What We Do In The Shadows

By Valeria

Introduction

The world is not quite as you know it. It may look familiar but, beneath the unassuming surface, a
world of darkness awaits you. Menacing monsters stalk the night, hungering for human flesh
and…awkwardly smiling as they walk around in centuries old clothes and make it really obvious what
they are?

Did you get the right world?

This is the world of What We Do in The Shadows, a place where the supernatural is both very real
and yet somehow very mundane. Vampires exist, as out of touch weirdos. Werewolves also exist,
generally as guys sticking together in anger management groups. See, in the modern world, going all
folktale monster really doesn’t end well. You need to blend in and try to go unnoticed. So most
monsters do just that to varying degrees of success. People are pretty dim at the best of times, so
life goes mostly untroubled for everyone. Except the guys that die. They’re not having fun.

Here, you’re about to become a Vampire for the next ten years. Not a sparkly one and not a really
crazy alien either. Straight of out Stoker’s books. Stronger and faster than any man, able to fly or
crawl along walls, hypnotise others with your gaze, turn into a bat or wolf and more then a few
other powers. The gifts come with downsides though. You are badly burned by the touch of sunlight,
killing you in a few seconds of full exposure. Silver burns your skin harshly too and garlic is like
poison. You cannot cross running water on your own and holy objects are very bad news. All the
weaknesses of the classical vampire are yours, such as the most basic need of all Vampires, the need
to sustain yourself with human blood. Your powers will grow with age, though they can be harshly
weakened by madness or a poor mental state. After your time here is done, this form will become an
Alternate Form for you to use.
 Locations
Anywhere. That’s right. Anywhere in our blue world. The supernatural really is everywhere. The
bigger the city, the more there are but that’s just common sense. If you’d like to be in some tiny
Indian village on a mountain, more power to you. If you want to be in the Big Apple itself, go wild.
And if you want to join the cast of a New Zealand documentary on the modern lives of Vampires?
Just choose to head on down to NZ and ask to rent a room.

Origins
Newbie
You were just turned earlier this very night. Your sire seems to have disappeared though, maybe the
whole thing was an accident. That’s no good. If you didn’t know what you were about to turn into,
this would be a really bad situation. It shouldn’t be too hard to find some other creatures of the
night, though they might not be too willing to share their dark secrets with you. Or they’re just being
weird. You’re going to meet a lot of weird old people. A stroke of luck places you at a very cheap flat
with welcoming residents who recognise your new nature.

Modernised Man
You’ve been around for a couple centuries by now. Between 200 and 600 years old, you’re well and
truly beyond the lifetime of any other human alive. You’re a bit out of place for the modern world
but you’re determined to adjust yourself to living among humans. You’re currently living in a small
house with a few other supernatural beings in the same situation as you, which should make for a
few laughs. A nasty incident in your past, that you’re terribly embarrassed about, has left your
vampire powers around the level of a newbie but you’ll grow back to your original spooky might in
the years to come.

Old School
Forget centuries, with you we’re talking millennia. At the very least you were born before Rome
became an empire and you might even remember the time when agrarian societies were first
becoming a thing. You’ve seen most of recorded history and maybe a lot more beyond, so you
garner a lot of respect from other supernatural beings just on your sheer age if nothing else. Sadly, a
string of madness bouts and returns to sanity have left your powers very degraded compared to
what they used to be a long time ago. Why, you’re barely more than a newbie. Thankfully you have a
few friends willing to shelter you as you try and readjust to the world and grow back what you lost.

Your age is decided by your origin and you may freely decide your gender.
 Perks
100CP perks are free to their origins and all other associated perks are discounted.

Newbie

Here’s How It’s Done- 100

While some vampires might claim to have adjusted to the modern world, most…don’t really do this.
Their adjustments are awkward at best, unimaginably out of place at worst. Good thing you’re here
to show them how things are actually done. You’re not just never embarrassed by the actions of
your compatriots and you’re pretty fantastic at getting them used to new situations. With you there
to guide them, they really do get a handle of how to act normally in the modern world, even if they
were born a century or five prior.

