Thanks to Dorian for asking for this topic.The Spirit wrote:Feeding, the 1-a-Week Willpower Refresh and Herd, please!
Thoughts in general, the current mechanics, what's going on that we get Willpower from Feeding Tiles but not Herd, how much needs to be described or role-played versus being hand-waved or implicitly successful, or anything else please.
Ok, to get started on this topic, I should talk about blood in general. I actually hate our system and method of handling the blood, though I don't hate the mechanic.
You see, to me, the quest for blood should be a quintessential part of vampire. After all, that is the single greatest driving force (in theory) your character should have! It has replaced two of the other primal needs you had as a human - Hunger and Sex-drive*.
The way we humans talk about food? That should be a part of Kindred culture**. Vessels each have thier own distinctive taste, texture, and flavor. There should be desire for one particular vessel over another.
Unfortunately, our system has too much mechanics all bound up in blood. It is really hard to get people engaged in the ~process~ of hunting, much less the imagination of the complexity of the taste.
Most, not all, but certainly most of our players will respond as shortly and frankly sanitarily about feeding when asked.
"How do you hunt?"
"I feed from animals."
"I go to a club."
"I catch a homeless guy."
When pressed for details, they are like pulling teeth. I think part of that is due to perceived risk/reward, because of how valuable each little glass bead actually is in game. If you don't get enough, you can't use your super-powers. If you don't get enough, you risk social embarrassment by feeding. If you don't get enough, you have to run another fracking feeding scene!
Players are also afraid of how staff is going to punish them. If they go into too much detail, then there is too much of a chance for the staff person to mess with them, right? Perhaps there is something to that. After all, right now there are only 2 times we run feedings scenes - during play (which happens pretty rarely) and when someone pulls a double-blank, which means there is SUPPOSED to be a complication. Staff rarely has the opportunity to run the very successful feeding scenes.
In any case, this boils down to players (and staff!) being very superficial and gallant about blood in general.
Getting back to the questions -
Why do we use the dominoes? a) Because it's the system I inherited, b) Because it works for the mechanical aspects of the system and c) because we don't have time to run individual feeding scenes for everyone.
Why do the Dominoes give willpower and Herd doesn't? You know, I could make something up here story-wise to try to justify it - but I won't. It does it for purely mechanical play balance reasons. Blood is (relatively) easy for vampires to procure. Willpower isn't, and it is not supposed to be from a play mechanics perspective. However, we need some way of replenishing Willpower, and this system seems to work, for the most part. Also, feeding from Herd is like going to the Jack-in-the-box. Sometimes it hits the spot, but it's not exactly satisfying. There is no hunt, there is no risk, and consequentially there is not as much reward. However, sometimes it can be necessary.
However, I'd like to mention - When people run feeding scenes with me during play, I will often give a will or two back if I think the scene was good and roleplayed to the concept as I understand the character.
To sum up - I wish that we had a way to make the texture of blood more interesting than just another shiny red bead. It would allow me to run some more plot that I think is core-vampire. However, I don't see that happening with our current system.
*On the sex-drive note - I realize that some kindred, especially the Toreador, still have and enjoy sex. But that's not the same thing. Sure they can go through the motions, but the DRIVE... the primal impetus for sex, that should be gone. Kindred have sex with mortals as a means to an end. Kindred have sex with each other as an attempt to recapture their mortality - but in my opinion, those attempts should be ultimately hollow.
** Speaking of food - I hate the eat-food merit. Ask me sometime and I'll give you my rant about it.