Written by Kris Newton Artists

CREDITS

Credits

“Devoured” (page 4) is by Rosaria Battiloro, © 2009-2013. “Sexo, Monstruos, y Lucha Libre” (page 115) and “Undead Luchador 2” (page 116) by Héctor Bustamante are owned by ESPEKTRO ENTERTAINMENT, © 2013. ESPEKTRO ENTERTAINMENT owns the trademarks portrayed therein. Visit them at www.espektro.com. Illustration on page 101 by Javier García-Miranda. “In the Moonlight” (cover and page 105) is by Анна Мясникова, © 2011-2013.

Graphic Design & Layout Ruben Smith-Zempel

Playtesters Hahn Ackles and his players, Sheila Andrews, Brittany Battin, Mariah Bowline, Katrina Ehrnman, Kane Hawk, Rochelle Klepper, Rachel Kooy, Kevin Matlock, Sarah Simonson, and Liana Zegart

Godmother Katrina Ehrnman Game rules and text are copyright Kris Newton, © 2013. This game’s rules and text (but not its illustrations, layout, and graphic design elements) are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by-sa/3.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 444 Castro Street, Suite 900, Mountain View, California, 94041, USA. The PDF edition of Feed is available free from Whistlepunk Games, and may be freely distributed. Feed and the Feed logo are tradmarks of Whistlepunk Games.

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Table of Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface................................................................. 5 Overview for the Uncertain............................... 7 Getting Started................................................... 9 Creating a Story Profile..............................................9 Creating a Strain........................................................ 12 What Is a Strain?........................................................................ 13 Developing a Strain................................................................... 13

Character Generation.............................................. 30 Character Pitch......................................................................... 30 The 16 Questions...................................................................... 30

Character Degeneration.......................................... 36 The First Taste........................................................................... 36 Vampiric Traits.......................................................................... 36

Finishing Touches......................................................37

Rules................................................................... 38 Traits and Basic Resolution.....................................38 Solo and Simple Rolls...............................................38 Solo Rolls.................................................................................... 38 Simple Rolls...............................................................................40

Conflicts..................................................................... 44 Trait Damage............................................................ 46 Recovering from Trait Damage............................................. 47 Injury, Disability, and Destruction......................................... 48

Equipment and Environment...................................52 Assigning a Dice Pool.............................................................. 52 Using Equipment...................................................................... 53

Writing and Adjudicating Traits..............................53 General Advice.......................................................................... 54 Adjudicating General Traits................................................... 56 Losing Traits Due to Story Events.........................................57 Trait Transparency.................................................................... 58 Writing Vampiric Traits........................................................... 59

Creating Non-Player Characters............................. 61 The PC Treatment...................................................................... 61 Generating Mini-Sheet NPCs.................................................. 61

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NPC Templates.......................................................................... 62 Creating High-Powered NPCs............................................... 63

The Addiction................................................... 65 The Hunt and the High............................................ 65 Hunger....................................................................... 66 Gaining Hunger......................................................................... 67 Temptation and Compulsion................................................. 68

The Session and the Story.............................. 72 Anatomy of a Session...............................................72 Anchoring................................................................................... 72 Compulsion.................................................................................74 Temptation and the Hunger Phase........................................74

Story Structure..........................................................77 Running One-shots and Mini-campaigns............................ 78 Advancement Awards............................................................. 80 The Cure..................................................................................... 85

Resources.......................................................... 87 A Brief Guide to Vampire Fiction...........................87

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Table of Contents

Classics....................................................................................... 88 Camp and Schlock................................................................... 92 Contemporary Literature........................................................ 96 Pop Culture.............................................................................. 100

Sample Strains.........................................................105 Danse Macabre.........................................................................105 Hush............................................................................................ 110 Los Satanicos............................................................................115 Nod..............................................................................................118

Glossary.................................................................... 127 Quick Reference Rules...........................................130 Making a Solo Roll...................................................................130 Making a Simple Roll..............................................................130 Running a Conflict....................................................................131 Setting Obstacle Dice Pools................................................. 132 Attempting and Resisting Compulsion.............................. 132 Running the Hunger Phase................................................... 133

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Preface

I suppose that most roleplaying games have origin stories, whether anyone ever hears them or not. Feed, as it happens, has two. The first one hearkens back to my earliest experiences with RPGs, experiences that I share with a generation of gamers. The second story is personal, visceral and fresh; it’s got nothing to with gaming except that it happened to gamers. The purpose of this preface, as I see it, is to explain why you should care about Feed. The best way to do that is to tell you these two stories.

PREFACE

Preface

Origin Story #1: A few years ago, I was sitting around watching something on TV -- The Shield, maybe, but it doesn’t matter -- when I had an idea for a vampire. Instantly, I dropped what I was doing and combed my tiny, messy apartment for a pencil. Gamers will recognize this irresistible call to character creation. An exciting character concept, like a jones for midnight pizza or a thumbtack in the ass, won’t let you sit still until you take care of it. So, I took care of it... or rather, I tried. Naturally, I reached for That Other Vampire Game. The version on my shelf is a quickstart booklet from 1997, which I still find to be the most evocative and exciting version of the rulebook. On this occasion, the booklet failed me. I struggled to get my idea onto a character sheet, but I found that the game itself was against me. My idea just didn’t fit the game’s definition of a vampire, and the more I tried to squeeze it in, the more dissatisfied I became with both the game and this compromised version of the character. I realized that to create the character I had envisioned, I would have to create my own vampire story–setting, history, supernatural mumbo-jumbo, the whole bit. But my creative urge didn’t click with the game I was holding. That frustration planted the seed of this game. My earliest roleplaying experiences were vampire games that inspired me with the possibility of writing my own story to place alongside Dracula or The Lost Boys. After many years of gaming experience, I felt able to write a game that would make good on those possibilities.

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Preface

PREFACE

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Origin Story #2: Several weeks later, I sat on a Greyhound bus bound for Davis, California, sketching out the Feed character sheet and writing the 16 Questions that would become the heart of character creation. I had been thinking a lot about who people are, what they value, and how they come to lose it. About a week earlier, my girlfriend, Katrina, and I had been struck by a drunk driver while crossing an intersection on foot. I was just fine after only a couple of days of aches and pains. Katrina’s much more serious injuries, however, required an airlift to the UC Davis Medical Center, where she lay in an ICU as I tinkered with Feed over the course of that seemingly-interminable bus ride. Eventually, I made it to Katrina’s side, where we chatted about Feed amid much more serious discussions concerning her injuries and her uncertain recovery. Katrina, a gamer who has suffered more than her share due to others’ addictions, was my adviser and my inspiration as I honed Feed’s mechanics to address addiction and loss head-on. I sharpened Feed into a game about human drama -- specifically, the drama of losing control, losing what you care about, losing your way in the darkness, and trying to figure out who you are as the sun rises. So, why should you care about Feed? Most importantly, you should care because it’s the game that gives you the keys to the vampire mythos. When you and your friends want to tell a vampire story together, you can open Feed and take your ideas all the way from concept to playable campaign without anybody telling you, “That’s not how vampires work.” Secondly, you should care because Feed, like a good vampire story, touches raw nerves. What do you do when you’re hurting people and you can’t stop? What do you do when you lose something or someone irreplaceable? What do you do when life changes you and you know you can never go back? If you want to tell the best kind of vampire story, the kind that evokes revulsion, temptation, or true horror, Feed won’t flinch before you do. -Kris Newton

Overview for the Uncertain

Even among those who do it every week, pen-and-paper roleplaying has a reputation as something strange and novel. Roleplaying can certainly feel unfamiliar to those who haven’t done it before. However, collaborative storytelling – like many a vampire – is older than it looks. One night during the stormy summer in 1816, a horror anthology called Tales of the Dead inspired Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley and Mary Shelley each to write a supernatural tale. Mary Shelley’s story, of course, became Frankenstein. Byron composed a mere fragment. Only later did Byron’s physician, John Polidori, rework that fragment into his novella “The Vampyre.” Polidori used Byron himself as the model for Lord Ruthven, the predatory aristocrat in whose footsteps Count Dracula would follow. When you play Feed, you’ll follow much the same pattern that created “The Vampyre,” but with even greater collaboration. First, you’ll meet with friends to write a Story Profile, a sketch of the story you want to tell. Like Byron and the Shelleys, you’ll take inspiration from other horror tales, from each other, and from your surroundings to create the seed of a story... then, like Byron, you’ll write only a fragment, a few lines that hint at a tale yet to come. Next, your group will create a Strain of vampirism that defines your approach to the mythos. Like Polidori, who adopted and altered folklore to create the modern vampire, you’ll retain what you like and change what you hate about today’s influential vampire stories, such as Dracula, the Vampire Chronicles and, yes, Twilight. Using the tools in this book, you’ll create a unique, collaborative vision of vampirism. Not every aspect of the process is collaborative. You’ll create a single character of your own to play in the upcoming story. Your Character Pitch will need approval from the whole group; however, the details of your character are up to you, and as the story unfolds, you’ll describe your own character’s actions. One player, designated as the gamemaster (or GM), will act as a narrator and director, guiding the overall story by introducing scenes and characters for the player’s characters (or “PCs”) to interact with. Over an evening’s play, the GM will narrate the story from scene to scene, describing people, places and events as necessary. Except for the GM, who plays all of the non-player characters (or NPCs) in the story, every player will describe the actions of his or her own character. If you want your character to drive across town or to start a conversation, you’ll just describe it, perhaps speaking in-character. When you describe an action

OVERVIEW

Overview

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Overview

OVERVIEW

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that might entail failure or conflict, the GM will call for dice rolls to determine the results. This element of randomness distinguishes roleplaying from other forms of story-telling. In Feed, the players are the authors of the story, yet none of them knows just what will happen next. The game may last for one session or for many. It may constitute a definite arc with a beginning and end, or it may stretch out into an indefinite serial (like a comic book or television series). In any case, your character will change as you play. Your character will grow in experience, but also suffer the temptations of Hunger, a destructive force that all of the players control cooperatively. Ultimately, your choices and the whims of the dice will determine your character’s fate. Roleplaying has its quirks, but it has much in common with other kinds of storytelling... and, like them, it’s a craft one truly learns only through practice. If you’re interested in Feed, the next step is to play.

Getting Started

Creating a Story Profile

A Story Profile is a vital tool that will help you and your group to define the story that you plan to tell. You might think of it as the “dust jacket blurb” or “trailer” of the campaign: a terse, intriguing summary that tells us what we’re in for and leaves us hungry for more. The Story Profile takes the form of a short paragraph, which you can write using either the Collaborative Method or the GM Method, as described below.

Collaborative Method In the Collaborative Method, the whole group sits down together to kick around ideas while one player takes notes. Once the group comes to a general agreement about what sort of game they’d like to play, the note-taker cobbles the key ideas into a single paragraph that the group can edit and expand until it’s just right. Collaborative writing can be time-consuming and difficult to schedule, but it’s fun in its own right, and it gets the whole group invested in the story. Most campaigns should use the Collaborative Method.

GETTING STARTED

Chapter One  Getting Started

GM Method In the GM Method, the GM writes the Story Profile independently, perhaps with input from prospective players, then gives it to the players as a campaign guide. The GM method is quick, easy, and tightly-focused, but it permits only one “author,” so it sometimes generates Story Profiles that don’t work well for the whole group. The GM Method works well for single-session games, for convention-style games, and for gaming groups that lack the time or interest to brainstorm a story from the ground up. A good Story Profile inspires character concepts, plot ideas and player interest, while simultaneously narrowing down the infinite possibilities of vampire literature to a single, manageable story. The Story Profile can address any aspect of the campaign to come, but it should at least answer three basic questions:

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Chapter One  Getting Started

CHAPTER ONE

1) Who are the protagonists? The Story Profile needn’t include any specific characters, but it should broadly define the group of vampires at the center of the story. Generally speaking, who are these people, and what connects them? After writing the Story Profile, the group should have a common understanding about which character concepts are appropriate for the story and which ones aren’t. For example, a Story Profile that calls for “a group of underachieving vampire buddies approaching their 100th birthdays” makes it very obvious that a newly-turned vampiric millionaire wouldn’t be an appropriate PC (though she might make a good antagonist).

2) Where does the story take place? Setting is more important to some stories than to others, but the Story Profile should always tell the players “where” and “when” so that they can create their characters (and plan the plot) accordingly. Make your setting as specific or general as it needs to be to serve your story. You may also wish to define how closely the game will stick to its primary locales.

3) What is gameplay like? What will the PCs do every session? Will the game’s scenes revolve around combat? Mystery-solving? Undead politics? Recovery from addiction? Don’t predefine the game’s course in stifling detail, but consider your story’s primary conflicts and decide what sorts of challenges will dominate it from session to session.

Examples: A cabal of scientists, medical professionals and patients has become infected with vampirism at a major research hospital. They seek to slow the spread of the “disease,” study its nature and find an effective treatment. All the while, they must hide their condition from their peers and the CDC. Pressures mounting from every direction will push the heterogeneous cabal to the breaking point. Will they band together to find a cure? Will they sink into self-serving corruption together? Or will their pact shatter as professional, personal and moral values pull them in different directions?

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On a cross-country road trip, four recent college graduates die in an auto accident and rise again. Without a clue as to their new natures and cravings, they struggle to survive their first vulnerable nights as vampires in an unfamiliar Midwestern town. Amid their primary challenges of acquiring blood and attempting to salvage their old lives, the graduates discover that they are not the first vampires to roam the night. Eventually, they come face to face with the freed servants and vengeful victims of a mysterious predecessor.

Vampires are few and far between, but their considerable power permits them to thrive undetected in the highest echelons of human society. Three experienced and powerful vampires who have known each other since the 18th century reunite in London after receiving separate death threats from an old enemy, the vampiric master of a bloodthirsty brood that they exterminated in 1901. The old friends agree to work together to find and eliminate their common enemy, despite some old and unresolved grievances. As they spill more and more blood, though, their opulent human identities begin to wear thin, and they risk losing their lives of luxury for unlives of raw violence.

GETTING STARTED

Chapter One  Getting Started

A band of savage vampires stalk the woods of 7th century Wessex, preying with cunning but little secrecy upon the same Saxon peoples from which they draw their numbers. The coming of the Christians, with their strangely powerful faith and their foreign ways, has interrupted the traditional pattern of raids and counter-strikes between the Saxons and their blood-drinking shadow tribe. In the midst of war, politics and a changing world, will Christians and heathens band together to wipe out the ancient vampiric lineage? Or will the vampiric shadow tribe break tradition to pick a side in the human battle for the future of Wessex?

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Chapter One  Getting Started

CHAPTER ONE

The Two Commandments

Feed has the flexibility to tell almost any vampire story, but it does make two hard-coded assumptions about what vampires are and how they operate. Before you go any further in planning a campaign, you should make sure that your idea, however unusual, at least meets these two criteria: 1. Vampires Feed Most vampires, of course, drink the blood of the living. If you want cannibal vampires, vampires that feed on psychic energy, or jokey vampires who need fresh vegetables or brains, Feed can do that, too. However, hunger and feeding are central to the game’s mechanics, so Feed won’t support vampires who don’t feed at all. 2. The Vampiric Nature Opposes Some Other Nature The traditional vampire is a human who rises from the dead in a monstrous form. The tension between the vampire’s human identity and his or her new, monstrous nature provides much of the interest of a vampire story. If you want to play a less traditional vampire, you can use Feed to create vampires who are aliens, demons, genetically-engineered monsters, etc.. In any case, though, the vampire’s power and addiction must oppose some other nature. The key dramatic conflict in Feed is between the vampire’s growing hunger and his or her other, non-vampiric values. Without the conflict, neither Feed’s rules nor its central themes will work.

Creating a Strain

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Once you know what sort of vampire story you’d like to tell, as articulated in your Story Profile, a natural question arises: What is vampirism in this story, and how does it work? To answer this question, you’ll create a Strain, a version of vampirism unique to your story. Like the Story Profile, this is a group creation that defines the campaign on a fundamental level. If the whole group is already together to create the Story Profile, it’s only natural to carry on to the Strain Template and decide together what sort of vampires you’d all like to play. You’ve got to have a Strain before you can finish character creation, so it makes sense to create a Strain first. In some cases, though, the group may wish to let the GM create the Strain alone. This is usually because the players don’t have time to create one collaboratively, aren’t interested in doing so, or want the nature of vampirism in the story to be a surprise to both themselves and their characters. In any of these cases, the GM may design the Strain before the players meet for the first time, after the brainstorming session to write the Story Pro-

file or even after character creation (though character degeneration, which comes right after character creation, requires a Strain). Just make sure to write the Story Profile before the Strain, so that you can design a version of vampirism that suits the story.

What Is a Strain?

A Strain is a type of vampirism, but it means much more to your story than that. Think of a Strain as a complete, unique reinterpretation of vampirism, like one that a novelist or screenwriter would invent for his or her story. While some stories feature multiple Strains, most have only one Strain that describes how vampirism works for every vampire in the fictional world. When you design a Strain, then, you’re defining the “vampire” in “vampire story.” Keep the Story Profile in mind as you do this. If you want vampires to hide in the shadows from humanity, to fear the sun, or to feed nightly without fear, write a Strain that provides the strengths and weaknesses to make it so. Consider in-game logic, too. If you find yourself wondering why these vampires haven’t died out already (or, conversely, why they haven’t taken over the world), adjust their abilities to answer your own question. Resist the temptation to use Strains as “classes” or “archetypes” in your game. If your story calls for a variety of vampire sub-groups, use subStrains instead (see the sidebar on Sub-Strains under Developing a Strain, below). You should only develop multiple Strains for stories that call for multiple, radically different species of vampire.

GETTING STARTED

Chapter One  Getting Started

Developing a Strain

Listed below (and on the Strain Template) you’ll find a number of Basic Elements. These Basic Elements address common aspects of vampire fiction like immortality, the undead condition, feeding methods, etc. The first step in developing a Strain is to choose or invent a feature for each of these Basic Elements. Each feature has a rating of Strong, Neutral or Weak. You can choose any balance of Strong to Weak Traits that suits your story, depending on whether you want vampirism to be more of a boon or a curse. However, if your setting has multiple Strains, they should all share the same balance. Below, you’ll find the Basic Elements, along with a list of sample features for each. You shouldn’t feel limited by these examples. In fact, in each category you’ll find one oddball example alongside the generic features to show how specific Strains can depart from “conventional” vampirism.

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Chapter One  Getting Started

CHAPTER ONE

Sub-Strains Some Strains contain sub-groups that share most of the Strain’s features, but with a few consistent differences to set them apart. To define such a group, called a sub-Strain, simply name it and write the name under Sub-Strains on the Strain Template. As you proceed through the following steps, defining the features of the Strain, make a note wherever a sub-Strain differs from the main Strain. Example: Vampires of Tokyo’s Kyonshi Strain are indistinguishable from humans, except for their tendency to dress in formal wear from the era of their death. They arise spontaneously when driven souls refuse to abandon their bodies upon death; Kyonshi vampires cannot pass on their condition in any manner. Kyonshi vampires who arise from traumatic or bizarre deaths, however, rise as part of the Teke sub-Strain. Teke vampires have all of the usual features of the Kyonshi Strain except that they all have an obviously monstrous appearance and can pass on a weakened form of vampirism to victims whom they kill using some distinctive method (usually one that emulates the Teke vampire’s own cause of death). The main Kyonshi Strain has the Undetectable Appearance Element and a special Transmission Element of None. The Teke sub-Strain instead has the Monstrous Appearance Element and a special Transmission Element of Ritual Murder.

Basic Elements Aging Do these vampires age, and if so, how fast? Some stories take place over the course of decades or centuries, making this a matter of practical concern. Even for more conventional stories, the prospect of immortality will cause vampires to behave differently from beings who have only a few decades of diminishing prowess lying ahead.

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Decomposing (Weak) These vampires aren’t aging; they’re rotting. Decomposing vampires constantly decay and must fight that decay by feeding. The rate of decomposition is up to the group, as are the mechanics of healing the damage (but the vampires will need the Gift of Regeneration from the Gifts Basic Element below). In any case, decomposition should be significantly faster than aging. It may or may not be possible to retard the process indefinitely. Mortal (Neutral) Some Strains have no effect on aging. Mortal vampires age just like humans, and will one day die. Depending on the Strain, this aging process may be identical to the normal human process, or it may be a distinctive type of vampiric aging with a parallel pattern of growing decrepitude and inevitable demise. Immortal (Strong) These vampires don’t age whatsoever from the moment of their transformation. While injury (or possibly disease) may kill them, they’ll never die of old age, nor will their senses, wits or physical health ever diminish.

GETTING STARTED

Chapter One  Getting Started

Ephemeral (Weak) Vampires of the Adze Strain in and around Togo are doomed as soon as they contract vampirism, for the infection itself has a lifespan of only about four months. Over the course of the infection, the sickness tempts the victim more and more strongly to feed (reflected by a permanent Hunger Die added to the character’s total each week as the infection runs its course, Hunger that never abates regardless of how much the vampire feeds). Finally, after permanent Hunger reaches 24, the vampire exhales a glowing ember-like virus bundle (sometimes mistaken for an insect like a lightning bug) that floats into the body of a nearby victim and starts the cycle anew. The Adze Strain includes a specialized Transmission feature to complete this unique cycle.

Appearance Undetectable (Strong) Vampires with an Undetectable appearance appear perfectly human to the senses, provided that they don’t do anything obviously supernatural. While they might be dead inside and thus detectable through medical observation, these vampires aren’t pale or monstrous-looking in any way, nor do they give themselves away with voice, odor, etc.

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Chapter One  Getting Started

CHAPTER ONE

Conspicuous (Neutral) Vampires tend to stand out, and thus many Strains have the Conspicuous feature. The typical marks of a conspicuous vampire include pale skin, unusual eye color, coolness to the touch, a scent that disturbs animals, etc. Particular Strains might have different features. In any case, Conspicuous vampires can pass for normal people, but they do look a bit odd, and they tend to stick in the memory. Those who are familiar with the Strain can readily recognize its members (usually on sight, but occasionally by voice, scent, etc.). Monstrous (Weak) Monstrous vampires are visibly inhuman. Their appearance can range from the traditional pointed ears, bald head and white skin to strange visages that are bestial, skeletal, or even demonic. Monstrous vampires can’t pass for human even with the help of makeup and lighting tricks, and are clearly deformed, not just strange-looking. Depending on particulars, Monstrous vampires might be able to pass off their disfigurements as birth defects or injuries. Mark of Cain (Weak) The ancient Nod Strain of the Persian Gulf region is notorious for the Mark of Cain, a chilling and distinctive brand that appears on the forehead of its members... but only when their faces feel the light of the sun. By night, the vampires of the Nod strain are indistinguishable from humans. Once the brand is visible, however, a supernatural sense of foreboding warns all who see it that the bearer is no human, but a monster.

Cure Some Strains are curable, some are not, and methods vary greatly. However, Cure isn’t a Basic Element because many groups prefer for the GM to keep the nature of a possible cure from the players. See The Cure (pg. 85) in Chapter 4 for suggestions on adjudicating cures for vampirism. The group can collaborate on a cure if everyone prefers to collaborate. Otherwise, the GM should decide on the nature of the cure and reserve it as an in-game revelation. In any case, there’s no space on the Strain Template for the nature of the cure.

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Feeding No Adaptation (Weak) Some vampires have no fangs or other special tools for feeding. These vampires must use knives or other tools to bleed victims, and must be careful not to lose precious blood as it leaks or sprays from the fresh wound. Just keeping a victim still can be a challenge for these vampires. Fangs (Neutral) Most vampires have fangs of some sort. Fangs don’t make feeding effortless, but they serve two important functions. Firstly, they give vampires a way to puncture victims without using a weapon or wasting blood. Secondly, fangs can help control victims during feeding. Standard fangs don’t permit the vampire to “drain” blood as with a syringe, and they’re about as effective in combat as animal fangs. Standard fangs may or may not be retractable, depending on the Strain’s Appearance feature. Perfect Feeding (Strong) Some Strains grant highly specialized and effective feeding apparatus. Vampires with Perfect Feeding have fangs that drain blood as a syringe, along with special saliva that prevents coagulation and numbs pain, so that a sleeping victim may not even wake up. Furthermore, these fangs leave very discreet wounds, reducing the predator’s risk of discovery.

GETTING STARTED

Chapter One  Getting Started

Leechmouth (Neutral) The Everglades Strain grants truly terrifying tools to those it infects. Everglades vampires have mouths that look normal in casual interaction, except that their teeth are unusually pointy. When feeding or fighting, though, these vampires can distend their mouths to horrific proportions and pull back their first row of teeth to reveal a second row of jagged, hooked teeth for holding onto struggling prey. The vampires of the Everglades, sometimes known as Leechmouths, obviously have difficulty feeding discreetly, and they leave distinctive wounds on their victims. On the other hand, they drain blood quickly and with great efficiency, and their bites are as vicious as they are inescapable, giving them natural weapons much more potent than the usual pair of extended canines.

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Chapter One  Getting Started

CHAPTER ONE Physiology How do these vampires function biologically? Are their bodies living, dead, or somewhere in-between? This is important for adjudicating the effects of disease, drugs, and injury, and also for determining how quickly a medical check-up will reveal a vampire as something other than human. A special function of Physiology is to determine whether vampires can heal naturally as humans and other living things can. See the Gift of Regeneration under the Gifts Basic Element for details on supernatural healing. Living (Neutral) Despite their condition, these vampires are biologically alive. While thorough medical inspection may reveal irregularities, the basic processes of life are all in place. Vampires who are biologically alive can use drugs, have sex, feel adrenaline, and even heal naturally. However, they depend on the usual prerequisites of life. Damage to major organs can easily kill them and they will die without air. In some cases, these vampires even need food in addition to blood for sustenance. Vampires with the Living feature heal Trait Damage and Injury as per the normal rules (see Trait Damage on pg. 46), in addition to any supernatural regeneration of which they’re capable.

