Thin-Blood Alchemy
Description:
The thin Blood of the latest generations holds barely any power of its own. But certain thinbloods have learned to use it as a catalyst, awakening the latent power in everything from human trauma to gasoline. Born of the street drug scene and cocktail culture as much as it w as uncovered by instinct or in molder ing medieval texts, thin-blood Alchemy may be the defining art of the next-millennium lick. By blending strongly resonant human blood, and sometimes other substances, with their own vitae, Alchemists can counterfeit a wide range of powers from other Disciplines and some unique powers of their own. Rumors already abound of specific elixirs that grant the ability to walk in sunlight, commune with Antediluvians, or achieve Golconda. But for now, the street-level cookers have all they can do to stay out of the Court’s sight plenty of elders consider Alchemy nothing but watered-down diablerie.
Alchemy can counterfeit some Blood Sorcery powers (those that affect the caster’s Blood), but not Rituals. The Storyteller can rule any other power off-limits to Alchemy if they worry about game balance or the plausibility of the fiction and reverse themselves later if they wish, or hint at unique recipes developed in Switzerland or hidden in a Cairo library. The Discipline is young, and thinbloods have hardly explored every possible working or tasted every possible cocktail.
Characteristics:
All formulae require vitae from the Alchemist and human blood of the correct Resonance (p. 226). The Resonant human blood can be stored in a blood bag, or in a Starbucks to-go cup for that matter. The specific amount needed depends on the degree of the donor’s Resonance and on the Storyteller’s whim.
In these rules, “power level” always refers to the level of Alchemy involved, not the level of the power counterfeited with the formula.
Masquerade threat
Varies as widely as the powers it counterfeits and the method used.
Blood Resonance
Required for each formula and varies accordingly.
Distilation:
All formulae have a cost to distill, and then the cost to activate. The distillation cost reflects the fact that all formulae include the Alchemist’s own vitae: A single Rouse Check. Activation cost for a formula is the same as using the power normally: free, or some number of additional Rouse Checks. Once activated, the Alchemist makes a distillation roll to determine how effective the particular mixture was. Each version of Alchemy builds a different dice pool for the distillation roll. The more successes, the more effective the mixture:
| Successes | Mixture Effectiveness |
| 2 | Power weak, fluky, or late in happening |
| 4 | Power works as intended |
| 6 | Power increased in effect |
Some powers require their own dice rolls to take effect, or to measure the degree of success. The Alchemist makes those rolls where needed, substituting their rating in Thin-Blood Alchemy for the specific Discipline rating where relevant.
Learning New Formula
To learn a new formula requires research time, whether the Alchemist spends it poring through libraries or in meditation or on tasting expeditions or performing laboratory experimentation. Players should write down which formulae their character already knows, and any special ingredients it requires. A character receives a formula for free for each dot in Thin-Blood Alchemy and can purchase additional formulae with experience and experimentation.
Ingredients
The listed ingredients for each formula are suggestions. Each thin-blood alchemist develops their own proprietary formulae, often writing the recipes down in code just as the medieval alchemists did. The alchemist’s own Blood is the only unvarying ingredient in all alchemical formulae, although almost all of them also require human blood of a specific Resonance. Cold or clotted blood can work in a formula if the alchemist has enough of it. Ingredients need not be physical – a specific experience or emotion caught in the blood can be just as powerful as rare research chemicals.
The Storyteller should modify the dice pool up or down by one or two dice based on the quality of the ingredients – and perhaps by the originality if the player comes up with suitably nasty or bizarre things for their Alchemist to use. As a rule of thumb:
- Add one die for very rare or expensive ingredients (ones that require at least a story to source or Resources dots higher than the level of the formula); subtract one die for cheap substitute ingredients you can buy at a big box retailer. (Many formulae include easily available industrial chemicals or foods as standard ingredients; invoke this penalty only when the characters substitute such things for a superior ingredient listed.)
- Add one die for very potent or magical ingredients, such as unicorn horn, red mercury, human blood with a Dyscrasia, werewolf blood, or vitae with Blood Potency two levels higher than the level of the formula; subtract one die for medical bagged blood, melteddown candles from the New Age shop, or other faux magics.
- Add one die for player creativity in suggesting ingredients, especially if sourcing them gets them into trouble or otherwise advances the story.
Distilation Methods
When the first dot in Thin-Blood Alchemy is gained, the Alchemist chooses their method. This is the way they perform their distillation. Learning a different method means starting from scratch, essentially counting it as a separate Discipline. In this case, formulae for one method do not apply to other methods known, and the same formula must be learnt separately for each method.
Athanor corporis
The Alchemist uses their own body as the athanor, or alchemical furnace. This might be a bio-feedback routine, the result of an initial elixir consumed at initiation, or simply intuitive understanding of how resonances interact. Ingredients usually consist of different types of resonance mixes, requiring the Alchemist to sample the blood of multiple victims to get just the right blend.
The Alchemist drinks the different types of resonant blood required and the process is performed within their veins with a distillation roll of Stamina + Alchemy, together with a Rouse Check.
