Idea Info Name: Unlife Index: Primary Category: RPG Submitted: 8/26/2003 9:27:59 PM Written By: TheNewMan

The game is designed to simulate the life of a vampire from first conversion until its final demise.

Life stages
When the character is first turned, the advantages from mortal life are minimal.  Short-ranged night-sight, 1st level resurrection and a slight increase in strength, speed and agility.  In terms of physical disadvantages, they are in full effect: instant death from sunlight and being in running water and repulsion from holy objects/places (holy water, crosses, churches etc).
As time passes, the character learns to harness their abilities to greater effect, improving existing abilities and learning new ones.
Should the character 'die', they turn to dust.  Over a year, the ashes return to the vampire's coffin, where they wait to be resurrected.  Should the coffin be sanctified or destroyed, the ashes cannot gather there and resurrection is impossible. (ie game over)

Abilities

Eyes of the Nightcrawler: short/medium/long/extreme range night vision (passive- no blood drain)

Gaze of the Hunter: see blood flow through walls

Snake eyes: charm person when not in combat- fear/sleep/mind control (works on non-holy humans only)

Wings of damnation: can jump increasingly far/high- 3 levels

Speed of Demons: effectively puts world in slowmo while player retains normal speed- 5 levels, the 5th nearly pausing the world entirely

insidious force: Can walk through walls or drop through floor- 3 levels of increasing thickness

Cloak of shadows: makes character less and less visible with each level, offset by motion and ambient light, until can be completely invisible whilst running- 5 levels.

unstoppable: reduces damage taken from non silver or holy weapons- 5 levels, 5th means invulnerable to non-sliver/holy weapons (passive- no blood drain)

Morphing: three levels, first allows hands to turn into claws, second- can turn into bat for quick, if vulnerable, transportation (resistances, if any, are removed & lowered health); third- can turn into wolf, for fast, safer travel

Levitation: 1st level: self, horizontal motion only. 2nd: self, all directions.  3rd: other, all directions.

resurrection: Should the character be dusted, they can come back once their ashes return to the coffin- 1st level: if blood is spilled on the ashes; 2nd: if the character's coffin is disturbed; 3rd: after another 2 years, should neither of the other happen

rejuvenation: as long as blood levels are high enough, should the character 'die', instead of turning to dust, the character can turn to mist and immediately reform where ever the character wishes (not automatically on the spot, to avoid instantly dying again should it, for example, be from sunlight).  If blood levels are too low, the character is dusted as per usual- five levels of decreasing minimum blood levels.

Sire: the ability to sire another vampire from a human.  See separate section.

Higher level powers use more blood, their lower-level versions can be used instead to conserve blood.

Blood
Blood is unlife.  You need it to continue existence, to use any of your powers and to heal wounds.
The blood needed to continue existence is minimal and can even, if desired, be taken from animals rather than humans, although such blood is good for little else.  When a power is used, it drains the blood from the character's body in proportion to how strong the power is and how long it is on for.
The blood meter is an indicator of how suffused with human blood your blood is, going down to -10 and up to varying amounts depending on the age of the vampire.  At -10, the vampire is dust.  At 0, the vampire is in its normal state.  Animal blood can only bring the level up to 0.  Below 0, the vampire gets exponentially weaker and weaker (reduced stats), a vamp at -1 is barely different from normal, -8 is can just about crawl on the ground and -9 is barely able to move and is easy prey.
If the blood meter is above 0, then wounds the vampire has will be slowly healed in exchange for some blood drain.  It is possible to use powers at any time, even at BL (blood level) 0 or below, although it is certainly not advised to do so, as dusting is a definite possibility.  The amount of experience a vamp receives is in proportion to the BL.  At BL 0, no experience change occurs, at negative numbers, exp drain happens over time in proportion to how negative the BL is.  At BLs of above 0, experience is earned in proportion to the BL with the greatest changes happening at low BL levels. 
Over time, the meter will drop anyway, just from existing, so a constant supply of blood is needed.  The more powerful the vampire is, the more blood is needed for this.
Should the meter be overfilled, (ie drunk more blood than the vamp can normally hold), the vamp enters an enhanced state.  This is rare as young vampires are very blood-inefficient and cannot get that much out of a victim while older vampires have very large blood meters.  Such a state will boost the vamp's stats significantly beyond their norm (proportional to how far over the limit the vamp is) as well as allow the vamp to gain more experience per kill.  However, the use of the blood becomes much less efficient- powers, healing and even existing use significantly more blood.  This state remains until the BL reaches a negative number: the more the BL goes over the max, the lower the negative number needed- over twice the max requires -10 and death to end, while lesser BLs merely leave the vamp weakened when ended.  This is to allow the vamps to enter a murderous rampage, cutting a path of destruction over the country, decimating entire villages and crushing anything sent against them until they run out of victims or decide to quit (but imagine going back to your weak, unenhanced self!).  Such an act can greatly increase a vamp's experience, but is likely to attract a LOT of notice, like ARMIES of vampire hunters dedicated to your eradication for generations!  More reasonably, such a state could be entered should the vamp be expecting to have to fight a tough battle soon eg against an older vamp.

