Animal Ghoul Retainers
Based on +rules animal ghoul retainers
More details can be found in WW2300 Vampire The Masquerade (Revised Edition) pg.#302-305
When a human ghoul just won't do, or you want something more colorful, animals can come into great use. While most animals do fear Vampires, through the use of the Animalism Discipline, animals can be of great use as companions, spies or even soldiers. This use is found most often within the vampires of Clan Gangrel and Nosferatu.
Turning an animal into a ghoul retainer comes with occasional meals of vampire blood, vitae. As such, these animal companions gain Willpower, a dot of potence, a blood pool of up to 10 (depends on the size of the animal), and some "trained" Abilities that wild animals lack.
Creating New Retainers
In character, you can work out your story with an ST or on your own to find and make your animal ghoul retainer(s).
Out of character, you would need to buy dots in the Background Retainers, at a cost of 1 dot per Animal. Some animals, such as Bats, Rats, bugs, can be found in swarms. Thus you can get one swarm per dot, but they are considered to act as one together.
Much like human ghouls, these NPCs will need to have a +note with their stats or named stat template listed. Having names for them is not necessary (especially with a swarm), but that is all story flavor for you. So long as they are discernable between each other for the purposes of story and if combat occurs and more than one is present, it is all good.
Stats
Attributes: Normally animals are best described with only Physical Traits. Few have Intelligence scores higher than 2, or Perception scores lower than 3. Social Traits, of course, are subjective at best.
Combat: Damage inflicted is lethal, although small creatures might inflict bashing damage.
Any Traits in parenthesis are to be considered instilled through human contact and training.
- Animals in the wilderness do not have these Abilities unless there is something magical about it.
- Animals who's health levels include Incapacitated can survive longer than those without it — others die when they run out of health levels.
- The Blood Pool Trait reflects how many points of a feeding Vampire can drain from a beast. Note that animal blood is far less satisfying than human blood for Vampires.
Beasts
| Alligator | Stats |
|---|---|
| Attributes: | Strength: 4, Dexterity: 2, Stamina: 4 |
| Abilities: | Alertness: 2, Athletics: 2, Brawl: 2, Stealth: 3 |
| Disciplines: | Potence 1 |
| Combat: | Bite for 7L, Tail Slap for 6B, Soak 1 B/L |
| Misc: | Blood Pool: 5, Willpower: 3 |
| Health Levels: | OK, OK, OK, -1, -1, -1, -2, -5, Incap |
| Notes: | Must be hidden outside of sewers. Nile or Estuarine crocs might have higher Strength, Stamina and damage scores. |
| Bat | Stats |
|---|---|
| Attributes: | Strength 1, Dexterity 3, Stamina 2 |
| Abilities: | Alertness 3, Dodge 3, Stealth 2 |
| Disciplines: | Potence 1 |
| Combat: | Bite for 1L dice. |
| Misc: | Blood Pool: 1/4 (1 blood point equals four bats), Willpower: 2 |
| Health Levels: | OK, -1, -3 |
| Notes: | Bats flight speed: 25 MPH. Vampires who use Protean Discipline to transform into bats are larger and more aggressive than normal bats. See also notes on Swarms. |
| Bear | Stats |
|---|---|
| Attributes: | Strength: 5, Dexterity: 2, Stamina: 5 |
| Abilities: | Alertness: 3, Brawl: 3, Intimidation: 2, Stealth: 1 |
| Disciplines: | Potence 1 |
| Combat: | Claw for 7L, Bite for 5L |
| Misc: | Blood Pool: 5, Willpower: 4 |
| Health Levels: | OK, OK, OK, -1, -1, -1, -3, -3, -5, Incap |
| Notes: | Must be hidden outside of forest |
|
|
| Bird (Lg) | Stats |
|---|---|
| Attributes: | Strength: 2, Dexterity: 3, Stamina: 3 |
| Abilities: | Alertness: 3, Athletics: 2, Brawl: 2, Dodge 2, (Empathy: 4, Intimidation: 3), Stealth: 2 |
| Disciplines: | Potence 1 |
| Combat: | Claw for 2L; bite for 1L (desperation). |
| Misc: | Blood Pool: 1/2, Willpower: 3 |
| Health Levels: | OK, -1, -1, -2, -5 |
| Notes: | Large Bird examples: hawk, crow, raven, owl, vulture. Flying speed approximately 25 to 50 MPH. |
| Cat | Stats |
|---|---|
| Attributes: | Strength 1, Dexterity 3, Stamina 3 |
| Abilities: | Alertness 3, Athletics 2, Brawl 2, Dodge 3, Climbing 3, Intimidation 2, Stealth 4 (Empathy 2, Subterfuge 2) |
| Disciplines: | Potence 1 |
| Combat: | Claw or bite for 1L. |
| Misc: | Blood Pool: 1, Willpower: 3 |
| Health Levels: | OK, -1, -2, -5, Incap |
| Notes: | This is for a domestic sized cat. |
| Dog (Lg) | Stats |
|---|---|
| Attributes: | Strength: 4, Dexterity: 3, Stamina: 3 |
| Abilities: | Alertness: 3, Athletics: 2, Brawl: 3, (Dodge 3, Empathy: 2, Intimidation: 3, Stealth: 2) |
| Disciplines: | Potence 1 |
