Review: Van Richten's Guide to Vampires

 The 1990s brought something of an existential crisis to AD&D and TSR. For the first time ever, there was a real competitor for RPG sales, and that was White Wolf's Vampire The Masquerade.  I know a lot of AD&D gamers dismissed WW and Vampire at the time, but we all know that was a mistake. Vampire:TM was a phenomenon that still has an impact today. It was felt in the halls of TSR as well. Granted, doing a book on Vampires for Ravenloft was a no-brainer; their premier inhabitant was a vampire. But there is a little more going on here. 

Van Richten's Guide to Vampires

Nigel D. Findley, 1992
PDF. 96 pages, color cover by Den Beauvais, Black & White interior art by Stephen Fabian.

For this I am considering the PDF and Print on Demand versions.

One of the best Vampire supplements ever for a game was the Chill 1st Edition Vampires book. This book is for the AD&D 2nd Edition game, and it has the same utility to me.

First, a bit about these Van Richten's Guides. Rudolph Van Richten is Ravenloft's resident Vampire hunter and expert on the supernatural. He was Ravenloft's answer to Van Helsing, and he was not really all that different. If you read about him and picture Peter Cushing, you will be excused.  The conceit is that they were all written by Van Righten himself and left for other hunters to find. There were several of these Guides, and all had quite a lot of utility for me. They were a good mix of "crunch" (game mechanics) and "fluff" (narrative material). I would LOVE to say I used them outside of Ravenloft when I was playing AD&D 2nd Ed, but in truth my AD&D 2nd experience was all about Ravenloft. I will point out that a lot of the "innovations" of these books would later find a home in D&D proper post AD&D 2nd Ed. But I am getting ahead of myself.

Chapter 1 is the Introduction and sets the tone for the book. This is all from the point of view of Van Richten himself. Game applications appear in text boxes throughout.

Chapter 2 covers the background of vampirism, including how it is spread and how vampires think. Here we learn that a vampire's blood can cause damage to the living much like holy water does to the undead. 

Chapter 3. Here, I want to point out that none of the chapters use "1, 2, 3," but rather just the titles. The feel is that of a journal or a quasi-academic treatise.  Chapter 3, Vampiric Powers, is a good one. It covers all the powers normally associated with the AD&D 2nd Edition Vampire and adds more.  Most importantly is the idea that vampires get more powerful as they age. This was not a new idea; it was sort of implicit in all the retellings of Dracula and other popular media. It had also made it's way into other games before this, but for AD&D this was new stuff. Less revolutionary and more evolutionary; that is, it was going to happen sooner or later. It is an idea that has been adopted for D&D ever since for all vampires, in one form or another. I certainly used it in all my AD&D games going forward, even applying it to my 1st Ed and Basic-era games. Vampires also gain control over lesser undead.

Chapter 4. Covers the way new vampires can be created. Here, Van Richten moves away from Van Helsing and more into Professor Hieronymus Grost from "Captain Kronos - Vampire Hunter." Detailing all the then known ways the vampiric curse can be passed on. Throughout the book, this information is presented as Van Richten's personal experiences and those of trusted colleagues, with the caveat that there may be other means and ways they do not know yet.

Chapter 5. This covers the various weaknesses of the Vampire. This includes all the classic ones and how they are altered by Ravenloft's unique environment.  

Chapter 6. This covers all the means to destroy a vampire, including the classics: Stakes, running water, blessed items, and sunlight.

Chapter 7. Magic and Vampires is the most "D&D" of all the chapters really. It not only covers how vampires are affected by magic but also how they can use magic items. Want to polymorph a vampire? Great, if it gets past their magic resistance, and they fail their saving throw, they will be come what ever it was you wanted. For one round. Then, they can shift to one of their alternate forms. 

Chapter 8. This chapter is called "Life-Blood: Vampiric Feeding Habits" and is the one that takes the vampire further away from the AD&D model of the vampire. In particular the vampires of Ravenloft drain blood, not really levels, though there is an option for that. This was great because frankly I never liked level drain as a mechanic. We have seen blood drain in the Core Rules and Feast of Goblyns introduced us to a vampire that drains spinal fluid. Again the parallels to "Captain Kronos - Vampire Hunter" are there. 

