The Lords of the Night: Vampires

[Messageboard Golem]

The lords of the night are coming! For too long they have hidden in the shadows. But all that is about to change. With new powers and abilities - the lords of the night have just one thing in mind, the total enslavement of the mortal races.

Sourcebook, player aid and the beginnings of a four part mega scenario, the Lords of the Night: Vampires is set to shine a light on the secret denizens of darkness. Starting with the most famous of all the creatures of the night - the vampire! Whether you want to play a vampire in your favorite fantasy setting, or test the mettle of your players with new and incredible creatures born of nightmares. Everything you could possibly need to rule the night is right here in this book.

 

[GameWyrd]

Lords of the Night: Vampires is Bottled Imp Games’ first book. If you don’t believe me, then I don’t blame you; it doesn’t look like a first book. I can’t imagine there’s much room left in the scrum at the bottom of the d20 ladder these days. If Vampires represents Bottled Imp Games’ attempt to launch themselves by aiming somewhere higher, further up that ladder, then they’ve succeeded. They’ve certainly got a finger or two (or should I say fang?) on that higher up rung anyway. The 128-paged book has an enticing front cover with a nice matt black feel to it, good text density, a two column layout that switches to three columns for the spell lists, new ideas and a reassuring feel.

It’s the combination of new ideas and a reassuring feel that makes Lords of the Night: Vampire a comfortable read. That might be the book’s most important success. The roleplaying hobby isn’t short on vampire material but there’s a disjunction between those RPGs which are all about vampires as characters and those games like D&D where the default vampire wouldn’t be amiss in an old four colour comic. Lords of the Night brings the two together, makes a good job of it and gives us the best of both worlds.

The book gets off to a good start by defining a vampire as anyone who drinks blood to survive. That’s a strong enough definition and it doesn’t involve tragically hip angst or crumbling castles. Readers familiar with tragically hip vampires will be familiar with the narrative style, clues to a bigger story, which runs through the book. Gamers more at home under the aegis of the d20 logo won’t find the flavour text overbearing. In fact Lords of the Night: Vampires is just the first in the Darkness Rising series, a series which seems to be something more than just a collection of race books but not quite a campaign setting either. We’ll have to wait and see what comes next and Bottled Imp Games will have to work hard to produce the series as good as the first book promises.

There are different types of vampires, all bound together by the Vangual creation myth, and presented as detailed templates. The EL for the templates can be found much later on in the book, once the effects of both vampire type and age can be factored in. The Children of Vangual include Ash Vampires, Black Bloods, Fire Vampires, the Lost, Mock Vampires, Ravenous Vampires, Shadow Vampires, Vangaard, Vampire Scions, Dhampyre and the Vampire Touched. There’s some nice twists in there; the Lost aren’t typical vampires but cursed and exiled Outsiders and the Vangaard are hulking barbarian styled vampires facing a decline in numbers as civilisation rises. These different types are more than just names; each vampiric race is different from the last and often with a clear vampire shtick. The nickname for each vampire type is generally a pretty good clue as to the angle on the template; Ash Vampires, for example, are known as Corruptors.

The universal vampire rules have a chapter of their own. It’s here we find the rules for vampire age categories, those feats all vampires get and the first mention of Dark Gifts. There are some nice touches in here; like the huge boost of strength a newly risen vampire receives, just enough to allow the monster to break free from crypt or grave before it fades. Similarly you’ll find rules for drinking blood, sunlight, waking, turning, stakes, traits and that sort of thing.

When people talk about Lords of the Night: Vampires they’ll talk about the Black Classes. There’s a Black Class for every core class, there’s a Black Fighter, a Black Druid, a Black Ranger and so forth. The Black Classes are more powerful than their equivalent though; the Black Classes are empowered by the Void and the dark heart of vampire power. The Void weighs on the Black Classes though, dragging the character down and corrupting him. Ah, I suppose the purist supporters of "roleplaying issues shouldn’t be used to balance game mechanic issues" might complain but the Black Classes are balanced among themselves and aren’t that much more powerful than the core classes. The Black Classes certainly inspirational though, they just want to be used by evil GMs.