Respect Your Elders, It’s Worth It- 200

Newbies, despite how cute they are to some, are pretty out of the loop when it comes to what a
vampire does and how they do it. Some get lucky enough to have someone there to teach them,
others have to beg for it from strangers. Luckily your cuteness seems to make most of your elders
willing to teach you, even if it is with many sighs and great reluctance. Your elders or superiors in a
species or profession are seemingly always happy to show you the ropes and teach you some handy
hints and tricks, though they’re not going to spend all their time with you nor will they help if you’ve
pissed them off. Behave like a cute little newbie and you’ll get rewarded though.

The Mask is Too Real- 400

The modern day view of vampires can be a little bit of the mark, how much so generally depends on
the vampire you’re talking too. Odds are your favourite pop culture versions are more than a bit off
the mark. Doesn’t mean you can’t still rock it on your own. While it might be dorky, cringey or plain
cliché on everyone else, you pull off the tropes with ease. The dark, sexy stranger clad in black, luring
young maidens to his extravagant home in the countryside? Creepy guy to most, somehow working
for you. You’ll find that the longer you act within these tropes for whatever pop culture might see
you as, the closer you’ll actually get. Pretending to be a seductive vamp will actually get you to
become more attractive over time, same as if a werewolf began to grow physically more fit by
playing up the Wildman barbarian role.

Getting It- 600

The moment you opened your eyes, you knew what you’d become. How could you not when you
were such a massive fan of vampires before now? Your second dad just up and left you? Pft, you
don’t need him. You’re aware of every little detail of your new condition and how to put it to its best
use. Every power, every weakness, every need and desire of being a vampire is something you’re
already acquainted with. You’re not at all knowledgeable about vampire society but when it comes
to the vampiric condition, you know as much as you can know. This’ll also apply to any other species
you happen to be or become.
Modernised Man

Flat Responsibilities- 100

When you’re going to be living together for as long as you guys are likely to live, it’s a big help to
know your flatmates aren’t going to be inconsiderate. Whether they’re friends or just people you
spend a lot of time with but aren’t antagonistic towards, you’ll be able to count on others being
much more considerate to you. They won’t laze off their chores, they might get you treats now and
then and they’ll never shirk on favours, so long as you’re ready to return the uh, favour.

Keep the Sheets White- 200

A dandy man can’t be seen covered in filth. You might be an eternally hungry, blood sucking monster
but that’s no reason you can’t stay true to your genteel routes. Unless you desire it, you never make
a mess. You remain impeccably clean whether you’re travelling through a jungle in tearing through a
group of vampire hunters. If you want, you won’t spill even a drop of blood even when feeding or
killing. Of course, you can let your inner beast out as well, making things become messier than they
have any right to in your presence.

Sneaky Bat- 400

Some say you’re in the prime of your life for a vampire. Old enough to have experience, young
enough to avoid any sort of age related madness. You didn’t last this long and this healthily by
sticking yourself inside a cave either, the only way to really stay mentally healthy is continued social
interaction. To do that, you need to conceal your true nature and darn are you good at that. From
concealing the pallor of your skin to the fact that you never go out in the day, you’re a master of
disguising your actual condition. You could live for decades in a small town without anyone
becoming the wiser as to why you’re only seen out and about at night.

