| pain4gains |
Does the Vampire's "Create Spawn" ability basically mean he can spawn an endless chain of minions under themselves?
Such as a vampire with ten HD having 2 minions with 10 HD, which both have 2 minions with 10 HD.. ect ect?
Also, the first level of spawn are under the complete control of the master vampire. Are the next waves also? do they have to protect their direct creater, but not his?
Example: A group of 4 PCs(4 HD each) are the creations of an 8 HD vampire, who is likewise the minion of another vampire(16 HD). They are in complete servitude to their direct master. Are they also under the control of the 16HD vampire or are they considered as having free will when it comes to that creature?
Set
|
In theory, you could make an infinite chain of this sort.
But the second notion, about the 'primary master' attempting to control the spawn of his own spawn, seems unlikely. The 'boss' vampire would have to relay commands to his own spawn, who would then relay they to their spawn, etc. The spawn themselves might have 'standing orders' to obey the big boss, from their 'mini-bosses,' but vampires seem like the sort of fractious uncooperative bickering passive-aggressive sorts that you might want to directly control through unshakable personal control, and not just because 'Billy told you to listen to my commands as if they were his own!'
In the former example, a 10 HD vampire having two 10 HD kids, and each of them having two 10 HD kids, ad infinitum, you could make a house rule that controlled spawn can't control their own spawn (and are thus forbidden to make them, in most instances, unless their own boss wants free-range spawn in an area for some reason). All vampire 'families' would then be very small fiercely-loyal affairs, and not wide-ranging networks, similar to the small 'vampire family' seen in movies like Near Dark or the Lost Boys and less like the organized crime syndicates seen in the first Blade movie, or the larger packs seen in 30 Days of Night.
If you do use the first example, however, with 'networks' of spawn, like branches from a tree, it could become a plot point, with someone killing a vampire, only to allow their spawn to break free of a larger vampire network, and possibly begin wreaking havoc on the city, no longer being ruthlessly micro-managed by some shadowy 'boss' vampire that the city has long forgotten even exists... That could be a fun scenario, with the PCs killing some 'middle-manager,' unaware that, in doing so, they are unleashing his formerly strictly-controlled spawn to 'go wild' (formerly being restricted to slaughterhouse blood or the homeless or visitors to the city, perhaps, but now, after decades of frustration, going all 30 Days of Night!) *and* attracting the attention of his own boss, who is displeased that this branch of his 'network' has 'gone dark' and even more displeased that the young'uns are running around wreaking havoc and cluing the hapless citizenry to the existence of vampires in their midst, since he spent *decades* convincing them that the 'vampire problem' was 'taken care of.'
So really, it's your choice, and you might mix it up, depending on the story you want to tell. Perhaps 99 in 100 vampires can only boss their own spawn around. Perhaps the average spawn can't even *create spawn,* let alone control the spawn they would have been able to create. Perhaps the one single 'big boss vampire' of some grand city is able to create such a network of spawn and sub-spawn and sub-sub-sub-sub spawn because he's got a special vampire relic, or a special vampire power, or drank the blood of a fallen demidiety and has been permanantly changed to give him this unique ability or something, allowing you to use a 'layered spawn cake' for one adventure scenario, but not have to deal with it being a 'standard vampire power.'
I personally limit any 'infinite loop' options. Shadows, wights, spectres, etc. might be able to cause someone they've slain to rise up as one of their own in combat, but the effects are sadly temporary, and there can be no 'Wight-Ocalpse.'
| pain4gains |
very nice post.
The concepts i was looking at was either that the party is actually the spawn of one vampire, who either uses them agains a different "family" or even to destroy his master become the patriach.
The other concept was a party chasing up the heirachy of a large chain of vampires to destroy an ancient founder, and was think as to how wide the network could potentially be.
Maybe a limiting factor such as "spawn must have atleast 1 HD less then their creater" which would limit the chain to only 20 layers in a non epic campaign.
Though that would still be a couple hundred individuals.