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Vampires as Player Characters in Shadowrun II

by Jeremy Reaban (jer@inlink.com)

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Version 1.0

This is a set of rules that I’ve used the last few years to run a vampire character in Shadowrun originally, and then in SRII. These rules have been play-tested fairly extensively, but only by limited number of people.

Background

While the word “Vampire” comes from the slavic regions of the world in the Dark Ages, the concept of the vampire is almost a worldwide phenomenon. Almost every culture has a blood drinking undead thing. Where they originally come from, no one really knows. Some legends say they are the offspring of the first mother of humanity, Lilith, after she and Adam parted ways. Other legends say they are the Children of Judas. In the Shadowrun universe anyway, vampirism is a viral infection.

I’d just like to say that vampires probably don’t exist. I’d love to say they definitely don’t exist, but there have been many, many reports over the years of humans and animals that have had all of their blood removed. There’s probably a rational explanation, but nobody has come up with a completely satisfactory one. There are also people who like to drink blood, dress in black, and call themselves vampires, but they really aren’t. They’re just poseurs, although amusing ones. I’m sure they inhabit the world of Shadowrun, as well as our own.

Also note that this in no way encourages anyone to go out and drink blood, sleep all day, think they’re invulnerable, or turn into mist.

I. Creation

To create a vampire character, Priority A must be assigned to both race and magic. This is done by having no priority B, and two priority Ds (plus one E). This tries to represent the fact that the vampire character has just been “born”, and comes from an ordinary background, as well as balance the character initially. Vampire characters should be very weak, as far as vampires go, and less skilled and poorer than normal shadowrun characters. This may seem unrealistic (it probably is), but it keeps vampire characters from being too powerful at the beginning of a game. (Originally, in Shadowrun I, it would be a 4 assigned to both race and magic, and the total just had to add up to 10.)

This means that all vampires are magically active, whether mage, shaman , or houngoun.

Players may take an additional psychosomatic allergy (such as to garlic or holy symbols) for additional points. See page 46 of SRII for details. Garlic and Holy symbols are uncommon pollutants. Players may also take rules of conduct that restrict their actions, such as not being able to enter homes without being invited, or only being able to use aliases that were anagrams of the the vampires true name, for additional benefits. The GM should decide the benefits.

Vampire characters have a starting essence of 6, and a starting magic of 6.

Note: The magic rating can go up only through initiation, not when the essence rises.

Example of Character Creation:

Jeff decides to play a vampire character. He assigns the following priorities : A to magic, A to Race, D to Attributes, D to Skills, and E to Tech.

This gives him 17 attribute points, and 20 skill points. He decides to assign them as:

Body 3 Firearms 4

Quickness 2 Sorcery 5

Strength 2 (8) Conjuring 2

Charisma 2 Magic Theory 2

Intelligence 4 Stealth 3

Willpower 4 Unarmed Combat 4

Essence 6

Reaction 3

Magic 6

Jeff adds the starting essence, 6, to assigned value of 2, giving his character an effective strength of 8. Looking over his character, he decides to take a psychosomatic allergy to garlic, of moderate severity. This gives him 3 more attribute points. He decides to up his character’s Quickness to 5, which also ups the reaction to 4. He then picks 5 points of spells, and 500 nuyen of gear. You may note that the character is a bit of a wimp, and quite broke; this is intended, as vampires have several other advantages.

II. Beginning Powers

The beginning vampire has the same powers as listed in the SRII book, with some modifications and clarifications. More powers may be gained later, as shall be explained. See Paranormal Critters of Europe for more details of the powers.

Enhanced Strength:

The characters effective strength is his normal, pre-vampiric strength plus his essence. Vampires, are very, very strong. But remember, they still mass the same as normal humans. The players normal strength may not exceed 6, but the maximum effective strength is 6 plus his maximum essence. (Some gamemasters may wish to use the pre-vampiric strength plus half the

vampire’s essence, which may be less true to legends, but more balanced in gameplay. Another option would be to set an effective strength cap of 12 or 14. )

Enhanced Hearing and Smell:

Immunity to Age, Poison, Pathogens:

The vampires apparent age varies according to her essence. If she is at full essence, she appears to be very young, in her early twenties to late teens. At lower essence levels, she appears older, and at zero essence , she appears her real age (but same physical characteristics).

