What are the best depictions of vampires?
>What are the best depictions of vampires?the ones at the end of a steak
>>92700999Hellsing ultimate vampires. Not sure what game system can do them justice. Would love to know some suggestions.
What reason could a vampire have to cooperate with a mortal human? I'm trying to make sense of my next villain group, but I cannot imagine a vampire who considers partnership with "lesser beings" as anything but submission.
>>92701131Vampire are not murderhobos. Even pets have their uses.
>>92700999>best depictions of vampireswhen you stake them and then fry them in sunlight and they turn into dust
>>92701003>>92701308Seething mortal hands typed this. Don't be mad because mortal women prefer inmortal men.
>>92701281Pets are not seeing eye to eye with their master though.
>>92701003
>>92700999As long as they're sexy, dark, and dangerous, I'm in
>>92701359Mortal men also like immortal men.And it's usually reciprocal
>>92701131>>92701369Would you hang out with a dog?>yesWould you cooperate with a dog?>yesWould you see eye to eye with a dog?>noWould you love the dog anyway?>yesWould you enjoy the dog's company?>yesWould you consider the dog an equal to you?>noWould you consider the dog a "lesser being"?>yesWould you eat the dog if you had to?>yesDoes this make the dog any less of a cute little boy?>noWhat part about this is confusing??
>>92702028>Does this make the dog any less of a cute little boy?>no
>>92701131Hanging out with other vampires is a serious drag. Humans are a decent combination of shortlived and ambitious that they can get up to some inspiring acts. Provided their innards aren't turned into outards.
>>92700999Opposed by werewolves
>>92702028The vampire would not love the dog, and also the vampire would be a self-felating maniac.
>>92701131>What reason could a vampire have to cooperate with a mortal human?Part of the story-of-me. I generally have vampires be supreme narcissists, which can make them behave in a magnanimous manner towards mortals if and when it reinforces the image of themselves they've got. For example, if you're fighting a vampire that fancies himself a chivalrous knight, he might withhold certain of his powers when fighting mortals, because that's the 'noble' thing to do.Just make sure there's a breaking point at which the mask is set aside and the beast underneath comes out. When they get bored, when the story they're telling themselves diverts from its course, or when an enemy is extremely annoying. "Real people" don't suffer pets and props to stymie or frustrate them. And to a vampire, they're the only "real person" that ever was, or ever will be.
>>92703796love this, well put, saving it. do you think of other iconic monsters in terms of psychological dynamics? there's no reason monsters should correspond that way, but in this case it seems very 'real' and narratively satisfying. I know people like that lol and it'd be really effective to convey how scary they and the vampire are
>>92700999European/American ones, Japan always overdesigns everything.
>>92703830I mean, not as much as with vampires, I don't. Dracula is a huge influence on what makes a vampire in a way a lot of other iconic monsters don't necessarily have. I guess werewolves, kinda? The idea I go with with them is to take your mundane serial killer or other human predator, and go 'yes, but what if they had a physical manifestation of their inner beast?' Which isn't too far from what your classic legends have, with them being cursed cannibals or Satan-worshiping witches, or both. Physically with them, I trend more towards descriptions of a wolf, sans tail, with troubling human-like characteristics. Something that you could mistake for a regular wolf if you saw it running across the moor at night, but which would make your skin crawl for "some reason" even if you didn't have the knowledge to spot its witch-marks. I do like the idea of weres being 'contagious' to their surviving victims, too.
>>92703892I guess I should've been clearer in pointing out that I think the beast-with-man-traits depiction, at least to me, reflects that psychological angle of "a beast in the skin of a man." And I should add that I tend to play them as pretty self-satisfied, good-humored critters. They don't think they're going to get caught, of course. They don't have the romantic view of themselves that vampires do, but they're just as disbelieving in other people "counting."
>>92702028>Would you eat the dog if you had to?Anon?
>>92703796You seem like a man of culture. What would you recommend to someone who's neck-deep in a campaign revolving around vampire player characters (with different subraces) taking place in a Victorian-like world, where magic and demons exist, and the vampire PCs have to cooperate with other characters to achieve their goals and rise in social ranks and status for the world to feeling really threatening and dark? I've read a lot of books and even old settings (like Ravenloft) to help me with this, but I reached a point where I have so much information I don't know what to do first or how to begin for it to be compelling. Sometimes I feel like I'm be going too dark, other I feel like I'm going too light. What should I do? Should I just go all out without any restraint in darkness? What levels are okay? Note that PCs aren't very powerful (they're like dhampirs), but I question how complex are the themes I should throw at them and the tasks to solve, as in, should be start with a ghost story, or just a common bandit story. Trying to organize all this information becomes overwhelming.