| Combat: | Bite for 5L, Claw for 4L |
| Misc: | Blood Pool: 2, Willpower: 5 |
| Health Levels: | OK, -1, -1, -2, -2, -5 |
| Notes: | Large Dog examples: Mastiff, hunting dog. Smaller domestic dogs will not be as formidable. |
| Horse (Lg) | Stats |
|---|---|
| Attributes: | Strength: 6, Dexterity: 2, Stamina: 5 |
| Abilities: | Alertness: 3, Athletics: 2, Brawl: 3, (Empathy: 2, Intimidation: 2) |
| Disciplines: | Potence 1, Celerity 1 |
| Combat: | Trample/Kick 7B, Bite 3L |
| Misc: | Blood Pool: 4, Willpower: 5 |
| Health Levels: | OK, OK -1, -1, -2, -2, -5, Incap |
| Notes: | Not street-legal. Large Horse examples: Clydesdale or similar large stallion. |
|
|
| Rat | Stats |
|---|---|
| Attributes: | Strength 1, Dexterity 2, Stamina 3 |
| Abilities: | Alertness 2, Brawl 1, Dodge 3, Stealth 3 |
| Disciplines: | Potence 1 |
| Combat: | Bite for 1 dice. |
| Misc: | Blood Pool: 1/4 (4 rats equal one blood point), Willpower: 4 |
| Health Levels: | OK, -1, -5 |
| Notes: | Rats are favorites for spies and guards of the Nosferatu. The often will attack in swarms. See also notes on Swarms. |
| Wolf | Stats |
|---|---|
| Attributes: | Strength 3, Dexterity 3, Stamina 3 |
| Abilities: | Alertness 2, Athletics 1, Brawl 3, Dodge 1, Stealth 2 |
| Disciplines: | Potence 1 |
| Combat: | Bite and claw for 4 dice. |
| Misc: | Blood Pool: 2, Willpower: 3 |
| Health Levels: | OK, -1, -1, -3, -5, Incap |
| Notes: | Vampires who use Protean Discipline to transform into wolves move at double normal running speed. |
Packs and Swarms
While you can find most all the animals listed above individually, some of them will attack as a group, pack, or swarm. It can add to the story for a swarm of rats, pack of dogs, swarm of hornets to attempt to overwhelm a victim, controlled by an elder vampire. Here are rules for doing so:
- Group: Do not try to determine what the individual does within the swarm, roll to see if the swarm itself harms the targetted character. Narrate the results from there.
- Attack: Swarms/Packs will attack once per turn per target. They act on the initiative given on the chart.
- Damage: See the chart for a list of the damage dice pool, and roll it once per turn (difficulty 6). Allow the characters targetted to try and dodge or soak the results. Remember, any damage is lethal, but can be bashing in the case of smaller, weaker creatures, which is up to the ST to decide.
- Dodge: If the targetted character dodges, they can move normally for the remainder of the turn. If the dodge is not successful, the swarm attack will slow him down to half the usual movement speed. If the swarm scores more than three health levels' worth of damage in a turn (this is after soaking by the targetted character), or if the targetted character botches the roll, then they are knocked down and overrun. They can only move a yard or two per turn, and the swarm's damage difficulty falls to 5. Efforts to get back up and continue moving have higher than normal difficulties (difficulty 7 or 8, as per ST decision).
- Health Levels: See the chart for a list of health levels. That is reflective of the amount of damage it takes to disperse a pack or swarm. A character would need an additional two health levels to destroy the attacking swarm completely.
- Small melee weapons (knives, brass knuckles, bottles, claws, bare hands), pistols, rifles will inflict only a single health level per strike, no matter how many successes are rolled for attack/damage (it hits only one creature within the swarm/pack).
- Large melee weapons (swords, staves, boards, chainsaws), Shotguns, submachine guns will inflict normal damage (as in each damage success rolled eliminates one health level to the swarm as a group).
- Large area attacks (molotov cocktails, frost storms, gusts of wind, explosions) will also inflict normal damage (as in each damage success rolled eliminates one health level to the swarm as a group).
- Soaking: Swarms and packs don't soak.
- Area of affect: Depending on the size of the swarm or pack, two or more characters might be affected by it and can attack it in return. If anyone helps an character that is being overrun/targetted, they can be attacked as well.
- Running Away: A human can outrun some packs or swarms (those consisting of rats or bugs), but can't hope to outrun others (such as hyenas or birds).
| Pack/Swarm Type | Damage | Health Levels | Initiative |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small bugs | 1 | 5 | 2 |
| Large bugs | 2 | 7 | 3 |
| Flying bugs | 2 | 5 | 4 |
| Birds, bats | 4 | 9 | 5 |
| Rats | 3 | 7 | 3 |
| Large rats (1ft or more long) |
4 | 9 | 3 |
| Feral cats (domestic sized) |
4 | 6 | 6 |
| Wild dogs | 6 | 15 | 4 |
