| From: | "Gurth" <gurth@******.nl> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Vampire --> SR, part 3 |
| Date: | Thu, 4 Apr 1996 21:55:08 +0100 |
Munchkin Warning
Let's start this off with a nice warning to all munchkins who are reading this and are
probably already
thinking of getting their Shadowrun character Embraced: the conversions below are meant to
convert a
Vampire: The Masquerade character to Shadowrun game terms, so you can play a Vampire
campaign in the
Shadowrun game world. They are /not/ aimed at creating a really powerful shadowrunner
character who
happens to be a vampire. As Ken Cliffe wrote to us when we proposed this article,
"the flavor and character of
Vampire must be maintained -- put on par with Shadowrun's atmosphere, not made subordinate
to it." Sure,
nobody's stopping you from making a vampire and running the shadows with him, but that's
not our intention.
Starting a Vampire chronicle in the Sixth World is, though using Shadowrun's rule system
instead of the one
provided with Vampire.
Why?
Now that's out of the way, you might be wondering "Why? What is this conversion going
to prove?"
Nothing whatsoever, probably. It's written to provide an alternative setting for Vampire
-- the Sixth World --
and though you could use Vampire characters and rules straight in this setting, we thought
it'd be better to
translate the vampires to Shadowrun rules. That way it fits in better with the rest of
Shadowrun's background
and source material, making it easier on everyone used to Shadowrun to play Kindred.
CHARACTER GENERATION
Players wanting to design a vampire character for use in Shadowrun from scratch should use
the following
Character Creation Table. Familiarity with both the Vampire and Shadowrun character
generation systems is
recommended. Note that the Skills category below indicates how many /extra/ Skill Points
you get, on top of
those you get in Vampire.
Instead of assigning a priority to each caterory below, you've got 8 points to assign, and
you must assign at
least 1 point to each category. For example, you could assign 1 to Race (Human), 4 to
Magic (Human Adept), 1
to Skills (no extra Skill points), and the 2 remaining to Resources, for 5,000 nuyen and
15 Force points. Or you
could make it 2 to both Skills and Resources, and 1 to Race, and 3 to Skills, or any other
combination you want
for a total of 8 points.
Points Race Magic Skills Resources
5 Metahuman Human magican +4 1,000,000 nuyen/50
4 Human Human adept/Metahuman magician +3 400,000 nuyen/35
3 Human Metahuman adept +2 90,000 nuyen/25
2 Human -- +1 5,000 nuyen/15
1 Human -- +0 500 nuyen/5
Once you've assigned these priorities, create a character by following the Vampire rules,
pages 94/95, but
mind the slight alterations noted below.
Backgrounds
Allies: this is /one/ Buddy (page 46, SRII). The more points you spend, the more influence
she will have, or
the closer you are (GM's decision). You may not also purchase a Buddy using your Resources
money.
Contacts: you get a number of extra contacts equal to the level purchased. Select them
from the normal
contacts available. You may purchase additional Contacts from your Resources, and you also
still get your two
"free" Contacts.
Fame: level one equals Opener status (see Shadowbeat, page 13); every additional level
adds 1 level to your
status (Fame 4 makes you a Solid performer, etc.).
Herd: a gang, page 46, SRII. The more points you spend on the gang, the larger it becomes,
exactly as on
page 173 of Vampire.
Mentor: a Buddy, though of a different kind than any other. Still counts against your
limit of 1.
Resources: to your Shadowrun Resources (in character generation), add a nuyen sum equal to
what you'd
have if you liquidated your assets: spend 4 points on Resources and you get 500,000 nuyen
extra. You don't get
a monthly allowance -- you have to make your own money once the game starts.
Retainers: these are Followers (page 46, SRII), which means you don't get to buy another
set of them with
your Resources nuyen. You only have as many Followers as you spend points on Retainers.
ATTRIBUTES
Look at the following table and convert your vampire's stats to Shadowrun. Nothing
complicated, just follow
the formulas given. So, if you've got Appearance *** and Charisma ***** you've got a
Shadowrun Charisma
of (3 + 5) x .75 = 6.
