Angel Tarragon
Dawn Dragon
Prelude
There is something about vampirism that has a hold, a certain allure, which drives us to want to better understand, or even yet to be one. Vampires have been staple in fantasy, gothic and modern fiction. When the sun sets is when the horrors of the world come out to play. This product gives a means of playing a vampire within the confines of the D20 Modern Ruleset.
Overview
The first thing that stands out is the Vampire Racial Hero Base Class. It allows a player to effectively ‘slip past’ the set of rules laid down in D20 modern for advancing in character classes. It takes the creature in its entirety to start advancing in a class all of its own. Like any other class in D20 Modern, the Vampire Racial Hero gains talents and feats like any other base class, there is no difference here.
The difference between a Vampire Racial Hero and a standard mortal hero is in what each are capable of learning and advancing their capabilities of as they progress in power. Vampires are potentially more dangerous as they have ability score modifiers that increase their faculties right from the beginning. All werewolf heroes are capable of shifting into a hybrid form of man and wolf without having to take levels in the Vampire Racial Hero class.
Players that wish to start off as a vampire have the choice of taking one of three new starting occupations: Ancient Vampire, Archaic Dilettante and Vampire Shadow-Warrior. Choosing one of these starting occupations has the potential to shape the way the vampire progresses and evolves over the course of a campaign as the bonus feat granted takes character optimization in a path the character chooses.
After Sunset: Vampire offers an array of feats to enhance your Vampiric hero, each one potentially changing the capabilities and pushing the boundaries of what a vampiric character is capable of. Examples include Blood of the Ancients, Immortal Experience, Slaked Thirst and True undead among others. Blood of the Ancients allows your hero to gain more action points as you level up, Immortal Experience allows the character to use any skill untrained and can spend an action point to forgo making a skill check and Take 10 or 20. A character with the Slaked Thirst feat is better capable of healing itself through blood drain and True Undead brings a step closer to being more like other undead creatures and makes the character immune to critical hits.
Equipment
Six new pieces of equipment are touched upon within: Plasma Bags, Tracer Ammunition, UV Flash Grenades, UV Flashlights, UV Illuminators and UV Tracer Ammunition. Plasma Bags are just what you think they are, bags filled with blood. Vampire characters that do not wish harm upon living creatures can feast from these instead. UV Flash Grenades are used by people and organizations that hunt vampires. Anyone within a twenty foot radius has to make a Reflex save or be blinded. Vampires, as they are sensitive to ultra-violet light take damage and burst into fire. UV Traces Ammunition is a bullet with a hollow point that is filled with irradiated ultra-violet liquid. When a creature that is susceptible to light takes damage from this kind of ammunition must make a saving throw or be effected as if having been exposed to ultra-violet light.
The Vampire Racial Hero Class
The vampire racial hero class gives the character access to talent trees not available to characters that aren’t vampires. These three unique talent trees include the Vampiric Body, Vampiric Senses, Vampiric Speed and Vampiric Will Talent Trees. Each Talent Tree allows for options that increases the vampires already innate unique abilities. Options include using their bite attack as a light natural weapon, acquiring keen eyesight to be able to see in conditions of poor illumination, being able to up surfaces that would otherwise be impossible to climb and spending an action point to command people (those that fail a saving throw).
Campaign Options
A trio of options rounds off the product and potentially adds depth to any campaign that incorporates the rules within. The first option allows wooden stakes to bypass a vampires fortification in order to more accurately represent disposure of this undead menace according to the Hollywood vampire archetype.
The second option allows the GM to play on the behind-the-scenes, off-stage hunting. This allows the characters to not have to roleplay their feeding. As vampires are reclusive and secretive about their existence, they cannot wantonly feed upon the living. This option is probably best used with players that aren’t mature enough to handle the roleplaying experience of feeding.
The third option allows GMs to continue using the vampire template presented within the core rules of D20 Modern and use everything presented in After Sunset: Vampires as well. With this option, vampire characters are treated as the union of a vampire and a mortal woman. They are not true vampires, but are able to use the options herein to best emulate their vampiric forefather.
Conclusion
After Sunset: Vampires is the companion volume to After Sunset: Werewolves and best transplants the use of such creatures into a modern campaign. Either can be used separately or used together to provide for unique roleplaying campaigns. This product is well though out and draws inspiration from various movies and television shows (Blade and Buffy: The Vampire Slayer comes to mind). The quality is on par with its companion volume and earns four stars from this reviewer.
