Anita Blake Vampire Hunter

[kigmatzomat]

My GF is an AB fan, sort of. She prefers the action stories and could deal with the erotica but is now irate that the plot is bogging down with lots of talking and no doing. She doesn't care if someone's getting stabbed or.... um, stabbed as long as it is some form of action.

I read the first one or two and while the writing was decent I just couldn't quite accept the world scenario. There were too many internal weaknesses to the world for me to accept. AB herself was a fairly acceptable character in the beginning (minor necromancer who used speak with dead to solve insurance & will disputes) but after becoming a were-fey-witch-ninja-something-pirate it just became Mary Sue cheesecake, like Drizzle.

Every time one of my friends brought up later incarnation AB I always thought of old Sam Haigt from WoD, skinshifter, ghoul, thaumaturgist, faux-mage that he was.

 

[Wolfwood2]

Before I start on it, has someone else already done the work of statting out Hamilton's vampires for D&D?

I would start with the standard D&D vampire template and make the following modifications:

Allow template to be applied even to 1 hitdice humanoids. No "vampire spawn".

Reduce blood drain to 1 point of Constituion per 2 rounds. (It's also possible to come up with a complicated system involving how much blood a vampire needs to maintain its powers and how different sources of blood affect this, but that may be complexity beyond the needs of the game.)

Add a 1d6+str bite attack which can only be used in a grapple.

Change "Children of the Night" ability. This applies only to vampires with 10 or more hitdice. It allows the Vampire to Dominate (as per the spell) any single type of animal, dire versions of that animal, and lycanthropes that transform into that animal. Unlike the vampire's Dominate gaze, this does not require eye contact.

Alter Dominate slightly. Will save DC = 1/2 vampire's hitdice + cha modifier + 10. Caster level = hitdice. Dominate ends at sunrise. Dominate can also be used to duplicate the effect of a Modify Memory spell (separate will save).

Create Spawn requires draining of blood over three consecutive nights, at least 1 point of Constituion per night.

Remove Energy Drain completley.

Remove Alternate Form power.

Change Damage Reduction to DR/Silver only; no "or magic".

Alter Fast Healing. Damage heals at a rate of Vampire's Hitdice of hitpoints per 1 minute. Damage taken from Fire or Silver must heal normally (hitdice per night). (May have special rules for blood speeding the process.) Vampire no longer turns to gas cloud upon reaching 0 hitpoints but goes comatose. Unlike most undead, a vampire can be reduced to negative hitpoints and must be reduced to -(20+hitdice) to destroy it permanently. Vampire cannot heal as long as it is contact with a holy object or has a stake through the heart.

Eliminate Gaseous Form power.

Keep Resistances.

Eliminate Spider Climb.

Keep Turn Resistance.

Keep ability modifiers, except intelligence modifier.

Keep racial skill bonuses.

Keep feats.

Keep all vampire weaknesses. The wekness vs. a holy object may be overcome by a successful Will save vs. 20 + Charisma modifer of the person holding the object.

Vampires of 10 HD or more are consider "master vampires". In addition to being able to call an animal, they may have various unique abilities as appropriate.

 

[painandgreed]

Are those books and/or comics good? I'm not talking good because of subject matter, 'cause it's a recipe for fun. I'm asking if they are GOOD as in well-thought out plot wise and written at a high level of competence.

Most other people covered it. They have good ideas in a world I like. The trouble is the writing. In the early books, everybody is an ass, has an ego, and does enough macho posturing that I found it hard to read through and broke SOD because there can't be that many disfunctional people with successful jobs in the world. In the later books, it's all about her collection of boyfriends (one for each splat), and them discussing their relationships in the hotel room. I usually kept these books for long airplane rides but in the latest ones, I found myself skipping sometimes up to 50 pages, and nothing had happened plotwise and they were in the same room, having the same conversation about who is going to sleep with whom. I won't be buying any more, even for long, boring plane flights.

 

[Lord Mhoram]

I don't think so, but then again, I don't think any of us play F.A.T.A.L.

Okay that one almost made me fall out of my chair. Too funny.

 

[Snapdragyn]

I'd actually say read everything up to (& including) Obsidian Butterfly, which is like 8 or 9 books.

Beyond that, things get much sketchier -- the very first one post-Obsidian, Narcissus in Chains, is... ok, but showing the signs of where things are going to go (lots more sex, sex for the sake of sex, introduction of Anita's 'nympho vampire' power). Next one (Cerulean Sins) is mostly bad, but tries hard to redeem itself in the last few chapters (the entire book should've been based around those IMHO). Incubus Dreams just sucked, period. The latest one, (the name of which escapes me at the moment) is a mixed bag; I can almost see this one as LKH trying to resurrect some more of the action & character development, but it simply doesn't make it (& the Anita Blake, Super-Ninja-Arcano-Goddess-Supreme stuff takes yet another step along the Great Cheese Way).

Also, if you find the supernatural mystery element of the early books appealing, they pretty much vanish after Narcissus in Chains (the latest one has absolutely zero, a first for the series).

Interestingly, I don't mind the sex in the Merry Gentry novels; it seems to fit better with the character, & having it right there in the series from the beginning makes it a better fit to me. In the Anita Blake books, the erotica just came along, slammed the series 'hook' over the head, & dragged it into a dark alley to disembowel it (after several chapters' worth of panting, moaning sweatiness, of course).

 

[Storyteller01]

There was a thread on it some time ago. Not much came of it. I recommended using GR's psychic's hand book, have the skills increase as the vampire ages (same as dragons). GR's Witch's handbook is good for the spallcasters and ritual magic.

 

[Rel]

I am currently running a solo campaign for my wife in a world patterned loosely after these books. She's a big fan of the books and I've read the first 5 or 6. Her character is a psychic private eye operating out of the Dark Champions setting "Hudson City". We're doing it using Risus as the ruleset, which is VERY light but yet perfectly tailored to the setting since we're both operating off the same set of cliches. That makes it super easy to stat up the bad guys and I can generally fashion an NPC in about 30 seconds to a minute.

And before you ask, yes, we LARP the sex scenes.

 

[IcyCool]

And before you ask, yes, we LARP the sex scenes.

So do you actually get around to gaming at any point?

 

[Rel]

So do you actually get around to gaming at any point?

Most nights, no.

 

[Arbiter of Wyrms]

There are things I've never liked about the Monster Manual vampire, e.g., energy drain slam attack, but mostly, I've long been intrigued by the idea of "vampire clans," various distinct bloodlines with distinct traits, ala Vampire, the Masquerade (I've never played, but I enjoyed the tv show and I knew some people who played it and were eager to talk about it at length.) I've long been thinking about re-writing the vampire for my campaign, but since my wife turned me on to the Anita Blake series, my interest in the project is renewed.