Servants

Part 1: Basics

Servants are used by most Kindred to help them navigate during the day, to provide day to day amenities that Princes of the Night shouldn’t stoop to, to investigate things in a safer way (for the vampire).

CONTACTS: these are people the PC knows, who are inclined to do things for you, but hardly ever for free. It is very, very rare would know your Vampiric nature.

ALLIES: these are people who the PC knows, who would be willing to do favors for no recompense for the PC. They may even risk themselves, but allies who are treated like tools or like servants will not remain Allies. It is more common that some Allies, especially family members, would know about the true nature of the PC, but it is not necessary.

HERD: people who the PC knows who allow the vampire to feed with them with a minimum of fuss. This should be defined, but it could also be your regular servants and retainers, or it could be a group of blood cultist at your local BDSM dungeon.

At Fulcrum, your ‘close’ servants could be of three types: hired, bonded, and ghouled. Hired: You pay these people to work for you. They could be members of narcotics distribution organization, they could be bike gang members, they could be mercenaries, they could be professional bodyguards, or they could be personal assistants. What defines them is that they work for you for either the paycheck or because they are being blackmailed, or some other like reason that is mundane and not related to Vitae. They may know of their employer’s vampire nature, or they may not, but the former is very risky to the Kindred (they could be considered a Masquerade breach, they are not under any compulsion not to speak to the priest who keeps asking questions), and the latter are liable to discover one’s true nature in unfortunate or stressful situations, with unpredictable results.

Blood-Bonded: These servants have been bonded (taken three sips (a pint) of Vitae over three nights within one year. They do not get special powers, but they are wholly devoted to the Kindred. (see effects of the blood bond in a later post)

Ghouls: Ghouls are humans who have been fed vitae and by the whim of the vampire, become what they are now. They gain qualified immortality, a point of potence, and the ability to use the vitae of their domitors to heal themselves. The drawback is once in, always in. A blood bonded person if left alone will eventually ‘dry’ out and break the bond even if they don’t want to. A ghoul will always want more Vitae.

A ghoul cannot be blood bound, if he has not been fed – but always remains a ghoul. A blood bonded person can go back to being normal. It is for the Domitor to determine at any time they feed their servant, whether they will be a ghoul, or not. They can do so for bonded servants.

Part II: Numbers

Because the system in the books is for a tabletop game which limits scope on the story being told, and Fulcrum is a 24/7 game which has several stories and also facets of resource building, there are slight changes to the way Kindred servants are handled.