Okay, so I made this a poll only because it may give me a little bit of a better idea what all of you're experiences are.

My main questions:

1. Have you ever been in a game where it became a question of whether or not you're pc was playable because of HMHVV infection?

2. What did you're GM decide?

3. If it was playable, how did you're char deal with the infection?

4. What rules did you're GM use for the infection?

I just started wondering on these points after a post in anouther thread. If this has been asked before and I just missed it some way or anouther with the search function, please add a link, and accept my applogies.

To answer myself:

1. Yes, it has happend multiple times with different GMs

2. They were playable, provided they made various willpower checks.

3. Usually well, though the troll had a hard time of it.

4. Same as ghoul, higher target #, I think.

We had a ghoul in our group. Also, I've been toying with the idea of playing a nosferatu for quite a while. Just can't get everything together.

Vampires and such are red shirts in my games.

Had a ghoul once in our group. Got killed after the meeting with mr j. when some chars (not mine) realized, that the ghoul was a ghoul - they decided to geek him and grab the bounty.

I have played an infected character. HMHVV 1, turned a human mage gum shoe into a vampire mage gum shoe. Of course as the character wasnt a proper shadowrunner and had the pacifist flaw it was greatly over powered and a fall into madness.

As a vampire he had all the passive powers. Increased strength, vision mods, hearing mods and regeration. Of course it worked like shifter PC regen so only a number of boxes back equally to my essence and no help with drain.

He later had to learn how to use the other powers and for that matter he had to learn what powers he had.

He was researching a cure for his problem as needing to feed off the life force of others and being a pacifist dont go well together.

Of course he wasnt getting far and his dedicated magical group would see to it he wouldnt fall to less then 2 essense and turn into a monster, they were mainly going to do this by chopping him up into little bits, ahhh its nice to have friends.

I GMed a ghoul once, we had a lot of fun hiding it from the other PC's they just thought he was a slightly odd adept. untill they got captured and their captors removed his mask. but by then they trusted him, and kept him around. he was alot of fun.

i have gm'd where i allowed ghouls (no takers on it though), vamps, and were's. however, i completely revamped the vamps and weres to make them a bit more balanced. i got alot of inspiration from underworld. point wise they each cost 40 to take. i also made sure the players understood that while they had some niftey powers and abillities that there were certain corps that would be interested in them as far as testing was concearned, along with local security agancies. anyways, it was a bit more work for me with all of the planning and subplot development, but it was worth it in the end.

I voted drop bears, but only because I have never played nor allowed to be played an infected person.

I don't have a problem with it, I just will not bring it up before my players do.

That only explains one of the drop bear votes. I want explanations from the others.

I let players start out as ghouls, and allow them to become infected during the course of a campaign, and continue to play their characters. How they deal with being Infected...well, I don't make 'em red shirts, but it's something they do have to deal with continually, if only from a food perspective.

Personally, I would not play a ghoul, ever (at least as a staring character, and I'd be pissed if a GM would railroad my character into becoming one because he thinks it's cool). I could imagine a Vampire though, if the character is somewhat original (I have an old idea for a Vampire character I never got to play I might be able to use - that'd be a adept mage/face character), since the idea would actually work with 2064 adept powers.

We have had shifters, though. A Tiger shaman character, to be precise. Not a problem really, though, with Companion rules.

Mordrid, what were you referring to with 'weres'? Shifters? Because shifters work completely different from a WoD werewolf.

I'm confused as to how you can have vampires as redshirts, they are a bit tougher to kill than that. Though I will admit people knowing you are a vampire is putting a big targeting dot on your head.

You would be surprised.
We've had a ghoul that got along well with everyone. Untill Winternight killed him.

Mortax did well with the running groups he was in, hell most of them never knew he was a vampire.

My dzoonoqua got along well, but there was another one in the group, as well as a pc posessed by a powerful air elemental. And we were working for Winternight.

"Cannibals are more polite than civilized men, for cannibals know more serious consequences should they give offense."

LMAO!!!!
I love it. That's going on my quote board!

