Family Matters

[Bearcat]

On the subject of killing your offspring to increase your own bloodline I
would rule that since they carry your blood you cannot gain from it,
becasuse you providied it.

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[breye@earthlink.ne]

Diego de Alves e Souza wrote:

> Weel, I've been on the list for a month or so, but, until now,
> my questions have been antecipated. But in my last game session, two
> questions came into light:
>
> 1. What is to be the "last of the lineage" for the purposes of
> bloodtheft?
> I mean, should one be the last remaining one of the family( start
> counting descendats
> from the guy who fought on Deismaar), or a third( or fourth) degree
> cousin may exist?

IMO, this means someone who has not dicided upon an heir andpreformed an
investiture cermony on that heir (regardless weather
or not the heir is aware as only one of the participants must be present
at the ceremony) so that when the regent dies his blood line will
automatically be transfered.

>
>
> 2. If someone kills his own decendants, will he get to increase his own
> blood strength? This problem appeared when one of the players sugested,
> in a joke( of course), to have five sons in a year with peasants, and then
> kill them as they are born( pretty evil, is it not?).

Sure its evil, sure he'll get the bloodpoint, but ooh the cost. News of this kind
of thing gets around. Peasents will not be very happy, and province loyalties
will plumet. And how many parralells are there in myth? Uranus and Gaea
and their son Chronus. Chronus and Rhea and thier son Zeus. King Arthur
and Morgan and their son Mordred. Sure, let them do it. Let years go by.
And then spring a suprise on them.

Bryan

- --
There are routes not to be followed,
armies not to be attacked,
citadels not to be besieged,
territory not to be fought over
and civilian governments not to be obeyed.
- -Sun Tzu

[Diego de Alves e Souza]

> >3. I`ve seen on the list( thank you Sepsis) muster and maintenance costs
> >for Brecht, Rjurik and BloodEnemies' units. But I come tho need costs for
> >the special units on the basic box.
> >
>
> >
>
> You should be thanking Darkstar, they were his Posts. :)
>
> Sepsis, richt@metrolink.net

Okay, them. Thank you Darkstar, and my appologies.

Sorry,

Diego de A. e Souza
Curitiba-Brasil

[Mark A Vandermeulen]

On Sun, 14 Sep 1997, Sepsis wrote:

>
> This thought was kicked around a while back on the List. The idea of
> slaughtering your own children(or Blooded animals)to gain BS is beyond
> evil. Its twisted(and can be *very* unbalancing). And such should be repaid
> in kind. If your PCs start "harvesting" BS from either of these sources
> stick them with Bloodform Ability right away. If they start thinking real
> seriously about it, and check into it first, let them discover a few tales
> of others who tried to do the same, but paid a terrible price for thier
> power.
>
>
It is my understanding that committing the act of bloodtheft is such an
evil act that by chosing to do it, you run the risk of changing your
bloodline TO that of Azrai's derivation, no matter what derivation you
begin with. It's one of those acts that "make the blood run cold" as they
say, and as such it has such a profound effect that it actually can change
the spiritual affinities of your blood power to that of evil, and thus you
become, by default, a scion of Azrai. If you have previous blood abilities
from a former derivation, you keep those, but all new ones come from
Azrai's derivaiton. This explains why some awnshelein like the sphynx and
the lamia have associations with cats, which is a totem animal associated
with Avani, rather than with the snake which Azrai's bloodline is
associated with.
Anyway, I think this is a part of the rules. Now that I think
about it I can't remember where that rule comes from. I have been plying
with it for so long now that it may just have been a DM's fiat that I made
early-on in DMing and have since stuck to like glue. Any comments on this?
Is this a good rule, does it make sense, and does it help correct the
overbalancing effects of family bloodtheft? My rule is that whenever a
character partakes of bloodtheft he has to role OVER his bloodline
strength on %d or else his blood becomes tainted with that of Azrai.
Obviously, the higher his strength, the liklier it is that an act of
bloodtheft will taint him. That should help reduce the temptation, and
also represent the idea that power corrupts.

Comments?

Mark VanderMeulen
vander+@pitt.edu

[Keith Horsfield]

Mark wrote:

>What do you think of them apples?

First scenario, a neutral act based on the survival instinct of any
animal.

Second, evil as sin. No matter how you cloak it, whether
conscious or unconscious, the man hoped that he would gain by
performing this act. This hope of personal gain at the expense of another
clouded his thoughts to the extent that he failed or ignored to consider
other possible alternative solutions.

Keith Horsfield
Member Team OS/2
"To a person with a hammer, everything looks like a nail"
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