Assensing a Vampire, What would you see? Options

[Ready Rock]

This has been on my mind recently. Would the vampire's disease be visible in his aura with enough successes? Any way for the vampire to hide his affliction? Ideas and thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

P.S. Hi. First post and all.

[Atrox]

Hi.

In my game? Yes, certainly. It would even be fairly easy. Then again, I play vampires as phisiologically dead, maintained in a semblance of life by their infection. In other words, undead. Their aura clearly reflects this.

[Velocity]

Well, HMHVV is an infection and with enough successes on an Assensing roll, all diseases become evident so yeah--given a really on-the-ball Assense and maybe some Critter or Medicine skill, it may be possible to deduce that one's looking at a vampire.

[Ronin Soul]

[Ancient History]

A vampire's aura would come across as non-human (assuming it wasn't masking), with coloring toward grey depending on how low its Essence is.

[Crusher Bob]

If I recall the rules of some previous edition correctly:

The auras of those infected with HMVV (and similar) were immediately obvious as such. However, they could be masked (via the masking metamagc) as normal.

[Rain]

A vampire with a high essence would probably stand out like a bloody beacon on the astral.

[Glyph]

1 success in assensing lets you see the general health of a subject or the general type of a magical subject, so for something that affects the victim as drastically as HMHVV, I would allow one success to do it unless the vampire was masking.

[Adhoc]

I'm not quite with Glyph on this one: it only takes one succes on the assensing test (Intelligence[4]-roll) to spot that a person is sick:

[Ancient History]

Actually, you recognize the ghoul because he's staring back at you.

[Ready Rock]

Thanks for the great replies, people. Very helpful community you have here.

[Ronin Soul]

"I know you're listening to me about as much as you're listening to that hole there..."

I sat down and pulled out the stuff on Code Violet (the group not the Corp Council signal) from the old Hunters of the Sixth World thread. It's non-canon but it might interest you.

Code Violet
Back in 2055, with the amount of Paranormal Threats in the world slowly increasing, the Yamatetsu board of directors passed a contoversial proposal authorising the creation of an elite, all-purpose "moster-hunting" squad, dubbed Code Violet.

>>>Unsuprisingly, Buttercup was dead opposed to Code Violet's creation, seeing it as a subtle warning directed at her.<<<
<<<Family Man>>>

The newly formed Code Violet, 32 men and women with heavy experience against paranormal, was led by the highest ranking Meta in Yamatetsu security, a Koborokuru dwarf named Isao Uyeda.

>>>This was intended to show that Code Violet was not intended to be anti-meta in any way (about one half of them are metahumans as well) but in reality it meant that it was a metahuman that would cop the blame if Code Violet failed.<<<
<<<Nightingale>>>

Code Violet's operating parameters were simple. They were assigned to take out all Paranormal threats to the well-being and prosperity of Yamatestsu (and later the Pacific Prosperity Group), working autonomously from the corp if need be. They have the best equipment and training the Corps can provide, including beta-grade 'ware, cultured bioware and nanoware for the combat specialists and more elementals and foci you can shake a stick at for the Awakened amoung them.

>>>Code Violet, for all their equipment and training , still suffer a very high attrition rate. This is not just because their job is bloody dangerous but also because they are a bit more straight arrow than most Hunters, meaning that they often rely more on tried-and-true tactics and superior equipment than improvising and adapting on the fly.<<<
<<<Family Man>>>

When the PPG started to become a big boy, Yamatetsu offered Code Violet's elite
services to the member corporations suffering from monster troubles (such as Wuxing's recent spirit infestation of their Australia office). Although I'm sure that most other corps would prefer not to have Yamatetsu employees rummaging around their facilities, the proven skill and capability of Code Violet means that they often reluctantly turn to Yamatetsu, and Yamatetsu are only to happy to send the CV out, in return for a slight fee.

>>>Despite the high turnover rate Code Violet experiences, only Yamatetsu employees of at least five years are considered for induction into Code Violet. Not only does this keep Code Violet tightly under Yamatetsu control but it also puts PPG corps using CV more firmly in debt.<<<
<<<Corp. Watcher>>>

Although probably only a Hunter group in the loosest sense, Code Violet does get involved in the Hunter community, swapping advice, tactics and weaknesses of various Grey-Walkers. Isao Uyeda himself even posts on Shadowland itself under the name "Minowara".

>>>So much for not giving away names. The reason we involve ourselves with the Hunter community is because we are all pursuing the same goals, even if we are on different sides of the law.<<<
<<<Minowara>>>

>>>Code Violet are not real Hunters. They hunt Grey-Walkers for a simple paycheck rather than belief or conviction like true Hunters.<<<
<<<Helios>>>

>>>What's with the name?<<<
<<<Bung>>>

>>>You ever look at a vampire through a thermographic sight? They appear in a sort of puple or violet shade.<<<
<<<Blake>>>

>>>Should make them a lot easier to hunt then.<<<
<<<Nightingale>>>

>>>The same goes for when you look at their auras. Wierd that connection. I wonder if that's more than a simple coincidence<<<
<<The Graveringer Poet>>>

>>>Well then wonder on, 'til time makes all things plain.<<<
<<<The Laughing Man>>>
"Ha, Fraggin' Ha!"

>>>So these goons are corp employed monster hunters? No drek. Do they stalk around in long black trenchcoats and dark glasses too?<<<
<<<Depp>>>

[shirogr]

In my game a vampires aura looks grey,pale and with a sort of black astral worms coming in and out of his body (like those in the manga movie Princess Mononoke) . Ghouls have only a few of these astral worms in there aura, but otherwise they are identical to men.

The players can see them only with astral perception (1 success), with thermographic (they appear blue) or physical interaction.

[hobgoblin]

one could allso say that auras have smells and tastes so a vampires aura could smell like rotting flesh and taste the same or maybe taste and smell like dirt...

limiting assensing to only sight removes the strangeness of astral space. maybe you get a chill down your back as you start makeing contact with the persons aura or something like that.

[Sunday_Gamer]

The breakdown of the ascensing given above is dead on.

I've had my fair share of run ins with Kriegers infected people. I use Aura Reading and Critters skills as complimentarys to ascensing. Also remember that some of the afflictions force you into dual nature, which is pretty evident to astral perception unless you start throwing some masking in there.

Sunday.

[Comedian]

The problem with auras is that it's largely a cultural difference in coloration. Take, for example, a mere difference in Asiatic and Anglosphere coloration:

White, in the Anglosphere sense, is the color of purity. Virginal. This is exactly opposite from what it means culturally in asia-- white is the color of death, since white is believed to be the absence of life. Black, correspondingly, is the absorption of all colors, and therefore is perceived as a more wholesome aand joyous tone, whereas, back in the Anglosphere, black is death.

I can't remember the exact color correspodences-- a lot of it is covered in various realms of psychological assessment. Blue, in the Anglosphere, is for good health, while in Asia it represents wealth and riches. Red in the Anglosphere is rage or war, while there it represents a psychological sense of failure or sacrifice. The only transcendent color we see in aura and psychosomatic interpretation is gold, which in a spiritual sense represents the fucking Buddha, or Jesus.

I never describe auras in any specific meaning, but just that "he looks sick," unless I know the characters' background, which can be confusing to other mages in the group. Auras are emotions and reflections of magic, so in no way should the interpretation of one individual conform to any standard or be easily decipherable by someone of a different cultural upbringing, or to any "magical" standard.