Proactivity- 600
Ages of experience combined with mostly modern ingenuity, in your efforts to keep up with the
modern world you’ve tried to address some of the defects of your species. The wonders of
technology and the marvels of mankind’s creativity have allowed you to start to think up effective
workarounds to your conditions. When it comes to a vulnerability of yours, you’re pretty damn good
at figuring out some way to patch it or protect it. Coats that black out the sun to let you move about
in the day for a short time, special coatings to allow you to wear silver objects without burning for a
time, even a way to accurately see your own image given the ineffectiveness of mirrors. You’re still a
little limited by the technology of the modern day but life’s quite a bit easier now that you really
embody the modernised man.
Old School

Best Friends Forever, Really- 100

Takes a special kind of person to stay friends for eight thousand years straight. You and your
childhood friends still manage to keep in touch, it’s really quite impressive. Living such a long life,
you’ve learnt what’s really important about the relationships you have with the people you love.
Little problems and arguments are easy to smooth over and the passion of romance or brotherhood
never quite fades from its peak for you or your friends, even millennia after you’ve met and
memorised everything about each other.

Millenarian- 200
Despite your vast age and the fact that most of your chronological peers are really quite mad, you’ve
managed to adjust to life in the modern world just fine. Whether it be social changes, new
technology or even a changing language, you can keep up as if you were actually still a human living
in these times. You’ll never find it hard to learn something new or adjust to changes that come about
over time, neither will you make any slip ups that reveal your true age or make yourself look like a
fish out of water.

Medieval Mayhem- 400

You really lived the exciting life back in the day. Kings and Princesses, wars and empires, you were
the best of the best at being a lord of the night. Bit impractical these days but your skills aren’t all
that rusty. Be it wielding a sword, long or cutlass, riding a horse, commanding an army or ruling a
kingdom, you’ve got it all down pat. You’re one of the greats of history…but your knowledge is
pretty outdated. A master swordsman won’t fare too well against a gun. Still, figuring out how to
apply your old knowledge is half the fun and you’ll find yourself having a much easier time with
other sorts of archaic learning.

Bat Sense- 600

Danger is everywhere in this world, even for an immortal. The longer you live, the nastier the odds
get of you eventually meeting your end. But you’ve managed to survive this long even with all the
enemies you made over the years. How? By always being one step ahead. You can sense when
danger is coming, whether that be the approach of the rising sun or a vampire hunter drawing near
your coffin as you sleep. You’ll know an hour in advance when something threatening to your life is
approaching but it won’t be until just a minute before it arrives that you’ll know for sure what it is
and where it’s coming from. Even a minutes better than a surprise.
 Items
No discounts.

Period Outfit- Free

Whether you were from the modern day or the middle ages, you’ve got your own wardrobe of
outfits stored away. Somehow, the very old clothes you might have here are still in perfect
condition, even if still made of old materials. Period appropriate clothing for whatever era you
originally came from, though most such eras probably make people think you’re off to a costume
party instead of wearing proper clothing.

Historical Person- 100

Long lives like yours eventually lead to at least a little exposure, unless you’re the type to spend it all
in a cave. Which you weren’t. You’ve had books written about you, art painted of you and maybe
even some music inspired by you. The older you are, the more of this there’ll be and the more varied
the styles will be over the years. If you’re just a newbie, you still have all this but…well, you probably
ordered it yourself, which might be just a little tacky.

Torture Chamber- 100

The good old days when every man had his own dungeon. This isn’t one of those labyrinthine
creations, just a single underground room, but it really does bring back the nostalgia. The tools in
here, of which there are many, are very good at causing lots of pain and disfiguring injuries to those
who get caught down here. It’s a great place for the art of torture too, as even though it’s attached
to the underground of a property you own, or your warehouse, no sound will be able to get out of
the hole room.

Coffin- 100
Not every Vampire has their own coffin and that’s a crying shame. The old school bed for any self-
respecting vampire, it’s sunlight-secured and rather hard to break into. Comfy as well, with padded
interior and inside out locks. No one can manage to see what’s on the inside without opening it
either, so feel free to sleep in it when you’re mailed off to another country. It’s about the only way a
vampire can cross running water too.

