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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Radiant" data-source="post: 1333377" data-attributes="member: 12018">Vampires: “Rudiger only saw the sixteen year old face, not  the soul that lasted six centuries. He took her slender wrist, and encompassed it with his mighty fist. She could break his back with her slim hand.”Genevieve Undead (Jack Yeovil)Immortals, rulers of the night, nosferatu, corpses with delusions of grandeur…whatever you might call them the fact remains that a society of predators that is neither fully alive nor dead has walked the nights for over a thousand years. They have been presented in many ways, from mindless monsters to pathetic Victorian sex fantasies, but the truth is far more simple. Vampires are humans who suddenly lost half of the sensation a living body provides. Instead they grow more powerfull than they ever imagined possible and stop aging. For most Vampires it takes less than fifty years to stop thinking of themselves as human. Seeing everything you know grow old around you combined with the thrill of power is both a very sad experience and at the same time provides a feeling of superiority. It is probably this combination of guilt and power that leads most Vampires to start thinking of humans as a lesser race. By denying that humans feel and think the same as they do they can pretend they haven’t lost anything. The origins of the Vampires are a mystery even to themselves. There is no definite first known Vampire or anything like it. From the heritage of the eldest and the few known facts about the vampires past it is pretty clear the they originated somewhere in eastern Europe, probably during the 6th century. From  there they spread through Russia, Europe and later America. Only the strongest have the power to create progeny in any important number so the nameless society of the undead only exists in theses areas of the world. None of the Elders ever established a coven in other parts of the world. Of course some Vampires have wandered through the rest of the world but they are loners or very small groups.Vampires have few rules among themselves. First they don’t need many as the predator instincts they develop after their change takes care to give them the basic behaviour patters they need to survive. They usually do not intrude into each other hunting territory unless they consciously decide to seek out trouble. They hide their nature from their prey and they have born on fear of others of their kind that prevents them from trying to fight one another most of the time. The second reason for the few rules is that solitary predators like them would probably not listen to more anyway.There are under a thousand Vampires around and over 80% of them live in Europe or America in the territories claimed by the eldest of their race. There are five of them and they existed for nearly a thousand years, even longer in some cases. They are the closest things the Vampires have for rulers and reside in Praag, London, Venice and New York. The fifth has slept for over a century in the covenhouse in Berlin.Despite the fact that they are solitary predators, Vampires are drawn to each other. Their human minds still need the company of equals. For that reason they form covens in mist major cities. Some of these covens are lead by a single Vampire others by a ruling council and even viewer just vote on any important decision. It all depends if someone or a group is powerfull enough to take control or not. The covens mostly resemble gentlemen’s clubs for their member and no Vampire is forced to anything by them. The only time they organize to intervene is then a Vampire killed another of his kind or then there is a serious threat of exposure to the public. All of them exist with the blessing of the local eldest. Few covens fail to find that but the two who did so in the past tended to be destroyed swiftly and efficiently. One intended to go public and the other had a secret alliance with the Lycans.The one and most important thing the covens ever did was creating the Death-Dealers. Then the war is concerned the covens have the right to expect any help their member can give, from information over money to fighting power. Although they would never admit it, most Vampires are terrified by the Lycans and so are quite happy to contribute any help they can so that others can do the actual combat. These others are the Death-Dealers, the only truly organized groups have Vampires ever to exist, equipped with the best weapons, contacts and financial resources the covens can provide. They follow the direct orders of the eldest, then the coven and then only themselves. These groups normally have one leader and the biggest once even have a command structure with teamleaders, scouts etc. They also have the right to move unhindered through the city and even hunt for fresh blood in another territory in an emergency.