Powers of PCs in the game range from character abilities or mutations to innate magics or gifts from unknown entities. So far, the party just has animtors and werefolk (the lords of life) detailed below.

Animators

This is a special ability that some characters can have. It could even be a kit in itself, if a DM wanted. Animators are people born with a special affinity for the dead -- all dead, from zombies to vampires. What makes them an animator is the ability to raise the dead and animate them, an innate magical ability that must be used or will use them.

For game purposes, there are 2 styles of animators: Animators and Necromancers (called animator necromancers here to distinuish them from the traditional ad&d necromancer).

Abilities:

Animator:

Affinity for the dead: Animators can sense the dead, and their voices can sometimes command Zombies and the like to obey them. They can also (if they can raise 3+ dead) "feel" the dead in a cemetary and sense what kind of dead lie in it and how old they are. Some animators can sense the age of any undead -- vampires, liches etc. -- just by looking at them. However, as they have their affinity with the dead, the dead can recognize them as well, and the undead in question will sense the animator finding out how old they are.

Animating the dead: Animators have the innate skill to raise 1d4+1 zombies every night, costing 1 ho to raise and more if the animator uses their own blood in the animating. This power can only be used at night and the Zombie in question will be able to respond to commands and talk, depending on how life-like they are. All zombies break down over time (a year max.) since their is no soul behind them, just a memory of life.No reputable animator raises a zombie before they are less than 3 days dead because a portion of the soul might still be in them.

Zombie Age	Cost to Animate
3 days - 20 yrs.	None, just concentration and 1 hp damage to animator due to effort animating takes
21 - 80 yrs.	Sacrifice of a chicken or such in a circle around the grave for the blood to call it + 1 hp.
80 - 150 yrs.	Sacrifice of goat or such, 1 hp cost.
151 - 250 yrs.	As above, + own blood to feed it (1d4 hp ddamage) + 1 hp If an animator has to use their own blood for the circle, it does 3d4 hp damage to them.
251+ yrs.	Requires the "white goat" -- human sacrifice -- to raise these dead. No hp damage to the caster but is very unethical.

To summarize, the animator requires a circle of blood of some kind around the grave, both to contain the zombie as well as draw it out of its grave.

Any animator can return a zombie to its grave by sprinking salt on the zombie (for show, most of them time) and asking it to return, whereupon the zombie basically is sucked into the ground. An unwilling zombie has to be held down for this to work, and the salt is mandatory then.

Being a Focus: A rare animator talent (5% chance to have it), this ability allows an animator to combine their powers with another and raise even more dead than they can normally. For practical game purposes, add their normal undead raising limit's together and multiply it by 5. For 1 hp each + animal blood, they can raise that many dead at once, to a maximum of 1 graveyard worth of bodies. So if Animator A can raise 4 dead and animator-necromancer B can raise 9, together thety can raise 65 zombies. If BOTH animators are focuses, the number of bodies raised is multiplied by 10, not 5.

Charm Dead: As well as the above powers, all animators can try and command even a zombie they did not raise to obey them. This has a base 30% chance of working, +5% per undead they can raise.

Obviously, eventually some animators will try and raise more than they can. For this, they have a 30% chance to succeed on the 1st zombie, 15% on the second and thats it. If they fail, the zombie is loose to do whatever it wants, which often includes killing the animator or closest person for blood, out of instinct. However, if an animator succeeds in the attempt quite a few times, they power might increase to 1 more raising. The maximum a normal Animator can reach is 7, though it is extremely rare.

Animator-Necromancers

Exactly what differs the necromancer from the normal animator is often debatable. using the white goat (human sacrifice) is enough to be called a necromancer, but the actual strength to be one is rarer.

Animator Necromancers obviously have the "feel" of the dead skill in the affinity to the dead part of being an animator as well as charming the dead and the animating (which is changed a bit below). Being an animator necromancer doesn't increase ones chances of being a Focus.