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Undead (Strong) These vampires are not alive, but whatever animates them does so using a semblance of normal biological processes. The heart beats when it must, but circulation is necessary only for vampiric power and sustenance, not for normal biological purposes. The other organs remain in superficially good condition, but don’t actually perform their usual tasks. Drugs and food don’t agree with these vampires, since their bodies don’t carry on the processes of life; blood is their only food and their only addiction. As they still use biological mechanisms like muscles and the nervous system, undead vampires still suffer greatly from damage to the brain or spine, and from damage that makes movement mechanically impossible (like damage to bones and muscles). The organs other than the heart are nonessential, however, and blood loss is not a factor, so undead vampires are much more resistant to stabbing and shooting than are humans. Undead vampires don’t heal naturally over time and must rely on blood to recover from serious damage. However, they mimic most obvious functions of the human body by using a negligible amount of blood, so they can regrow shaved hair and clipped fingernails, produce saliva, etc., and heal from Trait Damage using the normal rules (see Trait Damage on pg. 46), given time. Undead vampires don’t heal Injuries to Physical Traits over time, even with treatment; the Injuries remain acute indefinitely. For this reason, Undead vampires should almost always have the Gift of Regeneration (see the Gifts Basic Element).

GETTING STARTED

Chapter One  Getting Started

Dead (Neutral) Some Strains of vampires operate through forces that have nothing to do with biology. These vampires are, in an objective and scientific sense, more like corpses being manipulated by a puppeteer than living creatures. Dead vampires have no biological functions at all, so their bodies are cold, their organs are likely to become obviously non-functional, they have no pulse, etc. For an utterly lifeless vampire, even the heart and the brain have no function. Destroying a Dead vampire is a matter of physical demolition, because inflicting vital damage is impossible. Dead vampires obviously can’t eat, use drugs, have sex or heal naturally. While they may or may not appear human at a glance, dead vampires are easy to identify as nonhuman with even a cursory inspection, as they have no pulse, no body heat, no brain activity, etc., and they lack human involuntary actions like pupil dilation.

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Chapter One  Getting Started

CHAPTER ONE

Dead vampires heal as Undead vampires do (see above), except that that they can’t heal normal Trait Damage to Physical Traits naturally over time; only supernatural means can heal their Physical Trait Damage. Dual Form (Strong) Vampires of the Roman Strain are only dead husks, whatever they may pretend to themselves about piety and tradition–however, they’ve had long centuries to evolve the means of hiding this from the humans on whom they depend. These Vampires normally function as the Dead vampires described above. However, they can take on a Living guise when they so desire. While doing so, they can neither feed nor make use of any vampiric traits, as they must focus all of their supernatural power on creating the illusion of life. Vampires of the Roman Strain have a special Appearance feature that links to this one: they’re visibly inhuman while Dead, but can pass for human while Living. Vampires of the Roman Strain heal as Dead Vampires do (see above), but with the additional complication that they can’t heal even supernaturally while in their Living form, as they can’t use the Gift of Regeneration. Roman Strain vampires often give themselves away when injured, revealing their true forms to heal from an attack that struck true.

Transmission Vampirism is a contagious condition, one that vampires transmit in widely varying ways. When you evaluate these disparate methods of transmission, make control your key criterion. A feature that permits a vampire to control the spread of vampirism is a Strong one, while one that puts a vampire at risk of accidentally spreading the condition is Weak. Vampirism may spread through blood, though feeding, or through invisible supernatural forces (among countless other options), but the essential question is whether vampires of your Strain can control the spread of their condition. Airborne Transmission (Weak) The most contagious Strains of vampirism are airborne; they reach new hosts over short distances with no need for physical contact. “Airborne” Strains may or may not actually be airborne in the conventional, medical sense. Some vampires have an infectious aura that doesn’t rely on the presence of air or of any other medium. In either case, this form of propagation gives a vampire a flat chance to infect anyone in his vicinity. The precise probability varies by Strain, but should be very low; geometric progression can turn a disease like vampirism into a universal condition very quick-

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ly, barring extraordinary checks on its spread. Airborne Transmission is a Weak feature as long as any randomness remains in the condition’s contagiousness. Perfectly controllable Airborne Transmission, however, is a Strong feature, as it grants the power to spread vampirism easily and discreetly. Infectious Feeding (Neutral) Every time these vampires feed, they risk passing on their condition. The chance of doing so may be quite low depending on the Strain, and by selecting victims carefully, vampires can mitigate the consequences of accidental transmission. Nonetheless, this complicates feeding. Degree of control can vary widely among vampires who infect by feeding. Some Strains can deliberately avoid unwanted infection but can’t infect at will; some, conversely, can always pass on their condition when they want to, but can’t eliminate the chance of doing so accidentally. Strains that can perfectly control their Infectious Feeding treat it as a Strong feature.

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Chapter One  Getting Started

Remote Infection (Strong) Whether by magic, powers of the blood, or some strange remote viral activation, a few vampires can pass on vampirism to victims at long distance. This is always deliberate, though its effect may not be perfectly reliable. Some vampires have range limitations on transmitting their condition, while others can only pass vampirism on to those they have met or who have some kind of predisposition to infection. In any case, Remote Infection doesn’t require the vampire’s presence and doesn’t risk accidental infection, eliminating the two chief drawbacks to the transmission of vampirism. Spontaneous Awakening (Neutral) Rarely and unpredictably, but always at night, a corpse or group of corpses within several miles of a Danse Macabre vampire rises spontaneously from the dead. Usually, this effect touches fresh corpses, but on occasion, even centuries-old corpses rise, restored to youth. Danse Macabre vampires don’t know when their presence has raised new vampires. However, a new vampire’s ignorance often brings it into conflict with its progenitor eventually. Danse Macabre vampires have a very low infection rate, transmitting their condition perhaps once every five years. Many don’t survive that long.

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CHAPTER ONE

Gifts Vampires of some Strains have unnatural gifts of strength, beauty, courage and the like. Some can recover from grievous injuries faster than humans can, despite their unliving bodies. In any case, though, such performance comes at a cost, because blood burns faster to fuel such gifts. There are five Gifts. Unlike other features, Gifts aren’t rated as Strong, Neutral or Weak. Rather, each Strain simply has a number of Gifts, and that number constitutes a feature. To have no Gifts is a Weak feature; to have 1 or 2 is Neutral; and to have 3 or more is a Strong feature. Gift of Personality Vampires with the Gift of Personality can exert supernatural magnetism on those closest to them. They can treat their Personal General Trait die size as d12 for one roll. Every time they do so, they gain one Hunger Trait. Characters must declare this ability before rolling. A character can’t use this ability while his or her Hunger Track is full. A General Trait enhanced in this way counts as a Vampiric Trait for as long as the Gift is active. Gift of Physical Perfection Vampires with the Gift of Physical Perfection can push any of their physical traits to superhuman peaks, from prodigious strength and speed to keen senses or even good looks. They can treat their Physical General Trait die size as d12 for one roll. Every time they do so, they gain one Hunger Trait. Characters must declare this ability before rolling. A character can’t use this ability while his or her Hunger Track is full. A General Trait enhanced in this way counts as a Vampiric Trait for as long as the Gift is active. Gift of Regeneration Vampires with the Gift of Regeneration can heal more quickly and completely than humans, even if said vampires lack living bodies. In rules terms, they may heal from Trait Damage and Injury prematurely. They may instantly remove a single d3 of Trait Damage by gaining a Hunger Trait. They may remove an Injury by gaining four Hunger Traits. Some Strains with the Gift of Regeneration may be able to recover from a Disability by gaining four Hunger Traits per night for three consecutive nights; this sort of radical regeneration is at the group’s discretion. In any case, a vampire may not heal damage if the resulting Hunger Traits would overfill his or her Hunger Track.

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Gift of Spirit Vampires with the Gift of Spirit can draw on inhuman reserves of will and passion. They can treat their Spiritual General Trait die size as d12 for one roll. Every time they do so, they gain one Hunger Trait. Characters must declare this ability before rolling. A character can’t use this ability while his or her Hunger Track is full. A General Trait enhanced in this way counts as a Vampiric Trait for as long as the Gift is active. Gift of Success Vampires with the gift of success lead charmed unlives; they can perform better than humans in almost any professional or academic field, and never seem to worry about managing their money or time. They can treat their Public General Trait die size as d12 for one roll. Every time they do so, they gain one Hunger Trait. Characters must declare this ability before rolling. A character can’t use this ability while his or her Hunger Track is full. A General Trait enhanced in this way counts as a Vampiric Trait for as long as the Gift is active.

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Chapter One  Getting Started

Weaknesses Each Strain suffers a different assortment of the traditional vampiric weaknesses. Unlike other features, Weaknesses aren’t rated as Strong, Neutral or Weak. Rather, each Strain simply has a number of Weaknesses, and that number constitutes a feature. To have fewer than 3 weaknesses is a Strong feature; to have 3 or 4 is Neutral; and to have more than 4 weaknesses is a Weak feature. Weaknesses aren’t balanced, nor are they intended to be. They exist mainly to support the vampire genre and to help players customize their Strains. Bans and Compulsions Some vampires suffer from supernatural or psychological bans on certain behavior. Common bans include entering a building without an invitation or crossing running water. Similarly, vampirism sometimes inspires irrational compulsions, such as the compulsion to count groups of items. Each ban or compulsion counts as a single weakness. Typically, bans and compulsions are absolute. Occasionally, though, their strength increases with Hunger similarly to the urge to feed; in these cases, a vampire must win a Simple Roll against his or her highest Hunger Trait to violate the ban or compulsion.

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Chapter One  Getting Started

CHAPTER ONE

Tells The Appearance feature determines how monstrous a Strain’s vampires appear overall. Regardless of their general appearance, though, there are subtle cues that sometimes give away even the most human-looking vampires, and these cues count as weaknesses. Common Tells include absent shadow, absent reflection, shifting eye color, and strange fingernails. No matter how many Tells a Strain might show, they all constitute a single weakness. Only details that can give away otherwise well-hidden vampires count as Tells. Strains of clearly inhuman vampires typically don’t have Tells. Vulnerabilities Most vampires have some degree of aversion to the sun. In its weakest form, this vulnerability entails minor irritation that might visibly redden the skin and/or make concentration impossible. Most vampires react more violently, actually burning as though the sun’s rays were fire. In its most dramatic form, sunlight Vulnerability reduces vampires to ash if they expose their flesh to sunlight for even a moment. Aside from sunlight, other dangers can sometimes penetrate the usual toughness of the undead. Common anti-vampire weapons include wooden stakes, silver, fire, and blessed items like holy water. Each vulnerability counts as a separate weakness. Some weaknesses are relatively minor, merely reflecting that the usual vampiric resistances don’t apply; many vampires who are otherwise immune to physical damage fear fire, for example. Other vulnerabilities are more severe. For example, a stake through the heart can paralyze some vampires, while other vampires suffer instant destruction from even a single cut by a silver blade. Wards Vampires of some Strains recoil from wards, be they symbols of supernatural power or mundane substances like garlic. Sometimes spells and rituals can also keep vampires at bay. In a more scientific vein, there are a variety of chemical means by which mortals might drive vampires to avoid or leave an area. In any case, a ward always physically compels a vampire to stay out of an area. For psychological rather than physical aversion, consider a ban or compulsion rather than a ward.

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GETTING STARTED

Chapter One  Getting Started

Special Rules This final catch-all feature covers any additional rules that the group may implement to define the Strain and facilitate the Story Profile. This step comes last so that you’ll have a firm grasp of your Strain’s feel and a sense of what the other features can do; if you still feel that you need to add special rules to define your Stain, just write them in here.

Examples: Vampires of the Hush Strain don’t burn or cower in the sun, but they must be careful during the day. The demons within them grow stronger when permitted to work during daylight hours. When a Vampire of the Hush Strain uses a Vampiric Trait during the day, every die that he or she rolls accrues a Hunger Die, in addition to any that the roll would otherwise incur from 1’s and 12’s. These vampires commonly vow never to use their dark gifts by day, but such vows never last for long....

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Chapter One  Getting Started

CHAPTER ONE

Vampires of the Noir Strain have a special affinity for the shadows, and their stories take place in a film noir world. When players describe their vampires’ actions in terms of cigarette smoke, checkered shadows and other visual tropes of film noir, they receive a bonus d6 to their rolls.

The Chalksign Strain that roamed the American Midwest in the seventies had a peculiar weakness: their Hunger was contagious, leading to frenzies that could sweep through whole towns without warning. All of the Chalksign vampires in a city contribute to that city’s Frenzy, a value set to the average Addiction of every vampire in the city. Whenever a Chalksign Vampire would otherwise use his or her Addiction, he or she uses the city’s Frenzy instead if it is higher; furthermore, a vampire who enters a city immediately gains Hunger Dice equal to half the city’s Frenzy. Chalksign vampires, many of them on the road to recovery, traveled in fear of stumbling into a “Cesspool City” full of ravening vampires, where even a longclean veteran of the Strain could succumb to old urges in an instant due to the irresistible madness of the city itself.

Vampiric Traits As vampires lose their human Traits and sink deeper into addiction, they gain Vampiric Traits, inhuman powers and abilities derived from their Strain. Each Strain offers limits and guidelines on the sorts of Vampiric Traits that it can grant. To finish your Strain design, you’ll define these limits. The four boxes on the Strain Template correspond to the four Trait categories on the character sheet: Personal, Spiritual, Physical and Public. Fill each of the four boxes with Vampiric Trait guidelines in one of the following ways:

No Guidelines Players can invent Vampiric Traits in this category as they see fit. The only restriction is that, as always, new Vampiric Traits must be appropriate to their category. For example, A Vampiric Trait in the Personal category has to relate to personal existence and relationships. Characters still can’t take Trait types that are on the Banned list (see below).

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Optional: Strain Profile Vampiric Traits and Basic Elements define the way that a Strain fits into the rules. To define the way that a Strain fits into the story, especially in a setting where multiple Strains exist, the group may wish to fill out the optional Profile box on the Strain Template. The aspects of a Strain Profile are: Distribution Where’s the geographical center of this Strain, and where else does it appear? Some Strains subsist in isolated locations, while others quickly span the globe. Some are relatively common within a small, remote region, but spread from there to isolated cases in faraway lands. High What does the blood-high feel like for vampires of this Strain? Is it a mere feeling of satiety, like the feeling after a good meal? Is it intense, aggressive and narcissistic, or is its appeal in numbing the senses? Do vampires of this Strain relish feeding, or are they merely dependent upon it?

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Organization Do vampires of this Strain organize? Along what lines (family, subculture, government, etc.)? If organized vampires exist, are they the rule or the exception among the Strain? Origin What’s the original cause of this Strain? Can cases of vampirism still arise from that first cause, or do they now occur by transmission only? When was the first case of this Strain, either in myth or in reliable historical reckoning? Prevalence How prevalent is this Strain? Depending on the setting, you might express this in terms relative to other Strains or in terms of the whole population. Generally speaking, the prevalence of a Strain must be very low for its vampires to go undetected and to keep themselves fed. Of course, it’s possible to set a story in a time and place where vampirism is a relatively common condition, or even to invent a sort of vampire Innsmouth where vampires are as common as humans. Secrecy Who knows that vampires of this Strain exist? Who suspects? Do individual vampires hide their condition?

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CHAPTER ONE

Special Limitations Vampiric Traits in this category are mostly free-form, but the Strain Template lists a few Trait types that are only available (or unavailable) under special circumstances. The group may define these special Traits and the corresponding limitations however they desire. You may use this option to define the peculiar Vampiric Traits that set certain vampires in the Strain apart from others. If you find that you’re using many Special Limitations, however, you may wish to create a sub-Strain instead (see the sidebar on Sub-Strains on pg. 14)

Example: Your Story Profile includes a mortal family of natural psychics who deal with vampires regularly, and so occasionally fall to the addiction themselves. In the Spiritual category, you write, “Special Limitations: Psychic Vampiric Traits (clairvoyance, weak telekinesis, mind-reading, etc.) are available only to vampires who were psychic in life.” This gives psychic vampires–including but not limited to members of this particular family–unique powers and a special place in your story.

Example: Your Story Profile defines vampires as mortals possessed by immortal, bestial demons. The PCs are all Sanctified vampires who bound their demons with a secret ritual during the Inquisition, and now work for the church as vampire hunters. Under the Physical category, you write, “Special Limitations: All Physical Vampiric Traits involve shape-shifting, usually into predatory animals. Sanctified vampires can’t take on the features of predatory animals, though, and must take Traits that turn them into mist, give them the wings of non-predatory birds, etc.” This special restriction represents the Sanctified vampire’s “chained beast.”

Theme Vampiric Traits in this category must match a theme. The theme can be very broad (like “Warrior” in the Public category for a Strain destined for violence) or quite narrow (like “Relationships, status and position among the pack” in the Personal Category for a Strain of insular vampires who dominate their member’s personal lives like a cult). You can even define a

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power level or “feel” as a theme; for example, you might limit the Physical category to “Realistic, peak human level abilities–Nothing an Olympic athlete or master martial artist couldn’t do.” In any case, make sure to choose a theme that fits well with the Trait category, as players will have to match both when they invent Vampiric Traits.

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Chapter One  Getting Started

Trait List If you don’t want to use free-form Traits, you can predefine a number of Vampiric Traits in each Trait category and have players choose from among them whenever they develop a new Vampiric Trait. This option gives the designer of the Strain more control over the feel of vampirism in the story and can make plots substantially easier to plan, as unexpected new powers can’t crop up in mid-game. Always provide enough variety in Traits for vampires in the Strain (particularly the PCs) to feel distinct in play; when possible, make the Traits customizable in some way. When using a Trait List, strongly consider writing up a blurb about each available Trait on a separate sheet of paper so that players have common expectations about what each of your predefined Vampiric Traits can and can’t do. In addition to filling in the category boxes, make a list of Traits and Trait types under the heading Banned on the Strain template. Banned Traits are never available in any box to any vampire in the Strain. Use this list to ban types of traits that don’t fit your story or the concept of the Strain. The group may, of course, add to or modify the Banned list later to reflect changing consensus about the Strain.

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Chapter One  Getting Started

CHAPTER ONE

Character Generation

With a Story Profile and a Strain Template in place, the group can move on to character generation. First, each player presents a Character Pitch, which the group must approve. Next, the players answer a series of questions that define their characters’ most important human traits. Finally, each player replaces some of his or her character’s human aspects with vampiric ones, representing the character’s vampiric transformation and the progress of his or her addiction. With that, the characters are ready for play. Character generation benefits from collaboration just as much as a Story Profile does, even though each character is one player’s creative “property.” It’s best for all of the players to make Character Pitches for group approval, then to take turns answering the 16 Questions in front of the whole group. This way, players can trade suggestions, propose connections between the PCs, and get to know each other’s characters even before the game begins. If necessary, though, each player can create a character independently, as long as everyone is working from the same Story Profile.

Character Pitch

A Character Pitch is a succinct description of the character you’d like to create. It serves two purposes. First, it provides a seed of inspiration for the fully-realized character you’ll develop later with the 16 Questions. Your Character Pitch should include at least one compelling detail (a character quirk, a skill, a biographical detail, whatever) that makes you excited to develop and play the character. Secondly, a Character Pitch shows how your character fits into the Story Profile. Your pitch should leave no doubt that your PC is not just an interesting character, but the right character for the story to come. Everyone is responsible for making sure that a potentially disruptive character (like one who can’t function alongside another PC, or has no incentive to take part in the story) doesn’t make it into play.

The 16 Questions

Once the group accepts your Character Pitch, you’ll answer the 16 Questions, which address the various aspects of your character’s human existence. These answers will become your PC’s Human Traits and will require you to flesh out your pitch into a fully-realized character.

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Answer each of the following questions with a short phrase in the corresponding box on the character sheet. These answers will become Traits, so they should have clear names and represent stand-alone ideas. Avoid fragmentary answers that will confuse you later when you’ve forgotten the questions that prompted them. For example, in response to Question 3, “Summarize your romantic and sexual life,” you wouldn’t want to write simply None since 1999, because that answer doesn’t make sense out of context. Instead, you might write, Abstinent for 13 years, which makes sense even if you don’t remember the question for box Q3. All of your answers should represent purely Human Traits, with no elements related to vampirism. You’ll gain Vampiric Traits at a later stage of character creation.

Personal Traits Q1: Which relationship represents your most important personal responsibility? This must be a personal relationship, usually with a family member, significant other or close friend. One can’t have a personal relationship with an organization, an idea, or a being that one can’t interact with in a personal manner, such as a deity.

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Q2: What is the most important mark that your childhood left on you? This can be a psychological or physical mark, a life lesson, or even a special skill that your character had to learn as a child. Q3: Summarize your romantic and sexual life. Answer this question with whatever emphasis is appropriate to your character. It covers specific relationships and practices as well as general issues like sexual orientation. Q4: What image do you convey to others in your personal life? Some characters deliberately portray a certain persona in daily life, while others are quite unconscious of the impression that they make. In either case, your answer should reflect the way that the character’s friends and family actually perceive him or her.

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Spiritual Traits Q5: What emotion do you feel most often and most strongly? This answer might reflect your character’s temperament, circumstances, or both. Remember that you must choose a human trait, so vampiric urges never factor into this answer. Q6: Name the one person or group that you would never want to disappoint. Think concretely and emotionally when answering this question. It isn’t about abstract standards of behavior or about your character’s ostensible values. It’s about real people whose approval or disapproval affects your character on a gut level. Q7: What is your calling? Characters approach the idea of a “calling” in various ways. Some have strong ideas about what is important in life, e.g., wisdom, money or fame. Some have found a task that they were “born to do,” such as teaching, raising children, or playing a sport. Still others believe that they have some special destiny, such as priesthood, true love, or death before 30. Q8: What ritual or habit do you use to keep yourself grounded? What does your character do for comfort and stability after a tough day? Make coffee? Pray? Play some basketball? Almost any answer is viable. This question is about the little things in life, though, so avoid answers like Monster Hunting or Ritual Murder.

Physical Traits Q9: Describe your general health and fitness. This Trait reflects your character’s overall physical condition. The next Trait addresses specific unusual features, so don’t worry about those here except insofar as they affect overall health. Q10: Name a physical trait that affects you prominently in your daily life. This may be a visually striking feature, some specialized conditioning, an illness, etc. It needn’t be obvious to others, but it should be relevant to your character’s daily life in one way or another.

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Q11: Which of your senses most strongly affects your experience of the world? Why? Name the sense that defines your character’s experience of the world, for good or for ill. Don’t neglect the second part of this question, which explains why that particular sense is so important to your character. For example, a Foley artist may be attuned to hearing for occupational reasons, while a character deafened by recent military service may notice his hearing much more than his other senses simply because of its still-novel absence. Q12: Describe your overall bodily appearance. Answer with whatever emphasis is appropriate to your character, but describe his or her body, as opposed to clothes, mannerisms, etc. If your character has one very noticeable feature, you might mention that. Otherwise, describe the general physical impression that your character’s face and build convey.

Public Traits Q13: What is your socioeconomic status? Socioeconomic status reflects wealth, income and prestige. Your answer should address as many of those facets as possible.

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Q14: What are your most pressing everyday responsibilities? The key word is “pressing,” not “important.” Character who work, attend school, raise children, etc. will probably find those duties to be their most pressing, even if they aren’t very important in grand terms. Be sure to describe what your character must actually do each day. Some character need only show up for their jobs or other professional obligations, while others must accomplish certain tasks daily or face the consequences. Q15: Describe your most commonly-used education and/or skills. Answer with the skill set that your character relies upon most of the time. This skill set might be a result of professional experience or formal education, or it might be a matter of personal talent; for example, those who lack professional skills might get by on charm, frugality, or sheer bluster. Q16: Which of your acquaintances most strongly affect your life? Name the acquaintances (professional contacts, informants, social peers, rivals, etc.) who most often influence your character’s life in the public sphere. It doesn’t matter whether these acquaintances like your character, demand payment for help, etc., only whether your character’s relationship with them affects his or her life. You may name one or more individuals or name a whole sphere of acquaintance.

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Chapter One  Getting Started

CHAPTER ONE

Assigning Scores After answering the 16 Questions, assign scores to the Traits you’ve just written. First, assign a die size to each Trait. Assign four d3’s, four d4’s, four d6’s and four d10’s. A Trait’s die size represents its usefulness; d3’s are weaknesses, d4’s are as harmful as they are helpful, d6’s are assets, and d10’s are your character’s greatest strengths. Next, assign a die number to each Trait. Assign four 1’s, eight 2’s and four 3’s. A Trait’s die number represents its importance to the character. Assign a 1 to the least important Traits, a 2 to most of the others, and a 3 to the Traits that are central to the character’s identity and values. After completing these steps, you’ll have a complete dice pool for each Trait. For example, a character who happens to have excellent night vision but seldom uses it might have Strong Night Vision 1d10, as that Trait is a strength, but one that matters little to the character. Meanwhile, a character with severe social anxiety might have Avoids Socializing 3d3, as the Trait is very important to the character, but is definitely a weakness.

General Traits In addition to the 16 Traits you’ve just written, your character has four General Traits. The four General Traits correspond to the four Trait categories: Personal, Spiritual, Physical and Public. Each General Trait represents the character’s overall proficiency in one aspect of his or her existence. The General Traits are mechanically important because they are “fallback” Traits that you will roll when no other Trait seems appropriate. They also come into play frequently in extended Conflicts. You don’t assign die number and die size to General Traits. Instead, you calculate them from your other Traits. Each General Trait has a die number equal to the average die number of the four Traits in the relevant category, rounded down. To find the die size of each General Trait, drop the Trait with the lowest single die size in the relevant category and then use the lowest remaining die size. For example, in a category containing Traits rated at d4, d4, d6 and d12, you would drop one d4, leaving the remaining d4 as the lowest die size in the category and therefore the die size of the General Trait. Each General Trait has a different set of uses:

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Personal This Trait applies to friendships, family, romance, domestic life, and other aspects of a character’s personal life. As a rule of thumb, if a roll involves a character’s home life or friends, the Personal Trait is appropriate.

Spiritual This Trait applies to a character’s willpower, motivation, self-discipline, introspection, values and passion. As a rule of thumb, if a roll revolves around what’s going on inside the character’s head, the Spiritual Trait is appropriate.