(Note: Death-Dealers, Lycans, etc. My first reflex was to use other names but after thinking about it I don’t see any good reason about it. Personally I just find it annoying that games tend to always use their own special names for everything that appears even though it is still terribly obvious from there it is stolen from. And since I don’t have the same license problems I will just keep the names.)Character Creation:Vampire characters start at PL 10Abilities: Standard RulesSkills: These are purchased by the normal rules except for the fact that Vampires gain 4 Skill points for each PP they spent on them at character creation to represent their experience. During the game they increase skills with 2 points per just like Lycans. (Vampires do get double the number of skill points than Lycans at creation but on the other hand the furry ones don’t go up in flames then they are hit by sunlight.)Feats: Standard RulesSuper-feats: Vampires MUST buy the following super-feats and do not have access to any others except for Power Stunt:Darkvision, Immunity: Aging/Critical Hits/Disease/Poison/Suffocation, Ultra-Hearing -note: vampires can’t take critical hits because they simply do not need any of their organs to survive. They never tire in the normal sense but since they burn blood at accelerated rates while active they can suffer from exhaustion. They also don’t eat normal food but their dependency on blood more than makes up for that so they are not really immune to starvation either. Powers:General: Character MUST buy all these powers at least at level one.-Clinging (Vampires CAN’T take the flaw Limited)-Leaping (Vampires MUST take the EXTRA Bouncing)-Natural Weapon (Fangs, Vampires CAN’T take the EXTRAS Climbing and Quills)-Regeneration (Vampires MUST the EXTRAS Regrowth/Back from the Brink  and the FLAWS “Blood dependent” and “Ineffective/Sunlight” for this power. More in the rules about blood.)-Super-Charisma (Vampires CAN’T take the FLAW Limited)-Super-Dexterity (Vampires CAN’T take the FLAW Limited)-Super-Strength (Vampires CAN’T take any EXRAS for this power. They can still take Power Stunts)-Immovability-Running-Weapon (this is an exception because you don’t have to take weapons but many Vampires and most Death-Dealers do.)-Devices (Vampires can take any power from the rulebook as a device as long as they have a suitable explanation for both the device and how they acquired it. Like weapons they do not have to buy any devices. Death-Dealers do only need an explanation for the device itself they got it through the coven.)Common:Many Vampires wield the following powers. A character can learn one Common power for each General power she has at least at half her current power level maximum. (So a character with Leap and Super-strength at level 5 or more and all the other at level 4 or less could buy 2 Common powers).-Alternate Form: Gaseous (Mist)-Amazing Safe-Combat Sense-Invisibility-Mental Protection-Mind Control-Obscure (Fog) - Post cognition-Paralysis-Slow-Strike-TeleportationBlood:“No matter how far a sheep climbs, it will never get past the killing floor”Sonja Blue, In the Blood (Nancy A. Collins)Vampires live forever and need neither air nor nourishment to survive. But they do need blood to keep their undead bodies going. Without it their bodies slowly dry out, transforming them into sleeping mummy like creatures. Before that happens their predator instincts usually fill them with such a terrible hunger that they will do almost anything to replenish their reserves. But should it happen only fresh blood can cause them to wake up again. Then shrivled organs and flesh freshen up again and return to their parody of life.A Vampire must drink blood at least once a week. It doesn’t really matter if it is from a stray dog, a blood plasma pack or a human but the taste of fresh human blood is addictive to them since they where once human too and their bodies can use it most effectively. It doesn’t have any practical effect but a Vampire with fresh human blood in him just feels more healthy and alive. A Vampire must make a DC 15 will safe each week if he wants to resist the urge to drain a human. Then a Vampire has to drink blood he always drains his victim completely, humans never survive the process.Normally drinking once a week is enough but Vampires burn the blood in their bodies to keep them moving and to regenerate so they can become quite hungry after extended periods of physical activity. Then a Vampire character participated in any kind of combat during a day he has to replenish his blood reserves just like he would have to at the end of a week. Running Dry:  A Vampire who hasn’t replenished his supply of blood can no longer access his regenerate superpower. Should he still haven’t done so 24 hours later he can no longer use any of his common powers. After that all his basic powers will loose one point for each day he continues to starve. Then all his basic powers have reached zero he will go into hibernation until he tastes blood again. It