[Lemarchand]

So first off, greetings everyone! For my first post here, I have what I think is a bit of an unusual request. My playgroup actually wants me to play a vampire! Since this seems to be a fairly tough sort of character to build I figured I would enlist the assistance and advice of you fine folks. I'd like to play this character both as something fun to roleplay (providing interesting interactions and not just being 'the token edgelord' so many vamps can devolve into) and something combat effective without making the others feel too inadequate. Additionally, I've been started with something of a desired backstory/concept. First off, some background information on the group and current characters with lots of quotations, and then a starting point for the vamp.

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Game: SR 5E, all supplements allowed.
Setting: Seattle, most characters have something of a mafia involvement undertone.

Players/GM:
4 other players.
All experienced gamers with a habit of extreme optimization, mostly so they don't have to worry about "executing their party role"
I'm looked to as something of a "secondary GM", with most of the group's rules knowledge, and with a fair dose of theater/acting experience, usually the one counted on to "bring things back in character".
GM is alright with complex rules as long as they are easily explainable, so having most of my character's rules interactions down ahead of time is preferred, so the cries of "cheese monkey" are kept to a minimum
Group tends to have long bouts of "murder hobo" syndrome, where we shoot first and ask questions later. Tack that up to many games where everyone is out to kill us.

Characters:
Elven Shamaness: High charisma (with included spell sustained buffs for LUDICROUS PRETTY), operating as a spirit-based pet class and face (because of the pretty).
Elven Decker: Decker focused on maxed out matrix shenanigans with some Rigger flavor, usually settled in a van from which to launch most of his abilities.
Elven Street Sam: Cybered out gun bunny, who has been compared to "DooM guy" in that he has a gun for most situations and fair melee combat ability
Troll....Troll: Optimized troll tank. Designed to be both melee muscle, intimidation factor, and extremely effective damage sponge.

The Vamp:
Escaped experiment, borrowing heavily from the flavor of the Prototype Transhuman trait in CF. (replace Prototype with Infected:Vampire, and keep the caveat of having to take Wanted, Insomnia, or Allergy)
Currently using Priority build +12 Karma. Arguments can be made to switch to Karma build.
Think if a character from the game Bloodborne was a vampire (they probably are, lets be honest), and you've got my starting mindset on this guy.

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Feel free to go nuts with suggestions, everybody! This is an exercise in pure fun and i'm interested to see what comes out of it!

[Raiderjoseph]

Playing a character from Bloodborne seems... unrealistic. That being said I know very little about the game as a whole. But my first step would be getting him a Highland Forge Claymore. Cross off a big freaking weapon.

[FST_Gemstar]

Maybe a stealthier character? I forget, can Vampires initiate and take masking?

As a vamp you probably are going to be physically capable (along the lines of the sam and tank), but may be able to focus in going in quiet/surprising (unlike the other combat characters). The big issue to being stealthy is that you are dual natured, and anyone sensing a vampire about may send both astral and physical defenses to deal with you. Probably having high charisma or the Flux metamagic so that you can sneak through astral barriers would help to. 

Infected PCs are tough. I really do like playing them if they have cool contacts, cred, knowledge of some of the darker elements of shadowrun. It gives your group an avenue into these game themes from a more "insider's" perspectives and possibly more access. It also creates some moral tension too.

[Lemarchand]

Infected PCs are tough. I really do like playing them if they have cool contacts, cred, knowledge of some of the darker elements of shadowrun. It gives your group an avenue into these game themes from a more "insider's" perspectives and possibly more access. It also creates some moral tension too.

This basically sums up the topic. The group wants all those fun 'dark' elements, but none of them feel comfortable actually playing the character that 'unlocks' all of that due to the mentioned difficulty curve.

[Novocrane]

cool contacts, cred, knowledge of some of the darker elements of shadowrun

This much is easy.

Do they have to be Infected pre-game? Standard new Infected are recently turned, or roughly as powerful as recently turned.

If you come up with interesting contacts, networks, and reasons for one or more to want to infect the character (willingly or unwillingly, per group), then I think you could make a lot more out of it than 'escaped Infected plus whatever Bloodborne adds'.

[Lemarchand]

Do they have to be Infected pre-game? Standard new Infected are recently turned, or roughly as powerful as recently turned.

