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Kelly Pedersen · 03-19-2017, 09:58 AM

The template should probably have Social Stigma (Monster), as well as the other disads, or Secret (Monstrous Vampire) if they've somehow managed to act in human society without their vampiric nature being revealed so far. The social stigma means that humans who don't even see the creature directly will still have reactions along the lines of "I will not work with or for such a foul monster!"

Rather than Trademark for the "traces of disease and death", I'd suggest adding it to Supernatural Features. I'd call "constantly leaves bits of rotting flesh, grave dirt, signs of disease, etc." a -10 Supernatural Feature, giving -2 to reactions to anyone who spends any time in areas you've spent any significant time in, +2 to rolls to determine your supernatural nature, and +2 to rolls for skills like Tracking to trace your passage. Trademark is less appropriate because it has a self-control number by default, so the vampire would technically get a roll to resist leaving signs of death and decay, which would be weird. Also, Trademark is usually supposed to be a unique way of tracking the specific character, which leads to odd things like the super-detective character saying "Ah, of course Count Orlock was here - I recognize his unique traces of grave earth and soiled bandages".

To cover the "spreads disease among those they feed on" element, I'd add Social Disease to the base disadvantages of the template. Biting someone should definitely count as "close, unprotected physical contact".

In general, I'm not really in love with the way the template gives optional advantages and disadvantages. Those sorts of things are really more appropriate for an occupational template, not a racial template. Racial templates in general are a bit more "fixed". Giving options isn't unreasonable, of course! But the format would be better, I think, if it more closely followed other GURPS templates. What I'd suggest is to keep the base template as it is, and then create a few "packages" of advantages and disadvantages that go together to create "subraces". For example, you could offer "Predatory", a package that contained Acute Hearing 2 [4], Acute Taste and Smell 2 [4], Combat Reflexes [15], and Bestial [-15]. Build all your packages on the same point value, and you can just say in your advantage list "pick an 8-point (or whatever point cost you go for) package from the options below".

Another option for adding choices to your racial template is the "Racial Gifts" perk. This allows someone to spend points on additional features that their race permits, but doesn't make required. For example, in Monster Hunters, the Demon template has "Demonic Gifts", so a character with it could spend points on things like horns, bat wings, claws, fiery auras, and so forth.

03-19-2017, 09:58 AM	#3
Kelly Pedersen Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Saskatoon, SK, Canada	Re: Vampire Templates for Cabal The template should probably have Social Stigma (Monster), as well as the other disads, or Secret (Monstrous Vampire) if they've somehow managed to act in human society without their vampiric nature being revealed so far. The social stigma means that humans who don't even see the creature directly will still have reactions along the lines of "I will not work with or for such a foul monster!" Rather than Trademark for the "traces of disease and death", I'd suggest adding it to Supernatural Features. I'd call "constantly leaves bits of rotting flesh, grave dirt, signs of disease, etc." a -10 Supernatural Feature, giving -2 to reactions to anyone who spends any time in areas you've spent any significant time in, +2 to rolls to determine your supernatural nature, and +2 to rolls for skills like Tracking to trace your passage. Trademark is less appropriate because it has a self-control number by default, so the vampire would technically get a roll to resist leaving signs of death and decay, which would be weird. Also, Trademark is usually supposed to be a unique way of tracking the specific character, which leads to odd things like the super-detective character saying "Ah, of course Count Orlock was here - I recognize his unique traces of grave earth and soiled bandages". To cover the "spreads disease among those they feed on" element, I'd add Social Disease to the base disadvantages of the template. Biting someone should definitely count as "close, unprotected physical contact". In general, I'm not really in love with the way the template gives optional advantages and disadvantages. Those sorts of things are really more appropriate for an occupational template, not a racial template. Racial templates in general are a bit more "fixed". Giving options isn't unreasonable, of course! But the format would be better, I think, if it more closely followed other GURPS templates. What I'd suggest is to keep the base template as it is, and then create a few "packages" of advantages and disadvantages that go together to create "subraces". For example, you could offer "Predatory", a package that contained Acute Hearing 2 [4], Acute Taste and Smell 2 [4], Combat Reflexes [15], and Bestial [-15]. Build all your packages on the same point value, and you can just say in your advantage list "pick an 8-point (or whatever point cost you go for) package from the options below". Another option for adding choices to your racial template is the "Racial Gifts" perk. This allows someone to spend points on additional features that their race permits, but doesn't make required. For example, in Monster Hunters, the Demon template has "Demonic Gifts", so a character with it could spend points on things like horns, bat wings, claws, fiery auras, and so forth.