After looking through my stuff for a couple days, I finally found a set of alternative rules for playing vampires that I wrote about 4 years ago. They are STRONGLY influenced by the World of Darkness' vampires. If you just want to bash the thing, please move to another topic, there's nothing for you here. But if you want to give an honest opinion, you're more than welcome...

First, vampires have a blood pool of 50 blood points to use their abilities:

- Regeneration: It costs 1 blood point to heal one box of standard damage. It costs 2 blood points to heal one box of special damage (explosive ammo, acid, wood, etc.). It costs 3 blood points to heal one box of fire damage. It costs 1+weapon focus rating to heal one box a damage from such a weapon. In combat, you can only heal at the beginning of a round, before initiative is rolled, and it's considered a free action. You HAVE to heal to the nearest damage level. For example, if you have a serious wound (6 boxes), you HAVE to heal to moderate wound and pay for 3 boxes. You can heal stun damage normally, except fatigue and drain from spells.

Benefits (constant, no need to pay to activate them):

- Immortality: Vampires have Immunity to aging

- Immunity: Vampire have an immunity to poisons and pathogens.

- Natural attack: Vampires can bite for Str+1 L with a reach of -1

- Night vision: Vampires have low-light vision

- Vampires have a magic attribute of 6 at character creation

Hindrances:

- Allergy: Vampire have a moderate allergy to sunlight (+2 to TN)

- Cyberware and bioware rejection: as soon as a vampire regenerates, the wares are ejected from the vampire's body, not without causing extreme pain in the process.

- Limited healing: A vampire can be magically healed (with a +2 to TN) but can't heal normally.

- Feeding: A vampire automatically uses 3 blood points per day, usually when he wakes up (a vampire doesn't have to normally eat and drink).

- A vampire gets +2 TN to all swimming checks

- A vampire has a vulnerability to wood and fire (+1 damage level)

Abilities that need to be activated (with a cost):

- Improved physical attributes: it costs 1 blood point per physical attribute point increased. It lasts for a number of rounds equal to the vampire's magic attribute. The maximum amount of blood points you can put into your attributes is equal to the magic attribute, divided as you wish. For example, a beginning character you pay 6 blood points to increase his strength by 4 and his quick by 2, for a total of six rounds.

- Improved senses (duration is magic attribute in minutes):

- Sight: Thermo for 2 blood points. vision mag 3 for 1 point.
- Hearing: Hearing amplification rating (magic attribute) for 1 point (damper included). High or low-frequency for 1 blood point.
- Smell: Improved scent (like the adept power) for 1 blood point.
- Taste: Improved taste (like the adept power) for 1 blood point.

- Improved reflexes (duration is magic attribute in rounds): for 4 blood points, you get +1D6 to initiative. for 8 blood points you get +2D6 and for 12 you get +3D6.

- Natural attack claws: For 3 blood points, a vampire can grow claws that do Str+2 L (like improved hand razors). The claws also reduce the TN on climbing tests by 2. It lats a number of min equals to magic attribute


The hunt: A vampire has to hunt to replenish his blood pool. After a grapple attack and a bite attack (doing only a light wound), a vampire can suck 2 blood points per turn. A human only has 10 blood points (I don't have a good reason yet why vampires have 50... maybe it's magical ). A kid would have 6 points, a cow 15, a dog 4, a cat 2, a rat 1, a bird 1/2 and a piasma 150! Probably even more for great dragons lol. If a vampire PC takes too much blood on 1 victim, he might suffer a karma loss, according to the following table:

Blood Points Taken---------Effects---------------Karma loss
-----1--------------------------None-------------------None
-----2------------------------Light stun----------------None
-----3-------------------------Mod stun----------------None
-----4-----------------------Serious stun--------------None
-----5-----------------------Deadly stun---------------None
-----6-------------------+ Light phys wound---------Will (4) or lose 1 karma point
-----7-------------------+ Mod phys wound----------Will (5) or lose 1 karma point
-----8-------------------+ Serious wound------------Will (6) or lose 1 karma point
-----9-------------------+ Deadly wound------------Lose 1 karma point
----10---------------------Death---------------------Lose 2 karma points

I don't have real hunting rules yet but it could be interesting to resolve something using stealth tests or various social tests. Rules to attract vampire hunters would also be interesting, or totally at the GM's discretion. If you're a really evil GM, you can also have Martin DeVries go against your PC. I did that and it was hilarious

I'll soon post initiation rules for increasing you "vampiric grade".