Only one power can be active at a time, and a new power must be distilled before it can be activated. This usually takes at least three turns of concentration, during which the Alchemist can do nothing else.
Calcinatio
The Alchemist uses the body of a human as the athanor, adjusting their biophysical state by means of emotional pressure and spoken incantations. (Some practitioners of Calcinatio use drugs on their subjects instead.) The Alchemist then feeds their Blood to the chosen human, paying the distillation cost, and makes the distillation roll with Manipulation + Alchemy.
The human’s entire body distills the formula. The Alchemist then drinks their blood to use the power (required Hunger slaked equals power level minus 1).
The Alchemist can only distill one power per victim, though the victim retains the formula within them as long as they’re kept in the same emotional state; each power takes as long to activate as it takes to drain that quantity of blood (p. 212).
Fixatio
Lacking the physical or social predilections of the other methods, the Alchemist uses a conventional athanor such as a kiln, a metalworking furnace, a meth cooker, a repurposed propane tank, or the like. This method most resembles “classical” alchemy: the Alchemist pours their Blood as well as inert, usually rare, ingredients into the athanor, pays the distillation cost, and distills them inside it with an Intelligence + Alchemy roll.
The resulting formulae are fixed, meaning that the Alchemist can carry them around on their person and imbibe them to activate their power. (Roll the distillation roll upon consumption, not upon production.) However, without a laboratory, they cannot make any more – at most, they might be able to “one-pot” a weak (Level 3 or less) formula using a pressure-cooker or other field expedient. Using such unsuitable equipment reduces the distillation dice pool by 2 dice.
The Alchemist can carry a number of fixed formulae (of any level) equal to their Wits or Dexterity – keeping the vials safe, stable, hidden, and leakproof is not a trivial task. (The Storyteller can decide if each vial takes up the space of a syringe, a can of Red Bull, or a thermos.) The Alchemist can store a number of fixed formulae (of any level) equal to twice the sum of Alchemy plus their dots in Haven: a refrigerator is almost a necessity. Fixed does not necessarily mean shelf stable, after all.
The Alchemist can activate one power per turn.
Powers - Level 1:
| Name & Requirements | Description & Cost | Dice Pools | System | Duration |
| Vampire the Masquerade: Core Rulebook |
||||
| Far Reach | This formula allows the alchemist to use their mind to grab, hold, and push objects or people without touching them. While few can employ enough mental force to actually cause direct harm, a clever applicant can find many ways to get an opponent into, or themselves out of, harm’s way. Ingredients: The alchemist’s Blood, choleric human blood, melted nylon fibers or a grated refrigerator magnet or weird nootropics ordered off the internet Cost: One Rouse Check |
Resolve + Alchemy vs Strength + Athletics |
The alchemist can lift, push, or pull a physical object or person under 100 kg, within their sight and closer than 10 meters. The object moves swiftly, but not rapidly enough to injure a person with the blow; the object may break if it is fragile. The exception: knives or other small metal tools, which the alchemist can wield with a Resolve + Alchemy test, at a two-dice penalty because of the need for precision. A knife used this way does only one point of extra damage. Trying to move someone actively resisting requires a contest of Resolve + Alchemy vs Strength + Athletics. On a win, the alchemist can pull the victim within grabbing or clawing range, or throw them one meter for each point of margin on the contest, doing an equal amount of Superficial damage. They land prone. Keeping someone or something floating in mid-air requires a Resolve + Thin-Blood Alchemy (Difficulty 3) roll every turn. Fine manipulation (such as pulling the pin of a grenade) requires a Wits + Alchemy roll at a suitable Difficulty, as determined by the Storyteller. |
One turn unless held. |
| Haze | This formula creates a field of mist that follows the user, rendering them more difficult to target with ranged weapons and concealing their identity. Ingredients: In addition to the alchemist’s Blood and phlegmatic human blood, dry ice or cigar smoke or auto exhaust Cost: One Rouse Check |
N/A | Upon activation a cloud of mist-like vapor surrounds the alchemist, masking their features and obscuring their silhouette. Anyone attempting to identify the user or hit them with ranged weapons suffers a two-dice penalty to their pool. The user can extend the cloud to encompass a group of up to five people by making another Rouse check. | One scene or until voluntarily ended. |
Powers - Level 2:
At level 2, the Alchemist can develop formulae to counterfeit level 1 powers of other Disciplines. Each of these formulae take at least a week to research.
