Mesopotamian Vampire

[Phantasm]

In Mesopotamia, the name commonly associated with "blood-sucking" was Dagon. I'm at work right now, so I can't look up the details, but I'm pretty sure he ruled over the "restless dead" of all kinds.

someplace to start, at least.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by Phantasm

In Mesopotamia, the name commonly associated with "blood-sucking" was Dagon. I'm at work right now, so I can't look up the details, but I'm pretty sure he ruled over the "restless dead" of all kinds.

someplace to start, at least.

The innocuous grain and fertility god?

Well, he did promise to roast an enemy of the king on a spit in a prophetic dream, but I thought that was just usual godly behaviour for the times.

Do you have a source for his dominion over the restless dead?

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by Anthony

Ah right. Rabisu are noted as threshold dwellers (so some form of being blocked form entering houses is appropriate), but they also do sneak into houses, so I would have it that you would need appropriate rituals or charms to keep them out, rather than it being a generic property of a threshold.

Probably use the 'Safe as Houses' article in Pyramid, so that established family homes with generations of occupancy are protected from even very powerful spirits, but sins or the breaking of taboos might weaken the fabric of the protection and places only briefly or weakly considered homes might only keep out the feeblest evils.

Originally Posted by Anthony

You could also consider gallu demons, perhaps giving them the traits of the ghūl (who would be anachronistic but are probably related dimly, and have traits such as hanging out in graveyards and drinking blood).

The culture is Mesopotamian-inspired, but hasn't been actual Babylon and environs for aeons. Living gods as rulers until very recently have kept the culture extremely static, but some social change and evolution is inevitable. And there have been centuries of contact with civilisations with Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Indian and other influences, with the empire even ruling colonies with such people at one point, before these late decadent days.

As such, ghūl and rakshasa are part of the local legends by now, though the rakshasa are still often associated with foreign influences.

And yes, these particular vampires are at least kissing cousins with the ghūl, being regarded as living corpses whose symbiosis with the hungry evil spirit was more complete than the animalistic ghūl. Starving them of blood is said to eventually reduce them to a state of unthinking gluttony and fury all but identical with the ghūl.

[The Colonel]

Originally Posted by Anthony

Garlic has some history as being a cure-all, so it could really be anything.

If it helps, garlic also contains a native compound called allicin which has significant antibiotic properties. It likely has its reputation for a reason.

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by Icelander

The innocuous grain and fertility god?

Who's name got appropriated for a Christian demon, yes. Like most of the Mesopotamian gods, really.

[Icelander]

I usually don't worry about the point cost of abilities for NPCs, but the player expressed a desire to buy a particular vampire, Ahhusha, as an Ally, after meeting her Domination Gaze with with a Power Gaze of his own and obtaining control over her through sexual blood exchange, rather than vice versa.

Does anyone have suggestions for what to use as the basis for the ability of a vampire to give up her own blood to heal HP and FP at a 1:1 basis, only one of each per turn? It's weaker than Healing and not obviously as useful in combat, not to mention that it only switches around who is wounded/fatigued, but it's clearly worth points.

Can Leech be modified to Affect Others, with possibly another modifier that Leeched FP and HP can be stored in a special Energy Reserve that the vampire can use later to heal herself or others, if HP and FP are already full when Leech is used?

If the blood also gives some powers and establishes a Special Rapport with the person who consumes it, that might be a Perk or a full-blown Affliction with Blood Agent. I imagine that the most powerful vampires have Dominance, but for the weaker ones, I'm looking for a version mid-way between Dominance and Infectious Attack, i.e. those you bite might be more suspectable to your influence (and Influence skills) and those you feed your blood are potentially your Allies, but not to the extent of Slave Mentality.

Should I modify Dominance? Use Affliction?

I'm thinking that I'd take various Disadvantages related to being a mobile dead body, with a Mitigator that spending FP derived from drinking blood may allow them to mimic mortals for some time. Maybe 1 FP per 6 hours for mimicing human body heat, 1 FP for being able to eat or drink for one meal (so 2 FP per normal meal), 1-2 FP for enjoying sexual relations (longer for longer periods, so maybe 1 FP per 15 minutes) and suchlike. Basically, biological processes are possible, but cost FP/ER that can only be recovered by drinking human (or humanoid) blood.

What's a fair price for this as a Mitigator to Disadvantages other than No Body Heat or Pallor (where it is already described in Basic)? Also, is being unable to derive substance from normal food a Disadvantage larger than a Quirk?

They'll have Doesn't Eat or Drink, with Draining and/or Dependency to force them to drink human blood, but the fact that they have to spend FP to be able to enjoy food or wine, not to mention not to alarm others by never seeming to eat, seems like a modest Supernatural Feature that will help others identify them.