Chapter 9. Covers the "Sleep of the Dead" and how vampires sleep. We learn through other sources (and put into game terms here) that Strahd sleeps the sleep of the dead during the daylight hours and can't be woken. Other vampires like Jander Sunstar are very light sleepers. Note: Neither of these vampires are mentioned here as examples. They are detailed in other contemporaneous products. 

Chapter 10. Akin to sleep in Hibernation, something all vampires do after a certain number of years. Hibernation is an extended sleep all vampires go through and as a means to keep 1,000+ year old vampires out of the game. OR at least out of Ravenloft.  The previously mentioned Jander Sunstar is thought to be 700+ years old (as a vampire) and Cazador Szarr is also believed to be very old. Both are elves. I bring these two up in particular because rules laid down in this book continue to effect their 5th Edition versions.

Chapter 11. Relationships between vampires is our next chapter. As (mostly) Chaotic-evil creatures vampires rarely work together, save for a master-thrall relationship. There are also vampire "brides" and "grooms" (see Dracula) and they are little more than elevated thralls, albeit ones with more free-will. One wonders how this book might have been different if a movie like "The Only Lovers Left Alive" had been out then.  

Chapter 12. This covers vampire psychology. How a vampire thinks and how they deal (or not) with immortality.

Chapter 13. Related to the previous chapter is this chapter on "The Facade." As the most human and living looking of all the undead (odd exceptions aside) the vampire has the best chance of blending in. But their immortality and their altered psychology often prevent a full integration into any society. 

Chapter 14. In a largely mechanical chapter, this deals with the vampires of certain classes and the powers and skills they can retain. Honestly, I think this one would have been a better Appendix since this chapter lacks a lot of the Van Richten notes and would have given us a nice 13 chapters. 

At 96 pages this is a wealth of information about vampires. Just as I extended it from Ravenloft to all my AD&D 2nd Edition games, you can also use ideas (and even some mechanics) to extend this form AD&D 2nd edition to other editions of D&D. Indeed, some of that was already getting baked into post AD&D rules. I have also used ideas from this in other games outside of D&D.

The interior art is all by Stephen Fabian and gives us a great visual connection to the core rules. There is some repeated art here from the core and other products, but only someone who has all the books and read them all over and over would notice.

A word about the PDF and PoD

I had this book when it was first published, but I unloaded it from the time I was in grad school to when I bought my first house. I kinda regret that. The PDF, though is easy to read and bookmarked. 

The POD version is also nice, but the interior text is a bit faded, and the red text is more pinkish. It is 100% serviceable for gameplay and reading. It just reminds me I wish I still had all my originals. 

Advent-ure Dice: Day 7

  Day 7

Nice a witch's brew d12. It looks rather cool too. 

October Horror Movie Challenge: Mummy Marathon

Pretty much any Hammer Horror movie has a Universal Horror predecessor.  Dracula, Frankenstein, Werewolves, and of course, the Mummy.  And all of these movies have led us to the mummy as we encounter them in fantasy RPGs.

I lined a bunch of these up so I figure tonight is as good of a night as any!

The Mummy (1932)

I have often said that I knew the names Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, and Lon Chaney long before I knew who the president was (Ford at the time). This movie is one of those reasons. 

Boris Karloff gave us some fantastic performances during the era of the Universal Monsters, but few were as good as his turn as Ardath Bey / Imhotep the Mummy. So good that this movie was the blueprint for every Mummy movie to follow.

It falls under the horror sub-trope of "The Immortal Beloved." Something they are always trying to shoehorn Dracula into (see "Bram Stoker's Dracula" as a prime example) but actually works best here. In this case Imhotep finds the reincarnated Ankh-es-en-Amon and tries to make her into his immortal bride. It's a formula that is repeated in the 1959 version and the 1999 versions. 