>>92701131>I cannot imagine a vampire who considers partnership with "lesser beings" as anything but submission.Have him manipulate them. So long as he feels the power dynamic is in his favor, the vampire should be fine.
>>92704238If you're unsure what you want to do, do some episodic play. Some small, sharp adventures will help both you and your players feel out what you like, and you can probably build one of those smaller stories into a 'bigger picture' adventure down the line. In my own experience GMing, players will tug at plot strings that aren't even necessarily there, which can help you to figure out what to do next.Broadly speaking, I'd say start with short, straightforward adventures before getting into more sophisticated ones that might have some ethical dilemmas for the players to pass judgment on. I wouldn't go 'full dark' unless you know that's what your players want and are gunning for, but you can add some pretty despicable antagonists with vile goals.Also, besides sourcebooks, I'd give some pulp authors a read. They're often useful to mine for adventure ideas or just simple flavor details which will make your scenes pop. REH's 'Tower of the Elephant' is a great go-to for a basic swords & sorcery adventure, for example.
>>92704608I have already run some simple adventures for the players. They seem content but it feels like the game is lacking in thrill and edge. Reason why I want to move to something darker and grittier, something that lives an impression and shakes them up.>REH's 'Tower of the Elephant' I've read it. Great tale.
Vampires are gay and homoerotic and probably want to stick their undead dick in your ass
>>92704053What? You'd just starve to death and both die? What does that achieve? How is that a better outcome?
>>92702117Jesus that looks like shit.
>>92705506It's AI slop.
>>92701131>What reason could a vampire have to cooperate with a mortal human?Pic rel. There's a solid 9-15 hours a day where they can't do anything themselves, having a mortal liaison to do their bidding in the land of the living is just practical - there's only so much you can get done between sunset and sunrise.
>>92707832Depends entirely on how your vampire is written. Vampires turning to dust in the sun is a pretty new convention, spawning from film. But the basic argument of 'dogsbodies where I don't want/can't go' remains a valid one. Dracula himself, besides business associates, had his gypsies and Renfield, whom he controlled by abusing his mental illness. Though in Renfield's case, what was left of his better human nature won out.
>>92700999Rifts vampires are cool because they're mega-damage creatures, ie, they can tank laser cannon fire and rip apart buildings with their bare hands (claws). That and they have wild mindless vampires running around in hordes while the sophisticated master vampires rule entire kingdoms of human cattle. And finally, at their apex is the vampire intelligence, which is an alien from another dimension. It's definitely a different take.
>>92701131These things may be horrible monsters, but deep within their black hearts there is still a part of them that hates themselves and wants to be human again. If not, why would they do anything but roam the forest as a mindless blood-sucking beast? They put on clothes and drink from chalices because they, at the end of the day, want to be around people in some fashion.
>>92705494Dogs can go feral and survive in the wild.
>>92700999Bloated corpses that spread the plague.Straight up skeletons that talk, charm humans, and drain their life.Dracula is a good take, but rarely represented well. Fucker was a monster, straight up, and pretended to be human to hunt better. He loved being a card carrying villain, was not a woe-is-me sort, and had zero redeeming qualities.
>>92710002Good take.
>>92701024What makes the Hellsing vampires so great?
>>92718694Not him, but Alucard-strain vampires in particular eat the souls of everyone they drain. And so the only way to kill them is to deplete the life force of all those they've eaten. They also get their skills. IIRC, Hell sent a Hellbound to kill Alucard, and after he ate it Hell stopped trying to kill him because if they failed again they'd just keep making him stronger.
>>92718694>>92719211
>>92700999Witcher vampires
>>92719211>Hell sent a Hellbound to kill AlucardIt's heavily implied trueborn vampires like Alucard get their powers from the Devil himself. He probably just devoured the Hound of Baskerville when he got to England.
>>92719496That would be accurate to the novel Dracula, which Hellsing exists in some degree of conversation with. Dracula was the star pupil at the Scholomance.
>>92700999I like vampires that have traits of other bloodsucking creatures other than vampire bats, like this young-looking lady who has lamprey or leech traits when she lets her vampiric nature fully come out. Are there any underutilized animals besides her motif or mosquitoes you’d like to see in vampires more?
>>92701724>dangerous
>>92700999Warhammer fantasy. Totally, unapologetically self-serving and evil with great power and almost no imperative to use it responsibly. Becoming a vampire cranks your personality to 11 so if you get annoyed easily as a mortal, the slightest thing drives you into a blood rage as a vampire, as an example. Very powerful, very arrogant and very absurd. Adolphus Krieger is one of the best villains in Gotrek and Felix short of ya boi Thanquol.
>>92703796A man of culture. I realized after a while the monster I wanted to make was really nothing more than just an OC Donut Steel vampire/werewolf hybrid. My thing is, I wanted an irredeemable monsters where, even if you were an innocent victim, the best you could hope for would be to have your mind destroyed by your condition and just become a force of hunger that acts on your base desire while those who gave in to their nature truly did so.
