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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Man in the Funny Hat" data-source="post: 5504833" data-attributes="member: 32740">The issues that I suspect people have with Twilight vampires are that vampires are supposed to be creatures of gothic horror - malevolent and EVIL. They drink the blood of the living (traditionally of the innocent and brave rather than the despicable for the greater sense of violation and degradation.) As you say there is praise to be expended for originality but at this point the idea of a "good" vampire is hardly original - even if making them sparkle is. The Twilight series is also wildly popular. THAT brings the ire of a large section of gamer culture simply for being popular. They are popular in particular with young girls. That is, if you'll forgive the expression, the kiss of death. No dedicated guy gamer wants portions of his pasttime associated with popularity among tween girls. Speaking for myself, my gut reaction to encountering a "good" vampire as descirbed is highly unfavorable towards the DM that introduces it for several reasons. One is that I don't want my character or his party to require assistance or saving via the intervention of NPC's. No deus ex machina for me. There are better ways to introduce an NPC than by the NPC (and/or DM) feeling the need to "save" the PC's, whether they really need the assistance or not. Next, in MY book, undeath is a vile, unspeakable, generally incurable curse (at least not without the actual death of the thing first - it's lack of proper death being the whole point). It is ANATHEMA to the concepts and precepts of a good alignment. The two DO NOT and CANNOT be combined for the same reason that matter and anti-matter do not mix well. Life and UNDEATH are and MUST be at odds with each other by definiton. Okay, so it's a fantasy setting and of course there can always be exceptions for any number of reasons which EMBRACE such contradictions just to see what happens. The only saving grace here is that D&D vampires DO NOT DRINK BLOOD. That means either your vampire is NOT a normal vampire or all vampires in your campaign are blood drinkers - which is a significant change as it alters their required behavior. A vampire that cannot control whose blood it drinks simply because it's hungry may WANT to be good, but it's actions DICTATE that it cannot be because it kills the innocent. A vampire that LIKES its undead status or willingly accepts it is likewise NOT good in alignment if it must drink blood to live. If it is otherwise a normal D&D vampire that does not drink blood then MAYBE it can maintain a good alignment - but it should be a constant struggle and acceptance of the condition should only be because a cure cannot be found. But the cure is simple - raise dead. At worst PC's would have to kill it and then raise it, but that should be a sacrifice any GOOD aligned individual would make. I would most definitely react strongly to the introduction of such a character and if the DM did not make it fairly clear fairly quickly just what purpose the NPC was serving we would be having a signficant conversation about just what kind of campaign the DM is running.</blockquote>

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