Sires
When the character starts out, they have a sire who made them a vampire.  A significant part of the early game may well be spent interacting with them.  How the relationship develops is up to the player. 
However, the Sire has certain powers over their spawn: they can set the spawn any task and the spawn only has a limited time to complete the mission before their stats start draining.  Completing the mission or the Sire releasing the spawn or dying will reverse the drain.  The Sire siphons off 20% of all experience the spawn earns for themselves.  This siphon ends if the Sire dies or releases their spawn.  The Spawn can never become more experienced than their Sire unless the Sire dies or releases them.  Finally, the Sire will always know where their spawn are.
As can be seen, the only ways to escape from the Sire's powers is killing the Sire or convincing them to let their spawn go- both VERY difficult tasks.  Remember, the relationship is very one-sided in the Sire's favour.  It will take a supreme effort merely to get the sire to see one of their spawn as more than a slave.  Should the spawn impress their sire with their initiative, intuition, intelligence and skill, they might even be able to enter a romance with them- although the one-sidedness of the arrangement can create problems (how much can you respect someone you can order to do anything on a whim?  Especially if they have a mere fraction of your power.)
The sire will have their own beliefs, which may not correspond to the spawn's.  Should the spawn be freed and do things the Sire strongly disapproves of, it is very likely that they will hunt down and try to kill their spawn.  It is worth noting that should the player earn their Sire's respect, they can influence the Sire's views to a degree proportional to the respect the Sire gives them.  Any spawn of the player may try to influence the player's views to be more like their own, with the success determined by the player.  The wise player will carefully choose the person to be turned to make sure their views coincide with their own, to minimise friction between them.

Advancement
Experience is gained in two ways: existing and accomplishing.  Both follow the blood-proportional rules mentioned above.  As long as the vamp has a BL of above 0, they gain a small stream of experience constantly as their body becomes more and more advanced with vampirism.  Should the vamp accomplish anything, they get experience proportional to the difficulty of the task.  Teaching itself carpentry (using books or a mentor) will net it experience proportional to the level learned.  Using that skill to create a new coffin for itself will also net it exp.  Defeating opponents in battle or thwarting their plans will also net experience.  Example: your character discovers a vamp on the warpath is about to destroy a nearby village and drain them all of blood.  Experience can be gained from taking the vamp directly on, but as it will be pumped up on blood, it will be a hard fight and will get the same experience as if he weren't enhanced.  Instead, if the character scares off the inhabitants of the village, he will get exp for foiling his foe's plan, he can then wait for the vamp to lose his enhanced state due to lack of blood and then take out the severely weakened vamp with ease and for the same exp as killing him while he was enhanced.  Experience can be used either to increase stats (strength, speed, toughness, agility, charisma) or buy new abilities.  The size of the blood meter increases with experience for no cost.

