One of the beauties of the Multiverser system is that it fully justifies having the same character, but with multiple variants across similar, but not identical timelines. And these variants can add a lot of interest, and uncertainty for the player. And they can hit an unwary player like a rabbit punch out of the blue. Maybe your tough-as-nails dragon-killing, star pilot, and sidekick to a superhero verser is not impressed by being hunted across an island by a madman out for sport. Make that madman a werewolf, or in light of this thread--a vampire, and things change radically. When your 'inescapable' booby trap is evaded by the vampire turning to a bat, and flying above the logs rolling like an avalanche down a hill--then you will know fear and dismay. When you realize that the Great White Hunter with the hounds is really the Fanged Death and the hounds are from Hades, then shock will war with terror in your mind.
Lets see another set of variants.
In one world, Gavin and his vampiric cohorts struggle to corrupt Humanity from Philadelphia in the year 2011. In another world...well, wait and see.
Marcoe's Variant
================
**note: this vampire is not a verser.
Gavin had been a Communist subversive in the US in the 1930s, feeding intelligence to Stalin. He wrote small-time detective fiction which would not have been published except his editor was also a Communist. He joined the CPUSA, sided with the Nazi's until Hitler betrayed Stalin, and invaded Russia. The day after that he joined the cry of the Right in the US to 'do something about Hitler NOW!' Hitler had attacked the Motherland, and Gavin had received his marching orders from the chiefs of the CPUSA. And they were the sort of people who caused 'accidents' to happen if you displeased them.
Fearful, Stalin struck up a deal with a ring of Leningrad based Russian vampires. He supplied them anonymity and protection for their international network, unique resources, and the opportunity to gain "super soldiers" and spies by having them turned. In return, they were supposed to use these for Stalin's benefit.
In the meantime, Gavin had been drafted into the US Army.
Gavin was the only American chosen, as he was already an off-duty bartender at the largest nightclub in Manchester, Britain which in this timeline anyways had a large Army base. He got notice by passing information gleaned off-duty soldiers and civilian employees, and even bringing a couple into an ad hoc spy ring he set up to impress his Soviet bosses.
Once turned, though, he was with the vampires, not the Soviets, which the vampires knew all along would happen. And thus it was to every spy they turned. The vampires extended their own network and infiltrated the Soviet regime. Thus allowing the vampies to pull the strings and protect themselves even further.
Gavin continued to feed information, and began using his abilities to infiltrate the base directly. He gathered even more valuable information and positioned himself to demand a "pay raise." They agreed, and quite gladly, as what he was supplying them they weren't getting anywhere else.
Flush with cash and vampiric abilities, he bought the nightclub and offered as a secure meeting place to local crime bosses (who did a healthy business in gun-running, being near an Army base), along with further protection for their operations. He was true to his word, though he was careful to gather sensitive information from them to protect himself and put them over a barrel, so he could take a slice of their business. With in a matter of months, he was now the head crime boss of the region as the war finally ended.
There had been the matter of blackmailing a general, and killing a too inquisitive captain to avoid D-day, but that was a small matter for one of his abilities.
For several years he kept supplying valuable intel to the Soviets and using the money to expand his criminal empire. He also spent time building up a private army of ghouls and a network of spies and informants. About this time, he began challenging his Russian masters openly. They tipped off a couple of vampire hunters in his area to send a warning to him. When he didn't back down, then sent their best ghoul assassin, "The Cossack."
The Cossack had been recruited, and en-ghouled (a magical transformation process giving great length of life, and power, and corruption, but not neccessarily damnation) during the Napoleonic wars, while serving in a Cossack calvary unit. From that point, he served as a mercenary in every major European conflict through the end of the 1940s, taking the opportunity to recruit other soldiers into his masters' ranks, either as vamps or ghouls.
By this time, Gavin had partnered with an American vampire hoodoo mage who brought his own ghouls with him, in particular, the head of his personal guard, who was an Indian scout turned back in the late 1860s. After his master was killed shortly after his turning, he also plied his trade as a mercenary, serving in dozens of bush wars before coming into the mage's employ. The Cossack came over with a group of handpicked men, very nearly succeeded, but was intercepted and dispatched by the by the Indian ghoul.