Physical This Trait applies to a character’s physical fitness and the acuity of his or her senses. As a rule of thumb, if a roll involves an aspect of the body that usually deteriorates due to old age (such as strength, physical attractiveness or hearing), the Physical Trait is appropriate.

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Public This Trait applies to a character’s performance at work, in school, in the public sphere and in material matters. As a rule of thumb, if a roll involves professional skills, money, or social class, the Public Trait is appropriate.

The Human Character By answering the 16 Questions, each player will have developed a Character Pitch into a complete (and, hopefully, interesting) human character. With that, character generation is done. It remains to afflict the finished human character with vampirism in a process called character degeneration. In the next step, you’ll use the Strain template developed earlier to define your character’s vampiric side.

The Mortal Option Depending on the Story Profile, you may prefer to start play with a human character and experience your transformation into a vampire in play. Or, you may be creating a mortal character as an NPC or unusual PC. In any of those cases, begin play with the mortal character that you have now. If your character becomes a vampire in play, complete the steps under Character Degeneration to gain your first Vampiric Trait.

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Chapter One  Getting Started

CHAPTER ONE

Character Degeneration The First Taste

The first step in turning your completed human character into a vampire is to decide how she or he contracted vampirism. Each player decides this for his or her own character (although it’s fun and helpful to tell your story to the rest of the group). At this stage, all of the players should read the Strain Template if they haven’t already. The Strain’s Transmission feature describes the way that the Strain propagates, which will help you to determine the circumstances of your own character’s transformation.

Vampiric Traits

Now that you know how your character became a vampire, you can assign one or more Vampiric Traits to represent the progress of his or her addiction. Each time a vampire gains a new Vampiric Trait, representing a new facet of his or her vampiric nature, he or she also loses a Human Trait (one of the Traits you created by answering the 16 Questions). As play begins, this process of degeneration has already begun. It’s (usually) up to you to decide how far your character’s addiction has progressed as play begins. To begin Degeneration, pick one of your character’s Human Traits and erase it, recording its name and rating on another sheet of paper or in the margins of the character sheet. Your character’s addiction has destroyed or alienated this aspect of human life. In exchange, fill the now-empty box with a new Vampiric Trait in red pencil (or ink). You may invent or choose any Vampiric Trait that your Strain Template permits. The new Vampiric Trait has the same die number as the Human Trait it replaces, but its die size is d12, regardless of the old Human Trait’s die size. Depending on your Strain, you may choose Vampiric Traits from a list, or you may make them up on the spot. In any case, a new Vampiric Trait must match the category in which it appears. For example, a Vampiric Trait in the Physical category must pertain to your character’s physical prowess. It’s best if a new Vampiric Trait connects to the lost Human Trait, too, either by justifying the old Trait’s loss, or by mutating an old Human Trait into something distinctively vampiric. Repeat this process as many times as you like, replacing a Human Trait with a Vampiric Trait each time. By default, you may start play with as few as one or as many as seven Vampiric Traits. If your Story Profile specifies otherwise, the group may settle on a more specific limit. For example, if the Story Profile calls for elder vampires who have been fighting their addictions for centuries, each character might start with a minimum of 4 Vam-

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piric Traits. If the Story Profile specifies brand new vampires, on the other hand, each character might start with only a single Vampiric Trait (or none at all; see the sidebar on The Mortal Option on pg. 35).

Finishing Touches

GETTING STARTED

Chapter One  Getting Started

Once you’ve selected Vampiric Traits, your character is three short steps away from play: 1. Recalculate your General Traits to account for your new Vampiric Traits (see pg. 37). If any General Trait rises to a die size of d12, write it in red and consider it a Vampiric Trait. This makes the General Trait unusable for resisting Temptations and Compulsions (see pg. 68 for details). 2. Record your Addiction, which is equal to your number of Vampiric Traits + 1. 3. Find the Hunger Track at the bottom of your character sheet. Each dot represents a Hunger Die, and each group of dots (from the single dots on the left to the 3-dot groups on the right) represents one Hunger Trait. Working from left to right, count out a number of Hunger Traits (not Hunger Dice) equal to your 5 + half your Addiction. Cross out all the remaining Hunger Traits to the right. The longer your Hunger Track, the stronger your hunger can grow. 4. Write all of your d3 Traits on the back of your character sheet so that when you hold up your sheet to read it, others can read your Weaknesses. This helps to speed play when other players, including the GM, need to reference your Weaknesses to use the against you in a Conflict. 5. That’s it! Show your completed sheet to the GM so that he or she can copy down your character’s Traits on the Group Tracking Sheet.

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Chapter Two  Rules

CHAPTER TWO

Rules

Traits and Basic Resolution

A Trait is an aspect of character — anything from a belief to a possession to a supernatural power–rated with a dice pool. To use a Trait, simply roll the appropriate number of dice. Every die that comes up 3 or higher is a Pass, which you can keep. Every die that comes up 2 or lower is a Fail that you must push away (or keep in exchange for taking Trait Damage; see below). Passes contribute to your success, while Fails contribute to your failure. Thus, the d3’s that you roll usually hinder you, while higher die size Traits (and especially Vampiric Traits) almost always help you. For this reason, d3 Traits are also called Weakness Traits. When you roll one or more Fails, but you want them to help rather than hurt your chances of success, you can keep the dice and take damage instead. By taking one d3 of Trait Damage to a relevant Trait category of your choice, and describing the way that you got hurt in pursuit of your goal, you can keep all of the Fails that you rolled just as though they were Passes. This is called Holding your Fails. See Trait Damage (pg. 46) for details on Trait Damage and its consequences. Two numbers, 1 and 12, have special effects when you roll them. When a vampire character rolls a 1, he or she gains a Hunger die. See the Hunger on pg. 66 for details. When a vampire character rolls a 12, he or she gains a Hunger die but also counts the die as two Passes. You’ll roll Traits in three different ways: Solo Rolls, Simple Rolls, and Conflicts. The rules vary slightly for these three different types of roll, but in each case, a 3 or higher is always a Pass, and a 2 or lower is always a Fail.

Solo and Simple Rolls Solo Rolls

The simplest rolls in Feed are Solo Rolls. In a Solo Roll, the only question at stake is: ”Does my character’s Trait help him or hinder him?” Solo Rolls involve only one or two Traits from a single character. They don’t represent any particular difficulty or adversity. Instead, they’re a quick way to measure a character’s competence, or to randomly determine whether he or she has some small advantage, like a useful tidbit of knowledge or a random piece of equipment in the glove compartment. It’s just as valid to determine

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such things by fiat, but rolling the dice can be fun and interesting, and the Solo Roll is a useful mechanical tool to have available. To make a Solo Roll, roll the appropriate Trait (usually a single obvious choice, because Solo Rolls are so narrow), plus one of your Weakness Traits, if the GM deems it relevant to the roll. As always, keep the Passes that you roll and push away the Fails. If you have more Passes than Fails, you succeed at the roll; your Trait helped you here to whatever extent the GM permits. If you have more Fails than Passes, or exactly the same number of both, you failed the roll; your Trait didn’t help you in this case. Remember that you can Hold your Fails by taking a d3 of Trait Damage. This means that you can always succeed at a Solo Roll if you’re willing to suffer for it. Solo Rolls are always fairly easy, so the GM should use Simple Rolls instead for any truly challenging situation.

RULES

Chapter Two  Rules

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Chapter Two  Rules

CHAPTER TWO

Simple Rolls

When a character faces a challenge from an obstacle or a single character, but isn’t in an extended conflict, the GM should call for a Simple Roll. In a Simple Roll, a character rolls a relevant Trait of his or her choice against either another character’s Trait or against a dice pool that the GM rolls to represent the obstacle at hand. In a Simple Roll, each participating player may either roll one relevant Trait of his or her choice or force the other player to roll a relevant Weakness Trait. A character who must roll a Weakness may still roll the Trait of his or her choice; he or she rolls all of the dice together in one dice pool. After rolling the dice, each player keeps his or her Passes, then collects (or “scoops”) the opponent’s Fails. This leaves each player with a number of dice–his or her own Passes, plus the opponent’s Fails (each participant has a chance to Hold his or her Fails and to cancel the opponent’s Hold; see below for details). The player with the most dice wins. If the GM wins a Simple Roll with a dice pool representing an obstacle, it means that the character was unable to overcome the obstacle, which can have a variety of consequences (see the sidebar on Setting Consequences for Failure on pg. 42). In the case of a tie, the two sides make a tiebreaker roll with a d12. As always, a player can take a d3 of Trait Damage to Hold his or her Fails and avoid passing them to the opponent. In a Simple Roll, however, a player’s opponent can cancel a Hold. When a player takes Trait Damage to Hold his or her Fails, the opposing player can immediately take a d3 of Trait Damage to cancel the Hold and scoop the opponent’s Fails after all. A player who doesn’t cancel a Hold as soon as it is declared loses the opportunity, and can’t cancel the Hold later. The player (including the GM) who rolls the most Passes on a Simple Roll must decide first whether to Hold his or her Fails. The opposing player then decides whether to cancel the Hold, if any. The second player then decides whether to Hold his or her Fails, and the first player decides whether to cancel that Hold (if any). Once both players have made their decisions, no further modification of the roll is allowed. When both sides roll the same number of Passes on a Simple Roll, the player with the single highest die roll makes his or her decision first.

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Example: Player A rolls a 3d12 Trait and gets a 2, an 8, and a 10. Player B rolls a 2d6 Trait and gets a 2 and a 1. Player A rolled more Passes, so she is the first to choose whether she will Hold her Fail. She decides not to, and so passes her 2, her only Fail, to Player B. Player B now decides whether he will Hold his Fails. He does. He

takes a d3 of Trait Damage to a relevant Trait category and Holds his 2 and 1. Player A now has the option of immediately taking a d3 of Trait Damage to cancel the Hold. She does so, so she scoops Player B’s Fails after all. This leaves Player A with her Passes (the 8 and the 10 that she rolled) plus Player B’s two Fails, for a total of 4 dice. Player B has only Player A’s single Fail, for a total of 1 die. Player A wins the roll. Both characters are worse off for their trouble with 1d3 of Trait Damage each.

RULES

Chapter Two  Rules

Obstacles When a character faces a challenge such as a puzzle, a repair job, or a physical obstacle like a barbed-wire fence, the GM may call for a Simple Roll and roll a dice pool to represent the adversity the character faces. This dice pool, which acts as a single Trait, is called an obstacle. Most obstacles, especially those that represent singular challenges or events, can’t take Trait Damage. Therefore, they can’t Hold their Fails. Some obstacles that represent physical objects or ongoing hindrances can take Trait Damage, and can therefore Hold Fails as usual. For example, an obstacle that represents catching onto a ledge while falling can’t take Trait Damage, as it’s a one-time challenge at which the character will either succeed or fail. On the other hand, an obstacle that represents a barricaded door can take Trait Damage as the door slowly gives way. A failed attempt to break it down might nonetheless damage it and make it easier to break down in the future. GMs must often invent dice pools for obstacles on the fly. To determine an obstacle’s dice pool, consider its Breadth and its Strength. An obstacle that is a major part of the story–that is, an obstacle that is complex, time-consuming, or has far-reaching consequences–has a high Breadth and should have a high die number. An obstacle of little importance to the story, in contrast, should have a low die number. An obstacle’s die size represents its Strength. The more skill or experience an obstacle requires to overcome, the higher its die size. Obstacles can have any die number between 1 and 3, and usually have a die size of d6 or d10. Very minor obstacles, however, may have a die size of d4. The GM can set a die size of d12 for tasks that would be impossible without supernatural power, like lifting a car overhead or quelling a riot with a smile, but the nature of these obstacles will vary depending on the level of supernatural power in the campaign. In most cases, only d12 Traits should have a chance to overcome d12 obstacles.

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Chapter Two  Rules

CHAPTER TWO

Setting Consequences for Failure All Simple Rolls have consequences for failure, as determined by the GM. Some are obvious: for example, failure to find a bit of information in a library simply means that the information remains lost. Other Simple Rolls involve hazards to health, reputation or sanity that the GM must quantify. For example, when a PC fails a roll to leap from one rooftop to the next, the consequences can vary widely. The most common penalties for failures are: Trait Damage The character takes some fixed amount of Trait Damage of a particular type. For example, a character who fails a Simple Roll to jump to a lower, adjacent rooftop might land badly and suffer 1d3 of Physical Trait Damage to represent a damaged ankle or a jammed wrist. Usually, Trait Damage ranges from 1d3 to 6d3, but Simple Rolls can also inflict Injury or even Disability directly, without the intermediary of Trait Damage. To set a Trait Damage consequence, the GM should choose a category to damage, then set a number of d3’s commensurate with the severity of the damage. A 1d3 consequence represents minor damage; 2d3 is a more serious wound; and 3d3 represents debilitating, quite serious damage. Failures that inflict 4d3 to 6d3 damage will result in Injury at best and death at worst. Simple Rolls with such dire consequences are pivotal moments in a story, so the GM shouldn’t overuse them. Note that characters who Hold their Fails to succeed at a Simple Roll may be effectively trading Trait Damage of one kind for another. That’s perfectly acceptable and sometimes very useful. Simple Roll consequences always damage a specific Trait category, while Trait Damage taken to Hold Fails is more flexible. Shifting Trait Damage to another category might permit a character to sacrifice a friendship to save a limb... or vice versa. Narrative Consequences The character suffers a story-based defeat or setback, with no particular mechanical consequences. For example, a character who fails a roll to leap from rooftop to rooftop in pursuit of a fleeing enemy might land short and end up hanging from the ledge, thereby losing her prey. Narrative consequences are events, not fixed scene resolutions. They’re not necessarily final. In the example above, the pursuer has lost her prey, but can still try to track her, comb the area for her, or lure her into the open. The consequence does not end and resolve the scene, as it might in a more narrative RPG or story game.

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Death, Destruction, and Disaster The character is killed or otherwise rendered unplayable. For example, a character who fails to leap from the roof of one twenty-story building to another may simply fall twenty stories and die. GMs should use fatal consequences when other consequences would strain credulity; this standard varies depending on the style and genre of the campaign, of course. Use large amounts of Trait Damage instead for any consequence that a character could feasibly survive. Some vampires have special vulnerabilities that put them in mortal danger from sunlight, crosses, and the like. They should usually get a Simple Roll to avoid danger (as by diving away from an opening window or recoiling to safe distance from a cross), and then suffer death if they fail the roll. Trait Damage taken to Hold Fails and avoid death can represent damage from a close call (like burns or even a missing limb from partial exposure to sunlight).

RULES

Chapter Two  Rules

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Chapter Two  Rules

CHAPTER TWO

Conflicts

A Conflict arises when characters make an extended effort to thwart each other’s actions. The question at stake in a Conflict is: ”Which of these opposed characters come out on top?” Conflict proceeds in a series of steps. These steps may seem slightly daunting at first, but they’re really simple organizational tools to make sure that everyone understands what the Conflict is about. Conflict itself is just a series of linked Simple Rolls. Any character can give in at any point in a Conflict. A character who submits immediately leaves the Conflict and has no further bearing on its outcome. Remove his or her name from any Strikes just as though he or she had been eliminated (see below for details about Strikes).

Step 0: Initiate Conflict Conflict begins when one character attempts to interfere with another character’s actions, either by obstructing the other character or attempting a mutually exclusive action. Once characters are in active opposition, move on to Step 1. This step may seem obvious, but it’s important to be sure that a Conflict exists before beginning with Step 1. Characters may oppose each others intentions, but until they interfere with each other’s actions, there is no Conflict.

Step 1: Define Goals and roll Initiative Each character who would like to participate in the Conflict states a goal. Players may state their goals positively (e.g., “I’ll wrestle the gun away from Alice”) or negatively (e.g., “I’ll stop Bob from taking my gun”). Goals can’t directly dictate PC behavior, except in the case of mind control and the like. However, goals that entail the death of other characters are allowed. In fact, the best and most common way to kill an opponent in Feed is to make his or her death your goal. A character who doesn’t wish to kill another character can still select any degree of Trait Damage, up to and including an Injury or Disability, as a goal, in which case that Trait Damage applies as soon as the character wins the Conflict (see Trait Damage on pg. 46 for details). Once each participant has chosen a goal, each character rolls a d12 to determine his or her Initiative. Characters act in descending order of Initiative each round. Each character’s Initiative remains the same throughout an entire Conflict.

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Step 2: Rounds Begin A Conflict takes place in a series of rounds. At the beginning of every round, every character (in order of highest to lowest Initiative) chooses one Trait to roll and one other character in the Conflict to be his or her target. Each character chooses one of his or her own Traits, never an opponent’s Weakness. Two or more characters may choose the same target. Next, in descending order of Initiative, each character faces off against his or her target just as in a Simple Roll: each character rolls a Trait, the two parties can Hold their Fails and cancel those Holds, etc. (see Trait Damage on pg. 46 for details). For any given roll, a character can either use the Trait that he or she chose for the round, or force the opponent to roll a Weakness Trait. The GM and other players should narrate the results of each roll just as they would for a Simple Roll. When a character wins a roll against his or her target, the target takes a Strike for the round (winning a roll against a character who isn’t one’s target has no special effect). Next to each Strike, note the name of the character who inflicted it. Characters can only take one Strike per round. When a character inflicts a Strike on a target who has already taken one for the round, simply add the new attacker’s name to the existing Strike. A character who takes Strikes in three different rounds loses the Conflict (see below for details). Each character can use only a single one of his or her own Traits during a round, but can make as many rolls with it as necessary. For example, a character who is the target of three opponents will have to make a roll against each of them, each roll using the same Trait (or one of the opponent’s Weakness Traits). However, no two characters can make more than a single roll against one another in the same round. Any time that such a roll would result, skip that roll and move on to the next step. This means that if two characters target one another, they still only make one roll against one another during the round, rather than one on each of their turns. As soon as a character takes his or her third Strike, that character loses the Conflict. The character doesn’t participate in any future rounds. Furthermore, all characters still in the Conflict remove the losing character’s name from any Strikes they have taken so far. When no names remain on a Strike, erase the Strike itself. Characters can come from behind to win Conflicts in this way by eliminating opponents who’ve inflicted Strikes on them. Characters who’ve been eliminated can’t re-enter the Conflict by any means, however.

RULES

Chapter Two  Rules

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Chapter Two  Rules

CHAPTER TWO

Once every participant has acted, the round ends and a new one begins. Characters can roll each of their 16 Traits in only one round per Conflict. This restriction means that each character must choose a new Trait to roll each round, and that once a character has been forced to roll a Weakness Trait, he or she can’t be forced to roll it again in future rounds. However, this restriction doesn’t apply to General Traits. A character can choose to roll his or her General Traits in as many rounds as desired. Likewise, a character can be forced to roll a General Trait repeatedly if it is a Weakness Trait (or becomes weak due to Trait Damage). When no opposing characters remain in the Conflict—that is, when none of the remaining participants want to resist each other’s goals—the Conflict ends. Move on to Step 3.

Step 3: Resolution Once the Conflict is over, the GM narrates the outcome, in which the remaining participants all achieve their goals. Victory in a Conflict is not mind control, so losing participants may remain defiant in spirit, but in any case, they’re helpless to resist as the winners achieve their goals. Once a Conflict has settled a matter, characters can’t reopen it within the same scene. The GM decides when it’s permissible to have another Conflict over the same issue.

Trait Damage

Win or lose, participating in a Conflict or challenge is risky. Characters who push the limits of their Traits can find themselves bruised, stressed, short of cash, or otherwise impaired. Trait Damage represents all of these incidental setbacks that characters can suffer when they face adversity and opposition. Characters can inflict Trait Damage as part of a successful Conflict goal (see Conflicts on pg. 44). However, Trait Damage usually occurs when a character Holds his or her Fails, keeping them rather than passing it to the opponent or the GM. This Trait Damage reflects pressing on through resistance to achieve a goal, e.g., absorbing an opponent’s blows to continue pummeling him, or continuing a useful line of argument despite the damage it does to one’s own reputation.

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Trait Damage is measured in d3’s and applies to one of the four Trait categories: Personal, Spiritual, Physical or Public. For every d3 of Trait Damage that a character takes, mark one of the check boxes next to the relevant General Trait. The player who chooses to inflict Trait Damage (whether on his or her own character or an opponent) also decides which category to damage. This choice must make sense in the context of the story, however: damage to the Physical category represents physical wounds and impairment; damage to the Public category represents lost money, privilege and reputation; damage to the Personal category represents damage to close relationships to intimate interpersonal functioning; and damage to the Spiritual category represents any psychic impairment, from fatigue to rage to outright fear. A character with Trait Damage rolls an extra d3 whenever he or she rolls a Trait from the relevant category, including the General Trait. Characters with multiple boxes of Trait Damage roll one extra d3 per box. A character may take up to 3d3 of Trait Damage to a single category. When a character would otherwise take a fourth d3 of Trait Damage, he or she suffers an Injury instead (see Injury below).

RULES

Chapter Two  Rules

Recovering from Trait Damage

Trait Damage represents significant but short-term impairment. A category with one d3 of Trait Damage recovers completely after the scene in which the damage occurred, or at the beginning of the next full scene, if the Trait Damage occurs during a period of downtime. A category with 2d3 of Trait Damage drops to 1d3 after a few days. A category with 3d3 of Trait Damage drops to 2d3 after a week or so. These time frames are highly variable and are open to GM discretion. For example, incidental damage to a character’s reputation or finances is likely to be much longer lasting than incidental damage to his or her body or emotional stability. In the event that an obstacle takes Trait Damage, it may or may not go away over time, depending on the nature of the obstacle. Like obstacles, vampires who are biologically dead (see the Physiology element on the Strain Template) don’t automatically heal Physical Trait Damage over time, though they heal other Trait Damage normally and usually have the supernatural ability to regenerate wounds by some other means (see the Gift of Regeneration under the Gifts element of the Strain Template).

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Chapter Two  Rules

CHAPTER TWO

Injury, Disability, and Destruction Injury

When a Trait category with 3d3 Trait Damage takes still more Trait Damage, each additional d3 inflicts an Injury instead; note each Injury by writing an “I” in the fourth Trait Damage box for the injured category. An Injury is a more serious and long-lasting version of Trait Damage. Whereas Trait Damage might represent a cut, a crisis of faith or falling behind on Physics reading, an Injury might represent a broken arm, a catastrophic fall from grace or a nigh-irreparable academic failure. A character who suffers an Injury temporarily replaces one of his or her Traits from the injured category with a 3d3 Trait representing the Injury (or, if the Injury applies to an existing Injury Trait, the character suffers a Disability; see below). An attacker who inflicts an Injury decides which of the victim’s Traits to replace; when a character suffers an Injury from an obstacle or hazard, the GM decides which Trait to replace. The new Injury Trait receives a name like any other Trait (e.g., Broken Hand 3d3). Furthermore, the character’s relevant General Trait has an effective rating of 3d3 until the Injury receives treatment. Treatment usually involves quitting the current scene to seek qualified help. In some cases, though, characters may be able to receive treatment during the scene in which they’ve been injured, or even during a Conflict (see Traits that Heal on pg. 50). An injury that has received no treatment is an Acute Injury. Once treated, an Injury becomes less serious. The relevant General Trait regains its normal rating (though modified to reflect the new Injury Trait). However, the Injury Trait persists. After one week, the Injury Trait’s rating changes to 2d3. After four more days, it drops to 1d3. Two days after that, the character makes a Solo Roll with the appropriate General Trait. If the roll succeeds, the Injury Trait goes away and the old, replaced Trait returns at its original rating. If the roll fails, the original Trait still returns to replace the Injury Trait, but with a permanent 1d3 added to its dice pool (for example, Nimble Fingers 1d6 would become Nimble Fingers 1d6+1d3). A Trait with a permanent +1d3 addition is called an Injured Trait. Recovery time varies greatly depending on the nature of the Injury. Use the rules above as a baseline, but the GM may lengthen or shorten recovery times as much as necessary for verisimilitude.

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Injury Traits suffer from Trait Damage normally. In addition, each day that an Injured character takes Trait Damage to the category containing the Injury Trait, he or she makes no progress in recovering from the Injury. Continuous Trait Damage can postpone healing indefinitely. A character who replaces an Injured Trait with a new Vampiric Trait (or replaces an Injured Vampiric Trait with a Human Trait) negates the effects of the Injury and does not add the permanent +1d3 to the new Trait’s rating. If the character ever regains the old Injured Trait, however, the permanent +1d3 returns.

RULES

Chapter Two  Rules

Disability A character who suffers a further Injury to an Injury Trait gains a Disability. The Injury Trait becomes permanent. Its die number drops at the usual rate for an Injury Trait, but can’t drop below the die number of the original Trait that it replaced. Short of replacing a Disability with a new Vampiric Trait, there’s no easy way to be rid of it. At the GM’s discretion, a character might “buy off ” a Disability by improving its rating via the usual advancement rules. Alternatively, some special in-game event (like a major medical procedure) might remove a Disability, depending on the GM’s ruling and the Disability’s nature. Sometimes, further Injury to a Disability Trait can result in death or destruction. See Destruction, below.

Destruction The best way to kill a character is through a Conflict goal. A character who intends to destroy another should take up a lethal weapon and enter a Conflict with the target’s life as the explicit stakes. However, characters in dangerous situations may also die accidentally. When a character fails a roll and his or her opponent has eight or more total dice, the character dies in an accident, if any fatal accident is appropriate to the situation. A character who takes an Injury to a physical Disability Trait may also die, if the group deems it appropriate; this is most often the case for Disabilities that make the character physically vulnerable, or for massive amounts of Trait Damage that push a character directly through Injury and Disability in a single catastrophic turn. Accidental death always occurs at the group’s discretion. When the campaign or the particular scene makes accidental death inappropriate, ignore it.

