Author Topic: Twilight vamps  (Read 14164 times)

Offline Sanctaphrax

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Re: Twilight vamps
« Reply #30 on: January 16, 2013, 07:53:09 PM »
How many of them are there? And how well do they reproduce?

If there aren't too many, the White Council could probably exterminate 'em.

Offline Hick Jr

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Re: Twilight vamps
« Reply #31 on: January 16, 2013, 08:01:48 PM »
As an interbreeding between a Sidhe and the White Court, I'd give them the whole Inhuman package with Optional upgrades to Supernatural , glamours, Incite Emotion(Awe), and both True Love and Cold Iron as the Catch.
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Offline Adin

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Re: Twilight vamps
« Reply #32 on: January 16, 2013, 09:58:53 PM »
Given how incredibly dull they are as written let's instead try to salvage something unique and interesting about them and see if we can make a template that is loosely inspired by them. 

So... If I remember correctly the reason for the sparkles related to their flesh being crystalline rather than fleshy.  That is fairly unique I think so let's run with it.  Picturing a damaged sparklepyre is at least interesting since their flesh would crack rather than tear when stressed to breaking points.  They are also strongest on the day they rise and grow physically weaker as they age which is also an interesting inversion of typical vampire lore.


Our vamps will be inspired by the hopping vampires of Asian mythology.  Creatures that slowly lose their ability to move, eventually becoming malevolent statues which only the younger members of the court can still communicate with via a psychic hive mind. 


The template: Jiang Shi a.k.a. the "porcelain dolls"

Begin with mythic strength, speed, recovery, and toughness.  Within a year all except toughness reduces to supernatural and in ten years to inhuman.  After fifty years they lose all these powers as their bodies slow down after a century they can no longer move on their own.  Any human who saw one would think it was a detailed porcelain or marble statue.  The catch is blunt weapons like hammers, maces, or anything else that could break stone like explosives. 


While they grow weaker physically they are gaining psychic powers.  When turned, they gain a Hive mind power, (something similar to pack instincts with long range telepathy built in,) this allows them to retain some individuality but also be fanatically loyal to their elders.  This also keeps them from drawing attention to themselves.  The elders know just how easily an angry mob could shatter them as they lay helplessly even though the younger vampires could get away with it.

After losing the mythic levels they gain incite emotion.  After losing the supernatural levels they gain dominate.  Upon losing the inhuman levels they get master dominator, psycometry, and any other powers that make sense.  When they become entirely immobile they gain a power similar to possession which allows them to attempt to possess nearby people or creatures for short periods until the body 'burns out.'  Their statue-like body is left behind helplessly while they are doing this, but it is the closest thing to independant mobility the jiang shi get as elders.

They also have a blood based feeding dependency until they freeze solid.  If they go without feeding they will eventually go into the statue phase prematurely without developing the corresponding psychic powers. 

Throw in venomous claws and that should cover everything.  What do you guys think?


Offline Theonlyspiral

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Re: Twilight vamps
« Reply #33 on: January 16, 2013, 10:25:03 PM »
I may use these guys as an Ivory or Jade court vampires in my game. I like them a lot.
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Offline potestas

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Re: Twilight vamps
« Reply #34 on: January 17, 2013, 02:54:13 PM »
yeah the frozen statue thing kind of isn't them at all, the voltari are over 5k years old and still moving around quite a bit, and while they are not as as strong as new borns they don't ever get as weak as that. the new born strength is fueled by there own human blood.

 i would keep everything at the supernatural strength and speed, rather then try to figure out a specific catch for physical immunity I would give them mythic toughness, no catches if the ability normally requires, but assume any attack or power that gets by it does whatever damage it can do against armor 3, i would give them inhuman recovery to help speed the healing process. If you even wanted to simulate the newborn strength I would keep everything at supernatural and just add some extra bonus to the benefits of supernatural strength a high bonus on grappling. Its such a tiny period of their existence that i wouldn't build the template around it. Newborns cannot use any fighting skill whatsoever, they simply do not have the control for it, so make all their weapons and fist skills mediocre for the duration of the new born phase. established vampires don't have issues killing them, they just don't want to be grabbed by them. In the southern wars they made armys of them(10-20 at time) and used over whelming numbers to kill established covens. Remember established covens don't number over 3 in the norm, 4-5 would be the most and only in wartime for self protection. Even when the invaders did this most of the new borns ended up dead.

