DRYH Vampire: Beast & Blood - Rules Summary

RULES SUMMARY

Dice Pool [d6]

• 3 Control Dice (or whatever Permanent Beast dice may have replace one or more of the original Control Dice)
• Total Blood Dice from previous roll (+1 additional Blood die if desired) to a maximum of 6 Blood Dice
• 1-6 (temporary) Beast Dice

Determining Success

• Dice faces 1-3 count as Successes
• Compare total successes to GM's Pain roll to determine Success or Failure

Determining Strength

• The Strength of a pool is determined by the highest die face showing in each pool

Determining Dominance

• The pool with the highest strength Dominates
• If Control dominates, Beast and Blood are held in check. You have the option to remove a Beast response check-mark or decrease your Blood dice by one or unmark a Night Scar.
• If Blood dominates, your preternatural resources are taxed. Increase Blood pool by one.
• If the Beast dominates, things get more chaotic. Check off a Rage response and behave accordingly.
• If Pain dominates, you pay a greater price. Pay a coin into the GM’s Loss coffer.

Overextended

• If Blood is increased above 6, your preternatural energy is expended and you crash. You are completely drained of all reserves. You only have access to Control Dice until you recover. No Blood. No Beast. [Note: If you have any permanent Beast dice they may not be rolled at this time].
  • Recovery requires the consumption of human blood. Each Crash requires a number of human lives equal to the character's total number of crashes to recover from.
  • Once recovered, the Beast is Dominant for a time. You must roll a number of additional Beast dice equal to the character's total number of crashes on the character's next roll or rolls, also equal to the character's total number of crashes.
• If you must check off a response, but can’t, you Snap. The Beast is loosed for a time, clear out your responses, lose one Control, and gain one permanent Beast die. If you lose all Control, the Beast takes over. The character is lost forever.

Using Knacks and Edges

• To make minor use of a Blood Knack, your Blood pool must be at least one. On the affected roll, your minimum number of successes is equal to the current number of dice in your blood pool.
• To make major use of a Blood Knack, you must increase your Blood pool by one, and you may add the total number of Blood dice in your Blood pool to the roll as additional successes.
• To make use of a Beast Edge, you must add one to six temporary Beast dice to the roll, [minimum number of Beast dice determined by the GM based on the potency of the effect].

Coins of Redemption and Loss

• The GM may spend one coin of Loss to add or remove a 6 from any pool in play; the coin pays into the Redemption coffer once spent. If this causes pain to dominate, no coin is paid into the Loss coffer that turn.
• Any player may spend one coin of Redemption to remove one Blood die from their pool, or to remove a check mark from a Rage response, or to add a 1 to the protagonist’s Control pool.
• Any player may spend five minus Control in Redemption coins to recover one Control die by removing one permanent Beast die. [Note: Removing a permanent Beast die removes the Edge that went with it].

Modified Help Rules

Replacing the Help rules as written in DRYH with the Help rules introduced in The Bad Man. [Note: Helping another character replaces your regular action roll].

To help another player, you can choose one of the following options:

• Use a Blood Knack (without the usual benefit of minimum/bonus successes). Describe how you’re using that knack to help, and roll your current Blood dice. Those Blood dice count as a part of the acting character’s pool. Both you and the acting character will face the consequences of domination.
• Use a Beast Edge. Describe how you’re using that Edge to help, and roll however many Beast dice you want to (GM sets the minimum) up to a maximum of 6 dice. Those Beast dice count as a part of the acting character’s pool. Both you and the acting character will face the consequences.
• Take the hit. Specify one character you’re helping. If something other than Control dominates on that character’s roll, you face the consequences instead of them.

Night Scars

A Night Scar is a significant event from gameplay that a character can tap into to gain advantage in the future. A character can not have more than 3 active scars at a time.

• Recall - When a character recalls a scar, he is using a past lesson to leverage a current situation. The player may re-roll one pool [Control, Blood, or Beast] and use the new result. The player then marks the scar as used and cannot recall it again until the mark is removed.
• Transform - Once a scar has been recalled at least once the player can opt to use it to transform an aspect of their character [whether the scar is currently marked or unmarked]. The scar is crossed out and may never again be used. Transformation grants one of three benefits
  • Change one of your current Beast Edges for a new one for the remainder of the scene or permanently.
  • Change one of your current Blood Knacks for a new one for the remainder of the scene or permanently.
  • Gain the immediate use of up to 5 Redemption Coins (does not count against available coins). This use can prevent a crash or a snap from happening.

---