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From: Matb <mbreton@**.NETCOM.COM>
Subject: Re: Vampire ideas and stuff
Date: Thu, 10 Dec 1998 19:11:08 -0800
Donald Arganbright wrote:

Note: Cleaned these up a little bit.

Regeneration seems okay, although it's also ridiculously strong -- and
of the two guys I spotted who had it, one's a 7/8. I've gone two routes
with cards of my own:

- Remove one damage counter or Virus token during the Refresh phase,
without needing to turn.

- Remove all damage counters at the /end/ of the turn if the Runner is
unturned.

Ascension seems for keyed toward being a special; that, or an ability
common to all Vampires. But I've never been into the White Wolf
hierarchy of all things fanged - alas, alack; all this talk of elders
and incarnu means nothing to me.

One in-general problem that I saw was that nearly all of these were
buff, buff guys with high skills to boot. Buff isn't bad; high-skill
isn't bad; but both together create some unbalanced Runners.

Moreover, with a lot of *new* Runners with high skills, it becomes
tempting in the next expansion to create *new* Challenges with high
sleaze requirements (so the *new* guys are actually challenged) -- and
this simply means that the *old* Runners are all now behind-the-times,
last-year's-tech -- possibly symbolically important, but, gamewise, a
very bad maneuver.

Vampires, being - well, not-nice - should also have a large drawback
associated with them: They Need To Feed. /Most/ of the Runners that
follow have no drawback, and certainly nothing like the lust that sounds
a vampire out into the night.

Onto individual cards.


> Neerith Davenshade / Prime Vampire / 8/1¥
7/4 (A1). Anti-social. Stealth-3. If Neerith is not holding Gear, any
damage (s)he deals is Silenced. Frag a Runner from yuor hand to heal
Neerith.
"I kill only for food, health, and pleasure"

My major beef with this Runner was the skills -- two uncommon skills at
extreme levels doth not a balanced card make. Stealth is probably the
more 'in-flavor' of the two skills, and the Challenges that require it
fit in well (notably various security guards, and a Hellhound that might
be influenced.)
=

> Kilm / Vampire / 7¥
4/6. Melee-1, Piloting-1, Streetwise-1. Double the Armor bonus of any
Vehicle Kilm is using.
"The roar of my engine is more satisfying than my victim's screams"

No real comment on this one; just tidied up the Armor ability. I'd like
to see more Riggers that benefit from using Vehicles, since (except the
Rapier and Yellowjacket) I rarely see any get used. Of course, there
aren't that many Vehicles in the game -- an oversight that needs
correcting...

> Kitar Havensteed / Vampire Assasin / 7¥
4/5 (A1). Melee-2. 3¥: Turn Kitar to engage target opponent Runner
with a higher Attack rating in Runner vs. Runner combat. Place a +1/+1
token on Kitar for every runner Kitar kills this way.
"The strong never pray on the weak... there is no honor in that."

Strangely enough, there was an almost *identical* Runner in Corp War.

But - ditto the thing with Neerith. While it's nice to see guys with
high skills, someone super-specialized in one skill really shouldn't
have any others -- Louie da Bruiser and Foxy both fit in this mold;
Torgo gets away with his nasty upkeep and Fastjack is, well, Fastjack. =

But at least Kitar's Melee works against him; at least for his early
career you won;t want to give him a Katana - but after three or four
kills, give him the Katana and send him running.

I condensed the language some, and, most dramatically, only assigned the
bonus when Kitar 'assassinated' a Runner - normal R-v-R combat, a la
Wanted and Bar Fight, wouldn't work. That's not really in flavor, but
seems more balanced.

> The Turned / Vampire Thug / 2¥
You may have any number of The Turned in your deck.

A *real* Tanaka.

> Brock Strongfuller / Immortal Vampire / 8/2¥
7/8 (A1). Regeneration, Unique. Leadership-2, Melee-2, Social-1. If
Brock is trashed, he is fragged. 4¥: Return Brock to your safehouse an=
d
put a permanent -1/-1 token on him. Play this ability only when he is
fragged.
"You will never be rid of me or my kind ... We are the strong"

I don't really see the point of having a Runner with both Regeneration
and Stamina; both are going to keep him from feeling damage.

I upped the Upkeep cost; with the high Threat and well-rounded skills,
he deserved it. I altered the return-to-play substantially; as written
previously, it was far, far too expensive. This keeps Brock around, but
makes each regeneration a bit more painful. The 'frag when trashed' text
just makes sure those tokens don't disappear: when he's gone, he's gone
for good.

> Winston / Vampire / 7¥
6/4. Firearms-1, Streetwise-1, Athletics-1. Hermit, Regeneration.
"I hide until needed ... Then strike without warning."

No real comment.

> Conrad Uerrentilli / Vampire Decker / 5¥
2/4. Decking-1, Technical-1. If Conrad is assisting in a shadowrun and
the alarm is triggered, he immediately jacks out (and may no longer
assist in the shadowrun).
"I may be the living dead... but I don't want to die again."

AEX had a (rather) similar Runner, Cobarde, and I found that the ability
to return to the safehouse is actually a positive thing; more than
keeping out of danger's way, it gives you a sort-of-free Recon.

Game balance: With two (again, fairly uncommon) skills at high levels,
this guy is going to make sure that the alarm never gets triggered - so
his 'drawback' (which isn't really a drawback anyway) disappears.

