Vampire Slayers & Watchers A New Option for BRP From: Morrigan (aj_hide11@hotmail.com) Date: Tuesday December 2nd , 2003   Since the dawn of humanity, there has existed a slayer, a human being possessed of biological and mental mutations which render them better able to find and battle vampires and related supernatural entities. Part of this ability to find and effectively battle vampires is appearance, and all known slayers have been attractive young women, the type of human all vampires regard as 'easy pickings'. Thus the slayer will draw the attention of those it hunts. It would preposterous to assume that other human mutants with similar skills, abilities, and instincts to the slayer have never arisen, but, because of their different appearance, have instead gone unnoticed or have been misidentified.   Because of the supernatural menaces they are drawn to, and which they battle, slayers lead short, violent lives, and, upon the death of each slayer, some force, presumably a supernatural trigger, activates the mutations in a successor. No known slayer has lived longer than fifty years, and usually much less. There is always a slayer, and there always has been, since before humanity developed a written language. Because a slayer activates upon the death of her predecessor, it would seem logical to assume that the mutations that endow slayer abilities and instincts are present in every human, or, at least, many, many humans, and that it simply takes the death of the preceding slayer to activate them.   Upon becoming the slayer, a Chosen One's physical capabilities rapidly increase to superhuman levels over a period of a month or two. This cannot be emphasized firmly enough: the slayer is meant to be a predator of the predators of humanity (vampires), so her capabilities must at least equal theirs. Her physical strength, healthiness, acrobatic ability, and capacity to fight all quickly exceed the highest human levels, and thereafter continue to grow at a slower rate. The slayer's nature as a predator of predators is also reflected in her increased reaction time and her physical hardiness: slayers are almost impossible to kill (still, their undead foes seem to find ways).   Indeed, slayers are usually so hardy that they actually heal from damage at an accelerated rate. To the slayer's benefit, the longer they live, the greater these capabilities grow, as they accumulate experience and seem to 'soak up' magical energy that fortifies their body. An old slayer is a potent foe. Because of the things she must battle, a slayer's mind is resilient and her nerves made of steel. They always find some way to shrug off the horrible things they see, while a vampire hold no dread for them, only antipathy. The slayer is mentally 'tuned in' to vampires and their ilk, and can sense them through a simple act of will. Of course, that particular knife cuts both ways, for vampires and the rest seem able to detect the slayer with equal ease.   For much of recorded history, the slayers have been guided, trained, and assisted by the Watchers, a very old secret society currently based in England that is comprised of ordinary humans aware of the slayer, what she can do, and whom she is supposed to do it to. Every active slayer is assigned a Watcher to train her, as well as provide valuable assistance in the form of researching her adversaries. The Watcher also imbues the slayer with her mission and the morality of the same, providing her with a sense of obligation or duty to battle the malevolent supernatural. Just as important, he ensures that she adheres to that code of ethics.   That the Watcher's Council is so large and far-flung is the strongest argument for their being more than one active slayer at a time. However, without additional information, ideally supplied by the Watcher's Council, such a conclusion can only be supposition. Technically, other people can have slayer powers, like men and older women (or even young children). However, such individuals would not have the support of the Watcher's Council (or even be known to it), and they would not be called slayers. Vampire Slayers can easily upset game balance. Such other characters who have the same abilities but none of the drawbacks can upset it even more easily, so Keepers are encouraged to either outlaw such characters or to load them down on penalties.   1) There seems to be only one slayer at a time, and that slayer is always a young woman between the biological ages of 15 and 25. 