I also don't have a cost for it as I don't really use normal character creation rules.

Those rules haven't been playtested a lot as only one player of mine has ever wanted to play one. I found it not too overpowered, strong in many fields but also very limited. I would usually use it as a way to bring terror into PCs (like having a sniper on them and shooting the vampire in the head doing a shitload of damage but not really killing him... fun times...).

Your comments are more than welcome!

...if you are breaking from the version presented in the BBB...

...For one, The Allergy to Sunlight would be Severe at minimum.

They would have Shape Change as an innate power: Bat (classic), Wolf, Mist.

As both the Critter type (SR4) and in classic literature, they also have immunity to normal/silver weapons (which is why they shouldn't be PCs).

They should have a mild allergy to garlic (really).

Unfortunately religion does not play very highly into SR (dependent on individual campaign I guess) so the old "Crucifix" thing would be hard to duplicate in the SR mechanic.

Again this is drawn on the classic concepts of vampires as depicted in books and film (and one kinda cheesy kind of fun Telly series).

On the comedic side, it would be fun if the vampire drained blood from someone who was under the influence of alcohol or narcotics, he would also feel the effects (Love at First Bite).

Vampiric initiation rules:

A vampire can increase his magic attribute by one point by paying 20 karma points. He also gets a "metavampiric" ability. Be careful as some have prerequisites...

Deadly claws: The claws of a vampire now do Str+2 M. They are also considered magical for the purpose of immunity to normal weapons.

Form of the beast: By spending 15 blood points, a vampire can now turn into a bat or a wolf for (magic attribute) minutes. Clothing and gear transform with him, within reasonable limits). It takes one full round to transform. The vampire can only defend himself during the transformation (full defense is allowed). The stats are the normal stats for a normal critter. The vampire can, however, increase his stats using blood (see previous post).

Form of the mist (prerequisite: form of the beast): The vampire can now change into mist (see mist form in critters). Form of the best now only costs 10 blood points. The rules (duration, transformation) are the same as form of the best.

Pawn: by giving a blood point to a person or an animal, the vampire can now create vampire spawns (see critters). The maximum number of pawns is equal to the vampire's magic attribute.

Master of puppets (prerequisite: pawn): the vampire can now control the vampiric pawns he created. A pawn can try to resist for one round by making a Will (4) test.
The number of successes needed is equal to the number of years the person or animal has been a vampiric pawn (min of 1)

Dominate (prerequisite: master of puppet): Vampiric pawns can no longer resist the master's control. Vampires created are now affected by the "master of puppets" effect.

Leaping: by spending 1 blood point, a vampire can now make incredible jumps. The maximum distance is (magic attribute) meters for a vertical leap and (magic attribute X2) for an horizontal leap. The vampire can also, my spending 1 blood point, fall for a distance of (magic attribute) meters without harm.

Feign death: by spending 1 blood point, the vampire becomes for a number of min equals to his magic attribute immune to thermo vision. The vampire can also pass for a corpse if checked for life signs. If checked in the astral, use normal masking rules.

Increased blood pool (can be taken more than once): increases the blood pool by 10

Celerity: the cost of improved reflexes drops down by 4, giving the vampire a natural +1D6 to initiative, +2D6 for 4 blood points and +3D6 for 8 points.

Improved celerity (prerequisite: celerity): each level of improved reflexes now fives an additional +2 (like wired reflexes).

Physical prowess: the duration for attributes improvements is doubled (magic attribute X2)

Improved physical prowess (prerequisite: physical prowess): the duration for attribute improvements is now (magic attribute X2) minutes

Improved physical senses: senses improvements now last for hours instead of minutes. For 1 blood point, the vampire gets +2 extra perception dice for (magic attribute) minutes.

Auspex (prerequisite: improved physical senses): the senses improvements are now permanent (the extra perception dice included).

Improved regeneration: the vampire can now heal at any time, even multiple times per round.

Fortitude (must specify a source of damage, prerequisite: improved regeneration): the cost for healing a specific type of damage goes down by one (min 1).


I will soon post a list of specific edges and hindrances for vampires...

Peace!

