Thursday, April 5, 2018

Variant vampires


What follows is another take on vampires in the MM, with credits to Isaac Horn for the ideas.

Vampires

Vampires and their spawn are something of an oddity among the noble dead because the status of their soul fluctuates. Vampires are corpses animated by demons, whether those demons crawled out of hell or were transmuted from evil souls that made a pact with hell. However, they may gift a weaker form of vampirism to mortals of their choosing. In this case, the spawn have a demon take up residence within their body, but their soul may or may not fly off into the afterlife.

If the soul flies off, typically only in the case of good souls, then the demon takes full control and retains only memories of the former owner. If the the soul remains, then it will have to contend with the bloodthirstiness of the vampire demon. Spawn who were cruel and wicked in life will adjust to the transition with ease and their souls will likely meld with the demon over time. Spawn who were kind and compassionate in life will generally find themselves going crazy. Either they will lose their sanity and become a puppet of the demon, or they will fight the hunger and eventually degenerate into feral beasts.

What is odd is that vampires who do not willingly satisfy the urges of their demon do not accumulate corruption (the meat and drink of demons). Good people who transform into monstrous vampire spawn do so because they lose their minds, and thus cannot be held responsible for their actions. Killing them is an act of mercy that frees their souls.

  • The vampire and vampire spawn in the MM form a specific family of vampire known as the vamphyri (a name originally from the Necroscope series). While vamphyri are famous for drinking innocent blood, they may also consume flesh.
    • While they typically resemble the popular stereotype of vampires dating back to Bram Stoker's Dracula, the traits of vamphyri are not always consistent and may vary by bloodline or individual. For example, the vampire's animal forms or weaknesses may vary from those listed in the MM.
  • The vampire, also known as the head or master vampire, is a legendary monster (whatever that means in a gaming context, considering most monsters are legendary according to the dictionary term). Vampires are evil because their power comes from a pact with hell; the vampire's demonic patron may take away that power if the contract is not being properly fulfilled. There can be no good vampires, but there can be adventurer vampires; adventurers are not necessarily good even if they do good things sometimes. 
  • The vampire's spawn are not necessarily evil, but they are subject to a form of demonic possession. Even if they were a good person in life, they will now struggle with the hunger for human blood... innocent blood.
    • Optional rule: Taking a page from The Lords of the Night: Vampires, vampire spawn may convert their victims into vampire spawn, but the progeny will have half the hit dice of their parent. A vampire spawn with 11 hit dice will create progeny with 5 hit dice, who will create progeny with 2 hit dice, who will create progeny with with 1 hit die, who cannot create further progeny.
    • Optional rule: Taking a page from Fang & Fury, vampire spawn may convert their victims into ghouls and/or zombies instead.
  • Vampires and spawn that are starved for blood will degenerate physically and mentally into hideous, feral vampires sometimes called nosferatu or vrykolakas (a la the varghulf and vargheist in Warhammer Fantasy). Drinking the blood of bad guys (i.e. anyone with a corrupting rating), corpses or animals will keep the hunger at bay, but not prevent this degeneration. Thus, any good vampire spawn will eventually become feral beasts unless they abandon their principles and drink innocent blood.
    • The vampire class is an example of this. The fluff for that class mentions that good vampires need to make lots of friends who will willingly offer them blood, which is consistent with the above. They do not have rules for degeneration (which would probably take much longer), but they are limited to to two hit dice per day unless they drink blood.
  • The vampire lord has gained additional power after surviving long enough and renewing their pact with hell. Their weakness are less severe or absent entirely, their existing powers may expand in scope (e.g. change shape like a druid, revive after destruction, etc) and they may gain wholly new powers like telepathy, weather control and changing their apparent age.

Generals of Oblivion

This variant is based on Shadowbane. Under this variants, vampires are not simply possessed by demons through a pact with hell. They have given themselves over to the Void beyond the Lower Planes through the darkest of dark rituals. Their souls were consumed, their memories wiped away, and in exchange they gained beautiful, immortal bodies sustained by the blood of the living. (This is loosely similar to the Abyssals in Exalted.)

Example titles:
  • Soledades, The Lonely Black Star, The Queen Of One And Everything
  • Komus, the Tyrant Star
  • The Nightmare Child
  • The Mouth of Oblivion
  • The Grand Maw of Oblivion
  • The Black Sun


the two vampire curses

Both kinds of vampires could be used side by side. In this case, there is now a conflict between the Shadowbane vampires or “nightborn” versus Orcus’ vampires or “strigoi”.

Creation: nightborn are created by the void after death, whereas strigoi are created by pacts with Orcus. Both may create lesser vampire servants, though the specifics vary. Nightborn servants are created through necromancy, whereas strigoi are the result of demonic possession.

Loyalty: Nightborn are born loyal the void and cannot comprehend disobedience. Strigoi are loyal only because Orcus may strip their power if they displease him. Nightborn are oddly at an advantage, since the void only summons them during apocalypses. Otherwise they are free to do as they will.

Memory: nightborn have no memory of their past lives, as their soul was consumed by the void. Strigoi remember their former lives. Both retain personality traits of their former lives.

Diet: nightborn must feed on life force to sustain themselves, but it is not restricted to a specific form of life. Feeding takes the form of telekinetically drawing blood, breath, tears, etc as befits the individual nightborn. Strigoi must feed on innocent blood with their fangs, ensuring only the wicked will persist. The consequence of not feeding is that the vampire will turn into a mindless monster of hunger. They may not strictly die of starvation?


Relevant links


Relevant sourcebooks

  • Out for Blood, Bastion Press
  • Fang & Fury: A Guidebook to Vampires, Green Ronin
  • Complete Guide to Vampires, Goodman Games (Web Extras)
  • Lords of the Night: Vampires, The, Bottled Imp Games
  • Immortal: Vampires, The, UKG Publishing
  • Lords of the Night, Dreamscarred Press
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