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Chapter Two  Rules

CHAPTER TWO

Traits that Heal Some Traits can heal Trait Damage, Injury or even Disability over a short period of time. Human Traits like Ring Doctor and First Aid can typically eliminate one d3 of Trait Damage with a Solo Roll. The healing character rolls the relevant Trait plus the Trait Damage to be healed. For example, a medic with First Aid 2d10 trying to treat 3d3 of Trait Damage to a patient’s Physical Category would roll 2d10+3d3. If the Solo Roll succeeds, the character eliminates a single d3 of the Trait Damage. Human Traits can heal Injury only over long period of time, as described above under Injury above. However, they can at least treat an Acute Injury in short order so that it isn’t quite so crippling. Treating an Acute Injury works just like treating Trait Damage, but the treating character must add a flat 4d3 to his or her roll rather than adding Trait Damage. Even rushed treatment of an Injury usually takes at least several minutes, which may be too long in a conflict situation. Vampiric Traits, being supernatural, may be able to treat Injuries and Disabilities much more effectively. When a vampire successfully treats an injury using a supernatural healing Trait, the Injury may heal completely and instantly, depending on the Trait and at the GM’s discretion. Some vampires may even treat Disabilities just as though they were Injuries. Not all supernatural healing Traits are so effective, but some are; as always, the group (and especially the GM) are the final arbiters of what a particular Vampiric Trait can accomplish.

Vampires and Violence Vampires vary greatly in their susceptibility to violence. Some respond to physical damage just as a human would, while others–particularly those of Strains with the Undead or Dead Element–readily shrug off gunshot and stab wounds. When combat arises, how should you account for vampiric resistance to some forms of attack? In the case of vampiric immunity to certain attacks, the answer is simple: attacks that aren’t viable aren’t viable. Just as a character can’t roll an attack against a human opponent by hitting him with a pillow or lighting him with flint and tinder, a character can’t make an attack roll against a vampire by using a method of violence to which that vampire is immune. In Feed, players must justify and describe their rolls in ways that are logical within the fiction. Combat is no exception.

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RULES

Chapter Two  Rules

In cases where vampires are resistant to a damage type because they lack vital points, but aren’t totally immune, resolve combat normally, but don’t permit relatively ineffective weapons to count as Traits in their own right against resistant vampires. For example, a vampire who is truly only an animated corpse would suffer structural damage from machine gun fire, but wouldn’t suffer the same sort of vital damage that a human would. A soldier could still make machine gun attacks against such a vampire with his or her relevant Traits, but couldn’t use the Machine Gun 2d10 Trait itself in a conflict against a vampire. See Equipment and the Environment, below, for more details about representing weapons and other equipment. Some vampires can’t be slain except by very specific methods, such as fire or sunlight. Typically, these vampire have no special resistance to other attack forms, but never suffer destruction (whether accidental or deliberate) except by those specific methods. Even if an assailant sets out to destroy the vampire as a Conflict goal, he or she must have working means of destruction on hand to do so. Destroying a vampire, like any other goal, must be logical and possible within the fiction, regardless of any rules considerations.

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Chapter Two  Rules

CHAPTER TWO

Equipment and Environment

Feed is quite an abstract game. It’s in keeping with the rules to gloss over the effects of equipment, tactical situations and the physical environment, adjudicating the game wholly through Traits. For those Stories that demand more detail, though, use the following rules to quantify the effects of equipment and environment.

Assigning a Dice Pool

To quantify the usefulness of a weapon or other piece of equipment, the GM should assign it a dice pool, just like a Trait or an obstacle. An item’s die number reflects its usual importance to relevant rolls; this often has more to do with the type of item than the specific item. An item with a die number of 1 is just an incidental bit of help; an item with a die number of 2 is an important asset; and an item with a die number of 3 is pivotal equipment that usually makes the difference between success and failure. An item’s die size reflects its quality. A d6 die size reflects an item that is of moderate quality, while an item with a die size of d10 is superior. Some games might even feature equipment with a d12 die size, representing items of superhuman power. Only items that actively interfere with the user’s efforts should have a d3 die size. The d4 die size is inappropriate for equipment, except perhaps to reflect gear that performs erratically. While it’s convenient to assign a consistent dice pool to each commonly-used item, especially to armor and weapons, an item’s dice pool is always relative to the situation. For example, as a weapon in a survival campaign, a pistol might be a 2d10 item, while a crowbar is a mere 1d6. For purposes of opening a sealed lock box, however, the GM might swap those dice pools. The GM should also consider the setting and feel of the campaign when assigning dice pools. In a story focused on video-game-style martial arts combat, armor should be relatively ineffective so that it plays only a minor role. In a campaign based on chivalric legend, however, armor should have a very large dice pool to reflect its importance in the source material.

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Using Equipment

Characters can use any item with a dice pool just as they would a Trait: that is, to make a Solo Roll, to make a Simple Roll, or to use in one round of a Conflict. The rare item with a d3 die size functions just like any other Weakness Trait. Items suffer from any Trait Damage that applies to the Trait category relevant to their use. For example, a character using a Staple Gun 1d6 who has 1d3 of Trait Damage to his Physical category must roll 1d6+1d3. When a character would otherwise suffer an Injury or Disability to a relevant Trait category (usually Physical), the character can instead declare one of her items broken or destroyed. This option requires the permission of the opposing player or GM, and should normally apply only to significant items whose loss is meaningful to the story.

RULES

Chapter Two  Rules

How Many Guns Do I Start With?

Feed has no specific rules about acquiring gear. Trait Q13 on the character sheet usually touches on a character’s wealth, and it should be easy to guess at the liquid assets of a well-developed character, but this is purely a matter for the group’s discretion. Feed covers too wide a range of settings and genres to construct anything like an equipment list or a standard of purchasing power. A GM who wishes to determine randomly whether a character owns or can acquire a piece of equipment may call for a Solo Roll on a relevant Trait (often the Trait in the aforementioned box Q13) or for a Simple Roll against an obstacle representing the item’s scarcity.

Writing and Adjudicating Traits

Players write their Traits in response to the 16 Questions, or, in the case of Vampiric Traits, under the guidance of the Strain Template. These prompts help to keep Traits focused and relevant. When GMs create NPCs, they must sometimes invent Traits from scratch, which is a bit more difficult. This section contains not rules, but advice for adjudicating and writing Traits.

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CHAPTER TWO

General Advice

Traits are the “Who,” “What,” “Why,” and “How” of the Story Profile Traits work best when they answer the “Who,” “What,” “Why,” and “How” questions implicit in the Story Profile. Consider one of the example Story Profiles from the first chapter: A cabal of scientists, medical professionals and patients has become infected with vampirism at a major research hospital. They seek to slow the spread of the “disease,” study its nature and find an effective treatment. All the while, they must hide their condition from their peers and the CDC. Pressures mounting from every direction will push the heterogeneous cabal to the breaking point. Will they band together to find a cure? Will they sink into self-serving corruption together? Or will their pact shatter as professional, personal and moral values pull them in different directions?

Like any well-written Story Profile, this one raises questions that the group will answer in play. How does the cabal attempt to slow the spread of vampirism? How do they study it? Who are the peers from whom they’re hiding their condition? What are the “pressures mounting from every direction”? Why and in what way is this a heterogeneous group? What binds them together? What “professional, personal and moral values” push them apart? By writing Traits to address these sorts of questions for your own Story Profile, you help ensure the Traits’ relevance while contributing vital details to the story. The Story Profile offers just as much to the GM as to the players. As GM, write Traits that make good on the promise of the Story Profile. Present characters with the sorts of adversity and support that the Story Profile describes. A GM running the campaign described above, for example, should emphasize medical concerns, personal integrity, and threats of discovery. That might lead to NPC Traits like High Risk for Infection, Seductive, and Access to Personnel Records.

Write the Trait You’ll Wish You Had The most interesting Trait on paper is not always the most interesting in play. When writing a Trait, consider how likely it is to see use in the actual challenges and Conflicts at the table. Is it worded too specifically for the uses you envision? Is it more clever than useful? Is it a one-note Trait that represents something more like a trick or quirk than a substantial attribute? Traits like these take up space on your character sheet and edge out

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the Traits you’ll wish you had: broad, useful ones that represent the core qualities your character will call upon every session. Avoid this problem by thinking ahead to the actions you want your character to take and the fates you’d like him or her to avoid. Write Traits to support those intentions. As a GM, you should usually write NPC Traits even more pragmatically than you would write PC Traits. Don’t bother giving every NPC a full complement of Traits that cover types of scenes in which they’ll never participate. Instead, give each NPC a smaller set of Traits tailored to the uses you have planned for them. In particular, suit each NPC’s Weaknesses to the situations and PCs they’ll encounter, otherwise they probably won’t see any use (for details on creating NPCs, see Creating Non-player Characters on pg. 61).

RULES

Chapter Two  Rules

Think about Adjudication while Writing Don’t wait until play begins to think about adjudicating a Trait. Instead, consider potential problems as you write it. Is this Trait so vague that the GM will have to interpret it narrowly to rein it in? Does it require special equipment or circumstances to use? Is this a Human Trait that introduces supernatural or intangible elements that I should clear with the group (for example, Faith Healer, Absurdly Lucky, or Crystal Magic)? Write carefully to make your Traits easier to adjudicate. If you foresee a problem with one of your Traits, consider discussing it with the group ahead of time, before an adjudication problem interrupts play.

Die Size is about the Odds, Die Number is about the Stakes High die sizes usually result in Passes, so they directly contribute to success on a given roll. Every d10 or d12 Trait that you roll makes your odds better. Conversely, d3’s usually result in Fails, so that every d3 you roll decreases your chances of success. In short, die size affects the odds. Thus, Traits that help a character to succeed should have a high die size, while hindrances should have a d3 die size and Traits that don’t consistently affect the odds of success should have a d4. A Trait with a high die number doesn’t necessarily improve a character’s chances of success. In fact, a high die number is more harmful on a d3 Trait than a lower die number would be. Because of the rules for Trait Damage, however, larger numbers of dice on the table result in more potential Trait Damage for both sides. Die number affects the stakes. Thus, the Traits that matter most to a character should have the highest die number, so that the rolls to which they contribute take on commensurate importance.

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CHAPTER TWO

Apply Broad Traits Narrowly and Narrow Traits Broadly Adjudicating Traits requires GM discretion. The GM should use that discretion to help preserve game balance. It isn’t fair to the rest of the group for one player’s very broad Trait to dominate every situation. To avoid this, the GM should apply broad Traits narrowly. Permit their use only when they are specifically appropriate, not in every remotely applicable situation. For example, Trivia Champion 3d10 could become overpowering, as it could conceivably apply to almost any situation. However, a good GM would limit that Trait to matters of trivial and inconsequential knowledge– that is, only to those situations where a mastery of trivia is specifically relevant, not to every situation where a bit of trivia might help. On the other hand, some Traits are too narrow to see much use. The GM can give these Traits a little push toward usefulness by applying them broadly. For example, a character with Assistant Cake Decorator 1d6 might have scattered local contacts from working on weddings and retirements, or might be able to recall the layouts and service entrances of local public facilities due to experience in catering local events. The GM shouldn’t go overboard in stretching a Trait’s applicability, but should help rarely-used Traits to shine when the opportunity arises.

Adjudicating General Traits

When a character attempts a task for which he or she has no specifically applicable Trait, the character must roll a General Trait instead. It can be difficult for inexperienced players to determine which General Trait is most applicable to a given situation, however. In most cases, multiple Traits might apply, depending on how the character approaches the task. For example, a character trying to “hide in plain sight” by appearing to belong in a secure facility might use Public for stealth, while another character in the same situation might try to hide by stepping softly and using cover, an approach that would use the Physical Trait. With practice, it’s easy to recognize which General Trait applies to any given task. When you’re unsure, use the following key to narrow down the possibilities:

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Does this task relate the character’s domestic life? Does it relate to negotiating or forming a personal relationship? Does this task relate to the character’s functioning in some defined role (employee, student, citizen, mentor, etc.?) Does it involve proficiency at operating in some hierarchy or public space (like a military, a corporation or the theater)? Does this task depend on physical prowess? Robust health and constitution? Physical attractiveness or keen senses? Is this task an internal one related to the character’s values, beliefs, intelligence and psychological resources? In what sphere of life would the character have most likely picked up experience or resources relevant to this task?

RULES

General Trait Key Use the Personal Trait.

Use the Public Trait.

Use the Physical Trait.

Use the Spiritual Trait.

Home, Family, or Romance: Use the Personal Trait. Work, School, or Peer Group: Use the Public Trait. Physical Talent or Training: Use the Physical Trait. Introspection or Psychological Growth: Use the Spiritual Trait.

Losing Traits Due to Story Events

Occasionally, a character will lose a Trait not for mechanical reasons, but due to story events. For example, a character with a Trait like I Take Care of My Sister 3d4 might lose her sister in a car accident. This leaves the character without a Trait, but the nature of the loss would make it illogical to replace the Human Trait with a Vampiric one. How should the group handle this turn of events?

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CHAPTER TWO

The best and easiest way to proceed is to replace the lost Trait with a new one. The new Trait has the same die number and die size, matches the Category of the lost Trait, and reflects the loss of the old Trait as much as possible. In the example above, if the character had I Take Care of My Sister 3d4 as a Public Trait (in response to Q14, “What are your most pressing everyday responsibilities?”), she might replace it with It Doesn’t Matter What I Do 3d4 to reflect a new-found fatalism in the wake of her sister’s death, or I Hunt for the Driver 3d4 to reflect an obsession with finding the mystery driver who killed her sister. When a lost Trait doesn’t lend itself to any specific replacement–this sometimes happens when a character loses a trivial Trait–try consulting the 16 Questions and replacing the lost Trait with a new answer to the same question. When possible, this new answer should have the same die number and die size as the lost Trait, but with the group’s approval, the new Trait may have whatever rating seems most appropriate. Characters most often lose Human Traits to story events, but sometimes they lose Vampiric Traits in that manner as well. The same replacement rules apply, except that the replacement Trait must be a Vampiric Trait and must meet the requirements of the Strain Template. In any case, the story-driven loss of a Trait can be an excellent catalyst for a character to replace a Human Trait with a Vampiric one or vice versa. If no replacement seems satisfactory, consider taking a Trait’s loss as an opportunity to advance the character’s degeneration or recovery.

Trait Transparency

By default, all Traits in Feed are transparent–that is, that any player can reference any character’s Traits at any time. This transparency helps everyone to participate fully in the story by playing on the Traits, positive and negative, of every character. Trait transparency requires players to compartmentalize their in-character and out-of-character knowledge of the other characters in the game, however. Characters should only act on the information that they have, not on any out-of-character knowledge that players may glean from perusing character sheets. In some cases, especially in stories reliant on mystery and suspense, the group may decide to suspend Trait transparency, forbidding players other than the GM from looking at character sheets other than their own. Even in that case, though, players must still be able to at least reference the Weaknesses of other characters, since they might want to use them in Conflict. By writing characters’ Weaknesses on the back of their character sheets, you can provide a quick reference to Weaknesses while keeping the

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RULES

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rest of the sheet secret from other players. Note that a character needn’t know about a Weakness for his or her player to exploit it mechanically. You needn’t know about your opponent’s Bad Knee 2d3 for it to go out during a chase, for example. In a few cases, the story may hinge on a Weakness Trait that the GM must keep secret. For example, an NPC who’s being blackmailed to spy on the NPCs should have a Weakness to reflect the blackmail, but if the players see that Trait, they’ll know the twist ending of the story in advance. In these cases, the best solution is for the GM to give the secret weakness a general, obfuscating name like Terrible Secret or Haunted by the Past. The GM should inform the players that this Weakness represents a secret that they’re not allowed to know out-of-character until they discover it in-character. This method conceals the vital secret while keeping the story collaborative and inclusive. The players know that there’s a secret in play, and can even use the unknown secret in Conflicts if the GM deems it relevant, but must work their way through the mystery in-character to learn more. As a GM, use secrecy, but avoid total secrecy. Make sure that the players at least know what they don’t know. That way, you can get them interested in finding out more.

Writing Vampiric Traits

While some Strains provide strict guidelines or predefined lists of Vampiric Traits, many permit (and require) players to invent Vampiric Traits of their own. The freedom can be daunting. Unlike Human Traits, many Vampiric Traits have no basis in real-life experience; no one can read minds or turn into a bat in the real world, so it’s up to the group to negotiate the limits of such powers within a given campaign. The biggest challenge in writing a Vampiric Trait is in clearly defining what the Trait can and can’t do.

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CHAPTER TWO

Start by reviewing your Strain Template, which will list guidelines for Vampiric Traits in each Trait category. After reviewing the guidelines, you may want to skim the rest of the Strain Template to get a sense of the Strain’s overall flavor and feel. A new Vampiric Trait should fit the feel of the Strain. Next, review the Human Trait that you’re replacing and consider what would be a logical replacement. You might invent a dark version of the old Human Trait or a new Trait reflecting the vampiric nature that led to the old Trait’s loss. You can be as literal or as symbolic as you like. A character who became physically abusive and lost his or her spouse might gain a literal manifestation of that anger, such as Blood Rage, or might gain a symbolic mark of bestial nature, like Wolf Form. Once you have an idea, imagine some actions you’d like your character to take with the new Trait. Don’t stop with a label like Unearthly Strength or Irresistible Charisma. Instead, think of scenes and storylines that exemplify what you want out of the Trait. Often, limitations are more helpful than raw power in getting a Vampiric Trait just right. For example, Mind Control is a powerful but boring Trait. By adding a simple limitation requiring eye contact, though, it becomes Hypnotic Gaze, a more flavorful ability that reinforces the tropes of vampire fiction and will lead to more evocative scenes. Name Vampiric Traits precisely and evocatively. A Vampiric Trait’s flavor is one of the key tools for the GM to adjudicate it, so be sure to get the right flavor across with the Trait’s name. For Traits that are important, common, or complex, it may be useful to write down details on a separate sheet of paper for future reference. This keeps Traits consistent over time and across multiple characters. If you want to carefully control a Vampiric Trait’s power, you might even make a list of what it can do at a die number of 1, 2 and 3, with new uses opening up as the die number rises. For example, Touch the Mind might permit empathy at one die, full mind reading at two dice, and hypnotic suggestion at three dice. Such a progression helps define the power level of the Trait itself and of the story; by having a Trait like this in your campaign, you signal that a much more powerful Trait like Dance, Mortal Puppets! would be out of place.

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Creating Non-Player Characters

Gamemasters create NPCs for many different reasons and with disparate needs in mind. A GM generating a major antagonist or a love interest needs a fully-developed character who feels unique and “real” to the players. In other cases, the GM needs an NPC only to play a simple role in a single scene; for instance, the GM may need a thug to ambush the PCs, or a lawyer to assist a character during a deposition. Then, too, there are those moments when the GM must instantly invent an NPC who didn’t exist until a moment ago: the cabbie whom the PCs have coerced into a car chase, the secretary whom the PCs try to intimidate to get an unscheduled meeting, etc. Below, listed from most-detailed to quickest, you’ll find three methods for creating NPCs. The smart GM will mix and match these methods, using more detailed methods to build important NPCs along with quicker methods to generate the cast of bit players who fill the campaign world.

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Chapter Two  Rules

The PC Treatment

Some important NPCs benefit from the detailed process that Chapter 1 describes. Create those NPCs just as you would PCs, answering the 16 Questions, calculating General Traits, and proceeding with Character Degeneration (if applicable) to replace Human Traits with Vampiric ones. This method is relatively time-consuming. However, by design, it produces well-rounded and interesting characters. Consider using it for NPCs whom you expect to show up repeatedly and to participate in many different kinds of scenes. These NPCs benefit from a full complement of Traits and from some forethought about the lives they lead beyond their entanglements with the PCs.

Generating Mini-Sheet NPCs

At the back of the book, you’ll find blank half-page NPC character sheets with room for only seven Human and seven Vampiric Traits, along with room to write in the calculated values for each General Trait. Use this sheet to create lesser NPCs from scratch by writing in Traits with the following die numbers and sizes:

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CHAPTER TWO

Human Traits Die Numbers: Assign three 3’s, three 2’s and one 1. Die Sizes: Assign two d10’s, three d6’s, one d4 and one d3. Raise these die sizes to represent especially powerful NPCs.

Vampiric Traits Die Numbers: You may write in any number of Vampiric Traits, depending on the strength of the vampire NPC. Assign a die number of 2 to half of the Vampiric Traits (rounding up), and split the remaining half between 3 die and 1 die Traits.

Finishing Touches Trait Categories: Assign Traits of whatever categories you choose, but include at least one of each category and no more than four of any one category. General Traits: Calculate as per the full character creation rules (see Finishing Touches on pg. 37). When you don’t have four Traits from which to take an average, count each missing Trait as a 2d4 for purposes of calculating the average. Using these quick rules, you’ll generate an NPC with fewer Traits than a PC. Focus these Traits on strengths and weaknesses relevant to the scenes in which you’ll use the character. Calculate your NPCs’ weaknesses, no less than their strengths, to come into play as much as possible. A Trait that sits unused on the sheet – particularly the NPC mini-sheet, where space is at a premium – is a failure.

NPC Templates

The quickest way to assign stats to an NPC is simply to write the character’s name onto one of the NPC template mini-sheets at the back of the book. You’ll find these partially-filled mini-sheets categorized by their strongest and weakest Traits, e.g., “Spiritual strong, Public weak.” All of the dice pools and Trait categories on the NPC templates are predetermined. The only blanks are the names of the Traits themselves, which you can either fill in ahead of time or make up as you go along, writing in each Trait’s name as you invent it. For vampiric NPCs, you’ll also need to decide how many Vampiric Traits to write, and recalculate the General Traits accordingly.

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Picking out an NPC Template for a human NPC is easy; e.g., for a character with strong interpersonal skills, choose the Template with the most strong Personal Traits. For a Vampire NPC, selecting a template is only slightly more difficult. First, decide which category will contain most of the NPC’s Vampiric Traits, then choose a Template that has only one or two Human Traits defined for that category. If you want to create a physically powerful vampire, for example, don’t pick the Template with the most Human Physical Traits, because that Template won’t leave room for the Vampiric Physical Traits that you’ll want to write.

RULES

Chapter Two  Rules

Be Prepared The best way to make use of the Mini-NPC sheets, both the blanks and the NPC templates, is to print a batch of them before play begins and keep them at hand. When you need an NPC, just pull out the appropriate sheet, pencil in the character’s name, then fill in additional details as you need them. This way, you’ll have a written document of your improvised Trait names and dice pools in case a new NPC should reappear later or become more important to the story than you had anticipated.

Creating High-Powered NPCs

The standard Trait system can produce very powerful vampires. Vampires with lots of high-die-number d12 and d10 Traits, particularly General Traits, can easily outclass PCs. A character with Physical 3d12, for example, totally overpowers other characters in combat. For most campaigns, that sort of power is enough for even the toughest antagonist, and is easily within reach of the standard NPC creation rules (with some inflation of die numbers, perhaps). For some campaigns, though, GMs may want to create even more powerful NPCs: godlike elders, fantasy monsters, or just legendary foes who can challenge a whole party of vampires at once. To model these exceptional creatures, give them multiple Facets. A Facet is a complete character sheet, created just like an NPC, that represents only a part of a single, powerful character. Each one has its own Traits, has its own Hunger Track, and even tracks Strikes separately in Conflicts. In a Conflict, a character doesn’t face defeat until all of his or her Facets have lost; conversely, Strikes inflicted by one of a character’s Facets remain until all of his or her Facets leave the Conflict. Rules-wise, running a multi-Facet character is much like running a group of allied characters.

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CHAPTER TWO

To determine how a character’s Facets interact, decide whether to arrange them vertically or horizontally: Vertical Arrangement: Each Facet represents a “layer” of the character, like the deceptive human form of a monstrous vampire, or the host body of a vampire who is actually a possessing spirit. Arrange the Facets from top to bottom. The top Facet is the character’s first “layer.” Upon that Facet’s defeat or destruction, the next Facet comes into play, and so on until the character runs out of Facets. The character only uses the Traits, Trait Damage and Strikes from his or her current Facet. A character can voluntarily drop a Facet to “go down a layer,” but that counts as a defeat in the context of a Conflict, and usually reveals the character’s nature to onlookers. Characters with layered Facets are slightly weaker than the sum of their Facets, as they can’t access all of their Traits at once, but they’re still much stronger than regular characters. They also help to keep Conflicts exciting, as they gain a new set of Traits whenever they lose a Facet. Horizontal Arrangement: Each Facet coexists as a “portion” of the character, be it physically (e.g., the body parts of a giant in a fantasy campaign) or abstractly (e.g., an ancient vampire whose many human lifetimes each contribute to her values and abilities). The character has access to all of his or her Facets at all times. In a Conflict, each Facet acts as a separate character, with its own turn and its own tally of Strikes. As a special limitation, though, in each turn of a Conflict, only one of a character’s Facets can cancel a Hold. This rule keeps multi-Faceted characters from slowing down the game. Characters with multiple, simultaneous Facets are vastly powerful and flexible. Their ability to take multiple turns in Conflict makes them good antagonists for powerful groups of PCs. Use Facets sparingly! Only the most powerful characters need Facets at all. Antagonists should never have more Facets than there are PCs, and most of those Facets should be weaker than the PCs themselves. Even the toughest opponents should lose Facets quickly in order to keep Conflict moving quickly. Remember, a Facet doesn’t need to inflict a single Strike on the PCs to give Conflict an epic feel (and to inflict vital Trait Damage).

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The Addiction

The Hunt and the High

Feeding–the tension of the hunt and the climax of the high–defines a vampire’s existence. Before you delve into the rules for Hunger, Temptation and the rest, consider what feeding means for your character and your story. Practical matters may dictate each vampire’s methods of hunting. However, the experience of stealing blood from the living is more personal, more interesting, and much more central to the game than the rules that follow. Put yourself in your character’s place. Imagine the weight of hunger as you watch your prey and await the moment to strike. Does the danger of the hunt excite you, or does it make you sick? Do you pity the people you attack, or do you hate them? Perhaps you try to feel nothing at all. Do you feed meticulously, planning the hunt with military or ritual precision? Or do you deny your hunger, only to indulge it in a bout of blood and shame when your urge grows too strong? When you finally taste blood, the rush of the hunt fades into the high. When the stolen blood fills your veins, does it pulse fast or slow? Does the silence of your hunger feel peaceful, or merely empty? Perhaps the high pays off in a sudden thrill, be it of bliss or aggression. As the last trickle of blood lingers at the back of your throat, do you regret the hunt, or does the blood-high set your wide eyes searching for another victim to prolong the rush? As a GM, you can help the other players by treating feeding as a dramatic subject, never as book-keeping. The rules that follow will help you structure each session, bringing feeding to the fore. Even so, it’s primarily up to you to pace and focus the game such that feeding feels meaningful. Depict victims as real people, not just convenient sources of blood. Prompt players to describe their experience of the hunt, if need be. Ask them how they feel, how they behave and how they look as they stalk a prospective victim. In-character, let the urge to feed arise when it’s inconvenient and time is short... but out-of-character, make plenty of time to fit in feeding scenes, and try to tie them to plot and character arcs so that players don’t see them as mere distractions. The game is called Feed; it’s yours to play as you wish, but you’ll do well to play to its strengths.

