Vampire Character Creation

Age:
Vampires are weakest when they are first created. This period of weakness lasts for the first 6 months of unlife. These newly created Vampires are referred to as "fledgelings" or "spawn"—alternate terms less frequently used are: "Vampire-spawn," "childe," or "progeny." As a Vampire ages, he or she grows in power as the blood further refines, purifies, & strengthens itself. The Blood Purity rating increases by 0.01% annually, or one full percentile every century—this refining process occurs whether the Vampire is active & hunting nightly, or is locked up in a cozy little pine box for a few centuries. This makes removing a stake from an imprisoned Vampire even more dangerous as it could have grown greatly in strength—and insanity—while so trapped. The following chart shows the attribute modifications for a newly-created fledgeling, and a fully-mature Vampire.



These modifiers are cumulative, so after 6 months, a Vampire's Grace is at a total +1 modifier from her original Grace score from when she was alive. It must also be noted that like all Undead, a Vampire's Stamina is zero. As they are Undead, they also lose all life point capacity, however their blood purity rating is added doubly to their maximum hit point capacity.

Designer's note:
Creating a Vampire generally requires more math than what is common in Midian character creation and development. Blood purity involves concepts such as "percent of a percent" and using a percentile as a whole number. If you take it one step at a time and think of blood purity as just another game mechanic—such as hit points or armour class—you'll be doing just fine. The trick is that the "percentage" part of blood purity is just a descriptor, as in "100% pure bloodsucker," and you should simply treat it as just another whole number game mechanic.

Further modifications to the attribute totals are based on the Blood Purity rating. Every full percentile point of the rating adds one to all attribute scores.

Base Blood Purity:
A Vampire's blood purity is based on the purity of the creating Vampire's blood, and the care with which he or she is created. A Vampire is about half as pure as his creator. The progenitor can influence the progeny's blood purity with the care that she uses in the creation rite. A Vampire created with great time and care (a three-day process leaving the originating Vampire nearly completely drained of both blood and energy), results in a progeny of greater purity and power than one quickly brought into Undeath as cannon fodder.

There are various rituals that may be employed to learn a particular Vampire's blood purity. This rating is used by many vampiric societies to stratify or discriminate against other Vampires. This is varied by region. Vampires who have been well entrenched in one area such as southeastern Formour or northeastern Byzant might consider a Vampire with a rating of 10% to not be "pure enough," whereas that same Undead may be far more powerful than any others when in a different location.

The percentile rating of blood purity is an arbitrary measurement. This is based on the estimations of elder Vampires who attempted to trace their lineage through lore and legends back to the mythical 'Original Vampire'. There is no foreseeable upper limit, so theoretically a Vampire could have—for example—a blood purity rating of 102%.

Increasing Blood Purity:
Blood purity is increased in two ways. The simplest and easiest is by aging. As a Vampire advances in years and centuries, her blood becomes purer and more refined. The second, faster, yet more dangerous, method is by exsanguinating other Vampires. Completely draining (unto death) the blood of the Undead of lesser purity than one's own does increase one's blood purity rating, but not nearly as much as the exsanguination of those with a greater blood purity. The amount gained from Undead of greater blood purity than the draining Vampire's is 1/10th of the departed Vampire; those of lesser purity provide only 1/50th of their rating. That is, a Vampire drains another with a blood purity rating of 12.04%—which is greater than her own of 5%—she would add a tenth of that or +1.204% to her blood purity rating. If she drained a Vampire with a rating of only 3%, she would only gain 1/50th of that or plus 0.06 percent to the rating. The amount gained via age is one-percent of one-percent per annum. In other words, a Vampire's blood purity is increased by 0.01% per year, or one full percentage point per century.

Add in the blood purity rating to all of the Vampire's attributes and (doubled) to maximum hit point capacity, rounded down. For example, a 3.25% blood purity rating would add +3 to all attributes and +6 to maximum hit points. A rating of 8.998% would add +8 & +16, whereas a blood purity below 1% would not have any associated bonuses.

The blood purity rating of a fledgeling has a maximum value of approximately half of the creator's. One pint in a dying or newly dead (within 5—8 minutes) person will reanimate them as a Vampire with 10% of the creator's blood purity. This process is relatively fast & simple, and is used to create weaker "cannon-fodder" Vampires. Taking great care with your fledgelings—carefully draining & refilling them—grants an additional 10%. If the creation process is repeated over time—up to three nights—each night grants a further 10%. This longer, more involved, creation process is physically exhausting to the creating Vampire & inflicts 10 fatigue points each session. A final 10% of the progenitor's blood purity can be gained simply via selectivity &/or patience—if the new spawn is the first childe of the progenitor, or the first within a century. In other words, one-tenth of the creating Vampire's rating is gained for each of these listed events.

