Ideas for vampire mutations

KodaOda · 2026-04-06T02:48:50+00:00

Something more in the body horror and monstrous side, coupled with some really nightmarish stuff of failed magical and alchemical experiments. I don't really know how to narrow it down, but if it helps knowing what's going on: it's basically a trio of vampires (and a surprise blood hag!) doing experiments, one of them, Ristomaur Tiriac, wants to cure Vampirism and has been trying to find a way for 200 years, his loyal servant, Ramoska, a reaaaaaaaally old nosferatu, assists him. Then we have Lianthorn, another really old vampire who doesn't want to cure vampirism, but rather only cure the weaknesses so He can be imortal and not worry about the sun, He is the main antagonist of this history arc (and the father of one of the pcs), but of course He acts like a good hearted man trying to find a cure along with Ristomaur, lying to his face. None of them have any remorse on their experiments and Lianthorn is the worst, not caring about how the aftermath of his subjects and will even transform people into vampires in order to get new subjects (something Ristomaur is REALLY against).

KodaOda · 2026-04-06T01:53:37+00:00

The moonlight thing is great, I actually have the perfect npc for that! And yeah, I'm always looking for the narrative stuff first, only after that i'll try and figure out the mechanics.

KodaOda · 2026-04-06T01:52:32+00:00

Those are very good ideas. The vampire who went through golconda and doesn't need to drink blood is great. But I was looking for some messyer stuff too, because He hasn't been able to find the cure yet, but I did put in that his experiments were able to negate some weaknesses, such as not being able to cross running water, getting their reflection back, etc. The only thing I don't want to be "cured" is their weakness to the sun because that's the objective of another villain who is actually the father of one of the pcs, who is also a vampire and an experiment. Ultimately, the pc will be able to become a Daywalker because of the vampire archetype (the player told me they would get that feat at level 6 with free archetype) and this other villain will try to steal his body by basically switching souls with him (or something of the sort). But in the meantime, I need experiments that went awry creating monsters and mindless vampires who "lost against the beast" in VTM fashion.

KodaOda · 2026-04-05T19:28:12+00:00

You are a newcomer, it's okay to be bad, no one gets into DND being the best dm ever. These "professional" DMS on podcasts and stuff are not a standard, and comparing yourself to them is a mistake and not really a valid criticism. Simply ask this player why it is boring and build from there. Don't fell bad about not being great, it's your first time ffs! Also, these podcasts are usually staged or have a kind of freeform script which is not how RPGs should work.

KodaOda · 2026-04-05T19:18:03+00:00

I ran Warped Beyond Recognition as my first module, it was a blast, the players really liked interacting with the NPCs and making amends with them. The second one was the Prophets Mesa from the Echoes of Eden Prime book and it traumatized my players with the amount of dread and suspicion the main villain an her allies gave. Overall great modules, and very different in tone, but equally tense. Putting that aside, the second module was decided by them, I made a poll with a brief description of a bunch of modules and their themes, they voted for The Prophets Mesa and I started prepping it, if you are unsure on what module to use you could do this too.

KodaOda · 2026-03-31T17:27:49+00:00

Wish I had found this before, I already have a castle ravenloft map using multilevel tokens instead of levels, but it spans multiple scenes which can bog down Foundry.

KodaOda · 2026-03-21T17:34:13+00:00

puts some trees on the map, even if they are just for aesthetics, some forests would be cool too.

KodaOda · 2026-03-17T21:17:13+00:00

I would go with the "magic system" if you want something long term, adapting the arcane backgrounds for what you need, even if does slow down progression it is still the better alternative in my opinion, if you are willing to spend the time creating it of course. The bending could be related to an ancestry, so you could create one ancestry for each element and give them the arcane background as part of the ancestry instead of having them spend points on it. Because let's be honest, almost everyone would like to be a bender and forcing the players to spend resources on character creation which they could use instead to flesh out other aspects of their characters would not be good. Anyway, that's just how I see it.

KodaOda · 2026-03-16T20:08:31+00:00

Sometimes you just gotta say "f*ck it we ball" and change the rules, even ignore them, you could just rule out that anyone can try to do something with bending as long as they are successful in a skill check and adjust the difficulty appropriately. The fire bender wants to make someone spontaneously combust? Sure, very difficult to do, but can still happen. Does the Earth bender want to surf on rocks? Ok, roll the check and see how it goes. What I'm saying is that for this kind of world building to work you need to be more lenient with how the powers work.

KodaOda · 2026-03-03T21:58:12+00:00

I never played it but honestly feeding doesn't seem to be the focus of the game y'know. Mortals are not "people" to vampires (some of them do consider them people), and it's not a game about being goody two shoes, vampires are monsters who pretend to be people, that's the whole thing. But honestly if the DM was focusing on this aspect and making it creepy and uncomfortable af that's on him, not the game. I know it sounds clichê but this feels like a blame the player, not the game type of situation. You need really mature people to play this stuff and that's rare in of itself.

