Hunger System

Part appetite, part lust, and part addiction, in Vampire the Masquerade Fifth Edition, Hunger is the drive for vampires to feed, taking the place of every other drive, urge, and pleasure. Hunger calls to vampires constantly, whispering and screaming in equal measure of its need and desire for blood.
Mechanically, the Hunger trait is used to play out the drama of the vampire's struggle against their Beast by adding extra risk and difficulty to actions such as:

• Use of Disciplines and Skills
• Mending Superficial and Aggravated Damage
• Temporarily simulating the human condition with Blush of Life

Hunger Mechanic

Hunger is measured in levels ranging from 0 to 5.
A vampire with a Hunger of 0 is sated, satisfied, and not currently under the sway of their Beast.
A vampire with a Hunger of 5 is ravenous and can barely think of anything except their next drink and are at critical risk of Frenzy.

Hunger Dice

For each level of Hunger affecting a vampire character, they gain one Hunger die. Hunger dice are ten-sided, but should be differently coloured than the regular dice used. When a player builds a dice pool for a vampire character, they exchange regular dice from that pool for Hunger dice on a one-for-one basis. Hunger dice function as regular dice in tests and contests, scoring successes on a 6 or higher.

• Characters never include Hunger dice in Rouse Checks, Willpower, or Humanity dice pools
• If the dice pool for the roll is lower than the character's Hunger, the player must roll a number of Hunger dice equal to the dice pool.
• Rolling a 10 or 1 on a Hunger die carries additional consequences
• Hunger dice cannot be re-rolled using Willpower

Consequences of Hunger

A pool containing Hunger dice can incur unintended effects such as:

Messy Critical

A critical win in which one or more 10s appear on a Hunger die is a Messy Critical. The character succeeds as in a regular critical - but it was the Beast's win, perhaps, not the character's. This can have a variety of results, including but not limited to:

• Acts causing Humanity Stains
• Masquerade Breaches
• Compulsions

Bestial Failure

A Bestial Failure occurs when the player rolls a 1 on one or more Hunger die in addition to failing a test. Story-wise, either the character failed because their Beast manifested inopportunely or excessively, or the character's failure angered their Beast into a reprisal. Any of the consequences of a Messy Critical or simply sustaining aggravated damage are possible depending on the scene's circumstances.

Rousing the Blood

Every time a vampire rises each sunset, calls upon their Disciplines, or mends their damaged body, they risk increasing their Hunger by having to perform a Rouse Check. To make a Rouse Check, the player rolls a single die. On a success, the vampire's Hunger remains unchanged, but on a failure, the vampire gains a point of Hunger, and thus, one more Hunger die for their dice pool.

Feeding

In order to keep Hunger in check, Kindred have to feed, usually drinking the blood of mortals, but some prefer that of animals or other Kindred (see Predator Types). Drinking blood reduces a vampire's Hunger by a fixed amount. Only draining a mortal (or a supernatural creature) of blood, thereby killing them, can reduce Hunger to 0.