Sunday, September 15, 2013

30 Day D&D Challenge, Day 15: Favorite Monster (Undead)

Day 15: Favorite Monster (Undead)

Again this one should really be no surprise to anyone here.  While I like all types of undead there is only one that is my favorite; Vampires.

A little known fact, my interests in D&D and in horror was originally all about vampires. So before I was "the Witch guy" I was "the Vampire guy".

While the game had some great ideas in the games and books, some of the best material for the game came from Dragon Magazine.  I still have my print copy of Best of Vol. 2 with the Varieties of Vampires and issue 126 with various Silver Age ideas on how to play vampires.

I think that was the one of the things that makes me, despite my age and when I started playing, puts me more in the mind set of the Silver Age gamer.  I liked it when vampires stopped being just monsters and became a fully realized NPC type.  You can see this in how vampires were stated out:
Palace of the Vampire Queen: No name, just stats in her encounter area.
Vault of the Drow: Has a name, Belgos, a picture, and even a girlfriend.
Ravenloft: Strahd gets a name, a writeup even before the adventure starts and motivation.
He got more detail in his one shot than most gods or demons got before this.

In 3e I liked the templates on paper but when it came to stating out a new vamp it was a pain in the ass.


1 comment:

Dr. Theda said...

I like your list better good Sir ... we will post at the "Crypt" later....