Edition Comparison
Blood Pool and Hunger
One edition spends a reserve. The other risks Hunger and changes which dice are rolled. The sheet you opened is the one you follow.
The short answer.
V20 spends a counted Blood Pool, limited by generation each turn. V5 does not keep that pool. A Rouse Check risks raising Hunger, and Hunger replaces ordinary dice with Hunger dice instead of subtracting points. One system empties a reserve. The other changes which dice can speak. Neither replaces the other's tracker.
The same urge, two different costs
Match the cost to the sheet. Do not translate a point into a Hunger die, or a Rouse into a missing point.
- What is stored
- V20 stores a current Blood Pool, a maximum, and a per-turn number taken from generation. V5 stores Hunger from 0 to 5. A V20 character has no Hunger track. A V5 character has no Blood Pool.
- How a use is paid
- V20 subtracts points, and the generation caps how many may leave in one turn. V5 calls for a Rouse Check on a normal die: 6–10 leaves Hunger where it is, and 1–5 raises Hunger by 1. The boost still happened.
- What the dice feel
- A V20 Physical boost can raise one Physical Attribute by one dot for the scene, up to one dot above the generational maximum. A V5 Blood Surge adds normal dice to one eligible roll and does not change the printed Attribute.
- What empty means
- Blood Pool 0 cannot spend, and the table treats that emptiness as the edge of torpor. Hunger 5 cannot volunteer for a Blood Surge. A failed Rouse that moves Hunger from 4 to 5 is not, by itself, a frenzy. Those are different doors.
Pool against Hunger
Read across a row. Do not mix the cells. The chronicle builds V20 characters from 8th through 13th generation only, trait maximum 5. It does not build 4th through 7th, or a 14th or 15th.
| Question | V20 Blood Pool | V5 Hunger |
|---|---|---|
| What you track | Points, with a generation maximum. | Hunger from 0 to 5. No pool of points. |
| How you pay | Subtract points, up to the per-turn number. | One Rouse. 6–10 unchanged. 1–5 raises Hunger by 1. |
| What the boost is | One Physical Attribute, up one dot for the scene, including one above the trait maximum. | Dice on one eligible roll. The printed Attribute stays. |
| What the dice become | The same dice, sometimes from a higher scene Attribute. | Hunger dice replace ordinary dice one for one. The pool does not grow because you are hungry. |
| Running out | Zero points: you cannot spend. The table's edge of torpor. | Hunger 5: no voluntary Surge. A forced Rouse at 5 is a different procedure. |
| What this chronicle enforces | The maximum is real. The per-turn number is shown, and the turn tally is not yet locked. | Hunger, the Rouse, and the dice split are resolved on the V5 sheet. |
Run it in this order.
- Name the edition on the sheet before anyone spends blood or marks Hunger.
- On a V20 sheet, read the generation, then the pool maximum and the points allowed this turn.
- Spend V20 points only up to that turn's number. Stop at zero.
- On a V5 sheet, do not subtract a pool. Resolve the action, then make its Rouse, and use the Hunger from before that Rouse for the dice.
- Leave the other edition's tracker alone. A V20 point is not a Hunger die, and a Rouse is not a missing blood point.
A point is not a Hunger die
V20's cost is subtraction. The pool shrinks, and the generation says how fast. V5's cost is risk on a later Rouse, while Hunger changes the color of dice you already had. Replacing three ordinary dice with three Hunger dice is not the same event as spending three blood points. Do not convert one into the other to make a scene feel equivalent.
The scene boost and the one-roll boost are different objects
V20's Physical expenditure lasts the scene and may stand one dot above the generational trait maximum. On an engine character that maximum is 5, so the scene may play the Attribute as 6 without storing 6. V5's Blood Surge adds dice to the roll that declared it and is gone when that roll is over. The printed Attribute never moved.
The limits are not interchangeable
An 8th-generation V20 vampire spends at most three points in a turn and holds at most 15. That sentence has no V5 translation. Hunger 5 blocks a voluntary Surge. It does not mean the character has a Blood Pool of zero, and a full V20 pool does not mean Hunger 0. Use the tracker the sheet actually has.
Use the tracker on the sheet
Start a chronicle in the edition you mean to play. V20 keeps a Blood Pool. V5 keeps Hunger. The engine will not translate one into the other mid-scene.
Common mistakes
- Subtracting blood points from a V5 character, or marking Hunger on a V20 Blood Pool.
- Treating a failed Rouse as a cancelled action. The Surge was already applied. The Rouse decides Hunger for later rolls.
- Capping a V20 scene boost at the printed trait maximum. The scene may sit one dot above it.
- Importing a 4th- through 7th-generation pool, or a 14th or 15th, into a chronicle the creator does not build.
The same lunge, two payments
Ivo wants to be faster for what he is about to do. The sheets do not describe that want the same way.
Ivo crosses the gallery
V20 Ivo: 8th-generation Brujah, Dexterity 5, Blood Pool 9 of 15, three points allowed this turn. V5 Ivo: Dexterity 3, Hunger 2, Blood Potency 3, one eligible Dexterity roll.
On the V20 sheet he spends one of his three points. Dexterity is 6 for the scene and the pool reads 8. The printed dot stays 5. On the V5 sheet he declares a Blood Surge for three normal dice on that roll, built with Hunger 2 still in the pool. After the roll, one Rouse either leaves Hunger at 2 or raises it to 3. The Attribute line does not change. Neither result is the other result with different nouns.
Two sheets, two commands
The chronicle does not keep a hidden conversion between Blood Pool and Hunger. Each edition spends what its own rules stored.
- A V20 spend reduces the current pool when the pool can cover it. The per-turn number is displayed. The command does not yet count points already used this turn. Generations outside 8th through 13th are not created.
- A V20 mend also rewrites one bashing or lethal box. A Physical boost does not rewrite the Attribute. Stored traits stop at 5.
- A V5 Blood Surge checks Hunger 0–4, adds the Blood Potency dice to that roll, and resolves its own Rouse afterward. Hunger dice were already taken from the pre-Rouse Hunger.
- Nothing in either command copies the other edition's number onto the sheet.
Frequently asked
Is Blood Pool just Hunger by another name?
- No. A pool is spent and can reach zero. Hunger is a rating that replaces dice and rises when a Rouse fails. You can succeed with a small Blood Pool and still have those points. You can succeed at high Hunger and still have the Beast in the dice.
Does a V20 vampire Rouse?
- No. V20 pays from the pool, inside the generation's per-turn number. There is no Hunger die to replace and no single-die Rouse on that sheet.
Does a V5 vampire have a per-turn blood limit?
- Not a pool limit. The turn can include separate Rouses for separate uses, each resolved on its own. That is not an 8th-generation cap of three points, and it should not be played as one.
What is empty, in each edition?
- Blood Pool 0 cannot spend, and the table treats it as the edge of torpor. The V20 engine stores zero and rejects a further spend. It does not set a torpor flag. Hunger 5 refuses a voluntary Surge. A Rouse that fails from 4 to 5 does not, by itself, cause frenzy.
Which one does this chronicle run?
- The sheet's edition. A V20 chronicle uses the pool and the 8th- through 13th-generation chart. A V5 chronicle uses Hunger, Rouse Checks, and Hunger dice. Opening the wrong reference does not retcon the character.
Reglas relacionadas
Use the tracker on the sheet
Start a chronicle in the edition you mean to play. V20 keeps a Blood Pool. V5 keeps Hunger. The engine will not translate one into the other mid-scene.