Optional Rule: The Thrill and Reluctance
Every experience that revolves around Vitae is a huge rush for the ghoul. While the player is marking down Health points lost to feed her character’s Regnant, the ghoul is lost deep in the heady, orgasmic pleasure of the Kiss. When the player refills the Vitae pool on her character sheet, the ghoul feels her master filling her body and soul. When the player marks off Vitae to power a Discipline, enhance an Attribute or heal a wound, the ghoul is enwrapped in an exquisite double-bind. Not only is the character caught up in the intensity of the power of Vitae, but she weeps for the loss of having her master’s soul entwined with hers.
There are advantages and disadvantages to these strong feelings, and this optional rule codifies some of them in concrete game-mechanic terms. One advantage is that when a ghoul is full of Vitae to her Stamina maximum, she ignores two dice of wound penalties. (That is, she suffers wound penalties only when she has damage marked in her last Health box, and then only a – 1.) The pleasure, fullness and strength of purpose afforded by such a large proportion of Vitae are greater than all but the worst of pain. One bonus die can also be applied to any roll to resist or withstand Interrogation, intimidation, Fast-Talk or Seduction that is intended to harm the Regnant through the ghoul. If, for instance, some enemy is trying to torture the location of her Regnant’s Haven out of the ghoul, the ghoul’s player adds a +1 bonus to the Stamina + Resolve roll she makes to resist those efforts. (See p. 81 of the World of Darkness Rulebook for full rules on resisting Interrogation and torture.) The bonus remains only for as long as the ghoul does not spend any Vitae, though. That ghoul might even die for refusing to spend any Vitae to heal her wounds, enhance her Stamina or activate her Resilience, but she can at least die satisfied that she never betrayed her master.
The other edge of the sword is that not only does the ghoul lose these bonuses when she spends Vitae, but it takes a concerted act of will to expend the very last bit of it. If a ghoul’s player wishes to spend her character’s last Vitae, she must make a Resolve roll. A –1 penalty for each week the ghoul has gone without drinking any new Vitae applies to this roll, even if the ghoul has been walking around for several weeks prior completely full. Psychologically speaking, the length of time since the last drink is what matters, as the lingering uncertainty about when the next draught might come (if ever…) undermines the ghoul’s resolve.
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The ghoul is too afraid of losing everything, and cannot use up the last bit of her connection to her regnant. The last bit of Vitae may not be expended until after the ghoul gets another drink (at least one more full Vitae). The ghoul’s action for this turn is also wasted while she debates internally about the situation.
Failure: The ghoul cannot bring herself to expend the Vitae this turn, thus wasting her action for the turn with the internal struggle.
Success: The Vitae may be expended, though making the decision to do so takes up the characters action for the turn, due to the monumental will needed to fight the addictive feeling. The effect she was going for becomes active at the beginning of the following turn.
Exceptional Success: The Vitae may be expended as a reflexive action as normal. This especially stable ghoul is able to trust her master implicitly, probably believing that it will be easy to recoup her losses.
Once the last drop of Vitae is expended, the ghoul is in for a month of hell if she can’t trust or convince her regnant to provide more Vitae soon. For one thing, most ghoul characters are already completely addicted to their regnant’s precious blood. Ghouls beholden to this optional rule undergo an especially brutal withdrawal during the month that they slowly return to being mere mortals. Members of ghoul families don’t have it easy here, either. While they don’t lose their ghoul-family potential, they do suffer the agony of withdrawal. In fact, it lasts longer for them. Since the state of being a ghoul is so geared toward having the Vitae inside, not having it hurts that much worse. Assess a cumulative –1 penalty to all of a player’s rolls for each week that her ghoul has had no Vitae in her system. At the end of one month, when a regular ghoul turns back into a normal mortal again, these penalties disappear at the rate of one per day (provided the ghoul is young enough to survive that long afterward). A ghoul from a family of ghouls is in even worse shape. The penalties disappear at the rate of one per week.