The Mummy (1959)

Not to be outdone, Hammer did their own version. Like the Universal 1932 version, this one also has a former Van Helsing in the cast. Edward van Sloan in 1932 and  Peter Cushing for the 1959 version.

This one follows the Universal one in general plot, it is actually much closer to the Universal The Mummy's Hand, The Mummy's Tomb, and The Mummy's Ghost.  The notion of the resurrected love is still there. 

In this movie the Mummy, aka Kharis, played by Christopher Lee is in love with Princess Ananka. Lee is always great, and his Dracula is still one of horror's best, but he is under-utilized here as a mummy.

The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb (1964)

Here is good drinking game. Every time someone tells Annette Dubois (Jeanne Roland) to "stay put" or keep her from seeing something take a drink. You'll be dead by the end of the movie. 

The plot here is familiar. British Egyptologists dig up a mummy against the protests of the locals. There is a curse, and the mummy walks again. 

While my love for Hammer is never-ending, this one is rather predictable, to be honest.

Featured Monster: Mummy

The mummy of the Monster Manual is beyond a doubt influenced by these movies. Granted, the pulpy fantasy the creators of D&D were fond of and had plenty of tombs and dungeons to rob, so a mummy seems like a no-brainer.

Couple this with the Ravenloft: Masque of the Red Death which actually has Imhotep as a mummy, then the influences are are even more apparent.

Are You my Mummy?

There are a few items in these movies that resemble the AD&D Lich phylactery. The Scroll of Thoth/Life, the amulet of life. These are central to these movies, but not so much the AD&D monster mummy. They are central to the Lich though. 

I had considered doing the 1999 Brendan Fraser Mummy, but I am getting tired. 

October Horror Movie Challenge 2024

Viewed: 9

First Time Views: 3

Dracula, The Hunters' Journals: 06 October; Jonathan Harker’s Journal.

Mina rebounds some more and has a plan.

Jonathan Harker’s Journal.

6 October, morning.—Another surprise. Mina woke me early, about the same time as yesterday, and asked me to bring Dr. Van Helsing. I thought that it was another occasion for hypnotism, and without question went for the Professor. He had evidently expected some such call, for I found him dressed in his room. His door was ajar, so that he could hear the opening of the door of our room. He came at once; as he passed into the room, he asked Mina if the others might come, too.

“No,” she said quite simply, “it will not be necessary. You can tell them just as well. I must go with you on your journey.”

Dr. Van Helsing was as startled as I was. After a moment’s pause he asked:—

“But why?”

“You must take me with you. I am safer with you, and you shall be safer, too.”

“But why, dear Madam Mina? You know that your safety is our solemnest duty. We go into danger, to which you are, or may be, more liable than any of us from—from circumstances—things that have been.” He paused, embarrassed.

As she replied, she raised her finger and pointed to her forehead:—

“I know. That is why I must go. I can tell you now, whilst the sun is coming up; I may not be able again. I know that when the Count wills me I must go. I know that if he tells me to come in secret, I must come by wile; by any device to hoodwink—even Jonathan.” God saw the look that she turned on me as she spoke, and if there be indeed a Recording Angel that look is noted to her everlasting honour. I could only clasp her hand. I could not speak; my emotion was too great for even the relief of tears. She went on:—

“You men are brave and strong. You are strong in your numbers, for you can defy that which would break down the human endurance of one who had to guard alone. Besides, I may be of service, since you can hypnotise me and so learn that which even I myself do not know.” Dr. Van Helsing said very gravely:—

“Madam Mina, you are, as always, most wise. You shall with us come; and together we shall do that which we go forth to achieve.” When he had spoken, Mina’s long spell of silence made me look at her. She had fallen back on her pillow asleep; she did not even wake when I had pulled up the blind and let in the sunlight which flooded the room. Van Helsing motioned to me to come with him quietly. We went to his room, and within a minute Lord Godalming, Dr. Seward, and Mr. Morris were with us also. He told them what Mina had said, and went on:—

“In the morning we shall leave for Varna. We have now to deal with a new factor: Madam Mina. Oh, but her soul is true. It is to her an agony to tell us so much as she has done; but it is most right, and we are warned in time. There must be no chance lost, and in Varna we must be ready to act the instant when that ship arrives.”

