How are Vinculum ratings impacted when pack members die or otherwise skip a Vaulderie ritual?

Question

In one of our Sabbat games, most of the members of our pack died. Some had high (8) and others extremely low (2) Vinculum ratings to/from the PCs. How would their death affect the Vinculum?

Would it disappear after death as would a Blood Bond? Or would it only disappear during/after the next Vaulderie?

We are using the v20 corebook which only states that ratings change by +1 or -1 if the roll is higher or lower that the previous score. But it does not describe what happens to ratings to/from Cainites that are not partaking in that particular ritual (either because they are preoccupied or dead) but are/were active pack members before that.

Answer 1

You are mistaken about the exact mechanics. The Vinculum rises as you said, but it only lowers when you get a "1" in the dice.

The Vinculum stays the same for the vampires that do not participate in the Vaulderie.

It does not fade with the time:

Unlike normal blood bonds, Vinculi do not fade over time — a Vinculum left after a Vaulderie with a vampire in nights hundreds of years past is still as potent as the night it arose.

Nor it fades when other people made Vaulderie, because the rules do not say such a thing.

We applied a house rule in which you have to roll a die also for the Vinculums of other people not in the ritae. If you scored "1", that Vinclulum lowed, but it did not change otherwise.

That is not canon, as you are told in the manual that Sabbat elders have a huge net of old Vinculi.

As for the death, I think the Vinculum simply disappears. The character could be shocked if the Vinculum was high, and possibly sad because he could have friendship aside the the bond, but I think she is not forced to do anything anymore.