Shadowrun Vampire
Body Stamina x 1.5 [d]
Strength Strength x 1.5 [d]
Quickness Dexterity x 1.5 [d]
Charisma (Appearance + Charisma) x .75 [d]
Intelligence (Intelligence + Perception + Wits) x .5 [d]
Willpower (Courage + Manipulation + Self-Control) x .5 [d]
[d] = round down
Note that Nosferatu have an Appearance of 0; this 0 is used as normal to calculate the
Shadowrun Charisma
Attribute Rating. In fact, that means you multiply your Vampire Charisma by .75 to find
its value in
Shadowrun... In turn, the conclusion is that you'll have to assign at least 2 to Charisma
in Vampire, otherwise it
converts to an Attribute Rating of 0 -- which isn't allowed in Shadowrun.
If you're of a metahuman race, calculate your Attributes as above (if designing a
character, just design her
as normal in Vampire), and then apply the racial modifiers from page 45 of Shadowrun,
Second Edition. If
your Attribute would fall below 1, you can't be of that race.
To make it easier for everyone, we've calculated the minimum values you must assign to
certain attributes in
Vampire in order to be of certain metahuman races:
Dwarf: Dexterity must be at least 2
Elf: no minimum values
Human: no minimum values
Ork: the total of Appearance and Charisma must be at least 3
Troll: Dexterity must be at least 2; the total of Appearance and Charisma must be at least
4; the total of
Intelligence, Perception, and Wits must be at least 6; the total of Courage,
Manipulation, and
Self-Control must be at least 4
Willpower
This refers to the Willpower stat in Vampire, of which you can spend points to avoid
situations etc. Every
time the Vampire rules call for the use of a Willpower point, you must spend a point of
your Karma Pool (see
page 191, SRII) instead. When Vampire calls for a Willpower test, roll a test using your
Shadowrun Willpower
Attribute Rating.
>From now on, when we refer to Willpower, it means the Shadowrun Willpower Attribute,
unless we
specifically state otherwise. Just to avoid confusions.
When you convert a vampire to Shadowrun, he gets a number of points in his Karma Pool
equal to his
Willpower. When the Vampire book says you regain Willpower, you instead regain Karma Pool,
though this
need not be the full Pool, for instance if you get 2 points back when you've spent 5,
you're still 3 points short of
a full Pool.
It is /not/ possible to increase your Willpower in the way of Vampire (page 182), the only
way to do it is the
normal way: 10% of your Good Karma goes into your Karma Pool, as explained on page 190 and
further of
Shadowrun.
SKILLS
Convert your vampire's Abilities to Shadowrun's skills by looking them up in the next
table and reading off
the equivalent skill in Shadowrun. You know the skill at 1.5 times the level you know it
in Vampire, so if
you've got Brawl ** and Dodge * you get Unarmed Combat at ((2 + 1) / 2) x 1.5 = 2.25,
rounding down to 2.
Bet you'll beat up lots of people.
Now if you look at the table below you will spot that not all Shadowrun skills can be had
by converting a
Vampire character. For instance, you won't get Cybertechnology like this, no matter how
hard you try. The fix
for this is simple: any skill point you've got left over from the Vampire character
generation process may be
spent on Shadowrun skills. Any extra Skill Points you got from the character generation
table earlier in this
article may only be spent on Shadowrun skills.
Vampire Shadowrun
Acting Special Skill: Acting
Alertness (no equivalent in Shadowrun; any points spent on it are lost)
Athletics Athletics
(Brawl + Dodge) / 2 [d] Unarmed Combat
Empathy Psychology
(Intimidation + Leadership) / 2 [d] Leadership
Streetwise Etiquette (Street)
Subterfuge Negotiation
Animal Ken Special Skill: Animal Handling
Drive Bike /or/ Car (choose one)
Etiquette Etiquette (choose any one concentation except Government or Street)
Firearms Firearms /or/ Gunnery (choose one)
Melee Armed Combat
Music Special Skill: Musical Instrument (choose one instrument type; see
Shadowbeat page 85)
Repair (Choose any one Build/Repair skill)
Stealth Stealth
Survival Survival
Bureaucracy Etiquette (Government)
Computer Computer
Finance Special Skill: Finance
Investigation Special Skill: Police Procedures
Law Special Skill: Law
Linguistics (Choose any one language)
Medicine Biotech /or/ Biology (Medicine)
Occult Magical Theory
Politics Special Skill: Politics
Science Physical Sciences
DISCIPLINES
These are the Discipline powers vampires get in Vampire, what we'll do here is explain how
to use them in
Shadowrun. No big changes are needed, really. See pages 156 to 171 of Vampire: The
Masquerade for the
descriptions of the various powers.
