How do you do vampires correctly? Just go with Bram Stoker stuff and build from there?
World of Darkness vampires, obviously.
>>47656534
Try to go as close to the source material as possible.
Basically, pick a historic Vampiric tradition, and go from there.
>>47656534
Warhammer Fantasy's Von Carsteins
Ahem.
Basically, pick your vampire theme and roll from there. Are your vampires suave and terrifying lords of cursed lands? Are they what happens when you don't sanctify the dead properly? Are they some arcane curse or infection from some monstrous progenitor? Are they beasts? Are they beasts that pretend to be suave nobles? Are they sexy but deadly predators that want to tempt pure women into premarital sex? Pick your theme, assign powers and traits that support that theme, and keep it as a running undercurrent with each vampire, whether they're embracing or defying the stereotype, and you're good.
Forr me, vampires represent two things.
First is the immortality of death.
Vampires should be out of touch, old fashioned and just plain incapable of fitting completely in.
Have them mix up terms from centuries apart and so on.
>forsooth, thine niggers doth intrude up into mine grill!
The more awkward and forced it sounds the better.
This is an old grandpa trying to show the kids he is still "hip"
Secondly, as marx pointed out, is capatalism.
Its old money, parasitic investments.
Minions to do your bidding, servants to cater for you.
Embrace the ideal of old money, even if horribly poor. Turn your nose up at the smallest faux pass.
>oh my, you need to extend your pinky when dining on such a petite lady, dear sir!
And most importantly, ham to the wall. As an ambush predator they dont want to be taken seriously.
There are lots of ways to do good vampires.
It would be easier to answer how not to do vampires.
>>47656548
>>47656557
In addition to these I would put forward Underworld Vampires.
>>47656555
This. Go pre Stoker.
>>47656909
>how not to do vampires.
I'll bite.
DO NOT
>make random changes to the mythology without a good reason behind them
>Pile on what seems cool whether it makes sense or not
>Make the audience question how the fuck these vampires are still hidden
>Make your vampires invulnerable ubermenschen. Daywalking especially merits careful considering.
>Be hamfisted or overly obvious with your vampiric themes
>No psychic vampires or emotion-feeding vampires. Period.
I use the von Carsteins and Strigoi as a baseline.
You can also use similar stuff to World of Darkness if you want a diversified vampire cast in your setting.
If you want to go full retard you can go Hellsing style.
But I personally think Von Carstein and Strigoi are best.
Asian vampires in general are a lot more interesting and/or brutal.
>>47656548
>WoD
Is not really a good setting for Vampires, they're more modern and less out of touch than a normal vampire. If you want to actually do a decent Vampire then you need to do someone who's been around forever, but still takes from the good and some bad from each era's he's been in.
Most of the time a Modern day Vampire is more akin to a spunky old man with a lot of life in him, at this point in time most Vampires have been around for. . 2-3k years? Seeing as no evidence points to any more or less, infact id say most come from the 1400's or around roma. So you're looking at an in touch, not out of style, but out of character like creature. To take into play most Vampires after this long start to stop giving a shit about the Clan, or anything else, and end up just doing their own thing. This is more related to the fact now, in modern times a Clan is more of an underground club *VtM* than a real castle or aristocracy. Underworld did them right.
>>47656924
>>47657077
>>47656534
I prefer a mixture of different eras for vampires. I definitely like them being more human than simply just being monsters like the first stories about vampires where they are literally just cursed by the devil to feed on blood.
I prefer to think of them as a series of deeply personal connections between individuals, I think that the true blood series got this right with examples like Godric and Eric, I also think of the relationships in like interview with a vampire. Regardless of the type of game you are playing in, modern, scifi, or fantasy, I choose to believe vampires would have a very strict code of ethics when dealing with other families and that age should be a basic representation of power. There should be very strict rules regarding the turning of new vampires, about protection regarding letting people into your home, and other things that opperate on something like a strict code of chivalry between vampires.
I choose to think that most vampires love their masters, not just because of a magical reason, but because I think a who a vampire decides to bring into the next life is as I said before a deeply personal decision, you are essentually bringing them into an immortal family forever onward. In regards to this I believe while not a hard rule, I think there would be no greater sin/taboo than killing a family member and that doing so would brand you as worse than human food to all other vampires.
As far as how they treat humans I think that would vary on family to family based on the proginators preferences. Some I imagine being actually quite benevolent rulers, others I imagine being harsh an firm tyrants, and others I imagine not even controlling humans and just traveling around the world looking for the next bit of entertainment.
>>47657077
>>47657311
I also want to state I really like underworld vampires too and I think they did them very well until the whole retard hybrid thing. There should be more vampire programmer/hackers by the way.
Selfish/evil with druid powers
>>47657311
I seem to think of vampires similar to you. But I do also enjoy the rogue vampire that failed to control his desires and became a horrific bloodseeking beast with little if any human features left.
I do have a question though, isn't common for vampire betrayals to occur? Isn't the most common type of vampire death made by vampires? And the sole reason why in their own myths they haven't dominated the world? Or maybe I'm mixing star wars/Masquerade with this...
>>47656534
Can Gaunter O'Dimm kill a greater Vampire?
can he beat one in combat?
>>47657507
He could beat anyone in combat, maybe, bu that's not the point. His battles are battles of wits.
Only two people have ever beaten him.
>>47656996
Your list is almost all great. I wanted to elaborate on "don't make them ubermenschen".
>Don't make them so flawless that it would actually be the optimal moral action to turn the majority of the human race to vampires.
If they can subsist on animal blood, are immortal, and aren't heavily laden with disadvantages (either for doing so specifically or in general), then every vampire is literally, objectively, worse than Hitler in terms of death caused by inaction because they're not sharing their gift of unaging perfection.
