Outdated. See Tobe Na Med Research Institute (proposal).

The Tobe Na Med Research Institute is a research institute that claims to specialise in Historic Genealogical DNA research, specifically with the goal of finding genetic markers within historical noble families and their descendants. Amongst their stated primary goals is the discovery of genes which are related to the failure and success of dynasties, as well as determining if marriage customs of the historic era have created genetic division between nobles and non-nobles. They accomplish this goal by analysing the blood of the descendent of noble families, especially those who still qualify as nobles.

While this is the official story, anyway. Unofficially, the Tobe Na Med Research Institute is a front to purchase and storing blood for consumption by the Kindred who set up the institute.

The Tobe Na Med Research Institutes purchases donated blood as any research institute or hospital would. They are especially interested in purchasing the blood of humans who qualify as nobility, regardless of blood type. Notably, they take “second pick”, that is, they yield preference of purchase to any medical institution that needs blood to serve patients, and moreover loan from their supply to nearby hospitals in cases of emergency.

Besides research into nobility, the institute also tests the quality of blood for pathogens, contamination, etc.

The following additional input is necessary to continue:

• Opinions on bottom section regarding blood gaining / usage
• What advantages does Tomas hope to gain (Access to chemicals? Laboratory?)
• What advantages does Alastar hope to gain (Tax breaks? Research outcomes? Training and Testing facility for ghouls?)

Discussed with ST (first group is directly available, second at a later point, third requires large N and actual research work):

• Counts as ⅕th of the necessary effort for raising to Resources ●●●●● ● due to tax benefits and financial constructs
• Can be a good justification for increasing Influence rating due to new acquintances in Berlin's administration
• Can act as justification for establishing private security firm with exceptional permits and rights
• Lab that can perform quick blood testing and research on demand without questions asked

• Can be a catalyst for getting new contacts and gettings things done in the medical sphere
• Can be a catalyst for getting new contacts in the research funding sphere
• Can eventually be used as a recruitment location for skilled junior scientists

• Can eventually act as an information source on issues regarding the city's inhabitants' blood and its quality

The implementation of the Research Institute requires three steps: funding, permits and recruitment.

Initial startup cost is 500.000 euro's. Monthly costs are 41.500, roughly another 500.000 annually. This funding can be provided in three ways which are both Humanity and Masquerade friendly.

Private Equity: PCs involved can donate money from their Resources rating to fund either initial or monthly costs (or both). Realistically only Alastar has enough Resources to provide any significant funding at this level.

Grants: Research is often funded from grants devoted to solving certain social or scientific problems. Though the Research Institute has secondary purposes, it is quite capable of actually doing the research it promises. As such, it is able to solicit grant money and acquire funding through regular research channels.

Donations: Donations can be made to the institute directly, through private donors, charity events and blood drives. Key here is again to actually provide the services the institute offers.

Clarification: The money solicited from outside sources such as grants and donations, are explicitly NOT used to fund the secondary goals of providing blood for party members, but rather are used to actually fund the real and beneficial work the institute does.

The institute will require permits to process bodily fluids, connections with the local hospital and the red cross in order to be able to purchase blood. Someone well connected in the charity circuit, or perhaps with political connections, would likely be able to make such arrangements.

The institute needs to hire various scientists, security personnel and support staff. These need to be people who are both capable and trustworthy. Preferably they would be masquerade friendly, though if not, they should be the type of people not to ask too many questions.

Tomas Fiser: Besides providing an extensive lab facility for researching blood and blood related matters, and providing research assistants to ease up various tasks, the research institute is also a good cover for purchasing chemicals without arousing suspicion.

Elisabeth-Maria: The institute is a way for Elisabeth-Maria to acquire a steady supply of qualifying blood. To compensate for the blood she takes out of the general supply, she might be able to convince members of her Herd to regularly donate blood - that way the overall blood-supply remains the same, resolving any last Humanity based objections to this plan. Regular blood drives may also extend her herd.

Alastar Mac Caoileann: Since the institute is a non-profit, it makes for an excellent tax deduction. It is also a good excuse to train and equip security forces and to rub elbows with other wealthy people who may want their fortunes managed by an ethical person supporting such things as healthcare and scientific research.