Creation Rite:
Since blood purity is expressed as a percentage—and determining the initial rating is a percentage of that—the above text may be unclear. The following numeric example should (hopefully) help clarify. Malachai wishes to share eternity with his sister. As he was created by a rather powerful Vampire, Malachai has a blood purity rating of 12%. After draining his sister of blood, he slices open a vein & pours the ichor down her throat—should he stop after only a small amount, her rating would then be one-tenth of his rating (that is, ten percent of his "twelve percent"), or 1.2% blood purity. Ensuring that the sister's body was carefully drained dry and then refilled with vampiric essence would grant her an additional one-tenth—her total now is 2.4% blood purity. Carrying this process throughout the night leaves her 3.6% pure, and two additional nights (the maximum) would grant a blood purity rating of 6%. Since this is Malachai's first progeny, his sister would have an additional one-tenth of his rating, for a grand total of 7.2%. Here's a trick to make the math simpler: bump the decimal (.) from the creator's purity over one digit to the left—in this case 12 becomes 1.2, a 30 becomes 3, 15.4 becomes 1.54, et cetera—the rest is simple addition. Thus, the math for Malachai's conversion of his sister is 1.2 (bumping the decimal from 12.0) for each of: the initial blood, drain-and-refill, each full night, and for being the first created; or:

The reason for this variable amount of purity from creation is to allow one Vampire (such as a player character) to be carefully molded into a more powerful creation over time, while still allowing a non-player Vampire tool of the Game Master to wreak havoc by rapidly creating a small army of the Damned in a short time with more easily defeatable opponents.

A suggestion for the character sheet is to list the modified attributes parenthetically after the original; i.e. a 3.6% pure Vampire would list Appearance 11 (14.6), Personality 9 (12.6), etc.

Vampiric Traits:
A Vampire inherits two Dark Gifts and two Dark Flaws from his or her progenitor, chosen by the Game Master. Some vampiric traits may act similar to dominant genes, and are always inherited by new Fledgelings—in this manner, lineage may be determined for some Vampire bloodlines; again this is determined by the Game Master as best fits her campaign. Additionally, each Vampire receives 1D4-1 (0 to 3) random Dark Gifts & Flaws; roll separately for each type. By completely exsanguinating another Vampire, there is a one-in-six chance of receiving a random Gift possessed by the one drained, and a one-in-four chance of gaining one of his or her Dark Flaws. Conflicting traits cancel each other out, but some may be combined, such as a Vampire who has the Dark Flaws Inner Flame and Thirst for Warmth may be cold normally, but hot after feeding, or a Vampire with both Dryrot and Hard Skin would have a total +4 armour class and -1 damage reduction as their skin is tough but the inner flesh soft.

Cautionary Notes:
Vampires do have a few weaknesses. Other than their own kind (who kill far more than the sun does), mortal hunters, or sunlight, the following are things that every fledgeling should be taught:

Heart's Blood:
Heart's Blood is the term used by Vampires for that last gulp of blood that actually kills the victim. The name derives from the belief that the blood contained in the heart itself is the very last bit drained. Completely draining a victim of all blood, i.e. the Heart's Blood, causes an exhilarating—but exhausting—rush from the resulting death. This causes a -3 penalty to all of the Vampire's rolls on that round and the following round, and causes three fatigue points from the exhaustive nature of the task. For this reason, many Vampires will stop themselves short, and let the victim expire on his own. This applies doubly when exsanguinating another of their own kind—the sweetest & most potent drink is one of your own. It is commonly believed that the Heart's Blood is the last few drops left in the heart, but this is not the case; there are about three pints left in the body after death by exsanguination. These may be gathered by the Vampire if drained quickly, but no Vampire can truly drain a victim dry—a powerful suction device, press, or some other kind of Human-juicer machine would be needed to squeeze the last little bit out.

Staking:
Staking is a favoured method of mortal hunters. The traditional method of a short wooden peg to the chest is far overrated. Even without a Vampire's great fortitude, these stakes are not well suited to penetrating the rib cage, and are often far too short to pin the Vampire down. Staking does not kill a Vampire, nor does it mystically bind it. What staking does is physically pin the Vampire down. It is possible to ensorcel a rosewood stake that causes a deathlike paralytic state—for all purposes the Vampire is dead… until the stake is removed. However, rosewood makes for a poor choice of material for an impaling weapon.