All That Glitters Is Red:The Other

Assorted Information

Predator’s Taint: There is no longer any Predator’s Taint. Vampires recognize one another, and the Other dislikes other vampires, but not to the point of starting meaningless fights.

Imprisonment

These replace the systems for frenzy found on pp. 103–105 of Vampire: Blood and Smoke.

The Other’s Imprisonment of a vampire’s identity has the following effects:

• The vampire ignores wound penalties to dice pools, until the wounds put the vampire in torpor.
• No Conditions penalize the Other.
• The Other ignores Vinculums, though, if the host is addicted to Vitae, that problem remains.
• The Other cannot spend Willpower. The imprisoned host may spend a Willpower point to briefly alter the Other’s behavior, as can be done with the Beast. See pg. 105 of Vampire: Blood and Smoke.
• The vampire operates in all ways as if her Composure and Resolve have risen to 6.
• The vampire’s aura vanishes. There are simply no colors there to be seen.

Resisting Imprisonment: Imprisonment is resisted exactly like Frenzy. It’s the same extended roll, the same use of Willpower, the same Resolve + Composure pool, the same number of successes needed and the same situational modifiers. The only differences are what happens when the character fails, and that, in this case, she’s got the vocalizations of the Other nagging in her mind’s ear. When resistance fails, the Other takes charge, typically for a scene or two.

Anger Prison: When something has so provoked the Kindred that his human self’s rational responses are exhausted, the Other takes over. Its reaction depends entirely on the nature of the enraging stimulus. If it’s human (i.e., “food”) and there’s no overwhelming risk of injury, the Other kills and eats it. Problem solved. It doesn’t matter whether the human in question was an early-teen Peeping Tom, the Kindred’s mortal mother with her intrusive questions or a friend’s cocky ghoul. The Other kills, feeds and returns control to its host — probably with some cleanup suggestions.

Snapping with anger at something that’s not food usually prompts the Other to leave, if that’s an option. The Other does what’s required. If a group of Acolytes are torturing a member of the Lancea Sanctum, trying to get him to reveal the location of his beloved mentor, they might well attempt to get his Other to Imprison him. The Other doesn’t give a crap about the mentor and cheerfully sells his ass out for a ticket out of a sticky situation.

Anger at immaterial circumstances — coming home and finding one’s haven destroyed, for example — simply prompts a calm and measured response from the Other. It goes and finds somewhere to sleep out the day, usually with the brutal efficiency that characterizes Other behavior.

Fear Prison: As with anger, the Other takes over and attempts to calmly extricate itself from the fiery predicament in question — even if that means leaving friends or trusted comrades in the lurch. In cases in which the Man was overestimating the danger, the Other may well take advantage of its temporary liberty to feed in its preferred amoral matter. If the Other isn’t hungry and doesn’t have direct peril to distract it, look out. The Other is quite likely to set about sabotaging any endeavors of which it disapproves or regards as a waste of effort (meaning, anything that distracts from a Requiem of safe satiety). This often includes derailing attempts to gain Merits such as Status, Mentor, Allies or Contacts.

Hunger Prison: Here’s where the Other really shines. In a Wassail, the Other’s reaction is perfectly predictable. The Other calculates who, among those nearest, can most safely be overpowered and sucked. Then it attacks without warning or mercy. It’s not dumb enough to go after a weak mortal who has 10 bodyguards when there’s a less weak (but solo) Kindred nearby — unless the Other has got Nightmare or some other Discipline with which to scatter the protectors. Best of all, the Other likes to feed from best friends. It almost universally kills them, even if it can sate itself and leave them alive. After all, if those friends are mortals, they’ve just become a liability (or, from the Other’s perspective, an even bigger liability than “friends” are already). If they’re Kindred, the last thing the Other wants is to compete with a Vinculum for influence over the host.

Riding the Wave: There are many times when a host and an Other are in full accord about the right action to take. After all, “don’t die” and “get food” are high priorities for every sensible Kindred. When a character wants to get her Other’s assistance during a time of great hunger or danger, the character can attempt an alliance. (The Other cannot be harnessed to attack one’s enemies unless they pose an immediate and unmistakable threat. Without those qualities, there’s just no motivation for the Other to help.) Allying with the Other works such as “Riding the Wave,” as described on p. 105 of Vampire: Blood and Smoke. The character spends Willpower and rolls Resolve + Composure in an attempt to bind the Other to her goals for a short period. If she succeeds, she can end the Imprisonment when she chooses.

Others under this sort of compulsion usually play it fairly straight: they know they’ve got nothing to gain by being contentious, since the hosts can snap out of it when they want. The Others, therefore, cooperate as much as is congruent with feeding and safety. That said, if the Other thinks there’s a chance for more Imprisonment checks, it may balk or start actions that force the host to terminate the Imprisonment while the problem is still immanent. That way the Other gets a better chance of taking control against the host’s will and having greater freedom to improve its situation.