N00b here, and some questions

MrMojok · Post by **MrMojok** » Tue Mar 27, 2007 1:45 am

I suddenly realized I had never played an RPG before, and I have been quite blown away by this one. What a rich, dark world this game portrays. I never ceased to be amazed by the twists and turns that can occur in LA depending on my own actions. The game is long, too, and that is becoming a rarity these days. This game truly rocks.

As for my questions-- when we use edged weapons and firearms in this game, are the blades and ammunition supposed to be silver like in the 'Blade' movies? They seem to cause the vampires to disintegrate like silver does in the films.

And also-- each time I start a new game, do I have to play through the introductory part with Jack, the 'tutorial'? I thought it was one of the best tutorial levels I had ever played, but in the future I'd like to skip it.

And lastly-- I know about the masquerade tabletop-type RPG Bloodlines is based on. Is there also some fiction that is set in this Vamp-world?

Rave666 · Post by **Rave666** » Tue Mar 27, 2007 2:02 am

Good evening. I agree, the game is amazing. I was utterly seduced the first time I played, even on the crappy computer I used to have. The music and overall atmosphere really made the world come alive.

Regarding your questions, vampires in the World of Darkness aren't like the ones in the Blade movies. It's only a matter of inflicting enough damage to destroy them; i.e. even a baseball bat will destroy them if you hit them enough times. The vampire body is tough but not indestructible.

The tutorial is cool, but you can skip it by selecting the appropriate dialog option when you encounter Jack.

I believe White Wolf has published several novels regarding V:TM, but I haven't read any.

Good hunting.

Rave the Merry Malkavian

Celacena · Post by **Celacena** » Fri Mar 30, 2007 8:40 am

the weapons have a 'lethality factor' - the premise is that a vampiric body is not immune to damage, but regenerates. aggravated damage, by fire or electricity/supernatural power - heals slower than other damage.
without much extreme damage a vamp could live many life-times, but expose the vamp to damage inflicted at a faster rate than it heals and death eventually results. ingesting blood speeds up the healing process.

in this game vamps have a quasi-supernatural curse, but the full physiology is not discussed. as vamps can feed off each other (diaberlising) then they appear to have functioning circulatory system yet in the Fu-lab experiments and underwater swimming, the vamp doesn't need to breathe. I'm not sure how to reconcile a mobile creature that doesn't have respiration.
anyhow, it is just a story/game.

personally, I would have adapted the vamp to need to breathe - even if the rate could be very slow when not engaged in activity.

forgedude · Post by **forgedude** » Fri Mar 30, 2007 12:23 pm

Celacena wrote: personally, I would have adapted the vamp to need to breathe - even if the rate could be very slow when not engaged in activity.

I would think that given a vampires limited need for oxygen, they may well be able to absorb sufficient through the skin. Even in a water environment. Vampires can still inhale, but they really don't need to. Some apparently smoke as the regular action does help with the masquerade .

Jhereg · Post by **Jhereg** » Sat Mar 31, 2007 9:07 am

forgedude wrote:I would think that given a vampires limited need for oxygen, they may well be able to absorb sufficient through the skin. Even in a water environment. Vampires can still inhale, but they really don't need to. Some apparently smoke as the regular action does help with the masquerade .

I would argue that, inasmuch as a vampire is already dead, any activity they undertake that would appear to involve breathing is part of the Masquerade - an attempt to fit into mortal society.

Having said that, as they are mobile, and carbon-based units (to borrow an old Star Trek adage), it is axiomatic that they require oxygen, if for no other reason than to allow their muscles to function. I'll skip past the biological basis for this in the main part, but for muscles to work, they require energy. That energy comes from what is, in effect, burning - oxydization. That requires oxygen. This much is chemistry, not biology. To oxydize something, you need oxygen. Quid pro quo.

This, IMO is why vampires have to drink blood. By drinking the arterial blood of living beings, they acquire oxygenated blood, which provides them with the oxygen they need to survive. Hence, they have no need to breathe - they don't even have the ability (they're dead).

They gain necessary fuel (nutrition) to oxydize from the same blood. As Jack noted, blood is everything to a vampire. It gives them everything they need. Food to burn, oxygen to burn it with, and thus, energy to survive.

Without prejudice, I suspect that a vampire could appear to eat and appear to breathe, but the food would not metabolize, and the air would not metabolize, either. If a vampire ate a hamburger, what went out the other end would be a marginally mutilated hamburger. No digestion, no assimilation, no metabolization. Just waste discharge. A vampire would regard eating human food like we regard post-it notes. Necessary in some situations, but largely irrelevant to survival. Eating food, to a vampire, would be about as important to us as eating gravel. Breathing air would be no more significant.

Anaximander · Post by **Anaximander** » Sat Mar 31, 2007 1:38 pm

Without prejudice, I suspect that a vampire could appear to eat and appear to breathe, but the food would not metabolize, and the air would not metabolize, either. If a vampire ate a hamburger, what went out the other end would be a marginally mutilated hamburger. No digestion, no assimilation, no metabolization. Just waste discharge. A vampire would regard eating human food like we regard post-it notes. Necessary in some situations, but largely irrelevant to survival. Eating food, to a vampire, would be about as important to us as eating gravel. Breathing air would be no more significant.

I belive the PnP rules say that vampire bodies reject normal food outright, and the vampire who tries to ingest it will just spew it right back up. In PnP, however, vampires can have "merits" and "flaws," which are roughly equivilant to the histories we can choose from in this game. One such merit is Blush of Life. A vampire with the Blush of Life merit will have rosy, healthy looking skin, warm blood, a heart that beats to pump it, and will even breathe. But only when they have living blood in their system. Once that blood is fully consumed, they appear dead again.

I have even read of a Thaumaturgical path that can allow the warlock to eat food and gain sustenance from it as though it were blood. A nice trick if you really need to convince someone that you aren't a vampire.