Well, what I'm most interested in are vampires that truly are monsters. Not monstrous individuals that care only about their own gain, but those who know and understand that they cannot, no matter how much they want to be, be human again. Maybe they turn toward being shepherds looking over the sheep of mankind, maybe they find ways to be monsters but still hold on to their humanity. But either way, they are, in their heart of hearts, a monster.

How, in this circumstance, can your player still be "good," and not become a typical, "My life is so hard because I hate what I am" kind of guy? How does one walk that line, and still be a worthwhile individual within a story line?

P.S. - I have table-topped a few games of Vampire: The Requiem and find that even there, most people tend to push themselves too far in one direction or another. It's something I struggle with myself in the game and is one of the reasons I've put off playing in another one.

Well, the problem starts because there are as many interpretations of vampires as there are settings in which they appear. You have the Bram Stoker variety, the Anne Rice variety, the Stephanie Meyer bastard child (mentioned here merely for completeness), Wizards of the Coast, White Wolf, True Blood, Bethesda (makers of the Elder Scrolls series)...the list goes on. The first three will require you to do some research, admittedly; True Blood will require some money out of your pocket to splurge for HBO; and the other three are easily learned about through their relative source books and game guides. And that's not to mention the other sorts of undead: Mage the Awakening has a Death 3 spell called Quicken Corpse that basically makes completely loyal servants out of what's lying around at the time, and D&D has a whole slew of other monsters to the point that "undead" is a creature type that can be selected as a ranger's favored enemy.

Regardless, part of the fascination with vampires is that they are touted to be more gifted, both physically and mentally, than the mortals they once were. With the mental agility of one that can exist for as long as he can manage to sustain himself, combined with unholy powers of strength, quickness, and rapid recovery from harm, it's no wonder that this template is so attractive to players. The main decisions to make, therefore, are which sort of vampire to emulate and what the character would choose to do with his new unlife and all it entails, given the sort of person he was before he was bitten.

For true blood you could also read the books "the Sookie Stackhouse" series. I can't think of the author's name right now but a simple internet search would tell you and many libraries would have them. I have read dozens of "vampire" style books and they all have unique abilities and such.

Cursed- this version was a native american version where the person offended a shamen and was cursed to become a blood drinker. They could only come out at night and could not control their thirst for human blood. They became animalistic and frenzied and only rarely showed their original self.

undead- this is the most popular version with the different styles like Stoker, Ann Rice, and such that I don't want to go into since this is just to show that there is more out there than just this version.

Alien- I don't remember the series but in this version the vampires were a race from an alien world. They were monstrous looking and horrible when they shed their "human disquise" having huge mouths full of teeth and the feeding was pretty grusome.

Species- This type is mainly in the "Carpathian" series again I can't remember the author right now. These were not undead but another race that could eat and even go out in the sun. They only drink blood as a mating ritual. They have many abilities including shapeshifting, telekenesis, telepathy and other such gifts. Although those mind powers were different with each carpathian. If the carpathian did not find their mate they could go feral becoming vampires who could die in sunlight and needed blood. The regular carpathians main job was to destroy those that went feral.

The carpathians are my personal favorite.

Something that is really neat when it comes to Vampires is White Wolf's World of Darkness. There is a big debate over which edition is better, the two are now called Old World of Darkness and New World of Darkness (how original). What's neat about the way they work the book is that they put vampires into a number of categories, each with their own abilities and disabilities. Each family represents a "stereotypical" vampire type - Mekhet hide in shadows, Gangrel are very animalistic, Ventrue are crazy, Daeva are social and sensual predators, and Nosferatu are scary and monstrous in appearance. A very neat idea that all the stereotypes exist in one world.

Personally I dislike the shortening of the vampire clans into 5, which utterly removes the extreme diversities that occurred during the sessions I was in.

Personally I'd go by the Old World Clan list: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clans_and_ ... Masquerade

Providence wrote:Personally I dislike the shortening of the vampire clans into 5, which utterly removes the extreme diversities that occurred during the sessions I was in.

Personally I'd go by the Old World Clan list: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clans_and_ ... Masquerade

I like the simplification of clans into 5 with the chance to extend individuality into Bloodlines (of which there are an obnoxious number). Typically, when working with newer players I find that keeping their choices smaller works well and allowing them to expand once they really get the hang of playing (and enough XP to do so) makes characters seem better rounded and better chosen. I also ignore the "Blood potency of 3" of bloodlines when it comes to more experienced players. They can do it immediately.

All of my vampire canon is taken directly from the Nasuverse, specifically the visual novel Tsukihime, that's vampires done right. Failing that, I draw it from Dracula.

VTR (New WoD) Allows you to go far beyond the 5 clans with the blood lines. I love new WoD, if we have any WoD RPs starting up I'd love to join! Feel free to PM me.