Dark Gifts are a lot like feats. They might as well be feats but as feats with vampire only prerequisites and vampire only benefits they’d be rather awkward. It makes sense to keep them separate and as a vampire trait. There’s about fifty of these Dark Gifts that pretty much guarantees that vampire villains will have something new to terrorise players with or PC vampires will have enough scope to entertain their players. Unlike feats Dark Gifts sometimes require the vampire to spend blood points. The blood point cost balances against the really nifty things some of the Dark Gifts can do.

Chapter six sees dozens of new spells; often blood and darkness related. There are some new domains, the Black Cabal spells and the Faithful Undead summoning list. Chapter seven offers up several pages of similarly themed magic items.

Avystervan (Av-Iss-Ter-Van) is the City of Graves. It’s the seat of power for the Black Council and where the eldest vampires live. It’s a piece of campaign setting but it’s isolated enough to be used in almost campaign setting or ignored without carving a hole in the rest of the book. The chapter is laced with plot-bites; sample words from the vampire language, notes on visitors and mortals in the city, black practises and bloody rituals. There are places of interest, the Cathedral, Tower of Arikostinaal, the Black Temple and others. It’s not a pre-written adventure but instead (and this is the option I prefer) there’s enough information to make it easy to run an adventure there.

Vangual is the God of Vampires, the Lord of Suffering, Champion of the Void and chapter nine is all about him. We’re given some of the blatant and sly ways mortals worship him. The Chapel of the Merciful Heart, for example, appears to be an order of benevolent doctors and physicians but is actually busy siphoning blood for vampires.

Lords of the Night: Vampires is not short on chapters. There are twenty in the book.

Chapter ten is about the First and the Black Council. The First are, as you might guess, the first vampires created by Vangual. The Black Council are the vampires who rule Avystervan. Once again there’s no pre-written adventure here, just well written game meal that invites you to take it but which you can safely refuse if you want.

How or why vampires might cooperate, vampire broods, is addressed next.

New monsters are a mix of creatures like the Blood Hound and Blood Elementals as well as applied template creations like the 6th level Black Fighter age 1 Black Blood (CR 9). The vampire ghoul and vampire simulacrum do have ECL modifiers. It also looks at "common monster vampires" like goblin or lizardmen vampires and more exotic ones like beholder vampires; but it’s just a look, not a stat block.

There are notes for the DM. There’s everything here from the basics of infecting darkness into your game to more out of the box suggestions – such as running a game with specially created, wholly good, vampires. The next chapter contains tips on how to play a vampire. Lords of the Night does manage to be a Player’s Handbook, DM’s Guide and Vampire Monster Manual all in one.

Chapter fifteen is about the Void, it’s not just game meal here but crunch too (most chapters being either a crunchy bit or game meal). A table charts the progress from good to evil as the character or NPC builds up their Void points.

If players become worried about mounting Void points (trying to save themselves from the darkness) then the Darkness Rising series has the concept of the Katharein. The Katherein is a run away success of a plot idea. You’re character is "killed" by a vampire; you want desperately to retain your old alignment and mind when (if) you rise as one of the undead. How? You could make a willpower saving through – but isn’t that the worst kind of anti-climax? A Katherein quest at the time of death is a far better idea. A spiritual quest is taken by the dead character to see how much of his old self will preserve or whether they’ll dive head long into Vangual’s temptations. The next chapter takes things a step forward and looks at rumours and possible ways to cure the vampire curse.

I could say that a whole chapter is devoted to looking at the vampire’s infamous energy drain. I could equally say that a whole page is spent talking about the effects of the drain as well as extra side effects. I don’t really mind single page chapters, as long as the content is worth it and in this case it is. It’s just an example of another stone that the book turns over.

Chapter nineteen is full of plot hooks and adventure ideas. The final chapter in the book is – well, it’s a bit of a tease really, setting the scene and giving indications of the rising darkness. The book concludes with a page long lexicon and a summary table of all the vampire types in all possible age combinations. It’s here that you’ll get the ECL and CR modifiers. The brutish Vabgaard enjoy +20 strength in their final age category, the Lost get +12 to wisdom in their final age category and the Shadow Vampires +15 to their dexterity. The modifiers for the first age category are much less scary +1s, +3s and so forth.

Lords of the Night: Vampires is surprisingly cheap; quoting a suggested retail price of $US 19.95 and £UK12.99. That’s for 128 pages. As a whole Lords of the Night qualifies as one of those rare d20 books with it’s own mythos, it qualifies as an even more rare d20 book in that has a mythos that’s actually tempting and easy to use. You don’t need to pay even lip service to the mythos to get plenty of use out of Lords of the Night though. The new vampire templates, spells, creatures, dark gifts and age rules can be used anywhere.

