Dead and Loathing It.

[JCD]

In Fall of the Malakim, there was a vignette in the player blurb for a mummy in L.A.

In it, he was complaining about the constant grind of his joints. One little detail they left out of the description.

In the Columbus Nocturnes game, the resident Mummy, Fahline, has an entire one hour regime to maintain her appearance, from Yoga to reset her joints, moisturizer for skin, replenishing her water supply so she does not dessicate, make up etc.

At this point we are conflicted if animals fear the undead.

And are there any house rules you use for your undead?

[Acolyte]

I'd say animals shouldn't fear undead--they essentially end up with Vessels and if animals don't get unnerved by demons and angels, undead should be no different.

The only house-rules for undead that have come up in my campaign have centered around an Isis-worshiping sorcerer who really really hates undead and has an artifact that's good for killing them, zombi Native Americans whose slaying and ceremonial reburial opened a Tether to the Marches, and a vampire turned against her will who lives in seclusion and eats only cats.

Aaactually, the only actual house rules for those involve the artifact (the details of which the PCs do not know), and that you don't have to be willing to become a Mummy/Vampire. Frankly, nothing in any mythos suggests that you have to be willing, and as a result I house-ruled you didn't. My unwillingness to house-rule over the "undead have already lost their souls and nothing but oblivion awaits them" has caused the PCs no end of angst, because they find the vampire a tragic heroine and like her.

[JCD]

If you think that is tragic, ask ladyarcana55 about Andrea.

[ladyarcana55]

I wish this thing didn't have a ten character minimum!

LOL

[Acolyte]

I'm pretty sure that the point of the limit is to prevent a post like that.

That said, IN's very inherently tragic (though I would go with tragicomic), and the plight of "good" undead is just one manifestation of this.

[Jason]

I don't know enough about forum etiquette to assess whether I'm better off reviving an old thread that got very few posts or starting a new one titled "House Rules for Undead," but I really want to talk about house rules for undead, and there was a post already, and I DO sometimes browse the old posts ... soooo...

I'm soon to be running a game that has demons, ethereals, humans, and undead, and the issue of what to do with vampires has been kind of vexing to me ever since the question came up of whether "vampire private investigator" (the only acceptable profession for good guy vampires on TV) would be a good concept for an ethereal spirit. The house rule I'm kicking around now is this, but I am open to feedback or how you've done it yourself...

"Real" vampires are human beings who deliberately bargained with Hell to gain a semblance of immortality. They are put together pretty much the same as the IN Core Rules state, but I'll probably require that their Need be bloo, and give any vampire PC a 6th Force anyway (to reflect those who got Discords willingly as a trade-off for more powers, rather than those who accidentally "unraveled"). I might also house-rule that some of Saminga's demons have the ability to give such vampires an Attunement that lets them turn other willing humans into vampires too. (I might need a better term than "real" vampires, though.)

Ethereal vampires are spirits in the Image of the vampire of folklore and popular mythology, meaning that whatever we believe should affect vampires would affect such spirits. "Holy water" (blessed by mundane religious professionals) has no inherent power in In Nomine, but such vampires could react to it as a Dread. In the Marches, they would cast no reflection in reflective surfaces; on Earth, they are bound by the laws of physics, so they'd show up in mirrors, but they still wouldn't be able to see their own reflections because they're so tied to the idea of their own Image. Animals might act uneasily around them, even as real vampires remain imperceptible from humans. Not sure what that would count as in mechanics terms -- another Dread? Discords? Side effects of some affinity for "death"? Or are vampires so close to demons that they should not actually get ethereal spirits in their Image?

[Archangel Beth]

Oh, nifty idea!

Personally, I wouldn't think vampires are too linked to demons. Yeah, they're typically animated with Fel Magiks, but they're humans, and there are all kinds of ethereals based off of humans.

(Don't forget! There are also sparklevampires who go to high school!)

[Jason]

Originally Posted by Archangel Beth

Oh, nifty idea!

Thank you!

Personally, I wouldn't think vampires are too linked to demons. Yeah, they're typically animated with Fel Magiks, but they're humans, and there are all kinds of ethereals based off of humans.

That's good enough for me.

(Don't forget! There are also sparklevampires who go to high school!)

Indeed. There is much room for intrigue in this, as I imagine that moody vampires dating telepathic waitresses both envy and look down upon them.

I would also like to think that the abundance of different types of vampires in the Marches has led to an entire coalition of of ethereal Van Helsings, Buffies, and the occasional Abraham Lincoln, dedicated entirely to reliably detecting which vampires are good guys and killing the ones that are bad guys.

As a side note, this conversation reminds me of an episode of The Real Ghostbusters (parts 1 and 2, found online somewhat disturbingly easily) in which a town full of vampires and werewolves breaks its cold war thanks to the Ghostbusters' intervention, doomed to constantly bite one another and recruit enemies back to the other side. Adventure seed waiting to happen! See if your players are able to devise a scenario to imprison the monsters as clever as the one concluded by the Ghostbusters. (Caveat: Superstitions about running water may be involved, so YMMV outside the ethereal realm.)

[Archangel Beth]

*beth giggles at the load of "new blood" that has probably been hitting the Marches since Laurel K Hamilton made "every supernatural thing and the kitchen sink" popular...*

[Rocket Man]

Originally Posted by Archangel Beth

*beth giggles at the load of "new blood" that has probably been hitting the Marches since Laurel K Hamilton made "every supernatural thing and the kitchen sink" popular...*

*Rocket Man in turn chuckles at the resulting gang wars implied between the Hamiltonians and the Ricers for the last several years ... though both may have united in the face of the sparkly threat to their Essence*