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Vampires
Allot of people like them. I have been toying with the idea of doing a short term evil campaign.
The basic plot outline I have so far is this: The PCs start out at first level, and do a classic dungeon crawl. At the end of the dungeon, the PCs are attacked by a vampire, who (hopefully) is able to kill the PCs. Then they all rise as vampires under his thrall.
I then thought that their “Sire” could command them to go on missions, and his will would force these vampires to cooperate. Maby after their first adventure together as vampires, they return to find their master slain, and they are then free of his dominion.
I am hesitant to visit the “curse of the Azure bonds” model upon the PCs, so I think I would be a good idea to rid them of their master and quickly return their free wills to them.
I realize that among other things that their alignments would then shift to Chaotic Evil.
I thought that I would let them act as they would like to, but to represent the Chaotic Evil bent as an overwhelming desire to feed. I thought i might require their feeding to be on sentient humanoids. I don't want to gloss over their parasitic natures.
Do you have any suggestions about how I could run such a short term game? Is this simply a bad Idea?
Finally are there any guidelines for handling how often, a vampire needs to feed to sustain itself, and if its “ special” abilities are fueled by how well fed the vampire is?
Any thoughts or suggestions?
Thanks.
RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32
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Necromancers of the Northwest have an excellent free product out giving some rules on how to play Vampires.
I highly recommend you check it out on their Download Page.
In fact, while you're there, download all their stuff 'cause it's actually pretty damn good. :)
My suggestion is to avoid lots of situations that rob the free will of the PCs. I would definitely make sure the players are aware of the plan to turn them into vampires, so that they're not ticked off by the initial vampire boss they cannot defeat. Also, try to work in a situation where the vampire master's hold is disrupted, and the PCs can kill him themselves. Not only is it vengeance, but it lends the PCs a sense of agency.
As much as I love Pathfinder and think it's the best system I've seen out there, for this kind of game I am going to have to second the Storyteller system for this one. They have entire books devoted to vampires. Vampires in Pathfinder are grossly overpowered, and you'd have to raise the CRs for them by a LOT to even come close to giving them a challenge.
If you want to stick with Pathfinder, look for the 3.5 Libris Mortis book, and have them awaken as Vampire Spawn, using the monster progression so they can slowly unlock more powers as they get to know their own abilities.
Half-vampire, in that same book, is also a lot less overpowered than vampire, but really, there's no storyline way to justify a party of them.
With PF vamnpires, you also have the problem that basically everyone's going to have the same exact powers. Whitewolf has different bloodlines for vamps, each with their own set of powers to choose from, etc, and can actually provide a challenge sufficient for them that isn't fighting nigh-epic creatures at level 10.
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Lazerx thank you for suggesting the storyteller rules.
Kryptic, Thank you for your suggestion about not robbing the players of their characters free will. You are right it would be a better idea to inform people before hand. Come to think of it, having the PCs off their vampire master would be a better idea. I think the "trust me its part of the story line" probably wont work, I know I hated it when it was pulled on me, and everyone also hates Deus Ex Machina that is what the death of their vampire sire would feel like if it was not at their hands.
Parchristian, your idea of all of the vampire business being part of their back-story is an excellent one. And yes it is much better to have willing players, rather then trying force this on them. It would be like trying to stuff five cats in a bathtub at once.
I like the idea of there being a reason for the master being confined to his crypt. This raises another question. How can the PCs break free of their "sire’s control? Perhaps a protection from evil spell?
The Green Tea gamer, Thank you for your observations and suggestions. If I remember the vampires have a +8 level adjustment from the 3.5 monster manuel. Theoretically if I put the 1st level PCs against a 7 level cleric, that might be a bad idea. Hmm the PCs would be on the receiving end of a Positive energy burst.
Thank you for the suggestion to look in Libris Mortis. I expected them all to have the same powers, and their differentiation come from the different character classes that they advance in.
White wolf, thanks that sounds like a good place to look.
I would never run a White Wolf game, but I buy a lot of their books for ideas, especially since it is difficult for me to think of good ideas for vampires.
But if you are just going to run a short term campaign where their origins are set, you probably don't need all those ideas. I certainly encourage getting ideas from anywhere, but there is also such a thing as being overwhelmed.