* This Lords of the Night: Vampires review was first posted at GameWyrd.

 

[Shader]

I've said it before and I'll say it again, this book really is a work of art. It's just superb. No way would you think that this was a first publication from a new company, it really is that professional. To top it all off, it beats the competition hands down. It deserves to sell by the bucketload.

 

[trancejeremy]

The Lords of the Night: Vampires is a 128 page, softcover sourcebook from Bottled Imp Games, a UK company. It's somewhat hard to find in the US, there hasn't been much PR for it here (or I missed it). In fact, I hadn't even heard of it until a couple weeks ago, in a EN World thread, in which the company was soliciting authors for an upcoming product.

As I love vampires (who doesn't?), I immediately ordered it from FRPGames (for $15, too, the retail price is $20), and like always, it was sent to me speedily (end of plug )

I had fairly high hopes for this (I rarely buy something as soon as I hear about it), and I was not disappointed. Very impressed, actually. It's not just Vampire the Masquerade with the serial numbers filed off. There's an influence, mostly in style, but it's probably closest to Blade (the movies, anyway), with a bit of Brian Lumley and Nightlife, thrown in. But that description doesn't really do it justice. Not by a long shot.

The basic premise of the vampires in the book is relatively original. It seems that in the days past, in a standard D&D fantasy world, a group of overzealous do-gooders were after an evil something or other (god?) and kind of got carried away and destroyed an entire city of people, including many innocents.

This really really pissed off this newly born god, Vangual. So, somehow he curses the people who razed the city. They become vampires, or the Children of Vangual, and then they in turn created more. There's a lot more to the backstory, it's pretty complicated. But pretty cool. Maybe not super-original, but not overly angst-ridden, either.

So, this book is largely about the Children of Vangual as characters. Presumably Player Characters, but they also make great villains.

There are several different types of vampire in this book. Most really aren't the traditional sort of vampire that you find in Earth legend. Nor are they just ripoffs of Vampire: The Masqerade. They're ickier.

There's the Ash Vampire. They're kinda like the Defilers of Dark Sun - they corrupt and destroy nature and the earth. There's the Black Brood, which is more or less the standard vampire. There's the Fire Vampire. They were burned to death, yet rose again. They still burn in undeath. There's the "Lost". These are actually not true vampires, but angels or celestials that have fallen to earth as punishment for some transgression. Then there's Mock Vampires, who are decayed more than the average vampire, and so look a lot like Zombies. There's the Ravenous Vampire, which are disease ridden and hungrier than other vampires. There's a sort of vampire for the Drow - the Shadow Vampire. There's a giant vampire, who are used as bodyguards - the Vangaard. There's also the Vampire Scion, which is a vampire who is a slave to another vampire. (The cover of the book seems to show each type of vampire)

Lastly, there is the Dhampyre, or half-vampire. These are actually from folklore, but were popularized by the comic and movie character Blade. They have many of the vampire's strengths and only few of their weaknesses. They can sense vampires (I believe this was the folklore version's only real power), so they make excellent vampire hunters (and conversely, they tend to be hunted by vampires). Unlike ones from folklore (but like Blade, if I remember correctly), they also have to drink blood occasionally.

There are also the vampire touched. These are humans that have had their blood sucked by vampires. The descriptions of these seem to follow Dracula (the novel) very closely. Ones that have been sucked only once are more or less normal, just weak. But thrice sucked (or touched, it's called) are almost vampires themselves, and very pliable to the drinking vampire's will.

How the vampires work, mechanically, is a bit tricky, but it works well. Most of the vampire types are actually templates, and they all have ECLs or effective character levels based on the vampire's age bracket (The age bracket affects a variety of things, actually.) There are 6 age brackets, from 0 to 5. PC vampires are likely to only reach 0 to 1 during most campaigns, with 2 barely being possible. While this might seem a bit artificial mechanically, and some might think a monster class would be more suitable, the way it actually works is quite elegant.

While each template has a set number of abilities and such, there is a lot of customization possible. The various vampires can gain special abilities, called "Dark Gifts". These largely depend on the vampire's age - they get 3 per age bracket, and 1 for every 3 class levels they gain. These abilities in many ways are just like feats, with requirements and chains and such, only more powerful (and they often require the spending of blood points), though many have age requirements, being available only to the older and more powerful vampires. Most of the traditional vampire powers are represented, from flying to changing form to more obscure ones, like climbing like the spider or controlling the weather somewhat.