But I take issue with one point:
>No psychic vampires or emotion-feeding vampires. Period.
I take issue with this one.
One of the originators of a lot of now classic vampire tropes, before Stoker's Dracula even, was Varney the Vampire. The source material was a half billion word serial, so it was pretty inconsistent, but he was often hinted to be an emotional vampire rather than a physical one, with any talk of blood drinking probably being figurative.
Obviously it can be done really really badly, in a retarded emo way, but it can also be done well and make sense, especially in a "subvert expectations" type of vampire story.
>>47656639
This is the best general advice.
Personally, I like to have variety in my vampires.
In my main setting, it's just a word for undead monsters that feed on blood, just like there are others that feed on fear or death or brains.
Some of them are revenants (barely aware beasts with vague habits similar to their living selves) others are ghouls (demon ridden corpses, sometimes with access to their host body's old memories to help find prey), and sometimes they're wights (fully sapient, self-aware undead that either are or believe they are the same person as before death; sometimes creating themselves willingly).
I like my vampires to be like Warhammer Fantasy's and Dracula and the like; monstrous and parodies of nobility. The ability to command lesser undead good too.
While I'm not absolutely opposed to pretty vampires (like Alucard and such from Castlevania) I prefer them to be grotesque creatures that, in life, were probably very charismatic, ambitious and handsome, but have been corrupted and are now dark, bloodthirsty things of the night. Some might be sentient and still possess their drive and ambition to conquer, but others are just out to quench their thirst. Generally the ones that are still sane control the ones that only desire blood.
>>47657774
>Ghouls are vampires
You are shit.
>>47657562
Geralt actually probably killed the other guy himself, at least if you're familiar with the novels and the description given.
>>47656557
Vlad was pretty cool and unique because as "bad guys" in WHF go, he actually wasn't that bad of a ruler. I'd rather be a Peasant under Vlad's rule than some poor sod in the Chaos Wastes or even less desirable regions of Bretonnia or the Empire.
>>47656534
Do them like in Warhammer Fantasy
>>47657979
I've always kind of enjoyed the "Evil vs Evil" thing that Counts and Chaos have.
Though I don't like it when some pansy-ass bitch decides that because they fight other evil guys they must automatically therefore be good guys and reworks the fluff to make it so.
Either go full dark side or fuck off to the "justified evil" corner pussies who need to explain themselves and ensure you are unheard and unseen.
>>47657979
Though, there's a lot less upward mobility in the Vampire counts. If you're a bad enough dude, you could become a Chaos warrior or even lord. Under the Carsteins, you're always going to have to answer to one of the family.
So, correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't Warhammer Fantasy vampires basically your usual Gothic horror vampires except they lead armies on occasion?
Maybe a bit tougher then some other Gothic vampires, but it mostly seems like they have most of the most basic assumed abilities and a tendency to be a bit more blatant.
>>47658031
I don't think having my soul stolen by Chaos and raped for all eternity is really all that great of a deal for temporary upward mobility until either another Chaos Warrior shanks me in an honor duel or I get shot by an Empire Rifleman screaming "NAPOLEONIC TACTICS, BITCH".
>>47658045
They areYour Dudes, like Newcrons. Proud Dragon warriors, Stoker's Carsteins, hidden intrigue-weaving line of Neferata, scary necromancing Necrarchs of W'Soran, beastly Strigoi.
>>47658101
You'd rather your soul be stuck as a spooky skelly for all eternity and never be able to be anything?
Plus, look how fucking metal this is.
>>47658101
Well, the Empire is technologically a few centuries away from Napoleonic Tactics.
But getting shot would certainly suck, though apparently Chaos Warriors are magically bulletproof or some bullshit.
>>47658116
I last played WHFB back when that was first becoming a thing, so how they are now is sort of unknown to me.
I remember very much enjoying my Blood Dragon lunatic heroes mulching anybody who they ran across, it seemed like they were massively OP hero and leader options at the time, capable of fucking up pretty much any other type of hero in 1v1.
>>47658125
Nothing magical about it. Your average Chaos warrior is edging close to eight feet tall and in appropriately thick plate armor. Shot from an arquebus would probably bounce right off.
Marauders are probably just to blood crazy to give a shit if you don't shoot them in the head.
>>47658031
There's no less social mobility than in Bretonnia or the Empire. The Von Carsteins are actually infamous for their bad habit of giving the Red Kiss to servants and cute peasants they favour. The odds of surviving and then thriving as a follower of Chaos are fractional at best.
>>47658045
Their vampires come in a whole spectrum. Tenth or so generation vampires might live undercover in the Empire and be very limited in power. On the other hand, the more powerful vampires can raise a city's worth of corpses in a single night, cover the sky in pitch-black clouds, and fight with the skill and speed of demigods.
>>47658124
The peasants aren't soul sucked skeletons.
>>47658159
>There's no less social mobility than in Bretonnia or the Empire. The Von Carsteins are actually infamous for their bad habit of giving the Red Kiss to servants and cute peasants they favour. The odds of surviving and then thriving as a follower of Chaos are fractional at best.
Blood Dragons would do it just if you proved yourself hardcore enough in a fight.
I bet most Blood Dragons get changed when some knight or mighty warrior faces down one and actually shows some solid performance and they change him into a vampire out of mad respect for his skills.
>>47658153
True.
Strigoi are still my favorite part of WH:FB vampires though. I prefer bestial vampires in general.
I personally like either embracing old folklore or throwing it out completely.
Have them not be able to cross running water/enter places of faith or have the vampire hunters make snarky comments about how the smallfolk still think garlic is a weakness.