THE ADDICTION

Chapter Three  The Addiction

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CHAPTER THREE Hunger

As your vampire character faces stress, excitement and conflict, he or she accrues Hunger. Hunger is the pervasive influence that drives vampires to feed at greater and greater cost to other facets of their existence. Hunger is so strong that one Trait can’t adequately represent it. As your vampire gains Hunger, he or she will accrue multiple Hunger Traits. These Traits work against you, representing your vampire’s growing internal pressure to feed. When your vampire feels tempted to feed, the other players at the table roll your character’s own Hunger Traits against you, potentially forcing you to give in, feed, and trade Human Traits for Vampiric ones. See Temptation and Compulsion on pg. 68 for details. At the bottom of the character sheet you’ll find the Hunger Track, a series of dots starting with single dots on the left, then shifting to 2-dot and 3-dot groups on the right. Each dot represents a Hunger Die, and each group of dots is a potential Hunger Trait. During character creation, you crossed out a number of Hunger Traits toward the end of the Track. The ones that remain, from left to right, comprise your Hunger Track. Each

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time you gain a Hunger Die, fill in the next dot along the track. At first, each Hunger Die you gain will constitute its own Trait (one of the single-dot groups toward the left of the sheet). As your character becomes hungrier and you move along the track, you’ll begin filling up the 2-dot and 3-dot Traits. Each Hunger Trait has a die size of d12 and a die number equal to the number of full dots it contains; use this dice pool when you roll a Hunger Trait as part of a Compulsion or Temptation. For instance, a group containing two filled-in dots (regardless of whether there’s another empty dot in the group) is a Hunger Trait with a dice pool of 2d12. Normally, you’ll gain individual Hunger Dice and fill them in dot by dot. Sometimes, though, you’ll gain a whole Hunger Trait all at once. In that case, fill the first empty or partially-filled Hunger Trait, then move any existing dots in that Trait to the next empty Hunger Trait. A character with a full Hunger Track can’t gain any more Hunger. Hunger Traits can suffer Trait Damage. However, they never suffer Injury and Disability, and they aren’t part of any Trait category. Trait Damage to a Hunger Trait affects only that individual Trait, not all of the character’s Hunger Traits. Simply note the damage in the margin beneath the damaged trait. Trait Damage to a Hunger Trait doesn’t disappear over time. However, when a vampire loses a Hunger Trait (usually by feeding), the lost Trait’s Trait Damage disappears. If the vampire fills the same box later, this represents a new Hunger Trait with no starting Trait Damage.

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Chapter Three  The Addiction

Gaining Hunger

The most common way to gain Hunger is to roll a 1 or a 12 during a stressful situation. For each such roll, a vampire gains one Hunger Die. Vampires accrue Hunger quite quickly, especially in Conflicts, which are stressful and require many dice rolls. Vampires may also gain Hunger when they activate their Strain’s Gifts (see Gifts on your Strain Template and pg. 22 for more details).

Feeding and Losing Hunger

A vampire can eliminate Hunger by feeding. The amount of Hunger lost depends upon how much blood the vampire takes. A character who completely drains his or her prey loses the three Hunger Traits that are farthest along his or her Hunger Track (these are usually the Hunger Traits with the highest die number, but not always, as the final Trait may not be full of Hunger Dice). A vampire who feeds stintingly, leaving his or her victim

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CHAPTER THREE

alive, loses only his or her two most advanced Hunger Traits, rather than three. Incidental feeding, like a lap of blood from an open wound or a gulp of cold blood from a goblet, eliminates a single Hunger Die (not Trait) at best, but usually has no effect at all. Vampires can also eliminate Hunger by grounding themselves through some habit or ritual. See Anchoring on pg. 72 for details. Remember that an eliminated Hunger Trait loses all Trait Damage. When a character refills the same dots on the Hunger Track later, the Trait Damage does not return.

Temptation and Compulsion

Temptation and Compulsion are the two ways that Hunger can dictate a player character’s behavior. Both involve rolls between a character’s Hunger and his or her other Traits, both call upon other players to “roleplay’ the force of addiction, and both occur only at certain times during a session. To learn when Temptation and Compulsion occur, see Anatomy of a Session starting on pg. 72. Below, you’ll find the rules for running Temptation Conflicts and Compulsions when they do occur.

Compulsion A Compulsion is a Simple Roll that pits one of a vampire’s Human Traits against one of his or her Hunger Traits. If the character fails to overcome the Hunger Trait, he or she must act on an impulse to feed, lash out in violence, flee the sun, or indulge in some other distinctively vampiric behavior dictated by another player. For rules about how and when Compulsion strikes, see Anatomy of a Session starting on pg. 72. To summarize for clarity: In a Compulsion, one player at the table takes on the role of Hunger itself and attempts to dictate some vampiric behavior (often feeding) to another player’s character. To resolve a Compulsion, the player who initiated the Compulsion opposes the target vampire in a Simple Roll. The initiating player rolls one of the vampire’s own Hunger Traits against him or her. A Hunger Trait is a d12 Trait that has a variable die number depending upon how many Hunger Dice the vampire has accrued. The vampire rolls a Human Trait to resist the Compulsion, if desired. If the vampire succeeds at the Simple Roll, he or she resists the impulse and behaves normally. If not, Hunger drives the vampire to behave as his or her urges dictate. A player rolling a Hunger Trait can never cancel a Hold. However, he or she can Hold Fails as per the usual rules for a Simple Roll. The Hunger Trait powering the Compulsion takes the resulting Trait Damage.

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Several rules govern Compulsions: 1. Players, not characters, initiate Compulsions and dictate their effects. The whole group plays Hunger cooperatively, effectively “roleplaying” the power of addiction. If a player tries to initiate a Compulsion for inappropriate personal motives (for example, to benefit his or her character or to make another player uncomfortable), that player isn’t roleplaying the Hunger and the group may veto the Compulsion. 2. Compulsions can only compel short-term, impulsive actions of a distinctively vampiric characters. Compulsions usually force feeding, but they can also force territorial behavior, flight from vampiric weaknesses, and other behavior appropriate to the vampire’s Strain. 3. Compulsions must have some plausible motivation, however inhuman. Vampires may behave irrationally because of their Hunger, but they still act out of anger, fear, greed, pride, etc. They don’t behave totally at random, no matter how hungry they are.

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Chapter Three  The Addiction

4. A vampire can never roll a Vampiric Trait against a Compulsion (not even a seemingly appropriate one like Unbreakable Will). 5. A vampire can give into a Compulsion without a roll. 6. As with any Simple Roll, the player “playing” the Hunger may forgo rolling the Hunger Trait and instead force the vampire to roll a relevant Weakness. Because a Hunger Trait has no Weaknesses, the vampire’s player has no such option. A vampire who fails to resist a Compulsion must act upon it immediately. If the vampire can’t act upon the Compulsion before the scene ends, however, the Compulsion fades and loses its effect.

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CHAPTER THREE

Temptation Temptation is a special sort of Conflict in which a vampire faces a personal crisis. A vampire triggers a Temptation Conflict when he or she stresses a Human Trait to the breaking point to pursue the addiction; see Temptation and the Hunger Phase on pg. 74 for the rules that determine when this occurs. In the pivotal moment of a Temptation Conflict, which can be anything from a workplace dispute to a moment of religious epiphany, the vampire must make a definite choice between serving the addiction or holding onto his or her human existence. Temptations are similar to other Conflicts, except that they pit a character against his or her own Hunger Traits, not against another character. Temptation follows the normal Conflict rules except as follows:

Step 0: Initiate Conflict Temptation begins when a character’s Hunger drives him or her to a moment of crisis. In a Temptation Conflict, the vampire’s own Hunger Traits serve as an “opponent,” rolling against the character each round and suffering or inflicting Strikes just as an opposing character would. During a Temptation, the vampire’s character plays the vampire’s human side, while the GM and all of the other players take turns “roleplaying” the vampire’s Hunger. Each turn, a different player runs the Hunger, making all relevant decisions that a player would make if the Hunger were a character participating in the Conflict. At the beginning of a Temptation Conflict, a vampire immediately gains Hunger Dice equal to his or her Addiction. As usual, a character with a full Hunger Track can’t gain any more Hunger.

Step 1: Define Goals and Roll Initiative In Temptation Conflicts, the stakes are always the same. If the Hunger wins, the vampire gives into addiction at a critical moment and loses a Human Trait. Depending on the nature of that critical moment, “giving in” may mean feeding, letting vampiric impulses take over in an inappropriate situation, or simply making a decisive choice to embrace vampirism at the cost of a relationship or responsibility. The GM may set the scene by describing the likely narrative consequences of the Temptation Conflict, but rules-wise, a Human Trait is always at stake. Note that Temptation Conflicts are special exceptions to the usual rule that Conflict goal can’t dictate a player character’s behavior. Hunger is powerful and frightening precisely because it can dictate a vampire’s behavior.

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Temptation Conflicts only have two participants, the vampire and the Hunger, making Initiative irrelevant. Each round, a different player controls the Hunger, but players can take these turns in whatever order they like.

Step 2: Rounds Begin Each round, the player running the Hunger either chooses a Hunger Trait to roll from those remaining on the Hunger Track or forces the vampire to roll a relevant Weakness (for more detail on Hunger Traits, see Hunger on pg. 66). The same player makes any other relevant choices, but cannot cancel a Hold on Hunger’s behalf. Players rolling Hunger can Hold Fails, however, and this inflicts damage on the Hunger Trait powering the Compulsion. Like other Traits, Hunger Traits are limited to a single use per Conflict. Because Hunger has no General Traits that it can re-use, it often runs out of Traits and forfeits a Temptation Conflict before suffering three Strikes (unless the vampire in question has a relevant d3 General Trait for Hunger to call upon indefinitely). Hunger never gives in, suffers no penalty for rolling a 1, and counts each roll of 12 as two Passes, as per the usual rules. When Hunger rolls a 1 or a 12, the Hunger Track doesn’t increase, nor is there any other effect. Hunger cannot, itself, gain Hunger Dice. The vampire in a Temptation Conflict follows all of the normal Conflict rules, except that he or she can’t roll any Vampiric Traits.

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Chapter Three  The Addiction

Step 4: Resolution A vampire who wins a Temptation Conflict resists Hunger and holds onto his or her Human Trait for another night, but gains no other benefit (notably, the threatened Human Trait retains all its dots of stress; see Hunger Phase on pg. 75 for details). When a vampire loses a Temptation Conflict, he or she immediately loses the Human Trait in question. Erase it (recording its name and rating elsewhere in case of future recovery), then replace it with a Vampiric Trait with a die number equal to that of the replaced Human Trait and a die size of d12. Consult your Strain Template and see Writing Vampiric Traits on pg. 59 for guidance on choosing a new Vampiric Trait. Increase the vampire’s Addiction by one, adjust the vampire’s maximum Hunger upward if necessary (it is equal to 5 + half the vampire’s Addiction, rounded down), and recalculate the relevant General Trait to account for the new Vampiric Trait’s die size. Remember that when a General Trait rises to a die size of d12, it becomes a Vampiric Trait, making it unusable in future Temptation Conflicts and Compulsions.

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Chapter Four  The Session and the Story

CHAPTER FOUR

The Session and the Story Anatomy of a Session

There’s a lot going on in a session of Feed. Vampires feed, struggle with recovery, fight to keep their human values and relationships intact, and change as their vampiric conditions worsen... and that’s all before considering the plot and its challenges. Ideally, a Feed campaign balances the theme of personal struggle with the other elements of the story, permitting neither aspect of the game to drown out the other. To preserve that balance, each session contains three special events: Anchoring, Compulsion and Temptation. Each event occurs only a limited number of times per player, always at a moment when dealing with one player’s addiction is interesting and not disruptive. When a special event occurs, one player briefly takes the spotlight to play out a glimpse at his or her character’s personal struggle with vampirism. The special events are mechanical–that is, rules govern them and they involve dice rolling. Special events are really vehicles for roleplaying, though, and they’re bound to affect the overall story. Don’t put them in a box, roll some dice and forget about them. Instead, use special events to give each character a chance to shine in turn. Pay attention to what happens during these events, and enforce the consequences, good or bad. Over time, these little moments will define each character’s arc, which you might think of as a sub-plot weaving in and out of the campaign’s overall story. A special event should never be just a die roll. These are character-defining moments that deserve narration.

Anchoring

Vampires still possess some vestige of human nature. Though only blood can sate their Hunger, they can blunt Hunger’s edge by turning to the comforting rituals of mundane humanity. These refuges of humanity are known as anchors (or, more cynically, as crutches). Once per session, a vampire can take a scene off to indulge any one appropriate Human Trait, renewing his or her resolve and eliminating a small amount of Hunger. This special event is called Anchoring. To serve as an anchor, a Trait must provide comfort, motivation, guidance, or some other strength upon which the vampire can lean. Only Human Traits can serve as anchors. The Trait in box Q8 on the character sheet

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should contain an appropriate Trait if the character hasn’t yet traded it for a Vampiric Trait. Anchoring typically takes long enough to occupy a whole scene. It’s usually best for the player to narrate Anchoring and do it during downtime rather than playing out the whole scene, however, unless there’s something else of interest going on as the character has a beer, consults the I Ching, or whatever. Neither the player nor the GM should give Anchoring short shrift, but the important thing is to establish what’s happening and how it reveals character, not to play out every moment. After Anchoring, the vampire makes a Solo Roll using the anchor Trait (plus any relevant Weakness at the GM’s discretion, as usual). If the Solo Roll succeeds, the vampire loses Hunger Dice equal to his or her Passes from the roll. The usual Solo Roll rules apply for Holding Fails by taking Trait Damage. Anchoring takes a greatly variable amount of time, so it can sometimes serve as a convenient way to get a character out of the game’s action for a scene or two if a player has to step out, or to give a character something to do during scenes in which he or she isn’t present.

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Compulsion

The rules for Compulsions are on pg. 68. Turn there for rules about making Compulsion rolls and adjudicating their consequences. Here, you’ll find information about when and why Compulsions occur. At any time except during a Temptation Conflict, any player (including the GM) can inflict a Compulsion on another player’s character. The player who initiates the Compulsion describes a vampiric urge that arises in the other player’s character, then chooses one of the target vampire’s Hunger Traits to represent the force of that urge. The stronger the Hunger Trait, the stronger the Compulsion will be. Once a given Hunger Trait has powered a Compulsion, it can’t be used to power another in the same session, whether the Compulsion succeeded or not. Upon resolving the Compulsion, mark its Hunger Trait with a check to note that it’s been used up for the session. A vampire with no unchecked Hunger Traits is immune to Compulsion. A player rolling another player’s Hunger can Hold Fails on Hunger’s behalf, but can’t cancel a Hold. Any Trait Damage that results from Holdings Fails accrues to the Hunger Trait powering the Compulsion. As an optional rule for groups suffering too many Compulsions, you can limit Compulsions to one per character per session, or you can rule that each player can only attempt two Compulsions per session. Groups using one of these option rules can adjust the specific numbers according to their tastes and the length of their sessions.

Temptation and the Hunger Phase

Temptation works differently from the other special events in that it doesn’t arise spontaneously in play. Instead, the GM keeps track of each character’s descent into vampirism in a Hunger Phase at the end of each session; during the Hunger Phase, the GM uses the Group Tracking Sheet to record the ongoing stress on each character’s Human Traits (see below for details). When the Group Tracking Sheet indicates that a character has reached a crisis point, the GM plans a Temptation Conflict for an appropriate moment in the next session. This Temptation Conflict determines whether the character will retain the stressed Human Trait or fall deeper into addiction. By planning Temptation Conflicts a session ahead of time rather than running them immediately, the GM can give these important Conflicts the time and impact that they deserve.

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The rules for Temptation Conflicts are on pg. 70. They describe the rules for running a Temptation Conflict and the consequences for failure. Here you’ll find the rules for running the Hunger Phase, the end-of-session wrap-up that keeps track of each character’s degeneration and dictates when a Temptation Conflict will take place.

The Hunger Phase At the end of each session, the GM takes a moment to update each character’s ongoing addiction using the Group Tracking Sheet, a sheet that offers miniature character sheets for tracking each PC’s Traits and the current stress on each one (see below). The results of the Hunger Phase can trigger a Temptation Conflict (and ultimately the loss of a Human Trait) or trigger Recovery, in which a vampire loses a Vampiric Trait to regain a Human one. It’s important to understand that while the Hunger Phase involves discussing the PCs’ actions and motivations, it is a time for out-of-character discussion and GM book-keeping, not a part of the story proper. Unlike Compulsion and Temptation, the Hunger Phase is an event for players, not characters. During the Hunger Phase, each player recaps his or her character’s actions over the course of the session, placing them in one of the following categories: Feeding: The character fed this session, at some cost to the human aspects of his or her life. A character who feeds during a session always fits into this category during the Hunger Phase. Reconnecting: The character did not feed this session and instead worked to reconnect with a neglected aspect of his or her human life.

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Recovering: The character did not feed this session, instead working to fight the addiction and eliminate a Vampiric Trait. To choose the Reconnecting or Recovering category, the player must show that his or her character spent time repairing his or her human existence. The group decides by consensus whether a character really Reconnected or Recovered during a Session. After determining which category each character fit into in the preceding session, the GM takes each character through the steps for his or her category, as listed below.

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Feeding A character who feeds during a session must always neglect or harm a Human Trait to make room for the addiction. First, the GM erases all dots on the character’s Vampiric Traits representing steps toward recovery (see Recovery below). Next, the player chooses one of his or her character’s Human Traits to stress, describing how the character has neglected or betrayed that Trait in the current session. This may require a brief flashback to something the character did during downtime, but it’s not a scene to roleplay, just a quick narration to explain the stress on the Trait. The whole group has input into the decision of which Trait to stress. Any player (including the GM) who noticed a character straining a particular Trait during the session should speak up and suggest that the player stress it. If the selected Trait currently has no dots filled in, the GM secretly fills in 1d6 dots on the Trait’s box on the Group Tracking Sheet. If the Trait already has stress, the GM instead fills in one more dot. Each dot represents additional stress on a given Trait. Because the initial stress on a given Trait is a secret, random value, players usually don’t know just how close their Human Traits are to giving way. When the GM fills the final dot on a given Human Trait (or would otherwise add a dot to a Trait whose dots are already full), that Trait has reached the breaking point. The vampire will soon lose it unless he or she acts decisively. This crisis triggers a Temptation Conflict, which the GM should incorporate into a session at the next opportunity. This Temptation Conflict will determine whether the character retains or loses the stressed Trait. See pg. 70 rules on running a Temptation Conflict and its aftermath. When planning Temptation Conflicts, the GM should make them as organic to the ongoing story and as dramatically powerful as possible. Win or lose, a character’s moment of decision in holding onto humanity or giving into Hunger should carry a great deal of weight. It’s the GM’s job to present a meaningful and believable moment of crisis in which a vampire can’t simultaneously serve his or her Hunger and keep a grip on the Human Trait in question. A character who triggers a Temptation Conflict doesn’t lose any stress dots. Either the character wins the Temptation Conflict and keeps the Human Trait, stress dots and all, or loses the Human Trait altogether and replaces it with a Vampiric Trait, to which stress doesn’t apply.

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Reconnecting A vampire who abstains from feeding for a session can instead reconnect to the human side of existence, strengthening and repairing a Trait that the demands of vampirism have weakened in the past. The reconnecting vampire chooses a Human Trait to strengthen. This must be a Trait that the character has spent time on over the course of the session. The GM erases one dot of stress from the Trait.

Recovery Though all vampires lose Human Traits to their vampiric condition, recovery is possible. A vampire who abstains from feeding during a session can actively fight the addiction, attempting to eliminate a Vampiric Trait and regain a Human one. The player simply chooses a Vampiric Trait to fight. The GM fills in one dot on that Trait on the Group Tracking Sheet. When the GM fills in the final dot, the vampire reaches a pivotal moment in recovery. The GM should plan a special Temptation Conflict for the next opportunity. This Temptation Conflict works just like any other, except that if the vampire wins, he or she removes the Vampiric Trait and regains the original, lost Human Trait with its original rating. Adjust the character’s Addiction, Hunger Track and relevant General Trait accordingly. If a vampire fails a Temptation Conflict to regain a Human Trait, he or she keeps the Vampiric Trait, but also retains all dots of progress toward recovery, and may attempt recovery again next session. In roleplaying terms, recovery involves fighting vampiric impulses while trying to reconnect to a lost human nature. This process requires roleplay. Characters who are spending Hunger Phases on Recovery should address the process throughout the story, and the GM should support them by bringing the recovery to the fore as an important subplot.

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Chapter Four  The Session and the Story

Story Structure

The aesthetic question of how best to pace and plot a story is far beyond the scope of these rules. However, a few issues come up again and again in running a Feed campaign, and those distinctive challenges are worth discussing. For example, how do one-shot stories work in a game about gradual degeneration or recovery? In a standard campaign, how do immortal creatures like vampires improve their power and influence over time? And, as a campaign draws toward its end, can vampires finally achieve a cure, or is their Hunger really inescapable?

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Running One-shots and Mini-campaigns

The degeneration and Recovery rules at the core of Feed work best over campaigns of at least a few sessions. Running a Feed one-shot or a mini-campaign of 2-3 sessions is feasible, but it requires some thought. Here are some tips to get the most out of the game over just a few sessions.

Do It Yourself Feed encourages and benefits from whole-group collaboration on every aspect of the campaign, from the Story Profile to Strain design to character creation. If you’re a GM planning to run a one-shot game, though, it might be best to scrap the whole collaboration idea and do it all yourself. Write the Story Profile, design the Strain and narrow down the character creation options (or pregenerate characters) by yourself before the game begins, then jump right into the action at the table. One advantage of producing a Story Profile and a Strain Template is that you’ll have documents you can pass out to players to get them up to speed on what they’re playing.

Don’t Cram On a related note, it’s better to cut than to cram. If you don’t have time to do character generation right, cut it and make pregens. If you’re going to have to reduce the Hunger Phase to a perfunctory set of rolls at the end of each session, just ditch it and adjudicate degeneration and recovery by fiat. If you don’t think that your players will readily understand Compulsion or Anchoring, or if you don’t have time to accommodate those events, just don’t mention them, or tell more experienced players that they don’t apply in this session. Feed has enough parts that if you try to shrink them down proportionally to fit into a single three or four hour session, they simply won’t work. Cut, don’t cram.

Plot Densely Feed works best with dramatic situations and themes. To play to those strengths in a short period of time, plot densely. Look past the usual sources of inspiration for vampire stories–e.g., novels, short stories, television and Hollywood movies–and look to compact forms like poems, short plays and ghost stories. The best plot for a one-shot is one that sets up a simple but compelling dramatic situation, puts the PCs into a small space with it, then lets it play out over a short period of in-game time. It seems obvious, but remember not to save anything for next session when plotting a

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one-shot. Find the conflicts and questions that are central to your characters and put them out on the table for final resolution from the very start. Characters making defining decisions under harsh constraints: that’s drama, and it’s the essence of Feed.

Speed It Up Use the Special Rules element on the Strain Template to change the way that Hunger and degeneration work in your story. For example, vampires of the Hush Strain gain Hunger every time they use their Vampiric Traits during the day, and they immediately gain a new Vampiric Trait whenever they feed. Obviously, that’s a rate of degeneration that’s impossible to sustain over the course of a long campaign, but it’s perfect for a one-shot whose plot takes place within a single day. You don’t have to make such severe modifications to bring Hunger and degeneration to the fore over a short time. You can make subtler changes, like adjusting the Hunger Phase so that each Human Trait can take only one dot of stress before it provokes a Temptation Conflict. Even such a simple change will ensure that most every player gets a Temptation Conflict over 2 or 3 sessions, and that at least one player will get to experience losing a Human Trait for a Vampiric one.

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Start at the Bottom For mini-campaigns, and especially for one-shots, consider starting PCs as mortals (see The Mortal Option on pg. 35) or as very inexperienced vampires with only one or two Vampiric Traits. This way, the players can jump right into characters and Traits they can understand, then pick up the weird stuff later. The characters needn’t understand the Strain or the setting well, which makes them easier to play for players who haven’t had long to absorb the system, the Story Profile, their character sheets, etc. New vampires are simple to play and are likely to be at least as ignorant as your players are about the ways of vampirism. They’re the ideal choice for a oneshot.

Advancement Awards

Experience and advancement are tricky in Feed. Vampires are highly variable in lifespan, so some stories take place over much longer time spans than others. It’s tempting to provide guidelines about how vampires grow in power as they age, but no single set of guidelines could suit every story, from the night-to-night campaign of survival to the centuries-spanning epic of undead politics. Instead of defining advancement in concrete terms, Feed assigns it in the form of Advancement Awards based on story events. This gives the GM the power to reward characters for their experiences regardless of the story’s pacing and chronology. When, in the GM’s opinion, a character experiences a crucial moment of development, the GM should grant him or her the most appropriate Advancement Award from the following list.

Achievement Description The character has done something impressive or memorable that isn’t a major story point, but is nonetheless worth commemorating.

Examples Incite a slave rebellion in a single night; overcome your PTSD to rescue a dying victim from an automobile crash; dash through broad daylight, immolated by the sun, to execute a flaming suicide tackle against a fleeing opponent.

