Vampire Campaign - Tips and tricks?

[Nuristas]

Good afternoon,

We have had a party of 3 players who are looking for something else in Rifts. And so after an evening of eating munchies and sipping tea, the idea was proposed to play vampires in rifts rpg to change the pace drastically and to see if it was possible to get anywhere or if the planet was really too dangerous to survive. The Storyteller also relished the idea since we haven't played a bad guy campaign in a while.
I even fear that old characters whom were played years ago might pop up, as NPC hunters.

Since there is a board where people who have played for decades gather, it seemed like a good idea to hear if there are any pitfalls we should avoid or any hints we could gather.

Both type of vampires are on the table at this point in time; either the ones based on Vampire Intelligences and the ones from the Rifter.
If you think one might be better suited for play than the other, please don't hesitate to point out why.

Thank you for any and all feedback.

[The Beast]

Personally I'd go with a hybrid version of the two types. I'd have the vampires along with their powers & abilities from Rifter 48 as this will allow you to make more unique vampires than the vanilla ones. They'll also have the added benefit of giving your players goals to reach when they level. I'd also keep the vampire intelligences themselves because I've always liked that aspect of Palladium vampires. I'd have most vampire lords created by a VI, but some vampire lords found a way to become one on their own (ie: that one necro-magic spell in Mystic Russia).

[Braden Campbell]

I would offer this: be prepared for the fact that the Players will be able to make mincemeat out of just about every threat they encounter which is NOT prepared to fight vampires... but will be slaughtered quickly by threats that are.

[Warshield73]

I would offer this: be prepared for the fact that the Players will be able to make mincemeat out of just about every threat they encounter which is NOT prepared to fight vampires... but will be slaughtered quickly by threats that are.

I don't think it's fair to say slaughtered but you would go from superpowered warriors to slightly above average warriors in a battle. I just don't think PB vampires really work for PCs so I would suggest the variants in the Rifter or Nighbane Wampyr.

[Fenris2020]

I would offer this: be prepared for the fact that the Players will be able to make mincemeat out of just about every threat they encounter which is NOT prepared to fight vampires... but will be slaughtered quickly by threats that are.

I don't think it's fair to say slaughtered but you would go from superpowered warriors to slightly above average warriors in a battle. I just don't think PB vampires really work for PCs so I would suggest the variants in the Rifter or Nighbane Wampyr.

I ignore the usual PB vampires and use Wampyr in my games instead; they just work better.
It's also funny when the PCs think they're fighting PB vamps and water does nothing.
I do let holy symbols affect them, if wielded by an actual follower of that religion, like a Druid, Priest, Preacher or similar OCC or a logical add-on (so, a Warrior of Valhalla or Berserker with a Thor's Hammer symbol would work as a for-instance).

[Warshield73]

I would offer this: be prepared for the fact that the Players will be able to make mincemeat out of just about every threat they encounter which is NOT prepared to fight vampires... but will be slaughtered quickly by threats that are.

I don't think it's fair to say slaughtered but you would go from superpowered warriors to slightly above average warriors in a battle. I just don't think PB vampires really work for PCs so I would suggest the variants in the Rifter or Nighbane Wampyr.

I ignore the usual PB vampires and use Wampyr in my games instead; they just work better.
It's also funny when the PCs think they're fighting PB vamps and water does nothing.
I do let holy symbols affect them, if wielded by an actual follower of that religion, like a Druid, Priest, Preacher or similar OCC or a logical add-on (so, a Warrior of Valhalla or Berserker with a Thor's Hammer symbol would work as a for-instance).

It seems lots of people do something like this. I more or less do this in Heroes Unlimited, I created vamps that more closely resemble those on the old TV show Forever Knight with a health amount of Buffy but in Rifts I just left them there but I have other types of Vamps as well so PCs can get a surprise here and there.

[Nuristas]

I would offer this: be prepared for the fact that the Players will be able to make mincemeat out of just about every threat they encounter which is NOT prepared to fight vampires... but will be slaughtered quickly by threats that are.

I don't think it's fair to say slaughtered but you would go from superpowered warriors to slightly above average warriors in a battle. I just don't think PB vampires really work for PCs so I would suggest the variants in the Rifter or Nighbane Wampyr.

I ignore the usual PB vampires and use Wampyr in my games instead; they just work better.
It's also funny when the PCs think they're fighting PB vamps and water does nothing.
I do let holy symbols affect them, if wielded by an actual follower of that religion, like a Druid, Priest, Preacher or similar OCC or a logical add-on (so, a Warrior of Valhalla or Berserker with a Thor's Hammer symbol would work as a for-instance).

It seems lots of people do something like this. I more or less do this in Heroes Unlimited, I created vamps that more closely resemble those on the old TV show Forever Knight with a health amount of Buffy but in Rifts I just left them there but I have other types of Vamps as well so PCs can get a surprise here and there.

I used to love that series of Forever Knight.

On another note, we have received information that we can work it out as we want it to. So we can mix and match a bit so that everybody gets his or her character as they desire.
Thank you for all the ideas and sugestions.

[Warshield73]

I would offer this: be prepared for the fact that the Players will be able to make mincemeat out of just about every threat they encounter which is NOT prepared to fight vampires... but will be slaughtered quickly by threats that are.

I don't think it's fair to say slaughtered but you would go from superpowered warriors to slightly above average warriors in a battle. I just don't think PB vampires really work for PCs so I would suggest the variants in the Rifter or Nighbane Wampyr.

I ignore the usual PB vampires and use Wampyr in my games instead; they just work better.
It's also funny when the PCs think they're fighting PB vamps and water does nothing.
I do let holy symbols affect them, if wielded by an actual follower of that religion, like a Druid, Priest, Preacher or similar OCC or a logical add-on (so, a Warrior of Valhalla or Berserker with a Thor's Hammer symbol would work as a for-instance).

It seems lots of people do something like this. I more or less do this in Heroes Unlimited, I created vamps that more closely resemble those on the old TV show Forever Knight with a health amount of Buffy but in Rifts I just left them there but I have other types of Vamps as well so PCs can get a surprise here and there.

I used to love that series of Forever Knight.

On another note, we have received information that we can work it out as we want it to. So we can mix and match a bit so that everybody gets his or her character as they desire.
Thank you for all the ideas and sugestions.

As long as they don't sparkle to each there own.

[Nuristas]

That is the only ban we all agreed upon when talking about it.
We were not going to do the sparkling vampires. Some people apparently genuinely liked those movies but we agreed it was absolutely not fitting for the kinda evil guy Rift campaign we wanted to play.

[Axelmania]

hint: use intelligent baby vampires

it's probably very hard to create them (they probably have low PE/HP/SDC so a 2D6 bite could kill them more easily than an adult human, and they need to survive two nights of biting) so doing that would probably require careful prepping such as casting Superhuman Strength spell on a baby prior to biting them so they have high PE and extra SDC and thus can survive two nights of biting to be converted

There ought to be a penalty to hit small targets like babies or gnomes but for some reason Palladium doesn't seem to use anything like Size Modifiers, closest is probably how some small Faeries get dodge bonuses which is of no help against surprise attacks.