires observe their victims from a distance or engage them in conversation to feel them out. Roleplaying should give a pretty good idea of what Resonance a victim’s blood carries, but after stalking or talking for a scene, the Storyteller may allow a Resolve + Insight test to clarify matters.
Tasting the blood of a human dispels all doubt; the Storyteller’s description of the taste, texture, and kick of the blood should give the leech a clear indication
of what Resonance the mortal carries. If the mortal harbors a Dyscrasia, the Storyteller may hint at its nature. When the character slakes a level of Hunger from a victim, they feel the rush of the essence locked in their victim’s blood. This rush of Resonance may kick vampiric powers into overdrive or manifest as a unique condition.
To determine the temperament of a potential victim that the Storyteller (or scenario author) hasn’t created and detailed before the session, roll a d10 to determine a random temperament. If you get a 6+ on that die, roll again to determine the human’s Resonance. The Storyteller should absolutely shift the numbers dependent on the surrounding environment: nightclubs encourage the Sanguine and don’t attract the Phlegmatic; Protestant churches perhaps the opposite.
Changing Resonance
Characters can change a victim’s Resonance through roleplaying or through the various social systems of the game. If the character successfully scares, seduces, or drugs their victim, the Storyteller should shift the victim’s Resonance to match. If a vampire seduces a scared victim, for example, the human gains the Sanguine (fleeting) temperament while their Melancholic Resonance is (temporarily) submerged.
Intensifying a victim’s Resonance follows a similar process to increase their temperament by one step (from fleeting to intense, or intense to acute) on a successful social test or following a cool role-playing scene. Once a victim acutely feels a Resonance, a properly callous vampire can begin the long process of manipulating them into a Dyscrasia. A love affair with a mortal lasting for months or years may lead to them developing an appropriately Sanguine clot; keeping a victim locked up for months
to endure repeated waterboarding or brainwashing could develop a Melancholic or Choleric Dyscrasia, depending on the precise sequence and nature of the confinement.
Such long-term grooming and abuse of victims
is not a scientific process, and likely incurs plenty of Stains. Chronicle Tenets more likely forbid torture, but some may excuse themselves for seducing a mortal into a Sanguine-farming love affair. Humane vampires find it all distasteful; it’s up to the Storyteller to determine what works and how much Dyscrasia farming damages a Kindred’s Humanity.
Sample Dyscrasias
Here are a few examples of Dyscrasias the Storyteller can sprinkle into the next mortal crowd or carefully populate into a rival vampire’s Herd. Characters may want to keep track of supporting cast mortals who carry particular Dyscrasias, so they can feed on them for tactical advantage. The Storyteller should absolutely curate Dyscrasias to player agendas and to the desires of their enemies.
Some Dyscrasias are enduring, nesting within a mortal for years or even a lifetime, while others are temporary, dependent on external circumstances. It is up to the Storyteller to decide if each Dyscrasia can only be used once or remains a property of the vessel’s blood for longer.
Choleric Dyscrasias
bully: Drinker does +1 damage against weaker foes (or against the kinds of foes the vessel most enjoyed bullying). This bonus applies to both social and physical combat.
cycle of violence: Your next feeding on choleric blood slakes one additional Hunger; other blood slakes one less Hunger.
envy: Drinker does +1 damage against better (more attractive, younger, more talented, taller, richer, higher-status, etc.) foes. This bonus applies to both social and physical combat.
principled: Re-roll anyone roll in a conflict with a perceived ideological enemy. You may not re-roll Hunger dice that resulted in 1s during the first roll.
vengeful: Add two dice to one test against the type of target on which the vessel wished revenge (cheating spouses, social rivals, loud neighbors, the government, etc.), or on all rolls against the specific individual the vessel hated.
vicious: Re-roll any rolls using the Intimidation Skill. You may not re-roll Hunger dice that resulted in 1s during the first roll.
driving: Gain 1 free experience point towards the purchase of Celerity or Potence. This fully consumes the Dyscrasia.
Melancholic Dyscrasias
in mourning: Add one die to Remorse tests.
lost love: Add one die to all pools to resist seduction attempts, including Presence.
lost relative: Slake 1 additional Hunger when feeding from remaining members of your family.
massive failure: Constantly reminded not to fail in the same way, the drinker can re-roll tests that remind them of the vessel’s failure. You may not re-roll Hunger dice that resulted in 1s during the first roll.
nostalgic: Add one die to all pools for rolls that connect to the specific decade, art form, or social group about which the vessel was nostalgic; add three dice to
a Memoriam pool exploring that subject.
recalling: Gain 1 free experience point towards the purchase of Fortitude or Obfuscate. This fully consumes the Dyscrasia.
Phlegmatic Dyscrasias
chill: Add two dice to pools to resist frenzy.
comfortably numb: Feel no pain: receive no penalties or other negative effects from pain, both physical and social.
eating your emotions: Eat and digest food without becoming nauseous (or slaking Hunger, of course).
given up: Your next feeding on phlegmatic blood slakes 1 additional Hunger; other blood slakes one fewer Hunger.
lone wolf: Add one die to your tests when alone, subtract one die from tests to assist others or use teamwork (p. 122). Lasts only one scene.
procrastinate: Regain 1 point of Willpower if you delay something important by a day or more. Can only be used once per session.
reflection: Gain 1 free experience point towards the purchase of Auspex or Dominate. This fully consumes the Dyscrasia.
Sanguine Dyscrasias
contagious enthusiasm: If you can touch your target skin-to-skin and sweat-to-sweat, you can add three dice to one test to convince them to do something. Treat this Dyscrasia as Dominate with regards to core beliefs, secrets, and so forth.
smell game: Add three dice to all rolls to detect other Sanguine vessels.
high on life: The drinker can use Blush of Life without making a Rouse Check.
manic high: The drinker adds one die to all tests until they fail a roll; after that point, they subtract two dice from all tests.
true love: Slake 1 additional Hunger when feeding from the vessel’s true love. If the drinker has Auspex, they can see through the true love’s eyes by Rousing the Blood.
stirring: Gain 1 free experience point towards the purchase of Blood Sorcery or Presence. This fully consumes the Dyscrasia.
Resonance and Experience
In order to justify spending experience on Disciplines, your character must feed on blood with the matching type of Resonance. The amount of blood and vessels consumed varies, but by and large it scales with the Discipline rating sought. The Storyteller is well within their right to have you seek out stronger and stronger Resonances, even Dyscrasias, to achieve higher Discipline ratings. Learning a new out-of-clan Discipline also requires you to taste the Blood of one who possesses it.