ManBarrel:
I waited a long time to see vampires portrayed as actual monsters, not lame goth jerks who hang out in clubs. I know I'm hateful, but I was ruined by reading the Nosferatu legends.

this isnt enough for you?
just wait to the end of the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjMS-eMw1cg&feature=related

broadband:

ManBarrel:
I waited a long time to see vampires portrayed as actual monsters, not lame goth jerks who hang out in clubs. I know I'm hateful, but I was ruined by reading the Nosferatu legends.

this isnt enough for you?
just wait to the end of the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjMS-eMw1cg&feature=related

Truth be known, I haven't watched much anime, and that was mighty entertaining.

Well played sir

I don't really know much about Anne Rice vampires. I do know that when Twilight was written the author didn't research any vampire mythology.
My favorite vampire franchise is Hellsing though. I like how vampires are presented in that. Plus, if you go by Bram Stoker, these vampires are much more classical. Even to the point that Integra says "consult Bram Stoker". They can go out in sunlight and you can kill them with a sword through the heart. Plus I like it when magic is combined with science. Like Millenium's artificial vampires.

The_root_of_all_evil:

jim_doki:
if we're talking White Wolf, I have to go with Gangrel. not for any reason, he was just one of my favorite wrestlers when I was a kid

*twitch* Saying that is like asking a roleplayer if D&D is anything like the cartoon.

Anyway, Malkavians are better. :)

Nosferatu, fo sho (although I really have to agree with Mr. Necroswanson when it comes down to it)

broadband:

lukemdizzle:
no more vampires, there frickin everywhere I look

sorry pal but is the popular thing these days, like halo and after that, hating halo.

hay I don't ride band wagons, I stick to what I like regardless of its popularity and I've always thought vampires were kind of stupid even before they were popular. Im more into villains with some ideological reasoning other than "must suck blood"

Actually, come to think of it, my avatar should reveal which Vampires I like. And they can pound any Anne Rice "Oh it's so dull being immortal" bloodsuckers. :)

Twilight pisses me off to no end. Same with the Anita Blake shit.
Having read Bram Stoker's I think my favourite modern interpretation is Vampire: The Masquerade.

I try for Salubri if Storytellers allow it, otherwise Malkavians, or Brujah, actually come to think of it one of favourites that I moulded was an insane Brujah with Obfuscate thinking he was Batman.

Actually Anita Blake, Isabella Swan, and at least one scene for every POV character by Anne Rice, are Mary-Sues of the authors. Blake is the most blatant one and Anne Rice is clever at keeping a narrative to it, albeit a very passive slow one. But I just don't get the damned obsession with Twilight.

If I recall correctly didn't Dracula also posses the ability to transform into a wolf?

Piff...In MY day, all you needed was a high enough level cleric and you didn't need to worry about vampires and zombies.

Oh, and Stoker FTW

I prefer the vampires from Legacy of Kain: soul reaver.

I like the Castlevania idea which is taken from Bram Stoker's Dracula(big suprise) in that there is only one vampire The lord of Darkness: Dracula which a family/clan must slay over the course of a millenia and can only be slayed with the Vampire Killer whip.

Eyclonus:
Actually Anita Blake, Isabella Swan, and at least one scene for every POV character by Anne Rice, are Mary-Sues of the authors. Blake is the most blatant one and Anne Rice is clever at keeping a narrative to it, albeit a very passive slow one. But I just don't get the damned obsession with Twilight.

If I recall correctly didn't Dracula also posses the ability to transform into a wolf?

Dracula posses the abilities to turn into a wolf, bat, and mist.

Anne Rice > Stephanie Meyer.

But no-one can top Alucard. That guy is awesome squared.

I love (real) vampire books and movies. This thread has interested me in Anne Rice and I plan to look up her work so good on Anne Rice fans.

Off topic a bit when I saw this thread I immediately thought of Fright Night. Dunno why.

I thought this thread was going to be about delusional young people who say they "live off of the life force of others" When in reality, they're just drama queens with a name that sounds cool.

I think it's funny how everyone's jumping on the "Bram Stoker did vampires best" train. If you really look into the book, it's absolutely FILLED with gaping plot holes. Not to mention that it's not written particularly well. Sure, the original Dracula was pretty cool, but the book itself isn't so great.

My votes for best Vampire-related books/films go to Hellsing, Interview with the Vampire, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure and Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust. Now THOSE were vampires.

Dio Brando > Every vampire ever.

B-lockdown080:
Dracula posses the abilities to turn into a wolf, bat, and mist.

I could be misguided and I'm not checking, but doesn't he control the mist but ultimately move within it - yes there is a mist in Mina's room, but she later claims to have thought she saw his face, and the mist on the boat is described something along the lines of "with a shape moving within it".

But yeah, would look like he was mist though I think Stoker was getting at "controlling the elements and the less savoury bests" or however hellsing put it.

I think the best way vampires have been presented was in the video game Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines.

I especially liked how they explained that the mental power of belief is what drives vampires away, not "holy spirits" or silver crosses and bibles. There's even a comical mention of a banker with such great belief in the power of money that his credit card drove a vampire away.

The Anne Rice vampire and its progeny always bothered me in a way I couldn't put my finger on. Now I know: they're like someone eating chocolate syrup on chocolate sauce on chocolate cake with chocolate chips and then calling themselves "indulgent". They're not indulgent - they're a glutton.

Gitsnik:

tomdavi:
Anyobody ever read Bram Sotker's Dracula? His ideas and version of vampires are completely different from the ones portrayed in most of the more modern stylised vampire books, and yet Drac. is seen as being the archetypal vampire. He was in fact seen as being a reptilian creature (bats etc never get a real mention to the best of my knowledge), who had the capacity for extreme violence.

