Frenzy, Wassail, and Rötschreck

Vampire - The Requiem

Vampires work hard to hide the Beast Within. The politics of The Invictus and Carthians, the mysticism of The Ordo Dracul, Lancea Sanctum and the Circle of the Crone, even the bravado of the unbound — all are masks that vampires wear to hide the rage and bloodlust of the Beast, most of all from themselves. Hunger, wrath or fear, however, can weaken the Man enough that the Beast escapes restraint. Then a vampire becomes a monster and menace to every creature that crosses its path. The Kindred call this awful state frenzy.

Causes

Anger Frenzies

Here are some typical events that can spark an anger frenzy, with sample numbers of successes needed to resist them, or modifiers to the Resolve + Composure dice pool.

• Harassed by a panhandler | 2 successes
• Idiot scrapes your new car | 2 successes
• Insulted in public | 3 successes
• Hours of frustration and delay | 3 successes
• Reviled by someone you dislike | 5 successes
• Betrayed by a partner in a deal | 5 successes
• Shot by a mugger | 5 successes
• Loved one in danger | 5 successes
• Betrayed by someone you love | 7 successes
• Lose everything you own | 7 successes
• Loved one slain | 10 successes
• Reviled and humiliated by someone you love | 10 successes
• Provocation aligns with your Virtue or Vice | ±2 dice
• Provocation attacks your Virtue or Vice | ±2 dice
• Hungry | -1 die
• Starving | -2 dice

Virtues and Vices can work either way. Someone who gains strength and purpose from Justice, for instance, might feel extra anger at some crime that she cannot correct, but she could resist the Beast more effectively when someone takes her to task and she knows that person is in the right. Someone beset by Pride might have extra trouble dealing with humiliation, but he could make an extra effort not to embarrass himself in other cases. The Storyteller decides when a Virtue or Vice can influence the difficulty of the Resolve + Composure roll.
Kindred also find it harder to resist the Beast when hunger adds to rage. A hungry character, defined as one who has no more than four Vitae in her system, suffers a -1 die penalty to Resolve + Composure rolls. A starving character, defined as having only one or no Vitae left, suffers a -2 penalty. These penalties are not cumulative with each other. You do not suffer a -3 dice penalty for being both starving and hungry.

Hunger Frenzies

Wassail can occur whenever a character feels hungry and encounters blood. Hunger frenzies are most dangerous when a character actually feeds. Kindred who care about their vessels adopt various strategies to reduce the danger to their loved ones, such as never letting themselves become too hungry, or having a favored vessel drain blood into a bowl instead of submitting to the Kiss. Few modifiers apply to hunger frenzies, and loss of control is less likely once a character has imbibed blood. See the foregoing for the definition of “hungry” and “starving” for vampires.

• Sight or smell of blood (when hungry) | 2 successes
• First taste of blood (when hungry) | 3 successes
• Sight or smell of blood (when starving) | 4 successes
• First taste of blood (when starving) | 5 successes
• Has tasted vampire blood before | -1 die
• Hungry | -1 die
• Starving | -2 dice
• Addicted to vampire blood | -2 dice

Fear Frenzies

In some ways, the undead have less to fear than mortals do. Vampires are hard to kill, and they can hope to make up for any minor loss, given time. Injuries are also more likely to anger a Kindred than frighten him.
Sunlight and fire, however, provoke a soul-deep terror among the Kindred. The Beast knows that these forces can cause its destruction. It instinctively flees sunlight and fire in a blind panic. While in Rötschreck, a vampire wants to do nothing but run away and hide, and she lashes out at anyone in her way. If a character cannot escape the cause of her fear frenzy, she might gain a derangement from excess terror.
Exposure to small amounts of sunlight or fire, at a safe distance or under the character’s control, hardly ever provokes Rötschreck. A vampire might step away from a person lighting a cigarette, and she might prefer to stand well back from a screened-in fire in a fireplace, but she doesn’t panic. Nor does a TV or movie image of a sunny day rouse her Beast… much. If someone jabs a lit cigarette at the character or a flashbulb goes off in her face, however, it might be a different matter.
Nothing about a character’s personality has much effect on resisting Rötschreck. It’s the quantity of fire or sunlight, or the degree of control, that makes resisting a fear frenzy more or less difficult.