They can be hurt if hit hard enough by say other vampires and a were creatures teeth can cut the skin and a wizard should be able to use spirit(force), well enough to bypass the mythic toughness. Once you exceed their stress and consequence simply declare that they have been broken into a few moving pieces that are trying to reassemble themselves. now you burn them with any type of fire doesn't have to be munch a lighter should do and boom dead vamp.

If you don't have the mojo to kill them quick enough any effect that will suspend them in mid air should give you enough time to escape. Without leverage no amount of strength is impressive.

as for their other powers something for the senses, the venom should have two effects, if you get bitten it uses pain to paralyze, those of enough will or enough fate points might be able to throw it off but that should be checked every few passes. The side effect though is in 2-3 days you become a vampire of the same make. There is no cure if the venom isn't dealt with before it spreads to far. Most do not have abilities beyond this. Those that do are rare. When they do have abilities the largest group are mental and emotional controls or defenses. Very few powers extend to the physical. Also once turned they do not change.

They are set for eternity.

This can mean a lot depending on how you want to play it. Can they improve skills or are they stuck where they are forever. If they do not already know something can they learn to do it. For balance I would have to say no, especially to learning any type of magic. Skills could be put on a huge learning curve. In the books the biggest thing to change a vampire was love, with that they could become or learn something needed to make it possible and once they love they never stop. (it was a romance story after all)

Vampires enter a feeding frenzy when they taste human blood so its difficult for them to make other vamps, they normally just eat the dude they bite. Carlyle was the only one who didn't have this issue and Edward and alice could avoid it for Bella only. Every other vampire simply hoped they could stop before they killed the person they wanted to change. This is why there aren't many vamps of this type, they simply cant not kill something they bite and their victims simply don't have any ability to escape them whether bitten once or not. a roll to avoid blood lust and a fairly high one at that. They also get this way with spilled blood even tiny amounts but the roll is a bit easier. This includes well fed vamps so it is a very debilitating  drawback. It makes it difficult for them to be in the presence of humans if they haven't fed recently. And as long as they don't taste it even if they fail the blood lust roll they can hold it in check long enough to stalk the victim to somewhere safe to eat. This should be played up as its the main reason these vamps dont go near humans and generally only associate with other vamps

This is also the misconception of critics of the story that say Edward was a stalker and Bella a willing abusey  (sic). Edward was constantly fighting they vampiric urge to kill her and the moral urge to love her. Myers has written a book called midnight sun which is a retelling of book one from Edwards perspective. This book is much better at explaining the nature of Myers vampires and their way of life. She keeps it on line and its only 183 pages. She does not intend to finish it???? But as a a resource and explanation of her vampires its very good. Her site also contains other short blurbs about them that proved very helpful.

 A wizard would probably lose the ability to use magic for at least the first year, he wouldn't have the control needed to use it. Could u imagine a member of the white council who was also this kind of vampire.

I didn't mean for this to be so long

Offline Taran

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Re: Twilight vamps
« Reply #35 on: January 17, 2013, 03:05:48 PM »
@Adin:  cool vamps.  I imagine a room with crystal statues and any mortals that walk in there become thralls that sacrafice themselves to feed the vamps...

@potestas:
I've just been following...and have no knowledge of twilight, but from you say,

The Catch for their toughness/recovery would be:  1 mild consequences (or maybe a moderate) + any fire.

So you have to batter them until they take a consequence and from then on any fire attacks would beat their toughness.

From how you describe their feeding dependancy, they seem to have VERY low discipliine...or at least an aspect that would be compelled every time there is blood present.


Offline potestas

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Re: Twilight vamps
« Reply #36 on: January 17, 2013, 03:27:17 PM »
@Adin:  cool vamps.  I imagine a room with crystal statues and any mortals that walk in there become thralls that sacrafice themselves to feed the vamps...

@potestas:
I've just been following...and have no knowledge of twilight, but from you say,

The Catch for their toughness/recovery would be:  1 mild consequences (or maybe a moderate) + any fire.

So you have to batter them until they take a consequence and from then on any fire attacks would beat their toughness.

From how you describe their feeding dependancy, they seem to have VERY low discipliine...or at least an aspect that would be compelled every time there is blood present.

The feeding issue is a big thing in the books and in the movies and  books, has been used against them for advantage. So it would be appropriate to do this. Their survival instinct is the only thing that rates higher. An aspect would be a good way to represent this.

