Alright. I'm attempting to put together a group who want to play HMHVV infected peoples. I'm opening up for seven players. The seven are the following:

3 regular Vampires (Yeah, regular, right) - Grey, GunnerJ, gobogen
1 Banshee - Cheese Emporer
1 Dzoo-Noo-Qua - NPC
1 Old Nosferatu (Must be fully aspected, can be either Shamanic or Hermetic. I won't allow a Houngan or Wuxing because I understand neither, nor PhysMage because I just think those are evil) - Doctor Funkenstein
1 New Nosferatu - Lezzie Borden

There can only be one more fully aspected after that, and one PhysAd (Grey). The other four will be aspected in one way or another. Remember, no cyberware/bioware. No taking the Sensitive System or Biorejection, either, because that's basically what a Vampire has without any points.

Other regular rules apply. Avail 8/Rating 6.

For whoever plays the PhysAd: I do allow you to use the "Spell Points" as karma only for bonding a weapon focus. No using the Spell Points for initiation.

So, the first seven to make the calls will have it. Make sure you have dates for your "turning" day, and mark that in the notes. The Nosferatu will be the "oldest" of the group, so also post what day you became infected in this thread.

The starting date will be posted later, but it will be before SURGE (As do I not have YotC at all), so no worries about spending points that way.

Any questions, leave them here and I'll get back to them after I'm home from vacation.

Good luck!

Are there going to be special creation rules for these creatures? Like, rules for gaining vampiric powers and all that? I remember someone on these boards doing something like that once.

I'm kinda interested in this actually.

Anything is usable. BP 123, BeCKS 425, Priority, or Sum to 10.

I'm not allowing Goblins because they're basically pests and very unintelligent, and no Wendies because... Well... Just because. *shudder*

Oh, and don't use NSRCG because there are no settings to allow Vampire or anything akin to that. It would throw off the linked skill chart too much to do it right.

Gods... my Troll psyads can be nasty... to imagine a Dzoo-Noo-Qua one...

Dibs on the Nosferatu!

Can you give a bit more information about the game and how "old" we can be? Are pre-Awakening dates okay? And when you say aspected, do you mean Awakened or aspected? Aspected means only a sorcerer, conjurer, or limited to one element or totem bonuses...

Why do you think I'm only allowing one Dzoo and one PhysAd? If somebody splurges and nabs that, then it's just plain evil.

Oh, and, folks, remember, your starting Essence is equal to 2D6. I don't penalize your Magic Rating if your Essence is below 6. It would just be too odd and random for you to have to get plastered by that every month.

Edit: Dr. Funk: You can be born before 2011, however, you didn't manifest any vampiric qualities until 2011. You probably recieved it in genes from your parents.

I don't belive in vampries existing today, so my game will display that tendancy. I do, however, believe in Spike Babies. However, they're incredibly rare, so I expect none to show up in this game.

Consider them nabbed...

I may regret that, but OK.

Editing top post to reflect what's taken.

Take a look at my (edited) last post, Tanka. I was confused by your use of "aspected."

As for his age, I was thinking he might be about 28 or so when the Awakening hit and his "Nosferatu genes" kicked in. So his birthdate would be in the 1972 area. Cool?

Fully aspected just means fully magical. Aspected by itself means Sorcery Adept, Astral Adept, Enchanting Adept, Conjuring Adept, etc...

Groovy, that's what I thought you meant.

Oh, one thing I forgot. You pay for the vampire-type as per race. So the Dzoo pays as for Troll, Banshee as for Elf, and Vampire/Nosferatu as for Human.

Alrighty... while I set to conjuring up a character... what type of play are we embarking upon here? Terrorizing, slinking in the background?

Thankfully I have the critter's shiz accessible...

The style will be generally dark. Probably a few that are 'runnish because the J happens to think a conspiracy that Corp A is hiring HMHVV-Infected to level Corp B or something like that.

A bit of it will be just living in a cove of Vampires, with Funk as the most likely second-in-command, if not leader.

I'm going to be copying down the mods for all the HMHVVs and taking them with me tomorrow to work on NPCs and the first few days of stuff.

Okay, the year of my character's birth is 1983 and I "became" a vampire on 2011. Exact date of his birth will be determined when I get a chance to read over some astrology stuff to see what kind of personality best suits him.

He's also going to be a full Hermetic mage.

