Vampire Characters

These characters are among the many I created over the years, primarily for convention scenarios I ran.

• Darryl Bannister: Brujah rebel and shadowy criminal
• Julano Costello: Toreador artist with a knife whose canvas is death
• Jynx: Malkavian Goth girl and vampire impersonator
• Rebecca: Gangrel Spirit of the Wolf and Ambassador to the Garou (werewolves)
• Doctor Walter Breen, Ph D: Malkavian mathematics profession and authority on Chaos Mathematics

Darryl Bannister

“Whose house is this? THIS IS RUN’S HOUSE!”
— Run*DMC Run’s House

Name: Darryl Bannister

Clan: Brujah

Nature: Rebel

Demeanor: Curmudgeon

Generation: 13

Concept: Crime lord

Quote:“Power is for those who can take it and hold it.”

Concept: A rebel among Brujah rebels with a powerful hatred for the powerful.

Description: Darryl is black, standing 5′ 9″ tall and weighing 220 lbs. He has a husky, muscular build, with powerful shoulders and thickly muscled arms and wrists. His eyes are dark brown, hidden under heavy brows yet visible and dominating. His nose and jaw are slightly crooked, the result of a fight in his youth. He has curly dark-brown hair, cut short in a military cut, and is clean-shaven.

He commonly wears an Army jacket and fatigues and several gold chains. The Colt Python is usually holstered under his left arm, under the jacket yet within fast and easy reach.

Prelude: Darryl Bannister lived through the early years of ‘Nam, but barely. Most of the men in his unit didn’t, largely due to the incompetence of their commanding officers. The fact that most of the men who died were black while their incompetent officers were always white only added to his rage and anger against the white establishment.

When Darryl returned home from the war, he put that anger and his training to work. He performed a number of “wet” operations for local criminal organizations, but they, too, he felt, were only using him for their own purposes. When he tried to work on his own, he was slapped down, hard; the only reason he survived is because he was Embraced by a Brujah who had noticed his rebellious nature and sought to save it for his own clan. Darryl acknowledged a debt to the clan and has worked for them ever since, but, true to his nature, he rebels against even the Brujah. Now, as Kin, Darryl still rebels against authority, but now with the intent of putting himself in its place.

Backgrounds: Currently he is the silent partner in several cheap bars that act as drop points and meeting places for the city. A lot of information about the city flows through these places, all of which Darryl eventually hears. These bars are his Resources: just about anything could be found there that someone with decidedly less than legal leanings could ever want. His Herd is the few close associates from his criminal days who have accepted his new status. His Contacts are invariably Anarchs, whose philosophy he is more closely aligned with than his own clan; they supply him with information that is very hard to come by otherwise. His only Ally is the leader of a Hispanic drug ring, Julio Hernandez: the two share a hatred of the white criminal gangs that bind them together more than their many differences drive them apart.

Possessions: Army fatigue jacket (with insignia and sleeves torn off), plain black T‑shirt, cammo pants, combat boots; wallet on a metal chain attached to the belt; gold earring and chains; Colt Python in shoulder holster; butterfly knife; Harley-Davison motorcycle.

Roleplaying Tips: Darryl has a massive chip on his shoulder and the ability to maintain it under almost any circumstance. He constantly projects a tough image and never lets anything get in his way, although he will take paths of lesser resistance if the possible goal is still the same.

Juliano Costello

These are my friends
See how they glisten
See how this one shines.
How he smiles in the light
My friend, My faithful friend.
…
You’ve been locked out of sight,
All these years
Like me, my friend
…
Well, I’ve come home to find you waiting
You shall drip rubies.
— Steven Sondheim “My Friend” (Sweeny Todd)

Name: Juliano Costello

Clan: Toreador

Nature: Bön-Vivant

Demeanor: Avante-Garde

Generation: 13

Concept: Casual Killer

Quote:“Granting a True Death, or an Embrace, requires true artistry. Nothing detracts from either than sloppiness, haste, and lack of taste.”

