Following from our group’s recent escapades in the Curse fo Strahd, we are jumping over to a vampire that is a little more lovecraftian – we are looking at the vampire for the Call of Cthulhu RPG. Cthluhu features a vampire enemy type that is based on traditional vampire lore but also incorporates Lovecraftian themes, this includes many of the traditional vampire abilities but with enough lovingly-crafted twists to make it fit within the Call of Cthulhu system neatly.

Vampires in Call of Cthluhu actually have a lot of the ‘traditional’ tropes with a couple of caveats such as:

• vampires have no reflections.
• vampires must sleep in their hideouts during the day (their original burial ground / coffin).
• Cthluhu uses the 3 strike system for bites – once you’ve been bitten three times, you die and become undead.
• Vampires can move around at daytime, but don’t benefit from their abilities during this time.
• Curcifixes are temporary relief from vampires, holy water burns them
• The ol’ fashioned “cannot pass over running water”.
• Vampires in this system can morph into other things like smoke, mist, a wolf or a bat at will. If smoke or mist, it drifts at the rate of one yard per round.
• Similarly to Strahd, when vampires hit 0 HP they turn to mist and get away – unless they are staked in the heart.

In your game, you can decide to take or leave the tropes above but I think they can be fun hints for players to discover. That or adding unique twists to the tropes can throw players off of the scent which can be fun mind games to play with them.

Getting down to the mechanical specifics, the vampire has a decent amount of skills, but it’s abilities are what make them dangerous for players.

First off – the sanity damage a vampire inflicts on players is quite forgiving, with a 0/1D4 SAN check when attacked by one, and 1/1D3 when seeing one transform. No Bouts of Madness here!

Vampires also have enhanced physical abilities such as very good STR bonus (105), with CON, INT and POW being above average (65) and the rest at a normal ability score (50). While this might not seem too crazy, it has a 13 Magic Point pool, can transform into bats, wolves, mist or human, and whatever species it turns into, it has a +2 move to give them the edge in chases. They are as well as the ability to regenerate hitpoints when they are dropped to 0 at a rate of 1HP per round.

That’s just it’s basic abilities, but my favourite for both mechanical and roleplay pirposes is the Vampire’s ‘Gaze’ – forcing a POW check on a player and on a fail they follow simple commands from the vampire. Players need not worry however, as every round or whenever a command is self-destructive there’s and INT check to break out.

Other than the above, the actual actions a vampire has in combat are simple. The vampire has a 1d4 damage bonus to their Brawling which helps a bit, however it’s Bite can be pretty scary to face up against. Bites deal 1d4 damage on their own, but can additionally drain 2d10 STR damage per bite (and each round thereafter if they hold onto their victim) which can quickly deplete any STR pool a investigator has. Once an investigator hits 0, they die!

Regarding it’s out-of-combat skills, the vampire can use these out of combat to it’s advantage:

• Charm 60%
• Human Psychology 60%
• Track (Scent Blood) 75%
• Stealth 70%.

So how does this work in play?

In actual play, the vampire can be a very deceptive NPC for your party. Maybe they are connected to a investigator’s case indirectly? Maybe the vampire gave them a case in order to access someone the vampire wishes to control? Whatever the reason, they have a lot of versatility due to them not being standard ‘canon-fodder’ or just a mindless monster.

For me, the thing that I like most about having intelligent adverseries is that they can be flexible to what your players do and it would all make sense. In our last session with a Cthulhu vampire, we had the vampire hide themselves as one of the ‘victims’ in a room of mostly-dead ‘meals’. Investigators took them out and went in to hunt the vampire in vain. A few missed clues by the investigators meant they charged into the hideout only to return outside and have their assisting NPC murdered and the villian fleeing – it made for a big twist at the end, and an even bigger drive for players to want to come back the following week and stake that sucker through the heart! (Spoiler, they did)

Having creatures that can do more than hold themselves up in combat offers more opportnuties to provide puzzles and mysteries for players. That is especially important in games where combat can be brutal and deadly at every turn like Call of Cthulhu. Something like the vampire is a great choice for an impromptu one shot or a longer form campaign. They are not something I tend to use but after running through the Curse of Strahd, I’ve been reinvigorated to incorporate some of the traditional horrors into my games that got me into the genre in the first place.

That’s it for this Monster of the Week! Let us know what you though or if there’s something you’d like us to check out. Until then, good gaming!

-KJ