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Fangs, Blood, and Terror!
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<blockquote data-quote="barsoomcore" data-source="post: 663426" data-attributes="member: 812"><p>Ah, vampires! A subject near and dear to my heart. I wrote an entertainingly bad vampire novel in my youth and have included variations on the vampire motif in dozens of campaigns and adventures since.</p><p></p><p>Vampires on Barsoom are BAD news. They are just about the worst thing you can come across. My party has encountered two, and the first nearly killed the entire group in their first toe-to-toe, and the second, well... that's a long story.</p><p></p><p>On Barsoom, a vampire is a person who has to be murdered and then returned to life through sorcery. The rituals involved are long and unpleasant, and serve to bind the vampire's soul to the material body (otherwise the soul passes away through the Shadow Realm at death). The vampire returns to life (or unlife, if you prefer) under the control of the spellcaster who created them. If you're not too squeamish you can create an entire army of these horrible creatures. The problem is upkeep.</p><p></p><p>For a Barsimian vampire suffers from a terrible hunger, and not the usual vampire hunger. On Barsoom, the magic that powers a vampire can only be fed by the destruction of souls -- in a very particular manner. A vampire must tear out the heart of a living person and devour it before that person's soul has departed their body. This gets very messy, and for someone who was not willingly transformed, utterly horrifying. For vampires are not necessarily evil.</p><p></p><p>Vampires can resist the hunger, if they like, but inevitably they will be driven mad by their need for souls and in insensible rage destroy everything around them. When the Demon Goddess went mad in Nahan in 1635, she destroyed not only an entire province, but the two legions that were sent up to investigate the disaster. All because she was trying to be good.</p><p></p><p>Vampires, however, have certain great advantages on Barsoom. They never need to sleep, nor do they have a Constitution score. Since on Barsoom, sleep erases spells from memory, and casting spells can cost Constitution damage, two huge barriers to massive magic use disappear when you join the ranks of the undead. Vampire spellcasters are very bad news.</p><p></p><p>Barsimian vampires also have none of the disadvantages one most often associates with the breed. They ignore sunlight, are indifferent to holy water, don't require graves to sleep in or any of that nonsense. They're impossible to kill -- almost literally. So long as a vampire retains its connection to the Shadow Realm, no method of destruction will be final. Only recently have rituals been found that allow that connection to be severed.</p><p></p><p>This is what happened to the Demon Goddess at the end of last season -- a rival Shadow god discovered how to do just that, severed her connection (thus making her just an incredibly powerful insane sorcereress) and then smacked her with the biggest, baddest energy drain you've ever seen. The former vampire Demon Goddess, 40th level undead intermediate deity, is now a 3rd-level aristocrat. It was a bit of shock for the poor girl. </p><p></p><p>Um, what was the question? Sorry, I started rambling there.</p><p></p><p>Oh yes, vampires and aging and so on. Here's what I did:</p><p></p><p>In addition to levels, vampires are able to increase one of their ability scores by one for every 20 years they've been a vampire. This gave the Demon Goddess, who'd been turned into a vampire in 1409 (current date 1657) a total of 12 points she could spread around her abilities, in addition to the ones she gained for being 40th level (and the ones the vampire template added to her initially).</p><p></p><p>My thinking is that if a vampire just lies in the ground doing nothing, they should get stronger, sure, but they shouldn't learn anything. So ability score increases for age seemed the best way to model that. 1 point per twenty years fit with the timeframe of Barsoom well enough.</p><p></p><p>For example, another vampire my party ran across was Mara, a child who'd been turned more than two thousand years ago and kept in a vault every since. Nothing like a six-year-old with a 45 strength! And yet, she dates back to the beginnings of history on Barsoom, and so it makes sense that she should be of unearthly strength. The Demon Goddess, on the other hand, wasn't as physically powerful but with all her levels and whatnot (not to mention her vile and twisted imagination -- I love her) she was even more dangerous.</p><p></p><p>In any event, the changes I have made to the standard vampire of D&D have made for some very memorable gaming sessions and looks of real terror on my players' faces.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="barsoomcore, post: 663426, member: 812"] Ah, vampires! A subject near and dear to my heart. I wrote an entertainingly bad vampire novel in my youth and have included variations on the vampire motif in dozens of campaigns and adventures since. Vampires on Barsoom are BAD news. They are just about the worst thing you can come across. My party has encountered two, and the first nearly killed the entire group in their first toe-to-toe, and the second, well... that's a long story. On Barsoom, a vampire is a person who has to be murdered and then returned to life through sorcery. The rituals involved are long and unpleasant, and serve to bind the vampire's soul to the material body (otherwise the soul passes away through the Shadow Realm at death). The vampire returns to life (or unlife, if you prefer) under the control of the spellcaster who created them. If you're not too squeamish you can create an entire army of these horrible creatures. The problem is upkeep. For a Barsimian vampire suffers from a terrible hunger, and not the usual vampire hunger. On Barsoom, the magic that powers a vampire can only be fed by the destruction of souls -- in a very particular manner. A vampire must tear out the heart of a living person and devour it before that person's soul has departed their body. This gets very messy, and for someone who was not willingly transformed, utterly horrifying. For vampires are not necessarily evil. Vampires can resist the hunger, if they like, but inevitably they will be driven mad by their need for souls and in insensible rage destroy everything around them. When the Demon Goddess went mad in Nahan in 1635, she destroyed not only an entire province, but the two legions that were sent up to investigate the disaster. All because she was trying to be good. Vampires, however, have certain great advantages on Barsoom. They never need to sleep, nor do they have a Constitution score. Since on Barsoom, sleep erases spells from memory, and casting spells can cost Constitution damage, two huge barriers to massive magic use disappear when you join the ranks of the undead. Vampire spellcasters are very bad news. Barsimian vampires also have none of the disadvantages one most often associates with the breed. They ignore sunlight, are indifferent to holy water, don't require graves to sleep in or any of that nonsense. They're impossible to kill -- almost literally. So long as a vampire retains its connection to the Shadow Realm, no method of destruction will be final. Only recently have rituals been found that allow that connection to be severed. This is what happened to the Demon Goddess at the end of last season -- a rival Shadow god discovered how to do just that, severed her connection (thus making her just an incredibly powerful insane sorcereress) and then smacked her with the biggest, baddest energy drain you've ever seen. The former vampire Demon Goddess, 40th level undead intermediate deity, is now a 3rd-level aristocrat. It was a bit of shock for the poor girl. Um, what was the question? Sorry, I started rambling there. Oh yes, vampires and aging and so on. Here's what I did: In addition to levels, vampires are able to increase one of their ability scores by one for every 20 years they've been a vampire. This gave the Demon Goddess, who'd been turned into a vampire in 1409 (current date 1657) a total of 12 points she could spread around her abilities, in addition to the ones she gained for being 40th level (and the ones the vampire template added to her initially). My thinking is that if a vampire just lies in the ground doing nothing, they should get stronger, sure, but they shouldn't learn anything. So ability score increases for age seemed the best way to model that. 1 point per twenty years fit with the timeframe of Barsoom well enough. For example, another vampire my party ran across was Mara, a child who'd been turned more than two thousand years ago and kept in a vault every since. Nothing like a six-year-old with a 45 strength! And yet, she dates back to the beginnings of history on Barsoom, and so it makes sense that she should be of unearthly strength. The Demon Goddess, on the other hand, wasn't as physically powerful but with all her levels and whatnot (not to mention her vile and twisted imagination -- I love her) she was even more dangerous. In any event, the changes I have made to the standard vampire of D&D have made for some very memorable gaming sessions and looks of real terror on my players' faces. [/QUOTE]
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