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Vampires

Posted: Wed Oct 10, 2018 7:49 pm
by TheOracle
Earthdawn has an incredible number of different creatures and monsters. Actually, all the classics are there. Why aren't there any vampires in Earthdawn? Is it because of the previous connection to Shadowrun?

Re: Vampires

Posted: Wed Oct 10, 2018 10:35 pm
by Mataxes
From what I can recall about stuff Lou Prosperi (the ED1 line developer) said, one of the concerns with vampires arose from the power and significance of blood magic in the Earthdawn setting. When you're dealing with a creature that feeds on blood, that needs to be considered.

In some of the old development notes left behind after the ED1 line was shuttered, developing an Earthdawn vampire was on the radar, but nothing concrete was put together (at least that I've been able to find).

If we develop them for ED4, I'd want to make sure they get a suitably "Earthdawn" slant.

Re: Vampires

Posted: Thu Oct 11, 2018 1:51 pm
by ragbasti
Had that dicussion a while back with my group. Never actually occured to me how problematic vampires would be since blood magic is such a big thing.
Interesting :D

Re: Vampires

Posted: Fri Oct 12, 2018 8:32 am
by TheOracle
Mataxes wrote:
Wed Oct 10, 2018 10:35 pm
From what I can recall about stuff Lou Prosperi (the ED1 line developer) said, one of the concerns with vampires arose from the power and significance of blood magic in the Earthdawn setting. When you're dealing with a creature that feeds on blood, that needs to be considered.

In some of the old development notes left behind after the ED1 line was shuttered, developing an Earthdawn vampire was on the radar, but nothing concrete was put together (at least that I've been able to find).

If we develop them for ED4, I'd want to make sure they get a suitably "Earthdawn" slant.
Interesting, thank you Josh! It really seemed like a design decision and not like an oversight. I guess as GM I could always introduce a vampire-like horror...

Re: Vampires

Posted: Fri Oct 12, 2018 1:33 pm
by Tattered Rags
Vampirism should probably use the new Masks system to alter existing creatures. Add "undead" type, karma stealing powers, blood magic powers. Probably one set of masks for creatures and another set for Namegivers.

Vampire Dragons.....hmmmm....


Likely vampirism would be a result of magical experimentation with Blood magic causing the resultant entity to now require blood magic to survive.

Re: Vampires

Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2018 3:47 pm
by Geekabilly
I created a Pattern Vampire Horror for my campaign. I ran a one off based on the Dunwich Horror and it went over quite well. It fed off of Karma and de-pattened it's victims leaving behind grisly corpses

Re: Vampires

Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2018 5:46 pm
by LouP
Hello,
Mataxes wrote:
Wed Oct 10, 2018 10:35 pm
From what I can recall about stuff Lou Prosperi (the ED1 line developer) said, one of the concerns with vampires arose from the power and significance of blood magic in the Earthdawn setting. When you're dealing with a creature that feeds on blood, that needs to be considered.

In some of the old development notes left behind after the ED1 line was shuttered, developing an Earthdawn vampire was on the radar, but nothing concrete was put together (at least that I've been able to find).

If we develop them for ED4, I'd want to make sure they get a suitably "Earthdawn" slant.
Yes, we deliberately avoided vampires because I felt that given the role of blood magic in ED, vampires should be something special, and the story we were telling didn't lend itself (yet) to exploring what vampires could and should be.

This is also why I ended up regretting the reference to a vampire in an example related to pattern items. I tried my best to avoid talking about that example, and noted it as "not canon".

The plan at the time (back in 1998) was to explore vampires and other undead in detail in a book called "Vivane: City of the Dead" which would focus on the state of Vivane *after* the events of FASA's "Barsaive at War" (specifically the combination of the Horror Cloud and a large magical explosion over Vivane).


Take Care!

Lou

Re: Vampires

Posted: Sun Nov 25, 2018 8:59 am
by Kosmit
I think if there would be a vampire it would be a really powerful horror, not an entire different type of creatures.

Re: Vampires

Posted: Sun Nov 25, 2018 10:57 pm
by Geekabilly
We don't need to necessarily go down the Horror route for a Vampire. My old GM had them as Nethermantic spirits that possessed Namegivers. Worked quite well because we didn't have a clue how to combat them at first, they were strange alien spirits from the depths of Astral Space, hungry for the blood of the living.

Re: Vampires

Posted: Thu Dec 06, 2018 1:39 am
by Slimcreeper
Or a cult obsessed with blood magic and a ritual that could change your dietary requirements to blood-only.