tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post891217851049610094..comments2024-03-19T07:56:00.031-04:00Comments on GROGNARDIA: Grognard's Grimoire: The Vampires of DwimmermountJames Maliszewskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00341941102398271464noreply@blogger.comBlogger33125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-20030071988245303882010-10-22T10:41:25.565-04:002010-10-22T10:41:25.565-04:00I find your take on Vampires very interesting. In...I find your take on Vampires very interesting. In what I have read/researched vampires were symbols of disease before Bram Stoker changed that to unhealthy desire/sexuality. Your miasma idea and the generally disgusting appearance seems to mirror the earlier portrayal. However, the fact that no one can become a vampire against their will seems to play against that symbolism. Disease stikes whom it will (especially in a medieval mindset when people had no idea of how disease worked) and there is no real defense against it. That helplessness seems key to the vampire's menace. It would be very interesting to read/hear more about your intellectual fascination with the concept of vampires as apparent incongruities add subtlety and depth to very familiar archetypes.Rickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02044274760258926079noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-82801665156719368242010-10-19T22:09:46.959-04:002010-10-19T22:09:46.959-04:00Publish a Dwimmermount campaign book soon, please....<i>Publish a Dwimmermount campaign book soon, please. I am dying to read it.</i><br /><br>We'll see. I am generally reluctant to do anything as elaborate as that, because I think the hobby is better off when each referee creates his own setting. But lots of people keep asking me to publish a campaign book, so it's something I'll give some consideration to. Maybe I can find a way to do it that encourages rather than discourages individual creativity.James Maliszewskihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00341941102398271464noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-53163335691310316112010-10-18T15:13:28.105-04:002010-10-18T15:13:28.105-04:00White Dwarf way, way back had a article with rando...White Dwarf way, way back had a article with random table builds for AD&D vampires. Truly inspirational.<br /><br />It also began with a quote from Hammer's Captain Kronos - Vampire Hunter, there are as "many species of vampire as there are beasts of prey".Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-53400118011309794572010-10-17T18:08:21.099-04:002010-10-17T18:08:21.099-04:00I've always really liked the "undead or w...I've always really liked the "undead or witches can't cross running water" motif, but very few use it these days. The exception is Garth Nix, who made a very big worldbuilding deal out of it in his Old Kingdom books.Bansheehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12594214770417497135noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-59205795738239323682010-10-17T11:48:05.239-04:002010-10-17T11:48:05.239-04:00I tend to agree with @adventurematerials, although...I tend to agree with @adventurematerials, although @Tom O'Bedlam makes some pretty persuasive points. Since I know mentioning anything about Cullen-esque vampires will immediately negate any argument I have to make, (*sigh*)I ask about the Wraith campaign you were in eons ago, where vampires were terrible but not in the grotesque way - comments?MZMollyTLhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17565896547458451347noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-17939733961201297182010-10-17T04:58:21.585-04:002010-10-17T04:58:21.585-04:00My image of the vampire was shaped by 70's hor...My image of the vampire was shaped by 70's horror films. The sinister gentleman motif never captured my imagination like the many scattered memories I have of beast like creatures stalking through the woods after maidens and children. I prefer my vampires as deathly and ghastly and far from human. Interacting with the living only through unholy feedings and willing human/other supernatural agents. I really loved Stephen King's take on them in Salem's Lot. It really summed up my image of the vampire. The master with his minions who are little more then rabid dogs. The master too horrific even to expose himself to the living. The dark rites that prepared the house for the creature to move into the town. The disease and madness that accompanies the creature. Eastern Europe folklore I encountered deal with the undead in a very straight forward way. They aren't even the vessels of human spirits anymore but merely shells for other darker spirits that know nothing of humanity's morality. They feed on us in many ways. From the many stories of unbaptized children who drown returning as deadly vampires like creatures to skeletons that stalk the night and chasing down those who dared to venture out at night. I fear in my heart the best undead are never human but simply a shade of the outer world scratching through the pale veil to snatch our breath.fauxcryehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13772555578908486849noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-89117726846309645882010-10-16T23:31:30.483-04:002010-10-16T23:31:30.483-04:00As a writer, i share your contempt of the modern v...As a writer, i share your contempt of the modern vampire. I tried selling, many years ago (before "Twilight"), a novel that featured a corpse-like, traditional sort of vampire. I was told, repeatedly, to make it more "Anne Rice." I imagine today the market is even more slanted towards the "vampire as sex object." Your take sounds intriguing. Publish a Dwimmermount campaign book soon, please. I am dying to read it.Andrew Logan Montgomeryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16862829026060203177noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-55165593848438673212010-10-16T21:08:18.763-04:002010-10-16T21:08:18.763-04:00I think Horror of Dracula includes the best portra...