An Alternative Vampire
Article by Matt Machell (May 2001)
A while ago I wondered about fiddling with the vampire concept a little. Originally I thought I might alter the setting, coming up with some alternate societies for vampires to move within. Unfortunately this proved a large task, and to be honest, the current setting covers most literary styles of vampire quite well.. I decided instead to toy with the basics of what vampires are and the way the rules interpret this. To this end I came up with the alternative vampire mechanics shown below.
The basic premise of these alterations is that a kindreds control of their physical form is dependent on how close they are to the beast, because it is the beasts manifestation that is the origin of these abilities. Thus there is a real temptation to let humanity slip, for the power it brings. The closer to the beast you are, the more controlled by your urges and weaknesses you are. The other changes are the ditching of generation, altering it so that vampires build in power as they age, or by diablerising those who are already old..
Otherwise the system need be no different to normal Vampire : The Masquerade. Slight modifications need to be made to the background, though most basic concepts like the Antediluvians, Camarilla, Sabbat etc can fit in with these rules. The main difference being that elders childer start out weak (which gives them a really good reason to lust after their parents power), and that kindred who get closer to the beast become a real masquerade threat.
- Kindred have a beast rating between 1 and 10, 1 is supreme control/humanity,
5 balanced, 10 is bestial. Acts of depravity increase beast rating.
Essentially it's an inversion of the humanity scale. So a mass murdering
psychopath will quickly reach 9 beast, become physically adept, but
suffer the consequences.
- The amount of blood a Kindred can spend a round is equal to it's
beast rating.
- Kindred have a bloodpool of 15 + 1 per 50 years of unlife. There
is no generation background. Instead characters can take an age background,
each point of which grants 50 years of unlife.
- Kindred can spend blood to boost strength, dexterity and stamina,
or to heal 1 wound level.
- As there are no generational maximums I recommend allowing 1 extra
to maximum trait levels for every 250 years of unlife. Therefore making
antediluvians very scary indeed.
- Kindred take aggravated damage from sunlight or fire equal to beast
rating.
- Self control or Rotschreck difficulties are always equal to beast
rating, minium difficulty of 4. This is the same for all triggers,
whether minor or major. Thus the closer to the beast you are, the
more utterly uncontrolable you are.
- Diablerie increases blood pool by the difference between the character
and his victims blood pool.
- Clans disciplines and weaknesses are as normal.
Hope you find this alternative to vampire canon interesting, let me know what you think.