You might be wondering about how one plays a Vampire Hunter in the Post-Apocalyptic world of Rifts. You will have rolled up the basics of your character, which will elaborate upon your character’s personality, their sentiments towards the Coalition, towards D-Bees and Practitioners of Magic, and you will have already determined the motivation for your character.
But how you flesh out a Vampire Hunter-style character will depend on a few rudimentary principles. In addition to the standard Vampire Hunter OCC, there are nonstandard classes that you may use in a vampire hunting game.
Playstyle
Lean on your character’s strengths. We are all by now experts in Vampire Hunter after hundreds of publications and theatrical releases about vampires. But we have to remember, our characters aren’t privy to this knowledge unless you take the Vampire Hunter OCC. Even then, though, they only have part of the knowledge.
We may know the bare minimum: Garlic, Holy Water, a Crucifix, and a silver weapon. What we aren’t going to be prepared for is that Vampires are fast, powerful, and can regenerate from almost any form of damage. They are savage, and most are capable of using psionics. Even the rare few can still use a portion of their previous Spell Knowledge and cast magic. Adding to this list is that vampires can transform into mist or even bats.
Secondary and Master Vampires will often, if not always, use minions. They can enthrall almost anyone to be loyal to the death of them. Some are even able to use Seduction to get what they want.
Understanding this fact, player characters must find ways to identify minions and lure or capture them to discover what they know about the local vampire threat.
Simple tactics would be to have small weapons stashes hidden all over town or in the woods near town. Set up trapped fallback zones: Smoke Grenades, a Crucifix nailed to a wall, a pouch filled with mallets and stakes.
Vampires use the shadows
You may look at the subheading here and think, “DUH, ” but let me share some thoughts you may not have considered. When I say they use the shadows, I mean it literally and figuratively.
Vampires taunt their victims while in mist and bat form to incite fear before the kill. However, what about the shadows of the mind or the shadows of politics, trade, minions, etc?
The more feral a vampire is, the more likely you are to meet them in melee combat and have a straightforward good guy vs bad guy encounter. However, secondary and especially master vampires will use many tactics THROUGH other people. Vampires will have no qualms about putting women, children, old people, and just the innocent in general between you and it.
This is where having a good skillset to see through their guises and catch any warning signs of manipulation on their part is crucial. It’s not just helpful but maybe even required. I don’t usually like having requirements like this, however it could help in a vampire campaign where you don’t want the players jumping ahead.
For example, you may require that the player’s skills of Intelligence(the ability to determine lies and deception) be at, say, 60% or higher before they can start picking up on the subtle lies of the vampire’s minions or the enslavement of the town guards. Maybe it requires 50% to see through the 2ndary vampires and 70% for the master, or something to this effect. This is a simple way to express to the players how crafty the vampires are, without you, the game master, having to be some true genius at interweaving lies the vampires have made.
Skill Selection
Vampire Hunters will have to acquire a few skill-sets that will aid them in determining the presence of a vampire, the location of the nest and identifying minions. Key skills will be Lore: Vampires, Detect Ambush, Detect Concealment, Intelligence, Interrogation, Streetwise, and Monster and Demon Lore. Honorable mentions can be Palming and W. P. Targeting and W. P. Revolver.
Depending on how your game master plays vampires, many medical skills could be essential, particularly crime scene investigation and forensics. These would be more, maybe only helpful, in civilized areas where people police violent actions. The psychology skill could be an incredible help at discerning vampires trying pass themselves off as human.
While these skills may be some of the most standardly helpful, don’t discount other skills. Vampires can be extremely long-lived, so it’s possible that knowing languages might help tip a player off to someone that possibly a vampire. After all, if someone in a town speaks a language you know isn’t spoken on the continent anymore or for hundreds of years, that can be a big hint.
Another skill that may be helpful situationally could be interrogation (not to get information but to know you can’t- which can also be a tactic of interrogation).
Recognize weapon quality may give you a hint when you notice someone walking with a genuinely ancient sword or dagger at their hip.
Domestic skills may be odd to pick up in Rifts RPG but they could have tremendous use in Vampire hunting games. We often attribute vampires as being very subtle with people, so musical instruments, dancing, singing, wardrobe and grooming, and even cooking skills could be beneficial.
Psionics and spell selection
Every edge you can get as a Vampire Hunter can be the difference between life and death. In the world of Rifts, it can also be the difference between finding the vampire presence quickly, not at all, or far to late to deal with.
Due to the most dangerous vampires having psionics, being equipped with them will help even the odds. Some absolute powerhouse abilities are Hydrokinesis, mind bolt, psi-sword, and telekinesis.
Sensing spells and psionics are incredibly helpful like: See aura, sense evil, presence sense, sixth sense, telepathy, and mind block. Some other good options are suppress fear, ectoplasm (holding a simple shield could save you), or levitation(getting thrown or dropped sucks).
The most powerful spell you can take has got to be control weather. The downpour of rain caused by it is insane, and if you find vampires held up in a tunnel network, you can wash them away by creating an artificial river pouring down the entrance.
Due to vampires’ strengths, many energy-based spells don’t have the sting that makes them suitable. Things like lifeblast or dessicate the supernatural are better options but become costly. Taking spells to control the environment, creating your own minions, and summoning spells can go further.
Rifts Vampire Kingdoms goes into more depth on many other spells and psionics that are useful against or for vampires. Rifts Vampire Sourcebook has the Mage Vampire OCC for those that want a spellcaster actually focused on the art of true vampire hunting.
Weapon Selection
Anything made of silver. All of Reid’s Rangers are equipped with Silver Knives, a Revolver that fires Silver Bullets, Mallet and 6 Stakes, and a Holy Symbol of your choice. Additional weapons will be vials of Holy Water, a Water Gun, and a Crucifix. These weapons on top of the characters usual Energy Weapons of choice that might be necessary to take on non-vampire threats.
(For huge lists of weapons pick up the Rifts World Book 1 Vampire Kingdoms book, Vampire Sourcebook and also the Arzno Vampire Incursion book)
Good Races for Vampire Hunter OCC
Rifts Earth is made up mostly of humans, as it is their home planet they make up most Vampire Hunters. The Rifts have brought many other races to the world, so here are some you could consider to spice things up.
The most common source to use for races would be the Rifts D-Bees of North America world book 30. This book has about 100 different races that have made their way to Rifts Earth. Some are far more common than others.
Cyber-Horsemen– may be a stretch but definitely an unusual option to go with.
Grackle-Tooth– as an MDC being these guys could stand toe to toe with vampires for a short time and it would be glorious. Great option for a stake throwing rail-gun wielding character.
Greot Hunter– I cant leave this race out since they are some of the most dedicated vampire hunters of Lazlo. It fits into the “I want to look like a badass lizard guy and kill vampires” category.
Iktik Diggers– this is another race that is underused. They are large but can pick nearly any OCC including magic. They would be a truly unique selection as a vampire hunter.
Other classes good at fighting vampires
Spellcaster based on water spells (warlock, fusionist, and ocean mage, etc). Due to vampires weaknesses to water, any class that can summon it is great at fighting vampires. The same can be said about beings able to summon true sunlight as well (Phantom RCC from Phase World, and Superheroes with the proper powers).
The Vampire Sourcebook brings a controversial idea to the game. How about using a Necromancer as a “good guy” to fight vampires? The idea has incredible merit and can be a huge boon to any group that includes one. Or, a lone necromancer can become a group alone given enough time to make his undead army. This is made more possible because Necromancers are immune to Vampire mental manipulation.