Blood Pool and Expenditure in V20

What a point is allowed to do

Every use below draws on the same pool and the same per-turn limit. None of them creates a second pool.

The pool and the turn

The maximum is the most points the body holds. The per-turn number is how many may be spent before the turn ends, even if the pool is still full. An 8th-generation vampire holds 15 and spends at most 3. A 13th-generation vampire holds 10 and spends at most 1.

One Physical Attribute

One point raises Strength, Dexterity, or Stamina by one dot for the rest of the scene. The boost may sit one dot above that generation's trait maximum. It is not a new printed dot, and it does not raise a Social or Mental Attribute.

One level of healing

One point heals one level of bashing or lethal damage, and that healing takes the turn. It does not heal aggravated damage. Fire and sunlight are aggravated. At the table, Fortitude is the soak exception for that damage. This page does not assign a day count to aggravated recovery.

The same limit, other uses

Blush of Life, a Discipline's printed blood cost, and Celerity's extra physical actions spend points from this pool. Each Celerity action beyond the first costs a point and still counts toward the turn's limit. They do not open a separate budget.

Generation, pool, and the turn

V20 core, p. 270, groups 13th and higher generations as “13th+”: maximum pool 10, trait rating 5, and 1 blood per turn. The 14th and 15th rows below expand that grouped baseline; they are not separate published entries or a full treatment of thin-blood Flaws, which can restrict usable vitae and traits. The app offers only 8th–13th generation.

Run it in this order.

1. 01Declare the expenditure and its purpose. Check that enough blood remains and the proposed total fits this turn’s generational cap before resolving it.
2. 02Apply the declared Physical Attribute boosts or healing. A boost lasts the scene; one blood heals one bashing or lethal level, with the required time to heal.
3. 03Deduct the declared blood points from the current pool. Never reduce it below zero.
4. 04Track the total spent this turn against the generational cap. Include all expenditures already made; unused capacity is not a second pool.

1. 01

   The boost is a scene, not a new dot

   For every generation the engine builds, the stored trait maximum is 5. Spending points may still treat one Physical Attribute as one dot above that maximum for the scene, so a printed 5 may be played as 6. The scene value stops there. A further point does not push the same Attribute to 7. The extra dot is not written back onto the sheet, and it ends with the scene.

2. 02

   Healing spends the turn as well as the point

   The point comes out of the per-turn limit, and the healing is the character's turn. It is not a reflexive patch applied on the way to another action. One point, one bashing or lethal level. Aggravated damage is outside that exchange. The sheet can record aggravated levels. It does not convert them with the one-point mend, and this reference does not invent a schedule of nights or days for them.

3. 03

   The chart outside 8th through 13th is not a promise

   The reference covers 15th through 4th generation. For 14th and 15th it shows the core chart’s grouped 13th+ baseline, not every thin-blood Flaw or exception. The creator offers only 8th–13th generation; reference rows do not expand that supported range.

Common mistakes

• Spending every point still in the pool because the turn's generation limit was treated as a suggestion.
• Stopping a Physical boost at the trait cap instead of allowing one dot above that maximum for the scene.
• Clearing an aggravated level, including fire or sunlight, with the one-point bashing or lethal mend.
• Reading 4th through 7th generation, or anything thinner than 13th, as a character the chronicle creator will build.

Three points, and then the turn stops

An 8th-generation vampire may spend three points this turn. The example spends three and does not spend a fourth.

• Ivo, before the door closes

  Ivo, 8th-generation Brujah. Dexterity 5, Celerity 2, Blood Pool 9 of 15, three points allowed this turn.

  He spends one point to raise Dexterity from 5 to 6 for the scene, one dot above the generational trait maximum. He spends the other two points on two extra physical actions from Celerity. The pool ends at 6. A fourth point is not part of this turn, even though six points remain.

What the V20 engine stores

The sheet keeps a current pool, a generation maximum, and the per-turn number from that generation. It does not invent lower generations, and it does not yet police the turn for you.

• Character creation builds 8th through 13th generation only. Each of those rows has a trait maximum of 5. Fourth through 7th, and anything thinner than 13th, stay on the reference chart.
• The per-turn number is displayed with the pool. A spend is refused when the current pool cannot cover it. The engine does not yet keep a tally of points already spent this turn, so the table still stops at the printed limit.
• Mending spends one point and removes one bashing level, or one lethal level if no bashing remains. The healed track and the spent point are written together. Aggravated levels are left in place.
• Boost and Blush of Life spend a point and do not change stored traits. A scene boost to 6 is not saved as Dexterity 6, because a stored Attribute cannot exceed 5. Celerity's extra actions are not added to the dice by the sheet.

Frequently asked

Can a vampire spend blood while unconscious?

No. An unconscious or incapacitated vampire does not spend their own blood to heal, boost, or power a Discipline. Another character's blood is a feeding scene, not this vampire's expenditure. The usual table answer is that simple. The spend control currently checks that a point remains. It does not yet refuse the click because the health track is full.

Is spending blood its own action?

The point always consumes the generation's per-turn limit. Raising a Physical Attribute spends a point and does not replace the character's action. Healing spends a point and takes the turn. An extra Celerity action is an action, paid for with one of those limited points. The engine records the point, and for a mend it records the healed level. It does not mark the turn as spent.

What does Blood Pool 0 mean?

At zero the vampire cannot spend. There is nothing left for a boost, a mend, Blush of Life, or a blood-priced Discipline. The table treats an empty pool as the edge of torpor: the vampire cannot fuel the blood and cannot rise on it. The engine stores zero and rejects a spend past it. It does not flip a separate torpor flag by itself.

Can the Physical boost pass the trait cap?

For the scene, yes. One point raises one Physical Attribute by one dot, and that dot may sit one above the generational trait maximum. On an engine character that maximum is 5, so the scene may treat the Attribute as 6. The stored rating stays at 5. The boost ends with the scene.

Does the app stop me at three points on an 8th-generation vampire?

It shows the limit of three, and it will not spend a point the pool does not have. It does not yet count how many of those three you have already used this turn. Stopping at three is still the rule. The sheet will not invent a fourth.

Related rules

• V20 Target Numbers
• V20 Combat
• Blood Surge Rules