I have two infected characters, though they're out-and-out villainous. It's not that the idea of the noble monster fighting his instincts and nature doesn't appeal to me, so much that an idea for a particularly interesting one never actually manifested and demanded I give it life as a character. Plus, frankly, Martin DeVreis and Dark Father were decent enough examples of this, and without a sufficiently badass and unique character basis, I'd probably end up subconsciously borrowing from those two and thus ending up unfulfilled.

My HMHVV-infected characters are...

Twilight (Human Male Vampire)
Twilight was a frail child with low self-esteem, afflicted with albinism, a genetic trait that made him even less physically hardy and more prone to getting attention (and he never tended to get attention of a positive sort). He fell in with a bad crowd, got mixed up in a cult, and ended up learning the basics of magic from a free Shadow spirit. Killed his parents ritualistically, stole their car. His actions lead to the discovery of the gang/cult and the destruction of the spirit.

He developed his magical abilities while on the run, and by the time things had blown over he was a magician of some power, with a knowledge of certain darker techniques (read: blood magic). As someone with little compunction (and a growing interest/compulsion) toward killing, he did well for himself as a hitmage. He was always drawn in by the idea of the strength of vampires, and altered his appearance (fixed hand razors, cyberfangs) over time, in addition to picking up some boosted reflexes, all designed to make him more fearsome in appearance and dangerous.

He was contracted to kill a target who turned out to be the pawn of a vampire. On a yacht in Puget Sound, the vampire caught up with him and drained him to the point of death. He fell into the waters and sunk, his newly infected state allowing him to enter an anaerobic torpor that saved him from drowning-related asphyxia. When his employers got around to retrieving his "corpse" for cyberware/magical gear salvage, he awoke and fed on the retrieval crew. He then hunted down the vampire that turned him and slew them with his newfound powers, in addition to completing his original job. Knowing the value of a person with his abilities, his employers overlooked the loss of the salvage crew and put him on indefinite retainer. They also preserved his secret.

Twilight is a powerful magician, a follower of a twisted hermetic tradition steeped in Nazi mythological symbolism and philosophies, one that is perhaps unique, the teacher of it long since destroyed or banished to the dark shadows of the metaplanes from where it originated. His craving for blood, his expanding capacities for its use in magic, and his job as an assassin all serve to strengthen and bolster one-another. Always a sociopath, his infection has driven him over the edge into psychopathic behavior, and his physical and magical need for blood underly an underlying psychological compulsion to kill others, to reinforce his own eternally fragile concept of self-worth and empowerment. He's living the dream life of a serial killer; gain real and tangible power for your misdeeds, and get paid well for them.

Cain(Human Male Ghoul)
Cain was a skilled master of getting places other people didn't want him, and ferreting out information and goods from such places, typically at the behest of well-paying employers. His adept abilities followed the Invisible Way, and he had an unfortunately-outcomed habit of stalking about the Redmond Barrens, getting in touch with his Way by passing invisibly through the dark places at the fringe of civilization, observing undetectably from the deeper shadows within.

One day, for a reason he doesn't really consider anymore, his stealth abilities were insufficient and he was beset by a pack of feral ghouls. He managed to kill them all, but he was grievously wounded. Well-meaning squatters took him in and tended to him, but without the advanced interferons of a major metropolitan medical center, he was doomed. He started to show signs of the change within two weeks, and was cast out in the throes of it. The first few weeks of his new life were a nightmare of pain and feeding, barely surviving as his mind eroded and his flesh reshaped itself.

Reborn as a ghoul, Cain had lost a great deal of his sanity and sentience. Not quite feral, like his ghoul attackers, Cain retained enough cunning and acuity to preserve his magical abilities, though his Way was as twisted by the change as his mind and body. He became a hunter and stalker, feeding off of the slow, the frail, the unwary. Gorging himself far beyond his relatively minor needs, and relying on fresh kills rather than stolen or discarded parts, he grew tremendously strong both in body and in magic. As his twisted abilities possessed, he was further reshaped.

His killing hands became razor-sharp claws and teeth of keratin and bone, and his blind eyes glowed with a deep red light that allowed him to sense the body heat of his prey, even though his otherwise-blind nature made him unable to read or discern fine mundane detail. His magic reshaped his limbs, changing proportions and muscle anchorings, further enhancing his strength and reflexes. He is now among the most dangerous Awakened predators in the Barrens, gifted with animal cunning, the powers of an advanced adept, and a dietary need for the flesh of the dead.