Essence Drain:

A vampire does not need to kill her victim. Usually a vampire only drinks a pint or two of blood, and only takes one or two essence points. Otherwise, no one would be left alive. When a vampire starts killing indiscriminitely, other vampires in the area often hunt him down, although (generally speaking) there are no organizations of vampires.

Because of the passionate nature of vampires, the vampire must make a willpower test with a target number equal to 12 minus her essence to stop after draining a point.

Example:

Carmilla ,with a willpower of 3 , and essence of 8, is drinking the blood of her lover. She tries to stop after draining one essence point. She rolls 3 dice against a target number of

4 (12- 8), and gets a 1, a 1, and a 3. Carmilla fails the willpower test, and drains another point of essence from her lover, and trys to stop again. This time, she rolls against a target number of 3, and scores one success, which is enough to stop.

The victim (or partner) also really enjoys having their essence drained. They will not stop the process voluntarily. The vampire also enjoys it quite a bit. The closest analogy to a vampire’s blood drinking/essence draining is sex. It’s best when there’s love, and when done unwillingly, it’s the same as rape.

Unwilling victims must be subdued first by unarmed combat before essence may be drained. Draining essence also takes some time, which is explained in Paranormal Animals of Europe.

Infection:

In contradiction to SRII rules and many historical beliefs, when a vampire drinks a victim dry, the victim does not automatically become a vampire! He’s just dead. Think about it. The world would be crawling with vampires, if every victim became one. (There are some novels set in a world like this, as well as one episode of Tales from the Darkside, and the movie Lifeforce.) My rationale is that in SR terms a vampire needs at least 13 essence points a year. That’s two victims (at minimum) a year sucked completely dry. So every year if they’re not careful, the vampire population would at least triple if every victim became a vampire.

There are many ways a vampire may be created. The most popular one is after draining a victim of blood, the vampire gives the victim some of his own blood to drink. Another variation is to drain the blood of the victim gradually, over a period of weeks, and then perform a ritual that transforms the victim. Or, perhaps, when a victim is drained completely, he has a 1 out of 6 chance of becoming a vampire. The gm should pick a method most appropriate for his game. Personally, I like the first method.

Mist Form:

In combat, the vampire has a maximum speed of Willpower x2 in mist form. (You try running when you’re mist). When the vampire turns to mist , only her clothes are transformed with her. All her equipment drops to the ground, including armor (except armored clothing). The vampire can move in all three directions while in mist form, but cannot climb more than 10 meters above ground. The vampire must be careful of wind gusts and fans when in mist form. For a good illustration of how this works, see the computer game Bureau 13 by Take Two Software. “Weather-stripping , the bane of all vampires”, says Alexander Keltin in it, when he unsuccessfully tries to enter a high security building in mist form.

Regeneration:

The big one. The wounds of the vampire heal at the end of every combat phase, including deadly wounds. Wounds taken in that combat round do cause target number and initiative modifiers, but only for that combat round. This healing has a price, though. Whenever the vampire accumulates 10 boxes of damage, his essence is reduced by one. When the essence of the vampire is reduced below zero in this way, she dies. This is also the only way the vampire heals. One side effect of this regeneration, is that bullets have a tendency to stay inside the vampire, until removed by surgery or by entering Mist Form.

Wounds caused by sunlight or by UV light do not heal until the vampire comes out of the sun. This still applies to vampires that have lessened their sunlight allergy. Damage accrued by Sunlight and/or UV laser heals at the rate of one box per minute when the vampires come out of the sun.

Also, massive (deadly) damage to the brain and spinal cord will result in the vampire’s death. This should be determined by the referee. Deadly wounds inflicted by weapon foci also have a chance to kill the vampire outright.