First time I've used the phrase 'jack out' for Deckers. I think I like
it.
=

> Nevell Doceturn / Vampire Rocker / 4¥
3/4. Fame-2. Nevell cannot be deployed if you have no vampire runners
in play. Trash Nevell if you have no vampires in play.
"He only does night concerts... funny how they always get bloody"

Well-balanced. Sort of. Fame-2 is awfully powerful, and this guy is
only going to be used in a vampire deck - so the requirement and
drawback really don't mean much. I might change this to:

> Phoebe Rayburne / Vampire Rocker / 4¥
3/4. Fame-1. Turn Phoebe Rayburne and frag a non-Vampire Runner you
control to give Phoebe Fame+1 until the end of the game.

Besides .. who on earth would have a stage name like Nevell Doceturn? =

:)

> Silver Bullets / Gear (Ammo / Accessory) / 2¥ =

Play on any Pistol, Rifle, or SMG. Vampires struck by Silver Bullets
take triple damage. User may only use one type of Ammo per combat.

Streamlined this to meet the rest of the Ammo cards (and changed it to
triple all damage, not just the gun's Attack bonus). But like most
Ammo, I wouldn't expect to see it used very much.

> Nosferatu Lair / Location / 2¥

As originally written, vastly, vastly overpowered - a Coffin Hotel that
both protects your Runners better /and/ earns money while doing that.

> Blood Bank / Location / 4¥
1¥: Turn a visiting Runner to visit Blood Bank. That Runner takes one
armor-piercing damage. Add a number of Blood tokens to Blood Bank equal
to that Runner's remaining Body.
1¥: Turn a Vampire Runner to visit to visit Blood Bank and place a Bloo=
d
token from Blood Bank onto that Runner. Runner holding Blood token may
trash it at any time to gain +2/+0 until the end of turn.
"What flavor wouldya like -- we got dwarf, troll ... "

Changed this around a bit: Every blood bank needs a donor, after all.

That being said, I really don't feel Vampires need to be made any
tougher.

> The Thirst / Special / 4/1¥
Target vampire cannot unturn unless its controller frags a Runner from
his or her safehouse.
"One can only hunt ... when the thirst takes over."

Mmmmkay.

> The Turning / Special / 2¥
Deploy onto target runner. Target runner is considered a Vampire until
end of game. You may turn a Vampire Runner you control instead of
paying the deployment cost.
"Got blood?"

Upped the base deployment to equal the cost of In The Family and The
Eternal Vow (and even then, I feel turning into a vampire should cost
more). Thought about extending the "Turn a Vampire.." clause to being a
set requirement: need a leech to make a leech, after all.

> Blood Party / Special / 0¥
Turn X Vampires and add X+1 to your credstick.
"When the blood flows, so does the money."

I dunno - you don't normally hear about Vampires rolling in the dough. =

Only the ancient ones with lots of accumulated wealth. With Doceturn,
you don't really *need* much money, anyway.

> Ray of Sunlight / Special (Stinger) / 1¥
Immediately return target Vampire to the safehouse turned OR inflict one
armor-piercing damage on a Vampire Challenge or turned Vampire Runner.
"Bright light! Bright light!"

I really liked Neorazorboy's ideas about daytime/nighttime in the SRTCG
game (which ties in really well with this vampire thing), so I changed
the name. I kind of like cards that have more than one purpose.

> Silver Cross / Gear (Miscellaneous) / 3¥
User may not be damaged by Vampire Runners or Challenges.
"It may be made of silver, but its worth its weight in gold."

It's got nice flavor text :) Seriously, it's an alright card, in the
same way that Enviro-Bodysuit is a nice card: it works well, but only
against one enemy (even expanding it to include Challenges, as I did).

> Feeding Time / Special / 3¥
Turn any Vampire Runner in play to attack target Runner in Runner vs.
Runner combat. If the Vampire Runner had a lower initial Attack Rating
than its opponent and wins, the Vampire gains a +1/+1 Blood token.

Here's a neat twist: Choose any Vampire in play to be your attacking
Runner. Want to use Bob's Runner to knock off Steve's Deckers? Well,
when the wind screams hunger into your ears, and it's time to feed....

There'd be some questions bound to arise, though: Bob's Vamp is still
Bob's Vamp, meaning he'd have to pay for any Burst Fire rolls, or choose
to use any spells his Runner was holding; I suppose this would also
eliminate cards like Hokaheh! from the AEX set, which can only be played
on your Runners.


All in all: interesting, but the Vampires need a stronger glue to hold
them together. Lone Star has its arrests, and Gangers have street
brawls (and even Amerinds have a common theme, of working with the
removed-from-game stack); Vampires should be driven by the need to
bleed, but, except one or two Specials (which most people won't play
with, simply because their too limited in effect), there are no big
drawbacks to being a Vampire. High stats, good skills; they'd need
something to balance them out anyway.

My initial proposal to FASA was for the Containment Zone expansion;
while it focused on the aftershocks of Bug City (meaning lots of Insect
spirits, and general chaos amid the rubble) it did include HMHVV, the
Human/Metahuman Vampiric Virus. I'll post my initial ideas on that
later this evening; although they were (and still are) only very rough
ideas.


- Matt

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