While vampires are very very tough, they also have a large number of weaknesses. Sunlight is probably the biggest, but also many lesser ones. Allergies to silver, wood, garlic. Not being able to cross running water, or enter a house without being invited, and most other traditional problems (though most are from movies). Buying off or eliminating these various lesser weaknesses is possible by using a feat.

These weaknesses making running a game of all vampires a bit tricky. Because they are limited at first (probably) to having to sleep at night in their burial place, they're likely stuck in a small area. So at first, city adventures are most suitable. But once they buy off that weakness, they are freer to travel, and can have huge advantages in the standard D&D dungeon crawl. There's a section of the book that discusses this - how to GM vampiric characters (there's also a section for players on how to role-play them).

Vampires also have to worry about "Void". This is basically a very complex system in which they get points for various actions, from committing evil acts to just using their vampiric powers. If they reach a certain number of Void points, they become a step closer to evil. This system is fairly comprehensive, but perhaps more than a bit cumbersome. At least in my brief time GMing several vampire characters, I've found it to be. But it's easy to handle on a more vague level, just by using common sense.

Vampires, like most people in the d20 system, have a class, but they have a large number of special classes they can use. Black Classes, they are called. They are essentially a darker, evil version of the various core classes, which the vampire can take if they choose, instead of the normal core class (and if they already have levels in the normal core class, they can convert). They are generally identical to the core class, only the special abilities are different (in a way, they're like a template applied to a class). The Black Classes are perhaps a little more powerful than regular classes, but only slightly so.

There are only Black versions of the standard core classes - no Black Arcane Archer or Black Blackguard, etc, but there are 4 new prestige classes introduced. These are also pretty evil. The Black Cabal, Blood Mage, Blood Knight, Devoted Incarnate, all are classes for organizations of evil vampires. These things have very high requirements, and almost certainly are not for PCs. The Blood Knight is sort of a Blackguard on steroids (or rather, steroid soaked blood).

There's a decent number of vampire related spells and spells for vampires (around 60, by a quick estimate). Many are pretty bloody, not surprisingly. Especially the blood attack spells (for vampires), such as Blood Geyser. Also a small selection of vampiric magic items. Again, some are a bit gorey and more than a bit evil. For instance, there's Shadow Armor, which hooks into the vampire's flesh with little hooks.

While this product is largely setting independant, it does describe the city of vampires, Avystervan. This is a very dark place, both literally and figuratively. This is where the book reminds me a bit of some of Brian Lumley's Necroscope novels - the one set in the world of vampires. Let's just say it's not for the faint of heart. But it can probably be dropped into most worlds without a problem - it's located on the fringes of the known world, in the remote mountains somewhere, underground.

Vampires have gotten to be so commonplace (thanks to Buffy, V:TM, Anne Rice, Sesame Street, IRS), they really aren't scary anymore. Or creepy. Or disturbing. (I mean, who is really afraid of Tom Cruise as a vampire? His acting maybe...but even his ex-wife makes fun of him). Yet for 100s of years, they terrified people. This product goes a long way towards making vampires scary again. Or at least gruesome. And evil. Definitely evil. But not completely evil.

Beyond what I've mentioned, there's a lot of other stuff. This book is absolutely crammed with text. The margins are very small. As it's from the UK, it's generally written in UK English, but sometimes they try to use American spellings, like "armor". But sometimes they still spell it "armour". Probably would have been best to just stick with UK spelling. There's not a lot of art, and it's all smaller pieces, but it's is generally well done. The font used for headings is a bit weird, but very readable.

The only thing about the book I didn't like were the tiny boxes of famous quotes, slightly altered to fit vampires (and the person who said was labeled as a different type of the Children of Vangual). For instance, "'Rumors of my uneath have been greatly exaggerated!' - Mark Twain, Black Bard". This was pretty dorky, I thought, on several different levels. But that's just about the only thing in the book I didn't like. This is probably the best d20 book I own next to Call of Cthulhu d20. It's that good.