Concept: A Toreador whose favorite art form is violence and death and whose favorite method of artistic expression is killing hand-to-hand.

Description: Juliano stands about 6′ 1″ tall and weighs 190 lbs. He is very quick but smooth in his movements. He is always fashionably dressed in dark evening clothes or a tuxedo, as if on his way to the theater or opera.

Juliano’s eyes and long hair are black; both glisten in the light. He wears a constant bored expression, looking disdainfully at his surroundings from under half-lidded eyes while stroking his pale, thin lips with his sensitive fingers. His skin is slightly dark, but paling since he was Embraced. He wears three plain gold rings, two on his right hand (first and ring finger) and one on the left (pinky) and a gold and diamond stickpin in the form of a lotus.

Prelude: Juliano Costello is, or, rather, was a high-ranking member of the Chicago Gamboni crime family. As such, he had to maintain a straight image while constantly wanting to submerge himself in the pursuit all forms of pleasure. His only outwardly acceptable pursuit was the opera, where he met the Kindred woman who eventually Embraced him (to the music of Mozart’s Faustus.) Being made a Toreador has allowed him to explore those passions and interests with abandon.

Juliano is an expert at the French martial art of Savate and an artist with a knife. When not practicing the martial arts or on the target range, he writes haiku and practices opera singing. He has a fairly good voice, but he does better when he imitates a famous opera singer than when he uses his own voice. Despite that, he is definitely a poseur, not an artíste. However Juliano is totally convinced of his natural excellent taste and breeding: as such, he feels compelled to criticize and depreciate any work of art that does not meet his exacting (and unpredictable) standards.

Backgrounds: Before his Embrace, Juliano was in charge of several front operations, laundering money for the Mob. Soon after his Embrace he was able to withdraw most of the money invested in those fronts for himself, using it to set himself up in a comfortable lifestyle as befits someone from his Clan as the source for his Resources. He has managed to maintain a number of contacts with very influential individuals in local politics, under the cover that his death was “staged” to divert attention from him: this accounts for his level of political Influence in the city.

Merits / Flaws: Juliano only Feeds from individuals involved in violent professions: the police, violent criminals, prize fighters, etc. His aversion to garlic is purely psychological, based on old tales from his childhood.

Possessions: Black silk evening suit and top coat; top hat; white silk scarf; ebony cigarette holder; ornate gold cigarette lighter; package of French cigarettes; silvered-plated pistol with ivory handgrips; concealed switchblade; embossed and tooled leather notebook and gold fountain pens.

Roleplaying Tips: Beauty and grace in all things, even killing. Being Kin has revealed to him that Life and Death are two sides of the same coin, so he carries the same desires of beauty and grace towards both. Talk with wide, expansive gestures and phrases. Violence enthralls him more than anything else, and nothing disappoints him more than an ugly or poorly executed killing (high explosives, for instance: too messy and indirect.) Compose poetry to your knife and read it out loud.

Jynx

Quote: “Curiosity killed the cat: been there, done that!”

Concept:“Who, me, a vampire? No, I’m only play-acting as one.”

Description: Jynx is a typical Goth girl in her late-teens to early twenties. She’s 5′ 5″ tall and weighs about 110 lbs. She has short, spiky black hair over a thin, sharply-defined face, dominated by large, waif-like blue eyes of an unsettling and compelling nature. Her eyes have a dark blue outer ring, and the color fades dramatically towards the pupil: the effect is one of looking into a whirlpool. She has high cheekbones, a wide and constantly-moving mouth, and a narrow, dimpled chin.

Jynx wears Gothic black (naturally): a black, studded leather jacket, with a pair of mirrored sunglasses dangling from a breast pocket, over a black T‑shirt; the T‑shirt usually has a Gothic or punk band name on it, right now it reads “Skeletal Boogie”. She also has black jeans and black tennis shoes. The jeans are fastened around her waist with a blackened metal chain. She also wears black, fingerless gloves on both hands and black leather wristbands on both wrists: the band around her left wrist hides a cheap watch. She sports three gold and silver earrings in her left ear and a dangling clear crystal pendant from her right. She wears a cheap silver, brass or gold ring on each finger, including the thumbs.