What you do when using a power is you roll a number of dice (D6's, this is Shadowrun,
remember?) equal
to the rating of the Shadowrun Attribute in which the mentioned Vampire attribute is
incorporated. The target
number is exactly equal to the Difficulty given in the power's description in the Vampire
rules. If there is a
table with success levels given, use those straight as printed.
This all means that is if you've got Presence * (that is, Awe), you normally roll Charisma
+ Acting with a
Difficulty of 7. In Shadowrun, you would check which Attribute is based on Charisma (in
this case, Charisma
:), and roll that Attribute's rating against the same 7 to see if the power works as you
want it to.
Use of any power requires a Complex Action, unless otherwise noted.
Buying Levels
After character generation, you can still buy additional levels in Disciplines by spending
Good Karma. The
cost is 3 times the new rating for Clan Disciplines and 4 times the new rating for
non-Clan Disciplines, making
them rather expensive when compared to skills and Attributes. That's the price of success,
chummers.
Buying a new Discipline costs 5 Karma for the first point.
Exceptions
To all rules, there are exceptions, so to these as well. Below we've noted these for all
Disciplines in the
Vampire rulebook. Though it might seem quite a list, it's actually not all that much, but
still sufficient to show
the ideas behind the way we converted the Disciplines so that gamemasters can make their
own deductions for
things not covered here.
Animalism *: Sweet Whispers
Use the animal's Willpower if you want a favor from the animal. For paranormal animals use
Willpower +
2. Note that this power only works on non-sentient animals.
Animalism **: The Beckoning:
As sweet whispers with a +1 for every stricture.
Animalism ***: Song of Serenity
The target number for this power is equal to the animal's Willpower. Add +2 to the target
number for
paranormal animals; sentient creatures can't be controlled (no, you can't calm Dunkelzahn
this way).
Animalism ****: Sharing of spirits
The target number is Willpower + 2 for basic animals and Willpower + 4 for paranormals.
Again no
sentient creatures can be possessed by this power. The roll after an exciting incident
should be made against a
target number of 6.
Animalism *****: Drawing Out The Beast
Use the victim's Willpower as the target number. Assume that most people have a humanity
of 7 or less
(unless the GM decides otherwise).
Auspex *: Heightened Senses
You receives a number of extra dice equal to your Auspex rating to roll for all Perception
tests. The sensing
of danger works exactly as described on page 159 of Vampire.
Auspex ** and ***: Aura Perception and The Spirit's Touch
Use of these powers means you are astrally perceiving, and use all Shadowrun rules for
that; don't use the
rules on page 159 of Vampire. There are no real differences between the two in game terms,
since both
constitute basic astral perception. Astral projection is not included here, but requires
level 5 of this power (see
below). Use of either of these powers is a Simple Action.
Auspex *****: Psychic Projection
Like the previous entry, but this one is full astral projection, and uses all Shadowrun
rules for it. Yes, this
does mean that if you're already a magician it is really pointless to get Auspex at level
2, 3, or 5. Hey, that's
unlife...
Celerity
Adds +1D6 to your Initiative roll per point you have in this power. The Rule of Six does
apply to the D6's
you get from Celerity, but still not to your basic Initiative dice, so roll a different
color dice for them. Use of
Celerity is a Free Action, after which you get its benefits only on your next Initiative
roll.
Dominate ****: Conditioning
To use this power successfully, you need to build up a number of successes equal to the
subject's Willpower.
Dominate *****: Possession
Equivalent to the free spirit power of the same name, described on page 80 of the Grimoire
II. You do not
need to use astral combat against the target, so you must be at least capable of astral
perception. The subject's
Physical Attributes are not affected once possessed, but you can use her skills and
knowledge in addition to
your own. The subject's Mental Attributes are replaced by yours.
Fortitude
This adds twice its level to your Body Attribute Rating for all rolls made to resist
damage.
Obfuscate
Characters with Auspex power add a number of dice equal to their level in that power to
Perception tests
made to spot you when you're using Obfuscate. Mortals get a normal Perception test, and
both roll against a
target number equal to the your Essence (rounded to the nearest whole number). Obfuscate
affords no
protection against detection from the astral plane.