There is something about vampirism that has a hold, a certain allure, which drives us to want to better understand, or even yet to be one. Vampires have been staple in fantasy, gothic and modern fiction. When the sun sets is when the horrors of the world come out to play. This product gives a means of playing a vampire within the confines of the D20 Modern Ruleset.
Overview
The first thing that stands out is the Vampire Racial Hero Base Class. It allows a player to effectively ‘slip past’ the set of rules laid down in D20 modern for advancing in character classes. It takes the creature in its entirety to start advancing in a class all of its own. Like any other class in D20 Modern, the Vampire Racial Hero gains talents and feats like any other base class, there is no difference here.
The difference between a Vampire Racial Hero and a standard mortal hero is in what each are capable of learning and advancing their capabilities of as they progress in power. Vampires are potentially more dangerous as they have ability score modifiers that increase their faculties right from the beginning. All werewolf heroes are capable of shifting into a hybrid form of man and wolf without having to take levels in the Vampire Racial Hero class.
Players that wish to start off as a vampire have the choice of taking one of three new starting occupations: Ancient Vampire, Archaic Dilettante and Vampire Shadow-Warrior. Choosing one of these starting occupations has the potential to shape the way the vampire progresses and evolves over the course of a campaign as the bonus feat granted takes character optimization in a path the character chooses.
After Sunset: Vampire offers an array of feats to enhance your Vampiric hero, each one potentially changing the capabilities and pushing the boundaries of what a vampiric character is capable of. Examples include Blood of the Ancients, Immortal Experience, Slaked Thirst and True undead among others. Blood of the Ancients allows your hero to gain more action points as you level up, Immortal Experience allows the character to use any skill untrained and can spend an action point to forgo making a skill check and Take 10 or 20. A character with the Slaked Thirst feat is better capable of healing itself through blood drain and True Undead brings a step closer to being more like other undead creatures and makes the character immune to critical hits.
Equipment
Six new pieces of equipment are touched upon within: Plasma Bags, Tracer Ammunition, UV Flash Grenades, UV Flashlights, UV Illuminators and UV Tracer Ammunition. Plasma Bags are just what you think they are, bags filled with blood. Vampire characters that do not wish harm upon living creatures can feast from these instead. UV Flash Grenades are used by people and organizations that hunt vampires. Anyone within a twenty foot radius has to make a Reflex save or be blinded. Vampires, as they are sensitive to ultra-violet light take damage and burst into fire. UV Traces Ammunition is a bullet with a hollow point that is filled with irradiated ultra-violet liquid. When a creature that is susceptible to light takes damage from this kind of ammunition must make a saving throw or be effected as if having been exposed to ultra-violet light.
The Vampire Racial Hero Class
The vampire racial hero class gives the character access to talent trees not available to characters that aren’t vampires. These three unique talent trees include the Vampiric Body, Vampiric Senses, Vampiric Speed and Vampiric Will Talent Trees. Each Talent Tree allows for options that increases the vampires already innate unique abilities. Options include using their bite attack as a light natural weapon, acquiring keen eyesight to be able to see in conditions of poor illumination, being able to up surfaces that would otherwise be impossible to climb and spending an action point to command people (those that fail a saving throw).
Campaign Options
A trio of options rounds off the product and potentially adds depth to any campaign that incorporates the rules within. The first option allows wooden stakes to bypass a vampires fortification in order to more accurately represent disposure of this undead menace according to the Hollywood vampire archetype.
The second option allows the GM to play on the behind-the-scenes, off-stage hunting. This allows the characters to not have to roleplay their feeding. As vampires are reclusive and secretive about their existence, they cannot wantonly feed upon the living. This option is probably best used with players that aren’t mature enough to handle the roleplaying experience of feeding.
The third option allows GMs to continue using the vampire template presented within the core rules of D20 Modern and use everything presented in After Sunset: Vampires as well. With this option, vampire characters are treated as the union of a vampire and a mortal woman. They are not true vampires, but are able to use the options herein to best emulate their vampiric forefather.
Conclusion
After Sunset: Vampires is the companion volume to After Sunset: Werewolves and best transplants the use of such creatures into a modern campaign. Either can be used separately or used together to provide for unique roleplaying campaigns. This product is well though out and draws inspiration from various movies and television shows (Blade and Buffy: The Vampire Slayer comes to mind). The quality is on par with its companion volume and earns four stars from this reviewer.
