Hiyas
Confirming something
Besides giving a PC 5 hunger dice every roll until satiated, what happens when the 5 Hunger Boxes are completely filled?
Thanks!
This is explained in a couple places throughout the book, as it effects a couple of things. But the big explanation of it is on pg. 211 of the core. But to summarize:
At Hunger 5 a Kindred can not willingly Rouse the Blood, so at Hunger 5 a character can’t choose to make a Rouse Check.
If something forces them to make a Rouse Check at Hunger 5, they have a Difficulty 4 Hunger Frenzy check.
When awakening for the evening and healing, f they fail this Rouse Check that would push them above Hunger 5, they are driven into torpor (pg. 219)
It doesn’t mention that failing the Rouse on being forced to Rouse causes them to go into torpor, but it’s a logical extrapolation of the text.
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It should also be noted that once you reach Hunger 4+, you become at risk at losing it if you smell/see/taste blood.
Personally, I find Hunger 4 in this instance to be a bit punitive given how easy it is to get there when your starting baseline is typically 1 Hunger, not 0. So I might make a house rule stating that Hunger frenzy checks only come at Hunger 5. The fact that half their dice pool is composed of Hunger dice already seems harsh as is, but thematically appropriate.
Anyone here have in game experience and can attest to whether the Hunger 4 frenzy risk is problematic?
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So far I have only had one player fall to hunger frenzy. And really that was just a series of unfortunate rolls and learning how to play the game.
Since then I’ve had several characters reach 4 and 5 hunger without going mad. But most players are really watching hunger when they hit 3.
It has not been problematic at all. But is a great tool to keep suspense and a little terror in the back of my players minds.
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I ran a game for over a year and the Hunger 4 frenzy risk was not problematic; it was about as problematic as being at 3 Blood Hunger frenzy risk was, and about as easy to deal with. The narrative, however, blossomed when players got that far up and really needed to ‘get their fix,’ after a fashion.
We didn’t find it disruptive at all, the few times someone got to Hunger 4 and were having issues, it was not OH GOD EVERYTHING IS ON FIRE level of issue.
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