Twilight made the mistake of attempting to "capture" (probably kill, despite orders) another character of mine who possesses terrifying power. After a fairly epic battle, Twilight was stunned, reduced to a torpid state in a sustained vacuum, wrapped in two dozen layers of shrinkwrap, weighted with around a hundred kilograms of chains, and dropped in the middle of Puget Sound in the winter. Until someone comes to retrieve him, he's out of commission. Cain is pretty much still wandering, killing and eating people, picking up occasional bits of good karma and twisted way potency. I'm thinking some bony plates associated with Mystic Armor might be a good choice for his next Potency-derived power point.

I noticed that a lot of the infected PC's are magically active. Is that a result of the disease or just player preference? Anyone ever play an unawakened HMHVV carrier?

Drop bears are a marvellous way to get rid of munchkins.
Take my example:
"My uber-awesome PC has a Longbow +3 due to the fact that he trained as a preist of Bob but secretly worshipped Cthulu, and he can't be hit by any weapon that's not made out of cat fur, and..."
POW!

I think I remember reading ALL wendigos are shamans. Also, some char are not awakend until after infection.

My dzoonoqua was a street sam before infection (grumbles at loss of all that wear.) So yes, I've played a non awakend char.

Hmmm, does this mean you get to be a shamen without paying for it if you are an ork who gets drained by a vamp?

I played a recently-made vampire on one of the Forum games (on the old forums), Blue Flu. But we used Bull's rules. Also, we started out as vampires for "free", but didn't even have the normal 3 points of starting abilities that Bull's vampires start out with. It was a fun game, but it didn't last long enough for him to buy any vampiric abilities - he was more or less the equivalent of a normal human with an allergy to sunlight and a need for blood/Essense.

We have had two vamp characters in our game (one made the other). They actually worked out pretty well. They cost 30 BP to start, and we rolled randomly to see if they got any magical abilities. 1 on D6 was full mage 2 on 2d6 was aspected/adept, 3-6 was nothing.

After that, they add their essence to one phys attribute, but they have to make an essence test to see how much control of themselves they have. Basically ranging from mindless feeding machine, to in full control. Starting target number was 6 (the character that was turned almost didn't make it actually).

After that they can build up more powers like on Bull's page (good stuff there). But every time they do, they have to make more and more tests against higher numbers in order to stay in control and not become some megolomaniac, or rampaging monster. Makes the others kind of warry.

Also, the regeneration power isn't that bad. We added in one other part for vamps that every time they take a deadly wound, they lose a point of essence, so if they keep dropping, they get weaker, and hungrier. If they get down to 2 points, they need to feed. If they get down to 1, they go into a frenzy.

It's been fun so far!

Why didn't the vamps just essence drain the .5 essence out? I believe that knocks you into a coma, doesn't it?

Heck, just pull on them From Dusk Till Dawn (the first one) and have them walk into a vamp bar that has basements filled with 200+ vamps...and they all recognize the group as vamp hunters. Dogpile, anyone?

because for the vamps esence drain, the target has to be willing or helpless, because they feed off the emotion of ecstasty that their bite makes, which is how they drain their essence. Each of the infected has their own style of the drain. Like Banshees, they bascially run their prey in to the ground.

Unless they are awakened and have kept some semblance of intellect after the infection. Then I bet on the vamp.

I dunno, but the vamp is done for as soon as the sam manages to hit him. Two assault shotfun ExEx (or AV) bursts will finish anything short of a really tough critter.

However, if played correctly and if the vamp is using all it's powers ... then my money's on the vamp. It must just avoid to be caught in the sammy's crosshairs, and cast one immobilise spell, and the sam's breakfast.

And that's what pawns are for. cannon fodder! that sam has to reaload at some point.

Vampires only die easy if you play them like retards. Vampires can wear FAR more armor that a PC by virtue of their (up to) +12 qui. Vampires should be as smart as any person and have a much higher chance to be magically active.

