Torpor is no fun unless you plan for it, but hey, stuff happens. There may come a time when your character finds herself staring down the barrel of a lot of pain, and in fact, enough pain to put them into Torpor.
There are three ways to fall into torpor.
1. Blood loss - relatively easy one to recover from. If you fall into torpor from lack of blood, someone just has to feed your character blood. Granted, if this is Kindred Vitae, it Blood Bonds you one step to them, but hey, you're still playable.
2. Voluntary - Odd as the desire may seem, there are times when choosing to fall into torpor is the best thing a Kindred can do when they need to avoid the world for a while. A vampire who chooses Torpor must remain in Torpor for a minimum amount of time of half the usual time they would be required to remain in torpor from damage. After this at any time they may spend a blood point to attempt an Awakening roll in order to rise from torpor. Should this fail, the character fails to rise and another blood point must be spent to make the attempt. Enough failures of this roll may send the character into an involuntary blood torpor.
3. Damage - This is the one that sucks. If your character falls into torpor from taking damage, she could be out for years, depending on your humanity. To make things a little easier on players, since we're playing up Humanity so much, and since this is a LARP, we've modified the torpor table to make it one step less painful to fall into torpor. Take a look:
| Humanity | Length of Torpor | Playable |
| 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 | 12 hrs One Day Three Days One Week Two Weeks One Month One year One Decade Five Decades One Century Five Centuries | Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes * Retired Retired Retired Retired |
For complete rules on awakening from torpor rolls, see the main V20 book, pg. 283
In order to rise from damage torpor, the vampire must still spend a blood point and attempt the Awakening roll. If this fails, the character does not rise this night and must spend another blood to attempt the roll again. Enough failures of this roll can send the vampire into an involuntary torpor due to blood loss. A character rising from damage torpor rises at the Crippled Health Level and must spend further blood to heal themselves. A character can be pulled out of damage torpor early by certain powers such as the third level of the Necromancy Mortuus Path Resume the Coil, the Necromancy ritual Resurrection of Stirred Blood, or by feeding the torpored Kindred vitae of at least 3 generations lower than their own. The use of any of these methods allows the torpored Kindred to rise at the Crippled Health level without spending blood or making an Awakening roll.
* A character who falls into torpor while at a Path Rating of 4 or less will be out of play for a significant amount of time and as such will usually be retired. All characters who are of Path Rating 4 or less when they fall to torpor will be considered Inactive unless revived through other in character actions or powers. Should a player wish to bring back a character that was torpored after the required period is up, they must request this of the current HST who has final say as to whether or not any old characters may be returned to play. Should the player wish to resume the character after the time is up, a note will be placed in the character's Grapevine file as to the time and circumstances under which he or she fell into torpor. It is the player's responsibility to bring this up, within one month of the appropriate date.
Torpored characters must have a reasonable story worked out with the STs as to the care and maintenance of their torpid character's body. If through PC action the body of the torpid character is destroyed, or is otherwise unable to resume freedom of movement, the character may not return. This includes but is not limited to, being encased in cement, allies unable to obtain the body for safe keeping within a month of being torpored or if the player said they are retiring the character within that first month of being torpored.
Matters of influence, ghouls, herd, and resources that require maintenance by an active character may be gone and will be worked out with players on a one on one basis.
Forced Retirement and Special Inactive Character Status
During the course of gameplay it is possible for characters to be removed from play due to non-lethal circumstances. Tremere may be recalled to Vienna, exile may be imposed by those in authority and innumerable other possibilities. In cases such as these, please feel free to contact your Storyteller with any concerns, however, Storytellers do reserve the right to enforce logical actions as are appropriate to the shared world of Emerald City Chronicles. A character forced out of play but not retired may be returned to play at a later time at the discretion of the HST without the use of the Shelving system.
Alternately there may be times in which a long absence from game for various real life reasons is needed. Speak with a Storyteller and they be able to place a character on hold in a Special Inactive status, which may allow for later gameplay.
If you haven't looked at it already, this section directly ties into the character build basics page called Character Retirement & Death. You should take a look at that as well.