>>47656534
>How do you do vampires correctly?
Subjective, like literally every question like this that has ever been asked.
There are no "correct" vampires because they do not in fact exist, so weather you like specific versions of them or not is purely a matter of taste.
The "correct" way to do them is to not be a crappy writer or GM, and that just requires working on your general writing skills rather then focusing on your "vampire game".BTW, did all you really want to talk about is Blood and Wine because you just finished Blood and Wine? Because you don't need to try and be stealthy about it if it's true, plenty of folks on here like the Witcher series.
>>47656534
Bram Stoker researched a bunch of vampire folklore and cherry picked the bits he wanted for his story. Do the same thing. Figure out what role you want vampires to fill and give them traits that service that.
Don't think there's some sort of "original" vampire lore you should be sticking to. Vampires in old folklore can be anything from zombies, to werewolves, to incubi. Even compulsive counting as a vampire weakness can be found in old stories.
I love traditional style vampires
A young boy falls ill in the town, muttering about mommy visiting him from heaven in the night, he grows weaker and eventually dies
More people become sick and perish, rumors spread about phantoms lurking the streets after dark. Apparitions of wolves, bats, clouds of mist, etc.
A deep feeling of wrongness and dread all around
Vampires should operate like Jaws
It's the buildup, the mystery behind the creeping horror
The shock when a few brave villagers unearth the grave of a victim only to discover it empty
>>47656534
Underworld nailed Vampires and Werewolves as best as could be, I think.
Warhammer Vampires are really cool too, for a full fantasy setting I would probably go with them.
>>47656996
as long as the vampires
>die in sunlight
>die when heart is pierced
>die when drained of blood
>show weakness to holy power, the exception being the biggest and baddest vampires.
then I have no problem.
If I were to DM I'd prefer to reward players for being savvy about genre conventions rather than pull a "my vampire doesn't follow any traditional tropes and basically isn't even a vampire at all". You know, the "forget everything you've seen in the movies" approach?
A vampire is fundamentally a human who decided living forever was worth all these horrible caveats: you have to feed on your fellow man, you can't ever walk in the sun again, you can't cross running water, silver hurts you, garlic hurts you, you can't enter holy ground, you have to sleep in your own grave... If you take away the weaknesses and the drawbacks you take away what makes the vampire a vampire.
Being a shape-shifting immortal monster innately capable of flight, hypnosis and necromancy needs these drawbacks so the heroes have a fighting chance, or else the opportune choice in every situation becomes "turn into a vampire so I can be a badass too"
The tough part of course is making all the weird, esoteric traits make sense in-universe...
>>47658838
It's actually kind of a open question if in Stoker's novel how many of those abilities are even part of being a vampire or just something Dracula can do because he is actually a sorcerer.
The very few occasions we see in the novel where vampires other then Dracula are encountered, they basically display none of his more arcane and mysterious abilities (except perhaps invisibility in the case of his wives, though I suppose an argument could be made that their attempted victim simply doesn't notice them at first). Admittedly we see Dracula using next to none of them and merely have implications of their use and Van Helsing's word that he can do them.
Speaking of which, it's a shame that the fact that Dracula was literally a wizard who was taught in a legendary school of black magic chaired by the devil himself is always left out of adaptions because that's pretty fucking metal, especially since it's vaguely implied he went and turned himself into a vampire using his sorcery.
>>47656996
>Daywalking especially merits careful considering.
No vampire in myth, folklore or literature was harmed by the sun until Murnau's Nosferatu.
>>47659855
"Also, Orlok must sleep by day, as sunlight would kill him, while the original Dracula is only weakened by sunlight."
From Wikipedia.
>>47659915
Weakened =/= harmed.
Ruthven and Carmilla were lazy during the day as well, Clarimonde didn't seem to give a shit. Folk vampires were either uncaring about the time of day or just more likely to attack at night because people were asleep, though a lot were said to be at their worst during mid day or attack only at noon and midnight, one only attacked at 3pm, etc.
More than "dies cuz of sun and shiet", the one thing that all vampires do seem to have unanimously is hardcore neurosis for whatever rules they follow in their tale.
I'm looking for ideas/suggestion for my vampire character concept for a story that I'm going to write (soon tm).
short background:
>born in fertile crescent during assyrian empire time, turned around that time, so this would make her age somewhat around 5k years old
>was a merchant/warrior type of thing, excellent tradeswoman
>5k years old vampire is definitely strong af
Now the thing is, I want to set her off in the current modern times, what would be the good storyline for her that explains how she'd survive from 5000bc to 2016ad? Just survive off trading, moving around civilizations, going with the human history timeline? This would grant her immense knowledge of history and experience of life and she'd still definitely possess a huge amount of wealth. What would be the good scenario or explanation to justify her materialistic power? A publicly-recognized rich as fuck company (but I'm trying not to go over cliche like copying umbrella corp or similar rich-as-fuck corporations), a hidden cache, or using her powers to control people aka playing the strings of people and let the wealth flow to her?
Since she's considered as an ancient vampire, how would she go along with a mere mortal or a regular vampire? Should her power level be hidden or have her power level shown every time?
>>47659988
Firstly, accept right now that in your story you're going to be doing a fairly piss-poor representation of what something that has lived literally as long as recorded human history would be like. Something like that is not unfathomable or unknowable, but it's basically so outside of real life human frame of reference that we wouldn't know where to begin, like trying to guess at the emotional psychology of being a turtle or something.
>Just survive off trading, moving around civilizations, going with the human history timeline?
There's a lot of REALLY old people in the real world, some over a century in age. Most really haven't been involved in super-cool action-packed lives.
They're just old.
