Other Vampires. What's everyones opinion and thoughts on how they should be created and played in roleplays?

[StormWolf]

There's literally a scene where some Vampires massacre a whole village as part of a hunt because they're bored.
Even if you're meant to sympathise with Dracula, he's still a monster who wants to genocide humanity. The fact that the most "human" pureblood Vampire is a vengeful, genocidal maniac really says something about the other Vampires in that series.

I sympathize with Dracula because he's not a vampire. He's a disenfranchised Dungeon Master who is sick of all the murderhobos in his campaign. His castle IS POWERED by a d20, after all.

But you are correct, and I honestly completely glossed over Castlevania. Bad, me!

Oh, another great deviation is the Stragoi in The Secret World.

 

[The Mad Queen]

I sympathize with Dracula because he's not a vampire. He's a disenfranchised Dungeon Master who is sick of all the murderhobos in his campaign. His castle IS POWERED by a d20, after all.

Oh my God...I'm Dracula, you're Dracula.
We're all Dracula.


Watching this scene back, Dracula seems like he's standing over a problem player at his table.

 

[QuirkyAngel]

Twilight, True Blood, Vampire Diaries, and a mess of Anime/Mangas have established a dreadfully sterile and squeaky-clean version of the vampire that I find boring, bland, and distasteful.

It really depends on the preferred genre how the vampire turns out. Twilight isn't meant to be a horror. It's romance. Therefore the vampire was softened to cater to its audience. Opinions of the book withheld, it makes sense to portray the vampire in that light because otherwise romance would not progress between the characters. Practically every vampire in the romance genre would suffer the same sterile/squeaky-clean-ness for the same reason. Therefore, the solution to returning to the grotesque versions would be to change the genre. Remove the vampire from romance and the "clean" versions would no longer be necessary.

The vampire is originally a monster in horror. While I do enjoy the dark portrayals of vampires, I can't say I'm particularly bothered by said classic monster slipping into other genres either. Horror is nice. Too much gives me nightmares.

 

[The Mad Queen]

It really depends on the preferred genre how the vampire turns out. Twilight isn't meant to be a horror. It's romance. Therefore the vampire was softened to cater to its audience. Opinions of the book withheld, it makes sense to portray the vampire in that light because otherwise romance would not progress between the characters. Practically every vampire in the romance genre would suffer the same sterile/squeaky-clean-ness for the same reason. Therefore, the solution to returning to the grotesque versions would be to change the genre. Remove the vampire from romance and the "clean" versions would no longer be necessary.

If he was another kind of creature, the relationship would still be ridiculously toxic.
No wonder Twilight inspired 50 Shades of Grey.

That's a whole other can of worms though.

The only time I ever put a Vampire romance in anything it was a World of Darkness/Chronicles of Darkness thing where a Mage and a Vampire got together, but didn't have a physically intimate relationship due to the Vampire's fear of losing control. She only drank his blood in emergencies and even then begged for him to stake her if she drained too much blood.
Worth noting that Vampires in the Masquerade and Requiem systems go into a coma when staked through the heart, rather than crumble into dust.

I find that White Wolf systems, Masquerade especially blends together the tragedy, horror but also sexual nature of the Vampire quite well.
Just look at Ghouls. They're basically drug-addicted sex-slaves most of the time. There also seems to be a type of Vampire for every vision a player can have. From the animalistic Gangrels to the high-society Ventrue. I need to mention Malkavians though, as they're my personal favourite.

Due to White Wolf being idiots I don't think we'll see Vampire or any of their other gamelines continue, which is a crying shame.

 

[StormWolf]

QuirkyAngel
While I'll nod to thematic nuance, the residual fallout of the aforementioned series' is the overall greater issue. The greater majority of Urban Fantasy movies, shows, novels, and comics that squarely fall anywhere but romance still use this spit-shined vampiric paragon, or at the very best a failed attempt at an anti-heroic archetype. I'm not saying vampires cannot or should not be alluring, on the contrary, make them the hominid version of the angler fish. Give them ways to lure in their prey.

But - pardon my french - holy fucking shit, there is a venerable glut of "that" kind of vampire. They aren't interesting anymore. They are, in fact, so trite and boring at this point, that any time a goddamn leech looks at someone through their eyebrows, I have to fight the urge to just abandon ship.

Spoiler: Rant

God...

Fucking...

Dammit...

...
And that's just things on film... It's come to the point where I just actively kill these types of vampires in tabletop. Thank you, Werewolf: The Apocalypse, for giving me such brutal, cleansing cathatrsis.

The Mad Queen
Yeah, V5 is still a hot mess, but Onyx Path is doing preliminary work on the next edition of Werewolf. Not sure if WTA or WTF, but that's something... and I've always preferred werewolves to vampires, both in general and in WW systems, but that is a whole layer cake on its own. I've found that I (previously) have enjoyed the lore of VtM's vampires and clans, but I always found the liberties players took with them to be what killed it for me. Again, because the vast majority defaults to the watered-down milksop vampires of popular fiction. If people played to their clan more frequently, they'd be way more interesting, in my opinion.

Remember, kids: Fight the Wyrm wherever it lives and breeds. Leeches count.

 

[The Mad Queen]

If people played to their clan more frequently, they'd be way more interesting, in my opinion.