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Advancement Benefits Each Advancement Award offers a different combination of the same three, basic benefits. They are: Add a Die Size Increase a Trait’s die size by one or more steps (e.g., from d4 to d6). Some Advancement Awards add multiple die sizes to be split among any number of Traits, e.g., “add three total die sizes to any Trait(s).” In this case, the character can add one die size to three different Traits, or two die sizes to one Trait and one to another, and so on. Die size can never sink below d3 or rise above d12. Normally, only Vampiric Traits can rise beyond d10, though some stories might make exceptions for supernatural Human Traits and the like. Add a Die Number Increase a Trait’s die number by one or more steps (e.g., from 1d10 to 2d10). Some Advancement Awards add multiple die numbers to be split among any number of Traits, e.g., “add three total die numbers to any Trait(s).” In this case, the character can increase the die number of three different Traits by 1, or the die number of one Trait by 1 and another Trait by 2. Die number can never sink below 1 or rise above 3. Replace a Trait Replace an existing Trait with a new one, usually with the same dice pool or a slightly better one. Only Human Traits can replace Human Traits, only Vampiric Traits can replace Vampiric Traits, and Traits gained in this manner must meet all the usual standards of Trait category, Strain guidelines, etc. Groups that prefer more free-form or granular character advancement can award these benefits one at a time as desired rather than bundling them together as Advancement Awards. The simplest way to run character advancement is for players to decide when it’s appropriate to improve or replace their characters’ Traits, then to make a case to the group and get permission to make the change.

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Benefits The character may replace a Trait with a die number of 1 or 2 with a new Trait of the same type (Human or Vampiric) and category. The new Trait has the same die size, but a die number of 2. The new Trait should reflect the character’s impressive achievement. It may be a wholly new Trait or a commemorative renaming of the old one.

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GM Advice Achievements reward players for showing up and for contributing to the game experience, yet increase the characters’ power levels very little. You can award Achievements liberally, perhaps even once per session in a four or five person group, so that each character gets an Achievement about once every four sessions. You can and should improvise Achievements to reward players who surprise you, but you can also plan them ahead of time and hide them like Easter eggs throughout your story. Use Achievements to reward players for delving into non-essential story elements, such as minor but interesting NPCs, or mysteries that illuminate the setting but don’t directly involve the PCs. Don’t use Achievements to reward behavior that is merely senseless or unlikely, though, as this will encourage senseless, unlikely PC behavior.

Milestone Description The character has passed a pivotal point in his or her story, for good or for ill. This may be a story point or a moment of personal drama, but in either case, it represents a decisive event in a major plot.

Examples Marry a longtime boyfriend; find and kill an abusive prison guard from your past; finally abandon your career in favor of your addiction.

Benefits The character may replace a Human Trait with a die number of 3 with a new Trait that has a die number of only 2, but a die size one step higher (maximum d10). Alternately, the character may reduce any Trait’s die number by 1 and raise another Trait’s die number by 1.

GM Advice Award Milestones at a slow but regular pace, perhaps once every six sessions per character for personal Milestones. In addition, consider awarding everyone in the group a Milestone to mark major plot resolutions, about once every eight sessions. Since you award them rarely, you have to work to keep Milestones in your players’ minds. Foreshadow them when possible, and request the group’s input on what would constitute a good Milestone moment for each PC.

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Time Lapse Description The character spends a long period of “off-screen” time pursuing personal interest and goals. A Time Lapse represents at least a year, but usually a much longer span of downtime. The precise length of a Time Lapse will vary depending on the story.

Benefits The character may swap the die number of any two Human Traits, swap the die number of any two Vampiric Traits, add three total die sizes to any Human Trait(s), increase the die number of a Vampiric Trait by 1, and replace any four Traits with new ones, retaining their existing dice pools. Furthermore, the character may gain or lose Vampiric Traits. Decide whether the character gains or loses Vampiric Traits, then roll 1d4-1 to determine how many (minimum 0). Follow the usual rules for adding or losing Vampiric Traits, such as modifying Addiction and the Hunger Track. At the end of all these modifications, be sure to recalculate General Traits. Players may opt out of any of these benefits, applying only the ones that they want.

GM Advice In most campaigns, you should use Time Lapses sparingly. They enhance power level substantially, and permit major, time-consuming Trait overhauls. A Time Lapse is the perfect Advancement Award if you want a character to return from a long absence both more powerful and noticeably changed by the intervening years. In rare campaigns that span many years in a short number of sessions, you may use Time Lapses more liberally, but be sure that all of the players are prepared to perpetually rebuild their characters. In any case, when you assign a Time Lapse, it should almost always apply to everyone in the group, both for obvious logical reasons and to keep the group’s power level balanced.

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Training Description The character completes a course of education, training or intensive experience that yields new skill. Usually, Training represents formal education, but it might also represent a “crash course” of practical experience.

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Examples Complete boot camp; earn your doctorate; survive two months as a refugee from a natural disaster; spend six months teaching abroad

Benefits The character may add two total die sizes to any Trait(s) or replace a d3 Trait with a new d4 Trait of the same die number.

GM Advice Training should be a reward for characters who set and meet goals over many sessions, or who overcome unexpected and dramatic events that are outside their usual areas of competency. It should never be merely a shortcut to higher die sizes. The GM should not casually grant this Advancement Award to a character who, say, takes night classes in forensics or who practices with throwing knives in his spare time. Generally, Training should come as a perk after serious hardship, as the culmination of an educational career established long before, or as the culmination of six to eight sessions of determined, costly training.

Victory Description The character overcomes major adversity and grows as a result.

Examples Defeat a nemesis for good; foil a concerted effort to ruin your reputation; save the family farm from foreclosure; kill all the witnesses to a crime you committed

Benefits The character may add one to the die size of any Human Trait. Alternately, the character may replace a d4 or higher Human Trait with a new d3 Trait, then add two total die sizes to any other Human Trait(s). Additionally, the character may subtract one from the die number of a Trait and add one to the die number of another Trait, if desired.

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GM Advice Victory grants a moderate power level increase . Use it as a reward for overcoming major challenges that don’t meet the criteria for other Advancement Awards. You should normally grant a Victory award to the whole group at once after a major cooperative success. Do this no more than once every 6-8 sessions, and never in combination with a Milestone for the same event.

The Cure

Many vampires eventually try to cure themselves of their condition. The rules for Recovery (pg. 77) address eliminating Vampiric Traits, while success at Compulsions and Temptations can inflict Trait Damage on Hunger Traits to make them easier to resist. But what happens once a character has hampered Hunger, eliminated almost all Vampiric Traits and otherwise taken every step along the path to Recovery? What is the final act that can cure vampirism, if any? Like so many aspects of vampirism, this one varies by Strain and by the needs of the story. Below, you’ll find some possible answers to get you started. Remember that even in campaigns with a reliable, definite cure for vampirism, the PCs and other vampires don’t necessarily know of it, whether or not the players do.

Cures Simple Recovery Characters who eliminate all of their Vampiric Traits using the usual Recovery rules are cured. This option is simple and elegant, but may feel too easy. It also puts the Cure within reach of starting characters, which may be inappropriate for stories in which the Cure is a long-term goal.

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The Management Model A vampire can eliminate his or her final Vampiric Trait and become human in almost every respect, but retains Hunger, which continues to function normally. The character can go back to normal life, but will always risk a relapse if the Hunger grows too strong to control. This Cure is appropriate for campaigns about low-Addiction vampires struggling to stay clean, as it offers a light at the end of the tunnel, but offers further opportunity for drama even post-Cure. However, it suffers the same problem as Simple Recovery, above, in making the Cure too accessible for starting characters.

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Incurable A vampire can never eliminate his or her final Vampiric Trait. This harsh option prevents characters from ever beating Hunger for good. On the upside, this option prevents the struggle for recovery from dominating stories that are meant to address other things. It also helps support settings in which all vampires know that their fates are sealed and must adapt to permanent vampirism. On the down-side, this option’s pessimism might make it unpalatable to some players, as it implies that addiction will always win in the end.

The Treatment Vampires need not and cannot eliminate the vampiric condition through Recovery. Instead, a specific in-game treatment can cure vampirism. Its success may or may not be tied to a vampire’s Addiction score or to other factors like time since infection. In any case, the search for the Cure becomes a search for a tangible treatment under this option. This option is perfect for making the Cure a sort of MacGuffin to drive the main plot. The form of the treatment itself might be anything from a drug to a magical item or ritual, depending on the Story Profile. The major disadvantage of this option is that it disconnects the Cure from Recovery, making the personal struggle against addiction feel irrelevant compared to what some injection or magic spell can accomplish.

Redemption A vampire cannot eliminate his or her final Vampiric Trait through Recovery, but must achieve some sort of nebulous redemption to become human again. This redemption is probably moral, spiritual, and/or religious, but other options are possible; for example, a vampire who rose as a result of dishonorably fleeing his enemies in battle might achieve humanity by finding an honorable death, or a vampire who rose for revenge might earn a second chance at life by slaying his murderer. This option gives the group total control over the arc of recovery, keeping rules or in-story logic from interfering with a dramatic climax. On the other hand, the lack of rules can make this sort of cure feel arbitrary. Those using this option should probably set some kind of bar for redemption, even if it’s a vague one, so that players have a sense of working toward a goal as they pursue Recovery.

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Resources

A Brief Guide to Vampire Fiction

Tomes have been written about the massive volume and variety of vampire fiction. Feed isn’t one of them. Most groups will draw inspiration from the subset of vampire fiction that they know and enjoy, and for those who want to broaden their horizons, the countless websites and books about vampire literature will suffice. The guide that follows is neither an exhaustive list of important vampire stories nor a complete bibliography of Feed’s influences. Rather, it’s a survey of four prominent categories of vampire literature–The Classics, Camp/Schlock, Contemporary Literature, and Pop Culture–with detailed advice for adapting each one to the medium of roleplaying and to Feed specifically. Within each category, I’ve included a short list of recommended reading and viewing. I’ve recommended influential and/or exemplary

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works with which I’m personally familiar, not necessarily the best works in the category; there’s at least one noteworthy stinker in each category, including the “classics”. A final disclaimer: I’ve arranged these works into categories according to their usefulness in capturing a particular feeling or style in a roleplaying game. The categories, however, aren’t mutually exclusive. While I list the Universal Dracula as camp, for example, it’s undoubtedly an influential classic of vampire literature, as well; likewise, Buffy the Vampire Slayer falls under the pop culture category, but prominently features both literary themes and a camp sensibility. Like most roleplaying campaigns, most vampire fiction features a combination of styles.

Classics

Suggested Reading and Viewing Literature Carmilla (Le Fanu, 1872) Dracula (Stoker, 1897) The Vampyre (Polidori, 1819) Varney the Vampire (Rymer, 1847)

Film Nosferatu (Murnau, 1922)

Using the Classics in Play Monstrous Vampires The key distinction between classic and contemporary vampire stories is that in the former, vampires are irrevocably evil. They may, rarely, have pangs of conscience or other redeeming qualities–see Varney, if you must– but they are nonetheless abominations who categorically should not exist. Almost by definition, they are antagonists, not protagonists. Just because Dracula and Mircalla don’t make good protagonists, however, doesn’t mean that classic vampire stories won’t work in Feed. Groups who want to run stories in a classic vein should simply move the locus of play from monstrous vampires, like Dracula, to the quasi-vampires (like Mina, Lucy, Renfield and Carmilla’s Laura) who suffered the taint of the vampire without becoming immediately irredeemable. While most vam-

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pires in classic fiction are too far gone for satisfying roleplaying, characters making the transition to vampirism can still suffer from the sort of internal and external conflicts that make for an interesting PC. In a game based on the classics of vampire literature, therefore, groups should consider making transformation into a vampire a lengthy process that only begins with a character’s first Vampiric Trait. A character with a few Vampiric Traits may be on the road to damnation, but is not yet completely a vampire and can still be saved. Once a character reaches a certain number of Vampiric Traits, the transformation is complete; the character is lost to humanity and no longer viable as a PC. PCs in such a campaign might not even drink blood until their transformation is well underway. The GM might rule that Compulsion and Temptation can’t force character to feed until they have some minimum Addiction rating. Campaigns with this rule should probably permit additional Anchoring rolls, loss of Hunger over time, or some other mechanism to mitigate Hunger build-up for “vampire” characters who don’t yet drink blood.

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Cautionary Vampirism The evil nature of the classic vampire also offer problems and possibilities for storytelling. By making definitely evil vampires into symbols for socially-proscribed behavior, classic vampire stories express both the danger and the allure of the forbidden. Ruthven, Dracula and Carmilla act out “aberrant” sexuality, but they are not the taboo-breaking anti-heroes of later vampire stories; rather, they are embodiments of the evil and sickness behind taboo behavior that seems seductive, glamorous, or even sweet. This conservative yet ambivalent perspective is not popular in today’s vampire stories, and so it can give your game a distinctively classic feel. Note that achieving the dangerous, scandalous feel of classic vampire stories may require different subject matter today than it did for the Victorian stories themselves; homosexuality and female sexual appetite, for example, shouldn’t scare anybody in the 21st century. On the other hand, there’s still incest, S&M, voyeurism, torture and execution of the worst criminals... all of these topics still have the power to both horrify and titillate, given the right audience. In any case, it’s important to keep the focus on vampirism, not on whatever “sin” it’s meant to symbolize, as the classic stories always kept their symbolism veiled. Carmilla is just about as obvious as a story can be while keeping a classic feel.

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Corruption and Purity Classic vampires represent not just evil, but corruption. Their stories often revolve around a conflict between that corruption and some form of purity (usually imagined in moral, cultural and sexual terms). This theme works beautifully in Feed, where the gradual replacement of Human Traits with Vampiric Traits can provide a mechanical framework for the loss of innocence. To use the theme of corruption in play, be sure to frame the conflict between corruption and purity in the Story Profile. Is purity a matter of personal ethics? Is it a physical trait? Is it cultural, so that purity derives from faithfulness to a code, a family, or a way of life? And in what manner can vampires corrupt? Are they like demons, tempting the weak to willingly give in to evil, or can they use physical or supernatural means to spread corruption, damning even the innocent by catching them unawares? GMs should also consider depicting corruption at multiple scales. In the classics of vampire fiction, vampires simultaneously corrupt the souls of individuals, the coherence of families and even the health of whole cities. GMs working in the classic style needn’t oversimplify moral issues, but they can show the decay of NPCs and setting elements in reaction to moral decline. The vampire’s very presence is toxic in classic vampire fiction, and it threatens to pervert everything valuable, from the soul to the nation. An emphasis on corruption needn’t preclude the ever-popular “sexy” vampire; in fact, it can make that trope more interesting. See Carmilla, especially, for an example of a vampire who inspires both desire and revulsion. This combination can elevate the “sexy” vampire from the stuff of teen romance to a troubling and complex figure.

Setting and Mood Mood and setting are intertwined in classic vampire stories; together, they are vital to the stories’ success. Absent vampire protagonists to keep the horror of vampirism itself at the fore, the earliest vampire stories depended upon evocative settings to create a frightening, unnatural ambiance. Dracula’s castle in Dracula, for example, serves as an oppressive presence for the trapped Johnathan Harker while Dracula himself is away. Nosferatu’s distinctive visual style is a cinematic version of the same literary trick; it conveys menace and dread by creating surreal, dark, seemingly inescapable environments (incidentally, for GMs with limited visual imaginations, German Expressionist cinema is a terrific source for striking imagery that you can steal and incorporate into your game). Equally important are

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bright settings of serenity, safety, and even humor. These settings offer vital contrast to show that vampires really are evil and unnatural, not just misunderstood; they also offer a sense of danger and loss when vampires threaten to corrupt formerly safe spaces.

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The following elements contribute to the feel of a classic vampire story: Framing devices (e.g., letters, stories-within-stories)

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Gendered morality: Pure vs. Impure Women, Manly vs. Unmanly Men

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Religion as a solution or counterpoint to vampirism

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Gothic tropes: crypts, thunderstorms, secluded manors and woods, etc.

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Conflict between modern science and traditional beliefs

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Vampires as rare and isolated monsters, rather than a true species or community

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Camp and Schlock

Suggested Reading and Viewing Comics E.C.’s trio of horror titles: The Haunt of Fear, Tales from the Crypt, and The Vault of Horror (1950-1955)

Films Blacula (Crain, 1972) and its sequel, Scream Blacula Scream Dracula (Browning, 1931), its sequels, and other Universal horror films Fright Night (Holland, 1985) From Dusk till Dawn (Rodriguez, 1996) The Lost Boys (Schumacher, 1987) Sean of the Dead (Wright, 2004) Santo vs. las Mujeres Vampiro (Corona Blake, 1962)

Television Count Duckula (1988-1993) Dark Shadows (1966-1971)

Using Camp and Schlock in Play Defining “Camp” and “Schlock” Campy vampire stories, when they work well, work because the audience can’t take them entirely seriously. The very name and premise of Blacula, for instance, clearly indicates that the film will be a little absurd. The Lost Boys has elements of a serious film, but certain aspects (like the Frog brothers) deflate the film’s drama and horror, even if they don’t negate it. “Ostensibly serious material that is hilariously impossible to take seriously” is a serviceable summary of camp. Schlock, a close relative of camp, embraces low-class, unsophisticated style. Schlock can be exploitative, crass, and cheesy, and is usually associated with “low culture” like comic books and B movies.The difference between camp and schlock is important for gaming purposes. To work well, a campy game’s plot, setting and characters should be serious, perhaps even grand. The game’s fun and humor come from a style that undercuts the

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game’s ostensible seriousness. Much more common than campy games are schlock games, which embrace cheesy fun from the ground up. Unlike campy games, schlock games should have plots, settings and characters that are unabashedly goofy or over-the-top.

Self-Awareness When planning a camp or schlock Feed campaign, consider its degree of self-awareness. In a self-aware story, PCs (and players) are free to point out the story’s absurdity. Ridiculous imagery, overtly comedic situations, and wry asides are part of the fun. Some characters may be mustache-twirling villains or walking cliches, even as other characters comment ironically on the strangeness of their world. The humor tends to be broad, snarky, and perhaps even cartoonish. In a story that isn’t self-aware, the group agrees to play everything straight, no matter how ridiculous it is. Humor arises from overblown tragedy, drama or horror. Characters take themselves and their world seriously, speaking gravely and emotionally about their ridiculous lives. This subtle, less jokey style of comedy comes from embracing the absurd. Vampires lend themselves readily to both self-aware and “straight” camp. Sean of the Dead exemplifies the former; characters react in horror to the supernatural, but also encounter undeniably funny situations, and comment on the bizarre turn their lives have taken. The Universal Dracula, in contrast, tries for serious horror, but comes off as theatrical to the point of comedy to today’s viewer. No one in the film finds Lugosi’s Count Dracula ridiculous, which only makes him funnier. See Santo vs. las Mujeres Vampiro for another horror film that takes itself seriously against all odds.

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Shock Schlock horror stories, like those from 1950’s E.C. comics, often aim to shock, combining intense horror with an element of surprise and twisted creativity. Extreme gore, sudden violence, and macabre twist endings are all trademarks of schlock. Vampires are perfect for shock horror. As stealthy predators who hide their presence and who could be anyone, they practically beg for dramatic ambushes and reveals. Vampiric violence can also shock. Blood, bright red and in large quantities, is a good place to start... but fanged predators can do much more than spill blood. Mutilation, desecration of corpses, horrible physical transformations and other body horror can shock players long after mere blood splatters have lost their effect. Dice rolls are an

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integral part of Feed and a major source of tension, so GMs and players should consider tying extreme, shocking violence to dramatic rolls. A badly botched or unexpectedly successful roll is a perfect time to break out the bursting eyeballs and severed legs. Weird and exciting results on the dice demand weird and exciting narration. Shock tactics, when overused and overblown, can turn from shocking to campy. From Dusk till Dawn crosses the line from horror to comedy by pushing its violence to the point of absurdity. This kind of camp can be darkly funny while still eliciting genuine horror from time to time. Campy violence that seems cartoonish and “safe” creates a sense of security, which the GM can violate by tossing in a deadly serious scare.

Genre and Pastiche Most of the great camp and schlock vampire stories play with genre expectations. Genre provides camp and schlock stories a framework of cliche, within which they can crank up the volume on tropes for comic effect, or revel in the flimsiness of a pastiche that serves only as an excuse for smut, violence or whatever. At the farthest reaches, over-adherence to genre can become parody. Parody isn’t the same thing as camp, but the two categories overlap; for example, Count Duckula is parody, but its narrator, who treats the cartoon as a legitimate horror series, gives it a camp appeal as well. Consider genre carefully when crafting a story profile. Camp and schlock stories tend to run on the narrative logic of a particular genre rather than verisimilitude, so be sure that all of the players have agreed on playing a game in the style of a soap opera, pulp comic, horror film, or whatever. Genre is the responsibility of the whole group, not just the GM. Players should create PCs who either approximate the genre’s stock characters or are built to get along with same. PCs who seem ill-fit to their setting can quickly destroy a story’s genre feel, and in the worst cases can raise logical questions that undermine the fun of a camp or schlock campaign.

Theater at the Table Theatricality is a great tool for schlock and indispensable for camp. Roleplaying, of course, is not theater, so roleplayers have to find ways to bring a sense of theater to the medium. In-character performance is the most obvious method. Players can use distinct, dramatic voices while speaking in-character to ramp up the drama of their scenes. As a GM, you can contribute by thinking like the director of a play when you describe scenes. Go beyond dialogue and summary; describe the furniture, the dramatic

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entrance of a police inspector, or the way that a condescending, campy vampire gestures with his crystal goblet. Strong descriptions are an asset to any kind of game, but specific attention to “sets” and props distinctly evokes the theater. Of course, there’s no reason that a dedicated group can’t pull out the stops and use actual props and costumes. For more serious games, these tools can backfire by distracting players and making the game feel silly or unreal. For a camp game, though, those side effects only add to the fun. If there’s one appropriate occasion to bring a velvet cloak to the gaming table, it’s a campy Feed one-shot.

Miscellanea:

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The following elements enhance the campy or schlock feel of a Feed campaign: • Dramatic, memorable dialogue (including puns and one-liners, where appropriate) •

Righteous heroes, nefarious villains, and hard-boiled bad-asses

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Over-the-top character voices, especially accents

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Exaggerated gore and outlandish violence

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Stereotypical vampires who have all the generic vampire powers and may even dress like Dracula

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Contemporary Literature

Suggested Reading and Viewing Literature I Am Legend (Matheson, 1954) The Vampire Chronicles series, esp. Interview with the Vampire and The Vampire Lestat (Rice, 1976-2003) Let the Right One In (Lindqvist, 2004) Lost Souls (Brite, 1994) and Brite’s other vampire stories ’Salem’s Lot (King, 1975)

Film Most of the literature above has been adapted to film. In addition, there have been numerous cinematic retellings of Dracula since the 1950’s, from the now-dated Hammer Horror of Dracula, to Herzog’s Nosferatu the Vampyre to Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula. These films vary in ambition and merit, but many pick up the same threads of vampiric protagonism and overt sexuality as contemporary vampire literature proper.

Using Contemporary Literature in Play Psychology and Subjectivity Some of the best contemporary vampire literature focuses on the personal, psychological experience of vampirism. Interview with the Vampire broke ground by casting a vampire as a fully-developed protagonist rather than a mysterious monster. That premise isn’t as revolutionary as it was once (as vampire RPGs like this one demonstrate), but later stories have taken it for granted to their detriment. It’s not just the vampire protagonist that makes stories like the Vampire Chronicles work, but the richly subjective portrayal of vampirism. Conveying subjectivity is harder in an RPG than in prose. One blunt but useful tool is to represent mental states mechanically. GMs shouldn’t dictate characters’ beliefs or actions with dice rolls; however, rolling dice to represent the impact of emotional and confusing situations is perfectly fair. Frightening, confusing or traumatic moments may present psychic obstacles just as real as a locked door or a suspicious cop. Trait Damage gives these rolls consequences without dictating player actions. Spiritual Trait Damage can represent general stress, Physical Trait Damage can represent impairment from fear, and so on.

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Players can paint the private world of their PCs by describing their characters’ feelings as well as their actions. To encourage this, try designating some sessions as “spotlight” sessions for one character. Narrate those sessions from the spotlight character’s perspective, focusing on his or her experiences and subplots. GMs can use the Group Tracking Sheet to make sure that a character’s Temptation Conflicts fall on his or her spotlight sessions. This technique mirrors the shifting viewpoint in books like ’Salem’s Lot and Let the Right One In, and can similarly highlight differences of perspective. “Blue-booking,” writing in-character journals or fiction about a character’s life away from the main story, is another way to deepen characters away from the table.

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Sex and Sexuality Contemporary vampire stories are known for serious, challenging examination of sexual topics. Using the catalyst of vampirism, these stories break down traditional structures of gender and sexuality; they build upon the taboo-breaking (and specifically homosexual) subtexts of classic vampire literature by celebrating the queer. Rice and Brite alike, for instance, fill their stories with gay and bisexual characters whose sensual experiences as vampires serve as vehicles to deconstruct stifling sexual norms. Importantly, both for aesthetic and ethical reasons, vampire stories can explore taboos without making them unproblematic. Vampire stories that thoughtfully engage polyamory and homosexuality, for example, can just as thoughtfully engage rape, pedophilia and misogyny. A nuanced, literary approach can portray disturbing sexuality in ways that break through cliche and cant, yet maintain the horror of horrific acts. Håkan in Let the Right One In, for instance, is a loathsome murderer and pedophile, yet by depicting his crimes and his urges subjectively, Lindqvist shows vulnerability and self-delusion in Håkan that are disgusting but humanizing. RPGs can explore sexuality, but most roleplayers prefer not to. Even the most literary eroticism involves a personal reaction, and many players aren’t comfortable getting that personal at the table. The safest sort of sexual material for a roleplaying game is the most abstract; using vampirism to address queer gender and sexuality may run afoul of someone’s politics, but it remains impersonal. Engaging PCs in sexual situations is more personal, and therefore more dangerous. Some advice follows, but the golden rule is: Know your group. Either as a player or a GM, it’s your responsibility not to bring sexual material into the game if there’s anyone at the table who might find it uncomfortable. If you want to address sexual themes in a story, use the Story Profile process to get the group’s reaction to the idea.

