Tuesday, April 26, 2011

V: Bloody Vampires ...

Vampires are one of those fictional critters that I've never, ever liked. Not in fiction (especially not in this day and age *twitch*), and not particularly in my roleplaying games either. I'm quite bloodsuckered out, thank you, and I have no desire to change this fact.

(which isn't to say that I don't like tossing around various sorts of blooddrinking, soul-sucking beasties. but they aren't tricked out with the traditional vampire trappings, whether warped or played straight.)

I'd like to blame this on the obsession that many of my cohorts in university had with Vampire: the Masquerade, because that would be the easy answer -- but they were about as interested in every other White Wolf game, and I was and am quite interested in those. But despite a few attempts on my part Vampire left me by and large uninterested except for the spinoff Kindred of the East, which -- being more "ghosts returned from the Hells inhabiting (usually) their own corpse" -- kind of dodged the vampire tropes in any case. It was more entertaining watching the Vampire fans get irked as the local Werewolf player (me) knew their game better than they did than to actually play a vampire.

In other games, vampires still don't do it for me. In D&D anything a vampire can do a well-chosen fiend (usually a baatezu/devil) can do just as well or better; in a more science-fiction game a soul-eating psionic of some kind will fit the bill. I just don't go in for the modern vampire tropes (I'm rather allergic to that particular kind of whining angst), and the old tropes wore thin a long time ago.

1 comment:

seaofstarsrpg said...

Agreed, vampire are difficult to use in any new and interesting way. Though as pure bad news combat monsters, the one in 3rd edition Shadowrun scared the hell out of the PCs.