>This would grant her immense knowledge of history and experience of life and she'd still definitely possess a huge amount of wealth.
This is an assumption based on your setting, not necessarily an accurate one.
Knowledge is cool, but knowledge only translates into power of the knowledge is directly applicable to another field that relates to material wealth or politics. Example; if you knew everything there is possible to know about computers 30 years ago and nothing about computers today your knowledge would be completely useless because more recent knowledge has supplanted it and made it totally irrelevant. This has frequently happened throughout history in regards to pretty much every aspect of society.
In addition, age does not equal wealth which is why not all old people are wealthy.
Sound investments and a little bit of luck equal wealth (in modern times anyway), and no matter how old you get unless you can literally see the future predicting economics can AT BEST be guessed at. Previous knowledge of the past would again be minimally useful at best as economies have changed quite a bit and demand for things (the root of an economy) has changed as well.
>>47660111
That was really helpful for me as I'm trying to figure out how to play out a character that is 5 millennial old, I'm trying to connect her with the real life history with the addition of the alternative history but not steering far away from the real history. Any suggestions are welcomed.
The genre/theme that I'm planning would go between VtM/Underworld-ish, not really steering off into a whole new thing.
tl;dr how do you properly play out a 5000 year old vampire
>>47660111
>What would be the good scenario or explanation to justify her materialistic power?
She opened up a bank account in the 1950's and made smart investments instead of risky ones and got lucky enough to hop onboard some industries as they started making money.
It's boring as shit, but it's also how most of the wealthiest individuals on planet Earth got their money as well.
Money is the most banal part of society and the explanations involving how people in real life get their fortunes all seem rather similar at the core. The difficulty lies mostly in getting the start-up capital to reinvest in things and projects that will multiply what you have by large amounts.
>Since she's considered as an ancient vampire, how would she go along with a mere mortal or a regular vampire?
That literally depends entirely on the kind of vampire she is, and thus you haven't given enough information to really allow folks to make an educated guess or even suggestions that are anything other then pulled out of the ass.
>Should her power level be hidden or have her power level shown every time?
Here's a writing suggestion; don't ever think of things in terms of power levels or use terms like power levels. Taste and subjective opinions aside, it is a technically lazy writing shortcut.
It's saying "this person is powerful and thus everyone below or equal to her cannot hurt her" without actually demonstrating it. Kind of like all those shitty stories where you hear talk about insane or "godlike" power when all you see is people shooting lasers or worse yet hitting people extra hard. You are TELLING the reader of something rather then SHOWING them something, which is basically a way of getting around having to be descriptive.
In addition from a practical and real-life standpoint it's silly. Certain things may be more dangerous then others, life is not a scaling level-based system based on experience and power where everything below your level of experience and power is harmless.
>>47660174
First answer this query; what the heck kind of vampire even IS she?
What can she do? How often does she need to drink blood? DOES she need to drink blood? What are her physical limitations and weaknesses? Is her brain physiologically still human? How did she become a vampire at all?
>>47656996
>Daywalking especially merits careful considering.
Sun death is a movie invenrion.
>>47660192
If I recall the reason I heard, it's just that they though that if Orlok was just stabbed at the end of Nosferatu and died it would be anticlimactic and boring.
So instead he dramatically lights on fire and burns away because it looked cooler.
>>47657038
>>47656534
the only "correct" way is to use them as broad metaphors for burgeoning sexuality, so in a modern context ripping off what twilight did is likely the most accurate depiction.
>>47656534
I like Tsukihime vampires.
>>47660222
Nasu's vampires are vampires only in the BROADEST possible sense.
They're really more like superhumanly powerful immortal beings then any traditional vampire of any mythology or folklore or literature.
>>47660251
But they're really cool tho.
>>47660301
Subjective, like most statements of that sort.
I'm of two minds when it comes to Nasu's writing.
On one hand his worldbuilding is very imaginative and very diverse and frequently discusses things in detail that don't normally show up in stuff about wizards and vampires, going into the complex in-universe rationale.
On the other he tends to do a LOT of fucking talking, especially in regards to how powerful something is to the point where discussions of how powerful something is end up becoming trite anf meaningless because he's just going to talk about something else the same way if you give him enough time and frequently using the exact same phrases he used before, a problem with the "telling and not showing" thing a lot of writers have.
He also kind of just resorts to defaulting back to some pretty goddamn generic anime character archetypes everyone has seen a hundred thousand times by now. While definitely he goes into much more detail about the personality and psychology (autistic-level detail and meandering exposition is kind of his thing really), it frequently ads up to being something we've already seen before in many other anime and manga.
Granted this last flaw might literally be a result of the manga and anime market and it's current unwillingness to take risks as their sales margins shrink along with their demographics, so they enforce stuff they already know works with the otaku crowd and reuse lots of tried and true character archetypes.
>>47660382
>Subjective, like most statements of that sort.
The entire thread is subjective. There's no objective way to do vampires correctly.
>He also kind of just resorts to defaulting back to some pretty goddamn generic anime character archetypes everyone has seen a hundred thousand times by now.
>Kotomine
>EMIYA
>Shirou
Nasu's male characters are surprisingly good.
>>47657077
>normal vampire
Different curses, different genera, different origins, different curse casters/makers/creators, and it ultimately depends on dependent dependencies.
>>47660441
>Nasu's male characters are surprisingly good.
Again, this is subjective.
I actually like them, but though the characters themselves have complicated motives and drives, only Kotomine is in actuality a complex character.
Shirou is a deconstruction of the extremely generous and kind harem hero vaguely naive high school idiot that is easy for the player to self-insert into has a lame power that ends up being the coolest power that you can see in a FUCKTON of anime and manga. Admittedly a lot might have based themselves a bit on Shirou himself (his franchise IS around 13 years old now at this point), but there's a lot of characters like him in Japanese media.
