Updating the vampire

[SolemnGolem]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

Yes, the only thing that seems to be a commonality between vampires is the ability to feed on the life energy of living creatures in some fashion (represented in GURPS by Leech).

That was more or less my conclusion as well, when working on my "undead secret police" concept with unique vampire-like creatures at the high-level leadership.

The D&D ruleset had a general feeling of "heal self by stealing health from others" for its casual use of the term vampire or vampiric. Its Gothic horror Ravenloft setting had a few vampire subtypes:

• Traditional D&D vampire: mist form, animal forms, "drains energy levels", drinks blood, vulnerable to sunlight/crosses. Any style of character, from axe-wielding barbarian to dinner-suited nobleman.
• Nosferatu: more literary version of the vampire, intended to follow Stoker more closely. Dinner suit and cape included.
• Vryolaka: plague bearer, depraved subhuman style of vampire. Possibly closer to a ghoul in general thinking, appearance similar to Orlok of the movie Nosferatu.
• Vampyre: a fully living race of gothpunk-style apex predators which have enslaved humans as chattel for bleeding and consumption.

[Plane]

Originally Posted by RedMattis

the non-existent ribcage on Buffy vampires.

There isn't exactly ribcage DR in GURPS either (lovely idea) as strikes to organs protected by it seem to be covered by targeting Vitals at -3

Not sure if that's meant to be "aiming between the ribs" or "wrapshooting around the entire cage from above/below" though.

There should definitely be some kind of "I don't want to take as big a vitals penalty, but I'm targeting the vitals THROUGH the ribs" where 2 or 3 bone DR would be subtracted (as with skull/spine) before the x3 multiplier is applied to remaining Penetrating Damage.

Given that attacking stuff behind partial cover is -2, if we assume that's built into the -3 penalty for vitals, maybe a -1 to do that?

A similar approach would make sense for targeting the spine from the front, maybe with abdomen HP serving as some kind of additional cover DR before interacting with standard spine DR.

[RedMattis]

Originally Posted by Plane

There isn't exactly ribcage DR in GURPS either (lovely idea) as strikes to organs protected by it seem to be covered by targeting Vitals at -3

Not sure if that's meant to be "aiming between the ribs" or "wrapshooting around the entire cage from above/below" though.

There should definitely be some kind of "I don't want to take as big a vitals penalty, but I'm targeting the vitals THROUGH the ribs" where 2 or 3 bone DR would be subtracted (as with skull/spine) before the x3 multiplier is applied to remaining Penetrating Damage.

Given that attacking stuff behind partial cover is -2, if we assume that's built into the -3 penalty for vitals, maybe a -1 to do that?

A similar approach would make sense for targeting the spine from the front, maybe with abdomen HP serving as some kind of additional cover DR before interacting with standard spine DR.

Vitals isn't heart, it is torso-organs in general, if you dealt a ton of damage with few dice you probably hit a very vital organ. Lethal blow to the heart is a special effect of killing someone with vitals damage (as per GURPS Martial Arts page 139), most of the hit-results for Vitals is damage to kidneys, liver, etc. as per the table on the same page.

If you actually wanted to hit the heart you'd likely be rolling against -7 (similar size to the brain) and facing a DR of 2 due to the ribs (again similar to the brain). Can practically speaking only be hit from the front with most weapons. miss by 1 hits lungs, miss by 2 hits torso. Same wounding multiplier as brain.

There wouldn't really be much of a reason to go for a heart-shot unless you are dealing with a vampire or someone with a helmet and no body-armor. Even then it is probably smarter to go for the much larger lungs (for a regular living being) if you want to aim for a specific organ.