It is easier to hide a vampire's "meat" than implanted cyberware, so mortals
spotting you may only notice
some cyberware floating in the air, which could lead to amusing situations.
Obfuscate ***: Mask Of The Thousand Faces
Use a base target number of 4 to see how successful the vampire is. Also, you can use the
table in Vampire
as a guideline for use of the Mask spell on page 156 of Shadowrun, Second Edition.
Potence
Adds twice its level to your Strength Attribute Rating. It does not provide automatic
successes (optional:
unless you still use the Blue Book (i.e. first edition Shadowrun rules), in which case it
does, but in this case it
does not add to your Strength Attribute).
Presence *: Awe
Those affected get to roll a Willpower test to counter the power, instead of spending
Willpower (Vampire)
points. Once the subject accumulates as many successes as the you did, the effect is
shaken. The target number
for the Willpower test is your Charisma Attribute.
Presence **: Dread Gaze
This is equivalent to the Fear power on page 218 of SRII, and uses all rules for that.
Presence ****: Summon
Again use the Willpower of the victim as the base target number, with a + 2 if the victim
is a complete
stranger; a -1 if the victim has been successfully summoned before, and a +3 if a previous
attempt failed.
Presence *****: Majesty.
The subject rolls a Willpower test to resist, against the your Charisma Attribute. Kindred
can spend one
point of their Karma Pool to totally resist the effects if they fail their Willpower
rolls.
Protean *: Gleam of Red Eyes
This gives you natural thermographic vision; see page 89 of Shadowrun, Second Edition for
details.
Protean **: Wolf Claws
Allows you to do (strength)M Physical damage on a successful unarmed melee attack. You
can't use it if
you've got two cyberarms, but otherwise it takes a Complex Action to grow the claws, in
which they can't be
used.
Protean *** and ****: Earth Meld and Shadow of the Beast
If you've got cyberware, you're in trouble. Make an Essence test against a target number
of 6; round your
Essence to the nearest whole number for this test, though never below 1. If the test
fails, you can't meld into the
earth, or change into the appropriate critter.
When changing into a wolf or bat, use all base Physical Attributes of the animal in place
of your own, but
you do retain your Mental Attributes.
Protean *****: Form of Mist
As the Mist Form power in Shadowrun, page 219. It takes only one Complex Action to use
this power; if
you have cyberware, well, you had cyberware, if you get our drift...
Thaumaturgy
This is a difficult one, seeing that Shadowrun has a well-defined magic system all of its
own, and the one
provided here doesn't really fit in with that. Therefore, let the Thaumaturgy discipline
have the effects
described on pages 168 and 169 of Vampire, but treat it as a power instead of as magic in
the Shadowrun sense.
Thaumaturgy *****: Cauldron of Blood
You must roll an Essence test against a target number equal to the number of Blood Points
you want to boil.
There is no maximum target number for this test, and every success boils two Blood Points
from the target, but
not more than you wanted to take. This causes a number of boxes of damage equal to the
number of points of
blood boiled. The victim is allowed a Willpower Resistance Test against your Essence
Rating to reduce the
number of successes you rolled.
DAMAGE
Vampires get hurt in the same way as mortals. They've got the normal two Condition
Monitors (Physical
and Stun), and use all normal damage rules for Shadowrun.
Fire & Sunlight Damage
Any vampire can resist damage from such a source, by rolling a Body test against a target
number equal to
the Difficulty given on page 194 of Vampire. The Damage Level is dependant upon the number
of Wounds the
character would take in Vampire, as follows:
1 wound = Light
2 wounds = Moderate
3 wounds = Serious
Every 2 successes stage down the Damage Level by 1.
Healing
Accomplished as per the Shadowrun rules, pages 110 to 115; if you lose a body part,
however, don't count
on them being able to clone you a new one, nor can you readily purchase non-cyber
replacements. Not that you
need to, read on...
Vampires can regenerate damage, but not in the same way the Regeneration power (page 219,
SRII) works
though. Instead, you need to spend one Blood Point, and you get to roll a Body test
against a target number
taken from the next table, depending on your current Wound Level:
Wound Level Target Number
Light 2
Moderate 4
Serious 6
Deadly 8 + Overflow
If you roll any successes, you heal a number of damage boxes equal to the number of
successes, and even if
you roll no successes you heal one box of damage. You can divide the number of boxes of
damage healed
between Physical and Stun any way you like. Just one catch: roll all ones and you not only
don't heal any
wounds, but you also get an automatic Light wound because of the blood you lose.
