Message no. 1

From:	John Lambertson <john_lambertson@****.FWS.GOV>
Subject:	SR+Storytellerºlanced Vampire PC's(long)
Date:	Thu, 13 Jul 1995 12:43:23 MST

In the campaign I am currently involved in, the GM is doing a sort of
crossover from Storyteller for the Vampire and possibly shapeshifter
rules. We had a nasty run in which we found vampires working on a
sunlight allergy cure(80% effective according to the lab results).
Needles to say, we used many kilos of c12 that day. Because of the
political situation, my character was turned into a vampire. The
basic premise was this:

Vampires(a la Storyteller) have rules of conduct. One of these is to
never tell anyone about vampire society. The entire group of runners
learned way more than we should have(thought control on a weak vampire
to make him our dearest friend). We thought all of us would have to
become vampires to save our butts. If we knew the secrets, but were
vampires, technically that's OK by vampire rules of conduct, so we
should be safe(yeah, right).

Anyway, we had some very incriminating data that the Prince of New
Orleans didn't want leaked to the public, so we made a deal and the
rest of the group stayed human(or whatever).

Now I'm trying to find a cure for vampirism based on the allergy cure
the other vampires were working on.

The point of all this is balance all depends on how the game is
played. If the entire group had become vampires, it would have gotten
way out of control. As it stands, my character is fairly weak in most
areas. He's a former street cop who becomes magically active late in
life. He started the game with Sorcery 1, and has already worked his
way up to Sorcery 2! He has a magic theory 3, and 5 force points in
spells. He is a good shot with a pistol, but doesn't have any bio or
cyber. Next to the really jacked up members of the party, he's still
weak. He's never been injured, because by the time his turn comes
around, all the enemies are dead, so the regeneration isn't really a
factor anyway. It's as if 4 rounds of combat go by for every one of
his actions, because everyone else is so fast.

In the hands of mini-maxing-munchkins, vampires would destroy a
balanced game; of that I have no doubt. I also think that vampires
without any sort of checks and balances(complex controlling society)
would also be a little out of hand. I think my GM has come up with a
good balance that will afford me a good role-playing experience
without overpowering the campaign.

Has anyone else tried something like this?

John

john_lambertson@****.fws.gov

My opinions are my own