Steve Jackson Games - Site Navigation
Home General Info Follow Us Search Illuminator Store Forums What's New Other Games Ogre GURPS Munchkin Our Games: Home

Go Back   Steve Jackson Games Forums > Roleplaying > GURPS

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 11-03-2007, 08:32 PM   #21
Not another shrubbery
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Default Re: Late Halloween living corpses: vampires

Quote:
Originally Posted by Max Schreck
True. Insubstantiality doesn't quite cut it as mist form, now that you mention it.
You might consider IT:Diffuse with Infiltration. That looks like it might be a better working model, even though it is more expensive than Insub.
Not another shrubbery is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-05-2007, 11:07 AM   #22
Max Schreck
 
Max Schreck's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Copenhagen
Default Re: Late Halloween living corpses: vampires

Quote:
Originally Posted by Not another shrubbery
You might consider IT:Diffuse with Infiltration. That looks like it might be a better working model, even though it is more expensive than Insub.
Actually I solved the problem by deleting Insubstantiality, and adding Alternate Form (Body of Air) instead. Much closer to mist, and a lot cheaper, too.

I've edited the first post to show the changes.

Max
__________________
"Les préjugés sont la raison des sots."
Max Schreck is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-05-2007, 07:12 PM   #23
Prime Evil
 
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Sydney, Australia
Default Re: Late Halloween living corpses: vampires

Out of curiosity, would Fragile (Combustible) be a good way of modelling the effects of fire on a vampire?
Prime Evil is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-05-2007, 07:20 PM   #24
Victor Maxus
 
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Right Here
Default Re: Late Halloween living corpses: vampires

Not really for a vampire. The combustible disadvantage means that with little fire damage you can burst something into flames. While fire does damage a vampire, it does not really do more damage than it would to a human. Combustible is more for a long dead dry zombie or a mummy, with it's dried out body and wrappings. if wanted extra damage for your vampire though, then try vulnerable instead, that just causes extra damage.
__________________
I am not most people. If I were, there would be a lot more of me.
Victor Maxus is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-05-2007, 08:10 PM   #25
Ciaran
 
Join Date: Apr 2005
Default Re: Late Halloween living corpses: vampires

Quote:
Originally Posted by Prime Evil
Out of curiosity, would Fragile (Combustible) be a good way of modelling the effects of fire on a vampire?
I use this as part of my vampire templates in my Cabal campaign - insert technical mumbo jumbo about vampire blood being richer in oxygen, blah blah blah.
Ciaran is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-06-2007, 01:03 AM   #26
Max Schreck
 
Max Schreck's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Copenhagen
Default Re: Late Halloween living corpses: vampires

Quote:
Originally Posted by Prime Evil
Out of curiosity, would Fragile (Combustible) be a good way of modelling the effects of fire on a vampire?
In folklore, vampires aren't really more susceptible to fire than anyone else. The reason people burned corpses suspected of being vampires was the healthy logic that something burned to a cinder isn't likely to get up again and start drinking blood and spreading disease. The same logic was applied to other vampire-killing rituals: beheading, dismemberment, staking, nailing the corpse to the coffin, etc. All were methods to insure that the corpse was unable to get up again.

In that line of thinking, vampires' "susceptibility" to fire is emulated well enough by selecting fire as the one thing that negates Supernatural Durability or as an Achilles' Heel for Unkillable.

Now, if you want vampires to burst into flames at the touch of a torch, Fragile (Combustible) will probably do the trick well enough. There isn't much basis for that kind of "imflammable" vampires in folklore or in fiction, though, and it is mainly folkloristic and fictional vampires (including a few "movie vampires") I am creating.

Max
__________________
"Les préjugés sont la raison des sots."
Max Schreck is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-06-2007, 02:09 AM   #27
Max Schreck
 
Max Schreck's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Copenhagen
Default Re: Late Halloween living corpses: vampires

Here's where it all started, the vampire from folklore. This is only an approximation, as vampire belief is widespread and quite varied. As such, this template is an amalgam of various European vampires. The vúrdolak, the vrykolakas, the upír and the vampyr could all conceivably use this template, deleting traits deemed inappropiate or adding new ones. It could also be used for a less film-like Nosferatu than the one previously described by adding Pestilence [5].