Archer is the "badass snarky guy" character archetype. You actually see him more in stuff like Final Fantasy then harem games, which really just shows how much Nasu tends to think outside the box when it comes to his porn games. Like Shirou he's a deconstruction of the archetype, but like Shirou he ends up acting ultimately pretty much the same way as many other examples, just with a lot better depth as to his motives and reasonings.
Kirei is genuinely a weird one though.
He's a guy who totally is a villainous dick except his father's self-taught moral code is so deeply ingrained into his personality that he genuinely gets zero enjoyment out of the only thing that actually gives him enjoyment in life. He is an evil man who has the conscience of a good one which causes a lot of internal conflict with him.
He genuinely seems like someone who is mentally ill and socially disconnected; a guy who if he was identified as being socially maladjusted (he's definitely somewhere in the Axis-II spectrum for sure) he MIGHT have been able to lead a functional life because he could get appropriate help and counciling for his condition and warped mental state.
In addition he's pretty goddamn badass and has the Japanese VA equivalent of Darth Vader, which makes him fun to listen to and read about.
Fuck it a bit late to the thread but here goes...
Firstly, vampires where once human, so personality wise they would act similar to who they once were. An asshole will abuse his power, a religious individual will hate themselves and a relatively normal person may panic and freak out or use his new found power irresponsibly and go on a spree.
However, vampirism may effect them on a chemical level so there aggression and the like may alter.
Secondly, add some fact to it, but also keep some parts vague. It is fantasy after all.
Vampires burn in the sun due to sunlight allergy (this actually exists), their cells regenerate faster meaning massively reduced ageing and fast healing. The vampirism can enhance their physical body or add a catalyst to use powerful magic.
Next, add variety in social standings. Some vamps may operate within a high court while others are homeless murderers.
Finally, add your own touches. Its your game after all. I like the vampires from the Necroscope books. A powerful parasite that imbeds and changes a hosts way pf thinking and acting. They influence them subtlety at first altering their body on a cellular level. They can only turn one other person as the parasite can only lay one egg so it explains the rarity of vampires.
>>47660675
>I like the vampires from the Necroscope books.
So, vampires are a kind of monster.
But the Whamphyri were some of the only vampires who were MONSTERS. They looked human, but really they were closer to vampire myths as filtered through pseudo-Lovecraftian monstrosities then anything else, which given Lumley's other writings makes a fair amount of sense.
>>47657963
Vilgefortz?
>>47660716
Yeah the Whamphyri where evil sons of bitches. The parasite tries to gain more and more control over the host in exchange for more power. Harrys son even claims he can hold back the parasite that is infecting him.
Lumbly put alot of facts into his vamps and they even seem plausible to actually exist.
>>47660779
Vilgefortz.
O'Dimm mentions giving a "handsome mage with a beautiful voice" great magical power, and seeing as O'Dimm had nothing to do with his death it seems likely he beat him in a game of wits.
Not surprising as the guy was pretty damn smart, just had some serious ego problems that compromised his judgement literally at the last moment of his life.
Before that he honestly played shit pretty smart and managed to do a solid job of out-plotting everyone involved, despite how self-admittedly cliche his end goals were.
>>47658614
>Vampires should operate like Jaws
I read that as "jews" and was going to agree. Something about a stereotypical jewish mother, who's also a vampire, is fucking terrifying.
>>47659988
first thing I'd say to keep in mind for her would be at around 5000 years of living as a merchant would give you some serious experience in dealing with people of all shapes and sizes, like the phrase been there done that comes to mind, even without mind control and all that stuff she's gonna be pretty good at talking to people, reading intention, body language, all that jazz.
I would personaly avoid putting her into too much of history, if possible build up a rough gographical timeline and maybe involve her in some of the events at those times and places.
Next thing is how does her memory work? at 5k years thats a lot of shit to remember, is it all crystal clear? fuzzy after a few centurys?
Next question is how does she feel about her life as a 5000 year old vampire, happy? sad? did she fall in love, can she even love? does she care for those she left behind, or does she mock them?
>>47661041
Is she going to find me a nice girl to bite so she can have some grandchilder?
>>47656701
mate your vampires sound 2/10
>>47656701
0/10
Please throw yourself into the dumpster and close the lid.
>>47661514
>"Bubala, we need to talk. It's been 500 years now. I may be immortal but I can't wait foreva. When are you going to find a nice girl and settle down?"
>"You're brotha David didn't have this problem, and rememba we thought he might be a bit slow? Now look. As awful as that redhead he married is, he has a nice castle, lands of perpetual darkness and just last month his legions crushed that rebellion making all the news."
>"Your fatha wont say anything, but I've neva seen him this disappointed."
Has anyone made a Dracula-inspired campaign?
>>47658896
The brides turned into mist, and Lucy is implied to have been able to do the same by her ability to leave and enter a sealed crypt through a crack the thickness of a fingernail.
>>47656534
>>47656534
Hirano Kohta's Hellsing is a good primer on how to do modern vampires well.
It worked with and expanded upon a lot of ideas in Bram Stoker's Dracula, such as the themes of blood being the currency of the soul, that there is power gained from devouring other life, as well as the sexual undertones of trading blood. But it also added new themes and ideas in the work, such as how "monsters can only be defeated by humans" (also a bit of a nod to the original cast of Bram Stoker's Dracula) and properly integrating the backstory of Vlad Tepes into Dracula's story (you can see the infamous impalement imagery in this page spread).
