Vampire Rules

New Skill

Potence (Con)

Potence represents a vampire's mastery of blood magic. A vampire who invests ranks in potence becomes stronger and more able to utilize the stolen spark of anima that thrums through their veins.

In general terms, Potence is used in checks specifically related to a vampire's unique powers. All Vampires start with 1 rank in Potence. 

Sense Living (3 Actions)

A vampire can use their power over blood to call out to the blood in other living creatures. By taking a full-round action, a Vampire can use Potence to detect the presence of other living creatures. You can use Potence in place of Investigate to make a Search action, but only to detect living creatures.  A vampire can even detect the presence of invisible living creatures, rendering them merely hidden to the Vampire's senses for the rest of the scene if their Potence check beats the creature's opposed Stealth check.

Predatory Aura (1 Action)

A vampire is a predator, and the living are their prey. This relationship can be incredibly unsettling to humans, who are used to being on the top of the food chain. A vampire can use Potence instead of Intimidate to Demoralize a target.

Abilities

Artes

Blood if life, and life is magic. Therefore, some would argue that blood is raw, liquid magic. And vampires, as masters of blood, are thus masters of magic.

Artes draw upon a vampire's innate ties to magic to perform supernatural acts. Vampires start with two artes chosen from their bloodline's artes, and can purchase additional artes for 3 experience.

All artes have an anima cost.

Bloodline

A vampire inherits the bloodline of the vampire who turned them and raised them into undeath. 

You choose your vampire's bloodline at character creation. It cannot be changed later. Your bloodline has a specific weakness, or bane, as noted under the Bloodline Weakness section of this page.

Bloodlines also provide you with an advantage. On character creation, you gain two artes associated with your bloodline. You also gain a +2 bonus to one of two abilities that your bloodline favours.

• Alukah: Intelligence or Spirit

• Jiangshi: Constitution or Spirit

• Strigoi: Strength or Charisma

• Valravn: Strength or Wisdom

• Vetala: Dexterity or Charisma

Breath of Life

A vampire normally appears like a well-to-do corpse. They are pale, they have no pulse, and their bodies are cold and clammy to the touch.

However, by spending some of the energy of life they drained from their human prey, they can ape the effect of the living. By spending 1 point of anima, a vampire can assume the guise of the living for up to one scene or one hour, whichever is shorter.

While the Breath of Life is active, a vampire has a pulse, a regular metabolism, and even need to breath. They would pass any conventional medical examination. Any attempt to discern their undead nature is nigh-impossible without magic. In addition, they reduce the impact of sunlight and fire for the remainder of the scene.

Of course, the breath of life comes with its own drawbacks. While active, a vampire needs to breathe, eat, drink and can become fatigued. They give up most of their undead immunities in exchange for repressing their weaknesses.

Activating Breath of Life in combat is a full-round action that provokes attacks of opportunity.

Healing

Vampires are metaphysically static, frozen at the moment of their death. Their bodies attempt to return to that state, even if injured. Bones mend, torn flesh knits, and severed limbs regenerate in mere minutes.

Vampires can spend 1 point of Anima to heal 1d8+Con Vitality points as a single action. 

Wound points require more substantial healing. A vampire must spend 3 Anima to heal 1 wound, and this healing is only accomplished during a long rest. 

A vampire does not otherwise heal damage, be it through rest, medical skill, or magic.

Immortality and Injury

Left to their own devices, vampire are immortal. Unfed, without the spark of life that dwells within human blood, they will fall into the topor, a dreamless sleep that can last decades. But they won't die.

A vampire does not die when they are reduced to 0 wound points. A vampire's body is dead, they don't need working organs and blood vessels to continue moving. Think about damage to a vampire like damage to a corpse: bruises are black and blistered, and cuts do not bleed, instead exposing raw flesh.

Instead, a vampire reduced to 0 wounds will still begin to use their Anima pool as an additional source of health. Any damage that would be done to a vampire who is at 0 wounds instead deals damage to a vampire's Anima Pool instead. When a vampire falls to 0 anima, they fall into topor. 

