Blood potency question

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.whitewolf (More info?)

I was going through the new vampire book and have a question I hope someone
can answer.

It states that a vampire will go into torpor when his blood potency gets so
high that he can no longer feed effectively. I understand that very high
blood potency means you can only feed on other vamps, but is there more to
it than that? Can a blood-potency 10 elder keep going so long as he has a
supply of vampire blood to snack on? And on a related note, what would happen
if a vampire stayed awake long enough to go to blood-potency 11?

The logical solution (at least to me) is that at blood-potency 11, even
vampire blood is no longer sufficient and you simply starve until you go into
torpor. Or you could have some real fun and say lupine blood is still strong
enough to sustain such a creature. I like the idea of a potency 11 vampire
desperately hunting down werewolves to stave off starvation. Heck, just the
_rumor_ of such a thing could provide a few good plot hooks.

--
Brian Merchant (remove 'remove' and 'example' from email)

Puritanism didn't keep the puritans from sinning, it just kept
them from enjoying it.
--Father Joe Breighner
Country Roads

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.whitewolf (More info?)

Brian Merchant wrote:

> I was going through the new vampire book and have a question I hope someone
> can answer.

> It states that a vampire will go into torpor when his blood potency gets so
> high that he can no longer feed effectively. I understand that very high
> blood potency means you can only feed on other vamps, but is there more to
> it than that? Can a blood-potency 10 elder keep going so long as he has a
> supply of vampire blood to snack on? And on a related note, what would happen
> if a vampire stayed awake long enough to go to blood-potency 11?

> The logical solution (at least to me) is that at blood-potency 11, even
> vampire blood is no longer sufficient and you simply starve until you go into
> torpor. Or you could have some real fun and say lupine blood is still strong
> enough to sustain such a creature. I like the idea of a potency 11 vampire
> desperately hunting down werewolves to stave off starvation. Heck, just the
> _rumor_ of such a thing could provide a few good plot hooks.

This is actually a less academic question than you'd think. Consider
the Coil of Blood. Ordo Dracul elders who can keep feeding on animals
forever theoretically never have to go into torpor -- which could
explain why the Ordo Dracul is so feared even though apparently it's
kinda small.

We don't actually have the answers to these questions yet. As it is, it
basically looks like BP maxes out at 10 and that's it.

Even more puzzling, if you look at the torpor length formulas, you'll
see that no vampire with Humanity higher than 3 can ever sleep long
enough to lose a dot of Blood Potency. Not even voluntarily.
--
Stephenls
Geek
"I'm as impure as the driven yellow snow." -Spike

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.whitewolf (More info?)

In the borning days of the third millennium, Stephenls wrote:
>> The logical solution (at least to me) is that at blood-potency 11, even
>> vampire blood is no longer sufficient and you simply starve until you go into
>> torpor. Or you could have some real fun and say lupine blood is still strong
>> enough to sustain such a creature. I like the idea of a potency 11 vampire
>> desperately hunting down werewolves to stave off starvation. Heck, just the
>> _rumor_ of such a thing could provide a few good plot hooks.
>
>This is actually a less academic question than you'd think. Consider
>the Coil of Blood. Ordo Dracul elders who can keep feeding on animals
>forever theoretically never have to go into torpor -- which could
>explain why the Ordo Dracul is so feared even though apparently it's
>kinda small.
>
>We don't actually have the answers to these questions yet. As it is, it
>basically looks like BP maxes out at 10 and that's it.

Here's another potential solution. As an elder spends more and more time at
blood potency 10, the raw power of the curse containe within the Vitae begins
to erode his mind. For every decade an elder spends with blood potency 10, he
gains a new derangement. Eventually, the elders actions will become erratic
enough that a powerful faction will force him into torpor involuntarily,
ending the threat.

Hopefully some future supplement will address this oversight.

--
Brian Merchant (remove 'remove' and 'example' from email)

Puritanism didn't keep the puritans from sinning, it just kept
them from enjoying it.
--Father Joe Breighner
Country Roads

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.whitewolf (More info?)

Brian Merchant wrote:> Hopefully some future supplement will address
this oversight.
>
>
Frankly, the stated reason behind the Blood Potency limit strikes me as
wrongful thinking anyway. It always seemed to me that Elder's
entrenched positions were *at least* as much because of their extensive
Backgrounds as because of their kewl Disciplines (in fact, I
specifically recall a Vampire Storytelling essay on why kindred *don't*
throw their powers around to get and keep power). So, starting
characters are still in the position of having to build their own
networks of alliances, favors, and extortion to chip away slowly at the
Elders, just like always.

OTOH, I guess the quick takeover as shown in the first Blade movie
would make more sense with this system, but that almost seems like
rewarding impatient players for just using violence to reach their
goals...

Is the game really changed in any major way by ignoring that aspect of
Blood Potency?

Dex

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.whitewolf (More info?)

Thing is that once you go past 10 blood potency you're getting
dangerously close, if not exactly at the point of the universal ante
plot device power level. And just because a vampire goes down for a
long nap with insanity doesn't necessarily mean that they'll be totally
boned when they wake up. Miss Opal is a pretty good example of this
already released in the NO setting in the appendix.

And don't forget that those more aristocratic Vampires, lovers of the
gilded cage that they are, still have some human machinery working for
them while they're down. There is no reason a powerful vamipre
couldn't set up a trust for 50 or so years to manage his legal estate;
after all, the mortal deceased can set up similar arrangements to
provide for their children and whatever charities they might want to
start with their fortunes.

Say hypothetically that Ronald Reagan came back after 20 years of
suffering a horrible disease and suddenly there was a cure for all that
ailed him. Granted this is well outside the realm of reality, but
we're talking about Vampires here. Reagan wouldn't have a great deal
of difficulty re-establishing a base of power and being a very
influential player on the national scene; he'd be more affected by
things like the constitution preventing him from running for president
again than anything else.

Now let's say George Washington came back. Obviously he would have
some problems, but it'd be similar to Dracula comming back and hanging
out with the Ordo Dracul. He's still the founder of that groups
particular creed and ideology and he embodies the concept, so
eventually he's going to roll and take over. This can work on smaller
levels as well, but it's not so bleak for the torpor coma kiddies.

Hand-of-Omega wrote:
> Brian Merchant wrote:> Hopefully some future supplement will address
> this oversight.
> >
> >
> Frankly, the stated reason behind the Blood Potency limit strikes me
as
> wrongful thinking anyway. It always seemed to me that Elder's
> entrenched positions were *at least* as much because of their
extensive
> Backgrounds as because of their kewl Disciplines (in fact, I
> specifically recall a Vampire Storytelling essay on why kindred
*don't*
> throw their powers around to get and keep power). So, starting
> characters are still in the position of having to build their own
> networks of alliances, favors, and extortion to chip away slowly at
the
> Elders, just like always.
>
> OTOH, I guess the quick takeover as shown in the first Blade movie
> would make more sense with this system, but that almost seems like
> rewarding impatient players for just using violence to reach their
> goals...
>
> Is the game really changed in any major way by ignoring that aspect
of
> Blood Potency?
>
> Dex