From: chedberg@hamp.hampshire.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.cyber
Subject: Yes, Vampirepunk!
Date: 6 Oct 92 12:01:56 GMT
Organization: Hampshire College
Archive-Name: rgc724


	Personally, while I cannot say I am unbiased towards fantasy in
Cyberpunk (I'm making a fantasy system based on the 2020 rules) I think I have
the most fun when I can get the players _and_ the characters to think that
something they see _isn't_ being done with mirrors when it is. One of my goals
as a cyberpunk GM is to keep the players from knowing everything. Thus, for one
of my games I created vampires. But I did it the pld-fashioned way. I _made_
them.
	Okay, suppose somebody in Night City runs into a guy who tries to bite
his head off with a big set of incisors, right? What does he think? "This guy
had those things added! " Right!
	Now, suppose that after he shoots the guy, he shows up in a bar again,
with visible scars where the shotgun went thru his chest. People begin to
worry.
	Now, even worse, suppose that the guy manages some good damage on our
boy before he gets offed. Our boy shrugs, says, "whew, I'm glad I bagged him
before I got too badly hurt! " and goes home to his tube to sleep it off. He
wakes in the middle of the night in a cold sweat a few nights later. His vision
is blurring, he's heaving up his guts, and he can barely move. He feels like
he's dying. He goes for the phone, but doesn't have the strength to insert his
credstick. He passes out. Imagine his surprise _then_ when the dead guy show up
and explains. 
	Nanoids are lovely little devils, aren't they? They even make vampirism
an infectious disease. 
	First, the nanoids shunt the vital body functions of the host from the
host's brain over to themselves (he dies, in essence). Next, they reorganize
the host's metabolism towards a diet of blood. After this happens, other
changes set in in the weeks that follow. The host's bones and muscles are laced
with artificial fibers if they have not been already (+3 Body), he develops a
subdermal buffer layer of skin not unlike Skinweave (+4 naked SP), and his
nervous system has highly conductive materials laced throughout, making him
faster (+2 REF, +1 MA). As time goes by, a pair of retractable fangs grow out
of the roof of he host's mouth. His glands also begin secreting a pheromonal
mix which gives him a strange animal magnetism after dark (+3 seduce) 
He now shows up as dead blue on thermograph
scans, the color of a dead body. He barely tracks on IR at all. All life
functions rest on the nanoids.
	 This gives a few disadvantages, of course. Microwavers and EMP
grenades are very harmful to the nanoids. I treat micrwavers as shotgun damage
(neglects armor) and EMPs as the equivalent weight of plastique. Sunlight and
high heat become uncomfortable for the character, because his new body temp is
very much lower than before. 
	Also, there is the problem of offspring. Unless the blood of the victim
is thoroughly drained of blood, there is a chance that the noids will set up
home and create a new vampire. The best way to be sure is to rip off the head
of the victim. 
	As for adventure plots, they are many and evil. Perhaps a croporation
wants to get hold of a sample of the nanoids (For what, one asks?). My personal
worst (and best) was when a vampire group ditched a couple of tanks of raw
nanoids into the Night City Reservoir. My group tried to stop the release. They
didn't manage. Around 87% of the city died that night. It made for a really
nasty new campaign setting, I'll tell ya. Ought to write it up sometime,
actually. 
	Anyway, now that I've spread the plague, you guys can decide what to do
with it. My point is that I love to keep people guessing about whether things
are real or illusion. F'rinstance, imagine a _real_ vampire slipped in in the
middle of all this. ;)
	                                  -Doc Goodwrench