Crossfire

Flaws:

- Repulsed by garlic (1) +1 TN
- Repulsed by crosses (2) +1 TN in the presence of a cross, will (4) to stay
- Conscience (1) penalty of 1 line for drinking blood
- Conscience (2) penalty of 2 lines for drinking blood
- Conscience (4) penalty of 4 lines for drinking blood, must make a will (6) check to drink more than 2 points of blood per victim
- Servitude (6): the character is an active pawn in the vampire conspiracy
- Hunted (1-6) a vampire hunter enemy
- Hunger (2) the vampire must spend 3 extra blood points per day to sustain himself (for a total of 6)

Edges:

- Good conscience (2): bonus of 1 line for drinking blood
- Light tolerance (4): TN is only +1
- Small appetite (2): the vampire only needs to spend 2 blood points per day
- Small appetite (4): the vampire only needs to spend 1 blood point per day
- Night bird (2): as sleep regulator (only needs 4 hours of sleep)
- Blood bank (1-4): contacts in the health system allow you to use 10 blood points per points spent (1-4) per week

Got other ideas?

Peace!

Crossfire

...I would use the standard rules for Initiation (since this is for SR3). The flat 20 Karma rule for adepts was a stopgap until Magic in the Shadows was released. This would allow the Vampire to attain earlier grades easier yet plateau off as they became more powerful.

You could also still employ the various ordeals outlined in MitS, just twist them a bit to serve the character type more. One new one could be "Bring into Fold" - eg creating a spawn of an important individual, (not just some random street person - after all it should be a challenge) who would eventually become a full fledged vampire.

Vampires could also have their own groups as do adepts.

I like the MetaVampiric abilities.

I see the basic character originally outlined more as a Spawn (I take back some of my critique) and the initiated ones becoming "true Vampires". This would then explain why at the start, they do not have immunity to Normal Weapons (this could become a MetaVampiric quality instead). or the ability to change shape (covered under the MetaV abilities "Form of the Beast/Mist")

Still not sure I would let on in as a PC for even as a Spawn they are a lot more powerful than the standard starting character (I also did not allow Shape Changer PCs or some of the Meta Variants from SR Companion)

Kyoto kid, Vampires don't have immunity to normal/silver weapons, Just regeneration.

As for these rules, they're pretty blatantly "not canon" but that would be ok with if they sat right with the shadowrun mechanics. Blood Points doesn't fit in Shadowrun, because we don't have a pool of mana to cast our spells like in other RPG's and computer games.

...just checked both my SR3 resource & SR4 BBB PDFs, & I stand corrected. In Lit they sure seemed to have it, or one hell of a bad ass regeneration that can even heal a wound from rifle bullet in an instant.

my bad...

That sounds like SR3 regen to me, all damage healed at the end of each round.

Yep. Technically the damage just dissapears at the end of the combat turn, which is exactly 3 seconds if I remember.

I would tie the Blood points closer to Essence. Like a fully charged vampire has an Essence of 12. You are using 50 Blood Points and burning 4/day. Essence gets burned off at 1/month. I would try to equate these for the SR system.

Perhaps increase Blood Points to maximum 60 and have 2 get burned/day.

Something I never quite liked about the SR vampire was them not really needing to feed but once every year (on a total of 12 essence points of victims), or being perpetually at full charge while only needing to drain a point of essence once a month. That hardly brings to mind a craven, blood sucking fiend.

Right, he should be hunted by all the paranoid (and rightly so) vampire hunter mages/adepts. Humans with enough power by other methods to rival the PCs vampirism and who outnumber him because they know fighting one on one just leads to more vampires.

While adding more resource management for little to no actual gain is a very strong way to discourage an option, I'd prefer the setting bring the deterrent rather than the accounting.

I'd forget about blood points and instead use permanent physical damage to simulate blood loss. The vampire takes one box of permanent physical damage whenever he uses a power or a certain amount of time has passed and one box of this damage is undone for every box of damage he causes with a bite attack.
This damage can't go into overflow and if it fills the condition monitor the vampire goes into hibernation until someone donates blood to him.

My take on the canon SR vampire is that they're a spectrum.The worst are like Dracula. They're powerful schemers and plotters who let their minions and slaves do most of their dirty work and just manipulate things behind the scenes. Their power and immortality allows them to do this no matter where they started out in life.

Others are just normal people with a disease that makes them immortal and requires them to eat essence once a month. They can find plenty of willing donors.

Still others are bloodthirsty fiends who kill not because of need but because of desire. They embrace murder and destruction willfully.

And, of course, there are your Anne Rice/White Wolf wannabes. They must all die.

It's Nosferatu that lose essence 1 point per month. Don't vampires lose a point every week? In my game I'll make it more often.

Oops. Looks like I'll be house ruling that too.