How do Vampires travel???

[Sound of Azure]

ARGH! Horrific pun!

That's exactly the reaction our DM had. Uncanny!

the "bat-x" jokes became such a running theme throughout that game that the DM gave up in despair eventually. It was beautiful.

 

[sckeener]

Libris Mortis, otoh, introduced the notion of Inescapable Craving (like an addiction), and vampires have inescapable craving for blood.

Libris Mortis also introduced the concept that the vampires needed to energy drain someone once a day.

very silly from an otherwise good book.

 

[Mycanid]

That's exactly the reaction our DM had. Uncanny!

the "bat-x" jokes became such a running theme throughout that game that the DM gave up in despair eventually. It was beautiful.

Ah ha ... another example of the little discussed player tactics of how to influence the outcome of a game ... PUNishment.

 

[DreadArchon]

I'd return the favor if my PC's did that to me: The Vampire would be a recurring villain and I'd play Batman theme music (the old stuff from the series) on my laptop every time he appeared.

Second on reading Dracula. Classic for a reason!

Also, "The dead travel fast" is one of my favorite lines in anything ever, for some reason.

 

[Slife]

In blood vessels! Duh!

 

[Thunderfoot]

In blood vessels! Duh!

Oh give it a rest, that joke died at birth. One pun and they bleed it dry; its just dirty pool, I tells ya!

 

[WayneLigon]

Looking at the writeup, the vampire really only requires it's coffin for that last ditch defense. So, unless he's planning on travelling over running water, he doesn't need it (and frankly I always assume they can just fly over it, or use a bridge). Even with that restriction, though, I'd say they'd usually travel as a wolf since that's their fastest form.

I'd say that the vampire normally has his home area fairly well covered; he'll have coffins buried under a foot or so of dirt, in the attic/basement/barn of loyal human followers or people that are too afraid of him to stand against him, in various town graveyards (probably in sealed stone tombs whose only entrances are a series of pinpricks so he can enter and leave in gaseous form), and he'll have spares in various towns as well. Dracula was doing an unusual, bold and dangerous thing with his trip to England.

In a world with an extensive Underdark, they probably use that and travel as a bat or dire bat.

Normally, I overlook the coffin bit for travelling though that has the advantage that few thieves will try to open it and they do have that problem of laying as one dead during the day. In some campaigns, I keep the native soil bit, and they have handfulls of it in the lining of the clothes, or boots. In most games I run, though, I just up their CR some and drop some of the more annoying disads, making them more like Vampire vampires.

 

[William drake]

That's the question I've been posing myself lately.
There's too few information on DnD on vampires besides their combat abilities. And they don't even state that a vampire needs blood to survive!
Am I right to assume that DnD vampires do not need blood?

And how do they travel?
Do they just carry their coffins around?

Is there any supplement I should refer to? (I have Van Richten's Guide somewhere but I haven't found it yet, plenty of boxes to search...)

Any help / advice / opinion would be greatly appreciated!

Lucas

Alright, it's not D&D, but its good: World of Darkness...then use what you learn, and put it into D&D. I played WOD for many years, and, from then on, when ever I use vampires...thats what I draw from.

To answer a few of your questions. Yes, vampires should have to drink blood *not sure off of top of head if they have to in D&D* if not, they should, and, if they dont...then they should lose power daily untill they feed.

Travel: day is not an option. Day means: enough sunlight to get a tan. Now there's two ways to explain this: one, the religious thing *god is the sun, can't be before it* or, the biological reason: light from the sun causes the breakdown of their body, and it also heats their blood so that they burst into flames.

Travel: night, well, then just like humans: walk, horse, wagon, boat.....*can fly* if you give them that power...and the other ways that you see fit.


Coffins: now this is up to you. Do they need coffins. Some clans of vampires in the WOD, just like Dracula, needed only to sleep with a few handfulls of the dirt from the area inwhich they lived their mortal life in. I would say YES, but could be just a dark room, or a cave, or a whole empty house...a sewer. Something dark, and away from light, sound. But, that is all up to you.


But, a little advice. Make vampires, if they are in your story...dangerous, deadly, and few. Make them the secret powers behind the local humans. Masters of the mind. I say this, because I've not liked anything good to come out of the movies, or books about vampires in some years...I'd like to see good thing happen with this wealth of info out there.


Game ON

 

[Ogrork the Mighty]

There's lots of Ravenloft materials that go into excruciating detail on everything there is to know about vampires. A lot of it is 2E, but it's general rules info rather than mechanics.

I'd recommend Van Richten's Guide to Vampires.

 

[Klaus]

There's lots of Ravenloft materials that go into excruciating detail on everything there is to know about vampires. A lot of it is 2E, but it's general rules info rather than mechanics.

I'd recommend Van Richten's Guide to Vampires.

Seconded.

Best D&D (any edition) sourcebook on vampires.

Ditto on VRG to Ancient Dead (mummies), The Lich (liches, duh!), Werebeasts (lycanthropes), Fiends (fiends, duh!) and Ghosts (guess...).