One of the most popular genres in roleplaying is the realm of dark fantasy where players
take on the roles of monstrous denizens of the dark half-worlds of undead romance.  This
world of vampires, werewolves, ghouls and spectres has a long history in literature, and has
been most successfully popularized in gaming with White Wolf's World of Darkness games.  To
many the romance and darkness of the undead lifestyle is irresistable, and who are we to
deny them?

The complaint aired again and again about the various World of Darkness games is that
although the ideas in the games are great, the mechanics leave a lot to be desired.  More
experienced roleplayers find the WoD systems to be arbitrarily limiting and not terribly
believable, and likely to intrude unnecessarily into character development and freedom of
roleplaying.

One of the nice things about Oroborus is that it exists in large part so that gamemasters
can take it and plug it into any game setting to take the place of the original mechanics.
With a bit of preparation - provided here - you should be able to use the excellent
background material from the World of Darkness with characters created and played using
Oroborus.

The easiest way to play undead characters in Oroborus is to pre-design some basic special
powers which correspond to the main character types found in the genre.  The Oroborus
paranormal powers system already has built into it the capability to define this sort of
character. Doing some of that work in advance just lets the player concentrate on other
aspects of character creation.

To start with, we assume that all of the possible character 'races' will have roughly
comparable levels of power, even if their specific abilities are different.  Most of the
process of character creation will still be in the hands of the player, but certain special
abilities will be defined in advance.  The player can choose to spend points to enhance
those abilities if he wishes.  Depending on the campaign the gamemaster may wish to allow
characters to spend some of their bonus points on other powers.

Characters will be created on a basis of 120 characteristic points, 40 Basic Skill Points,
40 Advanced Skill Points and 40 Bonus Points.  This should be appropriate for creating a
fledgeling Vampire or equivalent character.  If you want to play at a higher level of power
increase the Skill Point and Bonus Point amounts.


TRADITIONAL VAMPIRE

The traditional vampire subsists by drinking the blood of humans and sometimes animals to
maintain an unnatural life after death which brings with it certain supernatural powers.  It
may not be necessary to totally exsanguinate a victim to derive enough blood to survive,
though gradual anemia and death are the result of prolonged feeding.

Characteristics: STR max 40, WIL max 30, CHA max 35
Powers: Remove from (Empowerment) Human Blood (Physical Affinity)
        Become (Manipulation) Bat (Air Beast Affinity)
        Become (Manipulation) Mist (Air Substance Affinity)            
        Protect from (Manipulation) Man Made Weapons (Physical Object Affinity) - Innate
Flaws:  Vulnerability (double damage) to (Manipulation) Wooden Weapons (Physical Object Affinity) - 4 pts
        Damage (12pts/min) from (Generation) Sun (Cosmological) - 28 pts
	Repel from (Manipulation) Religious Symbols (Mental Religious Affinity) - 5 pts
	Repel from (Manipulation) Garlic (Earth Plant Affinity) - 6 pts
Bonus Points: 82 (adjusted for Flaws)
	
ENERGY VAMPIRE

The energy vampire lives off of the life force of others and does not need to take in
physical blood to exist.  Frequently the gathering of energy from a victim is part of a
sexual act, and it may not be necessary to kill the victim to get some sustenance from
draining their life energy only partially.

Characteristics: STR max 30, WIL max 40, CHA max 35
Powers: Remove from (Empowerment) Human Spirit (Spiritual Affinity)
        Passage through (Movement) Matter (Earth Substance Affinity)            
        Transport by (Manipulation) Air (Air Substance Affinity) - Innate
Bonus Points: 40 (adjusted for Flaws)


SHAPESHIFTER

Werewolves and other similar creatures have an affinity with a particular
breed of animal and the ability to take their form or take on some of
their attributes.  They draw power from the moon or another appropriate
source, and may have problems controlling their form changing abilities.

Characteristics: STR max 35, AGI max 30
Powers: Generate from (Empowerment) Moon (Cosmological Affinity)
	Become (Manipulation) Wolf (Earth Beast Affinity)
        Protect from (Manipulation) Man Made Weapons (Physical Object Affinity) - Innate
Flaws:  Vulnerability (double damage) to (Manipulation) Silver (Physical Object Affinity) - 4 pts
        Drawn (Involuntary transform) to (Generation) Full Moon (Cosmological) - 6 pts
Bonus Points: 50 (adjusted for Flaws)


GHOUL

The ghoul is often considered as secondary in importance to the Vampire,
but they have a grand tradition of their own which is easily as ancient.
Ghouls maintain their unnatural existence and prolonged life by eating
the putrifying flesh of the long dead.  They do not have all of the
extraordinary powers of many of the other Undead, but they can walk by
day and suffer few other special weaknesses.

Characteristics: STR max 35, AGI max 30
Powers: Remove from (Empowerment) Human Flesh (Physical Affinity)
        Heal (Redactive) Damage to Body (Physical Body Affinity)
Bonus Points: 40 (adjusted for Flaws)

These are just examples of how the system can be adapted to work with these types of
characters.  Other types of undead are certainly possible and may be added later.