Mind's Eye Theatre - Vampire The Requiem.pdf - RoseRed

properties of the blood • waking up • counterfeiting chapter life • one: physical society augementation
of the damned 219
USING BLOOD RESPONSIBLY
Please remember that The Requiem is just a game. No actual bloodletting or blooddrinking
of any kind should ever occur during play. Likewise, no quantity of real blood
should ever be brought to the game in any sort of container, even as a prop. Such
practices are not only highly disturbing to onlookers, but pose a health risk as well.
Lastly, be aware that excessively bloody makeup or costuming may cause bystanders
to summon the authorities. Even if used well out of sight of non-players, fake blood
can still stain costuming, carpeting, props and other essentials, so make sure to apply
and monitor it very carefully.
WAKING UP
A vampire expends one Vitae in the course of his daily slumber. If a Kindred falls asleep
without any Vitae in his body (an unlikely event, but it could happen), he enters a longer
torpor for a duration set by his Humanity and Blood Potency, just as if he had lost all his
Health points to lethal damage. See the rules for torpor that follow.
For accounting on the character sheet, mark off the Vitae when the character awakens.
Usually, the Vitae is counted as being spent at nightfall, the normal time for vampires to rise.
If a Kindred forces herself to wake up during the day, the character must expend a Vitae. If
the vampire lets herself sleep again before night falls, she expends another Vitae when she
rises again that evening.
COUNTERFEITING LIFE
Although vampires are dead, they can imitate some of the things that living people do. The
Damned know this process as “the blush of life.” A Kindred can force Vitae into his outer
tissues to give his skin a lifelike fl ush, or to force his heart to beat and his lungs to inhale and
exhale in a normal rhythm. Kindred who want to engage in sexual intercourse — perhaps to
feed upon a suitably distracted mortal vessel, or perhaps for simple pleasure — can force blood
to the appropriate section of anatomy as well.
Normally vampires vomit up any food or drink they consume immediately. If a Kindred
wishes to consume food or drink, her player must spend a Vitae. This is in addition to the
“blush of life” a character may have already paid during the scene, though a character need
not invoke the blush of life to be able to consume food. At the end of the scene, the character
noisily, messily and bloodily eliminates the consumed matter by way of regurgitation, so it’s
best to make sure that no one’s around to see the Kindred afterward.
Imitating the appearance and functions of life or the ability to consume food for one scene
costs a character one Vitae, and both expenditures are refl exive.
Players whose characters employ the blush of life may forgo applying makeup to portray a
suitably vampiric countenance, since they can pass for human at casual inspection. Indeed,
some troupes may even require players to have their characters spend Vitae on the blush of life
if they do not wear some sort of vampiric makeup, to balance things with the other players
who made the effort to look appropriately undead.
PHYSICAL AUGMENTATION
A vampire can call upon his Vitae to enhance his muscular power, speed and agility, or
ability to withstand harm. In rules terms, for each Vitae the player expends, he adds two
points to one Physical test pool — one based on Strength, Dexterity or Stamina. This boost
lasts for one turn and is a refl exive action, ignoring Initiative. Enhancing Attributes with