Personality: Jynx is intensely curious about everything, a storehouse of odd information, some of which is actually true. She is also somewhat scatterbrained and has a short attention span. For fun she dances to loud music and blows bubbles.

Prelude: Once, Jynx was exactly what she claims to be, just “acting” like a vampire. Except that was in London, during the time when Dracula was appearing in theaters. She imagined herself one of Dracula’s handmaidens, swooning over fantasies of being seduced by a vampire. And so a vampire did exactly that.

For reasons of his or her own, a mysterious Malkavian Sired her and then abandoned her, leaving her without ever even telling her that she was Sired. Everything she knows now she learned herself, and much of it is terribly wrong, but she has managed to survive for this long, which is a miracle. The happenstances have quite disarranged her already shaky psyche, or have they?

Disciplines: Jynx’ primary Discipline is Dominate: she is advanced enough to induce compliant trances and periods of amnesia in her victims. Unfortunately she has read too many bad novels and has seen far too many bad movies concerning hypnosis: she treats her Dominate Discipline as if she actually hypnotizing her victims, even going to far as to use a variety of very over-stereotypical gestures, devices and phrases, not apparently realizing that is purely eye contact that mesmerizes her victims.

Jynx’ secondary Discipline is Obsfucate: she is capable of hiding her presence against most viewers. She loves to eavesdrop on conversations, especially ones between supernatural creatures.

Jynx is the least familiar with the Auspex Discipline, using it solely to enhance her senses. It is probably this Discipline that she would want to develop in the future.

Backgrounds: Jynx has a lot of contacts among the Goth community, especially the bands and the places they perform at. In an emergency, she has a fair amount of cash and other items available to her.

Merits: Most of Jynx’ merits revolve around her being able to pass as a mortal girl: she has not gained the vampiric pallor that most vampires assume, and she continues to breathe normally and even has a heartbeat (Baby Face). She can also eat and drink normally: her favorite food is ice cream (Eat Food). Her presence also does not frighten animals (Inoffensive to Animals). Another merit is Danger Sense: a century of observation has sharpened her eyes and ears immeasurably. And like most Malkavians, she is tied into the world-wide Malkavian rumor network (Malkavian Time).

Flaws: Jynx’ primary weakness is her intense, all-consuming curiosity.

Clan Weakness: Jynx believes that she is a mortal Goth girl who is simply “playing” at being a vampire. Or maybe she’s playing at playing a vampire and knows that she is really one, only using this to hide and confuse people. She treats anyone who is a vampire as though they were playing one, themselves.

Haven: A packing crate in the basement of an abandoned high school.

Possessions: Switchblade; old motorcycle; iron crowbar, large pack of bubble gum.

Roleplaying Tips: This is all just an act, right? Keep the other characters off-balance by giving them reasons to suspect you are just faking things. Act vampire-ish, even mesmerizing someone, then throw everyone off by eating a hot dog. Interject into conversations with extraneous information that actually means something if people would only take the time to listen to you, then blow big bubbles and pop them. Disappear on the first sign of trouble and reappear later to save the day.

Notes: I never created a character sheet for Jynx, just roughed out her backgrounds and things. Maybe one day I will go back and finish her.

Rebecca

… hungry like the wolf.
— Duran Duran Hungry Like the Wolf

Name: Rebecca

Clan: Gangrel

Nature: Loner

Demeanor: Care-Giver

Generation: 10^th

Concept: Spirit of the Wolf

Quote:“If you fear the Beast within, you should doubly fear the Beast within others <snarl>.”

Concept: The spirit of the Wolf as a Gangrel, a natural ambassador between the Kindred and the Garou.