Home Sweet Home- 200

Isn’t it nice to have a safe place to come home to in the day? This is your new old home, already set
up for all your vampiric needs. Two stories, basement, numerous rooms and totally blacked out from
the sun. It’s definitely cosy in here, even if the décor is a few decades out of place of the nearby
town the house can be found at. It wouldn’t be too hard to fortify it against attacks but try not to
expect it to be a castle. The home will be on the outskirts of a small town in future worlds for you.

Blood banks- 200

Ah, fast food. The wonders of the modern age, eh? Humans have their fried chicken, Vampires have
their blood bags. It’s not very good for you, it’s portable and it’s just enough to keep you going.
You’ve got a stocked fridge of cooled blood bags of various types somewhere of your choice. The
fridge refills to capacity once a week, which should be enough to support your unhealthy but
unobtrusive diet.
Medieval Armoury- 200
Swords! Bows! Pole-Arms! Illegal yet effective weaponry from another age. It’s a room stocked full
of archaic yet still working weaponry. You might get in a bit of trouble if anyone found out, especially
what with all the dried blood on some of the blades but luckily this armoury is hidden inside a
property you own. A secret passageway will lead to it that’s very hard for anyone else to find, though
not impossible.

Party Tickets- 200

The Unholy Masquerade is an annual get together of the local supernatural community, usually in
some rented school hall at night for the occasion, where all the monsters of the night get together,
often putting on pretences of being more like the classic monsters then they really are in the
modern day. This is a set of tickets, nine in total, to the yearly party held in your area. In this world
and others, the party will continue to be held in any population centre and most of the supernatural
community will at least make an appearance. No humans are allowed though, not unless they’re
pets, food or familiars. Or you’re strong enough to tell everyone to screw off anyway.

Bite Club- 300

The hottest place in the nightlife of your city, you’ve managed to balance the needs of humans and
vampires to create a super popular night club for both species. Somehow, all the disappearances
that happen here will go unnoticed unless it’s someone really important and its popularity will
continue on strongly. It generates quite a bit of revenue from all the visitors and has some quite
tasty treats coming in each night, if you’d care to take a bite yourself. You’ll own a similar nightclub,
catering to normal people and the supernatural clientele in all future worlds.
 Companions
Import- 50CP per
Already have some guys ready to move on in with you? This is for you then. Every time you spend
50CP on this option, you’ll be able to import a pre-existing companion or create a new companion in
this world. They’ll become Vampires, get a free origin, all associated freebies and discounts along
with 600CP to spend on perks.

Canon- 100
Befriended the dandy Vigo? Charmed by the not so dastardly Vladislav? Taken under the wing of the
monstrous Petyr? It’d not be much fun if you couldn’t take your new friend along with you, would it?
Every time you buy this, you’ll get a chance to convince one character in this world. It shouldn’t be
too hard, especially since you’ll be given a few favourable meetings with them over your time here.

Familiar- 100
An ordinary bloke or gal that is convinced you’ll grant them immortality in exchange for service. Or
perhaps just get off on serving a Vampire. Either way, they’re a loyal, human servant and that’s quite
a handy thing to have with the limitations of your condition. They can go out in the day, watch out
for you in that time, find and bring back food for you and even help you live in a world where having
the right ID is essential. Like a really smart pet dog.
 Drawbacks
You may take up to 600CP in drawbacks.

Messy Boys- +100

Everything you do just results in an ungodly mess. Knocking over dirt filled vases when moving down
a hallway, coating a whole room in blood when you try to feed on a person or having the toilet break
just as you settle down to use it. Some of it’s just inconvenient, some of it’s a bit of a danger to your
identity. You’ll be polishing your cleaning skills either way.

Victorian Dandy- +100

You come from a more genteel time. At least in your mind. To others, you’re more of a fussy mother
hen. It can get pretty annoying how obsessed you are with things being in their proper places, things
being clean and tidy and well behaved and so on. You’ll be a constant nag to those you spend time
with to behave properly and while they’re unlikely to hurt you for it, it’s not going to make for easy
friendships.