Anything else you need right this minute, Tanka?

Nope, not really. That should be it.

The reason I'm leaving "turning" dates up and making Funk the oldest is due to the clan being based on age. The older, the higher ranked. If it's a tie, it comes to real age.

I'd be interested, may try for the banshee slot.

Is that a "I don't know" or a "Yes, edit so people don't thief it from me?" Either way, reply A.S.A.P.

I leave tomorrow early in the morning. I'll be up another few hours tweaking a character for the Sioux thread. Up to and until then, I'll be available for answering questions.

It's an edit it so people don't thief it from me thing and I can't for the life of me remember where the Banshee info is or I may just be imagining that there was some. It's been a long day. Either way, let me know.

Alright, editing.

Stat mods: +0, +1x5, +0, +2, +1, +1

Init: +1D6

Enhanced Senses (Improved Hearing and Smell, Low-Light), Essence Drain, Fear, Immunity (Age, Pathogens, Poisons), Infection, Mist Form, Regen

Allergy (Sunlight, Moderate), Essence Loss, Vulnerability (Wood, Silver)

I'm taking these straight from Critters Sourcebook. Once I get back I'll also start a webpage of FYI stuff. It'll include stuff like attribute mods and the like.

Hmm, how did you derive those stat mods, Tanka? At first I thought you were deriving them from the racial average, but since Banshees are elves that would make Quickness 4 and Charisma 5, which is the same as the Banshee. So did you just go with everything above a score of 3? Just curious so I can start hashing out some ideas/numbers on my end.

Unless I'm reading it wrong, the examples in Critters are stats for the average of the race (3 points assigned to each attribute). Meaning what I gave was just the numbers for modifying the points you assign.

Yeah, you were reading it right but you were ignoring the racial modifiers to begin with. An average elf's stats are Body 3, Quickness 4, Strength 3, Charisma 5, Intelligence 3, and Willpower 3. Banshees are created from an elf, so those are the "averages" before becoming a Banshee. Or in other words, you're basically giving Banshees double the Elf racial mods for Quickness and Charisma.

But if you do go that route, don't let me interfer! I was just trying to figure it out so I could get to work on my guy.

The way I'm playing it down is that you don't get the initial mods. Those become the mods. So, our Dzoo-Noo-Qua here only gets Dzoo-Noo-Qua mods, not Troll and Dzoo. The Elf-to-Banshee example goes the same way. They only get the Banshee mods, not the Elf, then Banshee mods.

Make sense, or do I need to delve into my higher GMing ability to get the point across? (Oh, I hope I don't...)

So I get +4B +2Q +7S -2C +1W, as that's the bonuses given an average of 3 in each for the Dzoo...

Unless my copy of Critters is wrong (Checked Eratta, so I doubt it), you get +6 Bod with 4 Dermal.

Ah! I gotcha. Didn't see the part where we were ignoring normal racial mods. My mistake. We still pay the normal price for our race, right?

So with that in mind, a Nosferatu is a human with B +1, Q +0/x5, S +1, C +2, I +2, and W +2, yes? While Vampires are B +0, Q +2/x5, S +0, C +2, I +1, W +1 and Init +1D6?

Correct. Yes, you still pay normal price for race.

A'ite... will be making my Rampage then...

Here's a bit of an update as to what I'm doing with my nosferatu.

I've decided to try to design him as a shaman of either the Lover/Seductress idol (or maybe a variation there of) or the Gargoyle mythic totem. I'm also designing him along the lines of a Face character with combat taking a distant, distant backseat to his other abilities.

That said, I have a couple of questions for you, Tanka. Are you going to be designing our "hideout," or are you going to leave that up to us using the communal living rules in the Sprawl Survival Guide? If the former, will we also be able to maintain our own lifestyle(s)?

What are the mods for a Vampire? I'll likely get into the game as a PhysAd, but we'll see.

I think the adept (<shakes his fist at people who say "PhysAd">) slot is already taken by the big funny-looking troll guy. The attribute modifiers for a standard vampire are (I believe): Quickness +2 (x5 running multiplier), Charisma +2, Intelligence +1, Willpower +1, and Initiative +1D6. At least that's what Tanka said was right earlier in the thread.

