By M.J. Janecka (u8810857@muss.cis.McMaster.CA) (24, April 1995)
With the publishing of Nancy A. Collins' Sonja Blue trilogy under White Wolf Publishers, Some of us gamers in the World Of Darkness may be interested in the concept of living vampires. Sonja Blue describes herself as "a species of one" -- unique in that she is a living vampire because she never quite died before her transformation.
Nancy A. Collins, of course, didn't write her books with the Storyteller series in mind, but it might be interesting to translate Sonja Blue and introduce the concept of living vampires into the World Of Darkness. The following is my interpretation of how this could be done within existing rules.
The thing about becoming a vampire is that the embraced person is at the threshold of death when given vampire blood. She actually dies, but is sustained at the point of death by the power of the blood. Anyone still actually alive and given vampire blood would just be a ghoul. But, the living vampire is, by definition, alive, yet still a vampire and thus immortal. How can this happen? Well, suppose you take a Highlander-type Immortal to start with. From Hank Driskall's and John Gavigan's unofficial supplement Highlander: The Gathering, we consider an immortal to be immune to vampire blood. But, before an immortal's first death, she lives as a normal human: she can grow old, get ill, etc. Suppose that such an immortal's first death is at the hands of an Embracing vampire? She is not truly immortal at the time and may be susceptible to the effects of vampire blood. At the point of first death, the immortal's life force flares to its full immortal glory. At the same time, the vampire's blood is given to her. As she gains her true immortality, this Embraced person could also absorb the power of the blood given her by her sire. Thus is produced a living immortal person with the characteristics and powers of a vampire of her sire's clan.
Such a creature should essentially be treated as an Immortal: She has Quickening and the powers according to her Quickening rating. She is resistant to Life and Prime magick as is a regular Immortal. She is alive and can eat and breathe and be drugged and poisoned, but can not actually die from problems associated with these. Loss of her head will kill her. She gains and loses Quickening as do other Immortals. She also has attributes of a Vampire. She has retractable fangs, is prone to Frenzy, has Humanity, Virtues, and Blood Points, and has Vampire Disciplines, as well. She is immune to the burning effects that sunlight has on normal vampires, but is nocturnal and has the maximum dice pool limit equal to her Humanity rating that vampires are limited to when active during the day. She is not especially susceptible to fire. She has a maximum number of Blood Points equivalent to that of a normal vampire of her generation. Like a living being, she loses one Blood Point for every Health level lost, and regains one for every Health level healed. Living vampires regenerate their own blood supply. They can also take blood from others to replenish themselves quicker, and can spend Blood Points as can a normal vampire (to enhance physical attributes, heal faster, make ghouls, etc. Vampire Disciplines are open to her as a member of her sire's clan.
Such a creature as this can be Truly Bitchin' and should probably not be made available as characters to players, but here are guidelines for character generation of Living Vampires:
Attributes: 7/6/5 for Primary/Secondary/Tertiary --same as Highlander characters. Optionally, give them only 7/5/3 if you want to tone them down a little.
Abilities: 13/9/5 for Primary/Secondary/Tertiary, or more, as described in Highlander: The Gathering if you want the character to be over 100 years old.
Advantages: Start with Quickening I and a point in one of the character's Clan Disciplines, and three more points to spend on whatever Vampire Disciplines you want. Optionally, give the character only Quickening I and one point in a Vampire Clan Discipline if you want to tone her down a little.
Blood Points can be used to heal, etc, as Vampires can. Resistance to Life and Prime spheres of magick, as for standard Immortals.
Heal at the same rate as do standard Highlander Immortals. Blood Points will recover at the same rate. Option: To tone them down a little more, perhaps make Vampire Blood Points completely independent of Health level, and only recoverable by taking blood from another source. A Living Vampire may go into Torpor if she loses all her Blood Points.
Backgrounds: Same as are suitable for either Highlander Immortals or for Vampires.
A Living Vampire also gets 18 Freebie Points to spend, just as do normal Immortals. Optionally, give her only fifteen, as regular Vampires get.
With regard to ambiguous situations, treat the character as an Immortal first, and a Vampire, second. I haven't tried these ideas out, but this looks like a Bitchin' character type to me!. If anyone uses a Living Vampire in their game, let me know how it goes! Here is my estimation of Sonja Blue's stats. I haven't read the books in a couple of years, so my interpretation will probably be easily disputable.
Ninth generation Ventrue
Nature: Caregiver; Demeanor: Loner
Strength ** Charisma ** Perception **** Dexterity **** Manipulation * Intelligence *** Stamina **** Appearance **** Wits **** Alertness ***
Athletics **** Brawl **** Dodge *** Empathy *** Intimidation **** Streetwise **** Subterfuge ** Firearms * Melee ** Stealth *** Survival *
Occult *** Auspex **** Dominate ** Fortitude * Potence *** Presence *
Quickening ****
Conscience **** Self-control *** Courage *****
Humanity *******
Willpower *******