Vampyres...

[JoelMcKickass]

Now, this may be the Dark Heresy territory (i think...), but i was recently thinking about adding a group of Vampyres for a campaign i was thinking of hosting, based around the idea that there are some old school vampyres (yeah, with a Y), running around wreaking havok and generally tearing things up. All done with style of course. The story is in its infancy at the minute, as to whether they will be contagious, or a mutant strain, or even a particular "species" of daemon. I'm not sure which was i'd go just yet, someone did suggest that they should literally be Vampyres, with all the bells and whistles, and have just survived throughout the millenia. It just so happens that one particularly ambitious one has chosen to start taking over, which opened the possibility of loyalty questions (another side of puritan vs radical), and using Vampyres from a different clan/caste/family in order to bring down the ones who're kicking up a fuss.

The inspiration has been various different sources, Bram Stoker's Dracula and Jasper Kent's Twelve (and the sequel 13 Years Later, though im only halfway through) in particular for that "charming son of a gun" idea, alongside the super strength aspect and tough as nails kinda feel. If anyone could reccomend any other sources to look at, i'd appreciate it.

I was considering using the Standard Inquisitor Template (SIT), to represent these are more than normal people, however, i figured that'd make the Bog Standard Imperial Citizen ridiculously clever, so instead i'm just going to use that SIT as an example of how i'd see an Acolyte, an Inquisitor, and an Inquisitor Lord if they were Vampyres, by which i mean the improvement to stats, and the reduced stats. I think these bonus' would apply to every class depending on which they were turned into.

The first class would be the Minions, the lower caste and only recently turned at that. They would effectively be the Acolyte build of the SIT, they'd be recently turned, yet wouldn't fully comprehend their own abilities. Their stats would be -

Minion -

WS =75 - 2D6
BS = 65 - 2D6
S = 60 + 2D6
T = 60 + 2D6
I = 70 + 2D6
WP = 75 - 2D10
SG = 75 - 2D10
NV = 75 - 2D10
LD = 75 - 2D10

This represents the fact they're only getting used to the recent change, and aren't in full control of their powers. They've dumber than normal due to the increased amount of sensory intake, yet they're stronger and tougher than usual, but not yet fully developed.

Vampyre - This is someone who has been a vampyre for a while, they're used to their powers, and are fully able to use them. However, they're not from a "higher caste", they're pretty much the mid ranking ones, they're good for muscle, and can control the minions, yet they're not devastating.

WS = 85
BS = 75
S = 65 + 2D10
T = 65 + 2D10
I = 80 + 2D10
WP = 85 - 2D6
SG = 85 - 2D6
NV = 85 - 2D6
LD = 85 - 2D6

Again, they're not as smart as normal people from their class, but again, they're meant to be leading the lower ranks, in pairs or in a small group, they're not meant to be the brains of the operations.

Vampyre Lord

WS = 95
BS = 85
S = 70 + 2D10
T = 70 + 2D10
I = 90 + 2D10
WP = 85 + D6
SG = 95 + D6
Nv = 95 + D6
Ld = 95 + D6

Effectively the End Boss, the improvement across the board implies a certain "animal cunning" that makes him smarter than his contemporary class' (an Inquisitor Lord in this case), but they are meant to be hard as nails, and then some.

Also, each one would have a combined "Vampirism and Regenerate" (you can't regenerate without using vampirism on someone), and a Cloak of Darkness that they can control with a willpower test, meaning that they CAN go out in sunlight (ala Dracula), but they have to concentrate to do so. I also feel that non of them should be able to be psychers, though the Lord character has a choice between EITHER having the Entrance power (though without the daemonic side effects), or Fearsome. This represents the idea that they can be beautiful, or terrifying, but never both.

As for weapons, and armour, i feel that they shouldn't really go above Common, the idea being that they thrive in backwater planets, and having anything better than the local equivalent is both risky, and unnessecary (they're basically monster ninjas, if they need gunz then you're doing it wrong  ).

As for the campaign, the idea would be scary Alien/horror movie style. All darkened, narrow corridors, and empty cities, deserted by the fact the locals fear the "monsters. It would be the few Inquisitors trying to hunt down the Vampyre Lord, and eliminate him, or at least try to. Again, im only into the initial stages of planning, so these ideas are open to pretty much ANY help whatsoever.

Modelwise, i was looking at a few, the Lord would be a Pizzazo model, (http://www.pizarrominiaturas.com/tienda/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=1), it's understated but shadowy as well, i like it...
As for the others, theres been a few i've been looking at, Enigma, Masterclass and Andrea in particular. However, i feel i'd have to add some 40kishness to them, as they're all pretty much barbarians, and whilst this kinda works, i'd need to add some 40k bits and bobs to give them that 40k feel we all know and love.

Soooo, what do y'all reckon? I could do with a little help...

[Kaled]

You should have a look for the Codex: Dark Imperium - a previous attempt to bring vampires into the 40k universe which might give you a few ideas...

Or look at the entry for vampires in Rogue Trader (the original, not the new RPG).

[Saussure]

Oh, my word - we've gone back in time about six years.