If a vampire in topor takes at least 1 point of damage from fire, sunlight, or an execution attempt (usually decapitation), the vampire suffers their final death. Their body rapidly decomposes into ash, dust and bone, and their shade is drawn violently into the Underworld.

Physical Intensity

Legends of vampires speak of creatures faster and stronger than any mortal. By spending 1 point of anima, a vampire can live up to these legends, gaining a +2 bonus to their choice of Strength-based checks, Dexterity-based checks, or Constitution-based checks until the start of their next turn.

Senses

Vampires are the masters of the night. They have low-light vision, and they can use Potency to detect the living nearby. This keen sight and hearing only applies to living creatures, as Vampires can smell blood and hear heartbeats. 

Vampires can immediately identify another vampire as one of their own through their enhanced senses, unless that other vampire is using the Breath of Life.

Vampires can use Investigate to make a Taste of Blood check

Taste of Blood (3 actions)

You can discern subtle clues from blood you taste. Make an Investigate check against the Endurance defence of the target whose blood you're tasting.

Undeath

Vampires are dead things, holding onto the living world through the spark of life present in blood. But though they walk among the living, they are still, fundamentally, dead.

Vampires do not need to breathe, eat, or drink, and are immune to the fatigued condition (thought they can still become exhausted due to mental and spiritual conditions). 

Unlike other undead, vampires can still be poisoned and catch diseases, due to their reliance on blood. 

In addition, Vampires must still sleep for at least 6 hours per day, or else they begin to suffer. After 24 hours awake, a vampire gains one application of Drained, and gains one application of Drained every 4 hours they remain awake. Unlike other undead, a vampire is vulnerable to spells and abilities that inflict sleep.

Feeding

Most stories about vampires revolve around one particular facet of the undead: their hunger for the blood of the living.

To vampires, blood is more than food: it is life, it is change, it is growth, it is potential, it is power.

Vampires have two means of feeding: violently or subtly.

Violence: the Assault

A vampire who wishes to feed violently can unsheathe their fangs in combat, graining a bite attack that deals 1d4 piercing damage.

Against a target that is grappled, restrained or immobilized, and who the the vampire has already made a successful bite attempt, the vampire may make use the Shadow skill to unleash their Hunger and make Drain Vitate check.

Non-Violent: the Seduction

When feeding non-violently, a vampire can choose to cause their victim to feel euphoric. The victim gains the Fascinated condition, and focuses entirely on the vampire.

When feeding non-violently, the Vampire may take 10 on the Shadow check to Drain Vitae. The vampire does not have to make a successful bite attack against a willing victim, reding the damage the feeding does to them.

Blood Supplies

Vampires most commonly feed upon humans, but they can feed from animals, stored blood, and even from other vampires.

• Human blood is best served fresh and warm, direct from the source. The vampire can pull an amount of anima from a human equal to their wound point total. If a vampire drains more anima from a human than their Constitution modifier, the human gains the drained condition until they heal from the wounds inflicted by the feeding.

• Cold Blood is far less nourishing for a vampire, but is far more convenient. A vampire must consume a pint of refrigerated blood or plasma to recover 1 anima point.

• Animal blood is dangerous, as it's nearly impossible to feed upon an animal without killing them. A vampire can gain 1 point of anima per size score of the animal they consume. 

• Vampire blood, or vitae, is highly efficient. A vampire gains one point of anima per point of anima drained from the other vampire, without causing any other damage or negative conditions. However, vitae is addicting, and can carry other negative ailments.

Non-Human Feeding

While vampires mostly feed on blood, the truth is most supernatural creatures have a substance analogous to blood that is brimming with anima, which a vampire can also feed upon. Most vampires don't pursue this, due to the unpredictable nature of non-human blood and the danger posed by supernatural creatures, but desperate times can call for desperate measures.

• Ectoplasm: A vampire who feeds from beings from the spirit world begins hearing the whispers of the spirits and ghosts who dwell, unseen, in the Material. The vampire gains the benefit of the Spiritual Sense feat until you next rest, but you take a -2 to Charisma-based checks and defences as the constant noise distracts you from the physical world. This condition lasts until the vampire next sleeps.

