The Digital Raven's

Guide to Vampires

By the Digital Raven

Throw out all of those green marble books, and give this a look instead. To best use these rules, you'll need a copy of any core book and Sorcerer Revised wouldn't go amiss either. Knowledge of Mage's Resonance Traits will also help.

Legal stuff: Vampire: The Masquerade, Werewolf: The Apocalypse, Mage: The Ascension, Wraith: The Oblivion and Sorcerer Revised are all copyright (C)2001 White Wolf Game Studios. All of the technical terms are also probably copyright, as is the World of Darkness and the Storyteller System that this is a little modification for.

Vampiric Society is competitive. While many prefer seclusion from others, others try to become the alpha for the area. Bear in mind that vampires over fifty years old are extremely paranoid, and how many vampires must cram into the cities to avoid the talons of the Garou (that know them to be abominations upon the face of Gaia), and you get to one simple fact: Vampires do not play well with each other. Also, vampires tend to be picky in creation, as a vampire is not creating a successor like a human or a Garou, but an eventual competitor. They think very carefully about such things. One thing they do not think carefully about is the meaning of existence or their lost humanity. They have a tendency to revel in their unlives and their lack of a naturally limited lifespan. They can be cruel, they can be kin, and they are often both to see what the results would be down the line.

1. Blood

Vampires exist by drinking the blood of humans. Each vampire has a Blood trait, measured in the same way as Willpower. The permanent rating indicates how old and powerful a vampire is, and how much blood that vampire can hold. Recently created vampires have a Blood rating of one to three. This can go up to 10. By sucking the blood out of a mortal being, they can replenish their pool temporary points up to but not over their permanent rating. Temporary points are spent to fuel vampiric powers (listed separately). Each power has a Blood Minimum. If the Permanent Blood rating is below this minimum, the power cannot be acquired.

As a note, when attempting to detect Wyrm-taint on a Vampire, roll Perception + Primal Urge against a difficulty of 10 - Permanent Blood

To increase the Permanent Blood rating, the vampire must have been in existence for at least the time listed below.

Blood    Years
1          10
2          20
3          30
4          40
5          50
6          100
7          300
8          500
9          1000
10        1500+

2. Inherent Powers

All vampires have the following capabilities:

A point of temporary Blood may be spent to increase a physical attribute for a scene, this may take the attribute over five. Up to Permanent Blood / 2 (round up) points may be spent a turn this way.

All vampires affect the human mind in some way. Mortals will tend to agree with the vampire and go along with what the vampire is saying. All Manipulation difficulties are reduced by two when dealing with humans. Garou, Magi and Wraiths are immune to this effect. Kinfolk, Sorcerers, Mediums and other human beings with a knowledge of the supernatural elements of the world may spend a point of Willpower to avoid this.

A vampire may extend or retract her canine teeth at will. When extended, there is no doubt as to what she is, and this is generally seen as a bad thing. However, it does allow a vampire to perform the Bite manoeuvre for Strength in aggravated damage. They may also bite a human being in order to drink from them. This deals the human no damage as long as he does not resist, but each point of Temporary Blood gained is equal to one Health Level that is taken from the mortal.

No vampires are affected by the Delerium or the Fog. This does not mean that they will not be scared at a ghost appearing or a nine foot tall killing machine, but they will at least be in control of themselves.

Vampires are made of dead tissue, and thus soak both Bashing and Lethal attacks with their Stamina. The no longer age, and cannot contract diseases. Necroticising viruses, and nerve agents such as Sarin will still affect them. One point of Blood a turn can be spent to heal a single level of Bashing or Lethal damage.

3. Limitations

All vampires have the following limitations:

Sunlight causes Aggravated damage that cannot be normally soaked. This damage increases exponentially with each turn (one level the first turn, two the second, four the third, etc.).