<i>I think Horror of Dracula includes the best portrayal of the Count I've seen on film. It's one of my favorite movies of all time. </i><br /><br />I thought Louis Jourdan was great, but for some bizarre reason the BBC shot interiors on videotape so it looks like a soap opera.Elfdarthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17332202910754546307noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-83827884279404784312010-10-16T21:05:44.958-04:002010-10-16T21:05:44.958-04:00I doubt it will come as a surprise to anyone that ...<i>I doubt it will come as a surprise to anyone that I loathe the domestication of the vampire that has occurred over the last forty years or so. I find nothing that is attractive or admirable in the idea of creatures who attain immortality through the consumption of the blood of others, even if the concept of the vampire is an intellectually fascinating one to me.</i> <br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HK5UTr2xbnY" rel="nofollow">Gilbert Gottfried said it best.</a>Elfdarthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17332202910754546307noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-39974266086664775322010-10-16T20:03:21.050-04:002010-10-16T20:03:21.050-04:00The vampire that scared the bejeezis out of me whe...<i>The vampire that scared the bejeezis out of me when I was little was exemplified by Christopher Lee, as he portrayed Dracula in the old Hammer films. I've rewatched them, recently, and it's astonishing how well his portrayal holds up, despite the dated melodrama of the films themselves.</i><br /><br>I think <i>Horror of Dracula</i> includes the best portrayal of the Count I've seen on film. It's one of my favorite movies of all time.James Maliszewskihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00341941102398271464noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-66655363184219338652010-10-16T20:01:56.813-04:002010-10-16T20:01:56.813-04:00I Like The Vampire his Kith and Kin my Reverend Mo...<i>I Like The Vampire his Kith and Kin my Reverend Montague Summers, who was basically a real life Call of Cthulhu investigator and quite an interesting man on his own terms</i><br /><br>Summrs was a very strange fellow indeed.James Maliszewskihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00341941102398271464noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-40777230522153908592010-10-16T20:01:23.701-04:002010-10-16T20:01:23.701-04:00How long before a vampire can reform if reduced to...<i>How long before a vampire can reform if reduced to zero? Pretty tough if he can just return to normal. I would say about 24 to 48 hours of coffin time sounds right.</i><br /><br>I was thinking 24 hours myself.James Maliszewskihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00341941102398271464noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-88172880932025429232010-10-16T20:00:52.251-04:002010-10-16T20:00:52.251-04:00In my campaign vampires are demons which possess t...<i>In my campaign vampires are demons which possess the bodies killed by such a creature. That way nobody can really think it would be cool to be a vampire, because you'd still just be dead.</i><br /><br>I like this.James Maliszewskihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00341941102398271464noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-67408638624080256062010-10-16T20:00:12.339-04:002010-10-16T20:00:12.339-04:00I like the miasma effect. Is that your creation, o...<i>I like the miasma effect. Is that your creation, or an adaptation of the original?</i><br /><br>The miasma effect is an adaptation of a plot point in <i>Nosferatu</i>. It's also found in some variations of the vampire legend but it's never been part of <i>D&D</i> lore so far as I know.James Maliszewskihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00341941102398271464noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-56168925491797622102010-10-16T12:24:56.354-04:002010-10-16T12:24:56.354-04:00We are muchly in agreement.
The vampire that scar...We are muchly in agreement.<br /><br />The vampire that scared the bejeezis out of me when I was little was exemplified by Christopher Lee, as he portrayed Dracula in the old Hammer films. I've rewatched them, recently, and it's astonishing how well his portrayal holds up, despite the dated melodrama of the films themselves.<br /><br />Lee's Dracula is a monster, plain and simple. He is capable of PRETENDING to be human, sure. He's even capable of some charm. He can be sexy, sure... but it's camouflage, period, and he discards the disguise the moment it's not useful to him (or when he loses control of himself). When he does not need to be projecting humanity or charm, he reverts to his true nature: predator, junkie, monster. Not a human being at all... and that's one of the most horrifying things ABOUT him.<br /><br />Dracula and his vampiric brides are not supposed to be sexy. If anything, it's disguise, it's bait, it's something to draw the victim in. <br /><br />Today's vampires aren't scary. They're not much different from yesterday's elves. In fact, "The Fair Folk" is as good a description of Twilight's vampires as it is of fairies...Tom O'Bedlamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11821487402927475042noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-28882231710294248522010-10-16T11:05:45.204-04:002010-10-16T11:05:45.204-04:00I like that vampires come out scary in this, but I...I like that vampires come out scary in this, but I think that you are missing something by having him appear to be an emaciated corpse. The sexuality element is an important part of the vampire's menace.