Ohayo, chummers.
Something has been bothering me bout the SR universe. Can one be so daring as to say, make up your own rules concerning vampires in SR? I just feel that the disease being a virus lacks a little class, and what if one was to get this overwhelming need to pit your players against a 2000 year old killing machine? I need some opinions, and if your opinion is on the positive side, feel free to add advice on rules for this thing...

My game featured two kinds of vampire. The HMHVV vampires were a relatively recent phenomenon, and far more numerous. But there were True Vampires as well, all involved in an intricate jockeying for position based on elements taken from Highlander, Vampire: The Masquerade, The Great Game of the elves, etc. The PC's were peripherally involved since one of the vamps would occasionally hire them to pursue some goal that made little sense at the time - eg, breaking into a Renraku facility in San Fran to steal a flask of dried blood that was actually the "dead" form of a rival vampire so that the Johnson would have the rescuee owe him obligation.

The True Vampires were descended from Lazarus, the first vampire in the world. The secret point of their Game was believed to be to determine who was going to be allowed into Heaven, but there was no proof.

It is all up to you, but the players don't have to know that vampirism is a result of a virus, and who says there aren't 2000 year old vampires in the SR universe. Immortal elves made it through the down cycle, why not vamps.

<shrug> There was a 400-year-old nosferatu, a 2,000-year old bloodsucker isn't beyond imagination.

It's a virus with no cure, which seems...odd. You could probably work something on that.

If you read just the powers granted to vamps, enhanced senses and abilitys it's less how old they are than their atittude. You add essence to strength, body and quickness, ehanced sight, smell and hearing. and you've got someone in better shape than you average oylmpian. Think about it, average street Joe(scores all 3) gets his vampire essence to 6 and he's got straight 9's in physical stuff. He can hear you and smell you sneaking up on him. Outrun pursuers, shrug off hits that would stagger most urban brawlers and probably wrestle a troll.

Odds are this guy would learn some combat training/marttial arts so he's going to be better able to use his strength in a fight. and although it seems odd, for a vamp to use a gun, a GM might allow the ehanced vision to improve accuracy like optics.

We have a house rule that essence gets added to charisma too. explaining the draw of a vamp since popular litterature (Ann Rice, Laurel K Hamilton, Barbara Hambly) have vamps as stunningly beautiful.

All this is just the number crunching. as played a vamp could be a punk gang leader who runs through being tougher than his peers or a corporate boss who manipulates his peers.

the ones we've encounterred included:
A former mob enforcer who was running a health club.(and dining off the patrons)

A BTL dealer selling to HS student's (can't pay -ok we'll deal)

A Music producer- who was legitimate but made us really really nervous.

A Race car driver who would weaken competiton he couldn't legitimately beat on the road.

A Corp lawyer (ok blood sucking lawyer, bad joke) Who ruled her division with an iron fist . apparent from turning her two secretaries into Vampiric pawns she didn't use her powers it just made her really tough when we got down to it.)

Enforcer at a brothel.

(that may seem like a lot but we've been playing on and off since 1st ed came out.)

I would take a look at the Immortal Nazi Elves: they lived the during the 5,000 years-downcycle without much problems - so why shouldn't vampires being able to do the same? Maybe in some kind of deep silent slumber or sth. like that.

Remember: "it's a kind of magic, magic"

I believe the Incense Master of the Yellow Lotus Triad in Seattle is a "ancient chinese vampire" or something like that, for what its worth.

Which books are this 400 year old Nosferatu and ancient Chinese Vampire in? I'm guessing an SR Novel and Underworld Sourcebook respectively? Just asking as I'd be interested to read what it says about them, and own neither of these.

What's the explanation for them existing during the down cycle when the mana level is so low? Immunities (i.e. to age) still work, but other powers are curbed significantly or what?

The Incense Master of the Yellow Lotus is mentioned in New Seattle. I haven't heard of immortal Nazi Elves before.

The four hundred year old Nosferatu is from the novel 'Nosferatu' by Carl Sargent and Marc Gascoigne. The nazi reference is from the novel 'Worlds Without End' by Caroline Spector, where one of the IE's is mentioned to have become the girlfriend of one of the high ranking Nazi's in the 1930/40's - probably in a bid to gain influence and power.

