Would they get adept powers? I'm not too clear on how good they are with magic. And Adept powers would make them too insanely strong, since they don't actually get any weak stats. How many base points would it cost? They get regeneration and super-strength, so they're in many ways much scarier than the immortal elf template being developed on the forums.

Vampires are already implemented. It's a monster that sucks all your Essence out, then you die, then a virus may or may not cause your body to be remade into a new critter that can do a passable impersonation of you in order to kill new people.

At base it only has to kill people very infrequently, eating about 2 humans worth of Essence a year. However, it can jack its physical attributes (or let's not kid ourselves, its magic attribute) up by up six points by accelerating that rate of consumtion up to 2 people a day.

Right. They are fully implemented and rather well explained. They are in no way available as player characters, and their magical powers are so XXXtreme that they are clearly intended to threaten entire shadowrunner teams by themselves.

-Frank

Oh... so no vampire phys-adepts with augmented strength of 18? Edit: But I read on the Dumpshock archives that vampire characters are playable, but with insane disadvantages to everything else. Coudn't this translate into a BP cost of, like, 100?

I think a lot of readers are having trouble adjusting to the change in the enhanced attributes power. I was considering house-ruling that it just bumped the 4 physical attributes (Body, Strength, Agility, Reaction) and left the Mental and Special attributes alone. Does everybody else agree with this approach, or do you think the description is better as written in the BBB?

Shadowrun vamps are not Buffy vamps. They do not lose their soul to a demon. They are infected people, as several official books show us.

That... is AWESOME!!!!! What would the BP cost be? And what the hell is a regeneration check?

Please tell me you're kidding.

How do you implement Vampires? Very carefully or they will Suck.....

Sorry couldn't resist

ok I've mentioned it before but what about ALL the other strains of HMHVV?

THIS IS MY ONLY QUESTION

If I understand the context of your question correctly, you actually want to hear how vampires are implemented (made) as PCs. The canon answer, of course, is that they're not. If you're asking about how people house-rule them, then you've got lots of possible answers, and the search function is your friend.
The 4th Edition Ghoul, what's he worth?
Ghouls., Attempting to unshaft them.
The Ancient Files
Vampires as Player Characters in Shadowrun II
Bull's Place - Optional Metatypes
Sasquatches, etc, as PC's.
Vampire stats, In Critters and where else?
Vampire Player Character System, Not "munchkin"ing, just want some advice

Vampires, being the hybrids of HMHVV and Humanity that they are, are not viable as PCs. They're simply too powerful. I mean, they got seriously nerfed between 3rd and 4th editions, but still...

Do not try to implement vampires as PCs. They are annoying.

And especially at conventions their players are always wondering why other PCs tend to kill them when they find out what creature they have in their team...

I... I wanted to make a sadistic, funny vampire like Spike from Buffy!!!!! Now I'll never be able to disarm a neutral blood mage demonstrating magic and practice on his body!
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Wait, I can do that with anyone.

Ugh, vampires are like elves, the only good ones are dead ones...

That said, just say no to PC vampires. You want to be a vampire, go and play the angst driven vampires of that other game.

A vampire team member would be incredibly useful don't you think?

And annoying. It's better to stake them and put them out of their angst filled misery.

I'm telling you: electroshocks every time someone asks to play a vampire. Some people would die, but in the long run we would be a stronger people.

He HAS to? I thought at minimum it was, like, 2 people a year.

well yes, but that presumes they're not using their powers effectively.

besides, there's still the problem that your teammate thinks of you as food.

and the fact that having a vampire with you all the time is a really amazing way to attract negative attention from organisations that kill vampires (read: just about all organisations that are not composed entirely of vampires, and even some of the organisations that *are* composed entirely of vampires).

yeah, wouldn't that just be wonderful.

and that's just the problems you'd attract with regular vampires, any of the more exotic strains mentioned would draw groups just as powerful as those that look for vampires--just maybe coraspondingly as "different" or "exotic"

and the aditude of your infected teammates is more the "I'm a pepper want to be a pepper too"

i don't see how a flaw that kills off your teammates is supposed to balance your character.

unless by game balance you mean the fact that the other players will kill you, loot your corpse, collect the bounty (i'm sure there's a bounty on vampires... heck, there's a bounty on ghouls in some places, and they don't even have to feed on living people or cause permanent harm. heck, there's a bounty on shapeshifters in some places, and they're pretty much just hard for people to relate to), and then sell your corpse to the highest bidder (i anticipate magical research organizations would be interested).

now *that* is what *i* call game balance.

Lets be honest--If you are doing to play a Vampire Character in Shadowrun that is a possible fate--maybe it shouldn't be an "almost certain fate" if you are playing a Vampire, but it should be in the back of your Vampire Character's Mind

Just Imagine if your playing a Goblin Character-You just know some lab would want your body for research

I've found that a rather handy way to avoid vampire PC's is to play my vampire hunter. 'Course, that didn't stop one from 'changing teams' in our last game, but I'll take care of that soon enough.

Nothing says vampire lovin' like Big D shells.

That will do it too--but if You get a situation like a goup-garou fighting a banshee who would win?

I've always wanted to see a Loup-Garoue in a game. Should be interesting, since they both need silver to be permanently hurt. But I think I'd go with the banshee, since it uses it's fear power to run it's prey to death.

I did a one shot game wherein a couple player were vampires. Let me tell you, it really changes the game, even with only one vamp. Keep in mind that essence is the one irreplacable charateristic that a person has. You take even 1 point, you have maimed them for life. End to stay at "full" power, you need to drain sombody once a month. Not to mention you have to terrify them to get the essence (or some emotional connection of the sort). Fortunatly there are the PC regeneration rules from shapechangers. Regneration as listed for NPC's is allmost unstoppable. So unless you want your players game to center around the new vampire in the group, just say no.

actually, SR4 regeneration isn't so scary.

as frank mentioned, the scariest thing about SR4 vampires is really their attribute boosting madness (+6 to magic is a danged scary thing).

force 20 stunball on the party, for example... who's gonna survive that?

oh, sure, the vampire will take some drain (11P as i recall). but since everyone in the party is probably almost dead (and definitely unconcious), he's got plenty of time to let his regeneration kick in.