Like Kaled says, look here for all sorts of Conclave-created goodness: http://www.sacemoth.net/inqfiles/codexdarkimperium.pdf

Vampire-threads have a habit of being hard to kill off...

[JoelMcKickass]

There we go, i knew it was called something, i thought it was Dark Heresy, not Dark Imperium. I like it, i'll be able to give it a more thorough read through tomorrow, when im not up in 5 hours. The one thing that'd be different however would be the idea that it's only a small group, not the entire Imperium. Of course it wouldn't be hard to copy and paste some of the rules.

As for the Original Rogue Trader, does anyone know where i'd be able to find the vampire rules from it?

[Daxam]

Well, Vampires in the 41st millenium are pretty cool (as long as they don't sparkle). But I'm thinking the stat guide may be a little high, even for turned Inquisition agents. Had a brief look at the Dark Imperium book, looks interesting.

[Alyster Wick]

I'm going to be perfectly honest, having a direct vampyre translation into Inquisitor never really jived with my vision of the 40K.  That said, it's been a very long time since I've read of the dark imperium article. 

IMO I think there are just so many different ways to represent vampyre-like creatures out there that there's no reason to have a direct analog (for instance, some type of vaguely alien race like the creatures from Mortarion's old planet, powerful chaos mages, or even the Dark Eldar, as a shameless plug you should all read my Cabal of the Wick Fate post! http://www.the-conclave.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=583.0).  All of these are great excuses to have vampyre like creatures and you can even go so far as to call them vampyres (and even make your own ordo around it) as I think the study of creatures who suck the life force from other beings to survive could be of particular interest to the Inquisitor, say the Thorians (they certainly have a delectably undead leader who they'd love to revive by any-means-necessary...)

Anyway, rant off.

[precinctomega]

Why are vampires perceived as being cooler with a "y"?

R.

[MarcoSkoll]

Why are vampires perceived as being cooler with a "y"?

I always thought Vampyres would be better taken as an instruction for what to do if you caught one.

[DapperAnarchist]

It looks old european, which ignores that the letter I is older in the Latin alphabet than the letter y. Also, the first successful vampire novel was John Polidori's The Vampyre. In Serbian it's Vampir though, and a Transylvanian would say Strigoi.

Uhmmm... Personally, the idea of the RT Vampire seems most fitting. They don't convert, but they do enslave

[Alyster Wick]

Why are vampires perceived as being cooler with a "y"?

The same reason Orks are cooler with a "K" 

In all seriousness though, I think it's literally just so we don't have exact replicas of fantasy races in 40K, which (as arbitrary as it is) I'm kind of okay with.

[precinctomega]

To expand upon the point I was - obliquely - driving at (and which Alyster Wick has touched upon), there is plenty of room in the existing 40k canon for vampire-like creatures/people without having to directly import Bram Stoker's Dracula.

Haemovore cults are specifically referenced in the LRB.  Star Vampires appeared in the 40k 1st Editon.  Karloth Valois (in Necromunda) taps the whole "creatures of the night" vibe.  Etc.

Anyone lurching out of a showing of the latest Twilight movie, desperate for vampires as pseudohuman monsters that rip bloody chunks out of people's throats and burst into flames in the full glare of daylight is well-advised to tap the theme for inspiration fitting to the 40kverse as opposed to simply performing a direct cut and paste of an archetype from one universe into another.

R.

[JoelMcKickass]

For me it's a pronounciation thing, Vapire is spelt the traditional way, Vampyre is pronouced like VampEAR, kinda like how i'd imagine ye olde Vald to say it.


True there is, though i wanted to shy away from the bloody chunks thing, and though i'd like them to be able to do that, i wanted them to be far more dangerous. The idea i was thinking of would be the temptation that all Vampires seem to have, that kinda attraction people have to them. It would be similar to the temptation that Chaos has, yet due to the fact it's not necessarily "wrong", it'd be more of a problem for the Inquisition to deal with, as there's nothing wrong with becoming one.

[N01H3r3]

as there's nothing wrong with becoming one.

Depends on who you ask. There are plenty of people in the Imperium who believe that any deviation from the 'blessed purity of the human form' is inherently blasphemous and thus is deserving of only one thing: to be killed with fire.

[Alyster Wick]

Just to throw in my 2 cents I think that Vampyre as a term is fine to describe a subset of beings who survive as aggressive parasites (consuming souls, energy, blood, etc) and could cover anything from mutants, haemovores, heretics, aliens (dark eldar and others) and even daemon hosts. 

As such it makes perfect sense that an inquisitor might specialize in them, if not as a specific ordos then at least as a subset of the other 3.  As I said before, Thorians would definitely be interested in methods of transfering power from the living to the "dead" for purposes of resurrection.

[MarcoSkoll]

The idea i was thinking of would be the temptation that all Vampires seem to have, that kinda attraction people have to them.

Only if you're reading modern versions of Vampires. Portraying Vampires/Werewolves/other supernatural beings in a more positive light has only really come about in the last half century.

Given the Grimdark themes of 40k, I don't really think that "positive" vampires really belong. If portrayed as some kind of Xenos or Chaos warped creatures that are universally feared and have no compassion for those they prey on, then that would fit... but the idea of them being a temptation to any but those who would crave Chaos isn't one that works for me.