Thin-Blood Alchemy: Difference between revisions
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''<sub>Core Book, pg. 284</sub>'' | ''<sub>Core Book, pg. 284</sub>'' | ||
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== GAOLER'S BANE == | |||
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'''Thin-Blood Alchemy''' • | |||
''By imbibing this formula, the alchemist enables their body to accomplish unbelievable feats of contortion and dislocation, allowing for escape from even the most cunning of physical restraints.'' | |||
'''Ingredients:''' The alchemist's blood, sanguine human blood, two weeks' worth of contents of a regularly used grill's grease trap. | |||
'''Activation Cost:''' One Rouse Check | |||
'''System:''' Upon activating this ability, the alchemist can twist, bend, or stretch their bodies in minor wats to free themselves from physical bonds or grapples. Dexterity + Larceny checks for the purpose of slipping one's self free of handcuffs, zip-ties, or other ligatures get a two-dice bonus. Additionally, any Strength + Brawl rolls made to escape a grapple also receive a two-dice bonus. | |||
'''Duration:''' One scene or until voluntarily ended. | |||
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''<sub>Winter's Teeth, vol. 2</sub>'' | |||
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== | == MERCURIAN TONGUE == | ||
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'''Thin-Blood Alchemy''' • | |||
''The alchemist can speak the native language of the mortal whose blood they used in the formula, and the native languages of those they feed from until they next sleep.'' | |||
'''Ingredients:''' The alchemist’s Blood, blood of a mortal who speaks a different native language than the alchemist, the tongue of a fish or bird, hot sauce from another country, and copper filings. | |||
'''Activation Cost:''' One Rouse Check | |||
'''System:''' The alchemist can speak the native language of the mortal whose blood they used in the formula. By spending a Willpower point and feeding from a mortal, they can switch their new language to that mortal’s native language. | |||
'''Duration:''' One night, or until the alchemist feeds from someone with the same native language as the alchemist. | |||
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''<sub>Players Guide, pg. 103</sub>'' | |||
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== PLUG-IN == | |||
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'''Thin-Blood Alchemy''' • | '''Thin-Blood Alchemy''' • | ||
'' | ''The alchemist is able to produce a low-level electrical current from their body, powering lights, chargers, or other devices.'' | ||
'''Ingredients:''' | '''Ingredients:''' The alchemist’s blood, sanguine blood, liquid nitrogen, tungsten shavings, and a broken battery. | ||
'''Activation Cost:''' One Rouse Check | '''Activation Cost:''' One Rouse Check | ||
'''Dice Pools:''' | '''Dice Pools:''' Resolve + Alchemy | ||
'''System:''' Make a | '''System:''' Make a Resolve + Alchemy test (Difficulty 2). On a success, the alchemist fills with electrical currents that can be used to power small devices, such as a smartphone, a personal computer, or a light bulb. These currents power the item by touch; it loses power when contact stops. | ||
'''Duration:''' | '''Duration:''' If lighting a room: one scene. If powering a device, until it reaches half battery charge. | ||
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''<sub> | ''<sub>Players Guide, pg. 103</sub>'' | ||
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== | == PORTABLE SHADE == | ||
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'''Thin-Blood Alchemy''' • | '''Thin-Blood Alchemy''' • | ||
'' | ''Portable Shade, or even more irreverently, “suntan lotion,” is a formula developed by Cainites on the Path of the Sun to augment a thin-blood’s already substantial resistance to sunlight to near mortal levels. While it doesn’t render the subject completely immune, it extends the time they can endure daylight while masking immediate burns sustained by the sun.'' | ||
'''Ingredients:''' | '''Ingredients:''' Blood of the Alchemist, sanguinic mortal blood, fresh plant leaves. Some alchemists also use various off-the-shelf sunblock ointments in the mix, though it is unknown whether they contribute significantly to the formula. | ||
'''Activation Cost:''' One Rouse Check | '''Activation Cost:''' One Rouse Check | ||
'''Dice Pools:''' Stamina + Alchemy | |||
'''System:''' | '''System:''' Make a Stamina + Alchemy test when ingesting the formula. The user is able to endure sunlight without taking damage for a number of hours equal to the number of successes on the test. At sunset, make another test with the same pool, this time with a Difficulty equal to the number of hours spent in daylight. A failure causes the user to sustain a level of aggravated damage, while a total failure has them sustain two, as the accumulated sunlight boils the Blood in their veins. | ||
'''Duration:''' | '''Duration:''' A number of hours equal to a Stamina + Alchemy test, or the next sunset, whichever comes first. | ||
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''<sub> | ''<sub>Sabbat Sect Book, pg. 53</sub>'' | ||
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Revision as of 17:31, 4 April 2023
THIN-BLOOD ALCHEMY
Cooking | Homebrew | The Craft | Mash | Kineticism
The thin Blood of the latest generations holds barely any power of its own. But certain thin-bloods have learned to use it as a catalyst, awakening the latent power in everything from human trauma to gasoline. Born of the street drug scene and cocktail culture as much as it w as uncovered by instinct or in moldering medieval texts, thin-blood Alchemy may be the defining art of the next-millennium lick. By blending strongly resonant human blood, and sometimes other substances, with their own vitae, Alchemists can counterfeit a wide range of powers from other Disciplines – and some unique powers of their own. Rumors already abound of specific elixirs that grant the ability to walk in sunlight, commune with Antediluvians, or achieve Golconda. But for now, the street-level cookers have all they can do to stay out of the Court’s sight – plenty of elders consider Alchemy nothing but watered-down diablerie.