World
The game starts in early Eastern Europe.  A superstitious time, with people all to aware of the vampire threat and, more importantly, how to combat it.  Vampire hunting teams are in abundance, although they differ in views, some only hunting vampires who drink from any human (as opposed to the vamps who survive on animals), others only care if you kill 'good' (ie non-felon) people, while others want to eradicate all vamps, regardless of how well they behave.  It should be noted that vampire hunters follow supply and demand.  The more vampire-related deaths there are, the more hunters will be trained to combat the threat.  So, a method to reduce the danger from hunters would be to hunt down killing vamps before they kill too many and cause more hunters to arrive in the area.  However, this is likely to make any vamps who liked the vamp to start hunting you down.  (such as their Sire, should they still exist!).  Note that the threat from the Hunters will never be entirely removed, no matter how few deaths there are, they will always be waiting in the shadows for any vamp to stick their head up.
How you react with the rest of the world is up to you.  Remember you need blood constantly in order to survive.  You can take it from animals only, but you will not gain any experience and it is a very humiliating experience.  You could only drink from felons, but how?  Constantly breaking into prisons is risky.  You could make a deal with a remote village that you will protect them if they supply convicted felons to you, but crime is likely to drop quickly under such circumstances, requiring you to expand your influence, making you more conspicuous to both Hunters and hostile Vamps.  Remember that such a thing might be seen a grab for power, earning the enmity of both local lords and fearful local vamps, should they find out.  Of course, you could just drink from whoever, but that would result in more Hunters, as well as Vamps trying to reduce Hunter numbers, both hunting you down, resulting in a risky, albeit rewarding, nomadic lifestyle.  Remember, though, once someone is murdered, police will investigate and may send their own troops to hunt down the killer.  While individually less dangerous than Hunters, they can attack in large numbers (SAS/SWAT equivalent late on, national guard, army etc).
On top of that, the character needs to make a living, unless they are living on the streets (and that presents its own difficulties), for rent, new clothes to replace old ones stained with blood etc.  Obviously, a day job is difficult, and even if the character finds a night job, late on fake ID is required.  Throughout their existence, however, the vamp is in the human world and interacts with humans.  Friendships and romances are both possible and have unique benefits (eg should you reveal your identity to someone who accepts it, they can then be used to supply blood to your ashes should you be dusted), but can create problems as your identity comes under greater scrutiny.

Fighting
Many weapons are available, from fists (especially valid with the morph ability), through more conventional weapons like swords and crossbows and later on, guns, up to less conventional fare like swinging trees around like a club or throwing buses around (should the character survive to modern times).  In short, whatever is available in that time period can be used.
The fighting system should, like the rest of the game, be real-time, 3rd person.

Hunters
Hunters are teams of men/women armed with holy water/crosses/garlic/wooden stakes etc.  Late on, they may have UV lights and hosepipes (not enough running water to kill, but certainly enough to weaken an unwary vamp).  Frequently have a priest with them who prevents the vampire from getting close while the others weaken then kill it.  At no point in the game are they easy to kill and they are very persistent in the Hunt.
Should the player become powerful without killing innocents, some more liberal vampire hunter groups may even offer employment to increase their strength.  Others may use magic to force the issue, whatever your morals, making you work for the enemy against your will (break the contract and die instantly).  There will always be opportunists wanting to use powerful creatures for their own ends.  Escape from such servitude will not be easy. 

Other Enemies
Werewolves: of course- the classic counterpart to vampires.  In their transformed states, they are a significant threat to vampires, but the canny vamp can investigate and find out who they are and kill them in human form (for the same xp) with far less difficulty.  This does present problems, however.  Without catching them 'in the act'- ie being a werewolf attacking someone while there are witnesses around, people are likely to treat it as a vampire killing an ordinary human, which has its own consequences.
Possessed: People call vampires 'demons', but others fit the name far better.  Even worse, foolish humans are willing to worship these creatures and supply them with a mortal vessel to survive in this world.  Such a creature is of immense power, limited only by the physical capabilities of the body: while the body feels no pain, if the possessed falls off a high cliff, the body will be smashed to pieces- just about enough to send the demon back.  The monster feels no pain, no remorse, is incredibly strong and fast, again limited by the body- try to lift too heavy a load and the arm will simply be torn off, although it can be rejoined easily enough.  As the more astute may have guessed, if an ancient vampire is possessed, the world should tremble.
Sorcerer: Weilder of occult powers, hunted almost as fanatically as vampires, they are not neccessarily enemies although even if communication is established, it is only foolish vampires who turn their back on their new aquaintances.  Paranoid and powerful, if physically weak, they are hard to keep as friends but harder to kill as enemies.  Scheming, manipulative and cunning, they are a force to be reckoned with.

