Hunting and the Herd Background...

Hunting
When you wish to hunt, you should make a post in the area that you are hunting in, and roll your character's Perception. A Storyteller will then attend to your scene. Simply saying that you are feeding from your Herd is not enough, you must actively go looking, which means that there is always the risk that you will get caught. Hopefully, this will provide a more individual experience, allowing your character to become more developed. Each district has a Hunting Difficulty, and each success on the roll indicates one potential prey.

Herd Background as Written in Vampire: Revised
You have built a group of mortals from whom you can feed without fear. A herd may take many forms, from circles of kinky clubgoers to actual cults built around you as a god-figure. In addition to providing nourishment, your herd might come in handy for minor tasks, although they are typically not very controllable, closely connected to you or even highly skilled (for more effective pawns, purchase Allies or Retainers). Your Herd rating adds dice to your rolls for hunting; see Chapter Six for further details.

Hunting as Written in Vampire: Revised
Hunting [Perception]: It is the nature of the vampire that she must hunt. For each hour the vampire spends searching for human prey, allow the player to make a Perception roll against a difficulty based on the area in which the vampire hunts. Success on this roll indicates that the vampire has found and subdued prey, in a manner appropriate for the vampire and the area (perhaps she has seduced a vessel, crept into a house of sleepers, or simply ambushed and assaulted a victim). She may now ingest one die's worth of blood points. Failure indicates that the hour is spent looking fruitlessly, while a botch indicates a complication (perhaps the character accidentally kills a vessel, picks up a disease, enters the domain of a rival Kindred or suffers assault from a street gang). If a botch does occur, go into roleplaying mode and let the character try to work her way out of trouble.

The Fame Background reduces difficulties of hunting rolls by one per dot (to a minimum of 3), while the Herd Background adds one die per dot in the Background (so long as one's herd could conceivably be in the area). However, Storytellers may increase hunting difficulties for particularly inhuman vampires (Nosferatu, some Gangrel, vampires with Humanity scores of 4 or below), as such monsters find it difficult to blend in with a crowd.

Feeding
When the character finally catches prey, they may then feed. The table below gives information on the different effects of blood loss on a Vessel, using a standard human as a base:

Amount of Vitae	Effect on Vessel
1-2	Vessel will be fatigued but otherwise unharmed.
3	Vessel will show minor signs of anaemia.
4	As 3, but Vessel will require medical treatment.
5	As 3, but Vessel will require hospitalisation.
6	An unhealthy Vessel may die.
7+	Vessel will die.

Note: This table does not account for animals, or children.

Feeding and Frenzy
If the character catches prey, but currently has fewer blood points in her body than [7 minus Self-Control], a frenzy check (p. 228) is necessary to see if she can control her hunger. If the player fails this roll, the character continues to gorge on the vessel until she is completely sated (at full blood pool), the victim dies from blood loss, or she somehow manages to regain control of herself. If a tragedy occurs, the vampire might well lose Humanity.

Please note:
Due to easiness, the Herd Background now works the following manner on Hollow Bridge:

Each dot you possess in the Herd Background allows you to gain 1pt of Vitae per night. Characters who remain within their haven/chantry will not receive the blood each evening as personal interaction with the city is necessary in order to encounter ones Herd.

Example: Aaron has Herd 3. This gives him 3pts of vitae every evening.

Hopefully, doing things in this manner will reduce the need for Hunting scenes allowing the ST's to concentrate more on the actual story. The rules for those who do not have Herd remain unchanged. Using Herd in this manner negates them being able to be used for Hunting purposes. Hunting is now purely done on Perception.

Gaining Herd:
Herd 1: 3 vessels
Herd 2: 7 vessels
Herd 3: 15 vessels
Herd 4: 30 vessels
Herd 5: 60 vessels

The only sure fire way to increase one's Herd is to achieve the required number of vessels for the rating. Mozza has very kindly written up the following rough guide:

Mozza wrote:

Your how too guide: HERDS

Ok, so just how do I go about as a character gaining a herd in game?

