Quote:
Originally Posted by soltakss
Weak vampires that a normal healthy mortal could take? No way. Vampires should be stronger than mortals, quicker than mortals and should not consider a normal mortal a threat, except in daytime.
Most vampire films/stories/myths have vampires as being physically impressive with particular weaknesses. Heroes traditionally kill vampires by exploiting those weaknesses or by ganging up on them.
I'm all for strong vampires. The film Monster Club has some nice scenes, particularly the one where Dracula wades through a number of attacking police with consumate ease.
Vampires suffering blood-starvation might be weak, depending on their age.
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My idea of "weak" vampires is so that they don't become CGI-style supermen, like you mentioned. When I mentioned them in my brainstorming session, I was thinking of vampires before Dracula was written. They could have beyond normal human strength; some could even walk around in the daylight with their vampiric powers coming out at nighttime. But, above all else, they had to keep their true natures hidden from the mortals around them. That could lead to some real role-playing, possibly. The vampire would still be formidable, but someone that's quite skilled in martial arts could still put a serious whupping on the vampire (unless, of course, the vampire is also a martial artist). And you've mentioned the fact that most vampire stories are resolved when people gang up and exploit the vampire's weakness.
Dracula had some formiddable powers, but he was quite sloppy in keeping his vampiric nature hidden. In fact, It seemed to me he over-relied on his powers. Probably due to the fact that the people living around his castle in Transylvania were so cowed by him, they never gave him a real threat. Thus, he never had to use much in the way of subterfuge. At least that's what I got from reading Dracula, years ago. But I would also give rules so that vampires could also have major advantages over mortals. Some of my brainstorming revolved around the idea that some groups of players would just like to kick ass (having crappy jobs, etc., in their real lives) even if only for a one-shot game, here and there. Basically, it could be used as a release for some groups. Of course, the super powered vampires could also run up against very formidable monster foes for campaign play.
If this supplement/game should ever come to fruition, I would allow the GM to decide on what weaknesses a vampire has in the game.
Mostly,however, I was thinking of something more cerebral and took real planning from the players--almost like a spy game where the PCs would have to determine the weaknesses of their intended victims while pretending to be one of the crowd--with not much amiss--in order to get away with feasting on mortal blood.
I get the impression that what I'm thinking would make a better card/strategy game than rpg. But I would like to read more of other peoples' take on this.