Forums » RP Discussion » So tired of werewolves.

I swear, if I see one more cookie cutter 'perfect' looking human that turns into the same cliche werewolf with the exact same cookie cutter story, I am going to scream, and then go on a rampage, and it won't be pretty.

Vampires run a close second on this, and the trend tends to be STUNNINGLY BEAUTIFUL characters with endless wealth who have pretty much every physical advantage but next to no weaknesses.

Ok, yes we all know werewolves and vampires are a cool concept.. but when every other character I click is one of these two..?

This is Zhi. Boycotting Vampires and Werewolves. You too, can join the movement, and apply today for your membership into RPAWV (Role Players Against Werewolves and Vampires)

*shoves Kvothe and Minda in the closet, whistles innocently*

I dibs on a t-shirt.

That said, I am more personally a fan of World of Darkness shifters and vampires. Tremere, Ventrue, Tzimisce, Nosteratu ranging right through to Garou, Gurahl and Corvax. Mostly because the whole gaming system is about having balanced characters. Like sure, a Nosteratu might have hoarded away a nice nestegg of delights, but when you look utterly hideous like the monster you are, spending it is going to be a bit of an issue - plus you'd attract attention from those you feed off, and so on.

But I agree on the cookie-cutter quality of it. I don't mind werewolves, and I don't mind vampires. But please for the love of whatever you find holy, balance things out, make their backstories more varied.. something to make them a little more different from one another.

I hate cookie cutter vampires & werewolves too, and I /especially/ despise the... Twilight mimicries I see. Ugh.

<Vampire Rant Ahoy>
I personally enjoy following a Dracula formula mixed with good ol' "classic" traits when it comes to designing a vampire. Heck, my last one even had hairy palms he had to hide from mortal sight and suffered from arithmomania (urge to count, yo) thanks to a curse laid on him during his mortal life by suspicious villagers in Africa who thought he was trying to raise zombies.

And no, vampires don't HAVE to burn up in sunlight. The Count pretty much lost all his powers in the daylight since he was a creature of the night, but it didn't burn him to a crisp like you see in Hollywood movies. ... and he didn't freakin' sparkle either. He was an pretty ugly old mofo too, if memory serves right. Not some drop-dead-gorgeous teenager. Pah.

And that's just traits. Backstories for vampires... that's another rant for another day.
</Vampire Rant Ahoy>

So yeah, tl;dr, try to keep true to vampire mythos for a change and stop making them so "pretty boy" gary-stu, yo.

Half-vampires that turn into dolphins don't count, right? 8D

I'm all for this. Though it kind of goes into the mythical set; it's a 'fact' for vampires that they're all beautiful. I agree though, people really should think outside the box. But still, you don't want to put sparkles on your vampire to make them different and end up having a mob attack you.

X3

WoD Vampires and werewolves are actually pretty cool. But I've seen some players reeeeally mess these up.. Particularly one player who I saw had several, and every single one of them was like.. 4rd or 5th gen insanely ancient as powerful as a deity.. And this same player tended to try and cause trouble so he'd have the 'excuse' for his godly untouchable vampire to totally pwn them effortlessly.

World of Darkness/Whitewolf. I do love the background and concepts for their were-creatures. I have a Werebear character played off of this setting, but it is totally different from your run of the mill werewolf story.

I HAVE seen the occasional decent vampire character.. But that is like finding a rare tiny gem in 6 tons of manure

I think my WoD one was like... 18th/17th, haha. I believe I know who you're on about though.

I like all the side-games WoD have as well; I've got a Geist: Sin Eater character, then one that combines aspects from Wraith and Orpheus. And Khaun is awesome m/

That said, if I ever decide to make a vampire, he's being an ugly as hell Underhall-dwelling Nosferatu or Tzimisce. Something nasty.

MAYBE X3

People won't always follow that beautiful bit, rp-wise-- someone ICly gave me the "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder" bit about Njord's looks when all the stuff I've read (Wikipedia included, I did research beyond it though) said that Light Elves are "more radiant than the sun" and are pretty much, canonically, beautiful as ungodly <explicative here>. Going against canon, as I saw it, but I'm unusually anal about that sort of thing here and there so...