“What shall we do exactly?” asked Mr. Morris laconically. The Professor paused before replying:—

“We shall at the first board that ship; then, when we have identified the box, we shall place a branch of the wild rose on it. This we shall fasten, for when it is there none can emerge; so at least says the superstition. And to superstition must we trust at the first; it was man’s faith in the early, and it have its root in faith still. Then, when we get the opportunity that we seek, when none are near to see, we shall open the box, and—and all will be well.”

“I shall not wait for any opportunity,” said Morris. “When I see the box I shall open it and destroy the monster, though there were a thousand men looking on, and if I am to be wiped out for it the next moment!” I grasped his hand instinctively and found it as firm as a piece of steel. I think he understood my look; I hope he did.

“Good boy,” said Dr. Van Helsing. “Brave boy. Quincey is all man. God bless him for it. My child, believe me none of us shall lag behind or pause from any fear. I do but say what we may do—what we must do. But, indeed, indeed we cannot say what we shall do. There are so many things which may happen, and their ways and their ends are so various that until the moment we may not say. We shall all be armed, in all ways; and when the time for the end has come, our effort shall not be lack. Now let us to-day put all our affairs in order. Let all things which touch on others dear to us, and who on us depend, be complete; for none of us can tell what, or when, or how, the end may be. As for me, my own affairs are regulate; and as I have nothing else to do, I shall go make arrangements for the travel. I shall have all tickets and so forth for our journey.”

There was nothing further to be said, and we parted. I shall now settle up all my affairs of earth, and be ready for whatever may come....

 

Later.—It is all done; my will is made, and all complete. Mina if she survive is my sole heir. If it should not be so, then the others who have been so good to us shall have remainder.

It is now drawing towards the sunset; Mina’s uneasiness calls my attention to it. I am sure that there is something on her mind which the time of exact sunset will reveal. These occasions are becoming harrowing times for us all, for each sunrise and sunset opens up some new danger—some new pain, which, however, may in God’s will be means to a good end. I write all these things in the diary since my darling must not hear them now; but if it may be that she can see them again, they shall be ready.

She is calling to me.

Notes: Moon Phase: Waxing Gibbous

Quick entry before a very long break as our hunters travel to Central and Eastern Europe. This is our last entry for a week or so (October 11).

There is a bit of confusion on the dates here. Mina's hypnotic session was Oct 4, but here on Oct 6, Jonathan says "yesterday." Granted, there is a lot going on. 

In fact Jonathan is preparing for his, and everyone's, deaths.

Review: Ship of Horror

I have rather fond memories of this adventure as well. Again, I can recall sitting in my old apartment and reading this one over and over in preparation for playing. It also is one that fit into my particular campaign rather well.

Now, I often call this adventure "Ship of Fools" because of the Robert Plant song of the same name from his "Now and Zen" album, which was released just a couple of years before (1988). 

RA2 Ship of Horror

by Anne Brown.  Art by Clyde Caldwell (cover) and Stephen Fabian (interior). 70 pages.

Ok. What does this adventure have going for it? Well, lots. First off, it is our first and only domain (if I remember correctly) and characters from Mystara. Though this was retconned in a little later. 

The ship is supposed to evoke the ship-based adventures of the Isle of Dread. This is one of the reasons I think it was added to (or from) Mystara after the fact. 

 But that is not the only reason why I liked it and took to it so quickly.

There was the idea of this taking place on a ship, something I was still keen on doing despite the fact that my first ship-based/themed campaign never took off.  This seemed like a way to revive some of those ideas.  The Endurance was a great little ship, and having stats for it was great.

There was more DM advice on running Ravenloft, something I was very interested in doing since I was going to be a DM for all my Ravenloft adventures for the next 7-8 years. Though I do have some nitpicks. For example, no one in the Mists would ever refer to their land as "Ravenloft."