This sparked a full scale war between Gavin and the Russians, which he quickly gained victories in, but there was ebb and flow in the conflict over the decades, and subsequent battles cost him dearly. After his organization had reached a zenith in the 1970s, having killed several members of the Russian vampire inner circle, the Russians struck back hard, changing from their careful and secretive tactics to messy attritional warfare. Each victory was simply followed by more attacks and the outer edges of his organization began to fray. By the end of the 1980s, and the fall of the Soviet Union, he had lost nine/tenths of his organization, but the Russian vamps had lost the political patronage that they come to rely on, along with a severe disruption of their financial resources. Being both exhausted from the forty-year war, they came to a truce.
Gavin the Vampire
=================
Persuasion: 2@2 - Having run a criminal empire for seven decades means that people listen to him and his orders get followed.
Charisma: 2@2 - Aided by his inhuman nature, his experience with coaxing secrets and making allies leaves him with a polished image.
Animal Magnetism: 2@1 - Less practiced than other vampires, in seventy years he has still made thorough use of his supernatural sex appeal to bed many women (and a few men).
Strength: 2@10 - It is beyond that of any normal human.
Stamina: 2@10 - The undead do not normally tire.
Resistance: 3@1 - Normally immune to any disease or poison, only radiation has a moderate effect (by attacking the flesh directly), but can be healed by his vampiric abilities.
Density: 1@3
Flexibility: 2@1
Agility: 1@10 - The hundreds of men who have died by his own hand means that he has learned to kill with ease.
Hand/Eye: 1@10
Intelligence: 1@10
Intuition: 2@2 - Decades of experience have taught him to trust his gut and he is rarely wrong.
Willpower: 2@1 - Gifted with a vampire's predatory nature, he loathes to give up his quarry.
Education Level: 2@4 - Seventy years of having his hands in so many pots means that he knows quite a bit about a lot of things.
TV 1@8
DV 2@6
RSV 2@1
MSV 2@4
Skills:
Gavin is a rebel against Lawful Authority and Purity. Therefore symbols of Lawful Authority and Purity repel him. He has to make a Difficult Willpower check to approach them.
Wedding Dresses, Holy Water, and Garlic all act as attacks on contact. Respectively, they do Damaging, Dangerous, and Annoying with Damage Rider of Pain Incapacitation vs. Simple Willpower for all of them. Gavin is permitted a Resistance check to avoid damage, however with Holy Water, he still take Damaging damage. This is a natural effect, and requires no skill roll.
Sunlight is similar. It does Fatal damage every six rounds, but there is no pain incapacitation. In this case, the Sun is a symbol of Lawful Authority, and Purity.
Clear streams, home thresholds, and church property lines all act as barriers. The strength of the barrier is based on a relative success roll between respectively 1. the nearest neighbour to the stream 2. the homeowner 3. the pastor with the defender having a +20 Situation Modifier. The roll is based on Religion skill.
Any Alliance Magic attack that does actual damage does a Lethal damage rider intrinsic.
Writing Psi Skill at 2@1.
Use Teeth to Drink: Bod Skill at 2@5. It starts out as Damaging, but with a 2@ skill it shifts up to Dangerous, and Strength is more than 1@10 so the total attack damage is Dangerous + 5 Damage Point Bonus.
Shapeshift to Bat: Mag Skill at 2@1.
Low-Light Vision: Bod Skill at 2@7.
Heal Self: Mag Skill at 2@1.
Animate Self: Mag Skill at 2@8. This spell is cast on the night preceding the rise. Without it, the vampire will not be able to rise the next day. It requires 1--Coffin (+3 and +2 for bulky), 2--Native Earth in Coffin (+5),3-- Blood of a Human in Body (+7 which is destroyed X2 for +14 for Blood). It must be cast laying down with full body involvement, and arms crossed over chest (+15). 4--It requires eight hours of waiting after it is cast before the animation takes effect (+10).