Hunger Dice

When the red dice are in the pool

Read the Hunger on the sheet before the roll. Do not wait for the Rouse that may follow it.

Replace, do not add

Hunger 1–5 swaps that many dice out of the pool. Hunger 3 and a pool of seven is four normal dice and three Hunger dice. The chance of a success does not change. Who owns the dice does.

Never more than the pool

Hunger dice cannot exceed the pool. Hunger 5 on a two-die roll is two Hunger dice, not five. Hunger 0 is no Hunger dice at all, so neither a Bestial Failure nor a Messy Critical is possible.

A 1 matters only on a miss

Count successes first. Any die showing 6 or higher is one success, and a pair of 10s adds two more. If the total misses and at least one Hunger die shows 1, the failure is bestial. A 1 on a normal die does nothing.

A 10 taints a critical

A Messy Critical is a successful critical that includes at least one Hunger 10. One Hunger 10 is enough. A lone 10 is not a critical. A Hunger 10 on a roll that missed is not messy.

How to read a Hunger die

Separate the Hunger dice before you name the result. The same face means different things on a miss and on a hit.

Run it in this order.

1. 01Build the pool from the Attribute, the Skill or Discipline, and any modifiers. Blood Surge dice, if declared, are normal dice in this pool.
2. 02Swap in Hunger dice equal to current Hunger, and never more dice than the pool has. Use Hunger from before this roll's Rouse.
3. 03Roll the normal dice and the Hunger dice together.
4. 04Separate them before you read a 1 or a 10. A normal 1 is silent. A Hunger 1 speaks only if the roll missed.
5. 05Spend Willpower only on normal dice, up to three. Hunger dice stay where they fell.
6. 06Then name the result: success, clean critical, Messy Critical, ordinary failure, or Bestial Failure.

1. 01

   The odds stay. The author changes

   Hunger is not a penalty to the pool size. A hungrier vampire is not less likely to succeed at the same difficulty. They are more likely to succeed, or fail, in the Beast's handwriting. Feed before the roll you cannot afford to stain.

2. 02

   Three rolls never carry Hunger dice

   A Rouse Check, a Willpower roll, and a Humanity or Remorse roll are ordinary dice only. A Rouse Check also has no difficulty, so it cannot be a Bestial Failure. Do not paint Hunger dice onto those checks because the scene feels hungry.

3. 03

   Willpower can dodge the Beast, not erase it

   One Willpower rerolls up to three normal dice. In a Strict chronicle that spend is once per roll. In Casual it may be repeated while Willpower remains. Either way the Hunger dice are ineligible. Rerolling normal dice can turn a miss into a hit, and then a Hunger 1 no longer makes a Bestial Failure. It can also break a pair by rerolling a normal 10. It cannot lift a Hunger 10 off the table. Two Hunger 10s cannot be undone.

4. 04

   Messy and bestial are not frenzy

   A Bestial Failure asks what the Beast did with the opening. A Messy Critical keeps the success and lets the Beast choose the method. Either result may prompt a Compulsion. Neither result is itself a frenzy test. Frenzy has its own roll, and at Hunger 4 or 5 the Storyteller may call for one after the mess. The dice do not call it for you.

Common mistakes

• Adding Hunger dice on top of the pool instead of replacing dice inside it.
• Reading a 1 on a normal die as a botch, or a Hunger 1 on a success as a Bestial Failure.
• Calling a single Hunger 10 a Messy Critical, or calling any critical messy when every 10 is a normal die.
• Spending Willpower to reroll a Hunger die.
• Putting Hunger dice into a Rouse Check, a frenzy resist, or a Remorse roll.

Hunger dice at the table

The pool is unchanged in size. Three of the dice are no longer his.

• Marlow misses the door

  Marlow, Strength 4 and Brawl 2, Hunger 3, difficulty 4. No Blood Surge.

  The pool is six dice: three normal and three Hunger. The faces are 8, 2, 10 and Hunger 1, 6, 4. Three successes miss difficulty 4, and a Hunger die shows 1, so the result is a Bestial Failure. Willpower may reroll the normal 2. It cannot reroll the Hunger 1. If the reroll lifts the roll to four successes, the failure, and the Bestial Failure, are both gone.

How Vampiro Life splits Hunger dice

Skill and Discipline checks build the pool on the server, then split Hunger out of that total. The client does not get to mark which dice were red.

• Hunger dice equal the sheet's Hunger, capped at the pool. Hunger 0 rolls none. A pool smaller than Hunger rolls only Hunger dice.
• The resolver flags a Bestial Failure on a miss with a Hunger 1, and a Messy Critical on a success whose pair of 10s includes a Hunger 10. Extra successes from the pair are kept.
• Willpower offers up to three normal dice, successes and 10s included. Hunger dice are refused. Strict allows one reroll on the roll. Casual allows another while Willpower remains.
• The flag is not the scene. The Storyteller narrates what the Beast did. A Compulsion is a separate check, not something the dice resolver writes onto the sheet.

Frequently asked

Does Hunger 3 give me three extra dice?

No. It replaces three dice in the pool you already had. If the pool is only two dice, you roll two Hunger dice.

I rolled a Hunger 1 and still succeeded. Is that bestial?

No. A Hunger 1 is read only when the roll missed. The success stands.

Is one Hunger 10 a Messy Critical?

No. You need a pair of 10s, the roll has to succeed, and at least one 10 in that critical has to be a Hunger die. A single 10 is one success.

Can Willpower clean a Messy Critical?

Only by rerolling a normal 10 so the pair breaks. A Hunger 10 stays. If both 10s are Hunger dice, the mess cannot be rerolled away.

Do thin-bloods and ghouls use Hunger dice?

Thin-bloods do. They are vampires at Blood Potency 0. Ghouls and mortals do not, so they have no Bestial Failure and no Messy Critical.

Related rules

• Blood Surge Rules
• Rouse Check
• Bestial Failure Rules