Blood Drinker

You can (and, with Feeding Dependency, must) drink blood. Feeding on lifeblood sustains you more fully than any other food might, and you’re particularly
good at it. Anything short of freshly-spilled blood is less vital and, thus, less fulfilling; a fresh kill is like a three-course meal, while a bag from the blood bank is like an hors d’oeuvre—small and tasty, but ultimately leaving you hungry for the main course. You have no need to eat regular food (though you might still enjoy it).

Drink Blood. Any time you draw blood in close personal combat—with your claws or your teeth—you can ingest some of it to gain sustenance. Roll Brawling, Martial Arts, or another appropriate skill (Melee Combat, etc.) to make your victim bleed. (Usually a Wounded or higher damage result. Once you’ve done this successfully, gain a +1D to your attack on subsequent exchanges against the same target. If Damage made, then you can use The Taste of Death aspect, see below.

The Taste of Death. Once per combat sequence, if you inflict enough damage to kill a victim from feeding, you may take an immediate “free” healing roll.

Blood Frenzy. When in the presence of fresh blood, you feel a nearly uncontrollable urge to attack. The GM is within her rights to call for Willpower rolls to resist the urge.

Cost: 1

Emotional Vampire

You can (and, with Feeding Dependency, see below, must) “eat” strong emotions—often lustful and passionate or otherwise dark ones. Purely positive emotions, such as love, are not an option. This very much follows the law of “you are what you eat”: those who feed on fear and despair tend to be fearsome creatures (or at least control freaks), while those who feed on lust tend to be consummate seducers and very sexually active.

As a baseline, whenever you’re near an “eligible” strong emotion, you may draw in mild sustenance from it. This just grazes the surface of the victim’s life force, maybe making them just a shade less vital in the long term, but it doesn’t have much of an immediate effect. Being in the presence of many people experiencing strong emotions—a mob during a panicked riot or an orgy at a “swingers” convention, for example has a multiplicative effect; as such, emotional vampires are nearly always drawn to such events.

Musts: You must choose the emotion associated with this power when you take it.

Mechanics:

Feeding Touch. Physical contact is where it’s at for a satisfying, long-term meal. When a victim is in the throes of an eligible emotion (usually easy for a White Court vampire using his Incite Emotion ability, page 172), you may draw some of his life force out of him to sustain you. This is done as a psychological attack with an appropriate skill (usually Con, Persuasion, or Intimidation). If you have the Incite Emotion ability, inciting the emotion and feeding on it may be done as a single action, based on a single roll. On subsequent exchanges, if the emotion is still in place you may continue to feed, gaining a +1D on the roll.

The Taste of Death. Once per combat sequence, if you inflict enough damage to kill a victim from feeding, you may take an immediate “free” healing roll.

Feeding Frenzy. When in the presence of heightened emotions and willing victims, you feel a nearly uncontrollable urge to feed. The GM is within her rights to call for Willpower rolls to resist the urge.

Cost: 1

Feeding Dependency

You gain some of your supernatural abilities by feeding on blood (page 188), emotions (page 189), or something else (in the case of ghouls, massive quantities of meat). If you take this ability, it “attaches” to most if not all of your supernatural powers except for those from this category (at least 2 points’ worth).

Mechanics:
Hunger Is Stressful. You have an additional energy reserve, called Hunger. For every use of Supernatural abilities, the Willpower difficulty increases to resist giving into the need to feed. Each ability’s point cost becomes the difficulty number. If the player uses more than one ability per combat sequence, these numbers stack. As combat continues, these numbers accumulate every time an ability is used. Willpower rolls become increasingly difficult. Unless, during combat, the player feeds on a victim, which will alleviate the Hunger. Willpower rolls must be made at the start of each turn following power use, until the Hunger is alleviated.

The Hunger will be alleviated by feeding on enough points of damage to victim(s) that equals or surpasses the total Willpower difficulty number. If the amount of damage is less than the total, then reduce the Willpower difficulty by that amount. The Hunger remains, but is diminished.

The Hunger will alleviate, gradually, without feeding, out of combat, at a rate of 2 points per hour. Assuming the player can keep Willpower going, without going into a feeding frenzy.

Cost: 1

Tattoos of St. Giles

You’ve enlisted or allied with the Fellowship of St. Giles (OW89) to keep your Red Court vampirism in check. They’ve covered you in normally invisible tattoos that carry a magic potency, enabling you to better fight off the dark urges rising within you—and letting others know when you’re in jeopardy of giving in to your hunger.

Musts: The tattoos are only available to someone infected, but not yet turned, by Red Court vampirism. You lose this ability immediately if you ever turn and become a full Red Court vampire.

Mechanics:
A Warning to Others. Whenever you take hunger stress, your tattoos become visible, darkening into a black ink, then turning red when you’re at high risk of going into frenzy; this gives others a bonus to any perception checks to realize your situation. The bonus is equal to the amount of hunger difficulty you take from the attack (see above).

Biofeedback. The tattoos give you a boost when exercising your self-control. Whenever your tattoos are visible, you gain +1D to your Willpower when using it defensively.

Deeper Reserves. You can run longer and harder before really losing it. Add -5 points to the Power points used.

Supernatural Player. The tattoos mark you as a member of the Fellowship when those “in the know” see them on you. If your tattoos are showing, gain a +1D to your Intimidation when dealing with such individuals.

Fellowship Training. The tattoos come with the Fellowship’s training program. Gain +1D to Lore when using it to identify supernatural threats. Increase this bonus to +2D when using Lore to identify signs of the Red Court at work.

Cost: 2