Your powers would be Enhanced Physical Attributes, Enhanced Senses (Hearing, Smell, Thermographic Vision), Essence Drain, Immunity (Age, Pathogens, Poisons), Infection, Mist Form, and Regeneration while your weaknesses are Allergy (Sunlight, Moderate), Induced Dormancy (Lack of Air), Essence Loss, and Vulnerability (Wood).

With Tanka's permission, you might even be able to do some slight variations. Carribean sukuyan, for instance, have Dietary Requirement (Salt) and in some cases a psychologically based Allergy (Holy Objects, Moderate) and the Filipino abat exhibits a Vulnerability (Salt) and prefers to eat internal organs. (This is a footnote on the Vampire entry.)

And are we playing an "evil" game here? I've got a nice idea for a Toxic Seductress Shaman.

I'm not entirely sure myself, yet. Though I will point out that I'm already working on either a (Corrupt?) Lover or Seductress Shaman myself. Doing the whole Face thing with my character (as mentioned earlier).

I think Tanka also said that only the Nosferatu gets to be a full magician, so you'll have to be aspected. EDIT: Oops, no, he said there can be one more fully Awakened character. Remind me to thunk him around until he stops saying "fully aspected."

If I can't take an PhysAd... sorry, adept spot (), then I'd like the other full shaman spot.

Doc, perhaps one of us could play male and the other a female and we could tag team.

As an update to what I'm doing. My banshee is ending up as a Bat Shamanist. If tanka wants me to take on another penalty because the +2 TN for casting spells while in direct sunlight is a rather convenient overlapping, then I completely understand. It was just a rather odd coincidence. Also, I really hope we'll have a communal cave since my character is strapped for cash as is.

My first choise is going to be playing a Physical Adept though, so I want to wait and hear from tanka if its ok that I play one.

I also want to know if we are going to be allowed to play Toxic or Twisted threats.

I want to play my Twisted Way vampire assassin.

He's out of town for Thanksgiving, hence a lack of responses today and yesterday. So just be patient.

On a not-really-related note, Tanka, are the other vampires assumed to be creations of the nosferatu or the other leader (once you've decided), or are we all just a collection of riff-raff and rabble-rousers?

You want the Adept Grey, I'm cool... all I've got in my head is a slobbering death machine... and I'm already playing on in the Bleeding Edge... well, ok, a somewhat smart death machine there... but I don't want to detract from good ideas here...

Thanks

Alright, I'm back. If I don't answer your question in this post, re-question it and I'll answer a.s.a.p.

There is a communal "cave" of sorts. No need to buy lifestyle. I just decided this while on vacation, so I'm sorry if it screws anybody's plans up.

DH: Are you relinquishing the adept spot? If so, Grey, you can have it. If not, Grey, you've got the other full mage/shaman spot.

The game will be, more or less, survival (running into vampire hunters), a little bit of politics (maybe), and some run-type missions (extract this guy, blow up this building, scare this corp, etc.) thrown in when the leader feels it should be done.

The only reason I think I may not allow Toxic is because I'm sure the head Nossie would have you cacked for bringing in toxic goo. If you can manage to survive in the "cave" without your goo, go for it. Just remember that if you do too much to irk off the leaders, they take EX Ex to your head.

The entire "cave" is a group of vampires that have been collected by the head Nossie. There are only a couple of them, but the few that there are tend to be very face-like (Good thinking DF. ) and powerful mages/shamans (Initiate levels tend to be way up there).

DF, on your PMs, I'll get back to you on that via PM. If there are any other questions, feel free to ask.

Actually, I've played around and came up with a pretty cool communal "hive" for the group. I'm still describing it a bit, but if you don't mind can I send it to you to get your take of it? My character would be paying for it lock, stock, and barrel, though everyone else (including the NPCs) would be able to upgrade any aspects of it relative to their characters as per the SSG.

Grey: If you want to do NSRCG, fine, just make sure to edit the stats yourself. I don't feel like having to make sure everybody is good on the stats marker. Also, if you feel like going Twisted, sure, I'll allow that as well. Just make sure any physical changes they take on are something that would make sense, and try not to make him (her?) too inhuman.

I'm also going to allow taking Gaesa for a spell to increase the dice you roll, just like Fetish. Try not to abuse it, and make it something that would be easily noticed (gesturing, chanting, dancing, etc...) by magical and mundane alike.

Edit: Oh, yeah, DF, if you've got a hive-type deal, alright, but you don't have to. You're a big part of an already existing hive that has a good security system down already. If you need the cash, the hive is already provided.

