World Of Darkness Kindred Template

[AlHazred]

I was idly going through some of my older gaming stuff (I can never bear to part with it, even though the chances of any of it actually being played gets remoter ever year) and I came across the Vampire: The Masquerade (VtM) book. I picked up some of the World Of Darkness (WoD) stuff back in the day, and even ran a Mage: The Ascension game for about two years that was a hell of a lot of fun. As I was paging through the book, it occurred to me that there are marked differences between the WoD Kindred and bog-standard fantasy Vampires. For one thing, some of the big powers of generic vamps, like a hypnotic gaze or summoning animal minions, are limited in VtM to those who pay for the requisite Disciplines (kind of like power trees). I thought this might have the end effect of making WoD vampires cheaper in Hero terms than the 696-point powerhouses in the 5E Bestiary (converting the Bestiary vamp to 6E reveals that they're even more expensive - 737 points!)

 

Here's what I came up with. The book is very specific in some areas, and maddeningly vague in others, which is appropriate I guess. Nevertheless, I'm relatively happy with the result. I'm sure someone's already done them up, but I like to enter these conversions with an unsullied mind, so to speak. Anyway, here he is as a character.

 

 

I've also uploaded it as a Package Deal here.

[dmjalund]

Re: World Of Darkness Kindred Template

 

Defenses by default do not defend against Susceptibilites. So you should rename (and perhaps recost) the limitation of those defenses to just 'does not work against fire'

[AlHazred]

Re: World Of Darkness Kindred Template

 

Does not work against fire is worth -1 on its own. I threw "sunlight" in there for new players, thinking that some might want to try Hero with veteran WoD players.

[AlHazred]

Re: World Of Darkness Kindred Template

 

I have updated both the character and the Package Deal. I'd forgotten one Complications, the inability to act during the day, and took the opportunity to get rid of the "Sunlight" part of the above-mentioned Limitation.

 

I'm curious if the power level fits what people have experienced playing VtM.

[AlHazred]

Re: World Of Darkness Kindred Template

 

After some thought, I've added "Must Follow Successful Grab Maneuver (-1/2)" to the Bite. This brings the cost of that down to 7. I added another Regeneration to keep the vampire from dying completely -- basically, vampires can enter torpor for long periods and still rise up when fed blood. I then removed Resurrection from the Regeneration that costs END. Total cost for the package is now 241.

 

Still looking for more feedback! Are the Resistant PD/ED high enough? Should the Damage Reduction be for both STUN and BODY? Inquiring minds want to know what people who've played VtM think!

[Shadowsoul]

Re: World Of Darkness Kindred Template

 

Pretty cool overall.

 

The defences seem high enough but I'm not sure if they break down the way damage worked against Vampires correctly. As I recall, Vampires laughed at blunt instruments, were more wary of blades and ran screaming from fire, sunlight and supernatural attacks, (which you've covered).

 

What is missing, (if my memory serves), is the fact that Vampires treated bullets as blunt trauma and could shrug gunfire off with relative ease. A shotgun was considered a reasonable device for non-fatal Kindred crowd control, at least by the Vampire who held it.

[AlHazred]

Re: World Of Darkness Kindred Template

 

What is missing' date=' (if my memory serves), is the fact that Vampires treated bullets as blunt trauma and could shrug gunfire off with relative ease.[/quote']So, blunt weapons and bullets? *Reads relevant part of VtM again*

 

Good point. Adding +6 PD, Resistant (+1/2); Only Works Against Firearms (-1/2), Only Versus BODY Damage (-1/2) (Active Points 9, Real Cost 4) would probably do the trick. I'm making a number of changes to it, based on some feedback I got from somebody who used to play the game. I'll post an updated version later today.

[AlHazred]

Re: World Of Darkness Kindred Template

 

Okay, so it took a little longer than I expected.

 

In any case, I think this is tighter to the original. It's also 211 points, which means you could do a 350-point game with the characters getting about 139 points to spend - should be enough for normal-human-level Characteristics, Skills, and a few dots in Powers (Disciplines). Eyeballing it, I think the Powers are going to be around 20 points per Dot.