There are new monsters, new spells, and more ideas of ways to use well-known creatures in new ways.

Meredoth, our cover Necromancer, was also a huge draw for me. He reminded me so much of my my own Necromancer Magnus that I just used him with some of Meredoth's backstory.  When I later read the Meredoth had been retconned to Mystara, home of Uslime and Magnus, it seemed like serendipity. 

Meredoth/Magnus was the big draw for me here not just for the connections, but because he was a 2nd Edition Necromancer IN Ravenloft. It seemed like such a perfect fit for me. 

Speaking of retcons, this adventure would also be retconned into the "Grand Conjunction." I have no issues with that really. Again, there is no reason why anyone in the adventure, including the PCs, would know any of this. Though the inclusion is awkward at times. Running it again today, I have to weigh in on whether or not the Grand Conjunction is even needed. I think I might have this one as the first adventure and then move to Feast of Goblyns. I would also emphasize the Mystara/Known World connections more. 

The adventure is fine in and of itself and shows how to take a simple premise and adventure hook and turn it on's head, Ravenloft style.

My nostalgia for this one is rather high and I am very likely glossing over bits that should be read with a critical eye and not "Nostalgia Goggles" but hey, nostalgia is also part of the enjoyment here. 

Advent-ure Dice: Day 6

  Day 6

Another witch's brew!

October Horror Movie Challenge: Eyes of the Beholder

Tonight is a little bit of a stretch, but whatever, I can make it fit. And while I am doing it, lets make it a Drive-In Double Feature! It is a Saturday after all. 

The Trollenberg Terror / The Crawling Eye (1958)

Another older one, and one I have seen in the past, but as the MST3k version.

This one takes place on a Swiss mountain, Trollenberg, and, well, let's be honest, it's not good. It's slow and the monster is not very good.

It starts out with a mountain climber getting killed by something. We switch over to two sisters, Anne (Janet Munro) and Sarah (Jennifer Jayne) Pilgrim. Anne is psychic, which is convenient. They meet Alan Brooks (F-Troop's Forrest Tucker). Anne knows about the accident and who was killed. 

Two more climbers go up and go missing. Our psychic girl sees them in the cabin, and our heroes look for them. 

Soon they discover a group of horrid "crawling" eye creatures living in the radioactive mists.  They have psychic abilities and can detect humans with ESP.

While it is never explicitly stated they are aliens, I think there is implication that they are.

It Came from Outer Space (1953)

It has been years since I have seen this one. Decades really. But what does it have? Yes, you know it, giant eye monsters. 

The monsters here are a little benevolent, but still alien.  They look more like giant jellyfish with one central eye; so not totally dissimilar to beholders.

They are able to assume human shape, or at least the appearance of a human, and can act like someone they have encountered. 

This is more sci-fi with some horror elements, as were many of the sci-fi movies from the 1950s. 

The movie proceeds to deal with the aliens, who are more benign than most, with them leaving Earth saying that they will be back one day.

Featured Monster: Beholder

Ok. We know that the Beholder began as a bit of joke; as in "Eye of the Beholder" and was the creation of Terry Kuntz. The Eye monsters here make for a passible, if weak, Beholders. Or as the kids say, "When you order your Beholders off of Wish.com" 

But what can we get from these movies to help our games?

A bit, to be honest. There was an obvious need or at least a want for eye monsters and alien ones at that. In both movies, the eye monsters have some advanced psychic abilities and are clearly "alien."

Game Ideas

Beholders are woefully under utalized in D&D in my mind. They are a "boss monster" but rarely are they given much more to do. Beholders should be at the center of a vast network of lackeys, spies, assassins and other disposable mooks for their own, often alien, ends.

Xanathar is a good example of this, but even Xanathar is relatable. I mean REALLY alien. 

I also think beholders should have psionic powers as opposed to magic. I have always liked the idea that beholders and mind flayers are two great alien species who have been at war with each for millennia. 

These movies might not be great, but they are full of ideas. 

October Horror Movie Challenge 2024
Viewed: 6
First Time Views: 3