Folklore Vampire, 30 points
Attribute Modifiers: ST+6 [60]
Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: Perception+3 [15], HP+6 [12]
Advantages: Dark Vision [25], Doesn’t Breathe [20] Immunity to Metabolic Hazards [30], Injury Tolerance (Unliving) [20], Unaging [15], Unkillable 2 (Achilles’ Heel: Fire, -50%, Decapitation, -10%; Hindrance: Impaling stake or spike through the torso, -15%) [25], Vampiric Bite [30]
Disadvantages: Bad Smell [-10], Dependency (Own Grave; Daily) [-60], Divine Curse (Cannot enter home without invitation) [-10], Draining (Human Blood) [-10], Dread (Garlic, Sacred Objects, Wild Roses) [-40], Frightens Animals [-10], Infectious Attack [-5], Nocturnal [-10], Supernatural Features (No Body Heat, Pallor*) [-10], Uncontrollable Appetite (Human Blood, 12 or less) [-15], Unhealing (Partial) [-20], Weakness (Hearing the third cock-crow at dawn, Reburial at crossroads, 1d pr. minute) [-20]
Features: Sterile. Vulnerable to True Faith. Not all traditional vampires suffer from the limitation that they cannot enter abodes uninvited (+10 points).
* Not after feeding.
__________________
"Les préjugés sont la raison des sots."

Last edited by Max Schreck; 08-01-2009 at 10:49 AM.
Max Schreck is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-16-2007, 12:24 PM   #28
Max Schreck
 
Max Schreck's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Copenhagen
Default Yes, I know it's not Halloween anymore!

Here's another graveskulker, this time from ancient China. The Jiang Shi (or Chang Shi), lit. “stiff corpse”, is a restless ghost that sucks the blood of the living. It rises from the dead if left unburied, buried without proper ceremony, or if its grave is disturbed somehow (a cat passing over the grave is a favourite explanation). The corpse will then be possessed by the po (roughly "spirit" or "lower part of the soul") of the dead person.

Jiang Shi is alternately described as hideously ugly dessicated corpses and sometimes as pale, but seemingly living people.

Jiang Shi, 170 points
Attribute Modifiers: ST+6 [60]
Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: Perception+3 [15], HP+5 [10]
Advantages: Alternate Form (bird) [15], Claws (sharp) [5], Doesn’t Breathe [20], Immunity to Metabolic Hazards [30], Injury Tolerance (unliving) [20], Unaging [15], Unkillable 3 (Achilles’ Heel: Fire) [75], Vampiric Bite [30]
Disadvantages: Bad Smell [-10], Dependency (tomb, shroud or coffin; Daily) [-30], Draining (human blood) [-10], Dread (garlic, incense) [-20], Frightens Animals [-10], Lifebane [-10], Supernatural Features (No Body Heat, Pallor) [-15], Unhealing [-20]
Features: Sterile. Vulnerable to True Faith. Some Jiang Shi revenants have become Monstrous [-20] in death.
__________________
"Les préjugés sont la raison des sots."

Last edited by Max Schreck; 12-22-2008 at 06:10 AM. Reason: Changed Hideous to Monstrous; no dessicated corpse is ever going to be merely Hideous.
Max Schreck is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-18-2007, 06:51 AM   #29
Max Schreck
 
Max Schreck's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Copenhagen
Default Méxica vampire: the civateteo

The civateteos were originally semi-divine spirits in Méxica (Aztec) mythology. They were malicious, especially towards pregnant women and women giving birth. When a woman was in labour, the civateteos would sometimes descend from heaven to harm her and her baby. Only loud noises and religious ritual would drive them off. The ancient Méxica had a cult for them to propiate them, and keep them from coming.

After the Conquest, the civateteo had been reduced to a restless, blood-drinking revenant, said to come about if a woman died in childbirth, especially if the infant died as well. The woman would rise from the dead, endlessly mourning her dead child, wandering alone along rivers. She will hate living mothers and their children out of jealousy and will especially delight in attacking them. As a left-over from the mythic civateteo, the vampiric civateteo sometimes haunt mothers about to give birth, screaming and wailing outside, trying to get into to feed on the labouring mother and her unborn child.

As in ancient days, loud noises and ritual may drive them off, but the ritual will be Catholic and not Méxica (unless the GM has decided that only "the old ways" hold sway over the vampire).

Civateteo, 310 points
Attribute Modifiers: ST+6 [60]
Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: Perception+3 [15], HP+5 [10]
Advantages: Alternate Form (screech owl, coyote and snake) [45], Doesn’t Breathe [20], Immunity to Metabolic Hazards [30], Injury Tolerance (unliving) [20], Supernatural Durability (except fire) [150], Unaging [15], Vampiric Bite [30]
Disadvantages: Draining (human blood) [-10], Frightens Animals [-10], Infectious Attack [-5], Supernatural Features (No Body Heat, Pallor) [-15], Uncontrollable Appetite (human blood, 12 or less) [-15], Unhealing [-20], Vulnerability (heart) [-10]
Features: Sterile. Vulnerable to True Faith.
__________________
"Les préjugés sont la raison des sots."
Max Schreck is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Tags
creatures, horror, monsters, templates, vampires

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Fnords are Off
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 06:23 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.9
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.