Ok, I'll have the rest of the character finished up Monday. And he won't be too Twisted yet.

Is there still room to join up as a normal vamp? I'm thinking about a hermetic sorcerer with an intellectual bent. I'm cut off from all my Shadowrun stuff until tomorrow at the earliest, so I won't be able to flesh out more until then.

Sure Gunner. Sorcery Adept, correct?

Oh, DH, you switching to what kind of aspected magician? Since you're relieving your control of adept to Grey, I'll need to know.

In that case, what if this "hive" is his own private one that he's slowly been working on for the last few years? Sort of a safe house for him and those loyal to him (such as some of the other players perhaps?). Any input from you or anyone else would be fantastic. I'd like to see exactly what the group's dynamic is going to be like, especially since I personally enjoy the political aspects of games like this.

In any case, here's the rough draft I threw together earlier today. It still needs some editing and a better description, but it should be enough for you guys to get the drift.

THE BLOODBATH

At the dawn of the Awakening and up until the Ghost Dance War, the Bloodbath was a popular goth-inspired nightclub just west of Carbanado. When Mount Ranier blew her top, the entire area -- now known as Hell's Kitchen -- was devestated by earthquakes, lava flows, and powerful mana storms. During this devestation the Bloodbath sank into Gaia's warm embrace never to be seen again.

Years later after the lava flows began to slow and the mana storms started to ebb, a talismonger (known on the streets as Wormwood) seeking to reap Hell's Kitchen of her bounty discovered a secret mouth leading down into what used to be the Bloodbath. Thinking it an excellent place to set up a private and quiet enchanting shop, especially after she discovered that the high energy and popularity of the nightclub imbued the facility with a background count that functions as a power site (rating 2 but attuned to shamanism of the idols Horned Man, Lover, Seductress, and similar totems).

About a decade ago, Dominic had some "interesting" relations with this talismonger. She revealed to him the details of the nightclub's existance and how in all the time she's known of it, she had never been disturbed once. Naturally, Dominic found this fascinating and using his various charms and memory-alteration techniques, he "acquired" the hide-out from Wormwood and wiped all traces of it from her mind.

Now, the Bloodbath has become his home away from home. Most of the equipment and furnishings that once existed therein have long since deteriorated into junk, but the majority of the three-story building is still intact. Dominic has spent a small fortune to insure the security of the Bloodbath; while he may be a pacifist at heart, he is nobody's fool. Both technological and magical security measures are in place, including but not limited to bound elementals, wards, Ares Sentinel drones, and numerous tripwires, pressure plates, and chemsniffers.

The lowest floor of the Bloodbath, which used to be the basement and is also the location of the secret escape tunnel, belongs to Dominic and Dominic alone. The floor that used to be ground level is wide open and used as a commons area for the hive. The upper floor, which has a round deck overlooking the commons area, has numerous Middle-lifestyle apartment rooms that you're free to do with as you like. There are also ample places to hide a vehicle in the surrounding area which consists mostly of burnt-out factories and two to three buildings. As part of the bound fire elemental's duties, the area leading into the Bloodbath is kept free of the lava flows and vehicles can safely enter and exit into the rest of Pullyup with minimal fuss.

Traits: Street Area (Z-Zone Hell's Kitchen in Pullyup), Low Comforts, Low Entertainment, Low Furnishings, Luxury Security, Middle Space (for each of us).

Edges & Flaws: Defensive Setup, Difficult Access, Disgusting Neighborhood, Escape Tunnel, Inconspicious Housing, Living By Committee, Patchwork Engineering, Power Site, and Underpaid Security.

Cost: 1,980¥ (13 points with a +0.20 mark-up). Since Dominic will be paying for this out of his own pocket, I have to increase the price by an additional +20% for everyone living herein, so if you want to swear an oath of loyalty to him and have a spot here (upon Tanka's approval, of course), just let me know. It is otherwise free for each of you unless you want to make improvements to it yourself (in which case, see page 128 of the Sprawl Survival Guide for details).

Since I'm doing a Bat Shamanist, do you want me to take on another penalty because the +2 TN for casting spells while in direct sunlight is a rather convenient overlapping, then I completely understand. It was just a rather odd coincidence. Otherwise, the totem fits perfectly with what I want for a concept.