The vampires in the work are mighty creatures with a whole host of powers that reflect the myths, but they're shown to still have the restraints of a Bram Stoker-style vampire, such as being unable to actively cross running water and requiring their coffin.
The work also shows that you can throw in whatever the hell else so long as you get the core lore right. Such as robo-Nazis and super-Priests.
>>47661855
BLOOD DREGS ARE JIZZ
EVERYONE IN YHARNAM HAS JIZZ BLOOD
>>47656534
How often are they really done incorrectly.
Just land the coin on its edge bro
>>47661867
Yharnam gets pretty lewd.Just the way I like it
>>47657038
Kue'jin were rad. They were all edgy as fuck but man they were fun. Only got one game with them that lasted for 5 sessions before the group fell apart.
Imho Vampires should be immensely powerful like at least Gen 5 WoD or Lvl 12+ D&D.
>There should only ever be a handful of them worldwide.
>Their only weakness should be sunlight and or True Faith empowerd by the Gods of the setting.
>Ending a Vampires existence should be extraordinarily hard otherwise. They always come back.
>Always be endboss lvl villains/manipulators
Nothing is worse than Buffy/Blade cannonfodder immortals.If you want wild, expendable beasts, use ghouls/servants instead.
>>47661874
Mah nigga.
>>47662031
>>47661874
Now, at last, the masks had fallen away. The strings of the puppets had become visible, and the hands of the prime mover exposed. Most ironic of all was the last gift that Raziel had given me, more powerful than the sword that now held his soul, more acute even than the vision his sacrifice had accorded me - the first bitter taste of that terrible illusion: Hope.
>>47662185
>there will never be another game
>it would never be good in a million years anyway, but still
>>47662220
We're better off.
Did you perchance glance upon that abomination they call Dead Sun? Horrendous.
>tfw Paul Lukather and Tony Jay are dead
>>47658614
MACHINES OF LABOR
Awakened Vampire Watermelon
Small Undead
HD: 1d12 (6 hp)
Speed: 30ft (6)
AC: 20 (+1 Size, +1 Dex, +8 Natural), touch 12, Flat-footed 19
BAB/Grapple: +0/-4
Attack: Slam +4 (1d4+4)
Full Attack: Slam +5 (1d4+4)
Space/Reach: 5ft/5ft
Special Attacks: Blood Drain, Children of the Night, Dominatr, Create Spawn, Energy Drain
Special Qualities: Alternate Form, Damage Reduction, Fast Healing, Gaseous Form, Resistances, Spider Climb, Turn Resistance
Saves: Fort +0, Ref +3, Will -4
Abilities: Str 16, Dex 16, Con O, Int 2, Wis 3, Cha 5
Skills: +4 Bluff, +4 Hide, +4 Listen, +4 Move Silently, +4 Search, +4 Sense Motive, +4 Spot
Feats: Alertness, Combat Reflexes, Dodge, Improved Initiative, Lightning Reflexes
Environment: Haunted Gardens
Organization: Solitary, Pair, Vine (3-5), or Blood Harvest (1-2, plus spawn)
CR: 3
Treasure: Double Standard
Alignment: Neutral Evil
Advancement: --
Level Adjustment --
>>47662561
Blood Drain (Ex)
A vampire watermelon can suck blood from a living victim with its, ahem, fangs* by making a successful grapple check. If it pins the foe, it drains blood, dealing 1d4 points of Constitution drain each round the pin is maintained. On each such successful attack, the vampire watermelon gains 5 temporary hit points.
*More like slightly sharper than usual stubby edges.
Children of the Night (Su)
Vampire watermelons command the lesser creatures of the plant world and once per day can call forth 1d6+1 Shrieker Fungi, 1d3 Violet Fungi, or an Assassin Vine as a standard action. These creatures arrive in 2d6 rounds and serve the vampire watermelon for up to 1 hour.
Dominate (Su)
A vampire watermelon can crush an opponent’s will just by looking onto his or her eyes. This is similar to a gaze attack, except that the vampire watermelon must use a standard action, and those merely looking at it are not affected. Anyone the vampire watermelon targets must succeed on a Will save or fall instantly under the vampire watermelon’s influence as though by a dominate person spell (caster level 12th). The ability has a range of 30 feet.
>>47662584
Create Spawn (Su)
A humanoid or monstrous humanoid (or plant!) slain by a vampire watermelon’s energy drain rises as a vampire spawn 1d4 days after burial/planting. If the vampire watermelon instead drains the victim’s Constitution to 0 or lower, the victim returns as a spawn if it had 4 or less HD and as a vampire if it had 5 or more HD. In either case, the new vampire or spawn is under the command of the vampire watermelon that created it and remains enslaved until its master’s destruction. At any given time a vampire watermelon may have enslaved spawn totaling no more than 2; any spawn it creates that would exceed this limit are created as free-willed vampires or vampire spawn. A vampire that is enslaved may create and enslave spawn of its own, so a master vampire watermelon can control a number of lesser vampires in this fashion. A vampire watermelon may voluntarily free an enslaved spawn in order to enslave a new spawn, but once freed, a vampire or vampire spawn cannot be enslaved again.
Energy Drain (Su)
Living creatures hit by a vampire watermelon’s slam attack gain two negative levels. For each negative level bestowed, the vampire watermelon gains 5 temporary hit points. A vampire watermelon can use its energy drain ability once per round.
Alternate Form (Su)
A vampire watermelon can assume the shape of a grapefruit, jack o' lantern, harmless plant, or assassin vine as a standard action. While in its alternate form, the vampire watermelon loses its natural slam attack and dominate ability, but it gains the natural weapons and extraordinary special attacks of its new form. It can remain in that form until it assumes another or until the next sunrise.