Example:

Varney , with an essence of 10, gets involved in a gunfight with two punks. One punk opens up on Varney with a heavy pistol, while the other shoots at him with 12 gauge. In the first round, the punk with the shotgun inflicts a serious wound on Varney, and the other misses. Because of the serious wound inflicted, Varney gets a +3 target number for the current round, and so misses. Varney then drops one with a burst of his Savalette Guardian, while the punk that’s still alive then drills him with the pistol for a medium wound. That’s a total of 9 boxes for this combat. In the third round, the punk goes first, and scores another medium wound on Varney. This gives Varney a total of 12 boxes accumulated. Because of that, Varney then reduces his essence by one to 9, and subtracts 10 from the 12 boxes of damage. This greatly annoys Varney who then shoots the remaining punk in the leg, subdues the punk, drags him away, and drains all of the punk’s essence, bringing Varney’s essence up to the maximum of 12. Varney still has 2 boxes of damage accumulated.

Thermographic Vision:

The vampire can change between normal and thermographic vision at will. It takes one combat phase (3 seconds) to do so.

III. Weaknesses:

Just as a vampire has many powers, he also has many weaknesses. See Paranormal Animals of Europe for more detailed explanations of the weaknesses.

Allergy to Sunlight - Severe:

Sunlight hurts the vampire. If they stay in direct sunlight long enough, (several hours), they will get sick and die. But unlike horror movies, when sunlight touches them, they don’t instantly catch on fire and die. Just smoke a little. Only a light wound for every half hour she stays in the sunlight, that doesn’t heal until the vampires comes in out of the sun. It does hurt though, and modifiers for damage apply. So in game terms , 5 1/2 hours of direct sunlight would kill a vampire. This only applies if the vampire’s skin is exposed, though. The damage caused by sunlight does not heal until the vampire comes in out of the sun. The damage caused by sunlight then heals at the rate of 1 box per minute.

The part of the spectrum in Sunlight that bothers vampires is the Ultraviolet (UV) band. UV lasers thus wreak havoc on vampires, causing one damage level more then their normal code. Lotions that block UV rays also work to stop the damaging effect of the sun’s rays. They increase the time in the sun it takes to cause damage depending on the SPF.

Vampires also are nocturnal by nature, but can operate during the day. However, vampires almost never waken before noon, only doing so in emergencies. They receive a +2 target number for all tasks attempted between the time of sunrise and noon (midday) , and a +1 between noon (midday) and late afternoon.

Note: This allergy may be lessened later by character improvement (See Sect V). The vampire may then go out in the sun without fear of dying, but the modifiers for operating in daylight hours still apply. Vampires just don’t like being awake during the day.

Allergy to Garlic - (Player’s Choice):

Psychosomatic allergy. (see Sect I) Vampires are particularly prone to these types of allergies.

Blood Lust:

The sight and smell of fresh blood can inflame the passions of a vampire. This should be probably be just role-played, but here’s simple rule if so desired. If a vampire with an essence of less than 6 sees blood flowing from a wound, she must make a willpower test against a target number of 10 minus her essence to avoid drinking some of the blood and/or attacking the bleeding person.

Essence Loss:

Not only do Vampires lose one point of essence every 4 weeks, they lose one point every time they accumulate a deadly amount of normal damage (See Regeneration above).

Vulnerability - Wood:

The classic wooden stake is the most common method to dispose of vampires, in movies at least. In the middle ages, vampires usually were burned or had their heads cut off after they were staked. (See section VI.). It’s still an effective method, though.

Allergy - Holy Symbol (Player’s Choice):

This psychosomatic allergy only applies to vampires who devoutly believe in a given faith. The player should pick an appropriate religion. As a rule, the more uncommon the religion the less the character creation benefits. (See Section I)

IV. Other characteristics of Vampires

Most notably, blood is a vampire’s only sustenance. Vampires may eat food, but will vomit within a short period of its ingestion. Historically, some vampires have been known to drink some liquids, including wine, and keep it down, but most vampires can’t do this. Most vampires find alcohol repulsive. Vampires like to drink about a pint or so of blood a day. This doesn’t need to be taken from a victim, or even human’s blood, but it must a mammal’s blood. It should be fresh though (consider it to be like milk. It should be refrigerated, and spoils quickly).

