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Vampire Powers in RQ:G


Diana Probst

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In looking through the vampiric powers in the Bestiary, I've noticed that the weaknesses you'd associate with a vampire on hearing the word are not present.  I'm told there are references to such weaknesses elsewhere, and I can always make a 'special' vampire, but are there any rules that are canonical to RQ:G about running water or sunlight, for example?

I can easily sub-class my vampire and make it a new semi-species to avoid the problem, but I'd prefer to know if the Guide to Glorantha, for example, gives a list of weaknesses that are not in the Bestiary, or if, in fact, I'm bringing real-world thinking to Middle World action.

I'm noting that there are vampiric cult-specific Rune Spells which are not mentioned, so presumably within the new Gods and Goddesses of Glorantha there will be a Vivamort write-up, and if there is nothing written down I'll invoke the spirit of Making Stuff Up, but knowing if there's anything written down that might already be being built on would be useful.

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7 minutes ago, Diana Probst said:

I'm noting that there are vampiric cult-specific Rune Spells which are not mentioned, so presumably within the new Gods and Goddesses of Glorantha there will be a Vivamort write-up, and if there is nothing written down I'll invoke the spirit of Making Stuff Up, but knowing if there's anything written down that might already be being built on would be useful.

This has come up before and a search for vampire might yield some results. I believe the consensus was an RQG cult writeup for  Vivamort, the god of unlife was needed to round out the powers of a vampire (i.e. fear of a cross or Humakt’s death rune).

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There was a guide to this in Cults of Terror (page 55), reprinted in the Cult Compendium (page 286) under the cult of Vivamort.

At their basics, vampires have a weakness from four of the elements. Air elementals can scatter a vampire in mist form for a few hours; fire damage can't be healed until the next Vivamort holy day; earth curses the vampire to need to rest in their grave dirt or they lose their powers and eventually existence; running water acts as a barrier, and will actually destroy them upon immersion (holy water could also be made by water cult rune priests), and the sun strips a vampire of most of their powers, leaving just their enhanced strength.

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I'm hoping for things in the list on https://wellofdaliath.chaosium.com/home/gloranthan-documents/glorantha-2/canon/

I'm happy to go with a cult that is cursed in various ways, however.  And aaaaah, vampires stripped of powers in sunlight but not killed by it is a big bit of what I was after, so that one is definitely definitely staying whatever else*.  Cults of Terror is 'about 95% canon' by guess, so yay.

*unless there's a cult change that says otherwise in which case it's a new sort of vampire anyhow.

Thank you.  That's a perfect fallback for me if there's nothing 100%, and a good general guide.

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Vampires used to have double hit points in each location, which made them awesome in combat, but that has gone now in RQG, unfortunately.

Hopefully, that will come back, with their special vulnerabilities, with the Vivamort cult.

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47 minutes ago, Diana Probst said:

That list's outdated unfortunately, and Cults of Terror's 95% canon will be more accurate to RQ:G than a couple of things there anyway. 

 

29 minutes ago, soltakss said:

Vampires used to have double hit points in each location, which made them awesome in combat, but that has gone now in RQG, unfortunately.

I assumed their doubled CON helped with that, since it boosts both their locational hit points and their more general pool. 

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Vampires are briefly presented in the Guide to Glorantha, p704. Daylight strips them of their powers, they're vulnerable to fire and water, they are "diminished" by the "loss" of the soil in which they were buried (so I suppose they keep that piece of Earth somewhere safe). The Death Rune "vigorously presented thwarts them".

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If you want a "noble undead" with the usual weaknesses, it seems these are covered.

There have been a few other forms of undead people with different Underworld and possibly Chaos powers which retained much of their former personality or intellect.

Top of the grade are probably Delecti and Brangbane, both receiving some love in Wyrm's Footnotes 15, the latter also in (spoilers to keep Biill from getting unhappy)

Pegasus Plateau.

The EWF revenant in RQ3 Sun County is presented as a Vampire your character will regret to have encountered. In all probability, briefly, unless getting turned into an undead servant.

One set of stats and description I always liked was the Draugr in RQ3 Vikings.

I think that many an undead will be available without having to have chaotic corruption or taint. Yes, these are quite possible and likely, but not necessarily required. The Death stalking the world when Ernalda went to sleep was Nontraya, not necessarily chaotic (yet - the encounter with Waboth may still have come).

 

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Telling how it is excessive verbis

 

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Are there vampires in Glorantha that do not worship Vivamort, or is that the only route? (Similar to how you could have zombies in RQ3 that were not ZZ zombies - ZZZs? - if you used the spirit magic or sorcery spells to create them).