• Used as generic blood store for all party members
• Source of humanity-friendly noble blood for Elisabeth-Maria
• Used for tax-credit by Alastar
• Can be used for non-masquerade friendly blood research (Vitae, for example?)
• Nice bio-chemical laboratory which Tomas can use for research (probably best not to use for drug production though)
• Can be used as a meeting place / storage facility / research center for E-Division as well

• Operational and Start-up Funding
• Getting a Location
• Actually being able to buy noble blood (make contacts and such)

Start up:

• Initial Blood Supply = 60.000
  • 500 points * 105 = 52.500 ¹⁾
  • Start up fee and delays = 7.500 (Guess)
• Storage Devices = 30.000
  • 2 Refrigerators = 20.000 ²⁾
  • Remote Alarm System x2 = 3.000
  • Strong Metal Drawers x2 = 6.000
  • Delivery and Installation = 1.000
• Laboratory Equipment
  • To be determined
• Office Supplies = 30.000
  • Office Furniture = 18.000
  • Pens, paper, etc. = 2.000
  • 5 Computers (a 2000) = 10.000 ³⁾
• Emergency Systems = 16.000
  • High Quality Fire Suppression System = 6000 ⁴⁾
  • Emergency Generator Setup = 10.000 ⁵⁾
• Security Setup
  • Alarm
  • Security Cameras
  • Sneaky Secondary Alarm System
  • Security Room
  • Laying independent wires to alert police / fire department
  • High quality locks
    • electronic
    • physical
• Building
  • 300.000 for a large house in a big city ⁶⁾
  • Mortgage rate in 1992 is 8-10% ⁷⁾
  • Historic Prices are about two to three times higher now than they were in 1992 ⁸⁾
• Permits (incl. any bribes)
  • Blood Processing permit
  • Business License
  • Not-for-profit setup with notary

Monthly:

• Blood usage - 7000 / month
  • Elisabeth-Maria basic feeding ( 31 x 105 = 3255 / month ⁹⁾ )
  • Elisabeth-Maria's selection procedure and testing cost ( doubles above )
• Laboratory Replacement & Reservations
  • 1% of initial investment per month
• Researcher Salaries - 10.000 / month
  • Lead Researcher (Tomas?)
  • Lab Technician ( 4000 / month ¹⁰⁾ )
  • 2x Junior Researcher ( 2x 3000 / month ¹¹⁾ )
• Support staff - 6000 / month
  • Secretary ( 3000 / month ¹²⁾ )
  • IT person ( 3000 / month ¹³⁾ )
• Building Cost - 2500 / month
  • Insurance 1000 euro / month ¹⁴⁾
  • Taxes of 1.04-1.4 % of building value annually ¹⁵⁾ - 400 / month
  • Utilities of 1000 euro / month ¹⁶⁾
  • Company phone connection and internet via Modem - 100 euro / month
• Security - 16.000 / month
  • 8 security guards, 2 always on duty 24 / 7, 16.000 / month ¹⁷⁾

• Budget (€ 1.000.000)
• Supply size (100 blood points)

• Ziekenhuis nabij Alastar's domain
  • Charité
  • https://www.google.com/maps/@52.5416312,13.3450164,16.5z

Tobe Na Med is a medical research involved in Genealogical DNA research, specifically focussing on finding unique markers within historic noble families and their descendants. A stated primary research goal is the discovery of markers which are related to the failure and success of dynasties, as well as determining if historic marriage customs have created detectable genetic division between nobles and non-nobles. They accomplish this goal by analysing the blood of the descendent of noble families, especially those who still qualify as nobles.

Besides the research, the facility also analyses and tests donor blood for pathogens, chemical contamination and other risk factors. It keeps a store of blood to supply hospitals in the Berlin area, especially the nearby Charité, in cases of emergencies or sudden peaks in demand.

While the institute actually does perform all these tasks, it is also used as a front to safely and legally purchase blood for vampiric consumption under the cover of its research. To do this in the least disruptive way possible, the institute takes “second pick”, that is, they yield preference of purchase to any medical institution that needs the blood for helping patients - even besides their work to support nearby hospitals. They also perform blood drives to increase the general supply of blood above and beyond the amount they take out.

The institute is funded through a mix of service fees, grants and donations.

Service fees consists of payments made by hospitals for testing and storing donor blood. The services are provided at regular market rates which allow for a small margin of profit to offset incidental costs. This also includes any incidental profits made from buying and selling blood - blood is not being brokered for profit by the institute, but incidental losses or profits may occur and are included in this post.

