[gurps] How much blood?

[midnightwind at comcast.net]

I think it's all fairly abitrary, since we're talking about some mystical derivation of sustenance from blood by vampires that is not available to anyone else.  

That being said, from a physiological/medical standpoint, losing blood follows a roughly logarhythmic curve with respect to effect.  We're not likely to feel the effects of the first half-litre to one-litre, but thereafter, things start happening-- dizziness, lightheadedness, followed by shortness of breath, limited endurance... in an otherwise healthy individual, it's not until our blood level drops about half-way that things start to get concerning.  In fact, I've seen patients lose 3-4 liters (on IV fluids as a supplement, but no blood) whose vital signs stay fairly level (maybe just a hint of increasing pulse).... Then, just a little more blood and whammo!-- vitals start shooting up, then crashing.  It's fairly rapid-- a threshold effect.  Keep in mind that this was on IV fluids, so pressure was maintained, but blood cell mass was not.

But this is true of many physiological systems.  A large range of coping, then precipitous change once a threshold is surpassed.  The GURPS HP-->reaction/effect on a PC outline I read captures some of that, but from a vampire restoration standpoint, I'm not sure if it isn't unreasonable just to set a ratio that seems reasonable.  One could easily state (based on the animal vs. human blood comment from another post), that HP restoration was contingent more some unseen spiritual factor, or even IQ!  (Furthermore, why did vampires go after beautiful young women?  Was it a sex thing, or do beautiful young women have more nutrition per unit of blood than others?)

Just some thoughts to make things more complicated,

-vk

 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: "Holmes, Erik" <Erik.Holmes at marriott.com>
> >One of my players has a white wolf-esque vampire with
> >supernatural durability and vampiric bite. He needs to
> >heal 73 HP.
> >
> >What is a realistic amount of blood/HP he can draw
> >from any given victim (obviously draining them dry)?
> >
> >Part of me wants to say basic HP. Part wants to say 5x
> >(at which point they're automatically dead), but part
> >of that damage breakpoint assumes damage other than
> >just blood loss.
> 
> I'd say a good rule of thumb is Hit points x 2. So basically a vampire
> can drain a human until he gets him to the point where he would have to
> start making rolls to avoid dying. Sure, there is probably more blood
> left in the body but maybe it's not enough to get to the neck, etc.
> 
> I wouldn't use this rule for everything though. Human blood in Vampire
> was supposed to be stronger then say animal blood. I'd give only half or
> maybe even only a quarter for animal blood.
> 
> Other blood might be a lot better however. For a mage for example, I
> might give ST x 2 x magery. Yes this would mean some powerful mage with
> Magery 10 would be worth 200 or more but hey, its Magery 10!
> 
> Shoby187
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