Just noticed something. In SR4, vampires have allergies to sunlight (moderate) and wood (severe). Thus, they suffer no direct damage from sunlight.

(Obviously this is a typo, just thought it was kinda funny.)

They didn't even suffer damage from Sunlight back in SR3.

Actually, if I remember SR3 critters correctly, normal vampires also have moderate allergy to sunlight. Nosveratu were the ones who had a Severe allergy.

I could be wrong, but this is how I remember it... at least I remember something about one vampire allergy or another being rather silly.

Besides, theres Alleviate Allergy. Powerful vampire magicians could and can indeed walk the day... for killer drain but still...

However their Regeneration doesn't work while they are in the sunlight, and pain inducing a -4 die penalty would likely be strong incentive to keep nighttime hours.

EDIT: Alleviate Alergy (which hasn't made the SR4 jump yet i notice), and i suppose incredibily high SPF sunblock aside...

The SPF rating a vampire would need, at least IMHO, would basically be body paint rather than sunscreen. And that'd still only lower the allergy by one step, unless they wear heavy duty sunglasses and a veil or similar face wear. Basically they'd look real freakish and suspiscious.

I do agree, however, that they should be sizzling like eggs and bacon in the sunlight. And I wonder on that severe allergy to wood.. doesn't it paralyze them if they get so much as a splinter? Also, in one of the books doesn't it state that silver somehow inhibits their regeneration as well?

On the bright side... they don't have that crazy enhanced physical attributes power anymore. Vampires were powerful enough without it...insane initiative enhancement...

I was thinking that wacky looking coloured zinc stuff people wear on their noses....and yes they'd stick out a bit with it smeared all over. I guess they could the apply makeup over that to try look vaguely normal....but with glasses that makes them look like Elton John taking up weilding.

The single best thing that happened with vampires is IMO the toning down of the Regeneration power. Not so much for vampires, but for the shifters. It makes it remotely possible for PC shifters to use the same rules as NPC shifters without making a GM bleed out his ears.

I honestly haven't read the new regeneration rules. If they've made them more sane I'm all for it. How do they work now?

The critter makes a Magic + Body test at the end of each turn, and each hit heals one point of physical or stun. So though they heal slower now, they also heal stun, which they never used to do.

Also, if they exceed their damage track by more than their body (which is dead), they get to make one test to try and bring the overflow back to keep them alive.

They can regen damage from allergies, though not until the source of the allergy is removed. They can't regen magic damage. Finally, you can call a shot to do damage to the head etc (spinal or brain damage) that can't be regened.

I personally don't like the called shot option, because they've slowed regen down anyway, and if calling a shot to the head was enough to do permanent brain damage, there would be a world full of mentally retarded shadowrunners. But like it or not, it's written in to the rules.

As for vampires sizzling like bacon in sunlight...go read bram stoker's fine novel Dracula (or watch the movie), the grand-daddy of literary vampires could function perfectly in sunlight - he just didn't have use of most of his vampiric powers.

(Legend-wise there are several accounts of vampires who took damage from the sun , though, but just as many of vampires that didn't and just shied away from it - and in Greece, at least, we even have vampires that walked in direct sunlight without a problem.)

you know, actual in game play i found something that a vamp couldnt stand up to and couldnt regenerate from 2-3 round bursts of flechette from an AS-7, tore it to shreds, of course it was un armored but thats what shot works best against

kinda flustered my GM cause he wasnt expecting me to just waste him like that

i also seem to remember, atleast in some vampire fiction, that the AGE of the vampire also mattered. I can't remember EXACTLY where it was from, but the elder vampires could get away more, i guess, as a boon to surviving for so long.

The problem is that the vampire story is, at its heart, so astoundingly common all over the world that saying that any particular thing happens in "some vampire fiction" is almost certainly true. And as a consequence, completely meaningless.

There are stories where vampires happen because tools are left out in the rain, or because melons are left uneaten for too long after they are picked. And no, I didn't make those up.

-Frank

thats the problem with vamps, to many storys from to many areas. then trow some writers doing their own interpetations and so on and presto, confused game designers and players.

i think it was COC that basicly handed the list of options and suggestions about abilitys and weaknesses for a vampire.

hell, about the only thing dracula had in common with the old vampire myths was that they both came back from the dead. other than that it was on "sounds cool" basis more or less.

as for severe allergy to wood. im guessing that it only means +1 hit to weapons made of wood or having a wood business end. and that while in contact with said wood, no regeneration can happen. so a stake to the heart (basicly a deadly attack with a wood weapon) will kill as long as it remains. i dont think that the sr vampires do the buffy/blade thing, or atleast i dont recall them doing that on death.

so i wonder, will they regenerate if said stake is removed?

who knows, what kind of bunker could survive what they hit his place with?

or for that matter, was his body ever found?

BTW you might want to ask the US military about how tough it is to locate and assasinate by long distance ordinance. I'm not just talking Iraq here. For example the US/UK tried to take out Momar Kadafi and just got one (or more?) of his [adopted IIRC] kids, and that wasn't in the fog of larger war either.

well i would expect that a thor shot delivers a lot more area damage then a cruise missile or whatever they used...

allso, didnt US military take out a car with a predator carrying a stinger some years ago?
ok, not exactly long range but still...

something about vamp(ire)s getting a tan

From a Thor shot?

grazie...