What? There's bats at the window all the time feeding on Lucy, the Count flies off towards London at one point (though whether that's in Bat form or not escapes me at the moment). He matches almost exactly most modern views of vampires (before anyone points out that crucifixes don't work, note that Hellsings crucifix - the real hellsing not the crappy one with Frankensteins Monster - was silver so it's entirely possible that a crucifix is a problem)

tomdavi:
He also struggled to disguise his desires for blood.

By holding Harker at his house for a full month before feeding? I'm wondering if you didn't just watch the movie - a lot of these things sound like that. Anyway I don't mean to rag.

tomdavi:
Going back, before even that to the origins of western vampire myths and most of the time the only "restrictions/ drawbacks" on them, was that they struggled to enter holy buildings, couldn't enter buildings without permission (something now often edited) and, in light they were simply reduced to not being as tough or powerful and having at best sensitive light skin. (btw I'm not some kind of vampire nut, I had to do a project on them in school for english once).

Dracula can't enter buildings without permission, and stays in the night quite often (though again it escapes me whether he can step into the light or not). The fact that you did it for English once probably indicates why your memory is vague. myself, I recently picked up the Leslie & Klinger edition of Stoker's fable, which is an excellent read for all the annotations and notes made.

Edit: Yes dracula is one of my favourites, though I'm a big fan of Lestat and whatsisface in Interview

I'll admit I watched the old film more recently although I have read the book, and fair enough about most of it but, I didn't acutally mean to imply that he could enter buildings without permission, and he is compared to a lizard or snake (I'll admit I'm going off memory) long before bats are mentioned, in the book when he is scaling one of the walls (no pun intended). Aside from that thanks for the corrections.

Which one(s) of the old myths? There are as many different myths about vampires as there are countries/regions. The classical European (from the area around Transylvania, i.e. Bulgaria and Hungary)?, the nordic ones?, the african ones?, the chineese ones?, or perhaps even the Pennangallan (Indonesian if I remeber correctly)? Vampires are many things and the only common trait as far as I remember is that they need the lifeforce (blood in Europe, chi in china, flesh in other places)of other creatures to live.

EDIT: My favorite though is Vlad Dracul (both the man that inspired Stoker to write his book and the vampire)

Which ones was I on about? The classical european myths from which most popular modern vampire myths etc have originated.

This thread really reminds me of the heated debate in 'from dusk till dawn' over silver and its affects on vampires...(which is ended when they realise they don't have any anyway)...XD

TheNecroswanson:
Werewolves are better! *Runs away giggling*

*slaps*

NO

Mummies, no one ever remembers the mummies.

Eyclonus:

I try for Salubri if Storytellers allow it, otherwise Malkavians, or Brujah, actually come to think of it one of favourites that I moulded was an insane Brujah with Obfuscate thinking he was Batman.

Salubri? No chance in hell....Ever tried making a combat Salubri...they make Brujahs or Gangrels look like a Thinblood Toreador.

I just buy up Dementation 4 asap. "Oh hi, willpower check to perform any action this round except gibber."

Or if you really want sick, Obfuscate/Obtenebration and Potence.

And before you ask, Temporis is a SICK SICK Discipline.

My favourite type of Vampires are the Wamphyri from Brian Lumley's Necroscope books.

I think he makes a good 'Sci'Fi' interpretation of the Vampire & Werewolf myths, incorporating 'believable science' & mythology well (plus a healthy dose of Cold War espionage).

The Wamphyri are kind of similar to the Goa'uld in Stargate, except the Wamphyri are much darker & much more charismatic.

TheNecroswanson:
Hm, maybe I missed it, but no one seems to have mentioned the pure awesome that was Interview with the Vampire.
Are we all missing the pure awesome that book and the subsequent movie were?

Anne Rice Vampires = Twilight Vampires imho.

The_root_of_all_evil:

Anne Rice Vampires = Twilight Vampires imho.

I'd compare them as follows:
Twilight Vampires = Vanilla Ice
Anne Rice Vampires = 'NSync

Hm... Let's see what I can contribute.

In my opinion, vampires are as originally portrayed in Dracula and such classics: Immortal, pale, wiry, blood-sucking, photosensitive, and shape-shifting (I've never been one for the bat idea, but changing their features I'll believe). I'm generally for the notion that stakes and holy water works on them, but not garlic (Fun Fact: The idea of garlic working against vampires arose from olden-days remedy of garlic to repel mosquitoes and other bloodsucking parasites.). Of course, the days of capes, castles, and "BLA!" are long gone, replaced by the modern vampire.

The modern vampire tends to blend in with the rest of society in their more subtle forms, though they tend to stay inside during the day, wearing very dark and heavy clothing otherwise (watch out for those kids in black hoodies). They tend to skulk around after dark, doing whatever they need to then. They're not the reclusive lives-in-a-manor type, but they're still vampires: Generally cold and heartless creatures that will occasionally play with their food before they eat it. That being said, they're not emotionless, just smooth and predatory. They are not, however, whiny teenagers that go skulking around high-schools to pick up girls. And. They. Do. Not. Sparkle.

I've always been more of a werewolf/lycanthrope person, though.

paulgruberman:

The_root_of_all_evil:

Anne Rice Vampires = Twilight Vampires imho.

I'd compare them as follows:
Twilight Vampires = Vanilla Ice
Anne Rice Vampires = 'NSync

Ow...I'd not go that far.

The_root_of_all_evil:
Ow...I'd not go that far.

Well, one type is closer to a fairy than vampire.

The other type is there to look good and pose, while the true substance behind what it means to be a vampire is carried out by others.

I feel they fit the bill precisely.

I like Stephen King's take on vampires as seen in 'Salem's Lot, and further in the Dark Tower series.