Having them running around getting into combat without armor os any plan other than acting like a WW asshat "I'm scary" campire is just asnine. If you want a vamp to be a threat he can be one of the nastiest things in the book you can possibly put a party up against.

The GM just has to not be a retard about it.

For some reason GM's have a tendancy to let them rely wholesale on their powers alone with not a brain in their head and then be surprised when they die easy. That's idiotic. They aren't nonsentient animals.

Belt fed weapon, sure, even an HVMG, he still can't get them all. a vamp in military armor with no quickness penalty, this could be fun, oh the look of suprise when the MBW sammy gets out run!

Yeah, cause Vampires (who mostly feed off young girls and boys in clubs) run around all the time in hardened military armor, and everyone of them is awakened. Right. Now who's the retard.

I am sure there are a few who wear more than the regular amount of armor. Usually the ones my pc's fight are "foot soldiers" and wear 7/6 armor. Remember, you can't blend in if you are wearing tons of armor.

Now if I was doing some sort of campaign where the Vampires were all working together instead of the egotistical, solo, narcissists that they are, then maybe they could manage to ambush the PC's and do some damage.

But Vampires aren't, they are lone wolves by nature. They do not play nice with others. So the few instances where my players have run into vamps they have been "easy" to kill. By easy I mean no one died fighting them.

Ordo Maximus


One of the players in my game had the pleasue of pissing them off, so they have a good idea of how nasty they can be. So far, they've only ran in to two. One was an arrogant "monologuer". Yes, he actually went in to a monologue, it was great. He also took on PC's leg off. They did well on him because they worked well as a team, and abit of pure dumb luck (which always helps). The second one was caught by suprise, and the samurais 11 successes with his Ranger - X bow and dikoted arrows.

But honestly, vamps with full physical atributes can have Str, Qck, and Body at 18+ in some cases. And regeneration. How much armor do your PC's wear. I'll bet that they were a jacket, and most layer it for around 7. If the vamps awakened, throw an armor spell on that. Say the vamp dikotes a katana, he has the ability t oinflict 21S base damage. And there is absolutely no reason the vamp can't have the belt fed assault cannon. How many PC's have them? So vamps feed on kids, fine, we'll say that's all they do. They're also hunted by society at large, and they're predators, not scavengers.

That's why I use scaling power for the vamps in my games. The nasty one are REALLY FRAGGIN' nasty! And if a PC wants to try to build up that way, they can. But chances are that the power will go to their heads and become (more) corrupted, and their character becomes mine. But at least I tell thm all of this before they start playing the character.

Are we talking infected drop bears?

That's like what? One piece of Delta cyber?

I've played a couple of standard vampires as runners before. From a power perspective, it never felt particularly overpowered; bit like playing adepts or physmages. Certainly none of the rest of my group ever complained about them.

Roleplaying-wise was quite interesting. My main vampire character had drifted into shadowrunning simply because runners were basically more accepting of the weird. I mean, in a society with wallhacker trolls, shifter shamen, million nuyen men and that knife adept who could pin a gnat to the wall by its bollocks (over his shoulder. With his eyes closed. And a heavy cold) a vampire runner was practically normal Once the team got over the initial "it's a fraggin' vampire!", the characters actually got along really well. I used to enjoy the RP between the vamp and his best mate in the team, a samurai who thought all vampires were like the White Wolf ones.

"You can't use a chaingun, you're a vampire!"

"Just go over there and be all hypnotic at her, go on..."

Classic...

I just obtained a copy of Vampire, so a "corruption" attribute might be in order. If a character is constantly draining people, he or she will either become entirely feral, or so entirely evil that they don't think like a human anymore and become an NPC. Playing a character who is afraid to use his or her new abilities for fear of losing to the "beast" within might be interesting.
Also, the minor problem with narcoject pistols: You are what you eat.
Vampire: I drink from the unconcious security guard.
GM: Roll body.
Player: All ones. Crap!
Player's vampire character: SNORE!

My character was geeked by another PC in the group because they suspected he was infected. It was awesome, he just leaned over in the van and put it to my head, didn't even say anything.

Where are the rules for getting vampired? I've seen the ghoul rules but can't recall ever seeing vampire rules. Aside from the critter books.