Also, can I modify Dependency so that the vampires do not lose HP if they do not feed, but instead lose IQ, Will and their Disadvantages get progressively more severe, so that they eventually become Bestial monsters without sentience? I'm inclined to treat it as a +0% Special Effect, with each lost HP instead counting as 2 characer points of lost Attributes, Advantages or added Disadvantages, decided by the GM.

As the vampires have Unkillable, Dependency won't kill them anyway and having them be berserking savage beasts instead of comatose once they've been without blood long enough seems like a (nasty) special effect, in that it can be both good (the vampire kills her enemies) or bad (the vampire tears her allies to pieces) for the character.

I've come to the conclusion that I want the vampires to need blood on a daily basis, because of Draining and the requirement for fueling their powers (and probably feeding their Disadvantages, as they need FPs to maintain biological processes), but that their Dependency is actually for 'life energy', which they can also Leech.

I'd want that to work similarly to the above, i.e. not actually Leech HP or FP in that case, but actually character points and the GM decides in each case which traits are lost, usually starting with any unusual powers or abilities that the other party has, then notable extraordinary talents or gifts, then anything else that makes them out of the ordinary and only then starting on any weak areas. It would be a much less efficient way to kill or disable someone than draining only a single trait and the flexibility isn't as valuable when the GM decides where it is targeted, but I suppose that being able to target powerful extraordinary abilities without knowing exactly what they are is useful. I'm inclined to have each level of Leech drain 2-3 character points of abilities, but I don't know what kind of Enhancement that ought to be.

[Bruno]

Transferring your own HP to someone else seems easiest done with the Healing advantage and the Costs HP limitation (Variable version).

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by Bruno

Transferring your own HP to someone else seems easiest done with the Healing advantage and the Costs HP limitation (Variable version).

It would take some pretty hefty use of Limitations to approximate the ability I'm looking for, though. Instead of being able to heal as many HP in one turn as you are willing to spend FP and getting a penalty for multiple uses on the same person, the effect I'm looking for should be able to heal 1 HP and 1 FP per turn, at the cost of 1 HP and 1 FP per turn, and any limit on how much could affect one person would be based on the total amount of healing, not the number of times the ability is used.

That's why I thought about looking at a modifier for Leech, because this kind of healing is exactly the same as the vampire can accomplish for herself using Leech, just reversed.

[Railstar]

GURPS Powers helps with some of these:

For giving blood to heal, Healing (Empathic -50%, Reliable 2 +10%, Reverse Blood Agent -40%) would be enough to exchange HP on a 1 for 1 basis – but it wouldn’t cost FP at all, so maybe add costs FP, and use that to improve Reliable even further to the point that the vampire can shrug off the penalties for repeated use on the same person. Maybe Empathic -50% & Variable +5% to represent the option giving less HP than the injury being taken on? Maybe Takes Extra Time or Nuisance Effect to represent the essentially Reverse Leech nature of it (physically inconveniences you -5%).

Energy Reserve (Special Recharge -70%) would be for a pool of energy only restored by Leech.

GURPS Horror has some rules for vampire bites being addictive, which is a pretty huge modifier to Leech. You could apply the same Addiction as an Affliction with Reverse Blood Agent. Or just start with Affliction: Ecstasy and the +3 to influence rolls by offering to induce the pleasure again. For increased influence (between Dominance and just feeling good) add the perks of Hidden Status or Trivial Reputation with “those who have tasted my blood” for bonuses to reaction/influence rolls. +4 from Reputation & +3 from offering to afflict Ecstasy again for a solid +7 reaction rolls is some major influence.

I think on some cases, FP cost for sexual relations might be an even bigger issue for creatures that are essentially obsessed with pleasures of the flesh.

Doesn’t Eat or Drink seems to be a deliberate absence from most vampire templates – if I remember previous discussions about this topic correctly, the thinking is that eating blood counts as eating, with the not applying the usual rules for hunger and thirst being more or less a special effect (along the lines that if a major chunk of your life revolves around essentially hunting for food, then Doesn’t Eat or Drink is inappropriate).

On spending FP to eat normal food, I’d consider quirk-level Restricted Diet. Maybe alongside the No Fatigue feature from GURPS Zombies, so that way the FP cannot be recovered by rest.

For Dependency or Draining, I’d be tempted to use the Limitation of Damage Limitation: No Wounding -50% alongside Symptoms to represent the progressively deteriorating IQ & mental faculties.