This rule is meant to apply in total — both the good and the bad — when it’s in play, but since it’s optional to begin with, you could divide it into two separate rules and use either one. (Players of characters who have a Stamina of only 1 — and, therefore, only one Vitae between exceptional endurance and potentially crippling indecision — might especially appreciate that.) Using only the rule’s negative aspect hammers home the unceasing dependency that pervades a ghoul’s every waking moment. Focusing primarily on the positive and applying only that aspect highlights the idea that not every part of being a ghoul is so crushingly dreadful.
There are advantages and disadvantages to these strong feelings, and this optional rule codifies some of them in concrete game-mechanic terms. One advantage is that when a ghoul is full of Vitae to her Stamina maximum, she ignores two dice of wound penalties. (That is, she suffers wound penalties only when she has damage marked in her last Health box, and then only a – 1.) The pleasure, fullness and strength of purpose afforded by such a large proportion of Vitae are greater than all but the worst of pain. One bonus die can also be applied to any roll to resist or withstand Interrogation, intimidation, Fast-Talk or Seduction that is intended to harm the Regnant through the ghoul. If, for instance, some enemy is trying to torture the location of her Regnant’s Haven out of the ghoul, the ghoul’s player adds a +1 bonus to the Stamina + Resolve roll she makes to resist those efforts. (See p. 81 of the World of Darkness Rulebook for full rules on resisting Interrogation and torture.) The bonus remains only for as long as the ghoul does not spend any Vitae, though. That ghoul might even die for refusing to spend any Vitae to heal her wounds, enhance her Stamina or activate her Resilience, but she can at least die satisfied that she never betrayed her master.
The other edge of the sword is that not only does the ghoul lose these bonuses when she spends Vitae, but it takes a concerted act of will to expend the very last bit of it. If a ghoul’s player wishes to spend her character’s last Vitae, she must make a Resolve roll. A –1 penalty for each week the ghoul has gone without drinking any new Vitae applies to this roll, even if the ghoul has been walking around for several weeks prior completely full. Psychologically speaking, the length of time since the last drink is what matters, as the lingering uncertainty about when the next draught might come (if ever…) undermines the ghoul’s resolve.
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The ghoul is too afraid of losing everything, and cannot use up the last bit of her connection to her regnant. The last bit of Vitae may not be expended until after the ghoul gets another drink (at least one more full Vitae). The ghoul’s action for this turn is also wasted while she debates internally about the situation.
Failure: The ghoul cannot bring herself to expend the Vitae this turn, thus wasting her action for the turn with the internal struggle.
Success: The Vitae may be expended, though making the decision to do so takes up the characters action for the turn, due to the monumental will needed to fight the addictive feeling. The effect she was going for becomes active at the beginning of the following turn.
Exceptional Success: The Vitae may be expended as a reflexive action as normal. This especially stable ghoul is able to trust her master implicitly, probably believing that it will be easy to recoup her losses.
Once the last drop of Vitae is expended, the ghoul is in for a month of hell if she can’t trust or convince her regnant to provide more Vitae soon. For one thing, most ghoul characters are already completely addicted to their regnant’s precious blood. Ghouls beholden to this optional rule undergo an especially brutal withdrawal during the month that they slowly return to being mere mortals. Members of ghoul families don’t have it easy here, either. While they don’t lose their ghoul-family potential, they do suffer the agony of withdrawal. In fact, it lasts longer for them. Since the state of being a ghoul is so geared toward having the Vitae inside, not having it hurts that much worse. Assess a cumulative –1 penalty to all of a player’s rolls for each week that her ghoul has had no Vitae in her system. At the end of one month, when a regular ghoul turns back into a normal mortal again, these penalties disappear at the rate of one per day (provided the ghoul is young enough to survive that long afterward). A ghoul from a family of ghouls is in even worse shape. The penalties disappear at the rate of one per week.
This rule is meant to apply in total — both the good and the bad — when it’s in play, but since it’s optional to begin with, you could divide it into two separate rules and use either one. (Players of characters who have a Stamina of only 1 — and, therefore, only one Vitae between exceptional endurance and potentially crippling indecision — might especially appreciate that.) Using only the rule’s negative aspect hammers home the unceasing dependency that pervades a ghoul’s every waking moment. Focusing primarily on the positive and applying only that aspect highlights the idea that not every part of being a ghoul is so crushingly dreadful.