If you like vampires, and d20, this is a product you should run out and buy immediately. While it's fairly "crunchy", I can't imagine it would be too difficult to use in a similar system (I'm tempted to try to use it in Shadowrun), so it should also appeal to anyone who likes vampires (though it's definitely not the angst-ridden sort of Vampire game). And conversely, the crunchy parts of the game seem incredibly useful for the various d20 horror games set on Earth, from Call of Cthulhu d20 to Deadlands d20 to any of the upcoming horror games (Chill d20, Bureau 13 d20, etc). And it makes me wonder how vampires would work in space, or would a vampiric robot be possible. Something that makes you imagine lots of possible scenarios and what ifs is a heck of a book.

It's supposed to be the first in a line of products. The next is on Liches, which honestly, don't do much for me (which is probably why I'm not a Brom fan), but after seeing how they handled vampires in this book, I eagerly await it. There also seems to be something of a metaplot in the works, alluded to in the short bits of fiction at the begining and end of the book.

Anyway, just buy this book. While it might not change your life, chances are good it will change your d20 game. A++

 

[Mr_Nox]

The Lords of the Night: Vampires

If this book could be summed up in one word that word would be "promise". The promise of not only a great storyline but also the promise of top quality content that is new and refreshing to the genre.

I have to remind myself that Bottled Imp Games is a new company and this is indeed their first release. The book belays any notion of the amateur and is polished to the very highest degree; the cover alone is eye catching and outstanding. Inside the high quality is continued and refined until you realise that the cover is just fine wrapping around a solid and well defined take on one of gamings most establised and worked creatures, the Vampire.

The book establishes its particular angle quickly and skillfully, weaving a intricate backstory and drawning in even the most traditional of vampire fans. This is the very heart of this book, the story and the authors particular narrative style help to blend substance and atmosphere into something that would spark even the most unimaginative mind.

The Vampires in the book are the Children of Vangual, the God of Vampires and Champion of the Void and under this less than benevolent patron these fiends recieve great boons and powers unlike any other of their kind. Great care has been taken to bring these Vampires to life (or indeed unlife), there are many types of Vampires described within the book from the great hulking Vanguaard, to the sublime and terrifying Ash Vampires. Each of these have their own unique abilities and powers as befits any book of this nature. You might be asking at this point, who is the book for, surely this is a Dungeon Masters dream, a great source of evil to pit his unsuspecting players against. and you would be right this book has all that but also it is a great player resource too, full rules are included for creating and playing any one of these foul creatures, Dark Gifts are given, these are vampiric feats such as Beastform and Weather Control that help to define any vampiric character and players can even adopt Black Classes, a darker and all together more Vampiric version of their previous class. There is even a section devoted to that all too familiar descent into evil, a cross it seems that all vampires must bear, to the book's credit, these rules can be used in any way your particular group decides, or they can even be ignored completely. The Katherain can be a high roleplaying experience of personal journeying and enlightenment or a dungeon hack where evil foes must be overcome to steel your soul against the corrupting void, everyone is catered for.

Included amongst all this are numerous spells and artifacts used by the Children of Vangual, rounding off a very sound first half of the book. The book then goes onto describe Avystervan, the City of Graves, a city of Vampires and the sanctuary of the very oldest of their kind. This section and indeed the sections afterwards on Vangual himself and The First, the ancient progenitors of the vampire race are rich in detail and are a great resource for running any game including these Vampires.

But this is just the begining everything within the book hints at something great the promise of more to come in upcoming releases is almost more than I can take, with a book of this quality under their belts, their next step should be watching carefully and with great interest.

 

[andrew_kenrick]

Lords of the Night: Vampires is the first book from Bottled Imp Games and the first in their Darkness Rising series. Written by Stuart Renton, Vampires is a 128 page softcover and retails at $19.95.

The cover art – and some of the interior art – is provided by Ralph Horsley and depicts a group of vampires surrounding a woman. The cover is for the most part great, although several of the vampires look a little odd. There isn’t a huge amount of art within the book, and the quality is variable, ranging from the average to the exceptional. In parts the layout is a little busy, and the section headings could be clearer. But, by and large these are small niggles and the design of the book is nice to look at.

Lords of the Night: Vampires is a sourcebook for all things vampiric, taking the often tired monster and imbuing it with new (un)life. The focus here is primarily aimed at playing vampiric characters, rather than as using them as foes. Inside you will find 10 new types of vampires, new classes, new spells, new monsters and many many ideas for using them in your game. Ok, so we’ve seen several books recently that do just that, so why check out Lords of the Night?