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Bringing sexuality into an RPG demands understatement. Just as the elevated language of Rice’s novels would fall flat at the gaming table, so would the graphic, lingering sex scenes found in her work and Brite’s. In a roleplaying game, moments of decision carry more weight than narration, so a single provocative gesture packs more punch than a long, non-interactive narration of sex. For example, if a PC’s close friend unexpectedly moves in for a kiss, that threshold to sexual intimacy carries the scene’s erotic charge. Unlike a novel, an RPG forces the player to respond, not just read on passively, so the moment of decision has greater power. On the other hand, once the decision has been made and the results narrated, the scene’s stakes are gone, and it’s time to find new ones or move on. Players who want to explore sex itself at more length (for reasons literary or otherwise) can move those elements of the story to away-from-the-table roleplay or fiction. Like violence, sex can be graphic in a roleplaying game, but it should never be long-winded.

Vampirism within Human Communities In contemporary vampire literature, the setting’s social dynamics and genius loci often make it much more than a backdrop. In Interview with the Vampire and Lost Souls, for example, New Orleans is a place of distinctive, liminal magic that resonates with certain characters. Conversely, the apartment complex in Let the Right One In is a subtly wrong environment that manifests almost as a sickness in its inhabitants. The eponymous human community defines ’Salem’s Lot, while human solitude defines I Am Legend. In every case, the place and the community are at least as important as the vampires that inhabit them. To emphasize the role of place in a Feed story, try assigning the city itself some ambient Traits that anyone can use in a Simple Roll or Conflict, just as though they were equipment. These Traits may represent physical features (e.g., Thin Walls in a cheap motel) or more abstract qualities (e.g., People Come Here to Die). Location Traits that are too powerful may come to dominate (and therefore homogenize) Conflicts, while Traits of middling power are unlikely to see any use, so it’s best to give Location Traits a dice pool of upper-middle power level, like 1d10, 1d12 or 3d6 (reserving the d12 die size for places with supernatural qualities). Alternately, place Traits can be Weaknesses. On a narrative level, develop NPCs who are striking and unique, yet reflect the setting. Dud Rogers from ‘Salem’s Lot, Miz Deliverance from Lost Souls and The Vampire Lestat’s Nicolas de Lenfent are good examples. None are typical people, but each character’s strangeness reflects the strangeness of his or her place and time. Just as important as the individual

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NPCs are the bonds that link them. For stories that emphasize a human community, try creating a relationship web that shows the links between characters (including the PCs, if appropriate). GMs and players should collaborate to design NPCs in these tight-knit settings, and should use character creation as an opportunity to link PCs to NPCs via Traits. As with other pre-game efforts at character- and setting-building, don’t let this process become stultifying. Leave blanks and ambiguities, and keep some characters unconnected to leave room for new relationships in play.

Literary Themes A literary game should be about more than combat, comedy or melodrama. It should provoke thought, and it should use the tools of its medium to express themes of serious interest. Not all literature is ponderous, and not all literature must be obsessed with Serious Issues. However, literature should contribute to a discussion. That’s what separates something like Twilight, which exploits familiar genres and conventions for entertainment value, and Interview with the Vampire, which entertains, but also has something to say about sexuality, morality, and other topics. Vampire stories can bear countless themes: sexuality, alienation, death, violence, aging, morality, and addiction, to name a few. The place to articulate any of these themes is the Story Profile, where everyone can agree to the theme and build a character to match. From there, the best way to express a theme in an RPG is to develop it along multiple paths at once. Rather than expressing theme through intricate plots, which tend to fall apart, and can come off as stifling and didactic even when they hold together, express theme through multiple characters and self-contained situations, each time in slightly different terms. As various players and characters take on the theme differently, patterns and contrasts will emerge. Some of the sample Strains in this book address themes in this way. The Hush Strain always involves temptation and secrets, for example, while the Nod Strain can addresses violence in all its forms. See the next section of this chapter for these and other sample Strains.

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Miscellanea The following elements lend the feel of contemporary literature to a story: • Morally complex characters •

Gothic tropes transferred to modern settings

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Horror based on suspense and slow convergence of plot threads

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Vampires caught between human and inhuman values

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Pop Culture

Suggested Reading and Viewing Comics Preacher (Ennis, 1996-2001), especially issues #26, #56, and #57, and the “Cassidy: Blood and Whiskey” special

Films Blade (Norrington, 1998) and its sequels The Twilight films (2008-2012)

Roleplaying Games Vampire: The Masquerade (White Wolf, 1991-2004)

Television Angel (1999-2004) Being Human (UK) (2008-2013) Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003) True Blood (2008-)

Video Games The Castlevania series (Konami, 1986-present)

Using Pop Culture in Play Style Style, not genre, defines many pop culture vampire stories. Blade, for example, moves freely between action and horror, but remains consistent in its slick visual style and its aura of menacing cool. Likewise, the Twilight films strive for a certain pop-Gothic glamor in romance, action and comedy scenes alike. At the other end of the spectrum, Preacher is a gut-wrenching genre goulash, but even at its ugliest, it has style. If style will be important to your story, you must capture it in your Story Profile to avoid later stylistic clashes. The same Strain and the same plot can logically contain two characters whose styles are too different to mesh in the same campaign (for example, imagine Edward Cullen and Blade as

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PCs in the same party). Of course, style is abstract, so it’s difficult to discuss and agree on. Try thinking cinematically: If this story were a movie, how would it look? Who would be cast? What would be on the soundtrack? Support your style with adjudication. The golden rule is: Never make anyone roll for style. Characters should be just as tough, cool, or sexy as style demands, dice notwithstanding. Even when characters fail, let style dictate the cause and the consequences. Remember that dice represent luck, so a failure can represent a style-appropriate twist of fate. When a stoic vampire sniper misses, maybe it’s because an innocent unwittingly blocks the shot; when a cheesecake vampire seductress can’t charm information out of a scientist, maybe it’s because he doesn’t speak the language.

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Legend and Logic Pop culture vampires tend to cope pragmatically with vampirism. Angel’s eponymous hero, for example, buys animal blood from a butcher, and medical treatments for vampirism are important plot devices in the first Blade film. More subtly, pop culture vampirism usually has consistent rules that the vampires within the fiction try to understand. Dr. Netchurch, of Vampire: the Masquerade fiction, epitomizes this empirical approach to vampirism. Rational vampires may eschew cliche trappings like coffins

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for more practical, less glamorous solutions to vampirism’s problems. See Style, above, and consider what balance of logic and style is appropriate for your story. On the other hand, pop culture vampire stories usually occur in a post-Dracula world where everyone knows about vampire literature and lore. In designing a Strain for a pop-culture-flavored story, mix in cliche vampire traits with creative divergences from literature, and explain the discrepancies. In Buffy, for instance, Dracula is a celebrity vampire whose powers of shapeshifting and mind control are flashy tricks unique to him; his fame leads to the misconception that all vampires have those powers. In any case, find some way to explain how your story’s vampires remain hidden among people who know what extended canines and bloodless corpses imply.

Action Pop culture vampire stories often frame their violence as action. Spectacular and exciting, action scenes offer a chance to show off, take a heroic beating, and triumph in the end. Action is fun. However, it shouldn’t be trivial. The risk and drama of violence enhance vampirism’s mystique; if violence gets boring, vampirism suffers. To avoid that, apply meaningful consequences to action scenes even when defeat isn’t really an option. Play up Trait Damage, describing crunching bones, throat-tightening pain, and the terror of bystanders. Players don’t have to fear defeat to feel pain. In action-heavy stories, GMs can use the rules to reinforce the difference between minor combats and important ones. For example, mechanically, a group of nameless goons may constitute a single character sheet (with each Trait representing one goon) or even a single Trait (e.g., a master villain’s Henchmen 3d6). Players can gleefully take out one or more goons like this per action. Then, when the PCs face a single opponent with a full character sheet who can challenge them all at once, the players will know that the stakes have risen. A caveat: Don’t let action scenes become blood buffets. Feeding during or after an action scene is fine, as long as the usual narrative and mechanical consequences apply. If action scenes become such easy and abstract feeding opportunities that they permit PCs to gloss over feeding, either increase the focus on feeding during action scenes, or contrive to prevent feeding from goons at all (e.g., by using non-human goons or public locations).

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Sexy Vampires While older vampire stories address sex and sexuality, pop culture (influenced by Interview with the Vampire) gives us the sexy vampire as we know him today. Angel, Edward Cullen, and Castlevania’s Alucard are all brooding, beautiful men in addition to being creatures of the night; the sexy vampire has become a stock character. Interestingly, today’s sexy vampires differ from earlier vampires primarily in the conservative, romantic appeal at their core. Like male leads in romance novels, sexy vampires are physically attractive, emotionally unavailable, and conceal a good heart beneath a hardened or dangerous exterior. Very often, they are so jaded or distant that only one, true love can reach them. These vampires are, in short, romantic. Sexy vampires are difficult to adapt to an RPG. Their visual appeal, obviously, doesn’t work in a non-visual medium. Using a photo or illustration can help, but sexiness is subjective, so an ill-chosen picture can do more harm than good in selling a character’s sexiness. GMs, especially, should get player input before selecting a picture for an NPC love interest. Beyond their visual appeal, sexy vampires work because of a subtle interplay between vulnerability and outward danger, coldness or antagonism. Overusing the latter traits, however, risks alienating players. Therefore, keep sexy vampires aloof. As PCs, they should develop a solid working relationship with the rest of the group, but maintain their own private lives and goals. They should never become “one of the guys.” As NPCs, sexy vampires should appear rarely and operate in a different sphere from the PCs. Contrive reasons for a sexy vampire to keep secrets, especially about himself; mystery goes a long way. Above all, make sure that a sexy vampire shows his emotional center early (before the PCs decide to hate him forever) but rarely (so that he doesn’t become too safe and familiar).

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The Supernatural World Many pop culture vampires share their world with other supernatural forces. In Vampire: the Masquerade, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the Castlevania games and Twilight, non-vampire supernaturals help define the setting. Likewise, vampires play secondary roles in broader supernatural settings like the Marvel Universe and Jim Butcher’s The Dresden Files series. The three options for implementing non-vampiric supernatural abilities and forces in Feed are:

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1. Separate Dice Pool Magic rituals, enchanted weapons, haunted locations and the like work best as separate dice pools not tied to any specific character. Mechanically, these magical “items” are no different from any other piece of equipment or environmental obstacle; simply assign each one a dice pool. The die size for supernatural elements may range from d4 to d12, depending on whether the story calls for other supernatural forces to equal vampirism in power. 2. Special Human Trait To represent the specific powers of non-vampire creatures like werewolves or demons, use special Human Traits that are available only to characters of the appropriate type. These Traits should usually have a die size of d12, but may have lower die sizes to represent lesser powers, like the supernatural abilities of mediums and exorcists in low-fantasy settings. Don’t create a new type of Trait to account for a new creature type. The balance between Human and Vampiric Traits is all about Hunger and Addiction; new Trait types won’t interact elegantly with the existing rules. Just treat supernatural Traits as Human Traits with a little extra oomph. 3. Special Rules To represent the general abilities of a type of creature, or to represent supernatural qualities too broad to work as Traits, write special rules. For example, a story featuring androids, or a fantasy race like elves, must define their special qualities more broadly than Traits will permit. Use the Gifts, Special Rules and Weaknesses in the Creating a Strain section (starting on pg. 12) as templates.

Miscellanea •

The following elements contribute to the feel of a pop-culture story: Self-referential humor

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Genre-mixing

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Use of modern scientific and psychological frameworks to understand vampirism

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Vampire societies, conspiracies, gangs, etc.

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Sample Strains Danse Macabre Basic Elements Aging Mortal (Neutral)

Appearance Undetectable (Strong)

Feeding No Adaptation (Weak)

Physiology Living (Neutral)

Transmission Spontaneous Awakening (Neutral) Rarely and unpredictably, but always at night, a corpse or group of corpses within several miles of a Danse Macabre vampire rises spontaneously from the dead. Usually, this effect touches fresh corpses, but on occasion, even centuries-old corpses rise, restored to youth. Danse Macabre vampires don’t know when their presence has raised new vampires. However, a new vampire’s ignorance often brings it into conflict with its progenitor eventually. Danse Macabre vampires have a very low infection rate, transmitting their condition perhaps once every five years. Many don’t survive that long.

Gifts None (Weak)

Weaknesses Sunlight Only (Strong) Sunlight dissipates the blood in a Danse Macabre vampire’s system, leaving it wracked with hunger. Exposure to sunlight inflicts one Hunger Die per minute. A vampire who already has five or more full Hunger Traits gains no more Hunger from exposure to sunlight. As the addiction advances, most vampires transition to a nocturnal life to keep their Hunger in check.

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Special Rules Withdrawal A Danse Macabre vampire with more than five Hunger Traits enters withdrawal. He or she suffers shivers, excruciating head and body aches, blurred vision, and hallucinations. Every full hour of withdrawal inflicts one d3 of Trait Damage to a Trait category of the GM’s choice, depending upon the symptoms. To avoid withdrawal, a Danse Macabre vampire can enter a deep slumber from which he or she will awaken at the next sunset; during this sleep, the vampire takes no Trait Damage. Vampires can only slumber during the day.

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Vampiric Traits Personal Theme: Relationships and interpersonal tactics that enable your feeding. Any intense, unhealthy relationship that helps you to feed or to hide your addiction can be a Vampiric Trait, whether it’s a new relationship or an old one twisted by your addiction. Alternatively, Vampiric Traits can represent the interpersonal tactics you use to hunt and to deflect suspicion, e.g., Feigned Sincerity, Sociopathic Liar, Frightening Rage, or Aura of Respectability.

Spiritual Theme: Mental and emotional habits that help you feed. Spiritual Vampiric Traits can reflect the way that trauma and obsession change one’s mental state. For example, one vampire might learn to compartmentalize so that irrelevant feelings don’t interfere with the hunt, while another might cultivate a useful paranoia that keeps him perpetually ready to run. Other Spiritual Vampiric Traits involve some rationalized self-image, like Superior Being, Blameless Victim, or Agent of Justice.

Physical Theme: Physical and sensory focus that aids a life of hunting. Every form of hunting has its demands, and these demands shape the vampire. A vampire who literally chases prey becomes faster; a vampire who sneaks up on sleeping prey learns to tread lightly; and a vampire who hides in the wild grows inured to the elements. Appearance and habits of perception can also change as a vampire focuses on feeding. Bait with Beauty, Cowing Glare and Watches for Stragglers would make useful Traits.

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Public Theme: Contacts, image and property that you invest in concealing or aiding your addiction. A Public Vampiric Trait can reflect a public image that helps you get away with feeding. A vampire who lives as an Anonymous Transient can sink below scrutiny, for example, while a Pillar of the Community can rise above it. In any case, Vampiric Traits reflect personae that are tailored to hide or aid feeding. Even if you use an image that you had already had as a human, a Vampiric Trait always represents a new version of that image that distances you from humanity. Public Vampiric Traits can also represent contacts and possessions that help you hunt, like a Soundproof Basement or a Blood Fetish Message Board.

Banned Overtly supernatural powers. Vampires can have astounding abilities, like almost-telepathic powers of manipulation or much greater strength than their size would indicate, but they are only exceptional, not superhuman.

Description Contrary to reassuring legend, which states that only a vampire’s bite can pass on the curse, vampirism can seize any corpse within miles of a vampire. Rarely, and seemingly at random, a corpse simply opens its eyes and begins to live again, healed of whatever caused its death. Newly-risen vampires quickly discover, however, that they have traded death for a living hell; an overwhelming craving for human blood prevents them from returning to a normal human existence. Humans can’t understand the agony of thirst or the immense relief of feeding, so blood becomes a secret obsession, and the hunt for blood becomes a secret life. Unlike the romantic predators of folklore, these vampires have no fangs and no magical power to help them in the hunt. Their tools are mundane: knives and needles, chloroform and plastic tubing, false smiles and leather gloves. Stealing blood is a difficult, horrific task that comes to consume every other aspect of life. As cruel as it is, though, the craving won’t be denied. Withdrawal symptoms torture vampire who fail to drink their fill. Even for vampires who feed to excess, the touch of sunlight can awaken hunger in full force, nullifying nights of careful hunting in minutes.

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While many vampires rise and hunt alone, a group of corpses occasionally rises together. These vampires often band together for help and companionship in their early nights. In other cases, a newly-risen vampire meets its progenitor and becomes his or her “apprentice”. In either case, vampires who learn the value of cooperation often form small families, conspiracies or hunting packs to help feed their shared addiction. Very few vampires exist, though – only two or three cities in a given geographic region contain vampires – so vampires rarely meet and never organize beyond the local level.

Using this Strain

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The Danse Macabre Strain is about the basic problems of vampirism: feeding, hiding, losing control, and adapting to life as a predator. It’s best suited to a grim and realistic tone, in keeping with the Strain’s lack of supernatural powers. The Strain has two built-in conflict hooks: the difficulty of feeding, and the relationship between vampires and their “progeny,” whom they create unwittingly. Other conflicts will arise from your Story Profile and in play, but be careful of overburdening vampires of this Strain with high-maintenance action or mystery stories. Just surviving night-to-night is a challenge and a story in itself. Rather than superimposing another story, consider flavoring the basic challenge of survival in some unique way; for example, a crime drama and a story set in a medieval abbey would both offer great and interesting–but very different–obstacles to feeding. As vampires are rare and supernatural elements are scarce for this Strain, it’s vital that the human world feel real. Be sure to develop interesting human NPCs, both sympathetic and antagonistic. Likewise, the consequences of addiction are absolutely essential to this Strain. These vampires don’t burn in the sun and they’re not undead. Only the craving for blood makes them monsters, so you have to show how it makes them monsters.

Sample Story Profiles On a cross-country road trip, four recent college graduates die in an auto accident and rise again. Without a clue as to their new natures and cravings, they struggle to survive their first vulnerable nights as vampires in an unfamiliar Midwestern town. Amid their primary challenges of acquiring blood and attempting to salvage their old lives, the graduates discover that they are not the first vampires to roam the night. Eventually, they come face to face with the freed servants and vengeful victims of a mysterious predecessor.

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Legend tells of the Twig Man, a cunning, blood-drinking monster in the looming forests of Northern California. Despite the warnings of locals, logging camps along the Klamath River toil for years without a hint of the monster... until the winter of 1899, when a few lumberjacks suffer a gory accident in the waning dusk. Beneath the Cold Moon, the men rise hungry. Trapped together amid miles of desolate snow, the new vampires and the hard-nosed human lumberjacks desperately hunt each other, while from the shelter of the redwoods, the Twig Man watches...

Hush

Basic Elements Aging Mortal (Neutral)

Appearance Undetectable (Strong) However, see Weaknesses.

Feeding Traumatic Feeding (Strong) When a vampire of the Hush Strain feeds, it enters a fugue state and takes on a hideous, fanged form as the demon inside takes control. In this form, the vampire can drain blood easily, leaving only a bruise-like mark. Humans who see a vampire in this form panic. They also suffer permanent mental trauma ranging from an Injury Trait to a Disability. In any case, they retain only partial memory of the encounter and will not willingly discuss it afterward.

Physiology Living (Neutral)

Transmission Demonic Wish (Strong) A human becomes a vampire by willingly making a request of a demonic entity invested in some object or place. Vampires can bring others to the demon and incite them to make a request. Before wishing, however, a human always receives a premonition of danger.

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Gifts None (Weak)

Weaknesses Demonic Appearance (Strong) Vampires take on a hideous demonic appearance while feeding. While this is normally helpful, it makes feeding vampires recognizable to others of their kind. Those who look on a vampire’s reflection also see a momentary glimmer of its demonic form.

Special Rules Daytime Restriction, Enforced Secrecy, and Quick Degeneration (Weak) Vampires of the Hush Strain don’t burn or cower in the sun, but they must be careful during the day. The demons within them grow stronger when permitted to work during daylight hours. When a Vampire of the Hush Strain uses a Vampiric Trait during the day, every die that he or she rolls accrues a Hunger Die, in addition to any that the roll would otherwise incur from 1’s and 12’s. These vampires commonly vow never to use their dark gifts by day, but such vows never last for long....

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If a vampire of the Hush Strain reveals any aspect of vampirism to a non-vampire, he or she permanently loses all Vampiric Traits just before the revelation. Vampires can lead humans to a demon and show them how to wish without violating secrecy, as long as they don’t offer proof or explanation about the supernatural. Normal feeding doesn’t violate secrecy due to the trauma it inflicts. Any time that a vampire feeds, he or she can willingly replace a Human Trait with a Vampiric one. A vampire who loses a Temptation Conflict is forced to feed and must take a Vampiric Trait.

Vampiric Traits Personal Theme: Define a relationship, an interpersonal trait, or one aspect of your domestic or sexual life. The demon can grant you a relationship that you desire (e.g., My Boss is in Love with Me), an interpersonal asset (e.g., Irresistible Smile) or one fact about your personal life (e.g., I Get Laid Constantly).

Spiritual Theme: Gain or protect yourself from a mental state or gain an occult ability. You can wish for a mental state, like Peace or Joy, but vampires more commonly wish to protect themselves with Traits like I’m Not Afraid or Only Remember the Good Times. Spiritual Vampiric Traits can also grant you occult powers like Tarot Reading or Sense Vampires, but such Traits can never overlap with other Trait Categories and must deal specifically with the supernatural.

Physical Theme: Health, physical skills, appearance and the senses Vampires commonly wish for physical benefits from Youthful Vigor to Unbelievable Strength to Guitar Legend. You can wish for things that are conventionally impossible, like inhuman changes to your body or to rise after death, but at the GM’s discretion, wishes like these may strip you of the Undetectable Appearance and Living Biology that you get from the Strain’s Basic Elements.

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Public Theme: Status, wealth, property and daily life Traits in this category can grant immaterial benefits like Universally Popular or Never Get Caught, concrete benefits like As Much Money as I Need or The World’s Best Smartphone, or elements of your daily life, like Never Have to Work or No One Notices Me. In the case of individual possessions, Vampiric Traits confer possessions of supernatural quality and ensure that you can’t permanently lose or break them. You can also wish for a good relationship with a particular group of people, from the world’s literary elite to the managers at your workplace.

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Banned Excessively broad Traits like Everything Goes My Way or People Do What I Want are banned. You can take supernatural abilities like I Hear People’s Thoughts, but only in the appropriate categories. Remember that you can’t use perceptibly supernatural Traits in public, as they would violate secrecy.

Description It begins with a wish come true, a wish made in the presence of some strange artifact or secluded location. Over time, the cost of the miracle becomes clear. That peculiar object or place is home to demons, who will gladly grant any human’s wish in exchange for the freedom to ride along in the human’s body. The host becomes a vampire, constantly struggling with the demon’s thirst for blood. Whenever the demon wins, it feeds, temporarily transforming its host into a blasphemous form whose visage traumatizes the human mind. And so, vampires gain what they most desire in exchange for feeding the monster and following two simple rules. The first rule? Never tell. A vampire must keep the demons, their powers, and their hunger secret. Should a vampire do anything to compromise the secret, the demon within vanishes, and the vampire’s wishes come undone. The second rule? Use the demon’s gifts only at night, lest the demon grow stronger and harder to control. When the demon grows strong, it forces the vampire to feed, and when the vampire feeds, the demon offers another wish in exchange for yet more power. Some vampires hold this cycle in check for a long time. Others burn out quickly and end up as husks for supernatural evil. Still others crack under the pressure of secrecy and let the truth slip, losing every desire and wish in one crushing moment.

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Using this Strain The theme of the Hush Strain is temptation. Vampires of this Strain can gain great power and gain it quickly, degenerating by degrees as they take more and more of the Vampiric Traits that come so easily. Burn-outs can be very rapid and very bright. This Strain is great for one-shots and mini-campaigns, as it moves degeneration along quickly. For the same reason, it’s not ideal for long-term campaigns, though it can work given PCs who are determined to resist degeneration. To make temptation meaningful for this Strain, you’ve got to balance the vampires’ great power with their two major weaknesses: their inability to explain their situation to normal humans, and their susceptibility to overwhelming hunger when they use their Vampiric Traits during the day. GMs can leverage those weaknesses by mercilessly challenging the PCs with urgent, high-stakes plot-lines. Put them in dire situations during the daytime. Have their closest friends ask them difficult questions that they can’t answer, and then assume the worst. Put the PCs in impossible situations... and always offer a way out through Vampiric Traits, leading to further degeneration. Vampiric Traits for this Strain can be difficult to adjudicate, because they can define either “powers” or facts, like I Have No Criminal Record. As GM, let the demons warp reality to keep Vampiric Traits “true,” no matter how unlikely that is... and, demons being demons, have fun describing the terrible ways that wishes come true. Just don’t make the blowback from Vampiric Traits so bad that the PCs swear them off; demons never discourage degeneration, and neither should GMs.

Sample Story Profiles Magic gleams behind a wisteria shroud in the garden of Hollingshead House, a country estate in Kent. In 1910, a summer gathering brings a handful of children together to become fast friends and playmates in the garden’s vibrant grounds. When beautiful fairies appear with sweet promises and strange requests, however, the children learn that there is no magic without blood. In 1609, an uncanny storm drives the Sea Venture, the flagship of the Virginia Company, off its course to Jamestown and into the reefs of a strange island. The survivors, settlers of all classes from officer to servant, explore the island, and a few encounter a haunted place amid the primal marshes. Ancient spirits on that godforsaken spot seek human hosts, and offer the survivors their hearts’ desires in return. Desperate to live and to flee the island, some accept the pact, gaining power to make the Isle of Devils both a heaven and a hell.

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Los Satanicos Basic Elements Aging Immortal (Strong)

Appearance Conspicuous (Neutral) Vampires are pale and bestial, but with a sinister allure.

Feeding Perfect Feeding (Strong)

Physiology

Undead (Strong)

Transmission ”Rise, My Bride!” (Strong) Vampires can transmit the curse with their bite as part of a deliberate ritual that requires an incapacitated victim and a moonlight prayer to the devil.