Petyiable- +100
You’re every bit the look of the monster you are on the inside. Either that or a really unfortunate
accident with a lawnmower. You’re the sort of hideous that stars in horror movies and were it just a
few decades or centuries ago, you’d be hunted as a monster for how you look. These days, in much
of the world at least, you’ll just face some discrimination instead of death. Doesn’t make looking in
the mirror any more pleasant though. Oh wait.

Amateur Hour- +200

Some people don’t really get what it means to be a vampire. Could be you’re really into one of those
embarrassing chick flicks about vamps that came out in the recent times and styles yourself that
way. Could be you try to totally deny what you are. Could be your way of acting has a way of really
pissing off the other vampires around you. Well, that last one isn’t really a ‘could be’. You’re
constantly forgetting parts of being a vampire, whether it’s your powers or how to act, and the way
you do act riles up other undead beings, usually just to anger but if you don’t watch yourself, you
could even get in some fights.

Keep It Down- +200

I’m a vampire! Oh, was I not supposed to yell it? I’m a Vampire. Oh, you meant don’t say it at all.
Yeah, you’re not the best at keeping secrets. Which is ordinarily just a frustrating character trait but
for you, when there are monster hunters out there? It’d take some iron clad self-control, constant
watchfulness and a bit of good luck to not out yourself to at least a few people as to what you really
are. They’ve got a bad habit of actually believing you too.

The Beast- +200

Who is The Beast? Why, your darling ex-spouse of course. You used to be such a cute couple,
everyone remembers. Two powerful vampires, perfectly matched, ruling over whatever they ruled
over. But then The Argument happened. Oh boy did you not come out of The Argument unscathed.
Humiliated and left broken, the two of you split up and haven’t seen each other for years. You
suffered a lot from the embarrassment and all of your powers will be found to be drastically reduced
in effectiveness for your time here. Where you could once charm hundreds of men with your
hypnotism, you’ll struggle to confuse just one. If you could manage to resolve things with your
opposing match, you could both gain back your powers strength and even take them along as a
companion but…well, it wouldn’t do to underestimate a partner who could match you so perfectly in
the realm of stubbornness.

Child- +300
The age a vampire is sired at is the age they’ll stay physically for all eternity. Child vampires are
particularly unfortunate in this area, just like you. As a child, you’ll have the body of a preteen and all
the limitations that come with it. Physically weaker, prevented from doing many things legally and
socially, looked down on for your apparent youth and then there’s the difficulty of feeding when
your prey is a lot stronger than you. At the very least, other Vampires are used to your type of
situation.

Were-Bite- +300
Vampires aren’t alone in the world or even in New Zealand. Werewolves have also, some bloody
how, managed to keep their actual existence a secret. Apparently anger management in the modern
day really does work. Normally being bitten by one as a vampire would do nothing but it’s made you
quite sick. For the next ten years, you’ll suffer from an incurable half-assed version of lycanthropy.
All the hair, all the moon-timed anger issues but without all the cool wolf form stuff. Best to get
some sturdy chains even still. Your weakness to silver will be far more deadly too.

The Hunt is On- +300

Oh dear, you haven’t been very careful. A company of vampire and monster hunters has caught onto
your scent and decided you’re just that dangerous that you need to be put down now. Thankfully
they have other duties so they’ll only be sending one of their number to find and kill you but that
one is an experienced hunter with a fair few notches on his belt. As the years pass, or if you kill the
hunter, more and more of their order will be convinced you deserve more attention and turn their
efforts towards killing you.
 Ending
Time’s up! Now isn’t it weird hearing that as an immortal? Got a choice to make.

Do you want to Go Home?

Do you want to Stay Here?
Do you want to Continue On?
 Notes
Love and kisses to my cutie pie Nubee~

The origin descriptions about lost power refer to your vampiric powers that grow with age. This is to
put everyone on an even footing. You’ll grow slowly over the years at the same rate as each other
origin, so don’t pay too much mind to power when you make your choice.