takes quite a lot of blood to completely restore a mummified body so at first the Vampire will not have access to any powers. After the second feeding he will be able to regenerate again, after the third his other basic powers start to rise by one point for each feeding until they return to their original values. Then they are completely restored the common powers will start working on their full value immediately afterwards.Having your body dry out while you are still alive is an unimaginable painful experience so starting on the second day of starving Vampires have to make a DC 15 will safe or go hunting for food without thinking about the consequences. Starving out a Vampire is the harshest punishment Covens use except for destroying the subject outright.  There are also tales of especially cruel Lycans who starved out captured Vampires before destroying them.Weaknesses: Running water and holy symbols do not have any effect on Vampires, neither does garlic, except for maybe causing bad breath. Piercing their heart with a wooden stake is quite painful as the damn things tend to be not as sharp as metal weapons but have no special effects on them, Vampires can regenerate their heart just like any other organ. Fire is no more dangerous to them as it is to any other creature except while they are starving. Their dried bodies burn incredibly fast and so they can only roll a D20 with no bonuses for powers or constitution while in that condition.Sunlight: ” We should have shown Tremere and his simpering progeny the beauty of the sunrise years ago.”Vampire, The Dark AgesThe light of the sun is the single most deadly thing for a Vampire. If one should be completely exposed to it she will burn to death in a single turn without any roll to safe her.Should she be only partially exposed to it she has a few seconds to get to safety. The character has to roll a safe against DC 20 each turn with no bonuses to the roll at all. If a partially exposed Vampire is disabled it is assumed that the exposed body parts have burned completely and she will stop to take damage unless she is exposed again.(In cases then only a very small part like hand is exposed they stop taking damage as soon as they are injured).Vampires can never use their regenerative power against damage done by sunlight.Characters can also take following weaknesses from the M&M core book and gain the normal points for them. Characters can only take more than one weakness with the Gm’s approval.-Berserker (not available for Death-Dealers)-Disturbing (for Vampires who are older than 500 years only)-Naïve (only for characters less than 100 years old)-Quirk-Unluckyadditionally characters can take the following weaknesses:-Faith: Some religious Vampires believe that they’ve been cursed by god and fear holy symbols, they also will not set foot on holy ground.-Running Water: Some Vampires feel an irrational fear of running water after their change. They refuse to do so under any circumstances. (only for Vampires less than 100 hundred years old, most learn that it has no effect on them sometime in their life).On becoming a vampire:"At first you'll hate it, but soon you'll be too jaded for such hard feelings"Bastian, Giovanni ChroniclesAs dead beings Vampires can not have natural offspring. Instead they can invest some of their own power into a dying human to start his transformation into an undead. The Vampire has to decide this then he starts drinking, instead of absorbing the blood he drains he invests his own energy into it. Then his victim is only moments from death he cuts himself and allows (or forces) the dying human to drink. Of course the victim will die anyway as the blood in his stomach can't replace that in his veins but as soon as he dies the cursed blood begins its work and starts to form an undead predator out of the corpse. This change cab take from a few minutes to a week depending on the amount of changed blood the victim received. From then on blood will always regenerate the body to the state it was first introduced into it. With a few changes that is:During the short time of true death before the fledgling Vampire wakes up again his body changes for its new purpose, muscles harden, bones grow hard a steel and the eyes mutate so far that they can change to a feline appearance that allows perfect darksight at will. Additionally the blood never regenerates any unneeded body fat, which plays a great role in the fact that most Vampires seem to be good looking and have a nearly flawless pale skin.The process of changing a humans blood to that of a Vampire is incredibly draining and always leads the creator weakened afterward. It costs a Vampire five power points to turn a human. These points are either paid from any the character has in reserve or drain directly from one or more of his powers to pay for them. Additionally the creator is always considered to be "running dry" afterwards.</blockquote>

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