Trigger Warning/Content Warning: Blood, Gore.
My apologies. There was just no way of talking about blood without things getting a bit grim. I automatically think of horror/fantasy crossover and unfortunately that means things are going to get messy. I have plenty of other bloodless articles out there that I’d recommend.
Why do we do this to ourselves in fantasy games? I know it’s not for everyone. If I recall correctly two of the most controversial books ever written during the Third Edition Dungeons & Dragons era involved blood. One was Bloodspeakers for Oriental Adventures L5R. It detailed some pretty gruesome magic. The other was, of course, The 3E D&D Book of Vile Darkness, and I can’t really bring myself to look in that thing ever again.
So, how do we talk about blood in a fantasy game, or do something with blood in a fantasy game that doesn’t get too gruesome? Lines and Veils aside, where can a GM draw the line without getting too meaty in the presentation? Shadowdark RPG seems like a natural proving grounds for some of these ideas.
The most obvious blood-related monster is the Stingbat.
Ahhhh I know what you probably thought I was going to say, and we’ll come to that in a minute. Stingbats are the Shadowdark equivalent of a popular trademarked Dungeons & Dragons parasite. The best description I can provide is they look like bats with the head of a gigantic mosquito. They typically travel in flocks and can drain an entire herd of cattle or party of adventurers dry in one night. Stingbats have become a beloved trope among the Shadowdark community for being a good remake of an old monster.
Okay, let’s talk about the bloodsucking elephant in the room.
Let’s talk about the obvious reference- vampires. There is an iconic D&D adventure that has been around that Wizards of the Coast parades out every chance they get that deals with one specific vampire. His name rhymes with Todd. For what it’s worth, he’s the fantasy gaming equivalent of Vlad “The Impaler” Tepes, better known as Count Dracula in popular fiction.
Dracula is where we get a lot of the modern vampire horror tropes. Can’t cross running water. Has to sleep in a coffin in its home soil during the day. A stake through the heart keeps it from coming back. Casts no reflection. Turns into a bat or a wolf at will. Can’t enter an abode without an invitation. Sunlight turns them into crispy critters. Repulsed by holy symbols and garlic. Regularly uses the Mesmer stare to hypnotize young women. Oh, and needs to drink blood from the neck of its victim by puncturing the neck with its long retractable fangs.
The TTRPG Vampire: the Masquerade really did a lot to change how we think about our favorite blood drinkers. I also love a lot of the lines from the film John Carpenter’s Vampires to describe the newer take on them. Whichever way you work them into your campaign is fine as long as the players are cool going up against them.
I’m going to borrow a couple of monsters inspired by World of Warcraft.
The first one I’d like to introduce are called Blood Elves. These pesky people are long lived for much the same reason vampires get to stick around for eons- they supplement their diet with some fresh hemoglobin to stay alive. However, they do use blood to fuel their magic and that’s kinda gruesome. I definitely relegate their use to NPC/monsters only in Shadowdark. While sunlight doesn’t damage them, I’d also rule that they have a slight aversion due to their as-yet-undefined relationship to vampires.
The other one I want to talk about is the Blood Golem. This monstrosity is not a giant walking IV bag unlike the one in WoW. A much better comparison would be the Blood Golem in Diablo 2 and 3. It’s an 8 foot tall hulking monstrosity primarily composed of muscle, clots, and blood. In terms of game mechanics, this thing is semi-intelligent, hits like a truck, and funnels life force energy toward its creator.
The downside to the Blood Golem is it must stay active, or it begins to decay. The monster begins to slow down as it hardens and grows thinner as it dries. When this process begins, the creature will lose CON and corresponding Hit Points until it ceases to exist. The creature also leaves bloody footprints and a trail of blood wherever it goes.
Blood magic aside what we’re really talking about are parasites.
Even the earliest of prehistoric humans knew that retaining one’s own blood was essential to survive. Of course, there are plenty of creatures out there real and imaginary out there, who feed on blood. Fantasy TTRPGs are oftentimes filled with creatures who feast on blood. There are vampiric fae, the Aqueous Orb, vampiric roses, the Chupacabra, bats of various types, a certain crystal, and the list goes on and on depending on which monster book you look in. (*I used the Basic D&D Creature Catalog and Matt Finch’s Monstrosities while writing this segment.)
I had considered dropping a couple of Aqueous Orbs in a dungeon before looking them up. They’re literally a ball of goo floating in the air that drink blood. I could see those popping up as guards in a Ten Eyed Oracle’s lair. (*aka the Be-lalala-hol-lalala-der. Because we don’t want WotC to sue.) I have an entire 3rd Ed D&D dungeon that used the various floating orb terrors, and it was so much fun.
Blood makes a good common theme for dungeons.
I saw the ever popular barracuda and piranha go by while I was digging through my archives of monster books. It made me think about how useful it can be to make a creature or character bleed from a single needle poke, cut, or scratch. There are a lot of aquatic creatures that go after blood in the water. But in the middle of a dungeon? Imagine just barely getting nicked by a spike on the wall and then falling into a tank full of giant piranhas.
The blood of a specific creature can also make for an excellent MacGuffin to spur adventurers onto go dungeon crawling after one specific monster to get a sample of its blood. Now, dragons don’t normally like to give up their precious life essence as most other monsters don’t as well. So, there’s probably going to be a struggle to get the blood from the monster. However, that doesn’t mean the monster has to die just to give up some blood.
This has been bloody enough for one day.
I have a whole slew of things I haven’t covered today. Blood for potions, weapons, and artifacts is a big one we really should come back to revisit sometime. We’ll probably talk about that along with using various monster parts for crafting items. Blood also comes up a lot in the descriptions of various creatures, their lairs, and as set dressing for dungeons. It usually indicates how dire, barbaric, or dangerous a place can be.
We can also do entire articles on hunting vampires. Heck, I once had a sabertoothed vampire dragon that was so sweet to run. The visuals were stunning to imagine and then my wife’s druid despoiled its lair in broad daylight… sigh. I did not see that coming.
People have sent me blood-spatter patterned dice on more than one occasion at random. My favorite metal die was sent to me by Kylee The Dice Druid. (Link to her page here.) The color red in and of itself makes for stunning visuals and then to see them on dice is just cool.
Thank you for stopping by today. I appreciate you. If you made it down this far into the article, thanks for sticking with me along this bloody trail. More tomorrow.
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