• Glamour: A vampire who feeds on fey is affected by the Breath of Life until they next take a long rest. During this long rest, they experience bizarre, psychedelic dreams next time they sleep. These dreams may hold visions from the fey's past lives. 

• Ichor: A vampire who makes the mistake of feeding upon a horror or another creature from Shadow is struck with an immediate pang of immense hunger. No matter how much anima they gain from the feeding, they are just not satiated. They must make an immediate Shadow check against the horror's Endurance at a -4 penalty. If they fail this check, they immediately fly into a Frenzy, as their Hunger seizes control.

• Nama: a vampire who feeds upon an elemental or jinn feels the nama burn through the vampire's veins. The vampire takes 2 points of vitality damage for every 1 anima they drain. They gain a resistance of 5 to the energy type associated with the  creature they fed upon until next they rest.

Downtime Feeding

In a mixed-origin party, taking time away from the adventure to focus on a vampire's feeding can be a distraction from the overall story. So a vampire can elect to instead use some of their downtime, or resting time, to feed. 

A Feeding check takes 1 hour. A vampire determines the skill they want to use to feed, such as Interaction to seduce their prey, or Street Smarts to find a drug den where nobody will notice them, or Survival if they want to track down an animal to eat instead. Make a check against a DC set by the GM (Usually 15). The result is as follows:

• Critical Success: You find an exceptionally suitable victim to prey upon. You regain 2d8+Spr Anima from your feeding

• Success: Your hunt goes as intended, and you can feed in relative safety. You gain 1d8+Spr Anima from your feeding. 

• Faliure: Things don't go as intended. Targets have wingmen, crowds appear in all the wrong places, and, generally, the entire hour is a waste of time. 

• Critical Failure: Things go sideways. Maybe your prey ends up being a supernatural creature, or, worse, a hunter. You're in for a bad night. Roll a d10 to determine the outcome:

  • 1: The Witness: You were sloppy, and someone not only noticed your feeding, but got away.

  • 2: The Hunter: Your prey was either a hunter, or they were part of a trap by a hunter.

  • 3: The Rival: Your prey was part of another vampire's herd, and you've now made a powerful enemy.

  • 4: The Resistant: Your prey is completely immune to your attempts to feed on them, for some reason.

  • 5: The Afflicted: Your prey is carrying a blood-borne disease, and you're not infected.

  • 6: The Anemic: Your prey has medical complications, and dies from your feeding. You've now got a body on your hand.

  • 7: The Occult: Your prey was a spirit, a fey, a jinn or a horror (chosen by the DM). You suffer from the effects of drinking non-human blood.

  • 8: The Fan: Your prey is into vampires, and now wants to know more about you and your nature--perhaps even join you in undeath.

  • 9: The Blessed: Your prey is particularly saintly or protected by some higher power. You take 2 points of wound damage for every 1 point of Anima you drain from the target as the sacred nature of their blood burns you from the inside out.

  • 10: The Damned: Your prey is a demon, or a possessed by a demon. 

You can make multiple feeding attempts every night. Each attempt takes 1 hour, and you take a -4 on each check you make over a single night, as you begin to thin the herd.

The Hunger

An inhuman, monstrous hunger lurks just beneath the surface of vampires. This Hunger is a vampire's constant companion, reminding the vampire that they are a predator a world of prey, that those they interact with are little more than fleshy containers of the anima the hunger craves for.

Most vampires become accustomed to the Hunger, and have learnt to resist its whispers. But sometimes a Hunger becomes impatient with their vampire, and decides to take measures into their own hands. This moment, when the Hunger seizes control, is known as a Frenzy.

Gaining Frenzy

When faced with a significant enough threat, a vampire risks losing control to their Hunger. The vampire can try to hold the Hunger inside, but eventually she must deal with her inner demon. 