• Lighting a cigarette | 1 success
• Sight of a torch | 2 successes
• Flashbulb in the face | 3 successes
• Bonfire | 4 successes
• Burning building | 5 successes
• Obscured sunlight | 7 successes
• Direct sunlight | 10 successes
• Fire/sunlight at a safe distance | +2 dice
• Surprised by fire/light | -1 die
• Surrounded by fire/light, but not immediately harmed | -1 die
• Burned by fire/sunlight |-3 dice

Symptoms

The Nature of Frenzy

During frenzy, a vampire no longer acts according to any rational plan. The Beast doesn’t think. It acts based on raw instinct, with no thought for the future or memory of the past. The Kindred no longer recognizes friends, foes or family. Any creature with blood in its veins is reduced to obstacle or prey. While in frenzy, hungry vampires try to feed without restraint from whoever is nearest. Angry vampires do anything possible to destroy the cause of their anger. Frightened vampires flee the source of their fear and kill anyone who gets in the way. They care nothing for the consequences of their actions, only for the immediate satisfaction of a primal drive.
When the Kindred refer to “frenzy,” without any qualifier, they usually mean an outburst caused by anger. Kindred give special names to frenzies caused by hunger and fear. The former, they call Wassail; the latter, Rötschreck. Young Kindred who think it’s pretentious to assign fancy names to ugly rampages simply speak of “hunger frenzy” and “fear frenzy.”
All these forms of frenzy have certain aspects in common. A vampire who succumbs to the Beast no longer pays attention to wound penalties, except perhaps to rage even more fiercely. Injuries that would leave a sane vampire crawling on the ground don’t bother a frenzying vampire a bit — the Kindred keeps fighting until he is forced into Torpor or is destroyed. The vampire also becomes resistant to mental influences such as Dominate and Majesty. A frenzying Kindred routinely pushes his physical abilities to the limit, performing extraordinary feats of strength, agility and toughness. Kindred can employ their Disciplines while in frenzy, but only for the most rudimentary ends. For instance, a vampire can grow Claws of the Wild to attack prey, or use Majesty to drive people away who interfere with her flight, but she cannot command anyone using Dominate because that Discipline requires speech and a focused mind.
A vampire can slide from some kinds of frenzy to others. Yet, some forms of frenzy protect the vampire from others. Hunger frenzy is the weakest. A Wassailing vampire can be driven into a rage frenzy if he is kept from his prey, or a sufficient threat can drive him into Rötschreck. Self-preservation takes precedence over hunger, but sheer rage can overpower self-preservation if someone fights too hard to stop a fleeing vampire. While in a rage frenzy, a Kindred becomes immune to Rötschreck, but she can slide into a hunger frenzy as she guzzles the blood of a victim.

Systems for Frenzy

The Storyteller decides when a character runs the risk of frenzy. Anger can cause frenzy, but not every moment of irritation stirs the Beast. Hunger provokes the Beast, but most of the time characters can feed without going berserk and killing their vessels. Rötschreck — the “Red Fear” — usually occurs only when Kindred face the two forces most able to destroy them, fire and sunlight. Other sources of fear seldom provoke frenzy, though it can happen, as with meeting a new vampire of higher Blood Potency for the first time. These guidelines are vague because the relative strength of Man and Beast can fluctuate for many reasons. One time, a character might shrug off an extreme provocation. Another time, the Kindred might feel a weight of accumulated frustration or Anxiety and lose control over a small matter. We offer examples of circumstances that can trigger frenzies, and how hard they might be to resist, but the Storyteller has final say.
In rules terms, frenzy has the following effects on a character:

• A frenzying vampire ignores wound penalties to dice pools, until wounds become severe enough to render the character torpid.
• All attempts to influence the frenzying character’s mind, by Dominate, Majesty or other means, take place at a -2 dice penalty, while rolls for the character to resist or throw off mental influence receive a +2 dice bonus.
• Of course, a frenzying character cannot perform any action that requires much thought.
• The character receives one extra die for any Physical Attribute roll. The Beast goes all-out, all the time, and its blinding rage shuts out all distractions and doubts.

