Blood storage
It is general knowledge among vampires that:
- Blood can be stored, but its efficacy diminishes over time.
- Blood that has been sitting out for over 4 hours can make you throw up.
- Freezing blood is possible but not very efficient.
- Relying on stored blood makes you vulnerable to the Beast over time.
Unrefrigerated blood: At room temperature, blood halves in potency every 4 hours, meaning that after 4 hours, it takes twice as much blood to get a blood point, 4 times as much after 8 hours, et cetera. At warm temperatures (80+ F/26+ C) the half-life duration is 2 hours.
Refrigerated or frozen blood: In the fridge, blood halves in potency every 10 days. Frozen blood keeps for up to 10 years, but when you defrost it, it's immediately 1/4 potency due to cell rupture that occurs in the freezing process. There are more efficient preservation techniques but the details require sufficient Knowledge ratings (such as Science or Medicine).
Blood Spoilage: After unrefrigerated blood is 4 hours old (2 hours if warm), drinking it requires a stamina check vs 6. The difficulty increases by 1 every additional 4 hours (2 hours if warm). Fail the check and throw up half of it. Botch the check and throw up every single drop of it. Refrigerated/frozen blood does not trigger this spoilage mechanic until it's 40 days old, and the difficulty increases by 1 every 10 days.
Stored Blood And The Beast: When a vampire drinks blood from storage, unless it is fresh (within 4 hours) the ecstasy effect of the Kiss doesn't kick in and the Beast isn't exactly satiated. Every time a vampire drinks stored blood, they get one Hunger point. When your Hunger Points outnumber your self-control (or instinct), then your character is considered Thirsty and prone to hunger frenzy at the sight or smell of fresh blood from a living source. All Hunger points go away once the vampire drinks fresh blood. Vampires who occasionally fall back onto stored blood typically will not feel the Hunger gnawing at them, but those who subsist exclusively on it will.