Aggravated damage (from sources mentioned in White Wolf products) cannot be healed this
way; it must be
healed the normal way, and at a cost of 3 Blood Points per box.
Note that if you are suffering from Overflow damage, you don't receive an extra point of
damage every ten
minutes, unlike mortals.
HUMANITY
This is kept exactly as in Vampire. For this reason, the Conscience Virtue is also carried
over to
Shadowrun, as a sort of additional Attribute. Make Conscience rolls when Vampire demands
them, but use
D6's for them, and apply the Rules of One and Six when needed.
BLOOD POOL
This doesn't require any real changes, just that people with an Essence of less than 6
have less Blood Points.
For every point of Essence lost, substract one from the subject's Blood Pool, rounding to
the nearest .5 Blood
Points. So from a heavily cybered street monster with a few cyberlimbs, wired reflexes,
and some more mods
you'd be lucky to get 5 Blood Points even if you totally drain him empty, while an average
Jane will have the
full 10 Blood Points.
With the new Cybertech book that's come out recently, you can have less than 0 Essence.
For every point of
negative Essence, you lose 1.5 Blood Points, not just 1... In all cases, round to the
nearest .5 Blood Points -- Joe
Chrome with Essence -2.4 will have .4 Blood Points, rounding to .5.
MAGIC
Vampires are able to use magic in the same way as other player characters, but only if
they assigned the
right priorities to magic while designing the character. Knowledge of the Thaumaturgy
Discipline does not
necessarily make you a magician in Shadowrun's sense of the word.
CYBER- AND BIOWARE
As a vampire, you might decide to buy cyberware, or maybe you already had it before you
were Embraced.
Most of it will still work without too many problems, just some stuff won't do you much
good anymore *evil
GM grin*. The same goes for most bioware, though a bit more extreme since most bioware
requires energy
from the burning of food. (It's assumed here that cyberware works on internal batteries or
some other such
power source, so it will continue to function even if the body it's implanted in has no
metabolism anymore.)
Anyhow, the following bioware probably won't work anymore: Adrenal Pump, Extended Volume,
Nephritic
Screen, Pathogenic Defense, Platelet Factory, Suprathyroid Gland, Symbiotes,
Synthacardium, Toxin Extractor,
Tracheal Filter. Actually, technically speaking most of these are still functioning...
Cyberware filtration systems will likely have about the same use as extended volume to a
vampire (that is,
nothing whatsoever).
As an added bonus, here's what to look out for:
Cyberlimbs: needless to say, don't bite the wrist of someone with one or two of these.
Datajacks: be careful of neck- or wrist-mounted ones.
Dermal Plating or Orthoskin: your bite must first penetrate the armor layer that's been
placed under the
target's skin. Roll a Strength test against the following target number:
Rating Target Number
1 2
2 4
3 6
Platelet factory: because it has a tendency to clog arteries if an anticoagulant is not
administered regularly,
you might end up not being able to use your own Blood Pool... If you suck blood from a
character with a
platelet factory, make the roll to see if the blood clogs (described on page 14 of
Shadowtech) as normal; if it
fails, any blood you drained from that person becomes unusable, and, even worse, you can't
get rid of it in any
other way either, without getting hold of a good quantity of anticoagulant: one dose per
Blood Point.
Oh, and remember your cyberware if you decide to use Form of Mist. Bioware transforms OK,
but your
cyber will make a dull thudding sound against the floor... And that means you might
suddenly miss a few body
parts (and whether you can regenerate this or not is up to the GM; it causes the same
wound as the operation
did).
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PARANOID COPYRIGHT NOTICE
This entire text is copyright (C) 1995 by Martin Steffens and Gurth and may not be altered
in any way.
Please don't distribute without asking permission first -- email to gurth@******.nl
--
Gurth@******.nl - http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/index.html
You need us to run your life.
-> NERPS Project Leader & Unofficial Shadowrun Guru <-
-> The Character Mortuary: http://huizen.dds.nl/~mortuary/mortuary.html <-
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