<br /><br />The vampire has survived in the Anglo-American mythos because it is such a powerful symbol of unrestrained lusts: hunger, sexuality, drive for power, etc.<br /><br />Making vampires "nice" is a new thing, of course, but the white-person view of the vampire has always been sexy, been charismatic. His beauty is the very thing that draws us in, even though we know in our hearts that something about him is perverted, is wrong. What's frightening isn't that he is hideous and uses magic to lure women, it's that one can never be sure how strongly his victims protest his advances.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-35289857928487288552010-10-16T07:13:15.828-04:002010-10-16T07:13:15.828-04:00Excellent write up for the truly monstrous predato...Excellent write up for the truly monstrous predatory vampire of legend. I might make a few modifications for the Dracula type; a vampire who embraces his curse, and seeks to extend his power by both creating lesser vampires and undead servants while making sure his food source remains thoroughly cowed.<br /><br />Decades ago I played in a campaign where the vampires had legions of willing human troops. Simple enough motivation. If they conquered a neighboring state, the vampires would feed on the neighbors, not them.Gridlorehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07557288070023480388noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-68286130755062663442010-10-16T06:02:39.941-04:002010-10-16T06:02:39.941-04:00Vampires : Never Trust A Junkie
Indeed! I like th...<i>Vampires : Never Trust A Junkie</i><br /><br />Indeed! I like the way, in China Miéville's work, vampires are looked upon with disgust by other undead, who see them as little more than junkies, dependant upon the living, while the other intelligent undead have striven to separate themselves from the living world.<br /><br />I'm also fond of Zak S' every-vampire-has-different-rules approach, although it makes improvisation more difficult. As always, random tables help. ;)thekelvingreenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01928260185408072124noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-32933071424790124232010-10-16T04:42:38.323-04:002010-10-16T04:42:38.323-04:00Nice write up!
My vamps are a bit less corpse lik...Nice write up!<br /><br />My vamps are a bit less corpse like (well some of them are) but otherwise I pretty much agree with your assertions here.<br /><br />I'll note I use the constitution damage to represent blood loss as well and I allow more random vampires to arise (some people are just cussed enough to come back ) <br /><br />and heck as long as the thread is including book recommendations, I Like The Vampire his Kith and Kin my Reverend Montague Summers, who was basically a real life Call of Cthulhu investigator and quite an interesting man on his own terms <br /><br />Its free and legal on line too <br /><br />http://www.sacred-texts.com/goth/vkk/index.htm5stonegameshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10694550968360550229noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-40170934917883794112010-10-16T03:07:14.026-04:002010-10-16T03:07:14.026-04:00jonhendry2 said...
The go-to source on realistic v...<i>jonhendry2 said...<br />The go-to source on realistic vampires is probably the book "Vampires, Burial, and Death" by Paul Barber (Yale University Press).</i><br /><br />I second this recommendation. I think it's just been re-released, too.<br /><br />Matthew Beresford's "From Demons to Dracula" is a good one, too.Welcome to Dungeon!https://www.blogger.com/profile/14346914156633328775noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-56708481728619588772010-10-16T02:13:04.007-04:002010-10-16T02:13:04.007-04:00The go-to source on realistic vampires is probably...The go-to source on realistic vampires is probably the book "Vampires, Burial, and Death" by Paul Barber (Yale University Press).<br /><br />More bloating. No sparkling.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-22967110519337040342010-10-16T02:08:15.453-04:002010-10-16T02:08:15.453-04:00I've always been puzzled by the supposed turn ...I've always been puzzled by the supposed turn on of sex with someone who would be room temperature, but that might be a rant for another day. On the subject at hand, I've got to agree with Crow - I have trouble accepting level draining as a substitute for life/soul draining, and would probably go with stat damage myself.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00801468265072232351noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-76491867321524923512010-10-16T01:56:40.730-04:002010-10-16T01:56:40.730-04:00On the miasma: I know that the Greek version of va...On the miasma: I know that the Greek version of vampires (whose name I forgot, but it's something kinda sorta close to varolac) was responsible for disease in that manner. I think it's also used in Salem's lot, but I don't remember terribly well at 2 in the morning.Mirandahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10745062840676790649noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-84871506115644727622010-10-16T01:40:30.479-04:002010-10-16T01:40:30.479-04:00Still can't accept level draining as a substit...Still can't accept level draining as a substitute for life/soul draining, but a great write up none the less.crowkinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03066821931343968827noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-75868654681598654482010-10-16T01:25:24.792-04:002010-10-16T01:25:24.792-04:00How long before a vampire can reform if reduced to...How long before a vampire can reform if reduced to zero? Pretty tough if he can just return to normal. I would say about 24 to 48 hours of coffin time sounds right.Tedankhamenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00181643018957592969noreply@blogger.com