Alchemy can counterfeit some Blood Sorcery powers (those that affect the caster’s Blood), but not Rituals. The Storyteller can rule any other power off-limits to Alchemy if they worry about game balance or the plausibility of the fiction – and reverse themselves later if they wish, or hint at unique recipes developed in Switzerland or hidden in a Cairo library. The Discipline is young, and thin-bloods have hardly explored every possible working or tasted every possible cocktail.
CHARACTERISTICS
- Type: Alchemy
- Masquerade Threat:
Varies as widely as the powers it counterfeits and the method used.
- Blood Resonance:
Required for each formula and varies accordingly.
All formulae require vitae from the Alchemist and human blood of the correct Resonance. The Resonant human blood can be stored in a blood bag, or in a Starbucks to-go cup for that matter. The specific amount needed depends on the degree of the donor’s Resonance and on the Storyteller’s whim.
In these rules, “power level” always refers to the level of Alchemy involved, not the level of the power counterfeited with the formula.
All formulae have a cost to distill, and then the cost to activate. The distillation cost reflects the fact that all formulae include the Alchemist’s own vitae: A single Rouse Check. Activation cost for a formula is the same as using the power normally: free, or some number of additional Rouse Checks.
Once activated, the Alchemist makes a distillation roll to determine how effective the particular mixture was. Each version of Alchemy builds a different dice pool for the distillation roll. The more successes, the more effective the mixture.
Some powers require their own dice rolls to take effect, or to measure the degree of success. The Alchemist makes those rolls where needed, substituting their rating in Thin-Blood Alchemy for the specific Discipline rating where relevant.
To learn a new formula requires research time, whether the Alchemist spends it poring through libraries or in meditation or on tasting expeditions or performing laboratory experimentation. Players should write down which formulae their character already knows, and any special ingredients it requires. A character receives a formula for free for each dot in Thin-Blood Alchemy and can purchase additional formulae with experience and experimentation.
DISTILLATION METHODS
When the first dot in Thin-Blood Alchemy is gained, the Alchemist chooses their method. This is the way they perform their distillation. Learning a different method means starting from scratch, essentially counting it as a separate Discipline. In this case, formulae for one method do not apply to other methods known, and the same formula must be learnt separately for each method.
- Athanor Corporis: The Alchemist uses their own body as the athanor, or alchemical furnace. This might be a bio-feedback routine, the result of an initial elixir consumed at initiation, or simply intuitive understanding of how resonances interact. Ingredients usually consist of different types of resonance mixes, requiring the Alchemist to sample the blood of multiple victims to get just the right blend.
The Alchemist drinks the different types of resonant blood required and the process is performed within their veins with a distillation roll of Stamina + Alchemy, together with a Rouse Check.
Only one power can be active at a time, and a new power must be distilled before it can be activated. This usually takes at least three turns of concentration, during which the Alchemist can do nothing else.
- Calcinatio: The Alchemist uses the body of a human as the athanor, adjusting their biophysical state by means of emotional pressure and spoken incantations. (Some practitioners of Calcinatio use drugs on their subjects instead.) The Alchemist then feeds their Blood to the chosen human, paying the distillation cost, and makes the distillation roll with Manipulation + Alchemy.
The human’s entire body distills the formula. The Alchemist then drinks their blood to use the power (required Hunger slaked equals power level minus 1).
The Alchemist can only distill one power per victim, though the victim retains the formula within them as long as they’re kept in the same emotional state; each power takes as long to activate as it takes to drain that quantity of blood (p. 212).
- Fixatio: Lacking the physical or social predilections of the other methods, the Alchemist uses a conventional athanor such as a kiln, a metalworking furnace, a meth cooker, a repurposed propane tank, or the like. This method most resembles “classical” alchemy: the Alchemist pours their Blood as well as inert, usually rare, ingredients into the athanor, pays the distillation cost, and distills them inside it with an Intelligence + Alchemy roll.
The resulting formulae are fixed, meaning that the Alchemist can carry them around on their person and imbibe them to activate their power. (Roll the distillation roll upon consumption, not upon production.) However, without a laboratory, they cannot make any more – at most, they might be able to “one-pot” a weak (Level 3 or less) formula using a pressure-cooker or other field expedient. Using such unsuitable equipment reduces the distillation dice pool by 2 dice.
The Alchemist can carry a number of fixed formulae (of any level) equal to their Wits or Dexterity – keeping the vials safe, stable, hidden, and leakproof is not a trivial task. (The Storyteller can decide if each vial takes up the space of a syringe, a can of Red Bull, or a thermos.) The Alchemist can store a number of fixed formulae (of any level) equal to twice the sum of Alchemy plus their dots in Haven: a refrigerator is almost a necessity. Fixed does not necessarily mean shelf stable, after all.
The Alchemist can activate one power per turn.