To resist a Frenzy, a vampire must make a Resolve check against a DC equal to 10+their Shadow ranks+situational modifiers. There are numerous modifiers that can be applied, but here are some:

• +2: Destruction of your property, hurt friend, insulted by a superior, the situation involves your vice, the situation involves a great deal of gore and viscera, you are wounded

• +4: Death of a friend, hurt lover, publicly shamed, the situation involves a moderate amount of fire, you are exposed to sunlight, you are hungry (below Anima threshold)

• +8: Death of a lover, inside a burning building, you are starving (2 or fewer Anima)

• -2: You can take a moment to calm yourself, you are on holy ground

These represent only some conditions that may affect a check to resist Frenzy.

The outcomes of this check are as follows:

• Critical Success: You resist the Hunger entirely

• Success: You resist the Hunger, but it's still not satiated. Your gain the Tempted condition for the remainder of the Scene.

• Failure: You succumb to Frenzy

The Frenzy

When in Frenzy, a Vampire becomes stronger, faster and tougher. A vampire gains the bonus of Physical Intensity while under a Frenzy, without having to spend anima. A frenzying vampire also ignores all conditions that would impact their physical checks, such as Drained, Clumsy or Wounded. 

While in Frenzy, a vampire can bite as a free action after they successfully grapple a foe. 

While in Frenzy, a vampire cannot make any Charisma checks other than Intimidate and Composure. Likewise, a frenzying vampire cannot take actions that require concentration, or take more than 1 full round to execute, such as research or interrogation checks or casting a spell (if they know spellcraft). 

While in Frenzy, a vampire is driven to fulfill the object of their Hunger's desire, whether it is feeding, destroying a threat, or asserting their dominance. The vampire is single-minded in achieving their goals, but not suicidally so. The vampire acts with immediate, forceful, and destructive abandon, not caring about others around them or the long-term impacts of their actions. If someone gets in their way, they will be hit; if someone is hiding behind a barrier, that barrier is going to be hurled away.

A vampire in Frenzy does recognize friend and foe, and are willing to take less-lethal actions towards allies. For example, an ally trying to restrain a vampire is likely to be shoved out of the way, while an enemy attempting the same is likely to end up as the vampire's next meal. However, a frenzying vampire is still a hostile creature, and is not counted as an ally for the purposes of flanking or support (for example, an ally cannot use the Aid Another action to support you while frenzying.)

Redirecting the Hunger while in Frenzy requires a Resolve check against the Hunger's Shadow check. If you succeed, you gain full control of your actions for the next round. Every subsequent attempt to Redirect your Hunger during a Frenzy imposes a -2 penalty on that check.

Tempted

Tempted is a condition vampires can receive. When Tempted, a vampire's Hunger is close to the surface, and the vampire can feel themselves losing control. The vampire takes a -1 penalty on any rolls to resist Tempted.

Multiple applications of Tempted increase the penalty. 

Weaknesses

Fire

Fire often represents purity or cleansing, and, as creatures of corruption, flames do more than physically burn a vampire's undead flesh. Fire, regardless of the source, also damages a vampire's essence, causing grievous injury. Vampires are Vulnerable to fire, meaning they take 1 Wound of damage for every dice of damage the fire would normally do, even if the Vampire is at full vitality.

Topor

Topor is the sleep of ages that plagues all vampires. Any vampire who suffers great injury or starvation falls into topor. This cold dreamless slumber is like a return to the grave for a vampire. While in topor, a vampire appears dead: their skin tightens, and their joints suffer rigor mortis. Jiangshi even begin to grow mold over their body.

A vampire will remain in topor for weeks, or even decades, as they slowly heal from their injuries and make the most of the lingering anima in their system. The older and more powerful a vampire, the longer they must remain in topor. 

Player vampires in Secret Wars are typically on the lower end of the vampiric power scale. Therefore, they only have to spend 1 week in topor to heal.

At the end of a vampire's topor, a vampire permanently loses 1 rank of Potency, but reawakens at full health and anima.