2) Becoming a slayer is randomly determined, so no character can start play as a vampire slayer. The Keeper will decide which character, if any, becomes the slayer at some later point during play. 3) Upon becoming the slayer, the changes occur to the character's characteristic scores: * STRength and CONstitution double (increase by 100% their original value/ are multiplied by 2) or add 8 to their original value, whichever results in the higher score, with Hit Points and Damage Bonus re-calculated appropriately. * DEXterity increases by 50% (it is multiplied by 1.5) or adds 8 to their original value, whichever results in a higher score. * APPearance, POWer, and INTelligence scores are increased by 2 points each, although APPearance cannot exceed 19. * The Slayer also receives 4 armor points * Every year that the slayer lives 'on the job', the player can roll 1d6 to see how many points the slayer character gets to spend on increasing these 6 characteristic scores or to buy additional points of armor (in other words, every year of the slayer character's life brings, at best, 6 points which may be assigned to any of the characteristics of STRength, DEXterity, CONstitution, APPearance, INTelligence, and/ or POWer or to buy armor points). * A slayer character gains +10 Hit Points on top of the change in their Hit Points brought about by the increased CONstitution score that comes with slayer "activation". 4) Because of the training the Watcher provides, upon slayer 'activation', they receive a +15% bonus to the skills Acrobatics, Dodge, Grapple, all Hand to Hand Weapon skills, Martial Arts, Strike With Foot, Strike With Hand, Strike With Head, and Throw. It is unknown if the slayer develops some sort of natural aptitude for these skills, or if only the highly effective and intense training that the Watcher provides is involved. There is no history of a 'self-trained' slayer to go by. By contrast, because of their limited effectiveness against the typical foes of the slayer, and because of the biases of the Watcher's Council, a hidebound and ancient organization, slayers very rarely acquire skills with modern weaponry like guns and missiles. To reflect this, all fire arm skills cannot increase after 'slayer activation'. Slayers simply do not have the time to practice up proficiency with guns for their skill to increase. 5) For purposes of determining the order of attack (see page 55 of the 5.5th edition of the Call of Cthulhu rulesbook), treat the slayer's DEXterity score as being twice its actual value. EG. For purposes of determining order of attack, a slayer with a DEXterity of 14 would be treated as though her DEXterity was 28. 6) A slayer never has to make a sanity roll for anything connected with a vampire, nor does she lose sanity points because of a vampire or their actions. 7) By making rolling less than or equal to 100 minus the entity's Magic Points, the slayer can detect any supernatural entity (especially vampires) within 300 yards of it. This does not happen automatically: the slayer does have to make an "act of will" to sense in this manner. 8) Non-mythos supernatural entities will always attack the slayer first, if they have a choice of opponents, and even if there is no way they could defeat the slayer. Vampires especially feel compelled by the socialization of vampire communities to always attempt the eliminate the slayer, since doing so carries with it 'good mojo' in relations with other vampires. In fact, vampires will go out of their way to seek out and battle the slayer, often traveling great distances to do so. 9) Every active slayer has a Watcher assigned to her. Whether they get along is another matter, but they are supposed to be partners. To reflect the vast data collection of the individual Watchers assigned to slayers, to say nothing of the far flung Watcher's Council as a whole, the slayer gets to re-roll any failed Know rolls once. Alternately, if the Watcher is a created character with stats, either another PC or an NPC run by the Keeper, that character's Know roll may be used in place of the slayer's. After all, that is the role the Watcher is supposed to play in the slayer's life: technical support.* 10) Slayers are individuals of action, not research (that being the Watcher's duty). Because they will not take the time to learn them, and may actually be prevented from the research needed, slayers can never learn spells, although they can always contribute their theoretically high Magic Point total to helping another (usually their Watcher) cast ritual spells. 11) If a vampire slayer is part of the group of PCs in a gaming group, 1d4 vampires will make themselves known to the slayer per game month, and have to be dealt with. 12) Slayers are drawn to areas of high supernatural energy. Haunted houses, lairs of long-imprisoned Great Old Ones, and the like are irresistible to slayers, as they fulfill their geas to battle the predators of humanity. The slayer must make a Luck roll to avoid entering any 'haunted' or otherwise supernaturally charged locale. This is a great way to get the adventure started and to punish gung-ho players who think their slayer character is invincible. 