Grants are research funding made available through government and private institutions to promote the type of research being done at the institute. Since the institute is involved in the up and coming field of genetics, grants are generally widely available. It is important to note that like the service fees, grants are not being siphoned off, but rather the research is actually being done.

Donations are a final source of funding, which may take the form of private donations, blood drives, charity events and personal equity investments by the institutes patrons. Of these funding sources, private equity investments, be it as money or as blood, are the default methods by which blood consumption is financed. See “Acquiring Blood” for details.

The institute can be used to acquire blood in three different ways: direct extraction, market purchase, and donation filtering

Direct extraction is the least complicated method with the most problems - it is possible to simply take blood directly out of the refrigerator in the institute for consumption. Administratively this is easy: since blood which fails pathogen tests is destroyed to prevent contamination, it requires only that a test form is filled out as a positive test for pathogens instead of a negative test and that it is recorded as having been destroyed.

However, direct extraction affects the blood supply, both in the institute and in Berlin more generally, besides being fraudulent. Using this means would be a Humanity 7 sin (theft). In special cases when there is a blood shortage (for example following a large accident), it may also be a Humanity 6 sin (accidental violation). In either case, depending on the humanity of the kindred extracting the blood, a humanity discussion may be appropriate. Naturally, specific circumstances may factor into the decision. Wasting blood for fun or using it for dark purposes may rank lower on the humanity scale and may be a violation even for lower humanity characters, while using it to save lives or otherwise do greater good than harm may mean no humanity violation took place at all.

Due to the size of the store and the normal operational costs that include provisions for failed tests, up to 5 blood can be acquired through this means in a month without affecting operations. If trying to take more blood, an (Intelligence + Medicine) check should be made. The number of successes is the amount of blood beyond five that can be taken without arousing suspicion (so 5 on a failure, 6 on 1 success, etc). If more blood than this is taken, or if a botch is rolled, an investigation is triggered with one of the grant givers or with the health department. Such an investigation may temporarily close the institutes operations, may cost money in fines, or may even place the masquerade at risk in rare cases.

Since the institute purchases blood for its research, unlike with Direct Extraction, it does not arouse suspicion if the institute purchases blood from the blood market through the proper channels. In this case, the institute purchases blood as normal, reserved for research and once acquired gives this blood to the buyer (who will pay the listed price in the form of a donation). Since this is “second pick” blood, and nobody is at risk, there is no humanity violation involved.

The going rate for blood in Germany is 105 euro's per dose ¹⁸⁾ while the black market rate is some 200 euro's ¹⁹⁾, so it is even possible to make some level of profit from this by filtering blood to the black market - this would, however, attract unwanted attention if it were to become known.

Two limitations apply on Market Purchases. First, since the institute cannot sell blood to consumers without arousing serious suspicion, there is a one day delay between requesting the purchase and receiving the blood. While it is possible to buy blood that is stored at the institute already, for bookkeeping purposes it is necessary to wait until a replacement batch has been bought to make sure the supply is the same in the refrigrerator as it is on paper - to do otherwise would make the purchase a Direct Extraction (even if a donation is made to pay for it).

The second limitation is that there is a limited amount of blood that can be purchased in this manner - if there is any blood to buy at all! Each month, there is 2D10 - 5 points of blood available for purchase ²⁰⁾. Roll the first time anyone attempts to purchase blood or use Donation Filtering (see below) during a month - if the result is zero or less, it means no blood is available.

For various reasons, it may be desirable to filter blood acquired from other sources through the research institute.

This is done by donating blood (for example by bringing in in a volunteer donor) via the institute. Since the institute profits from testing the blood on behalf of the collective Berlin blood banks, it can then use those profits to buy some of the donated blood from the blood banks. You can get one point of blood for every two points of blood donated.

This type of purchase is analogous to a Market Purchase, but it is paid for out of the profits of the donation, and it provides its own blood, and is therefore not limited by the available amount of blood.

One advantage is that blood filtered in this way will have been tested for pathogens and is therefore a safe source of food.

Another advantage is that donation filtering actually increases the supply of blood available for patients, but this comes with a potential disadvantage: in special cases where there is a blood shortage in Berlin due to large accidents or the likes, the blood banks are not obligated to sell back the blood just donated. Due to the large stored supply, this would only happen in the most dire of events.