Description: Rebecca stands 5′ 7″ tall and weighs 111 lbs. She has a deceptively slight build, dominated by a shock of long unkempt red hair and haunted brown eyes. There is an elfin cast to her features, with a pointed chin and triangular face. Her eyebrows meet over her nose, her teeth and her finger nails and toe nails are pointed, and her arms and legs are covered with a fine red hair; all are marks of the Beast, as well as her color blindness.

Rebecca does not care much about her appearance; her clothing is largely cast-offs, given to her by her friends and Ally. She prefers warm, heavy clothing in earth tones, the better to hide in the woods she prefers to roam. There is a faint smell of newly-turned earth in her presence.

Rebecca forever looks at the world with suspicion, with quick, darting movements and constant glances about her, huddling for protection whenever she pauses, yet she maintains a sense of competence and danger that convinces others to leave her alone.

Prelude: Rebecca can remember the wild and turbulent years of the early Depression era, when she was forced to eke out a living on a farm near Chicago with her parents and younger siblings. Perhaps that explains her feelings towards the odd fledgling that lands in her lap that she feels an obligation towards. Certainly she was comfortable at home and in the fields, but she was most at home in the deep woods near her home.

But those memories end abruptly in early October, 1931. Rebecca can remember walking through the woods in the moonlight, late at night, but the rest is a blur of pain and blood. Her next memories are of three years ago, of awakening from a deep slumber in those same woods to find her clothing and equipment piled beside her, just as if she had set them there the night (day) before. All were well-used but well-maintained, and somehow faintly familiar. Almost every detail of her Kin life prior to that moment, except for the instinctive use of her abilities and disciplines, are lost to her. No Kindred or other knew (or has admitted knowing) anything about her past.

Rebecca is now known to several local Garou tribes as a Kindred, in both senses of the word; while she is not accepted as a member of the werewolf community, she is tolerated and sometimes consulted in matters of mutual concern. For her part Rebecca tried to honor and learn the Garou ways and act as an intermediary between Garou and Kindred when possible.

Backgrounds: It was determined by the Gangrel clan elders that she was of the 10^th Generation, but have not discovered the one who Embraced her. Yet, for some reason they have not disclosed, they accepted her into the Clan. Rebecca has one friend and Ally: Edward Becker, a freelance outdoors writer. He allows her stay at his rambling cottage near her preferred hunting ground, the state nature preserve in Schaumburg, when necessary, and to depend on him on occasion: he shares her concern for nature and is halfway in love with this wild child of the forest. One of his editors, Veronica Matthews, assists her occasionally and is her Contact.

Merits / Flaws: Rebecca’s amnesia is most distressing to her: she thinks it may hide an ugly or reprehensible secret that she might be called upon to atone for in the future. Apparently because of previous Frenzies, Rebecca is color-blind: she has memories of being able to see in full color. Her heightened senses somehow appear to be a compensation for her color-blindness.

Possessions: Collapsible compound bow with quiver and arrows (hunting, bird, practice, silver, and solid wood); first aid kit; survival kit; matches; waterproof tarp; one-man tent; duffel bag; steel hunting knife; silver dagger; heavy leather jacket, flannel shirt, jeans, and hiking boots.

Roleplaying Tips: Rebecca is closer to the wild animals or Garou than humans or Kindred: act shy and nervous among strangers, ready to bolt at any time and at any provocation. Always be observant. Be hesitant about speaking and always try to say something important when you do speak. Body language is extremely important as Rebecca does not speak much.

Doctor Walter Breen, Ph. D.

Just remember that you’re standing on a planet that’s evolving, And revolving at 900 miles per hour.
That’s orbiting at 19 miles per second, or so it’s reckoned, A sun that is the source of all our power.
The sun and you and me, and all the stars that we can see, Are moving at a million miles a day. 
In an outer spiral arm, at 40,000 miles an hour, Of the Galaxy we call the Milky Way.
— Eric Idle The Galaxy Song (from Monty Python and the Meaning of Life)

Name: Dr. Walter Breen, Ph. D.