Vampiric tissue is dead, and yet it is alive in a way that Risen are not. The muscles still need to function to affect motion, and though vampires do not need to breathe they do have to process air to speak. This makes a Vampire a walking stockpile of Entropic and Static Resonances (one point per point of permanent Blood, choose which). The DeathSight of Wraiths will pick up a vampire automatically. Life 1 or Matter 1 will detect a Vampire, but any working directed at them must use equal levels of Life and Matter. The Lupus Gift Sense Weaver will detect a Vampire with a Static Resonance of more than two.

Vampires, being dead, effectively have all of the time in the world. However, their unchanging nature makes it harder to learn things. Though all experience costs are the same as the base game being used, they take twice as long in-game time to learn anything new.

Vampires must spend time in seclusion to heal Aggravated damage. This damage heals at a rate of one level per week that the Vampire lies in a sleep-like state. Any action during this week stops a Vampire from healing.

4. Death

Death for a Vampire can be brought about by driving a stake through the heart (5 successes on the Melee roll to hit, or the Archery roll for bows and crossbows). If the Vampire has eight permanent blood or more, he reforms in his resting place with (Permanent Blood - 7) levels of health remaining. The rest of the Health Levels are aggravated damage.

When the vampire is in a healing trance, a stake through the heart will finish it off for good.

Seven levels of Aggravated damage from sunlight or fire, or decapitation, will have the same effect as a stake.

A vampire that falls to below incapacitated from a method not above will immediately empty it's pool of temporary blood to heal, going into a frenzy. If all of the damage is Aggravated, the vampire falls into a healing coma.

5. Frenzy

If ever a vampire is reduced to 0 temporary blood, he falls immediately into a Frenzy. Treat this as a Homid Garou in the Thrall of the Wyrm, but instead of trying to eat her enemies, the vampire will be trying to drink blood. The frenzy ends when the vampire is over half his Permanent Blood back.

6. Powers

Vampires may choose from the following powers:

Shapeshifting                
Blood Minimum: 3
The vampire may change into a bat or a wolf. Upping the Blood Minimum of this power by one will allow one extra form (such as a rat or a crow). Wolf form has the trait adjustments of the Garou Lupus form, and Bat form the following: Strength -1, Dexterity +1, Manipulation -3, Perception -3 for sight and +3 for hearing. The vampire must return to his human form before changing. This power costs one blood per transformation. Return to human form is free.

Enhanced Speed            
Blood Minimum: 2
By spending a point of Blood, the vampire may spend Blood Points during the next turn as if they were Rage points in order to gain extra actions.

Flight                            
Blood Minimum: 2
The vampire with this power may fly. Though rare to begin with, more and more vampires are showing up with this power. A point of blood lets the vampire fly at running speed for one turn per dot in Permanent Blood.

Personality
Blood Minimum: 4
A vampire with this power has even more of a commanding presence than normal (think the Magpyrs in _Carpe Jugulum_). One blood point may be spent to gain an automatic success on any social roll that the vampire makes. Garou, Mages and Wraiths may spend a point of Willpower to avoid this. Kinfolk, Mediums and Sorcerers may spend two points of Willpower.

Mist Form
Blood Minimum: 5
The vampire may dissolve her physical form into mist. A vampire in such a state takes no physical damage, but may still be harmed by sunlight. Physical attributes are reduced to 0, but running speeds based on normal Dexterity are doubled.

Tenacity
Blood Minimum: 6
The vampire may add half his blood rating to all Soak rolls against damage save sunlight. Sunlight's exponential step is changed from turns to scenes (1 scene in my games =~ 1 hour). This power replaces Light Tolerant in those that have that power.

Light Tolerant
Blood Minimum: 3
The damage incurred from sunlight every turn is halved, rounding down. A vampire can spend a temporary Blood to use half (rounding down) her Permanent Blood rating to soak damage from the sun.

Alternate powers can be either invented on the spot, or taken from the Psychic Phenomena in Sorcerer Revised. When converting psionics like this, consider the rating of the power to be the Blood Minimum for the power, and the power to require one temporary Blood in addition to any other costs. Some Vampires also study Linear Magic. By far the most common paths for those that do are Fascination and Shadowcrafting.

These beings are meant as antagonists rather than PCs, hence the lack of character creation rules.