A vampire's ally can feed a vampire to reawaken them earlier, draining their blood into the mouth the slumbering vampire. This deals 1 wound to the donor, and heals the vampire 1 wound, permitting them to reawaken without losing a rank of Potency. 

Stakes

When a wooden stake pierces a vampire's heart, they immediately fall into topor. This is a special form of topor, however: it does not end until the steak is removed. 

Staking a vampire through the heart requires a targeted melee attack at a -5 to the attack roll. If the attack hits and deals at least 5 points of damage, the vampire has been staked.

Sunlight

The light of the day is denied to vampires. Some attribute this the judgement of God, others to the nature of vampires as creatures intrinsically tied to the night. Regardless of this bane's origin, a vampire exposed to the sun will begin burn under the light of day, as their flesh chars, smokes, and sloughs away.

The exact amount of damage a vampire takes is related to their age and their power, and the intensity of the daylight. 

Using Breath of Life moves the damage down one level of intensity.

For player character vampires, the rate of damage is as follows:

• 1 point of wound damage per round if they are fully exposed, during a bright, cloudless day

• 1 point of wound damage per minute (10 rounds) if they are mostly covered (revealing only the barest amount of flesh), or if it is an overcast day

• 1 point of wound damage every 10 minutes if they are both mostly covered, and it is an overcast day, or if the vampire is out during a particularly intense storm or in thick fog.

• 1 point of wound damage every hour if a fully-covered vampire uses their Breath of Life ability on an overcast day.

The damage dealt by sunlight cannot be decreased below 1 per hour except through powerful magics. It can be increased above 1 per round in certain specific conditions.

Bloodline Weaknesses

Alukah: The Sacred Bane

Alukah are the eldest bloodline of vampires, descended, according to the legends, from Cain himself. Alukah thus suffer the traditional weaknesses of a vampire to an even greater degree. An Alukah treats their protection from sunlight as one worse than what it would be for other bloodlines of vampires. In addition, Alukah are Vulnerable to Radiant damage and any blessed weapon.

Jiangshi: The Rotting Bane

Jiangshi suffer more from their dead nature than other bloodlines of vampires. Rigor mortis sets in easier, and during topor, mold grows over their flesh. It is clear to even the Sleeping that there is something "off" about a jiangshi. Activating the Breath of Life takes 2 anima for a Jiangshi. A Jiangshi also takes a -2 penalty to their Dodge defence due to their stiff joints.

Strigoi: The Prideful Bane

The Strigoi are the nobility of the night, descended from rules such as Vlad Dracula and Elizabeth Bathory. But just as glory is in their blood, so is madness. A Strigoi suffers a -2 penalty to their Resolve defence.

In addition, a Strigoi cannot cross a threshold or enter a private dwelling uninvited without suffering a crippling psyhic pain that inflicts a -2 to all checks as long as the vampire remains inside.

Finally, Strigoi are repulsed by garlic. Being exposed to cloves of garlic causes a similar psychic pressure that entering into a home uninvited causes, inflicting a -2 penalty on all checks as long as the Vampire remains within 1 range of the garlic. A strigoi trying to enter a home uninvited, when that home has been warded with garlic, takes a cumulative -4 penalty to all checks. 

Valravn: The Feral Bane

The first valravn were warriors cursed by Odin, and the spirit of battle continues to flow in this bloodline. A Valravn suffers a -2 penalty to their Composure defence, and they suffer a -2 penalty to Resolve checks to resist going into a Frenzy.

In addition, when a Valravn is below their anima threshold, their bestial nature comes to the fore, their claws and fangs emerging and their eyes glowing red. While they remain below their anima threshold, they suffer a -2 penalty to all Charisma-based checks.

Vetala: The Hedonist Bane

The Vetala are obsessed with beauty in all its forms. When they're confronted by a scene of beauty--be it a person, a place or an event--a Vetala has to make a Resolve check to avoid becoming Fascinated.

In addition, prayers and mantras wrack a Vetala with pain. Each minute a Vetala is exposed to prayers, they take 1d8 points of Vital damage and must make a Shadow check to avoid entering a Frenzy.