Simply put, the execution of these new rules and new concepts is faultless, and really quite enthralling. The default setting for the book is not a setting per se, but an overarching concept or story arc that can be plugged into any campaign – to keep it short, the Void, a primal force of hunger and darkness, is consuming reality and creation. Serving the Void is the god Vangual, who’s Children are the new vampires found in this book. Everything within the book is set against this backdrop of shadow and despair, although it can all be used without it – but why would you want to?

The new vampire types are one of the highlights here, for they are not primarily intended for use as monsters, but as fully playable characters. There are 10 new types of vampires, ranging from the masters of entropy, the Ash vampires, to the downtrodden ooze-kin, the Mocked.

In addition to the new types are the Dark Gifts – special powers akin to feats taken by vampires as they grow in power, including such treats as Heartless (the vampire becomes immune to staking), Reverse Turning (attempts at turning are reflected back at the cleric causing damage) and Shadow Dancing (the vampire sets loose his shadow against his opponents).

But by far the best bits of the book are the pages of advice and ideas as to what to do with it all – this includes details on vampiric society (including the vampire city of Avystervan), ideas for roleplaying a vampire (including innovations such as the Katharein quest, where a vampire tries to stall his descent to evil and save his soul) and countless adventure ideas, characters and societies.

In short – this is a unique and original book, taking a somewhat overused monster and putting a fresh new spin on it. I can’t get across quite how jam packed this book is with new stuff, whether new rules or resource material. No matter what your tastes, or whether you are player or DM, there will be something for everyone in here.

 

[d20books]

I am amazed by how long this book has been on the market and how slow the buzz has been to generate for this wonderful book. The various reviewers for this book all gave it 5 stars. This is not unusual until you look at the diversity of the reviewers and how this set of reviewers almost never completely agree on a book.

 

[oracle]

The Lords of the Night: Vampires is the first product to be released by Bottled Imp Games, and if first impressions are anything to go by, this company is going to be worth watching in the future. This UK company’s initial effort introduces a broad and expansive story arc which promises to continue through future releases. Dark and foreboding, this mood filled background would fit comfortably in any game world, placing a menacing and mysterious shroud over the world PCs thought they new. A central part of this sinister new world is the introduction of the Vampire as both a potential PC option, or as a powerful new villain for the forces of good to strive against, most likely in vain.

At the very least TLOTN: Vampires provides a plethora of NPC options. With the option of multiple Vampire types, combined with a substantial list of new abilities and spells, and an entire re-write of the D&D core classes to suit those of a more dubious moral persuasion, your PCs won’t know what hit them. Instead of just ‘bad guys’, TLOTN: Vampires allows a DM to create exciting new villains with individual style and menace. If you decide to include the major backstory, an entire new element can be added, giving these NPCs a dark and dangerous purpose.

However, the absolute strength of this product is evident as soon as you decide to allow vampiric advancement as a player option. Carefully balanced, the mechanics of this change into the most well-loved of the undead works well, and provides a broad array of options to create vastly different vampire types, which should entirely satisfy any player. Players can become an Ash Vampire, a Black Blood, a Fire Vampire, one of the Lost, a Mock Vampire, a Ravenous Vampire, a Shadow Vampire, a Vangaard or one of the Dhampyre or half-vampires. While each of these vampire types is individual in its specific abilities, more importantly each has very well established goals and motivations. While the templates used to build the vampires are well-designed and effective, they only tell a part of the story. TLOTN: Vampires provides so much role-playing material there is no excuse for a PC or NPC to lack originality or personality, and this breadth of role-playing material fills the book from start to end. Add the menacing Black classes, and a great selection of Dark Gifts and spells, and don’t forget the impending doom each vampire character faces, and you’ll find that Bottled Imp Games has created an exceptional system for introducing the undead to your gaming table.

The Lords of the Night: Vampires is an excellent product in every respect. The artwork is very good (especially the illustrations of the vampire types by Ralph Horsley which are exceptional), and the amount of text on a page is excellent. The vampire templates themselves provide a refreshing alternative to Prestige Classes, and are very effective in creating interesting and workable undead characters. However, along with the crunch an interesting story arc is developed, and a host of role-playing opportunities are provided. The Vampires presented in this product are far more than mindless undead, and are greatly more dangerous and interesting as a result.