Late Halloween living corpses: vampires

[Max Schreck]

Hello again.

More Halloween-inspired creatures slither forth, this time that old favourite: the vampire. These vampires have been adapted loosely from GURPS Blood-Types.

The same cave-at from my previous Halloween post on Lovecraftian critters applies here: these are rough drafts, so math errors and omissions probably abound. Feel free to comment, correct and criticize.

Gothic Vampire, 230 points
Attribute Modifiers: ST+6 [60]
Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: Perception+3 [15], HP+5 [10]
Advantages: Alternate Form (Wolf, Dog or Cat and Body of Air (gaseous form) [30], Dark Vision [25], Doesn’t Breathe [20], Dominance [20], Immunity to Metabolic Hazards [30], Injury Tolerance (Unliving) [20], Mind Control (Vision-Based, -20%, Accessibility: Only on mortals, -10%) [35], Shtick (Always appears well-groomed) [1], Supernatural Durability (Except Fire) [150], Unaging [15], Vampiric Bite [30]
Disadvantages: Dependency (Native Soil; Daily) [-60], Divine Curse (Cannot enter home without invitation) [-10], Draining (Human Blood) [-10], Dread (Garlic, Sacred Objects, Running Water, Wild Roses) [-50], Frightens Animals [-10], Nocturnal [-10], Supernatural Features (No Body Heat*, No Reflection, No Shadow, Pallor*) [-26], Uncontrollable Appetite (Human Blood, 12 or less) [-15], Unhealing (Partial) [-20], Vulnerability (Decapitation; Impalement through the heart, ×2 damage) [-20]
Features: Sterile. Vulnerable to True Faith.
* Not after feeding.

This is the classic Gothic vampire from the Gothic fiction of the early to middle 19th century. You will notice that it is not destroyed by sunlight, merely Nocturnal and that it can be impaled by anything through the heart to kill it (again). This is not an oversight. Vampires from Gothic fiction (ca. 1800-1870) don't go up in flames in sunlight and can be killed by destroying their hearts, burning them or decapitating them, among other grisly things. Vampires didn't start going up in smoke or turning to dust in sunlight before Hollywood thought they should.

Nosferatu, 134 points
Attribute Modifiers: ST+6 [60]
Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: Perception+3 [15], HP+5 [10]
Advantages: Innate Attack – Bubonic Plague 1d-2 toxic (Always On, -20%; Area Effect: 2 yards, +50%; Blood Agent, +100%; Cyclic: 6 hours, 12 cycles, highly contagious, +140%; Emanation, -20%; Onset: 1d+1 days, -40%, Resistible: HT -2, -20%, Symptoms: Severe Pain and Unnatural Features 1: buboes, 1/3 HP, +123%) [8], Alternate Form (Rat) [15], Dark Vision [25], Claws (Sharp) [5], Doesn’t Breathe [20], Immunity to Metabolic Hazards [30], Injury Tolerance (unliving) [20], Pestilent* (bubonic plague, cholera or typhus) [1], Supernatural Durability (Except Fire) [150], Terror [30], Unaging [15], Vampiric Bite [30]
Disadvantages: Appearance (Monstrous) [-20], Bad Smell [-10], Dependency (own grave; Daily) [-60], Draining (Human Blood) [-10], Dread (garlic, sacred objects) [-20], Frightens Animals [-10], Infectious Attack [-5], Lifebane [-10], Supernatural Features (No Body Heat, No Reflection, Pallor)** [0], Uncontrollable Appetite (Human Blood, 12 or less) [-15], Unhealing (Partial) [-20], Vulnerability (Decapitation; Impaling spike or stake through the torso; sunlight, ×2 damage) [-60], Weakness (sunlight, 1d pr. minute) [-60]
Features: Sterile. Vulnerable to True Faith.

* Perk from GURPS Horror 4e.

** The nosferatu receives no points for these features, as it is already Monstrous.

Now this vampire is annihilated by sunlight. Whether it is consumed by flames, turn to dust or just fade from existence as in F. W. Murnau's classic Nosferatu from 1922 is up to the GM.
It is the vampire immortalized in that same film, superbly played by German actor Max Schreck (hey, what a coincidence). It is a hideous travesty of life, looking like the living corpse that it is, and not like a suave Transsylvanian noble. A nosferatu is the fear of plague and wasting diseases personified, and spreads sickness by its very presence. The Nosferatu has roots that go back further than the 1922 film, and therefore have some folkloristic traits. First of all, it is anchored to its grave and must return to it. Second, it is not necessary to stake it through the heart to finish it. Impaling the torso will pin it down in its grave like an insect and keep it from rising again.

More vampires to come.

Max

EDIT: Added Alternate Form (Body of Air) [15] instead of Insubstantiality [80] to simulate the vampire's gaseous form.