Designing Vampires

[AlexanderHowl]

So, every fiction series and game uses a different type of vampire (the majority of which bear only a passing likeness to the vampires of GURPS), so I was wondering what your favorite type of vampire is and how would you represent them in GURPS?

[Refplace]

I think my favorite is from VtM which I have built several ways.
I think my latest version is using a variant of RPM for the disciplines.

[Mysterious Dark Lord v3.2]

That's why they wrote GURPS Blood Types - to provide all the information for this sort of thing.

[AlexanderHowl]

Blood Types is a 3e product and many of the traits, such as Invulnerability, no loner exist in 4e. In addition, it is a GURPS spin on vampires that the GURPS editors liked in the mid-90s, so it is a terribly dated sourcebook, since it is nearly a quarter century old (it would lack examples from the urban fantasy series published since 1994, such as the Dresden Files, the Southern Vampire Mysteries, the Jane Yellowrock series, etc, basically ninety percent of the urban fantasy published in existence was published since 1995). It is also not what I asked, as I asked everyone's favorite type of fictional vampire and how they would represent them in GURPS.

[ericthered]

I like social vampires. Formidable but not overwhelming in a fight, and with a few minor limitations on what they can do. I'd say stoker vampires, but I actually don't think I know stokers well enough, so I'll describe them fully.


I like them to require special ways to kill. Beheading is probably sufficient, and a stake through the heart will at least paralyze. Probably unkillable 1 with high pain tolerance.



Holy symbols will repulse or weaken them, but not damage them. Daylight will weaken them, and they find it unpleasant, but they take no damage. They require an invitation to come into a private location.



They're exceptionally strong, but only a small bit faster, and the effect is stronger at night or when not confronted by a holy symbol.



Then I like to play up the immortal aspect. The chief vampire will have been around for decades to centuries, and I like to know what they've been up to. They'll be experienced warriors and secret operators with a built up resource base.


That's pretty much it.

[Apollonian]

Originally Posted by ericthered

I like social vampires. Formidable but not overwhelming in a fight, and with a few minor limitations on what they can do. I'd say stoker vampires, but I actually don't think I know stokers well enough, so I'll describe them fully.


I like them to require special ways to kill. Beheading is probably sufficient, and a stake through the heart will at least paralyze. Probably unkillable 1 with high pain tolerance.



Holy symbols will repulse or weaken them, but not damage them. Daylight will weaken them, and they find it unpleasant, but they take no damage. They require an invitation to come into a public location.



They're exceptionally strong, but only a small bit faster, and the effect is stronger at night or when not confronted by a holy symbol.



Then I like to play up the immortal aspect. The chief vampire will have been around for decades to centuries, and I like to know what they've been up to. They'll be experienced warriors and secret operators with a built up resource base.


That's pretty much it.

Tack on some magic, like weather and beast control, and you've described Dracula pretty well. Holy symbols (well, the Host) appear to do damage, and he does a bit of wall walking.

Do you mean invitation into a private location, like a home or insane asylum?

Honestly, I usually pull my vamps out of GURPS Blood Types, and occasionally modify to taste. I tend to have three categories: Draculas, as above; Nosferatu-like, for plague-themed, hideous, ghoulish vampires; and strigoi for mysterious, occult vampires.

[ericthered]

Do you mean invitation into a private location, like a home or insane asylum?

Yes, I do. Fixed.

Originally Posted by Apollonian

Tack on some magic, like weather and beast control, and you've described Dracula pretty well. Holy symbols (well, the Host) appear to do damage, and he does a bit of wall walking.

I don't really like the wall walking. Beast control I always debate, and end up throwing out. Unless of course its a magic heavy setting. If I've got a fair amount of magic running around the setting, long lived vampires are invariably very familiar with it, and will know some, even if they aren't dedicated mages. But yes, those are traits of the original stoker Dracula.

[Railstar]

I like traditional folklore where possible, Stoker influences where I’m unsure of the folklore. Modern TV shows get actively avoided. I like stuff like an aversion to garlic, to holy symbols, or requiring an invitation to enter a home. I dislike stuff like being physically burned by sunlight.

For some elements, there’s this - http://bylightunseenmedia.com/wrong.htm

I actively avoid Unhealing for this reason. Dismemberment, stakes and so on were used as precautions to keep the creature from leaving its grave, and often didn’t work. And as far as I am aware, the folklore usually doesn’t have a Renfield-like figure to feed the dismembered vampire afterwards. Insubstantiality is often heavily limited (Preparation Required + Limited Duration), but not rare, again because of in folklore when they can enter and leave their graves without necessarily disturbing the ground – far from universal, but seems common enough that it can be used without training or learning.

Originally Posted by ericthered

Holy symbols will repulse or weaken them, but not damage them. Daylight will weaken them, and they find it unpleasant, but they take no damage. They require an invitation to come into a private location.

They're exceptionally strong, but only a small bit faster, and the effect is stronger at night or when not confronted by a holy symbol.

How do you represent these effects in GURPS? I love them, would definitely use them, but find it very finicky to create the effect I am going for on a template. Revulsion, for instance, lasts several minutes after exposure and can be ignored with a HT roll, which is too “all or nothing” for me.

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by Railstar

How do you represent these effects in GURPS? I love them, would definitely use them, but find it very finicky to create the effect I am going for on a template. Revulsion, for instance, lasts several minutes after exposure and can be ignored with a HT roll, which is too “all or nothing” for me.

Weakening can be done by buying up attributes with an Accessibility limitation.
You could also go with Phobia for holy symbols and garlic

[Rasputin]

You know this is directly addressed in GURPS Horror, right? Specifically, under Fear of Taint (p. 57) and the Nosferatu under Fear of Disease (p. 87).