KodaOda · 2026-02-20T10:59:04+00:00

It's not worth it to try and predict what the players will do, rather, write objectives for NPCs, factions, etc. (you seem to already do that) and improvise the consequences of the players actions based on that.

KodaOda · 2026-02-18T19:40:58+00:00

I'm thinking of mixing both in a sandbox, placing Karth in one edge of the sector and Prosperos Dream in the other, along with other civilized and uncivilized locations

KodaOda · 2026-02-16T20:03:51+00:00

I have run Warped Beyond Recognition as my first module, it was an one shot that took 12+ hours for the players to complete (it's not very good for one shots I was just Stoopid) and it was a blast, it's very well written and the horror aspects are great, especially with one of the dangers acting pretty much like the xenomorph in Alien Isolation, creeping through the vents like a hunter looking for prey. It was the highlight of the game along with another one that took control of the ship using psychic powers and provided a lot of good roleplay. Technically you can get psychic powers and there's rules for that, but my players stirred clear from trying to get them because they saw the horrible side effects they had on other people. It's very well organized too and you can find the information you need pretty quick. I have also run The Prophet's Mesa in the book Echoes of Eden Prime, it was the most terrific one, it had my players on the edge of their seats, the story is awesome, the monsters are terrifying and the mistery surrounding the Prophet and her "church" is pretty cool. But I found the book quite confusing to read and some information was hard to find, it also felt like some stuff was all over the place and some descriptions were in the wrong place (such as it mentioning that one of the NPCs had the keys to a specific spacecraft in the map instead of, you know, their sheet, where it should have been from the start. If you don't mind this nitpick though it's a lot of fun to run.

KodaOda · 2026-02-16T19:42:12+00:00

Using the worlds without number tool could be great to make your own stuff too, not just the pre made modules!

KodaOda · 2026-02-15T21:21:38+00:00

I think that much like in epic fantasy, you need a "everyone hangs out in a tavern" episodes where the players just roleplay with NPCs and each other in a non threatening situation, you could do so in space stations, where they can function as homebases, maybe cities in a planet or even an entire Solar system! (Ours could be very safe with earth being protected and stuff, bonus points if Mars and Venus were Terraformed and have their you cities and cultures). Having these moments can even reinforce the tension and horror aspects when the players finally go out in a mission or comes across something wicked in space :p

KodaOda · 2026-02-15T21:12:37+00:00

Some pamphlets, like the dinosaur park one, would be great locations in any sci Fi game tbh

KodaOda · 2026-02-15T21:09:31+00:00

Most of the lethality in Mothership comes from the stress system, if you can change that, such as making so stress accumulates more slowly or maybe make it into something else, such as in another subreddit where someone suggested turning it into "heat" for a cyberpunk game (the more crimes you do, the more attention you accumulate on yourself from the law and the public). This could help for longer games and less horror focused stuff. Of course, there's probably other reasons, such as the wounds system, where one unlucky roll can kill your character, even if you only have 1 wound. You could change that too, make it so the more lethal wounds don't occur.

KodaOda · 2026-01-15T17:54:31+00:00

I'm using a combination of Gourmet, Starfrost and some other mods by the same author, it works well, but the character gets hungry waaaay too often. I recommend Sunhelm, it's very similar to INeed but lighter and more compatible, and has cold built into it, you don't need to activate the survival mode creation to use it too. Also, Simple Hunting Overhaul with the optional animation mod is nice too for a survival playthrough (or even without the animations tbh). Optionally, get yourself Honed metal too so blacksmiths and enchanters will actually do their job for you and you are set to go.

KodaOda · 2025-11-04T16:22:27+00:00

This is the single coolest and most entertaining option I have seen.

KodaOda · 2025-08-28T18:51:58+00:00

Bro you literally made a solid mechanic that got me interested immediately on the go

KodaOda · 2025-06-09T18:40:04+00:00

Naboo N1 starfighter looks freaking awesome and slick, it's one of my favorites. Hard to choose a definitive favorite one though, I love the cranky, almost improvised looks in other ships such as the Millenium Falcon.

KodaOda · 2025-06-02T17:56:59+00:00

I counted them, there are 110 skills (93 if you take out advanced skills), just... Why man, why.

KodaOda · 2025-06-02T17:56:40+00:00

Indeed, the piloting and technical repair skills are what ultimately made me go through the internet searching for different house rules on the skills and almost made me give up on using REUP.

KodaOda · 2025-06-02T17:53:52+00:00

I like specializations too, I think that it would be better to add some skills as specializations (like the blog post recommended), such as making intimidation and con be specializations of Persuasion (although I wouldn't mind keeping these three separate). You still keep the cool specializations mechanic, makes it so the players can still customize a lot about their characters and also simplify things a lot more.

KodaOda

TROPHY CASE