What do you do when vampires show up? The old classics are garlic, holy water, and crosses.
What do you do if you don’t have those things?
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| Looks like I wasn’t the only one who got lucky last night. |
Get creative or die. If it all goes to hell, you die creatively and that’s something to be written on your tombstone.
Remember the basics.
Vampires can’t enter a home uninvited. Should this happen, a quick exchange of money can fix the situation. Stables, churches, and other areas are not homes. Don’t hide there without a backup plan.
Holy water is great, but grease and oil are surprising. Lock the door, grease the floor, and upturn a table in the middle of the room. When the vampire smashes his way in, down he goes, ready for a nice stake.
Variation two involves spraying oil under the door as the vampire attacks it. This keeps him out for the short term.
Both of these tricks make vampires respect locked doors.
Water is another great benefit, as are small boats. Packing a rowboat full of characters in the middle of a body of water is an impenetrable barrier to bloodsuckers. Should they turn to gas or a bat and attack the boat this way, it can be capsized and hidden under.
Fire on a larger ship is a nightmare, but doubly so for vampires. Always burn the ship before it gets dark and well out to sea, just in case.
Seeds. Vampires have obsessions and counting is one of them. Throwing seeds is a great delaying tactic. Make sure you are not holding an envelope full of seeds labeled “144 count”. This never works.
Tying is another obsession of vampires. Braiding or unbraiding your hair can be of use. However, half of this is the delaying action and half is emphasizing your neck as a target.
Many rule sets allow for knockouts if the damage is high enough. A wand of fireballs can turn a flock of vampires flying over a moat into fish food quickly. Fireballs do more damage in confined spaces. Fireballs do not have to be fired directly at a target to do damage, so fire them behind the target to knock them forward. Or in front of them to force them back.
Always remember the game mechanics that allow you to move other characters. You can’t hurt a vampire barehanded, but boy does the sun sting if you shove them outside.
There are myriad ways of dealing with vampires. Let me know if you have any favorites.
As time permits, I will be loading pre-genned characters in the top bar. Right now, I have characters for D&D and AD&D. I also have a link to my own AD&D character sheet for Unearthed Arcana pictured on the right.