| Name & Requirements | Description & Cost | Dice Pools | System | Duration | |
| Vampire the Masquerade: Core Rulebook | |||||
| Envelop | This formula creates a mist that clings to a victim, blinding it and (in the case of mortals) causing suffocation. Ingredients: The alchemist’s Blood, melancholic and phlegmatic human blood, potassium chlorate, smog or halon gas Cost: One Rouse Check |
Wits + Alchemy vs Stamina + Survival |
The alchemist activates the power and chooses a target within sight. A swirling mist envelops the target, obscuring their sight and penalizing them three dice from all sight-based detection and ranged attack dice pools. In addition, the alchemist can make the mist suffocate a mortal with a contest of Wits + Alchemy vs. Stamina + Survival. On a win, the target can take no action except coughing and choking; on a critical win, the target loses consciousness. The alchemist can only employ Envelop on single targets, and only on one at a time. |
scene ends or the alchemist ends the effect voluntarily. |
|
Powers - Level 3:
At level 3, the Alchemist can develop formulae to counterfeit level 2 powers of other Disciplines. Each of these formulae take at least a night to distill and at least one month to research.
| Name & Requirements | Description & Cost | Dice Pools | System | Duration |
| Vampire the Masquerade: Core Rulebook | ||||
| Defractionate | This formula results in a homeopathic elixir. When added to fractionated medical-supply blood, the elixir returns it to freshness, allowing vampires without the Iron Gullet merit to obtain nutrition from it. Ingredients: The alchemist’s Blood, sanguine and melancholic human blood, O-negative human blood (only a few ml), moldy spinach, hot black coffee, sodium octanoate. Cost - Athanor, Corporis: The alchemist can tap their own vein once per night for this elixir until their next feeding, or until they reach Hunger 5. They need not pay the distillation cost again. Cost - Calcinatio: If the vessel survives the tap, the alchemist can tap them again in a week for more elixir. They need not pay the distillation cost again, but the vessel pays the Health cost (3 Aggravated damage) each time they are tapped. |
The alchemist taps their vessel (Calcinatio), or their own vein (Athanor Corporis) to get the Defractionate elixir if they do not use Fixatio. For each success on the distillation roll, they get enough elixir to turn one blood bag (slakes 1 Hunger) from fractionated to unfractionated blood. Any vampire can consume this blood and slake Hunger with it. | ||
| Profane Hieros Gamos | To the Alchemist, rebirth and renewal are not locked behind the ritual of sacred union between two opposites. Through the power of their mercurial vitae the Alchemist can help shape a human body to match the mental self-image or desired shape held by the consciousness within it. With the help of rare reagents the Alchemist can even defy one of the fundamental curses of the vampiric condition by altering the unchanging state to which the undead revert to in their daysleep. This specific formula can be imbibed by vampires other than the Alchemist, after their ritual purification and deep meditation on their own idealized, or desired, form. This knowledge makes the expertise of the Alchemist a valuable and desired commodity even to those Kindred who loathe their very existence. Duskborn openly offering services like these are more likely to be coerced to work or kidnapped than paid handsomely. Ingredients: The alchemist’s Blood, melancholic and phlegmatic human blood, entheogenic substances. Cost: One Rouse Check |
Stamina + Resolve |
Whoever imbibes the formula mixed with a Rouse Check worth of their own Blood instantly falls into a catatonic fever dream until the following night, the depths of their psyche plumbed for their personal idealized form, or a form strongly desired.
The effects of Profane Hieros Gamos are limited to the external morphology of the human form, the body refusing transformations too outlandish and fantastical to be without the wondrous spectrum of human anatomy. The imbiber makes a Stamina + Resolve roll against a difficulty of 8 minus the successes on the distillation roll, adding their Bane Severity to the Difficulty of the test. On a win, the transformation process is successful and their physical body molds to the desired shape. A critical win can grant and remove Merits and Flaws of the Looks category, though like all Advantages they need to be paid for with Experience points (p. 180). A messy critical or a bestial failure might cause a new Flaw to manifest, ranging from Repulsive, Obvious Predator, Stigmata or even Organovore as the Beast interferes with the transformation. Not even the blood of the Duskborn can spare the Nosferatu from their Bane, the process incorporating the clan’s hideous affliction despite the user’s mental image. |
Permanent until performed again. |
Powers - Level 4:
At Level 4, the Alchemist can develop formulae to counterfeit level 3 powers of other Disciplines.
At this level, all formulae also require a drop of vitae from a vampire of a matching clan or from one who already possesses the counterfeited Discipline. For example, to counterfeit Shapechange the Alchemist needs vitae from a vampire with Protean or from a Gangrel. The Gangrel would not have to possess Protean 3, or even have Protean at all; the power is in the Blood, not the specific vampire.
As noted above, this drop does not cost the donor any Health, nor does it convey a Blood Bond. That said, Alchemists generally only get such donations as the result of a major Boon – or because the donor has some truly horrible and dangerous mission they are attempting to inveigle the Alchemist’s coterie into carrying out. These formulae take at least three nights to distill and at least three months to research.
| Name & Requirements | Description & Cost | Dice Pools | System | Duration |
| Vampire the Masquerade: Core Rulebook | ||||
Powers - Level 5:
At level 5, the Alchemist can develop formulae to counterfeit level 4 powers of other Disciplines. These formulae take a month to distill and at least three years to research.
| Name & Requirements | Description & Cost | Dice Pools | System | Duration |
| Vampire the Masquerade: Core Rulebook | ||||