Asphyx
Right at the very moment of his Embrace, Owen Thomas Jones internalized the cocktail of poisonous gases — phosgene, chlorine, mustard gas — that may or may not have killed him. They infused his blood and body, and by exerting his will, he found that he could create the symptoms caused by the gas in the living, and eventually become the gas itself.
The powers of Asphyx are quite potent, but have one drawback: they have no direct effect on the Kindred. The only real difference that Asphyx makes to a vampire is that the blood of a human victim of Asphyx tastes absolutely vile (unless the consuming vampire is a Jones, in which case it tastes wonderful), even though it is no less nutritious.
The Asphyx Toxin
The effects of the second to fifth dot Asphyx powers depend on it being a supernatural poison (rules for poisons can be found on p. 180 of the World of Darkness Rulebook). As a toxin, the Asphyx poison causes lethal damage and has a Toxicity of: Dots in Asphyx + Blood Potency.
Characters who come into contact with the poison can roll to escape its effects with a reflexive roll of Stamina + Resolve - Toxicity. If the victim’s player rolls one or more successes, the victim suffers no damage.
If she fails, she suffers levels of lethal damage equal to the Toxicity of the vampire’s poison.
The poison, like mustard gas, works on contact with skin: protective clothing offers victims a bonus to dice pools of +1 (a simple breath mask of the kind worn by urban cyclists, a wet rag pressed to the mouth) to +5 (a full hazmat suit).
A Brother can gain Vitae from victims of Asphyx poison, whether it was his own efforts or someone else’s that caused the poisoning.
Other Supernatural Beings
Asphyx works on all living flesh, which means that while it doesn’t work on vampires (nor does it affect zombies or any other undead beings that a Jones might meet), it is quite effective on the living supernatural creatures that inhabit the World of Darkness.
It being a supernatural poison, however, other notquite-human creatures get to add their unique supernatural traits when resisting Asphyx: werewolves add Primal-Urge to dice pools to resist, mages use Gnosis, Prometheans use Azoth and changelings use Wyrd. Other resistance to poison that a character might have still counts (for example, all Prometheans benefit from a +4 on dice pools to resist poison).
The powers of Asphyx are quite potent, but have one drawback: they have no direct effect on the Kindred. The only real difference that Asphyx makes to a vampire is that the blood of a human victim of Asphyx tastes absolutely vile (unless the consuming vampire is a Jones, in which case it tastes wonderful), even though it is no less nutritious.
The Asphyx Toxin
The effects of the second to fifth dot Asphyx powers depend on it being a supernatural poison (rules for poisons can be found on p. 180 of the World of Darkness Rulebook). As a toxin, the Asphyx poison causes lethal damage and has a Toxicity of: Dots in Asphyx + Blood Potency.
Characters who come into contact with the poison can roll to escape its effects with a reflexive roll of Stamina + Resolve - Toxicity. If the victim’s player rolls one or more successes, the victim suffers no damage.
If she fails, she suffers levels of lethal damage equal to the Toxicity of the vampire’s poison.
The poison, like mustard gas, works on contact with skin: protective clothing offers victims a bonus to dice pools of +1 (a simple breath mask of the kind worn by urban cyclists, a wet rag pressed to the mouth) to +5 (a full hazmat suit).
A Brother can gain Vitae from victims of Asphyx poison, whether it was his own efforts or someone else’s that caused the poisoning.
Other Supernatural Beings
Asphyx works on all living flesh, which means that while it doesn’t work on vampires (nor does it affect zombies or any other undead beings that a Jones might meet), it is quite effective on the living supernatural creatures that inhabit the World of Darkness.
It being a supernatural poison, however, other notquite-human creatures get to add their unique supernatural traits when resisting Asphyx: werewolves add Primal-Urge to dice pools to resist, mages use Gnosis, Prometheans use Azoth and changelings use Wyrd. Other resistance to poison that a character might have still counts (for example, all Prometheans benefit from a +4 on dice pools to resist poison).
Related Ethnicities