by torilen » February 8th, 2018, 11:42 am
I've seen several different depictions of a vampire...maybe you've seen different depictions, or
you might notice something different than me. Here are my thoughts.
First - What I've seen/read:
Dracula from several versions. He certainly has the strength and ability to drain blood. Typically, I've seen Dracula hypnotizing people
simply by looking into their eyes and telling them what he wants. It does not usually seem like brainwashing, though. He can make
servants by biting people, but cannot confer any of his powers to those servants. In some versions, he can turn into a wolf or a bat,
but I've never seen him turn others.
Vampire in R A Salvatore's Cleric Quintet, book 5, The Chaos Curse. Totally different from other vampires, but also created in a totally
different manner. Basically, a strong, evil, uncouth undead fellow who drinks blood and spreads chaos everywhere. Vampire in the sense
that he drinks blood, is strong and hard to kill, and has to be invited into the building.
Strahd in Ravenloft. He is very similar to Barnabas, except that he knows magic. You don't see him hypnotizing people, though he does
have means of controlling others, through his voice and through threat of punishment. Strahd also is not quite as genial and hospitable
to visitors as is Barnabas, though you still get the sense he is sophisticated and "upper class".
Blade - don't even get me started on the oddness of those vampires.
I'm sure I've seen others...can't really place them for now. In almost all of them, however, you are typically told outright how old they
are, or that they have everlasting life...something along those lines. The intrigue and mystery is seldom there. And we rarely see any
of those other vampires resorting to base fear to control their victims, as Barnabas forces his victims to lie in coffins to freak them out
and control them.
So...maybe Barnabas might not be quite so different. However, it would be the way his type of vampire is presented to the characters.
As I said a few times in the piece I wrote, it would be a lot more storytelling, more description, more would happen off-scene that the
characters would see the after effects, but not know the full details of what exactly happened.
I think running a vampire in that way would make it a different vampire than what one would normally think of in a rpg...the kind of
undead that seeks to drink blood to stay alive, to create servants to carry out his or her will...a creature that the characters simply
hunt down because he or she is a vampire, slay it, and get the reward. It would add atmosphere to the game, make the characters
think about the vampire, and get more into the game.
And again - not really so much for HQ as it would be more for a full rpg.