In common parlance, the Hunger is the drive to feed, as it is with mortals and animals. For vampires, though, it is much more intense and takes the place of every other drive, urge, and pleasure.
Hunger Mechanic (V5)[]
In Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition, a Hunger trait replaces the traditional blood pool mechanic formerly used to measure hunger and Discipline costs. It is used to play out the drama of the vampire's struggle against their Beast by adding extra risk and difficulty to their actions: their use of Disciplines and Skills, mending their injuries, calling forth the Blush of Life, and even the simple act of rising at sunset. Hunger is measured in levels ranging from 0 to 5. A vampire with a Hunger of 0 is completely sated, but a vampire with 5 Hunger is dangerously vulnerable to the call of the Beast and at critical risk of frenzying. If already at 5, any further impetus for increase instead forces the character to roll to resist hunger frenzy at Difficulty 4.
Rouse Check[]
A Rouse Check is a simple D10 check to determine whether or not a vampire gains Hunger. A result of 6 or higher is a success, resulting in no change. 5 or lower results in gaining 1 Hunger. If a character meets a condition to be allowed two dice for a Rouse Check, the higher of the two is counted.
Hunger Dice[]
Except for tracker rolls (Willpower, Humanity), each level of Hunger replaces one die in all of a character's dice pools with one Hunger die. If the given pool for an attempted roll is lower than the character's total Hunger, the whole pool is instead substituted with an equal number of Hunger dice.
| Score | Result |
|---|---|
| 1 | Failure; Bestial Failure for a failed test |
| 2-5 | Failure |
| 6-9 | Success |
| 10 (0) | Success; Messy Critical if part of a critical win |
Consequences of Hunger[]
A pool containing Hunger dice presents a risk of unintended consequences in the results of a roll in the form of messy criticals and bestial failures. Hunger dice cannot be rerolled with a point of Willpower like regular dice, but they can be overridden with a reroll for a pool containing an adequate amount of regular successes (or a win at a cost) potentially exceeding the Difficulty and Hunger dice margins.
Messy Critical[]
A messy critical occurs when a vampire scores a 10 on one or more Hunger die on a critical win. The success may be attributed to the intercession of the vampire's Beast, rather than their own volition, with all the consequences that this may entail in the situation, such as Humanity Stains, Masquerade breaches, Advantage penalties, a Compulsion urge, or simply botching the intended action in some way.
Bestial Failure[]
A bestial failure occurs when a vampire scores a 1 on one or more Hunger die on a failed roll. The failure may have been caused by the Beast deliberately sabotaging the vampire, or their failure having provoked reprisal from it. Compulsion urges are a common consequence for a bestial failure, as would be a penalty of 1 Hunger. Breaking out from stress in a sweat of blood is another possibility, resulting in the character receiving aggravated damage.
Compulsions[]
A Compulsion urge usually occurs on a bestial failure, or on a messy critical. The specific Compulsion—typically a stock act of hunger, dominance, harm, paranoia, or a clan-based compulsion—may be decided by the Storyteller with a single check, or at their own discretion. A Compulsion may also be urged by the Storyteller during a dramatically-appropriate situation, rewarding a character with a point of regained Willpower for succumbing to it, or penalizing them a point for refusing.
| Score | Compulsion | Dice Penalty | Satisfaction |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-3 | Hunger | 2 (non-feeding-related pools) | Slake 1 Hunger |
| 4-5 | Dominance | 2 (pools unrelated to establishing dominance or resisting authority) | Assert dominance over another and gloat about it |
| 6-7 | Harm | 2 (pools unrelated to harming one's opponent or an antagonistic object) | Incapacitate, destroy, nullify, or repel opponent(s)/object(s) |
| 8-9 | Paranoia | 2 (pools unrelated to fleeing vicinity for one's immediate survival) | Spend an hour or so in a place one feels safe in |
| 10 (0) | Clan Compulsion | 2-3 (Clan-specific conditions; reroll if Caitiff or thin-blood) | Varies |
Feeding[]
Naturally, in order to keep the Hunger in check, Kindred have to feed, usually drinking the blood of mortals, but some prefer that of animals, or other Kindred.
| Source | Hunger Slaked | Time | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Multiple small animals | 1 | One Scene | Slakes no Hunger for Kindred above Blood Potency 2
Animal Resonance (may differ at ST discretion); No Dyscrasia |
| Medium-sized animal | 1 | One Turn | |
| Large animal | 2 | One scene | |
| Blood bag | 1 | One Turn | Slakes no Hunger for Kindred above Blood Potency 2
No Resonance or Dyscrasia |
| Sip from human | 1 | Three turns | Includes licking wound closed |
| Maximum safe drink from human | 2 | One scene | |
| Harmful drink from human that risks death unless treated | 1-4 | One turn per Hunger slaked | Aggravated damage equals Hunger slaked;
Human rolls Strength + Stamina vs Difficulty equal to Hunger slaked to survive the blood loss |
| Human drained and killed | 5 | 5 turns | Only way to reach Hunger 0 (zero) |
The exact volume of blood required to slake a given amount of Hunger isn't specified anywhere – the following is thus conjecture, based purely on educated guesswork – but it could potentially be inferred to correlate roughly to varying degrees of real-life blood loss in humans; an average, healthy adult human would have around 10½ pints (5 liters) of blood in their system, and blood loss is commonly classified in percentage ranges of this total.