Vampires don’t really swim very well, because they don’t breathe much, and tend to sink, so they usually just walk on the bottom of the water. (I don’t know where FASA got the induced dormancy from, personally, if you like it, go ahead and use it. I would think vampires would get stuck in their coffins, though, if it were true. I’ve read a couple dozen vampire books for research for this, and haven’t found any mention of it.)

Vampires and Cyberware also don’t mix. Every time they get cut open, they heal. Even if the surgeon even manages to shove in the cyberware (and manages to connect it properly), the body will expel it. Vampires who had cyberware before they became vampires may use it, but if they ever happen to use the Mist Form power, it falls out. Oops. (Yes , they paid essence for the cyber, but tough.)

As for Bioware, it is possible for a vampire to get it. But the body only accepts the cultured variety, and only at some certain shadowclinics of high technical knowledge. A character will have a hard time finding one. Normal rules for bioware and magicians apply (i.e. essence is reduced). The vampires maximum essence is reduced, though, since his current essence is variable. For instance, a vampire with a body index of 2 would have a maximum essence of 10. This reduces his maximum strength, so there are some drawbacks, but some vampires consider the advantages gained worth it. Note that a lot of Bioware is pretty much useless to a vampire, like the extended lung capacity, and the damage compensator. In my campaign I made the player think of a way to perform elective surgery on a vampire without the incisions closing up for the bioware that doesn’t completely rely on nanotech..

Vampires are also known to be particularly bound by certain beliefs. This results in psychosomatic allergies, and rules of conduct that are really necessary. For instance, some vampires will not enter a house or building unless invited in. One vampire would only use aliases that were anagrams of her original name. These add some color to the vampire’s life.

One of the more common literary powers of vampires, that of changing shape into a wolf, or bat, is not listed as a power. This can be accomplished by the use of the shapechange spell, since all vampires in the game are magicians.

V. Gaining Abilities and Losing Weaknesses

Vampires are treated in a manner similar to physical adepts. They use their magic points to purchase additional powers, and to lessen the effects of weaknesses. The first 6 magic points go to purchasing the vampires basic abilities. Vampires are still full magicians of their chosen path.

(Option - Let the player assign priority “B” to magic, and make the vampire an adept. I wouldn’t recommend a Physical Adept, though its certainly possible for a daring GM) .

As vampires gain magic points through initiation, they can use these points to buy additional powers and weaken their weaknesses. When and if they lose the points (as per normal Shadowrun II rules) they lose the powers they gained. For complete descriptions of the powers see Paranormal Animals of Europe. Depending on the amount of karma given out in her campaign, the gamemaster may wish to adjust the base karma required for initiation from x3 to x3.5 or x4 or more to keep the vampire character from becoming too powerful.

Additional Powers:

Alienation 2 points

Greatly aids in draining victims unnoticed, but difficult to master.

Animal Control 1 point per animal type

Cats, dogs, vermin, llamas, weasels, etc.; are considered types. Dracula had (has?) this power over vermin and wolves.

Concealment 1 point

Only works for the vampire, not any others.

Darkness 1 point

Fairly handy.

Desire Reflection 2 points

Helps attract victims. Not usually a power in Player Character vampires.

Empathy 2 points

This works only when the vampire can see the target unaided by any means (except by normal glasses and contact lenses).

Fear 1 point

Only works when the vampire can gaze into her victim’s eyes.

Influence 1 point

Again, only works when the vampire looks into the victim’s eyes

Noxious breath 1 point

Since the vampire can’t turn it off, a +4 Target Number applies for seduction attempts for vampires with this power, +2 for etiquette test where the vampire can be smelled, as well as negative aspects to role-play (Especially in crowded elevators). Not recommended in player character vampires.

Sense Other Vampire 1 point

The vampire can detect other vampires within her essence x 5 meters in all three dimensions

Silence 1 point

Works only for the vampire.

