Tuesday, March 12, 2024

Drink Deep, Beloved Son (GLOG Class: Vampire)

When John Martin-Evos first published his biological theories, he hypothesized that the modern vampire had arisen from a simple walking-leech, uplifted unto its sophisticated modern design to fill the unique biological niche found in the blood-soaked parlor rooms of Old Doggerland. In these clandestine environments, reasoned Martin-Evos, a social parasite could sample the eight flavors of royalty at its leisure.

To no one's surprise, John Martin-Evos was later killed by a vampire.


(This class is a prototype for a Victorian-ish setting project/domain game thing I'm working on with Noblesse Goblige! As part of that project, you're supposed to choose an ancestral House/bloodline to belong to- here's a quick rundown of them as they stand:

  1. House Devinsen - Steampipe hats, fancy cars. New money industrialists. Bleed gasoline; heraldic beast is a bat or raven.
  2. House Larsene - Once-great naval power, landlocked by the receding seas. Bleed seawater; heraldic beast is a horse.
  3. House Rhayadder - Ancestral backstabbers. Bleed poison; heraldic beast is a platonic worm, argued to be a snake, eel, or lamprey by various historians.
  4. House Norbury - The Northerners everyone thinks of as barbarians. Bleed moonshine; heraldic beast is a wolf.
  5. House Sardon - Bacchanalian-traditionalist bankers. Old money. Bleed ambrosia, or honey, in layman's terms; heraldic beast is a bee.
  6. House Oleone - Eternally disrespected failscions. If history is a joke, they are the butt. Bleed olive oil; heraldic beast is a somewhat dopey lion.
  7. House of John - Bleed molten lead; heraldic beast is a burning peacock, sometimes called a phoenix.
  8. House Mything - Bleed luminiferous ether; heraldic beast is a calygreyhound.

Every other class affects or is affected by your choice of House in some way.)

Anyway, the class:


VAMPIRE Start with: Flowing cape; ruby earring (in actuality, your heart); duelist’s sidearm; no inheritance; friends in all the right places. +1 Will and +1 Glamour per template A - Bite, Invitation, Fascinating, Immune to charms B - Drink Deep C - +1 Attack per turn D - Beloved by Sheep
Δ - Discerning Taste

Glamours
With each template, choose another aspect of Royalty to manifest.

  1. You see perfectly through 30' of darkness, smoke, dark water, and dramatic fog.
  2. Every season, a d4 HD vampire-hunter shows up in your Domain to kill you.
  3. You always appear in a cloud of dramatic fog.
  4. You can see through paintings of yourself.
  5. If you grab someone by the back of their neck, you can make them say anything you want in their voice. This works even if they're unconscious.
  6. When you die, a giant crow arrives to take your body somewhere else.
  7. Old age slides off of you like water.
  8. You can detach your head, roll it around, and reattach it.
  9. All undead regardless of origin treat you the way you deserve to be treated – like royalty.
  10. You have no bones. You can squeeze thru any space larger than a banana.
  11. With a taste of someone's blood, you can peek into their future and receive a one word omen.
  12. You can take the form of your House's heraldic beast. (For Norbury, a wolf; for Sardon, a bee; etc. etc.)

A: Bite
Your bite deals d4 damage, increased by one die size (d4 → d6 → d8 → d10 → d12) for each of the following:

  • Your target is physically smaller than you.
  • Your target is sexually or romantically involved with you.
  • Your target is indebted or subservient to you and/or your House.
  • Your target trusts you completely, in this exact moment.

A: Invitation You can’t cross a threshold without being invited in. You have an invitation to every major party, council, and public event.

A: Fascinating
You have a stat called Fascinating, which starts at 2. Whenever you befriend a significant NPC or woo a lover, increase your Fascinating stat by 1.

When speaking privately with an NPC, you may reveal a dire secret (yours or theirs) to roll 1d6. If the result is less than or equal to your Fascinating stat, you charm that NPC, and then reduce your Fascinating stat by the amount rolled. Charmed NPCs trust you and consider you a friend. (Charming people does not increase your Fascinating stat.)

You can do this to PCs as well provided you get consent from their player beforehand.

B: Drink Deep
You can drain any container of blood in seconds, with the following effects:

  • Your bite heals you for as much damage as you deal.
  • You can exsanguinate a fresh corpse to heal d4 HP.
  • You are immune to the negative effects of drinking any blood type, including poison, alcohol, and molten lead.
  • You can suck the gas out of an automobile, suck the honey out of a hive, suck the sea water out of a drowning sailor’s lungs…

D: Beloved by Sheep
When you enter a scene, if it is nighttime or sufficiently overcast, you charm every minor NPC present. This makes you immune to attacks by goons, soldiers, servants, guards, and so on, unless you attack them or their allies first.

Δ: Discerning Taste
The first time you drink the blood of a wizard, you gain +1 MD.

The first time you drink the blood of a giant, you gain +4 HP.

The first time you drink the blood of a dragon, you gain wings of darkness.