>>47662603
Damage Reduction (Su)
A vampire watermelon has damage reduction 10/silver and magic. A vampire watermelon’s natural weapons are treated as magic weapons for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction.
Fast Healing (Ex)
A vampire watermelon heals 5 points of damage each round so long as it has at least 1 hit point. If reduced to 0 hit points in combat, it automatically assumes gaseous form and attempts to escape. It must reach its garden within 2 hours or be utterly destroyed. (It can travel up to nine miles in 2 hours.) Any additional damage dealt to a vampire watermelon forced into gaseous form has no effect. Once at rest in its garden, a vampire is helpless. It regains 1 hit point after 1 hour, then is no longer helpless and resumes healing at the rate of 5 hit points per round.
Gaseous Form (Su)
As a standard action, a vampire watermelon can assume gaseous form at will as the spell (caster level 5th), but it can remain gaseous indefinitely and has a fly speed of 20 feet with perfect maneuverability.
Resistances (Ex)
A vampire watermelon has resistance to cold 10 and electricity 10.
Spider Climb (Ex)
A vampire watermelon can roll up sheer surfaces as though with a spider climb spell.
Turn Resistance (Ex)
A vampire watermelon has +4 turn resistance.
>>47662561
>>47662584
>>47662603
>>47662618
Still not the weirdest homebrew I've seen. This one's based on actual folklore, too, sort of. The "actual" vampire pumpkin/watermelon couldn't do anything but roll around and go "brrl, brrl!", but it was one of the forms vampires could shapeshift into, along the more popular bats and wolves. I quess it could be useful for staying hidden? Nobody expects the watermelon to be a vampire in disquise.
>>47661815
I think there's a storytelling game called Annalise which is designed to replicate gothic horror fiction (dracula being the main influence). Anyone here played it?
>>47656581
So kill your daughter?
>>47661855
>>47661867
>>47656534
they're undead. that isn't just a character trait: they dream nothing. they feel nothing. after a while, they barely even want anything. long enough existence, and they'll just forget to move.
the blood is their life force. it just isn't THEIR life force. while they have it, it moves them and if they are so inclined they may look for more. once it's gone, they miss having it only mechanically. it was never really theirs.
the thirst isn't like the thirst of a living thing. it's not the thirst of one dying of it. imagine yourself in the middle of sahara, dying of thirst with no moisture anywhere to be seen. you'll walk across it until you drop. you start crawling and keep at it. you die and cannot move. the days, the years, the centuries go by with nothing to keep you company but the scorching sun. you wait as the planet dies and cosmic forces rip it apart. finally after an impossibly long time, a drop of clear spring water appears before you. you no longer recognize its significance and are moved only by the distant memory of once wanting it. not only have you forgotten what it's like to not be thirsty, the thirst itself has ceased to have meaning. it's insufficient, and there isn't an amount that would do anything for you at this point. yet somehow, you feel ability to move again...
that's how a vampire feels having a drink. it cannot be called a need, as that would imply hope. it's an impossibility that somehow works, in a way that is more wrong than a living thing could imagine.
they go out in the sun, they disintegrate. they get hurt enough, same thing might happen. if someone spills a drop of blood in the wrong place centuries later, though...
they learn magic powers just through their existence, of course. the minds of men are simple enough for a thing that's gone from one to something else. a few disintegrations and reintegrations teach the trick of walking through walls. after a millennium or two all living things to seem quite insignificant.
>>47663813
>The "actual" vampire pumpkin/watermelon couldn't do anything but roll around and go "brrl, brrl!"
Sounds as bizarre as Japanese folklore
>>47665763
All folklore is bizarre. It's also frequently self contradicting. It's why when using it for fiction you have to pick and choose which bits you want to use.
>>47661041
>"Vy don't you turn dat nice doctor lad? He's got it all, six figures, free time, a great big geschnitz, and all the bloodpacks you could pawsibly waant
>But no no, vy listen to me, I'm just ya bloodsire, I just raised you to what you are today, I'm nothing, I'm worthless...
>>47663813
Well, you could combine it with Audrey II to make a monster, with an exceptional bavarian baritone
>>47656534
I'm partial to Nosgoth vamps myself.
Gigantic parasitic mosquito monsters.
Like this, but less hentai
>>47669064
>that weapon-grade smug
>>47657651
Correct answer
>>47661874
>>47662031
>>47662185
>lok
Hell yes. I suppose Wod and whfb does the bloodlines thing in a very similar fashion though
i'm just going to leave this here...
>>47658124
Well.. your not wrong, but, well.. souls? you know?
>>47669095
Nations have been ended by that level of smug.
>>47656924
Could someone point me in the direction of a rundown of underworlds vampires? watched the first movie and the rest just looked like garbage
>>47671438
The prequel is good too.
Basically, they're the classic Vampires, but they're related to Werewolves via a common ancestor. The Vampire elders hop through time for some reason, forgot what. Maybe its because they're too powerful to have more than one around at a time or they go insane or something.
The original Werewolf and original Vampire are hard immortal, as is their Father.
>>47658653
The sun thing is very new. Maybe just really young vampires die to it.
>>47672249
I like the sun thing though. It adds a spooky feeling when an experienced vampires darkens the day so he can come out safely.
How does /tg/ feels about bats though? Do they transform into bats, do they control bats, do they travel through bats?
I liked the effects of how Dracula: Untold Story travelled through bats, it looked pretty spooky. But beyond that I dislike the whole bat thing.
>>47672160
Not him but I agree with >>47671438. I watched an Underworld film, the one with the comedy guy from the zombie Winchester film.
I found the movie to be quite terrible. I don't know how the rest are but I didn't find anything particularly special about their vampires. I enjoyed the Blade Runner films more.
