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Vampires' drinking game?

Ireth

Myth Weaver
There's an upcoming scene in my vampire novel wherein the protagonist finds himself in what amounts to a tavern for vampires, in the midst of the vampires' hidden city. He sits at a table, onto which is chained a human woman whom the vampires will feed on. One of the other vampires suggests a drinking game to make the meal/round of drinks more enjoyable. I'm having trouble coming up with a "game" for them to play.

It's not like a real drinking game in that they won't get drunk off of the woman's blood, so "drink until everyone but you passes out" isn't a good option. Also there's only so much blood in a person, so that'll limit how long they can play until they run out and have to send for another victim. I should probably note that the protagonist will be discreetly trying to unchain the woman while the other vampires have their fun, and when his turn comes around he'll do all in his power not to actually drink (he'll just make it look like he is) before trying to turn the situation to his advantage. Any ideas?
 

Chilari

Staff
Moderator
How about, pass her round, stuff she says to each one determines how much they drink. Certain phrases mean they have to let her go, but it'll be something quite unlikely. So a simple "please" gets them a certain small amount of drinking time before they have to pass her on, "don't hurt me" gets a little longer, "I have kids" means they drink for longer, etc. Maybe if she twigs what's going on, the vamp who has hold of her when she says something about this gets to drink her dry.
 

Ireth

Myth Weaver
Perhaps it isn't a game per se, but the winner is the one who gets the final drop of blood?

I can see that happening, but I still want to make it a bit more interesting than just having them try to be the last to drain her.

How about, pass her round, stuff she says to each one determines how much they drink. Certain phrases mean they have to let her go, but it'll be something quite unlikely. So a simple "please" gets them a certain small amount of drinking time before they have to pass her on, "don't hurt me" gets a little longer, "I have kids" means they drink for longer, etc. Maybe if she twigs what's going on, the vamp who has hold of her when she says something about this gets to drink her dry.

That is a delightfully dark idea. I like it. XD Though she might get the hint after a while and not say anything, which would spoil the game. If that happens they'd probably just get fed up and drain her as quickly as possible, then call for another victim.
 

SlimShady

Troubadour
Maybe they roll a die/dice and whatever the die/dice has on it equals the minutes they get to feed off the victim. But, I do like the game about words as it could be very bleak/heartfelt.
 

Ireth

Myth Weaver
Maybe they roll a die/dice and whatever the die/dice has on it equals the minutes they get to feed off the victim. But, I do like the game about words as it could be very bleak/heartfelt.

My only issue with that is I don't know if dice were invented in the 1360's, when the novel is set. I'll have to look it up. :)

EDIT: Apparently dice are older than I thought. Cool. I'll keep thinking on this. ^^
 
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SlimShady

Troubadour
My only issue with that is I don't know if dice were invented in the 1360's, when the novel is set. I'll have to look it up. :)

EDIT: Apparently dice are older than I thought. Cool. I'll keep thinking on this. ^^

I didn't even know dice were that old. In my opinion the word game could make or break the scene. If done right I'm sure that it would be a very powerful scene. Perhaps try writing it several different ways and keep the one you like best.

I believe that you should try out the word game, however as it could be very emotional and intense for the reader.
 
How about a game where you get a point for every heartbeat's duration that you drink, but if she dies on your turn, you lose. The loser has to go and abduct the next victim, for the next night's game. Whoever has the most points at the end of the month gets to boss the other vampires around.
 

Ireth

Myth Weaver
How about a game where you get a point for every heartbeat's duration that you drink, but if she dies on your turn, you lose. The loser has to go and abduct the next victim, for the next night's game. Whoever has the most points at the end of the month gets to boss the other vampires around.

That's a good idea for a long-term game, but I'm in need of something that could potentially be played multiple times in a day. The female victim mentioned above is going to die at some point in the game, and another victim will be brought out to them immediately afterward. This second victim is the catalyst for pretty much the remainder of the book.
 