Sequela

Riding the Wave

Under some circumstances, characters might want to frenzy on purpose. For all the horror of what a character might do in frenzy, succumbing to the Beast carries power. The great difficulty lies in controlling one’s actions so that the Beast achieves something useful. Young Kindred call such a temporary, negotiated surrender to the Beast riding the wave. Older Kindred call it damnable foolishness.
If a character wants to ride the wave, the player makes Resolve + Composure rolls and tries to accumulate successes as an extended action, just like fighting back frenzy. In this case, however, the vampire tries to goad the Beast while supplying it with a target of the Man’s choice. The player also expends a Willpower point for trying to direct the frenzy in advance. Riding the wave always requires accumulating at least five successes. The Storyteller may ask for more, or modify the Resolve + Composure rolls depending on how well the desired task accords with the character’s personality or existing emotions. For instance, a character probably has little trouble deliberately frenzying when he faces the Lupine that murdered two of his Kindred Allies, his virtue is Justice, and his vice is Wrath. On the other hand, frenzying so he might have a better chance to climb up a building almost certainly doesn’t work. If the player fails one of the Resolve + Composure rolls, the character falls into an undirected frenzy.
Riding the wave allows a character to end the frenzy at the point of his choice, rather than suffering its passions until the Beast rages itself to exhaustion. Note that if a character riding the wave faces other stimuli that might cause a frenzy, he must still deal with those stimuli as normal after ending the intended frenzy, quite possibly frenzying again.
A character who tries to ride the wave multiple times in a single night suffers a cumulative -1 penalty to Resolve + Composure dice pools for each time after the first time that he attempts to direct frenzy (regardless of whether or not he was successful at those attempts).
Example: Loki faces two unbound Kindred who taunt him for being the Prince’s lapdog. He feels the turmoil of frenzy deep inside him, but he knows that he can’t lose himself completely to the Beast. Loki decides to ride the wave, teaching these punks a lesson but not wanting to relinquish control utterly. His player spends a Willpower point and makes a Resolve + Composure roll, gaining two successes. The next turn, Loki’s player rolls again as the jeers of the unbound continue, this time accumulating three successes for a total of five. Loki directs his rage toward The Unaligned Kindred, fighting like a Biblical terror and suffering no wound penalties for the damage they inflict on him and gaining an extra die to his attacks. After he sends them fleeing in bloody fear, he coaxes the Beast into calmness, rather than allowing it to continue unabated until it exhausts itself.

Hosts & Carriers

Roleplaying Frenzy

A frenzied character ignores all morals or loyalties in her blind compulsion to destroy her enemy, slake her thirst or escape sunlight or fire. She attacks friends, family members, lovers and even — most to the point — other players’ characters if they get in her way. For instance, a vampire raging in anger frenzy prefers to attack the person who rouses her ire, but she just as readily tries to kill any friends if the enemy is not available as a target for some reason. The character probably feels utter horror when she emerges from her frenzy to find that she slaughtered her own mother, but the Beast does not know or care about such things. Atrocities committed during frenzy often lead to degeneration checks (p. 182) as a character tries to deal with remorse. Repeated frenzies can certainly grind down a vampire’s Humanity.
Some players might not want to roleplay frenzy, but the Beast is part of being a vampire. Storytellers should encourage players to portray the frenzy in its full, brutal horror. If they cannot, the Storyteller should take control of a character and decide on her actions until the frenzy ends.
If a player wants, he can spend a Willpower point for a character in the throes of frenzy. Doing so permits the player to control one of the character’s actions for one turn. In this way, a frenzying vampire might manage to give her soon-to-be victim a chance to run away, or a person who gave offense a chance to make a hasty apology. This moment of control does not actually avert the frenzy, but the changing circumstances might redirect the focus of the character’s rage. For instance, the frenzying character might throw the furniture around instead of ripping apart the mortal whose injudicious word uncorked several nights of building frustration. If a player ever has a character perform an action that the Storyteller thinks just isn’t possible or appropriate for a frenzying character, the Storyteller can rule that the character expended a Willpower point to take that action.
The Storyteller decides how long a frenzy lasts. One scene is usually long enough, but keep in mind that a scene is a very flexible unit of time. A character trapped alone, or running wildly through empty streets, might not calm down for hours. A character who meant to take “just a sip” from her boyfriend and drank him dry instead might recover just in time to hear his death-rattle… and have a chance to Embrace him instead of letting him die a true death. Reducing a Kindred to Torpor always ends frenzy.

Prevention

Resisting Frenzy

Resisting frenzy is an extended action. Whatever the cause of frenzy, Kindred may try to resist the Beast and maintain control. When a character is on the verge of frenzy, the player rolls Resolve + Composure. If any successes are achieved, the character resists the frenzy for one turn per success. At the end of those turns, the player rolls again in hopes of winning a few turns more of self-control for the character. If the player can accumulate a certain number of successes, the Beast subsides and the character completely avoids the frenzy. If any of the rolls fail, however, the character goes berserk and spends the rest of the scene in frenzy. If the player suffers a dramatic failure on a roll, the character stays in frenzy for as long as the Storyteller thinks is appropriate. The character also gains a derangement related to whatever caused the frenzy (see p. 186).
The greater the provocation to the character, the more successes the player must accumulate. Five successes suffice for most frenzies. Higher numbers represent the most extreme humiliation or peril to the vampire’s unlife. The Storyteller may also impose bonuses or penalties to Resolve + Composure dice pools to reflect a trigger that’s especially easy or hard to resist.
The rule doesn’t change any, but it bears repeating: A Willpower point earns a character three extra dice on the roll to resist frenzy, as it does with most other rolls.

Type

Supernatural