If anyone has any more ideas, let me know.  Keep them corporeal (ie no ghosts).

Vampire Horses
huh?

Vampire Cults, sorry
(Sorry, Biz, couldn't resist)
There are 4 groups of vampires in the world, each with their own philosophy on unlife and goals.  Early on, the player may try and join one of them, but will need to track them down themself and then complete numerous initiation tasks, none of which will be easy.  Later on, should the player have received a certain level of renown, the cults will extend an invitation to the player should their viewpoints coincide.  If they don't, vampire assassination squads are a possibility.  Should the player become a legend, cults are likely to sweeten the deal with better and better offers to get the player to join.
Guardians: Dedicated to the preservation of vampirism.  They want to coexist with humans, which means removing the violent element from the vampire population.  If they don't kill anyone, pay taxes and obey the national laws, they figure that humans won't feel as hostile to them.  They are the policemen of the vampires- hunting the killers and taking them down before they give a new generation reason to fear them.
Blazing Fang: Dedicated to vampire supremacy.  Their arrogance makes them believe that they should rule.  Kill any threat to vampires, keep the humans in chains, and make yourself as powerful as you can- if you do it by levelling whole villages, all power to you.
Crimson Claw: Dedicated to gaining power through manipulation, trickery and deciet.  A hive of backstabbing, this group's goal is to infiltrate human society and change it from within, turning them against their own protectors and turning vampires into mere myths.  May make alliances with any other cult, but not for long and seldom with the actual intent they claim.
Black Dawn: A secretive cult, they will only reveal themselves to the greatest of vampires.  They are by far the smallest group, yet among their number rank the most powerful of the vampires.  They have uncovered ancient scriptures that hint towards there once being a 'vampire god', banished from this plane by another deity.  They dedicate their existance to bringing this god back to usher in a new age of glory for all vampires.  Unfortunately, the scriptures are incomplete and the fragments are scattered all over the world in the most dangerous areas possible.  Guess what you will be doing. 

Each cult has different methods of ascention, for example, in the blazing fang, it is a pure test of combat while in the crimson claw, you raise ranks by outsceming your superiors while stopping their scemes from killing you- direct combat is heavily frowned upon.  Guardians weigh up your acheivements then vote on whether you should be promoted while the black dawn weigh rank on the number of square milimetres of parchment you have returned.  At the top, there are three ancient vampires, the most powerful in their cult.

The End
Obviously, should the player be dusted and their coffin be sanctified or destroyed, the game ends.  This is (almost) the only way of the game ending.  When the vampire is very powerful, the amount of blood required to merely continue existing is staggering, resulting in almost certain human casualties (unless the player wants to spend ALL of their time depopulating entire cities of their animal life, which may get almost as much notice for far less gain).  This means Hunters and vamps will be after you all the time, both in huge numbers.  You can buy yourself some breathing space by hunting the hunters- killing the elder vampires who are against you and even harder, taking out the central HQ of the Hunters.  Such an act should be next to impossible, certainly alone.  An army of vampires armed with the latest high-tech weapons MIGHT manage it with HUGE casualties.  Even then, survivors might appear and a couple of generations later, they could be back to full strength.  Sooner or later, either the player's foes will defeat them or the vampire/player will become bored with immortal life and end it themselves.
The only other way to finish the game is to fight your way to the top of a vampire cult, destroy the other three cults then achieve your cult's goal, ie summon the vampire god for the black dawn, become the leader of humanity for the crimson claw, etc.  Needless to say, this will not be easy.
Note that the player is unlikely to play through all the years.  Should they be dusted, it may be many years before they are awakened again, possibly centuries, depending on how well-hidden your coffin is.

Summary
All this hopefully adds up to a game about what a vampire's unlife would be like over the centuries.  An absolute nightmare to program, I know, but to create a world as rich and interesting as the one described here should be incredible.  Please comment.