13) There is a 5% chance that, upon activation, a slayer will develop a form of precognition that only works in her dreams (see page 223 of Pagan Publishing's "Delta Green: Countdown" for further details). Like the slayer's fascination for haunted places (14 above), this is another excellent way for the Keeper to get the adventure started, and to serve as a deux ex machina est to guide the PCs. Such dreams should not be common, and usually under the control of the Keeper. PC slayers cannot simply lay down to sleep intending to have a prophetic dream (evil Keepers may wish to punish these sorts of players with visions of Great Cthulhu...). Creating a Watcher Character   Every slayer has a Watcher assigned to it, to guide and assist the slayer in battling the forces of darkness. Groups of PCs that include a slayer can very easily also include a Watcher. While slayers are almost always young women, Watchers tend to be older men (although the exception of Gwendolyn Post should not be forgotten), in their thirties at the youngest. To generate a Watcher character, generate a character as normally, paying attention to these steps.   1) Slayers provide the physical 'goods' of the Watcher/ slayer team. Although it is perfectly permissible for watchers to possess superlative physical capabilities (since the preponderance of Watchers are from England, vigorous English sports like rugby and soccer tend to figure into their backgrounds) they always leave the 'rough stuff' to the slayer. Often, the Watcher and slayer play a good cop/ bad cop duo. When generating a Watcher character, deduct two points from any of STRength, CONstitution, and/or DEXterity and add them (one each) to the Watcher's INTelligence and EDUcation. 2) Watchers have a starting Cthulhu Mythos 'skill level' of 30%. This is due to instruction they have been given by the Watcher's Council (many of whose grey eminences are mad as hatters because of the things they've seen and/or done), not from first hand experience. Watchers are exposed to Mythos material by the Watcher's Council as part of their training Because of this, it is possible for Watchers to have negative Sanity, as they become casualties of their crusade. 3) Because of their training and instruction by the Watcher's Council, Watchers are more magically attuned than normal PCs. To reflect this, they get 1 extra Magic Point. Their starting magic points equal their POWer score plus one. Just because Watchers are more able to cast spells does not mean that they should or will. In fact a Watcher is less likely to cast spells than a normal character because a Watcher is more likely to be aware of the consequences. 4) Any Watcher will have, among its possessions, a substantial occult library, including at least a copy of a handful of Mythos tomes. The watcher may not have read these books of the damned, but will have glanced through them. In part, this explains the watcher's starting 30% level with Cthulhu Mythos. Because Watcher's are prone to a lot of research in support of the slayer they work with, they are also prone to delve into these books, and suffer the penalties. Having your Watcher flip out from reading the Necronomicon just when the forces of evil are massing would be most inconvenient. The Watcher does not have to buy these occult books, and may be considered to have been gifted them by the Watcher's Council. 5) Watchers are academics by nature, and they also require a cover occupation, so as to have a place to store their occult libraries and train their slayer. Watchers are paid a stipend by the Watcher's Council, so even a Watcher who finds himself unemployed is not destitute. Further, this restitution continues after Watchers leave the Watchers Council (retirement is rare but not unheard of), at least for a time, to prevent Watchers from availing themselves of the dark forces they have encountered to ease their worldly suffering. Thus, the following occupations are the ones open to Watchers: Antiquarian, Author, Clergyman, Consultant, Doctor, Engineer, Journalist, Lawyer, Missionary, Parapsychologist, Private Investigator, Professor, and Spokesperson. When generating a Watcher's yearly income, roll 1d6 and add 4, instead of rolling 1d10. Watchers tend to have good jobs and to be well compensated by the Watcher's Council. 6) When allotting skill points to the Watcher's starting skills, multiply the character's EDUcation by 25 instead of 20. Watchers will always have a new skill, Teach, whose base chance is equal to the character's EDUcation score. 7) Again, as gifts from the Watcher's Council, a Watcher will have a store of cutting and stabbing weapons on hand, since the primary purpose of the slayer is to kill vampires, and such weapons are the most effective against them. A Watcher may be assumed to have any such weapon available to it within a day (under normal circumstances), and 1d4 such weapons on their person at any given time. Further, a Watcher will always have 1d6 stakes on their person, so a Watcher is never unarmed.   8) Because Watchers are highly trained researchers, and have access to the considerable occult resources of the Watcher's Council, all time requirements for research are halved. Either the Watcher itself or the Watcher's Council seems always to have the right book on hand to answer most questions. Where appropriate, the Keeper can also reduce the time it takes a Watcher to cast a spell as well, for the same reasons.