In addition to gaining powers, vampires may use their magic points to reduce their weaknesses.

Allergy Reduction 1 point per level

This allows some vampires to go out in the sunshine. The time of day modifiers still apply.

Essence Retention 1 point per extra 2 weeks essence is retained.

This reduces how often the vampire losses essence.

VI. Killing the Vampire

Historically, vampires were generally killed by the following process: Driving a stake though the body in one blow, thus pinning the body to the ground. Then cutting off the head, and then burning both the head and body. There are many, many variations of this, including cutting off the head and stuffing holy wafers or garlic in the mouth, using leaded steel through the heart. Dracula had a bowie knife jabbed through his heart, and his head removed.

Nowadays, a Glaser Safety or Explosive round to the base of the head is the preferred method, although hollow points work well too, or God forbid, a close up shotgun blast. Humans have been known to survive head wounds at point blank range with normal ammo, so they probably wouldn’t work well against vampires. The object is to damage the vampire’s central nervous system. In Shadowrun game terms, since ammo types don’t mean much, called shots to the head that result in deadly damage should kill the vampire. Let the GM decide, though.

Of course, continually damaging a vampire until his essence reaches below zero also works (see Regeneration, section II). At the point of sounding repetitive, so would anything that cuts off or destroys the vampires head and/or spinal cord, such as decapitation.

VII. Gamemaster Notes

Be very careful letting a vampire character into your campaign. Make sure the player is mature enough to handle it. Also, try not to let the player get arrogant. The last thing you want is to have the other players get jealous.

The vampire character probably won’t get too powerful. (The primary vampire character in my campaign since the original Shadowrun has only made level 7 initiation, and has a total of 10 magic points.) Plus, not having cyberware, the reaction of the vampire will be slower than most other characters, plus the starting attributes, skills, and tech are lower than other characters too. Watch out for melee combats, though. Vampires clean up there, especially with either weapon foci or dikoted weapons or both. And if you happen to use the recoil modifiers for strength in Fields of Fire, vampires are quite nasty in fire fights with automatic weapons..

If the player gets out of line too much though, you can sic vampire hunters on his character, or make his life more difficult with daylight runs.

VIII. References

Much of this information appears in Shadowrun I and II manuals, in the critter section of the book. After all, these rules are for shadowrun.

Other stories and novels about vampires that helped shape these rules are (in order of influence):

Carmilla by J.(Joseph) Sheridan Le Fanu

A short story written in 1872, it is in my opinion the best vampire story ever. Surprisingly erotic considering when it was written, it has had several film adaptations of varying quality. I think its the first story about a female vampire, and definitely the first lesbian one. If you can find it , read it! It’s often included in vampire anthologies.

Blood Games, The Palace, etc., by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro

Mainly follows vampires throughout the course of history, who wonder how mankind can be such monsters. My version of how to kill vampires mostly comes from here.

Dracula-Holmes Novels by Fred Saberhagen

In this version, Vlad Tepes, (Dracula) is a heroic figure, and , improbably enough, a relative of Sherlock Holmes. Its very good in relating how life as a vampire is, as well as some of their powers.

Dracula by Abraham Stoker

The most popular vampire novel ever. Stoker’s Dracula is a monster, yet strangely attractive. The scene between Harker and Dracula’s three sisters/brides is especially good.

A couple of non fiction books that helped are:

The Natural History of the Vampire by Anthony Masters

This chronicles the beliefs about vampires all over the world. All sorts of vampires are listed here, as well as how they were killed by the locals. Strongly recommended.

Vampires: His Kith and Kin; and The Vampire in Europe by Montague Summers

Classics in the field of vampires. Sort of strange, because the author really believed in vampires (and witchs , too).

And a very good computer game in which you can play a vampire is Bureau 13 by Take Two software.

I am also a fan of the TV show, Forever Night. It tries to copy Anne Rice too much, and the albino guy is tiresome, but it has its charm. Its a good example of a vampire trying to be an upstanding member of society. The original pilot, Nick Night (starring Rick Springfield) was much, much better.