[Tywyll]

Originally Posted by Hedgehobbit

There are a couple of vampire related powers that seem to have been forgotten in recent movies. They might be usable to change the feel of a vampire-centric campaign.

These could work for some vampires mythos, but definitely not all and in general, I wouldn't be real thrilled about some of them (and I don't agree with the last one).

1-Vampires are utterly powerless during the day. And they need to sleep on dirt from where they were buried. Those old vampire movies have vampires lying helpless in their coffins during the day; Van Helsing even uses holy water to ruin Dracula's resting place, forcing him to return to his castle before dawn (no idea on what would happen to him if he didn't make it).

If you are going strictly Dracula, this isn't true. Dracula moved about during the day and in sunlight. Van Helsing states that:
"He can do all these things, yet he is not free. Nay, he is even more prisoner than the slave of the galley, than the madman in his cell. He cannot go where he lists, he who is not of nature has yet to obey some of nature's laws, why we know not. He may not enter anywhere at the first, unless there be some one of the household who bid him to come, though afterwards he can come as he please. His power ceases, as does that of all evil things, at the coming of the day.

"Only at certain times can he have limited freedom. If he be not at the place whither he is bound, he can only change himself at noon or at exact sunrise or sunset. These things we are told, and in this record of ours we have proof by inference. Thus, whereas he can do as he will within his limit, when he have his earth-home,his coffin-home, his hellhome, the place unhallowed, as we saw when he went to the grave of the suicide at Whitby, still at other time he can only change when the time come."

So, coffins and unhallowed places work for him, otherwise he's locked in whatever form he's taken when he last slept (and it might be inferred that he grows weaker without those places, though its not specifically stated).

2-Vampires are slaves of the vampire that turned them. This essentially gives the GM a way to prevent the PC vampires from getting too far away from his campaign intentions. Maybe by using a VAM vs VAM resistance roll.

This is inferred, perhaps, but not necessarily set in stone. I think as a rping game, the more free-will PCs have, the better. However, I do like the idea of the Vam vs Vam resistance roll, so a vampire can shrug off commands from their maker.

3-Killing a Vamp also destroys all vamp he turned. This was always the reason Van Helsing was so into killing Drac as he was the projenitor (sp) of all other vamps. This is another way to force PC vamps to help their NPC creator. It also prevents them from wandering off too much as they need to keep an eye out for their boss. Also, different "nests" of vampires will have its own boss vampire who will, in turn, be loyal to some other vampire whose identity will be a secret to most of the hive to keep enemies from moving up the food chain. Of course, you might want to change the rules a bit to keep all the PCs from just dieing at once. I like the idea that if a Vamp kills his master (pretty tough considering rule #2) then that vamp takes the place of his old master. This is a good way to explain why a Vamp doesn't turn hundreds of people since each one is a potential threat.

I've never seen this anywhere. Dracula is not the progenitor of all vampires, merely one of the greatest. Also, Mina doesn't die when dracula does, and in fact she is only cured because she hasn't fully turned yet.

The other problem with this is the idea of spontaneous combustion of vampires because some unknown ancient gets accidentially unearthed somewhere, which I don't think is necessarily good. The only myth where I have seen this is in Anne Rice, and the only vampires it worked for was the very first vampire, as the 'spirit' of all vampires was connected to her... but they even got around that problem with some work.

One way I can see to run a vamp game would be as if it were a gangster game. Each gang is a group of vampires whose boss is loyal to some other more powerful but unknown vampire. The gangs are fighting other gang who are loyal to yet another vampires. But, all of the gangs are eventually loyal to Dracula who trying to keep all these cold-blooded killers under control and working on some evil master plan. Meanwhile the PCs are working for their gang while secretly plotting to kill their way up the Vampire food chain, eventually killing Dracula himself and taking over the whole show.[/quote]