As for level adjustment, that can be tough. At least all the PCs are in the same boat, so you don't have to worry about that. But I've found that once the level adjustment goes past +2, the PC is not really balanced against PCs of the same level. Since all PCs have the same problem, this will be okay, but they may not perform against a calculated Encounter Level the way you'd expect characters of their ECL.
You might want to playtest encounters ahead of time to see if they are challenging enough or if they are too challenging (i.e. deadly).
I like the idea of there being a reason for the master being confined to his crypt. This raises another question. How can the PCs break free of their "sire’s control? Perhaps a protection from evil spell?
You could have a vampire hunter injure the master enough so that he has to retreat back to his safehouse. In his weakened position (maybe through some sort of good-aligned spell), he loses his sway over the PCs, and they finish him off. That way would explain how the PCs could handle killing a more powerful creature.
Or, if you want to do it cinematically...
The master is injured and is racing back to this coffin to try to beat the sun. The PCs feel his hold over them loosen. Just before the sun rises over the hill, the master arrives at the door....to find it slammed in his face by the PCs. A brief moment passes in which the master and PCs make eye contact, and the reality of his hubris sinks in as rays of sunlight wash over the hill and he bursts into a flailing, shrieking ball of catharsis.
Monte Cook's World of Darkness (MCWoD).
It's uses 3.5e core mechanics (IE 20 levels, standard d20 combat resolution), but the "classes" in the book are vampire, werewolf, demon, mage (spellcaster human), and awakened (aware non-spellcaster human). Each of the races is a 20 level class and the book basically says they don't recommend multi-classing.
You could either use the vamp class right out of it or if you want the different vamps in your 3.x/PRPG campaign to have varying powers, you could use the powers list for vamps as feats.
I haven't had a chance to run a game using it but I think it looks pretty great. The magic system it uses is crazy awesome but seems like it would take substantial work. (It's a spell-assembly system, build your own spells!)
The Paizo shop listing for the book is here:
http://paizo.com/store/byCompany/w/whiteWolfPublishing/byProductType/rolepl ayingGames/swordAndSorcery/malhavocPress/other/v5748btpy7xvi
Paizo has it listed as backorder but if you want to find it, I guess Ebay would be the place.
If you have an 8th level cleric positive energy burst, he'll kill the entire party in one-shot. Max HP at 1st level is 12 if they're a barbarian (since undead have no CON score) and I'm sure more than a few will have 6 or 8hp, and a 8th level cleric bursts for 4d6.
Definitely wouldn't just give 'em all the vamp template.
I ran a game where a player wanted to be a vampire, so I went through the 8-level vampire-spawn progression, and when he finished it, I gave him the whole template without any extra level adjustment (overlapping with spawn, not stacking); it's a little progressive that way, and he had a few hit dice to go with it all.
I've been in a couple games where the gamemaster made a big point of telling us to create characters for Game Setting X and then immediately pulled a bait-and-switch and dumped us into Game Setting Y. It left a sour taste in my mouth both times, and even more the second because the GM kept doing crap to play with our free will.
If you want to do a game with the players playing vampires, get players who want to play vampires, even angsting in character and all the rest. The Storyteller games at White Wolf are well designed for this, and not just because they don't tell everyone that you have to be Chaotic Evil regardless of your personal preferences. Though this is indeed a perk.
If you want to do the vampire spawn game in a D&D setting, I'd advise you to not just tell the players before hand, but let them come up with character concepts who are Commoners: the barmaid, the gravedigger, the local farmhand. Those would make far more interesting vampire spawn than your regular adventurers, and make for a bit more fun once they're freed.
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Again thank you all for your posts. This would be for a short-term campaign, I think I would only want to perhaps start with one adventure and see how it goes. This is also something for the future.
Of course I would be tempted, to at first start as a normal adventure, have them face the vampire, and after a thoroughly unpleasant battle, die and wake up as vampires, do a mission for their new master, then have the opportunity to sink the stake in and win their freedom.
I suppose while this might make a good story, players hate to be messed with.
And thanks for the warnings against DM meddling. It sounds like if I am going to do this, the best thing to do is to tell them before hand, I am thinking of trying a vampire adventure where they will begin as vampires with a master, and they will work their way free of their master's control and see how they react to the idea and if they like it