The Vampire

You are beauty eternal. You are the darkness that everyone wants to taste, but no one wants to understand. It's there in your eyes, and your carefully-chosen words, and your every gesture. You no longer have a soul. How does that make you feel?

Some vampire revel in that fact, their afterlife a tapestry of exsanguination and hedonism. Others hate the evil in their skin, solemnly vowing to a chaste and lonely existence. Either way, someone suffers. The choice is yours.

Look

intense, aloof, pale, predatory, smoldering, old-fashioned

dead eyes, hungry eyes, thirsty eyes, lusty eyes, pained eyes

newly reborn, old by human terms, taken this century, many ages old, maker, lord

Stats

Hot +2, Cold +2, Steady +0, Volatile -1, Dark +0
Hot +2, Cold +1, Steady +1, Volatile -1, Dark +0
Hot +2, Cold +0, Steady +1, Volatile +1, Dark -1
Hot +2, Cold +1, Steady +0, Volatile -1, Dark +1

Basic Moves

You get all the basic moves.

Vampire Moves

Choose one of these two:

The Feeding
You feed on human blood. The blood of supernaturals works too. When you feed, choose 2: you stop when you intend to, you regain 1 Harm previously suffered, carry +1forward to your next roll, you don't trigger your Darkest Self. If this is the first time they've been fed upon, mark experience.

You suffer 1 Harm whenever exposed to sunlight.

Against One's Nature
You resist the call of human blood, feeding elsewise. When you take your intimacy with someone to a new level (being alone with them, kissing, fucking, and so on), you need to try to keep it together, resisting the urge to feed. When you defend someone from harm you've brought upon them, mark experience.

As long as you haven't fed upon a human recently, you are merely weakened by sunlight. Suffer -1 to all rolls while exposed to it.
If you have fed on human blood recently, suffer 1 Harm whenever exposed to sunlight.

And choose two more:

Hypnotic
When you're alone with someone who has no Strings on you, you can roll +hot. On a 10+, all three. On a 7-9, choose 2: they don't realize you hypnotized them, they do exactly what you say to, it doesn't unhinge their sanity.

Irresistible
Gain +1hot (maximum of 3).

Marked for the Hunt
When you feed on someone, you establish a close bond with them. When you gaze into the abyss concerning their whereabouts, roll as if you had Dark +3.

Invited
You cannot enter the home of a mortal without being invited. When someone invites you, take a String against them.

Sex Move
When you deny someone sexually, take a String against them. When you have sex, lose all Strings with that person.

Darkest Self
Everyone is your pawn, your plaything. You hurt them and make them vulnerable, for sport, like a cat does with a mouse. Unless you manage to keep it together, you feed to the point of death whenever you're alone with someone. You escape your Darkest Self when you're put in your rightful place, by someone more powerful than you.

Why did you say elsewhere that this ups the power curve?

What about siring?

And what's the key word for vamps, the way that ghouls have "hunger" and werewolves are in the running for "fear"? Is it "beauty"? (Or "power"? Or do witches get the power. Hmm.)

(Also, have you seen this?)

Their keyword is manipulation, with some additional tags of: sex appeal, co-dependency.

Invited is the most powerful move in the game. Because not only do you get to grab Strings like mad, but it's not even your fault.

I think that might mean that hypnosis needs to be broken down into some component parts. I ought to know what those should be but I don't right now. But in fictional terms we might just be talking about the difference between Mina and Renfield.

First Attempt.

Nice! Did you just use the same technique as Vincent's playbook portraits?

Any tips as to how to go about doing that kind of thing?

Did Vincent ever divulge his secrets of awesome art?

I think I've finally got The Renfield Move:

When you promise to aid or protect someone with whom sex is not even a question, roll+cold.
On a 10+, if you have 3 or more Strings on them, they take -1 ongoing when interacting socially with anyone but you. They can undo this when they advance (undoing this does not use up the advance).
If you have fewer than 3 strings on them, they take -1 forward under the same circumstances.
On a 7-9, nothing in particular. On a miss, hard move time.

[ETA or perhaps: on a miss, you take -1 ongoing interacting with them. Lose this when you advance.]

A few more bits that I meant to post alongside the Renfield:

There are three basic ways to manipulate people. Two of them are similar, and are drawn in this case from Terry Goodkind's fantasy series The Sword of Truth, which, from what my GF tells me, has one of the raddest wizard characters ever. The wizards in this novel series have some maxims, as wizards do, and the first is "People Are Stupid." If pressed, though, they'll unpack that to "People will believe what they hope is true, and what they fear is true."

To me, this says two moves relating to "glamours," admittedly a restrictive way of controlling people's behavior, but one that is augmented by the third classic mode of manipulation: making someone identify with you, then changing your own behaviors (or beliefs, or performing as though your beliefs are changing) to change theirs. That could apply to a move that controls people more directly.

Hey Misuba,

I'm totally ruminating on this stuff. For right now, I'm going to play The Vampire as written, largely because I want to bang out some more Skins before I do any revising.

But the creative space you're hollowing out with these suggestions is good space. I'll likely incorporate these ideas into The Vampire soon.

For "The Renfield Move," that trigger reminds me of Watchful Golem, for The Ghoul.