How to create an oriiginal/interesting vampire character or RP/SG?

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So most people know the basic stuff about vampires:

  • pale skin
  • no sun
  • no garlic
  • dies with a Stake Through the Heart
  • or salt and holy water.

But how do we make these creatures unique and their own:

Tip 1. Research urban legends.
Vampires go back to 17th and 18th centuries. So there are a bunch of things that have changed over the years. Sometimes it’s fun to look at some of the older legends and use elements that don’t exist anymore. They originated from blood-drinking spirits for example.

Tip 2. Twist cliches.
I remember watching Karen, an anime about vampires, and the MC (Karen), was a blood giver, not a bloodsucker. Something else they did in the anime, which I found very clever, was that they all have a preference for a certain type of person’s blood. For example, people who are unhappy, people who lie, people who are angry. When they suck the blood, the human loses that mood for a moment.

Other things are stuff like denying or explaining cliche’s in a way that hasn’t been done before:

  • Garlic legend started because a vampire family was allergic.
  • Vampires drink blood to keep themselves warm because their own blood is cold. (explains pale skin and cold to the touch).

@RPers what are other tips you would give to people about making a unique vampire character?

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All the vampires I created had no problem with sun /garlic /mirror. They just have pale skin.
Like Alex (my character) would say : “That’s all rubbish those ancient freaks wrote about us”

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Samantha Harker (FTD) is the daughter of Dracula from Bram Stoker’s novel. Which actually has some neat vampire lore that didn’t get carried over into the urban fantasy genre. Of course you still have the same weaknesses

  • Garlic

  • Repelled by holy symbols

  • No shadow or reflection

But the more interesting thing is that the sun renders them powerless but doesn’t kill them and they cannot cross running water because the defining character trait of vampires at the time was “unholy” and as we all know we wash our hands in running water to get rid of germs and prevent diseases.

Another thing I have in mind for Samantha is her looks. Yes, vampires have become more beautiful and intoxicating but the thing that gets me thinking is: they’re beautiful…and they know it. To me it doesn’t make sense that they would know if they haven’t seen themselves. Samantha has gone with the idea of people thinking she’s pretty simply because they tell her she is and it gets her food, it would be entirely different if she has seen herself and knows it. I have a plan involving a shapeshifters to act as a real-time mirror in order for Samantha to get ready for a dance or something.

Another strength mentioned in the book, is Dracula’s ability to not only turn into a bat but also a wolf. I expanded on this a bit to have Samantha turn into human sized versions of both instead of a small bat and a regular wolf as to me, it makes more sense to change shape not size.

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