>>92720686In the Dunwhich Horror shortly after the birth of WIlbur, there are periods where Levine and Old Man Wheatly are seen with sores on their necks just like the cows they ordered to feed him and the Horror.You could naturally make a perversion of the typical infant suckling dynamic where a vampire intentionally comes across as child like to parasitically bond with a person affecting them psychologically as well as physically.They do their best to maintain their host until their demands ultimately burn them out and then they just finish them off before moving on.It also made me think of the HIve from Destiny and their parastic relationship with the worms that gives them power. The worms grow hungrier the more you feed them and will feed to the point of self destruction if you cannot sate them. which even facilitated a system of tithing up the ranks to regulate and maintain a steady stream of killing to allow the Hive Gods to keep feeding their worms while allowing their underlings to do so as well.
kain from legacy of kain.
>>92700999I think that elemental vampires are cool. Imagine, elemental power flowing through their veins instead of blood, hungering for the life blood of mortals to allow them to replenish their physical shells and keeping them from being consumed by their own power.
>>92722414Okay, post a stat block for such a vampire. You're discussing traditional games, right?
>>92719604>Dracula was the star pupil at the Scholomance.No, the star pupil was sent to hell as the devil's right hand.Also, Dracula being a student of the devil's arts had nothing to do with him being a vampire.
>>92718694NTA, but they do away with the vampie pretense of ellegance and noblesse oblige that is prevalent in more recent works. No matter how good/hot/cool the vampire may look, they are monsters.Also like >>92719496 said, all OG vampires are given power by the devil, so that they can cause even more sin which makes it crazy how that fat fuck resisted SatanIf I wanted a non edgelord answer, it would be this:>>92721923
>>92701131Sired by some young member of a noble vampire house who afterwards refused to take them in so now they're a mercenary with a specialty for vampire hunting, a case of ''he who hunts monsters'' except he started as a one, that or make it an Asterion Moloc situation where he simply wants to hunt his fellow vampires to prove his dominance
>>92700999I'm a sucker (hehe) for the classics so noble dress and speech but absolute brutal warlord underneath, that or local varieties with connections to history or mythology, like in worldbuilding for instance, you could make your northern vampires have shapeshifting abilities which explain why werewolf myths are a thing
>>92723590m8 no one in this thread is talking about traditional games, go tell a jannie but fuck off. We're talking about cool shit we like that we may or may not include in our games.No, I will not reply further to your bickering.
>>92707832Spoiler those images you fucking asshole.
>>92700999oWoD/Vampire: The Masquerade.Not actually joking.
>>92701131>but I cannot imagine a vampire who considers partnership with "lesser beings" as anything but submissionAfter enough time one will stop caring about what other vampires think, if they have an issue with how you conduct your business than you can kill them and see how they like it.
I just think it's neat for them to have a humanoid, and then a monstrous form.
>>92701131>I cannot imagine a vampire who considers partnership with "lesser beings" as anything but submission.A courtship dance between two predators. Because if it isn't rough, it isn't fun.
>>92724823I think it's less about what other vampires think, but rather what the vampire thinks of himself.
>>92724802I agree and I don't care if I get meme'd for it.
>>92722268Vampires from LoK in general are interesting. They didn't start as sterile immortal race but were cursed by their arch nemesis demon race Hylden
>>92725231Kasigil?
>>92725637
>>92701131Either the vampire is using the humans for achieving his own goals (vampirism does come with a lot of drawbacks so having help that can walk around in daylight is useful), or they have a common enemy or shared goal and are smart enough to figure it's more beneficial for both to team up.
>>92714222A 30Kg dog could also supply around 25k calories. Yum.
>>92700999Scary ones. Should be monsters and not sexy.
>>92701131The easiest way to manipulate someone is to give them what they want. The second is to make them want something.
>>92700999hotel transylvania
>>92730331Why not both?
>>92724802As much of a joke as it became it was a really awesome setting back in the day.
>>92730331Bram Stoker Dracula is described as handsome.
Hotel Transylvania
>>92730331Tbh I feel being seductive and charming is one of the things that set vampires apart from most other monsters. If you just want a feral monster that preys on humans, werewolves and a bunch of other monsters fill that niche already. Vampires on the other hand can project the appearance of nobility and attractiveness that hides their true monstrous nature.They definitely should be monsters at heart, though. A sexy vampire is being sexy in order to lure in prey, and when pushed too far a vampire will discard the trappings of aristocracy to reveal the bloodthirsty monster it truly is.
>>92730331How monsterus do you want them to be?
>>92700999Requiem, but also >>92732676>>92721923 is the worst
>>92745163The word is “monstrous”.
Female
