- 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.
|