The most interesting Ventrue I've ever played with took the whole high society thing in a different direction. His name was Galahad and the PC played his Ventrue like an Arthurian Knight. Due to being so pure however, he often ended up running low on blood as not only could he feed from chased women but he only fed from people who consented to it.
Keep in mind this was in 1930s LA. My character was a Malkavian named Sophia who seemed sane enough, a bit angry and petty sometimes...That was until someone touched her necklace or brought up her Sire.

Ended up staking her sire after the Camarilla was overthrown a few decades later before putting him in a big metal box and dumping it in the ocean.
Sophia was a bit more of a subtle Malkavian, I played her more like she had one or two screws loose and could snap at a given moment rather than my other Malkavian character who had "embraced" her madness and was at conflict with a split personality, who had sided with the Sabbat and had sired behind the Prince's back.
Only reason she lived was because the Prince was assassinated by cultists that night.

First Malkavian was all out (not quite FishMalv though), and the second was a slightly more realistic crazy.

 

[QuirkyAngel]

QuirkyAngel
While I'll nod to thematic nuance, the residual fallout of the aforementioned series' is the overall greater issue. The greater majority of Urban Fantasy movies, shows, novels, and comics that squarely fall anywhere but romance still use this spit-shined vampiric paragon, or at the very best a failed attempt at an anti-heroic archetype. I'm not saying vampires cannot or should not be alluring, on the contrary, make them the hominid version of the angler fish. Give them ways to lure in their prey.

But - pardon my french - holy fucking shit, there is a venerable glut of "that" kind of vampire. They aren't interesting anymore. They are, in fact, so trite and boring at this point, that any time a goddamn leech looks at someone through their eyebrows, I have to fight the urge to just abandon ship.

Spoiler: Rant

God...

Fucking...

Dammit...

...
And that's just things on film... It's come to the point where I just actively kill these types of vampires in tabletop. Thank you, Werewolf: The Apocalypse, for giving me such brutal, cleansing cathatrsis.

lol, I can understand. The predator-prey relationship between vampires and humans is one of those defining hallmarks that feels especially jarring when taken away. Like, are they even vampires anymore?

I'm more in line with Cosmo in that I like the internal struggle. Hence, "human" sensibilities. Moral conflict won't exist in a pure monster. It's easier for me to get into the mindset of a human than a psychotic killer that only lives to satiate its hunger. Easier to interact with other characters as well. Elegant and sophisticated is simply the character archetype I like to play.

If I had to pick a reason for the glut in Twilight-type vampires, it's that readers find them more...relatable. Stories about humans are always going to be more popular than stories about monsters. Monster-human crosses are the next best thing. People also like beautiful things. That's why the pretty elf and lovely mermaids will always be more popular than their uglier versions.

 

[StormWolf]

the reason for the Twilight vampires was for the stale wafer of a POV protagonist to have something to bang. There's more substance and relatability in a petry dish, because there is actually something growing in there.

What people tend to forget is that Vampires, by their nature as a fictional beast of Gothic origin, highlight certain aspects of the human condition. If we are going to attribute biblical style vices, nearly all can fit the bill, but depending on the character, there will be some vices in greater focus. There is, arguably, no greater monster than mankind, which is why these kinds of fictional beasts are made. With that in mind, if you want your vampire to be human, highlight them struggling against that core part of their nature, and have their nature always have the upper hand. If you look back on a previous post, the whole animal blood approach should make a vampire completely miserable, but they keep doing it because they fear what they'll do to their 'fellow' man. Vampyr did a great job portraying the vast swathe of Vampiric humanities, or lack thereof, without losing what makes them monsters. The protaginist, however, is prone to typical vampire boo-hooing, which is another irksome trope about them.

 

[Cosmo]

Aww, Getting quoted and what not for my vampire opinions. My life now has meaning once again.

 

[QuirkyAngel]

the reason for the Twilight vampires was for the stale wafer of a POV protagonist to have something to bang. There's more substance and relatability in a petry dish, because there is actually something growing in there.

What people tend to forget is that Vampires, by their nature as a fictional beast of Gothic origin, highlight certain aspects of the human condition. If we are going to attribute biblical style vices, nearly all can fit the bill, but depending on the character, there will be some vices in greater focus. There is, arguably, no greater monster than mankind, which is why these kinds of fictional beasts are made. With that in mind, if you want your vampire to be human, highlight them struggling against that core part of their nature, and have their nature always have the upper hand. If you look back on a previous post, the whole animal blood approach should make a vampire completely miserable, but they keep doing it because they fear what they'll do to their 'fellow' man. Vampyr did a great job portraying the vast swathe of Vampiric humanities, or lack thereof, without losing what makes them monsters. The protaginist, however, is prone to typical vampire boo-hooing, which is another irksome trope about them.

Haha, I don't really disagree with you.

Though the character development (or lack thereof) in Twilight and the author's reasons for doing so doesn't really have anything to do with why the less monster-versions of vampires have become more popular. I've only read the 1st book of Twilight at a friend's recommendation and stopped there, but I can remember certain concepts like 'mates', 'not really being affected by the sun', and the ever-popular 'sparkle' being added to the vampire lore. The divergence from the original beast to the tamer version, likely for convenience of genre, is probably made easier by the fact that vampires are monsters that share certain human qualities. Were once human in many lores. It's such aspects I like to explore when roleplaying a vampire. The vampire's relationship with death as well.

There is, arguably, no greater monster than mankind.

Agreed.

I'll probably add Vampyr to my bedtime reading list.