if Reid was right - 2nd and 3rd and 4th generation vampires

[Plane]

pg 43 of the revised Vampire Kingdoms:
"His theory is that they are a second generation extension of the Vampire Intelligence's evil essence, making each successive generation of undead less perfect and less powerful than the one before it."

In some sense this is true. If we consider the AI the 1st generation, he perfectly creates masters. If we consider masters the 2nd generaiton, they perfectly create secondaries. If we consider secondaries the 3rd generation, they sometimes mess up and make wild vampires instead of more secondaries. If we consider wilds the 4th generaiton, they ALWAYs mess up and create wild vampires.

But... beyond there it doesn't exactly devolve further. I mean yeah wild vampires woudl basically not have the patience to do a slow kill in the first place so it's a moot point... but I was thinking... instead of a basic 42% chance of secondaries making secondaries, what if this % was based on how many generations away from the original master's bite it was? Or maybe something else like the ME of the victim?

[Grazzik]

The rules as written work fine, so not sure the objective here. Though as I'm someone who has been accused (most probably fairly) of house rules that overcomplicate things (new year's resolution - working on simplification), this feels a bit like overengineering a simple die roll. If you have a house rule you're proposing, what is it? Maybe some constructive feedback could help you hone the concept. I could see where an entire few sessions revolves around a PC being a victim of the slow kill, including a hot pursuit by the vampire to finish the job, and a GM wants the PC to experience the turmoil by resisting using things like ME or psychic abilities or whatever. But that is a very specific scenario to play out and doesn't really work when all you want to know is whether the NPC locked in the basement turned into a Sec or Wild.

If, as a GM, you want to put house rules around whether a Sec makes a Wild vs some other form of aberrant vampire, like a Wampyr, go for it. We know by that example that mistakes and aberrations happen. The mechanic in the books is sparse and generally at the whim of the GM or when a player chooses a PC to be an aberrant vampire.

But keeping to the premise of increasing degrees of separation from the VI, there is no reason in the books why Wilds should continue on to create blood thirsty gobs of goo on the idea that devolution continues all the way done. Then again, maybe they do. That is all on the GM to work out, as the books only go so far to outline the framework for the game. I would tend to agree with your point that Wilds don't bother with a Slow Kill, so I'd suggest anything lower than Wilds is all pretty moot unless used as a house ruled plot device by a GM.

[taalismn]

"I got bitten by a vampire and all I got to show for it was bad teeth, due to the fact that the vamp that bit me was too dumb to follow proper directions. Now people look at me with suspicion and the true vampires won't come near me because I'm somebody else's mistake."---Disappointed immortality seeker

[Killer Cyborg]

Fascinating.

Maybe there’s a way to get an 8th generation or so vampire “infection/possession” which is so weak you don’t die, and aren’t controlled by the Vampire Intelligence, and the only real effect is you get a blood-drinking fetish or something.

[Curbludgeon]

This is a pretty good excuse to break out the different flawed vampires from the "optional" article in Rifter 49.

[taalismn]

I'm tempted to do a Random Roll Table for Flawed Vampire Transformations---with a more comedic slant, though.

*Vegetarian Vampire---Can only survive sucking plant sap. (May or may not be able to create vampiric plants)
*Overbite/MIsaligned Teeth---Takes HALF damage to self when biting.
*Continuous Spontaneous Combustion---NOt killed by sunlight, but just painfully goes up in a cloud of constant smoke
*Combustible Vapor Form---Unfortunately, the vampire's vapor form is easily set on fire.
*Cannot Assume Vapor Form---Instead, can fart a lot.
*Spice Allergy---Not simply susceptible to garlic, but oregano, nutmeg, cinnamon and black pepper.
*Susceptible to ANY Religious Symbol
*Rubber Fangs----Try gumming victims....

[Plane]

This is a pretty good excuse to break out the different flawed vampires from the "optional" article in Rifter 49.

yeah or maybe that "Abandoned Vampire" the Rifter Arzno article had which got left out of the final world book

[slade the sniper]

So, Generation similar to Vampire the Masquerade?

-STS

[Plane]

yeah I guess so, maybe an RPG like that influenced his thinking because he figured the master>secondary>wild pattern meant something about generations always degrading even if they don't ?