Anyway, I hope those suggestions help.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by Railstar

GURPS Powers helps with some of these:

For giving blood to heal, Healing (Empathic -50%, Reliable 2 +10%, Reverse Blood Agent -40%) would be enough to exchange HP on a 1 for 1 basis – but it wouldn’t cost FP at all, so maybe add costs FP, and use that to improve Reliable even further to the point that the vampire can shrug off the penalties for repeated use on the same person. Maybe Empathic -50% & Variable +5% to represent the option giving less HP than the injury being taken on? Maybe Takes Extra Time or Nuisance Effect to represent the essentially Reverse Leech nature of it (physically inconveniences you -5%).

This is still very cludgy. As a useful power in combat, only being able to heal 1 FP and 1 HP per turn is a major limitation, but your build doesn't take it into account. Empathic is even incompatible with Capped, by the rules, so it's flat out impossible to have Empathic and be limited in how much you can heal per second.

There are so many mechanics that I don't want built into Healing that it seems like a very unsatisactory trait to use as the basis.

Essentially, what I want is the ability to use Leech in reverse, as well as being able to use it normally. It would seem fairly intuitive that this is done by modifying the Leech Advantage, perhaps with Affects Others, and not by adding an Advantage that has a lot of inbuilt mechanics I don't want.

Would adding +50% to the Leech power be enough of an extra cost for this? It's probably more expensive that way than basic Healing...

Originally Posted by Railstar

Energy Reserve (Special Recharge -70%) would be for a pool of energy only restored by Leech.

That's true, but what can you do with that Energy Reserve?

Can you 'store' HP or FP drained with Leech and use them for healing yourself later, if you are at full HP and FP when you use Leech?

If you can't do it by default, would a simple +50% Cosmic enhancement be a fair way to buy that extra capability?

Originally Posted by Railstar

GURPS Horror has some rules for vampire bites being addictive, which is a pretty huge modifier to Leech. You could apply the same Addiction as an Affliction with Reverse Blood Agent.

Addictive Bite sounds great for more powerful vampires, yes. Handily, if I can apply a modifier to the base Leech for the ability to feed victims her blood, I the Addictive Bite would work both ways, just the way I want it.

Originally Posted by Railstar

Or just start with Affliction: Ecstasy and the +3 to influence rolls by offering to induce the pleasure again.

Yeah, both the bite and drinking the blood of the vampire will carry with it Euhporia and Ecstacy as side effects.

Originally Posted by Railstar

For increased influence (between Dominance and just feeling good) add the perks of Hidden Status or Trivial Reputation with “those who have tasted my blood” for bonuses to reaction/influence rolls. +4 from Reputation & +3 from offering to afflict Ecstasy again for a solid +7 reaction rolls is some major influence.

That sounds good.

Originally Posted by Railstar

I think on some cases, FP cost for sexual relations might be an even bigger issue for creatures that are essentially obsessed with pleasures of the flesh.

Yep. The evil spirits want to enjoy some or all of sexual relations, fine food, wine, other intoxicants, sensous pleasures, beautiful art, music, etc.

Only the most intelligent, subtle and dangerous spirits can derive substance from the 'higher' and more intellectual pleasures, with the more typical vampires being focused on food, sex and, especially, blood. Some of them enjoy the blood of creatures in fear or pain more, of course.

Originally Posted by Railstar

Doesn’t Eat or Drink seems to be a deliberate absence from most vampire templates – if I remember previous discussions about this topic correctly, the thinking is that eating blood counts as eating, with the not applying the usual rules for hunger and thirst being more or less a special effect (along the lines that if a major chunk of your life revolves around essentially hunting for food, then Doesn’t Eat or Drink is inappropriate).

Well, technically, they do not need blood for substance, they need it to keep the spirit inside them from growing weak (Draining). And they need the life energy to prevent the spirit from degenerating into an animalistic creature entirely under the control of their basest appetites.

Originally Posted by Railstar

On spending FP to eat normal food, I’d consider quirk-level Restricted Diet.

They'll probably be about as likely to use it as the sexual activity FPs. All in all, these requirements will tend to double or triple the daily requirements they have for blood.

Originally Posted by Railstar

Maybe alongside the No Fatigue feature from GURPS Zombies, so that way the FP cannot be recovered by rest.

I want them to have and use FP. Lose them naturally with exertion and all, but just not have any way of recovering them naturally. Which strikes me as a rather large Disadvantage, as it means that they'll not recover 12-24 FP per hour, that they could use for magic or vampire powers, but are instead stuck with what they drain from victims.

Originally Posted by Railstar

For Dependency or Draining, I’d be tempted to use the Limitation of Damage Limitation: No Wounding -50% alongside Symptoms to represent the progressively deteriorating IQ & mental faculties.

It's a bit complicated. I'll check what it would give and see if it compares to just making up an Enhancement or Limitation whereby they lose character points instead of HPs, GM's choice which traits each time.

Originally Posted by Railstar

Anyway, I hope those suggestions help.

They do, thank you.