Avi Love

Acolyte
My immediate thought was similar to Benjamin's. A lot of simple children's games are based on not having something happen rather than having something happen. How about a game where you get the most points/credit for the amount of seconds you can drink from her. However if she passes out while you're drinking from her, you lose all your points (similar to a scratch in pool). If she dies, it's an auto-loss (similar to pre-shooting the 8-ball). Also a bit of a similarity to Jenga where the objective is to remove as much as possible without screwing up the existing order. In order to bring it up to an even more adult level it would be possible to add a gambling component. A round involves going around the table with each vampire drinking once. At the start of the round before anyone drinks, each vampire must place a bet on how long they think they can drink for. If they don't meet it, they lose their money to the center of the table. If they do meet or exceed it, they keep their money. At the end of the round, the vampire with the highest time gets all the money at the center of the table. So there is a status symbol in confidence for amount of time, ability to meet that time, and the amount of money one is willing to wager.
 

Ireth

Myth Weaver
That's a good idea, Avi. One problem, though -- the protagonist has no money with which to wager, so he'd have to come up with something else. Also the "center of the table" might be tricky if it's literal, since the victim in question is chained in a spread-eagle position across the table. If they wanted to put their money in the middle, it'd have to be on her stomach, and depending on how much she struggles, that could topple the money and upset things.
 
Oh okay, I was assuming it wasn't trivial to have a bunch of victims tied up and waiting. If they have multiple victims available, then maybe if you drain the victim, you lose and are out the next round. Victims are brought in until only one vampire "survives," and he's the winner.

Discard the points idea; instead, each time you drink, you have to drink longer than the last person who drank. So it behooves you to drink as long as possible, to force the next vamp to have to go even longer.
 

Saigonnus

Auror
Just an observation... I realize that in most "takes" on vampires, they prefer human blood to the rest but whose to say they wouldn't use animals for their games; especially if it means keeping a lower profile in human society (so they wouldn't have to kidnap six victims every day). Why couldn't they create a game that revolves around who can drink from the most disgusting creatures. (i.e. rats, skunks, armadillos, possums etc..)
 

Ireth

Myth Weaver
@Benjamin: I like that idea. ^^ I could have a lot of fun with it... or rather, let my vampires have fun. XD

@Saigonnus: That's something I hadn't thought of, and would be fun to write out. But in this instance a human captive is vital to the plot, since the one they'll bring out after the first one dies is extremely important to the protagonist. Also, they don't need to worry about keeping a low profile in human society, since they've built their own and are thriving in it. :)
 

JacobMGibney

Dreamer
How about this for an idea: Each player has a small, hollow glass sphere - one side of which has a long, thin, needle-like tube. There is a deck of cards, each card has the image of a section of the human body painted on it: the head, neck, right leg, left leg, arms and so on. Players shuffle the cards and select one each, once each player has a card it is a race between them to see who can fill there sphere with blood first ( I doubt I need to go into detail about how this is done). The player to first fill their sphere wins, they empty their own and everyone else's into their glass and drink. The winner has the first choice of card on the next round.

The game can be played until the human is dead or they become bored of the taste ;)
 

Ireth

Myth Weaver
That's brilliant, Jacob. I love it! :D I just wonder how many cards there would have to be to cover the whole body. Going by just your suggestions plus the torso, that makes a maximum of nine if I divide the torso into chest, abdomen and groin. I'm envisioning eight players per table, so that works out just about perfectly with one card per player. Maybe there's a specific purpose for the leftover ninth card.
 

JacobMGibney

Dreamer
Well I was thinking of them as including left and right and identifiers like that, the cards being red or black to match like traditional cards. If you didn't want, not every card would have to be in play and in a deck of cards with higher numbers you could include 'special cards' that are like prizes. Perhaps the coveted 'corpse card, which allows the holder to leave their own sphere on the table and drink freely as they please for that round. There could be cards like that dotted throughout the deck in small numbers so that it is considered lucky to come across them ;)
 

Ireth

Myth Weaver
Marvelous. :D So each suit would contain a full set of body parts, I imagine? That might complicate gameplay a bit, if each player has a hand of X many cards to play with. I'll need to come up with more rules, and card designs... this'll be fun. ^^
 

JacobMGibney

Dreamer
I was thinking that each player might only pick one? To reduce the chances of getting a special card and killing the human so quickly haha ;) I am glad you like the idea though!
 

Ireth

Myth Weaver
Aah, that makes sense. :) So there's no need for suits, unless maybe that's their way of determining how long a person gets to drink. One minute, two, three and four?
 
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