GURPS Blood Types

GURPS Blood Types (ISBN 1-55634-113-X) is a 128-page soft-bound book compiled by Lane Grate and published in 1995 by Steve Jackson Games as a supplement for the third edition GURPS role-playing game system. It contains biographies and gaming statistics for 23 vampiress, vampire-like beings, and guidelines on creating more for various campaign settings.

Contents

The three broad types

GURPS Blood Types breaks vampire and vampire-like beings into three broad types:

Mortal Vampires--Living beings who have become vampires through some pact or deal. Generally they are not undead.

Undead--Once living beings who have come back from the dead to feed on the living

Spirit and other worldly beings--Otherworldly parasitic beings that masquerade as a member of a mortal race.

Vampire Types

Those with a ^ can be active in daylight

• Adze^, supernatural entity vampire from central Africa mainly Ghana and Togo.
• Alien^, otherworldly vampire—may or may not be supernatural in nature.
• Astral^, mortal vampire (sorcerer) found around the world. Some examples are Bebarlang of Southeast Asia and Philippines and the Chordewa of Bangal hill tribes.
• Baital^, supernatural entity vampire from India.
• Ch'iang Shich, undead vampire from China.
• Civateteo^, an undead vampire of Mesoamerica. Another variant of this from the same region is the Langsoir.
• Gaki^, supernatural vampire-like being from Japan—may either be animated corpse or otherworldly spirit
• Ghul^, Mortal vampire (flesh eater) from Arabian folktales
• Gothic, undead vampire made famous by Dracula and most of the movie variants inspired by it
• Half-Vampire^, Mortal vampire that is usually a servant or slave to the Gothic type
• High-Tech^, Mortal vampire created via super science
• Human^, Mortal Vampire who feels the need to drink another's blood
• Incubus (Demon)/Succubus^, supernatural vampire-like entity that drains life via sexual contact rather than blood
• Lamia^, undead/supernatural entity from ancient Greece.
• Lilitu^, supernatural entity vampire from ancient Mesopotamia. Given their name and nature they may have connection to Adam's first wife (Lilith).
• Loogaroo^, Mortal vampire (soul pact) of Haiti
• Modern, Updated version of Gothic vampire type
• Nosferatu, In the context of GURPS Blood Types it is the vampire seen in the film Nosferatu
• Penanggalen^, Female mortal vampire (soul pact) of Malay Peninsula. Male counterpart in Berma is the Kephn Can only feed at night
• Strix, Mortal vampire (witch) of ancient Rome
• Usrel, Undead child vampire of Poland. If not properly destroyed can rise again as another type.
• Vampir, Traditional undead European vampire of the Slavic nations. Usually attacks in astral form and is more likely to be a peasant than nobel
• Vyrolakos^, Traditional undead European vampire of the Balkan nations. Usually attacks physically and in the legend would often take human mates and have families. Tympanios is a precursor variant that was less insane and did not depend on blood

Publication history

Blood Types is a GURPS game supplement, published as a 128-page softcover book by Steve Jackson Games and designed by Lane Grate.^[1] Editing was by Jeff Koke and Scott Haring, with illustrations by Dan Smith and a cover by Tim Bradstreet.^[1]

Reception

Rick Swan reviewed GURPS Blood Types for Dragon magazine #227 (March 1996), and rated it a 5 out of 6.^[1] According to Swan, Blood Types "belongs on the shelf of every horror aficionado who's had his fill of recycled Bela Lugosis".^[1]

References