>>47656534
By making them actually fallen angels tasked with ridding the world of the chaff of creation, the things in the night that were not meant to be but came to pass. But they needed hosts after Lucifer's rebellion and their severance from the source, so they're posessing human hosts that they've made immortal. The children of these hosts are commonly believed to be vampires, and this is where the rumors of their weaknesses come from. But the true vampires have none of them and their power comes from millennia of devouring monsters and people foul of heart.
Oh, and the vampire in question is a semen demon that gets drunk and really horny off virgin blood.
Vampires have always been a sex symbol anon, don't fight the magical realm. Just let it enter into you.
>>47672747
>christian mythologyNo.
>>47672848
You go play your inferior game over there.
>>47656534
Make them very plain. Vampires are shit because people always have to make them the centerpiece of everything, excessively powerful, and larger than life.
>>47662320
U wot m8?
>>47672912
>hydras are shit
>dragons are shit
>basilisks are sht
>liches are shit
>beholders are shit
>mind flayers are shit
Some creatures are just powerful, kid. You don't need to hate, there is nothing wrong with challenges.
>>47672912
>very plain
You want Twilight.
>>47672992
But as a previous poster pointed out, way too many vampires have no logical downsides. Being a vampire is supposed to be a BAD thing. It's a curse. An ailment. When vampires become daywalking, super strong, super gorgeous, immortal sex-lords, they are shit. They're no-longer vampires.
>>47673009
See above.
>>47673020
You are mixing like 7 different types of vampires into one. Not every vampire is Dracula or Cain.
The curse makes them brooding, not weak in combat.
>>47656534
Make them cute girls, of course!
>>47673066Just kidding.WRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY
This thread is now about Aztec vampires.
>>47656639
I think The Witcher series does a good job of doing almost everything. There are all sorts of types of vampires ranging from basically bat-werewolv who need blood to nigh-demigods who treat people like livestock and are totally sentient. TW1 even had vampire hookers!
>>47673321
The pillar men were not vampires m8
>>47656534
A combined version of the folklore, and rpg versions.
Vampires are the product of a biologically transmitted curse. A undead shell with the soul trapped inside, unable to move on. Vampires feed on either living tissue, or blood. The longer a vampire has gone without feeding, the more their body resembles a withered corpse. Their mental faculties degenerate, as their body rots.
So a starving vampire will resemble a zombie, slow, stupid, and ravenous for flesh. A slightly better fed one would look and act like a ghoul, until eventually you have a creature that resembles a living, breathing human.
>>47673927
Fite me
Might as well go full on gonzo
>>47673321
>Aztec vampires.
Has there ever been an actual combination of the Vampire myths with mesoamerican/South American concepts before?
I mean all the themes of capturing enemies, human sacrifice, and importance of blood as somthing sacred and divine, all seem to go hand in hand with Vampire lore.
>>47674392
>Requiem Chevalier Vampire
Muh Nigguh.
If you can't make your vampires like the classic dark victorian, then make them something one step beyond and go full Metal.
>>47674402
I like to think the chupacabra is just a misunderstood "vegan" vampire.
>>47674539
>the chupacabra is just a misunderstood "vegan" vampire.
Ha! Yea I guess that's one way of looking at it, having vampire vegens being those who only feed on animals. There's some irony in that thought somewhere, I'm sure.
It would also be interesting to see what somebody could do/come up with the reptilian aspect.
>>47660205
It was to avoid being sued by the Stoker estate.
>>47656534
really depends on what you want to do with them.
I like negima/uqholder vampires myself, just immortals that developed a fearsome reputation. but that's just me.
>>47673009
Twilight vampires are so OP they'd fuck up everyone up to Gen 4, Kain or Dracula.
>>47674402
Dresden Files has the oldest vampires of the Red Court (bat-like monstrosities hidden under the skins of humans) be the Mayan gods. They're still around... until shit hits the fan in a big way for them and their plans backfire horrifically because Harry Dresden gets involved.
>>47675721
I don't think they actually were the Mayan gods, more that they usurped them and pretended to be them.
>>47675721
Interestingly Jim Butcher did not make up everything about the Red Court Vampires.
Based on the description and their origins in Central and South America the Red Court are actually Camatzoz, vampire bat-deity-monster things that drank blood and we're found in several different Mesoamerican cultures. The Thirteen Lords of Night are also figures of actual Aztec mythology, though they are just deities of the thirteen Aztec months rather then vampires.
The only things Butcher seems to have invented about them was their narcotic drool and their fake skin shit, which presumably stems from the "drug cartel" angle they have and the fact that a giant bipedal bat monster would be conspicuous as fuck in the obstensibly-secret world of Dresden's supernatural nonsense.
>>47675815
In fact vampirism's association with bats is fairly recent, because vampire bites are NOT found in Europe originally and are native to the Americas.
>>47674402
There was that one movie whose name I can't remember where they get locked up in that Mexican club where the snake vampires rule the roost.
>>47675815
>Ayy bby, yu know yu wan dis bat dick
>>47675833
From Dusk Till Dawn. Robert Rodruigez.
Has a pretty fun TV series based off of it also directed by the estimable Mr Rodruigez.
>>47675841
That's the one, ta pal.
>>47675841
I would fuck the shit out of Eiza Gonzales.
>>47656534
depends on what you want. some are far more different than the conventional notion of what's a vampire. something like penanggalan is basically a gory variant of a vampire, which can detach its head by night time to feed while still remaining a living human being by day due to black magic practices.
you can take some inspiration from Warhammer's vampire counts or TES vampire clans which are more diverse in the lore than vidya
>>47675878
Like....seriously.