Offline Adin

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Re: Twilight vamps
« Reply #37 on: January 17, 2013, 08:06:05 PM »
yeah the frozen statue thing kind of isn't them at all, the voltari are over 5k years old and still moving around quite a bit, and while they are not as as strong as new borns they don't ever get as weak as that. the new born strength is fueled by there own human blood.

That was the point.  Other posters had commented that the twi vamp 'diamond court' offerings that had been put forward so far that were faithful to the books, were basically "feeding dependency brick: the vampire."  I wanted to design a vamp that cribbed what I thought were the two interesting and original ideas from twilight and exaggerate them until they became genuinely cool (crystalline flesh and growing weaker with age.)  So I created a court that in the young phase is superficially similar to twi vamps, enough so that you can see why they would commission twilight as a propaganda piece, which seemed to be what a lot of people in the thread so far were looking for.  I then added the hive mind to explain why the young ones haven't conquered the world, since the elders have a damn good reason not to risk it.

I'm considering giving the same treatment to meyer werewolves if anyone is interested, though they are even more boring than her vampires.


I also had a thought.  After my 'porcelain doll' jiang shi reach the statue phase of their life cycle, their outer skin layer could begin to wear away revealing a less detailed statue resembling jade, and giving them a good reason to be the jade court if you want to go that route. 

Offline Richard_Chilton

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Re: Twilight vamps
« Reply #38 on: January 17, 2013, 09:13:51 PM »
Just a note:
My understanding is that the sparkles were added for the movie.  The author said they had diamond skin, referring to it being as hard as diamond and the director of the first movie misunderstood.  Since he couldn't show the vampires with diamond skin (at least not without blowing the CGI budget) he showed it sparkling like a diamonds.

Richard

Offline Adin

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Re: Twilight vamps
« Reply #39 on: January 17, 2013, 09:39:15 PM »
Nah, I did read the books years ago (I've mostly recovered) and they are described as sparkling in sunlight.  That was her justification for why they weren't seen out in the day.

Offline Richard_Chilton

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Re: Twilight vamps
« Reply #40 on: January 18, 2013, 02:48:33 AM »
Darn.

There goes the one piece of "it's not all the author's fault" that I thought existed.

Richard

Offline Hick Jr

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Re: Twilight vamps
« Reply #41 on: January 18, 2013, 03:17:12 AM »
Funnily, White Court Vampires appeared in the Dresden files about four years before the Sparklies appeared in Twilight. I thought it was the other way around.

And it's absolutely her fault.
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Offline Tedronai

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Re: Twilight vamps
« Reply #42 on: January 18, 2013, 03:30:57 AM »
For the Lulz, for those who are so inclined, a 'let's read' blog of the twilight novels:
http://community.sparknotes.com/2009/07/16/blogging-twilight-index-page
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Offline tymire

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Re: Twilight vamps
« Reply #43 on: January 18, 2013, 06:53:40 PM »
Always was kinda curious how that worked actually. 

If you have diamond skin (like mythic toughness) could you really feel anything?  Nevermind, if they are actually that tough/strong/whatever, wouldn't it almost be like making love to a marble statue.  Talk about chilly, uncomfortable, and possibly extremely painful.

Definately Mary Sues.  TBH, it seems like the entire urban fantasy genre is getting like this (it's mostly from the female writers).  Jim's work is a nice change of pace as he pretty puts all his character's through the ringer.  I wouldn't be surprised if some stuttering guy runs over one of the major people with a concrete roller sometime in the next few books.

PS: Love the write up for those Adin.  Only issue is that starting with having mythic EVERYTHING might be a bit much.  If they did, I would make it where they can be dominated by any that are older and have little to no free will and are not driven completely mad by bloodlust (or they would just kill anything they see).  Also you might want to consider making it where creating one is a major undertaking and somehow links them to their creator, that would get rid of the possibly of creating a bunch to use as disposables which has also been done to death. 
« Last Edit: January 18, 2013, 07:02:10 PM by tymire »

Offline Deadmanwalking

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Re: Twilight vamps
« Reply #44 on: January 18, 2013, 07:39:39 PM »
Definately Mary Sues.  TBH, it seems like the entire urban fantasy genre is getting like this (it's mostly from the female writers).  Jim's work is a nice change of pace as he pretty puts all his character's through the ringer.  I wouldn't be surprised if some stuttering guy runs over one of the major people with a concrete roller sometime in the next few books.

Uh...you and I have not been reading the same urban fantasy. And most of mine's been written by female writers, too. So, uh, I disagree? Would you like some recommendations?