Templates

[Baelor]

Mr. Jupiter's fine work on Archetype builds made me think of doing up some Templates. The idea is that these are like the boilerplate for a race or creature in a game. Of course they are likely to be campaign specific to some degree, and may not be a complete record of all the powers that a particular type can have. But all members of the particular type have these common things.

Here is the Vampire Template for my campaign. Sparkles are not listed in the Template, and so should be considered optional [at best].

What I like about templates is that they can be applied to anyone, even a PC hero, even after character creation. Keeping this in mind, the Ability scores in the template are listed as bonuses to existing stats rather than as scores in their own right. So a character with 2 Brawn that becomes a vampire has her Brawn go up to 3. If the bonuses shown here are too much for you, feel free to reduce them to Heightened Power 2 and spread the points around Brawn and Agility as you see fit. This would reduce the cost of the Template to 2 points.

Vampire Template [Cost 4 Power Points]
[Abilities 4, Weaknesses – 8, Disadvantages -1, Powers 9]


Base Ability Score bonuses: B x1 A x1 M -

Weaknesses: Vulnerability– Direct Sunlight -2; Devastating Damaging Weakness – called shot [wooden stake to the heart] -4, Vulnerability – Holy symbols -2;

Advantages: Frightening Presence; Unliving

Disadvantages: Blood Dependency – Susceptibility [-3 B] - Must consume blood each night; Susceptibility [-3 A] – Garlic; cannot enter a ‘home’;

Powers: Clinging 1; Darkvision 1; Life draining bite – Continual damage x2 [extra effect if in contact with target’s ‘skin’], linked [Dependant on] to Weaken 2 Brawn, [Limitation - must succeed with a grab] 4; Healing 2 [affects undead, self only] 3;


Vampires are undead creatures created by other vampires. They may be handsome, grotesque, or utterly unassuming in appearance. They must consume blood to survive, and are subject to the usual vampiric weaknesses of folklore. If a character slain by a vampire’s bite is fed vampiric blood as she dies, she will rise as a vampire the following night unless preventative measures are taken. If it suits the campaign, new vampires are under the effects of Mind Control by their creator.

N.B. 'Dependant On' is understood to mean that the Weaken only affects the target IF the target takes any damage from the Bite [Continuous Attack].