If you come up with interesting contacts, networks, and reasons for one or more to want to infect the character (willingly or unwillingly, per group), then I think you could make a lot more out of it than 'escaped Infected plus whatever Bloodborne adds'.

I think it's going to work out better to have the character be Infected pre-game. Not sure yet if the rest of the group wants to go deep enough with the concept to get a character turned. Plus the 'escaped experiment' vibe seems to be getting positive reactions from folks. Now, as far as contacts, what sort of contacts are we looking at, usually? Or what qualities are we checking into that help get across the feeling of 'cred' or 'this guy has seen some drek'?

[Novocrane]

What does escaped experiment mean to you, anyway?

I've more often seen it used as a short hand for, "my character's background begins in that lab", and especially for characters connected to the unseemlier side of the shadows, I think having background beforehand can be a good thing.

I'll suggest looking into Tamanous, though. They're the big obvious choice for Infected connections. Vice (4e book) will have more underworld type groups to consider - gangs, syndicates, etc.

[Lemarchand]

What does escaped experiment mean to you, anyway?

I've more often seen it used as a short hand for, "my character's background begins in that lab", and especially for characters connected to the unseemlier side of the shadows, I think having background beforehand can be a good thing.

I'll suggest looking into Tamanous, though. They're the big obvious choice for Infected connections. Vice (4e book) will have more underworld type groups to consider - gangs, syndicates, etc.

To be honest, it's a bit on the same line with that cliche (cue scene of things sparking and exploding with shouts of "It's getting free!"), but I like the aspects of it beyond my character, like "Why was a corp lab doing experiments with Infected?", "Who is behind these atrocities?", etc. I'll look into Tamanous as a possible 'culprit'. I've used their members as organ leggers in past games to sell baddies to. Having 'villain-ception' could be a fun little story angle to explore.

[bangbangtequila]

A really neat concept would be to play the weakest, least useful member of the team as a mundane to start, then rather then apply the template replace him with your infected character after a session. The shift in dynamic as the weak little tagalong turns into a powerhouse would be really fun and interesting. I would listen to a few sessions on podcast.

[Lemarchand]

A really neat concept would be to play the weakest, least useful member of the team as a mundane to start, then rather then apply the template replace him with your infected character after a session. The shift in dynamic as the weak little tagalong turns into a powerhouse would be really fun and interesting. I would listen to a few sessions on podcast.

It would be interesting, for sure, but i'm not sure how well the group would take to it. It seems like it'd be better to pull that off with an NPC or something, but we haven't really established any interesting NPCs worthy of such an apotheosis, yet. As far as a 'podcast', we're sorting out using a combination of Zoom and OBS, so I'll make sure to start a thread for that once it gets off to the races.

[Thanael]

Time to plug Crimson by Kevin Csarnecki the cheap ebook SR novella  with a vampire mage runner protagonist who hangs out with a ghoul warren in Chicago, and has among his contacts the red lotus triad incense master vampire Mage. Oh and he was born before the Awakening and twice ended up in hibernation due to being drowned.

You know him from Run Faster, he authored the section on vampires (in game and out of game iirc).

It's a great read IMO and covers all the themes.


Shaken (also available as a hard copy) is an excellent Shadowrun PI story which has a few vamps and ghouls in it and is more Seattle based. (Martin de Vries is the big cameo guy here IMO, and the others are spoilerific but could well be adapted) A Mage initiatory group is involved and some of its secrets...

All three (four?) of these vampires a full mage initiates with masking iirc. Go figure...

The first book gives some ideas for tricks a vampire can pull as a runner and how to get ...errm supplies and undead friendly living. You should really read that one.


I would maybe go for an adept or mystic adept? (But the my concepts sooner or later all morph into adepts) Tie him to several interesting fluff backgrounds from canon loosely, give him amnesia and see where the DM goes with it. Maybe initiate with the bonus karma.

Doom twisted mentor spirit? Or Thunderbird? Maybe adapt Hobbes dark Azzie knife adept guy to vampire?

My adepts always seem to end up
Attributes A
Skills or Magic B
Magic or Skills C
Race D
Money E


This certainly fits the amnesic mysterious experiment escapee trope. Red, from Crimson starts in a similar way, though he has lower attributes and needs to train back to his old strength.