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53 minutes ago, GAZZA said:

Are there vampires in Glorantha that do not worship Vivamort, or is that the only route? (Similar to how you could have zombies in RQ3 that were not ZZ zombies - ZZZs? - if you used the spirit magic or sorcery spells to create them).

While the vampires in the bestiary are part of his cult, there are others who may not be. The Dancers in Darkness are utterly devoted to Delecti himself, not Vivamort.

Given vampires themselves can't cast spirit or rune magic, it wouldn't surprise me if there were sorcerous routes towards the state, especially since both dancers and regular vampires are noted as having the potential to be potent sorcerers.

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13 hours ago, Tindalos said:

I assumed their doubled CON helped with that, since it boosts both their locational hit points and their more general pool. 

Oh, I missed that, thanks. Time to change some stat blocks, then.

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14 hours ago, Diana Probst said:

In looking through the vampiric powers in the Bestiary, I've noticed that the weaknesses you'd associate with a vampire on hearing the word are not present.  I'm told there are references to such weaknesses elsewhere, and I can always make a 'special' vampire, but are there any rules that are canonical to RQ:G about running water or sunlight, for example?

RW Vapire weaknesses don't exactly fit well in Glorantha.  Too much weight is placed in the Cults of Terror Vivamort writeup about how all these gods have cursed Vivamort for his perfidy yet the other two participants (Humakt, Eurmal) get off scot-free.  The Death Rune weakness is the only one that gets the tone right.

 

 

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7 hours ago, GAZZA said:

Are there vampires in Glorantha that do not worship Vivamort, or is that the only route? (Similar to how you could have zombies in RQ3 that were not ZZ zombies - ZZZs? - if you used the spirit magic or sorcery spells to create them).

There's Arlu of the Eastern Isles and Nontraya of Genertela.    I understand Nontraya is analogous to Vivamort in the same way that Yelmalio is Elmal and Antirius while Arlu also represents Wraiths and Hungry Ghosts.  

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1 minute ago, metcalph said:

There's Arlu of the Eastern Isles and Nontraya of Genertela.    I understand Nontraya is analogous to Vivamort in the same way that Yelmalio is Elmal and Antirius while Arlu also represents Wraiths and Hungry Ghosts.  

Ah right, cool, I had the impression that wraiths were no longer a thing in RQG except perhaps as a specialised form of spirit - which, to be fair, would not be inconsistent with that ruling.

So no sorcerously created vampires then? I wonder because immortality is something a lot of sorcerers seem to be after, whereas as I understand it most Malkioni can't use the Vivamort path (please correct me if I'm wrong). I believe there was an RQ3 spell that suppressed aging as long as you kept it active; perhaps that's the intended path for immortal Malkioni.

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9 minutes ago, GAZZA said:

So no sorcerously created vampires then?

They can still exist.  Tap is after all fundamental to Malkioni sorcery.

9 minutes ago, GAZZA said:

I wonder because immortality is something a lot of sorcerers seem to be after, whereas as I understand it most Malkioni can't use the Vivamort path (please correct me if I'm wrong).

There's nothing to prohibit Malkioni from becoming Draculas and Renfields other than the opprobrium of their former colleagues.  

 

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Related question: for undead with CHA but without POW, like vampires, how do you calculate their spirit combat damage in RQG? Just based on their CHA alone? I've wondered for awhile, but never remembered to ask while it felt relevant.

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19 minutes ago, Crel said:

Related question: for undead with CHA but without POW, like vampires, how do you calculate their spirit combat damage in RQG? Just based on their CHA alone? I've wondered for awhile, but never remembered to ask while it felt relevant.

I don't know what the rule is, but I used their MP + CHA to calculate their spirit combat damage (which means it changes as they start to lose).

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1 hour ago, metcalph said:

RW Vapire weaknesses don't exactly fit well in Glorantha.

Yeah.  Slightly off-topic, it does look to me a little like there was reaching for a reason they were like *that* because we need vampires in this game...  But the rationale works for me, at least, and I've definitely got some work-arounds for those little weaknesses, which make things more Gloranthan.

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6 hours ago, Diana Probst said:

Thank you all for your help here.  You've given me a good understanding to work from.

Meanwhile, Diana's players are going, "shit shit shit shit SHIT" and "somebody cut off that woman's internet!" and stuff like that ...

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1 hour ago, g33k said:

Meanwhile, Diana's players are going, "shit shit shit shit SHIT" and "somebody cut off that woman's internet!" and stuff like that ...

My players do that when I ask them to make a Scan roll.  It's really endearing.
 

At least one has noticed that I don't bother with plot so much as ask them to roll things then build on the fumbles while laughing.  But sometimes, you need an elder sorcerer vampire who has been planning their next move for a decade.  And hopefully, she won't be rolling on the fumble chart.

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