Edit: The Yellow Lotus incense master also turns up in one of the published adventures, Mob War! I think it was.

The immortal Nazi elf is Alachia, natch.

Hibernation isn't really necessary, if someone with the dormant form of the virus is in an area during a mana surge, or bitten by someone with the active virus in such an area, then they'll transform. Hell, certain blood rituals on a site of power could conceivably build up enough juice.

Maybe a strong enough power site, even during the down cycle if it's large enough, is capable of activating the virus. If like the Horrors they can survive with lower mana levels after the initial higher level, then you've a mobile vampire. If however they need the heightened mana level all the time to keep it active/survive that means they're now limited to a small area. Cue mysterious local reclusive lord living in spooky castle/mansion.

Say, wasn't it mentioned in one of the books recently that Ukraine annexed the Transylvania region of Romania? Maybe it was just territorial expansion but a powerful enough power site might be tempting. To a lot of people, both individuals and organisation, never mind governments.

There was another vampire related topic some time ago, that refered to an even older topic on the previous incarnation of this forums.
I gathered the info and compiled/edited it.
You can download the PDF here:
LINK

I like the idea of vampires and liches carrying over. even ghouls. ancient entities that masked themselves as humans or simply remain invisible.

Yeah, but your face would be frickin' scarier.

If you want to really mix the players up, have the "real" vampires be the one's from the world of darkness. Frankly, WOD vampires make a little more sense and you have a multitude of fluff to work with. The Camarilla and Sabbat also make a far more dangerous enemy to torque off.

Besides, the virus infected vampires are actually the creation of the masqeurade (or really weak generation, were not sure which). ;o)

Just a tad and hope to be busier. I do need to revise, expand, and update my Infected page.

Share how you really feel.....

I was lucky enough once to have a GM who worked with me to play a vampire in his game. Fortunately, much like BitBasher there, I'd had my fill of the mausoleum-esque "vompwhors" from WoD. Mine never wore all black. She was particular partial to white leather which(who would have guessed) helped do things like reflect sunlight(not taht she was that crazy ) and take the accentuation off her palid face. But more importantly, she was a predator in a predator's world. She didn't go around ghouling or turning everthing in sight, didn't morose forever over being undead, and didn't talk in overly cryptic phrases. She fed off the dregs of society, had a non-ghoul friend as a roommate/Fixer to keep her house together, and belonged to more tolerant faction of vampires in America which advocated running humanity from behind the scenes. (whereas the other one wanted to overturn all of human governments and corporations and become the hell-on-earth-if-you-aren't-a-vampire empire )

There seems to be a dif between the earthdawn undead and shadowrun undead. I'm waiting for the next mana jump, when the 'Viral undead' turn into 'Horror construct undead'. or maybe running wild will clear this up.

I read vampires as going malicious as hell, a manditory major personality change, as a side effect of becoming a HMHVV vampire. something no PC could survive intact, and mandating them becoming a NPC

I don't see what the big deal is about the IEs. So a few select people throughout history were in fact IEs. Why is that so hard to swallow? Why wouldn't some of them step into the limelight every now and then to further an agenda or two? It isn't like every single meaningful person in humankind's past is an Immortal Elf.

I like that SR has extended demonic possession to viral infection.

That's just the the IEs' pro-elven bias showing through in their propaganda.

Really though, there are not that many instances in canon of historical figures actually being Immortal Elves. It's only a few select individuals.

I like the idea myself. It adds a little spice, and makes quite a bit of sense ... to me at least.

Sure it does make sense for you - you're one yourself

Are there rules for a PC vampire? If so, where? I seem to remember the SR2 ones being pretty horrid.

There were some interesting rules in some old issues of Challenge Magazine. issue #45 had rules for playing a 'punk vampire' PC, #60 had some interesting variants, and #73 had a Vampire Hunter archetype.

Vampires can't use cyber iirc because of their regeneration power. That sucks

Ther are no official rules for PC vampires and there never have been.