Clan: Malkavian

Nature: Visionary

Demeanor: Fanatic

Generation: 13

Concept: Chaos Mathematician

Quote:“Let me see now: that would be 900 times 3600 divided by 19 times the third root of one million plus 40,000, factoring in Planck’s Constant and the current temperature in Celsius. I must make a note of this.”

Concept: An intelligent Malkavian with an overriding mania for numbers and chaos theory.

Description: Dr. Walter Breen stands about 5′ 5″ tall and weighs 160 lbs. He has greying sandy brown hair, and a short beard and mustache. His eyes are hazel; he wears gold wire-rimmed glasses but doesn’t really need them.

Walter dresses in stereotypical professor garb: brown tweed jacket with leather patches on the elbows, with matching slacks, sport shirt, tie. A conspicuous bulge in his right jacket pocket will eventually be revealed to be a large briar pipe, which he will place in his mouth or hold in his hands, but never smoke. Other pocket bulges will be discovered to be a writing pad, several pens and pencils, a measuring tape, a pocket flashlight, and a magnifying glass.

Prelude: As a child Walter had an imaginary friend who told him many secrets of the world, secrets that no one else would believe, yet he knew his friend would never lie to him or mislead him. As he grew, his friend came to visit him less and less, yet the lessons he learned have helped him immeasurably.

Walter easily earned a doctoral scholarship due to his fundamental understanding of mathematics. His research into the new field of chaos mathematics and fractals finally allowed him to use his earliest lessons; his papers were ground-breaking yet they were only the least of his learning. Anything greater was rejected by his blind colleagues. Still, he persisted, being proven right again and again as he pushed back the boundaries of mathematics, all to the growing envy and hatred of his fellows.

They finally rebelled, having Walter placed into a mental institution; they said he had suffered a “breakdown”, babbling about connections, but he was instead becoming more and more lucid; so much more of his early lessons now were falling into place, and they lacked the vision to see it. Everything is connected, he discovered, and all that was necessary was to find out how and why. He suffered the indignity of the institutionalization calmly, knowing that he could pursue his research anywhere.

The institution chosen was by chance the home of a prominent Malkavian Elder. He listened to Walter, when no one else would; Walter’s evenings were spent in his fascinating company. One night, though, he seemed more than curious about Walter’s studies; he seemed fascinated by their effects on Walter as well. In one sudden, brutal move he Embraced Walter, yet that only seemed to further Walter’s vision instead of smother it.

Backgrounds: The Elder arranged for Walter’s release and employment at a private college. He accepted it because he had exhausted the research possibilities of the institution and needed more data. The college provides for his needs, acting as his Resources; certain students and professors who have come to believe in his theories have become his Allies; and his continued publication (after the unfortunate period inside the asylum) has increased his Fame.

Merits / Flaws: As a Malkavian he is firmly connected to the Clan’s “communal telephone line”. Walter’s lifelong passion for numbers gives him an incredible head for calculations. His lifelong affinity for the Fae and his susceptibility to magick are apparently related in some way: no Faerie gift is without price. Finally, his deep sleeping habits are from a long-standing routine that even being made Kin could not change.

Clan Weakness: A mania and passion for and about numbers and Mathematics, the Queen of Sciences.

Possessions: Tweed jacket with leather patches on the elbows; white shirt; corduroy pants; tie with loud, dizzying fractal pattern and a Count von Count tie-tack; wooden pipe (empty); small leather notebook and a collection of pens and pencils in various colors; measuring tape in English and metric rulings; magnifying glass; pocket flashlight.

Roleplaying Tips: Play the slightly-deaf, slightly-daft college professor. Fiddle with the pipe but never smoke it. (“A pipe gives a wise man time to think and a fool something to stick in his mouth.”) Use a lot of pretentious words and phrases, yet affect a disinterest in other’s words. Giggle and chuckle when others lack vision and then offer them your own. Scribble notes (in code) in your notebook at the most inappropriate times. Count the most unlikeliest things.

Note: Doctor Breen was (only slightly) based on a friend of mine.