A really different kind of vampire

Desdichado · Mar 8, 2005

OK, so I'm dusting off an adventure that I prepared earlier for a new setting. The PCs in my group may tonight (but probably not until next session or even later) encounter a vampire. However, I don't want this to be a regular vampire.

For one thing, the setting is fairly untraditional. There are no demihuman races. There are all new classes. The magic system (both arcane and divine) have been yanked out and replaced with Cthulhu-style magic. There's no turning of undead.

I want my vampire to be pretty different from what they're expecting. I actually have a miniature (I don't have a digital picture of my paint job yet, but trust me; this one's better anyway -- see attached image. My colors are a bit different, but it's still the same basic idea) and to scale, this bad boy's gotta be about 15 feet tall and have more muscle bulk than East German Women's Swim teams (gotta get my little Top Secret joke for the day in...) not to mention being studded with steel plates bolted all over it's body, and wielding a sword that's actually bigger than the PCs.

So, I want this guy to be really strong, have a high To Hit and Damage characteristic, and be blindingly fast and nasty. Rather than drinking your blood, he probably just munches on your flesh, and does a Con drain thingy that can mummify a person in 30 seconds flat.

Any other ideas on how to make this guy interesting, and different that other vampires you've seen in the past?

VirgilCaine · Mar 8, 2005

I don't think you can do much more. Huge, strong, weapon-wielding vampires are rare.
Mostly we see former human vampires and such that are subtle and mind-controlling, not like Mr. T.

Crothian · Mar 8, 2005

First, the single best d20 source for Vampires:

http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=4309&

It goes more into the history and myth of the creatures, has great options for making different vampires but still sticking with the general theme.

It is hard to make Vampires different and still have them be Vampires. Vampires are so over done these days in so many games. So, what if its a just a demon that pretends to be a Vampire? It actually has the immunities a Vampire is nomrally killed by, but it is smart and pretends to be afraid of the traditional things to lure people into its den unprepared.

Desdichado · Mar 8, 2005

Hmmm... Mr. T...

I wonder if the vampire should drive a hella fast black and orange van? Or build makeshift bulldozers out of spare steamjack parts?

Anyway, I'm looking for one or two supernatural abilities, and maybe I should raid the vampire template as is. Despite the fact that this guy can be a combat monster, that's not really the first thing they should know about him. In fact, I'd like it to be the last thing they find out about him, if you get my drift.

He's got a fairly sizable frontier town completely under his control, ala Innsmouth in "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" by Lovecraft. So maybe if not overt mindcontrol, then definately a very strong power of suggestion.

Maybe gaseous form too? Not sure. What are some other ideas?

Voadam · Mar 8, 2005

Joshua Dyal said:
OK, so I'm dusting off an adventure that I prepared earlier for a new setting. The PCs in my group may tonight (but probably not until next session or even later) encounter a vampire. However, I don't want this to be a regular vampire.

For one thing, the setting is fairly untraditional. There are no demihuman races. There are all new classes. The magic system (both arcane and divine) have been yanked out and replaced with Cthulhu-style magic. There's no turning of undead.

I want my vampire to be pretty different from what they're expecting. I actually have a miniature (I don't have a digital picture of my paint job yet, but trust me; this one's better anyway -- see attached image. My colors are a bit different, but it's still the same basic idea) and to scale, this bad boy's gotta be about 15 feet tall and have more muscle bulk than East German Women's Swim teams (gotta get my little Top Secret joke for the day in...) not to mention being studded with steel plates bolted all over it's body, and wielding a sword that's actually bigger than the PCs.

So, I want this guy to be really strong, have a high To Hit and Damage characteristic, and be blindingly fast and nasty. Rather than drinking your blood, he probably just munches on your flesh, and does a Con drain thingy that can mummify a person in 30 seconds flat.

Any other ideas on how to make this guy interesting, and different that other vampires you've seen in the past?

Shadow dancer powers? Having him jump in and out of shadows to put a hard smack down on a party might be fun.

Desdichado · Mar 8, 2005

Crothian, if it turns out this guy doesn't get used tonight, I might buy that and find something in it for next time. However, there's a chance they'll have to meet this bad boy tonight, although not in mortal kombat, unless the PCs do something monumentally stupid. I'd like to have a rough idea of what he can do, even if I later change my mind.

As for this idea being way out there, it's actually not too different from the Strigoi type vampires from Warhammer.

Desdichado · Mar 8, 2005

Voadam said:
Shadow dancer powers? Having him jump in and out of shadows to put a hard smack down on a party might be fun.

Oooh, that would be cool. I'll have to be careful, as I've already used a bit of that with an NPC race, but it might still be fun.

Crothian · Mar 8, 2005

You could always make him psionic if you are using those rules. There are some realy nifty abilities in that book that are not typical for a Vamp.

Voadam · Mar 8, 2005

Other sources for vampire variants:

Ravenloft Campaign setting, older vamps
Denizens of Dread, variant vamps plus older versions
Out for Blood, variant vamps
Gaming Frontiers Monsters, 2 variant vamps (that I wrote)
That immortals one Crothian pointed out (I don't have it, can't comment).
Lords of the Night Vampires by Bottled imp games (ditto)
I think there are another Two pdfs on vamps in rpgnow.com something like OGL vampire hunters and Vampires suck.

Hand of Evil · Mar 8, 2005

I once had a building as a vampire

Place some effects to mess with the players, Mind Fog within X feet or such, you may want to take a standard vampire and add fiendess template to it.

A really different kind of vampire

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