Anyway, you CAN deviate some from myth. I'm not totally against it. Just... y'know... don't make it the same ol' 'stu/sue' thing. If your vampire needs blood to stay alive AND amazingly good looking, that's cool with me too, really! But if they sparkle... or have a perfect succubus body with no back issues...

Everybody knows ponies are where it's at anyway, yo.

To be serious for a moment, I have the good fortune of never having played with any author-insertion characters. Though that's likely more from my lack of experience than any ability to identify those character types. However, we all had to start somewhere, and roleplaying is one of those things that's difficult to practice without the company of others. With a little leading by example, it could be an opportunity to take one for the team and come out on the other side with a better roleplayer.

Though, if every single pub you run or join ends up turning in to a stue-fest, I could see how that might drive you to homicide.

Man, I'm so tired of werewolves, vampires, elves, angels, dragons, demons, anthropomorphic animals, lichs, mutants, dwarves. I say we boycott them all, because they've all been overused and they all tend to be the same. All werewolves turn into, well, wolves. All vampires are pretty boys with a thirst for blood. All elves are fairer than thou and almost immortal. All angels are good and pure. All dragons are big and lizard-y and badass. All demo- I think you got the point.

That above is what I would say if there weren't, you know, good players with creative characters that happen to be the above. Sure, many werewolves are boring. Just people who turn into badass beings and seem to run on coolothidium for no real reason. Some vampires are stereotyped pretty boys who just happen to be megaultrapowerful and drink blood (and that's cool right?). That doesn't mean they all are.

It's not a werewolf thing. Every character can be dull and everything can turn repetitive. What if we boycott you know, every type of character?

There is originality everywhere.

EDIT'ed for clarity and more words.

LOL. I think this spawns a whole new rant/discussion...

This reminds me of the Dominic Deegan cartoon. The Seer has a woman with a big bust ask what he saw in her future. He takes one look at her and goes 'lower back problems'.

I agree with this. Yes there have been an uprising in the amounts of werewolves and vampire since Twilight... but if you don't like them? Ignore them. I personally don't like anthro wolves who have wings and can shift into dragons and are vampires oh but they also have wolf and human forms, but I get over it.

Do you make home deliveries?

Star raises a good point, if we dismiss a character for being a certain type, whether that's werewolf or vampire-dragon, aren't we being racists? Fictional racists, granted, but racists all the same.

I think, though, that the reason these specific races get a bad rap is specifically because they attract the type of person who will create unbalanced characters for the sake of wish-fulfillment. This causes those races to be disproportionately represented by people who are more interested in winning than in writing, and that leaves us thinking all werewolves suck.

Yes, I have to agree completely with Mross. It's not the race that sucks; it just attracts players that suck moreso than, let's say, an average Joe character.

Twilight has a lot to answer for.

I'd be more worried about the 'stalking shows you he loves you!' and 'abusive buttholes are dreamy!' issues that Twilight brings up, rather than the fact that its vampires sparkle.

I rather like how the Legacy of Kain series treated them, myself. And they're monstrous and hot! Well, at least rotting!Raziel is, anyway.

...Is that like double necrophilia, or something?

Sorry, but the last time I tried that, I got framed for murder when said succubus killed the guy.

Mine males home deliveries

I think what I'm most tired of is anime characters being used as an example of what a vampire/werewolf/angel/demon looks like.

I can tolerate the genuine "red chick with horns and black hair and evil yellow eyes" more than an underage anime chick with red hair and yellow eyes being called a sexy, doable demon.

Honestly, all these characters can be quite amazing, it's just that people play a lot of the same thing. Minda is a vampire, but she's thankfully not cookie-cutter. It's because I don't focus on her being a vampire too much. She drinks blood and has difficulty being exposed to heavy sunrays (she turns red and gets blisters because of being overly sensitive, and can actually expire from irreparable damage if exposed for too long), but otherwise she's a confused person who makes a living as a prostitute. She's pretty, yeah, but not dazzlingly so. There are people who find her unattractive!