Monday, April 7, 2014

Vampire LARP: Blood-based Mini Games, Part 2

In my game, each vampire gets one roll prior to each session to determine howmuch blood they have gathered for it.  The city is now a dangerous place so it's not so easy to spend as many hours cruising and feeding without risk so one can't assume one will be arriving full at every gathering.  Any character may spend an additional downtime hunting.

Since you don't have to spend experience points on your hunting methods (except to boost relevant traits), it's well worth your time to invest in it with effort, downtimes or subtle manipulations at court to convince others to shift the economic landscape for you.  After all, if a charitable organisation gets most of the homeless off the streets then you're out of luck if they're your main prey, while if you demolish a large chunk of slum housing to put up a few larger single family dwellings OR shut down the psychiatric facilities and care homes then you'll have more food on the streets.

If too many people hit the same targets, then there's likely to be myths (campers have been more susceptible to flu lately) and also a reduction in targets (campers feel too uneasy to camp anymore).  There's also an increased risk that two vampires will hit the same target.  After all, even if there are 1000 campers in the Adelaide Hills in a single week there's a good chance that only 10 - 20 of them are in a convenient spot at any one time.  Problems can also arise if a vampire significantly fails their feeding check (roll a 1 on a d10 followed by another 1 on the reroll) which will generate either a personal plot (even on the dice) or a regular plot affecting the whole court (odds on the dice).

One of the questions asked of each player when they arrive is their preferred prey, area and hunting style and this default will be used until I'm informed of a change in tactics.  If too many vampires are attacking the same sort of people, areas, or (in some instances) using the same techniques, they'll generally all get a warning and will need to determine whether they themselves will change tactic or whether they'll force another to do so. 

 Techniques.

The first four of the below feeding techniques can be used on humans or animals (replace persuasion with animal ken and streetwise with survival) while the last option may only be used on animals.  The technique determines the dice roll used.
  • Ambushing a victim (stealth, grapple, risk of discovery)
  • Attacking a victim (brawl, weaponry, risk of victim's death)
  • Convincing a victim to go with you to a bad location (persuasion, streetwise, risk of later retaliation)
  • Feeding off an unconscious / sleeping victim (larceny, stealth, risk of discovery)
  • Seducing a victim (empathy, socialize, risk of victim seeking you out)
  • Majesty blasting a victim (Majesty, risk of victim obsessing over you)
  • Dominating a victim (Dominate, risk of victim noticing memory gaps)
  • Paying a victim, i.e. prostitute (resources, persuasion, risk of gaining a reputation)
  • Animalism to call / subdue enough animals (Animalism, risk of myth making)
Prey

Some prey are easier to feed on than others, generally because they are either more numerous (allowing a single Kindred to reach more prey during the week) or because they are particularly vulnerable (allowing a single Kindred to feed more during the week).  The vampires' activities will affect the benefits and penalties involved, often in unexpected ways.  The precise bonuses / penalties will not be released to a player unless their character makes it their Lesser Work to study the herd.  The techniques chosen will also impact the bonus or penalty.  It is, after all, easier to attack an unsuspecting tourist than a petty criminal.  Thus only the first option will have an example.  The others will be listed simply as the general opinion of difficulty.  Naturally certain
  • Homeless (+4) (approx. 500 highly vulnerable and accessible people)
  • Intoxicated
  • Campers
  • Tourists
  • Patients
  • Lonely Singles
  • Petty Criminals
  • Prostitutes
  • Junkies
  • Nightshift Workers
  • Opportunistic
  • Livestock
  • Pests

Location

Certain areas include a feeding bonus which actually provide extra blood earned per roll as though they had gained an automatic success.  These bonuses are divided by the number of vampires hunting there.  Thus, if the CBD rack has +6 blood attached to it and five people feed there than the first vampire to feed there gains 2 blood while the others gain 1 extra blood apiece.  Initiative, in this case, is determined by a Wits + Streetwise roll.  These areas include (with numbers being examples rather than what I will necessarily be using):
  • CBD Rack (9) +3 in late February / March
  • Glenelg / Brighton Rack (6) +3 in warmer months
  • Livestock Farms (6)
  • Abattoirs (5)
  • Burgeoning Port Adelaide Red Light District (4)
  • The Parade (2)
  • Other range of pubs (2)
  • Late night cafes, restaurants and coffee houses (2)
  • Slum housing (2)
  • Medical Facilities (2)
  • Warehouse districts (1)
  • Adelaide Hills (1)
  • Office Car Parks (1)
  • Beaches (0) +2 in warmer months
Bear in mind this is all just examples as I'll doubtless alter them as I get closer to the game creation time.

2 comments:

  1. Interesting setup. It seems like it should encourage some creativity in finding safe reliable ways to get blood supplies. As well as demolishing slums, characters could take the opposite approach and try to create bits of geography that make feeding safer (lots of cover, less street lighting?) or build facilities that'll attract victims for them. Ooh, meditation centre would be good - nice cover for memory lapses and no nasty contaminants like with bars.

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    Replies
    1. Those kinds of facilities work well for Herd, actually, as they provide a steady supply of blood with minimal fuss.

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