As usual it’s a case of "damn, not enough points and something had to go, I really needed .... and ... and ..." so going about getting one after you spent those points on much more needed stuff, how do you?
Not easy is the simple answer, you have to work on it. As the ancient Chinese proverb goes, you reap the benefits of what you sow...

Just what does that mean? If we take the friendly example given by the core rules book in a condensed form (outdated in a modern game I know)

Chanting growing louder, candles melting etc, Head idiot in robes making a well rehearsed speech for the fiftieth time asking for a god too appear (nice mood setting) Lo... the floor cracks and the figure exactly as the chant asked for climbs out of the ground in front of them as the supplicants wet themselves in delight for its demand of ... blood presumably! (Bound to be Gangrel, who else could possibly have earth meld?)

Yes a herd takes many forms but only the typical ones given as examples, kinky club goers, cults etc are all for those who know that the kindred is there, even if not exactly what it is. At the same time here are a few examples for thought.

Example number one - Short term starts.

The industrial worker who has finished his shift. He is hungry and stops off by a pizza outlet to get an order, he does it every Friday night, doesn’t know why given that its crap quality food and the neighbourhood stinks. As he leaves with his pizza he goes towards his car down the dark alleyway and ...
Example Nosferatu (lets call him Phil) appears from nowhere and knobbles into his neck from behind. The 'Kiss' does its business to reinforce the good feelings associated with this Friday evening Pizza, as Phils licks the wound closed and heads back to the Shadows saying "Same time next Friday then mate, and less f@$£ing anchovies, I can't f@$£ing stand them on my f@$£ing food." Phil then vanishes again (gottta love Obfuscate)

By that sequence of actions the example Nosferatu Phil has just set into motion for another meeting next Friday, the power of the 'kiss' reinforces it and the worker will yet again reappear because he associates the feeling with the action. Congratulations Phil, you have gained a herd member as long as it recurs again and again (as a bonus it’s safer than a whole cult thingy, cause no one is going to call an industrial worker evil and kill him like they would a false god worshipping cult dealing in blood and sacrifices, unless like Phil they don't like Anchovies.).

Benefits are of course a source of nourishment which are safe to feed off, Completing minor tasks (like putting the lottery on for you, seriously, you want your safe food to go and rob a shop for you for a measly 200 bucks and the more than likely chance of doing time in choky if not being shot and killed by those heroes in blue?) without encroaching on those other backgrounds of Retainers or Allies and Contacts. Oh and as a minor it adds dice to your hunting pool outside of your usual haunt...

The longer term implications of nurturing the herd gives you more to nuzzle that precious red liquid off without crippling them should your wounds come a calling. Obviously locations matter as does the people preyed upon for a herd.

Example number two - the long term planner.

Take a Toreador nurturing a herd from art critics and painters (cue stereotypes Lets call it Imelda) By combining the Toreador love for all forms of art and hobbies, (perhaps Imelda also dabbles in painting and has a small gallery) through a combination of both contacts and resources events can be made to get these up and coming painters (always available for free publicity) and the cities critics (always available to rubbish someone elses work and eat free food and guzzle free drink) At an intial cost of the Toreadors pockets comes the networking needed to gain names and trust.
(cue an initial herd 1 or 2)

Soon the newly promoted artist darling Neville (probably now ghouled too, gotta love those muses) is dropping by the shop with more paintings for Imelda to sell for him, perhaps swapping models phone numbers to sit for Imelda's own paintings. (a nice new way of getting more herd members in from another resource - perhaps the Herd rating is now 2 or 3?)

Naturally as names and reviews gather strength it costs the Toreador less to host an event and the profits start to return in the form of sales from the gallery. (cue resources perhaps?)

Of course wih the fame of the painter who can only be viewed in the one gallery comes the private viewing of the artists work to more elite company who are looking to invest in a painting which only gains in value. (enter more Herd members from another source possinly raising it to 3 or 4 and thats with one gallery promoting one artist only.)

That is a long term approach to gaining a sizeable herd and could still fail, although through subtle use of Imeldas natural charm and charisma (as well as timed use of Presence) it is an acheivable one which will bear fruit over a wide range of people.