Gifts All (Strong)

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Weaknesses No Reflection; Vulnerable to Sunlight, Stakes and Fire; Warded by Crosses (Weak) Vampires have no reflection. Sunlight destroys them instantly, fire penetrates all their supernatural defenses, stakes through the heart paralyze them indefinitely, and they cannot approach crosses.

Vampiric Traits Vampires of the Los Satanicos Strain can gain any of the classic vampire abilities listed below, which each group may interpret freely. Players can invent new Traits so long as they adhere to the theme of classic vampirism.

Personal Anachronistic Skills (from time of vampiric transformation), Bonds of Blood (sense threats to closely related vampires),”Come to Me”, Demonic Beauty, Horrifying Leer, ”My Servant” (one useful, fanatically loyal servant), Seductive Gaze, Toothy Smile (for feigning innocence)

Spiritual Command the Children of the Night, ”I Crave your Beauty” (supernatural tenacity and determination in pursuit of virginal beauty), Dark Patron (the direct aid of the devil, whom the character must appease for each use of the Trait), Hypnosis, Shape Shadows, Speak Mind-to-Mind, Thunder and Lightning, Unflappably Sinister

Physical Animal Form, Eerie Silence, ”Ah, the Healing Moonlight” (heals Trait Damage, but only in moonlight), Impervious (tough, immune to harm by guns and non-stake weapons), Mist Form, Track Prey, Wall-climbing, Wicked Fingernails

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Public Ancient Secrets (access to old prophecies and hidden treasures), Create Werewolves, Fool Everyone (avoid detection by authorities and the general public; does not work on heroes), Feared by the Townsfolk, Filthy Lucre, Haven in the Ruins, Mimic Human Ways, ”My Minions” (a small band of mortal or vampiric goons; roll this Trait for all their actions, rather than creating full characters)

Description “Beware the blood-sucking monster called el vampiro! Ancient Aztecs made pacts with the Dark Lord, creating this horrible monster who preys on the young and innocent. El vampiro! With ease it transforms from vicious wolf, to flittering bat, to suave gentleman or beautiful lady! Determined men of science and brawny luchadores defend the modern nights of Mexico, but still, el vampiro stalks, from opulent haciendas to the ruined ziggurats of the Aztecs! Beware its seductive gaze! Beware its animal strength! Beware the power it summons from hell itself! El vampiro!”

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Using this Strain Go crazy. Los Satanicos serve exactly one purpose: to generate over-thetop, B-movie-style stories about theatrically sinister vampires hunting the pure of heart. The Strain best suits the Mexican horror sub-genre, presuming a kitchen-sink setting in which traditional movie monsters, fantastical science, Aztec mummies and valiant luchadores all co-exist. Mechanically, however, the Strain is generic, which makes it an easy fit for any shade of B-movie horror. The Strain isn’t limited to Mexico, and can support various degrees of camp. The Strain’s Traits suggest villainous characters. There are two ways to handle this. The first is an unabashedly villainous campaign in which the PCs are cape-flourishing lords of darkness. The stakes of degeneration, Compulsion, and Temptation in this sort of campaign are practical, not moral; they make the vampire more obvious and thus invite attacks by police, rival monsters and do-gooders. The second option is to make the vampire PCs good guys, perhaps by making them unique heroic vampire hunters or by putting them up against even worse monsters (as western vampires vs. Aztec mummies, or vice versa). Whatever you do, get in the spirit of the Strain. Don’t try to enforce logic, moral depth, or a grim tone where they don’t belong. You have the author’s permission to make Feed goofy.

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Sample Story Profile In 1964, three vampires arise in the ruins of the Azarola Hacienda: The gorgeous, diabolical Azarola sisters, and their brilliant but diminutive tutor, Pepe. After a century-long slumber, the sisters find their estate ruined and their delicious peasants gone. Commanding Pepe to build a super-science base and to act as their manager, the sisters take up masks as Las Murciélagas; using lucha libre fame, they hope, they will be able to find and seduce powerful men, exploiting them to build a new family fortune.

Nod

Basic Elements Aging Long-lived (Neutral) Vampires age, but at half the rate of normal humans.

Appearance Mark of Cain (Weak) The ancient Nod Strain of the Persian Gulf region is notorious for the Mark of Cain, a chilling and distinctive brand that appears on the forehead of its members... but only when their faces feel the light of the sun. By night, the vampires of the Nod strain are indistinguishable from humans. Once the brand is visible, however, a supernatural sense of foreboding warns all who see it that the bearer is no human, but a monster.

Feeding Perfect Feeding (Strong)

Physiology Living (Neutral)

Transmission Killer’s Curse (Weak) A human who slays a vampire of the Nod Strain contracts vampirism. Obviously, this cycle began somewhere, but its origin is ancient and obscure.

Gifts Physical Perfection and Regeneration (Neutral)

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Weaknesses Red Eye Tell, Fire Vulnerability (Neutral) While using Vampiric Traits, vampires’ eyes glow red. Vampires of the Nod Strain also have a special vulnerability to fire. They can use supernatural abilities to avoid fire, but never to resist or heal burns.

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Special Rules In the territory of non-allied vampires, Nod vampires experience emotional flashbacks of those vampires’ kills. These distressing, distracting visions act as a 3d3 Weakness for as long as a vampire stays in hostile territory. For rules on establishing a territory, see the Feed the Earth Trait in the Trait Guidelines.

Vampiric Traits The Nod Strain offers only one Vampiric Trait for every box on the character sheet. Players can customize each Trait as detailed in its description, however. Players can recustomize an existing Trait by replacing or renaming it with an Advancement Award (e.g., an Achievement or Time Lapse).

Personal Q1 Blood Brother You feel a preternatural bond with a number of allied vampires, your “blood brothers,” linking them to you both in mind (you can share complex thoughts with a glance, for example) and in body (e.g., you never risk striking a blood brother with friendly fire). You can use this Trait whenever you and your “brothers” cooperate. Customization: List your blood brothers. They must be allied vampires whom you trust and know well, and you must name them individually. Q2 Adapted You’ve adapted to a threat in your environment with a subtle supernatural enhancement. For example, a vampire Adapted to Plague might become immune to disease, while one Adapted to Hounds might leave no scent trail. This Trait is always defensive. Customization: Define your own adaptation, as per the examples above. Q3 Blood Calls to Blood With a moment’s focus, you can recognize others who share the burden of the kill. Everything around you pales, except for those people who either have killed or are determined to do so, whose colors blaze in proportion to their history of, and current propensity for, violence. As you recognize these individuals, they recognize the killer in you. This ability only functions on people of whom you’re aware. Customization: None.

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Q4 Warrior’s Bearing You can take on the faceless and frightening persona of a warrior. While you use Warrior’s Bearing, you appear as a terrifying, impersonal force, giving no sign of any private intentions, doubts or feelings. Only close acquaintances recognize you at all. Customization: The nature of your demeanor is up to you. Some prefer an emotionless, “robotic” style, while others wear a mask of zeal or rage.

Spiritual Q5 Hunter’s Focus You can harness one emotion or belief to help you hunt your quarry; choose that motivation when you take this Trait. Whenever you declare a specific and immediate course of action that matches that motivation, for as long as you pursue it, you become immune to fatigue, fear and distraction (but not Hunger). You must choose a specific action, not merely a goal (e.g., “shooting the gunner,” not “winning the battle”). Customization: Choose an emotion or belief as your focus.

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Q6 Accusing Voice By focusing near the spilled blood or other remains of a dead person, you can hear the voice of the deceased in a supernatural whisper, telling you the name of the person’s killer. Even if you don’t know the name, you will recognize this person on sight in the future. You hear nothing if there is no guilty party, or if he or she is dead. Customization: None, but many vampires have superstitions or rituals of respect related to this Trait (e.g., saying a short prayer or covering the body). Q7 Face Death You must make your glowing eyes visible to use this Trait. When you do, your presence sequesters your enemies within your immediate area (a single structure, or your range of eye contact while outdoors). No communication, from shouts to phone calls to flares, can connect those in the area to those outside it. Additionally, those who see your eyes can’t voluntarily leave your sight. Customization: Sensory distortions accompany this Trait’s supernatural effects. You can define their theme. For example, some vampires cause a cloying darkness and silence that muffles communications, while others fill the area with loud static or whispers.

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Q8 Sixth Sense Choose a situation or type of environment when you take this Trait. In that environment, you experience vague but definite premonitions. You receive a sense of future events (dangerous, positive, etc.) and clues as to time and place, but no idea of what, precisely, will happen. Customization: Choose a situation (e.g, transport missions, protests), a terrain (e.g., jungle, tundra), or a specific environment (e.g. Afghanistan, submarines, large Western cities).

Physical Q9 Undying Your body resists damage and death. You aren’t immune to physical harm, but you can use this Trait to resist both violence and physical stress from cold, dehydration, fatigue, etc. Customization: None, but as your body changes and sustains damage, you may develop quirks like unnatural scars or warped tattoos. Q10 Perfect Motion Your will and body are one. You never waste motion, and your flawless coordination helps you in situations from climbing to close combat. Such decisive and efficient movement stands out as abnormal, so vampires with this Trait make an unsettling physical impression unless they deliberately feign the usual human missteps. Customization: Your movement expresses your will perfectly, and so shapes the impression you make on others. Describe your unnatural physical presence: Perfect Motion: Predatory, Perfect Motion: Unpredictable, etc. Q11 Hypervigilance You perceive your surroundings quickly, completely and constantly. This Trait improves your alertness, a subtle, continuous benefit that doesn’t cause your eyes to glow like other Vampiric Traits. Additionally, you can focus your attention so that you notice every aspect of your surroundings instantly (for instance, you can notice every title on a bookshelf at a glance). This use of the Trait does cause your eyes to glow. Hypervigilance grants faster perception, but doesn’t help you to act more quickly or to multitask. Customization: Choose a preferred sense and, optionally, inform the GM of anything for which you habitually stay on the look-out.

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Q12 Living Shadow You can blur and darken your countenance to hide you from both human observers and recording devices. You can use this Trait to avoid being seen or noticed, and while it is active, all attempts to transmit your image (even through a scope or binoculars) produce an unusably blurry or darkened image. Customization: None.

Public Q13 Lead in Chaos Undisciplined, leaderless people respond unhesitatingly to your presence. You can inspire anarchy, quiet compliance or mob violence, depending on your own nature. This ability works on any number of people who can see and hear you, but only on those who are disorganized and lacking a clear plan. Customization: Decide what you inspire in crowds: panic, zeal, submission, etc..

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Q14 Feed the Earth When you kill, the land bears a ghostly impression of your violence, marking it as your territory and making it difficult for other vampires to operate there. See Special Rules in the Strain Template for details. This effect ends when you die, and another vampire with this Trait can seize your territory by scoring more kills within the territory than you have. Customization: None, but you may rename this Trait to reflect your favored territory (e.g., Feed the Sea.) Q15 Path through the Dark You’re devoted to one craft, skill, code or calling on a philosophical level. This pursuit keeps you alive and sane in your vampiric existence, and you’ve invested in it so deeply that you’ve developed supernatural proficiency. Customization: Choose any skill or pursuit to be your focus. Your choice should be narrower than an occupation, but might be a specialized function like Path: Medic or Path: Sniper. Your choice can be as narrow as you like, even as narrow as a specific weapon type, as long as you can expand it to an ethos.

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Q16 Outsider’s Insight Your inherent distance from a specific human community gives you insight into their feelings and behavior. You can often predict their collective action, and you usually know when the community is keeping secrets from you. This Trait applies to communities, not to individual feelings, plans, etc. Customization: Name the community you’re familiar with. It must be a community you’ve observed extensively, but one with which you don’t fraternize.

Description Born before history in the Fertile Crescent, vampires are predators who pay for the sin of taking a life by craving life’s blood ever after. Every vampire is a killer, for only a human who kills a vampire contracts the curse. For those who lead a life of violence (willingly or not), the curse has some appeal, offering strength of mind and body. All vampires bear the Mark of Cain, however, an ominous symbol that appears on a vampire’s brow by day to reveal his or her nature. Humans who see the Mark supernaturally sense the stain of death, and drive the bearer from all human society. As a result, vampires must walk by night or beneath masks, and often eschew human company. War and emigration have scattered the Nod Strain across the Western world; its numbers, though limited and ever-diminishing, remain substantial. Because the curse spreads through violence, soldiers are most likely to contract it. These vampires often form combat units mirroring their mortal organization; camaraderie, common interest and exclusion from human society bind them together. However, vampirism, like war, refuses to confine itself to soldiers. Where violence is epidemic, so is the curse; there it spreads, and there it thrives, as human violence conceals inhuman predation.

Using this Strain The Nod brand of vampirism is a metaphor for violence and its fallout. The rules for the Strain accommodate military PCs, but military campaigns aren’t the only option. Victims and bystanders can become vampires when circumstances force them to fight, offering unusual perspectives on violence.

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This raises a key point about the Strain: it’s not about condemning violence or the military, nor is it about glorifying them. It’s about throwing characters into a world of violence already in motion and forcing them to react. Remember that every vampire has killed at least one other vampire; this can serve as a hook to pull PCs into preexisting conflicts. The Mark of Cain, more than anything else, makes vampirism a curse for Nod vampires. Reflecting the isolating effects of killing, the Mark separates vampires from humans of all cultures and creeds. Even more than the hunger for blood, this inability to rejoin society forces vampire to question their humanity. Characters who share this exile tend to form strong bonds. Those bonds can inspire stories about camaraderie, co-dependence, and betrayal.

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Sample Story Profiles July, 2020. In U.S.-occupied Iran, private security team SDF Sigma engages dangerous insurgents, including vampires, in the homeland of the curse. The Site Defense Team, staffed by U.S. veterans who contracted vampirism in Mideast wars, ostensibly offers “security services”. In truth, the team earns its pay and privacy as a covert combat unit. Alienated from home and country by their secret condition, and surrounded by war’s chaos, the soldiers of SDF Sigma count on nothing but each other. A single woman, in an act of defiance, slays one of the vampiric human traffickers who have forced her and a house full of other undocumented women into sexual slavery in Washington, D.C.. As she discovers her curse, she realizes that she has lost all hope of a normal life, but gained a chance at freedom. As the story begins, she recruits her most trusted fellow captives to kill the rest of the vampires, winning the curse and its power for them all. With it, the women hope to make a life in this foreign land where their presence makes them criminals and their resort to violence marks them as monsters.

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Glossary

Addiction: Every vampire has an Addiction score that measures the severity of his or her addiction to blood. The higher a character’s Addiction, the more Vampiric Traits he or she has and the more difficult it will be for the character to resist Temptation. Anchor: Any Human Trait that a vampire uses to stave off Hunger is called an Anchor. Every vampire may Anchor once per session. Compulsion: A Compulsions is a suggestion that one player makes about the behavior of another player’s character. It represents the influence of the character’s Hunger driving him or her to feed or to engage in other vampiric behavior. A character who suffers a Compulsion must make a special Simple Roll against his or her own Hunger. If the character fails the roll, he or she must act on the Compulsion.

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Conflict: A Conflict is an extended series of Simple Rolls used to settle a dispute between two or more characters who actively oppose each others’ actions. Fights, chases and arguments are common Conflicts. Fail: Any die that lands on a 1 or 2 is a Fail. Fails contribute to failure at a task. In a Simple Roll or Conflict, you pass your Fails to your opponent, improving their dice total while hurting your own. You can keep your Fails instead of passing them over by taking Trait Damage; this is called Holding your Fails. General Trait: Every character has four catch-all Traits called General Traits: Personal, Spiritual, Physical and Public. A character may always use a General Trait when he or she lacks a specifically applicable Trait for a given roll. Group Tracking Sheet: The Group Tracking Sheet is a document that the GM uses to keep track of each PC’s Traits. It tracks each Trait’s name, rating, stress, and progress toward recovery. Hold a Fail: To take a d3 of Trait Damage to keep the Fails that you roll, instead of passing them to your opponent (or counting them against your Passes, in a Solo Roll). Your opponent can cancel your Hold by taking a d3 of Trait Damage, but only if he or she declares it immediately after you take your Trait Damage and declare the Hold.

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Hunger: While Addiction measures the long-term severity of a vampire’s condition, Hunger reflects his or her current state of mind. Vampires usually gain Hunger die by die, but individual dice of Hunger accrue to form Hunger Traits. Vampires gain Hunger in various ways, but most often from rolling a 1 or a 12 on a die. Vampires lose Hunger by feeding or by using an Anchor. As vampires accrue Hunger, they suffer more and stronger Compulsions and find it more difficult to resist Temptation. NPC: A non-player character (or NPC) is a character that the GM plays. Some NPCs, like major antagonists, are as well-detailed as player characters, while most NPCs, like the unnamed shoppers in a supermarket, serve only as extras. Pass: Any die that lands on a 3 or higher is a Pass (or “Success”). Passes contribute to success at a task. Each Pass that you roll contributes to your dice total to determine whether you succeed at a roll. A roll of 12 counts as 2 Passes. PC: The central characters that the players (other than the GM) control are called player characters (or PCs). Round: Conflicts are broken up into rounds. Each round, every character in the Conflict makes one Simple Roll against his or her target. The round ends once every participant has made a roll against his or her target. Simple Roll: In a Simple Roll, a character rolls a single Trait against a single opposing Trait (often another character’s Trait, but sometimes an obstacle or challenge represented by a Trait). Simple Rolls represent simple, immediate contests between two characters or a character and some definite obstacle. Solo Roll: In a Solo Roll, a character rolls a single Trait and perhaps a single relevant Weakness, resulting in either success or failure. Solo Rolls represent tests of a single Trait against no particular opposition. Story Profile: Every Feed campaign includes a Story Profile, written by the players (or, sometimes, by the GM alone), that briefly defines the story of the campaign. It establishes, setting, general plot and theme. It also acts as a guide to creating appropriate PCs. Strain: A Strain is a type of vampirism. Much more than a “family” or subset of vampires, a Strain is a complete, unique version of the vampire myth. Most campaigns include only one Strain, which defines vampirism for every vampire in the story.

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Strain Template: The Strain Template records all of the vital information for a given Strain, including its basic nature, its method of transmission, and guidelines for its members’ Vampiric Traits. Stress: When a vampire feeds, his or her Human Traits suffer stress. Too much stress on a single Trait triggers a Temptation Conflict, which may result in the loss of the Human Trait. Vampires who abstain from feeding for a session can attempt to reconnect with a Human Trait to remove some of its stress. Strike: When at least one opponent beats a character’s roll during a round of Conflict, the beaten character suffers a Strike. A character who suffers three Strikes in a single Conflict loses. When a character leaves a Conflict, Strikes that he or she inflicted are nullified.

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Trait: Characters make rolls using their Traits, free-form attributes and descriptions rated from 1d3 to 3d12 that define each character. Every PC has 20 Traits, each one either Human or Vampiric. The 16 free-form Traits each occupy a single box on the character sheet. Their ratings combine to determine the ratings of the four General Traits: Personal, Physical, Spiritual and Public. NPCs always have the four General Traits, but often have fewer than 16 specific Traits. Trait Damage: Overtaxing Traits can damage a character, applying penalties to all rolls involving one of his or her Trait categories. Each die of Trait Damage adds one d3 to all rolls that fall under the relevant category, making such rolls riskier and more likely to fail. After substantial Trait Damage, Traits can also suffer Injury and Disability, which constitute more serious and long-lasting forms of damage. Weakness: A Trait with a rating of d3 (1d3, 2d3 or 3d3) is a Weakness. Rolling a Weakness Trait contributes to failure rather than success. Characters don’t typically choose to roll Weakness Traits. However, characters often force one another to roll Weakness Traits as part of a Simple Roll or Conflict.

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Quick Reference Rules Making a Solo Roll

Make a Solo Roll to determine whether a character’s Trait helps him or her in a particular situation when there’s no opposition. A Solo Roll involves only one character. 1. The character chooses a relevant Trait to roll, and explains how it might help in the current situation. 2. Optionally, the GM can apply one of the character’s relevant Weakness Traits to the roll. 3. The character rolls the chosen Trait plus a Weakness (if any) as a single dice pool. 4. Separate the roll into Fails (1s and 2s) and Passes (all others). The character may Hold the Fails by taking a d3 of Trait Damage. 5. If the character’s Passes (and Held Fails) exceed his or her Fails, the character succeeds. Otherwise, he or she fails. 6. Narrate the consequences of the roll and apply the results of any new Trait Damage.

Making a Simple Roll

Make a Simple Roll when a character attempts a single resisted or contested action, either against a definite obstacle or against another character. A Simple Roll involves either two characters, or one character and one obstacle. 1. Each character chooses a relevant Trait to roll OR forces the opposing character (if any) to roll a relevant Weakness. The GM declares the dice pool of the obstacle, if any, and decides whether to roll that dice pool or to force the opposing character to roll a relevant Weakness. 2. Each character rolls his or her chosen Trait, plus any Weakness invoked by another player, as a single dice pool. 3. The character or obstacle who rolled the most Passes, Character A, decides whether to Hold his or her Fails by taking one d3 of Trait Damage. The opposing character, Character B, may immediately take one d3 of Trait Damage to cancel the Hold. Character B scoops all Fails from Character A (unless they were Held). 4. Character B now decides whether to Hold his or her Fails. Character A may immediately take one d3 of Trait Damage to cancel the Hold. Character A scoops all Fails from Character B (unless they were Held).

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5. The character or obstacle with more total dice (Passes plus Fails scooped from the opponent) succeeds, while the other fails. 6. Narrate the consequences of the roll and apply the results of any new Trait Damage.

Running a Conflict

Run a Conflict when multiple characters oppose each other in an extended effort to accomplish contrary goals. Conflicts involve two or more characters. 1. Each character in the Conflict states a goal. Goals cannot dictate the actions of other player characters, but can dictate their death or injury.

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2. Each character rolls a d12 for Initiative. At each step in the Conflict, characters act in descending order of Initiative. 3. The first round beings. Every character chooses one Trait to use and one other character to be his or her target for the round. More than one character can choose the same target. 4. Each character rolls off against his or her target as per the Simple Roll rules, with both characters either using the Trait they chose at the round’s beginning, or forcing their opponent to roll a Weakness. Characters can roll off against their own targets and any opponents who target them, but the same two characters never roll against each other twice in a round. If they target each other, they still make only a single roll against one another. 5. When a character wins a roll against his or her target, the target takes a Strike marked with the opponent’s name. A character who fails multiple rolls in a round still takes only one Strike, but marks it with the name of each opponent who scores a Strike against him. A character who takes three Strikes is eliminated from the Conflict. Erase his or her name from the other participants’ Strikes. Remove any Strikes with no names attached (but never return character who have already “struck out” to the Conflict). 6. After each character has rolled against his or her target, if characters with conflicting goals remain in the Conflict, start a new round and repeat steps 3-5. Characters can roll each of their 16 Traits, including Weaknesses, in only one round per Conflict. Character can use their General Traits as often as they like, however. 7. When none of the remaining characters oppose each others’ goals, the Conflict ends. The GM narrates the outcome as each remaining character achieves his or her goal.

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Setting Obstacle Dice Pools

An obstacle is a single Trait that represents a challenge, like a physical barrier or a difficult task. The GM sets an obstacle’s die number (which represents its importance and complexity) and its die size (which represents its difficulty).

Obstacle Die Numbers Die Number 1 2 3

Appropriate for... quick challenges of minimal importance, e.g. changing a tire, a simple Internet search challenges that require some effort, e.g., reading an obscure passage in an old book, climbing a tall wall major challenges that are complex or have high stakes, e.g., investigating financial fraud, diving out of the way of a car

Obstacle Die Sizes Die Size d4 d6 d10 d12

Appropriate for... Very easy challenges, e.g., finding an item in the supermarket, climbing a small tree Moderate challenges, e.g., making good time on a rough hike, making a good first impression Difficult challenges, e.g., running a marathon, performing on Broadway Superatural challenges, as appropriate to the level of supernatural power in the campaign.

Attempting and Resisting Compulsion

A player can attempt a Compulsion against any PC whom he or she doesn’t control, and who has at least one Hunger Trait that hasn’t already powered a Compulsion this session. A Compulsion is a special kind of Simple Roll that compels a vampire to act on a vampiric urge. 1. Player A declares the specific Compulsion (e.g., “feed from the EMT,” or “fight with the bartender”) and chooses one of Player B’s Hunger Traits to power it. The group can veto an inappropriate Compulsion.

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2. Player B chooses a Human Trait to roll against the Hunger. Player A rolls the Hunger Trait that’s powering the Compulsion OR forces Player B to roll a relevant Weakness. 3. Both players roll their dice (or Player B rolls both a Human Trait and a Weakness) as usual for a Simple Roll. Player B can Hold Fails or cancel a Hold as usual. Player A can Hold Fails on Hunger’s behalf (applying Trait Damage to the Hunger Trait), but never cancel a Hold. 4. If Player A wins the Compulsion roll, Player B must give in to the urge. If Player B wins, the Compulsion has no effect. Either way, check off the Hunger Trait; it can’t power any more Compulsions during the current session.

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Running the Hunger Phase

During the Hunger Phase at the end of each session, players recap their characters’ behavior during the session, and the GM updates the Group Tracking Sheet with new stress or recovery for each PC. 1. Determine whether each PC fed, reconnected, or recovered during the session. For PCs who didn’t feed, players must make a case for reconnection or recovery and get the group’s approval. 2. For each PC who fed, the player must choose a Human Trait to stress (with other players’ advice and consent). The GM marks down the stress on the Group Tracking Sheet: one dot of stress for an already-stressed trait, or 1d6 dots if the Trait is unstressed. When a Trait reaches six dots of stress, the GM plans a Temptation Conflict for the next possible opportunity; if the PC fails, he or she loses the Human Trait and replaces it with a Vampiric one. 3. For each PC who reconnected, the player chooses an appropriate Human Trait and the GM erases one dot of its stress on the Group Tracking Sheet. 4. For each PC who recovered, the player chooses a Vampiric Trait to diminish. The GM marks down a dot of recovery from that Trait on the Group Tracking Sheet. When a Trait reaches five dots of recovery, the GM plans a Temptation Conflict for the next possible opportunity; if the PC succeeds, he or she recovers and replaces the Vampiric Trait with a Human one.

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