| Type | Amount | Hunger Slaked | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Non-Violent Feeding* | |||
| Sip from human | ~5-8% of total volume | 1 | Inferred from being half of the maximum safe drink from human |
| Typical blood donation | 8-10% of total volume | 1 | Inferred from the fact that a blood bag slakes 1 Hunger |
| Maximum safe drink from human
(Maximum endurable blood loss) |
10-15% of total volume | 2 | The most that can be safely drank from a human.
Skin may begin to look pale, and be slightly cool to the touch, at this point. |
| Violent Feeding | |||
| Class I Haemhorrage | up to 15% of total volume | 1 | Rough correlation of Hunger slaked to loss of blood in percentage ranges, with increasing degree of injury to life and health.
Death may still be preventable, but – depending on the severity of blood loss – may require very aggressive resuscitation. |
| Class II Haemhorrage | 15-30% of total volume | 2 | |
| Class III Haemhorrage | 30-40% of total volume | 3 | |
| Class IV Haemhorrage | >40% of total volume | 4 | |
| Human drained and killed | from ~50-60%, up to 100% of total volume | 5 | Death generally occurs when anywhere from half to two thirds of a person's total blood volume is drained.
While technically a Class IV haemhorrage, death is no longer preventable with mundane means at this point. |
*(Caveat: Usually; otherwise Non-Violent Feeding from mortals can still involve some, potentially violent, coercion.)
(Based on the above, one might assume that Kindred need not totally drain their victims to fully sate their hunger, and would gain no additional benefits from doing so, but it is not impossible for Kindred to completely drain mortals, as indicated by the existence of the Potence power Brutal Feed, which allows for such a draining to occur within a matter of seconds.
Also, while the first two classes of haemhorrage do slake less hunger, compared to the amount of blood lost, than the safe feeding methods which slake the same amount, it should be noted that in a violent feeding – except through use of Brutal Feed as mentioned above – Kindred would find it difficult to drink absolutely all of the blood: a lot of it would end up on the victim's clothes.)
Feeding On Other Kindred[]
Feeding on other Kindred is another matter, where the hunger sated by the drinker simply inflicts the same amount of hunger on the Kindred donor.
When feeding on another Kindred who is at least two levels of blood potency higher, the drinker slakes 2 hunger for every 1 inflicted on the donor, while feeding on someone who is at least two levels of blood potency lower does the opposite, slaking only 1 hunger for every 2 inflicted on the donor. Besides that, feeding directly from another Kindred of course also risks a blood bond.
For the act of draining another Kindred of not only their vitae, but their very essence, see Diablerie.
Feeding On Other Supernatural Beings[]
- Werewolves: The blood of werewolves is very potent, and allows a Kindred to slake twice the usual amount of hunger from a given feeding, and it is possible for two Kindred to completely slake their Hunger on a single Lupine; however, each point of Hunger slaked with werewolf blood increases the difficulty to resist frenzy by one.
- Even if the Kindred manages to keep from frenzying, they become paranoid and short-tempered as long as the blood is still in their system.
- It is possible to gain temporary Compulsions from feeding on particularly volatile werebeasts.
- Lupine blood mixes Animal and Choleric resonances, usually Intensely; Blood Alchemists value it for its high miscibility with other ingredients, adding two successes to any distillation roll for a formula containing it.
- Mages: No rule exists within the V5 core book for the effects of the blood of Magicians on Kindred, and no such rule appears to exist in the Mage 20th Edition core book either, or the book referenced as having more details on the Nightfolk, M20 Gods & Monsters (aka Gods, Monsters and Familiar Strangers).
- Given the apparent lack of a rule on the matter[more research needed], and the infinite possibilities inherent in Mage, it falls to Storyteller discretion whether a Kindred successfully forcing themselves upon a Mage to feed will be burned by magickal fire flowing through the Mage's veins, or some other effect, rather than slaking hunger with their blood.
- Additionally, for a friendly Mage, one with access to the right spheres may be able to turn water into blood wine – or even delicious whole blood – for a Kindred to drink.
- Changelings: No rule exists for the effects of Fae blood on Kindred in V5; in the Changeling 20th Edition rules, it is stated that Kindred suffer intense hallucinations when drinking fae blood.
References[]
- VTM: Vampire: The Masquerade Rulebook, p. 12, 25, 194
- VTM: Vampire: The Masquerade Second Edition, p. 27, 55
- VTM: Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition Corebook, p. 205-208
- VTM: Vampire: The Masquerade Companion, p. 62