Vampires, Pop Culture, and Your Game

[Lord Mhoram]

I voted Cold War, but I also tend a little towards aristocratic.

My view on vampires is summed up by F Paul Wilson, in his intro to his novel Midnight Mass - paraphrased: I'm tired of the tortured aesthetes that modern vampires have become and wanted to go back to the roots, where vampires were the bloodthirsty monsters we all knew and loved.

 

[malraux]

I'm gearing up to run a 4e version of EtCRavenloft/I6, so for me, some combination of the Real Life Dracula and the Aristocratic Vampire best describes Strahd. At least the Strahd of I6, I'm not sure about the Strahd of RCS.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Vampires have one purpose alone: to give stake-makers job security. Period. I loathe the goth and poor, misunderstood, modern vampires the most. There's a vampire in town? I'm getting an order of garlic bread, grabbing a BIG honkin' cross, and loading up a crossbow with stakes, and that's the end of it. With a nice big posse of course. Keep 'em busy till dawn and then let the sun do its work.

Hehehe.

Part of what I like about True Blood is that it takes this opinion, and draws overt parallels to racism with it. Lynch mobs and "no bloodsuckers" signs and the like. I like that parallel to a "monster living amongst us." I've used it before in my D&D games, though usually with less undead fare (half-orcs and suchlike).

Part of what I don't like about most modern vampire depictions is that it has trouble getting past the "OMG VAMPIRE SEXY HOTNESS RAWR" angle. They remind me too much of conversations I've had with people in high school.

"You don't know him like I do! I can change him! He only beats me when he's drunk!"

As a result, the vampire becomes pretty weak sauce, because he suddenly needs to be sympathetic and relatable, so that when the girls that feel this way become protagonists, the audience can sympathize with their feelings. So that they're NOT that dumb girl you met in high school.

Except, usually, vampires are still immortal bloodsucking mass murderers who are just "really sorry" about what they've done. You can see it in their brooding eyes!

Turning vampires into just another bad boy archetype, IMO, kind of removes their carnal danger.

I didn't mind Angel or Spike from Buffy so much -- it was very earned when it was done there. V:tM gets points for being one of the first to take it on. It can be done well.

But so often it's just some Mary Jane fantasy gone horribly awry for people who think Anne Rice is too racy.

Aristocrat Vampires are to Elvis as Modern Vampires are to Fonzie.

But I like the "postmodern" vampire.

Sure, you're misunderstood. But you are an addict to a drug. You are an abuser of humanity. You are an immortal menace without the dignity to kill yourself to spare those around you. You are unnatural, not necessarily bestial, not necessarily in control of your cravings, but pathetic, violent, unpredictable. The only people who idolize you are those who crave immediate pleasure, and don't care what they're giving up.

A lot more possible pathos in that.

 

[Set]

I like them all.

Vampires come from people, and people come in all different flavors. Some will be Euro-trash with clove cigarettes and eye-shadow, some will be 30 Days of Night psychos (or Lost Boys / Near Dark style gangs) and some will continue to work the stock market, with a somewhat longer-term view...

 

[WayneLigon]

Kind of a mix and match. For the next D&D game I do, it'll probably be something along the 30 Days of Night model with most vampires being bestial monsters; only the very oldest regain some memory and personality.

Usually it's a mix of the underwear-model beautiful people disco version, and the modern/autocrat versions. The Fright Night model, where they can look pretty but when they manifest their powers they show the true beast within has also seen some use in my games.

 

[Voadam]

Comrade Dracula the cold war vampire.

I am heavily influenced from playing a lot of Masquerade and reading Anne Rice books and enjoying Lost Boys and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but in D&D a good use of vampires is in the style of Quentin Tarantino's mexican vampire exploitation movie (which I can't remember the title to at the moment, Dawn of the Dead?) with vampires as dangerous creatures of evil to be killed on sight by heroic PCs. Innocent and luring at first, when they do the reveal they show themselves as truly monstrous and a fight ensues.

I do have some running around in a more VtM politics and plots style as background NPCs but vampires in my games have been more of the monster style than NPC style.

Mostly I have avoided using them in D&D though because I don't like energy drain.

 

[Set]

in D&D a good use of vampires is in the style of Quentin Tarantino's mexican vampire exploitation movie (which I can't remember the title to at the moment, Dawn of the Dead?)

Dusk Till Dawn. A fun movie. The sequel 'Texas Blood Money' is MST3K worthy in it's cheesiness.

Mostly I have avoided using them in D&D though because I don't like energy drain.

That's one thing, no matter how they are played, I never use the rules-version with the dozen weaknesses and strange collection of powers. I prefer for the majority of 'vampires' to be more like 30 Days of Night or Buffy style vampires, strong, fast, keen-senses, etc. but without the mind control, animal control, gaseous form, etc. The older ones get to have the cool powers...

 

[Squizzle]

Of course, my preference is setting- and context-dependent, but in terms of my platonic ideal of vampires? I like the alien, inconceivable monster.

The human brain dedicates a tremendous amount of real estate to community interaction: facial recognition, group bonding dynamics, emotional awarenesses, etc. That's because we are fundamentally Pleistocene-era pack hunters, physiologically, and have all of the baggage that entails. We love forming communities, to locate food, to acquire and defend territory, to create mating opportunities, and so forth; groups underlie everything that we do, in a very real way, as humans.

Vampires are different. Vampires can only exist where there are people to be "turned" to vampirism, so by default, they exist in a prey-rich environment, feeding on something that has no particular special defenses against them; they're eminently able (and arguably better off) hunting solo than in groups. If they do appear in groups, the pack dynamic will be informed by their own special internal relationships of dominance and external relationships with the prey population, which are entirely different from our relationship with a herd of fast-moving gazelle on the savannah.

Vampires can only reproduce through predation: the act of hunting is also the mode of furtherance, for them. Any vampire will have had as a (literally) formative experience as a vampire the state of being prey to another. Lists of what makes a good dinner and what makes a good candidate for the generation of offspring for vampires would share many, many traits. Vampires are apt to put everything, everything, everything into the context of predator/prey relationships. Their cognition is so fundamentally alien as to be innately off-putting and practically inaccessible. They are insectile, ravenous predators at all times. They do not think like we do, and even if they behave superficially like we do at times, it's as a hunting strategy. They are alien hunger.

I also prefer that they be ambulatory corpses, not basically living but somehow unkillable. If they have a heartbeat or can get erections casually, they're not my favorite sort of vampire.

 

[Dragonwriter]

I like the Aristocrat Vampire the most, though I prefer a little mix of the archetypes. Really, a good blend of Aristocrat, Cold War and Disco is probably what I really look for in my vampires...

 

[knightofround]

I voted for the modern Vampire, but to be honest I'm kinda sick of all those tropes.

In my campaign, Vampires are actually holy creatures sent down to the mortal world to "suck the evil" out of society. (i.e. "bad blood") They have all the superhuman strength and supernatural powers. (but instead of turning into bats they turn into doves)

Instead of having a weakness to holy symbols, they have a deep respect for them. No matter how evil a creature is, if they have a holy symbol they have a chance at redemption -- and the vampires will seek to convince their target of the error of their ways, rather than killing them outright.

They're most active at night because that's when evil is on the rise and their bloodlust rises; they don't fry in sunlight. Instead of having a weakness to radiant they have a weakness to necrotic; as such holy creatures they are very sensitive to profane conditions.

They can only drink the blood of the unholy; they're given the old-fashioned 3E paladin detect evil radar to make sure that they only feast on evil creatures. If tricked into feasting on a good creature, its actually posion to them -- much like flame or acid to a "traditional" vampire.