Animator necromancer's can raise 1d4+6 undead nomally, with the usual 1 hp cost. Some are even powerful enough to raise 300 year old corpses without human sacrifice. As it is, their power to animate the dead is stronger than the normal animator

Zombie Age	Cost to Animate
3 days - 40 yrs.	None, just concentration and 1 hp damage to animator due to effort animating takes
40 - 120 yrs.	Sacrifice of a chicken or such in a circle around the grave for the blood to call it + 1 hp.
121 - 210 yrs.	Sacrifice of goat or such, 1 hp cost.
211 - 270 yrs.	As above, + own blood to feed it (1d4 hp ddamage) + 1 hp If an animator has to use their own blood for the circle, it does 3d4 hp damage to them.
271+ yrs.	Requires the "white goat" -- human sacrifice -- to raise these dead. No hp damage to the caster but is very unethical.

Also, some of them have shown the ability to raise vampires as they do zombies! This effect works only in the day but the vampire in question literally becomes the animator's slave (the animator subtracts 1 off the amount of dead they can raise a night to have this happen). Effectively, the vampire will obey any command the animator necrmancer gives and is animated by their power, not by whatever force normally animates vampires.

Limitations:

Animators must use their power at least once a week (or every two weeks if they can only raise 3 or less dead), or it will use itself eventually on the recently dead, which can cause some consternation.

Were-folk: The Lords of Life

Were beings are humans with the ability to become an animal form. They can all become half-animal or full animal form, with some rare exceptions. In most cases, lycanthropy is an inherited condition, but it can be a curse under some circumstances. It can also be caught by surviving attack by a lycanthrope, but this is extremely rare (1% per five damage inflicted, less for the less common were folk, like cats, fish and birds where it is 1% per ten damage done). This form of lycanthropy is the type that is affected by phases of the moon, naturally born lycanthropes are not, unless they take it as a character limitation.

Each were-being has certain abilities they gain, some increase over time, some instinctively and some due to discovery. The following basic powers are available:

Power	Description	Type	Cost
Accute Senses	Senses remain close to animal form sharpness in human form	Uncommon	1
Calm Animal	Calm an animal of your species with your presence/aura	Normal	0.5
Control Beast	Can refuse to change even if under 1/4 hit points left (wisdom check thereafter)	Normal	0.5
Fast Healing	Heal 1 damage every hour when not in were form	Rare	2
Heal Damage	Heal normal damage at amazing rates (if specifics needed 15 damage/ level each round - can opt to heal 5 times that in one round to survive massive injury but are exhausted and must shirt to human at once and sleep at earliest opportunity)	Normal	0.5
Healing Touch	Heal someone once a day for 2 hipt points / level	Rare	2
Immunity to Vampire Bite	A vampire's bite can never make the character into a vampire	Common	1
Longevity	Live up to 120 years naturally	Common	1
Nature Sight	magic granted by nature (unless cleric of another religion, spell progression as Paladin in Nature Sphere only). Other abilities include sensing animals, tress helping you etc.	Rare	2
Night Vision	Night vision in all forms. If bird or prey, can opt for -1 AC instead	Common	0.5
Partial Immunity to Magic	15% MR, only on attack spells of level 1 or higher	Uncommon	1
Partial Immunity to Vampire Gaze	DecreaseGaze succes chance by 15%	Common	1
Project Aura	Radiate sense of power/otherness (Warm, eletric wind)	Common	1
Resistant to Drugs	+4 save vs poisons and drugs	Normal	0.5
Resistant to Silver	-1 damage from silver (1 minimum)	Rare	2
See Beast	Can see other weres just by looking at them (really good aura detection)	Common	0.5
Shift Body Part	Can shift a part of body without changing entirely (such as hand to claw)	Rare	2
Speak to Animals	Can speak to animals of your species and they understand you. They can also talk back.	Normal	0.5
SuperStat	+3 to Strength, Dexterity or Charisma only in Were form	Rare	2
SuperStat	+3 to Strength, Dexterity or Constitution in all forms	Very Rare	3

Some limits are as follows:

Limitation	Description
Allergies	Suffer allergic reactions aroundWolfsbane etc.
Damage	Take damage from silver in any form, even by touching it
Defend Species	Fanatical defense of your species
Free Beast	No control over what full animal form does most of the time
Hunger	Even in human form, you want to eat what you would in animal, even if its raw
Limit of Forms	Can't take were, or animal form. (In some cases, can't take human form)
Look like Animal Form	Physical differences that are easy to spot
Memory Loss	S.e. Can occur in any form or all of them
Sense Distortion	Has trouble remembering they are not animal in human form
Suceptibility to Moon Myth	Must change during the full moon and more animal-like then
Uncontrolled Change	Change suddenly under stress, even partially

Once powers have been picked and total points accumulated, you pick a number of limitations to euqal them. Generally, each limit is worth about 5 points, and exist to be Role played as well as work with the character. Getting over 20 points in powers or limitations is rather excessive. When inventing your on powers, they cost as Very Rare powes (3 points to gain) or can be a trade off power with limit you make also. All player made powers or limits have to be approved by the DM

Among werefolk there is a personal ranking system similar to vampiric age. However, youth is often prized (up to 40 is young) for the point where you can still win battles and many powers have matured to a large extent. Packs of similar species (wolves, foxes, giant cats etc.) can be found, as well as packs of just predators or just prey or every kind of lycanthrope. Pack ranking is based on fighting skill, loyalty of others to you and you're loyalty to them. Having lots of potential power (a strong aura or strange ability) is also a sign of good standing.

Master Werefolk:

Power	Description	Type	Cost
Command Beast	Can prevent other weres from changing - 25% chance	Common	1
Greater Aura	Silver is healed as normal damage	Very Rare	3
Ninth Life	Raise the dead	Very Rare	3
Project Power	Aura can be used as an emotional weapon, make people run away screaming	Common	1
TheVoice (aka The Voice of Tarzan)	All animals hear, understand and obey the were	rare	2

All Master Werefolk also gain 2-4 special powers of their own, often linked directly to their race.

Vampires

Unlike werewolves, the vampire powers are often highly individual and partially like the vampire who made you/brought you over or whatever. However, not all vampires are brought over. Those brought over are called undead and treates as such for purposes of animiator powers. However, vampirism is also an evolutionary trait . .whether forward, back or sideways is debatable. By that, it is possible for vampires to breed, and have children. These vampires are referred to as the unliving, not undead, and suffer almost no effects from religious icons and cannot be turned.

Basic vampire powers:

Power	Description	Type	Cost
Blur time	Most vampires aren't fast, then just make you skip 1d6 segments of time - up to 1 round	Normal	0.5
Charm person	Base 60% chance success rate. -20% to were, -20% if religious	Normal	0.5
Dampen Power	prevent 1d3 holy symbols from working or block 1 clerics link to deity	Rare	2
Detect Power	Works as detect magic but always on - senses vampires, weres, faries etc.	Rare	2
Enhanced Senses	All 5 senses are unnaturally accute	Common	1
Fast Healer	Heal nomal damage at the rate of 10 / each round	Common	1
Flight	Normal rate	Very rare	3
Hear Noise	Thief skill at 25% - becomes 50% if you have Enhanced Sesnes	Rare	2
Hide in Light	As hide in shadows but only works in non shadows - 15%	Rare	2
Hide in Shadows	Thief skill at 25%	Common	1
Immune to Cold	s.e	Normal	0.5
Magic Resistance	10%	Common	1
Move Silently	Thief skill at 25%	Common	1
Night Vision	See in darkness as if it was daylight	Normal	0.5
Project Power	Ice cold wind as aura	Common	1
Speed	Base movement rate increased by 5	Common	1
Super Stat	+2 to str or dex or cha	Rare	2
Super Stat	+2 to con or int or wis	Very rare	3
Tough Skin	-3 AC	Common	1
Unnatural Blow	Fist acts as silver or iron weapon damage wise - vamps choice each time they strike	Very rare	3
Voice of Authority	Can command humans as per basic hypnosis. Voice can make them feel what the vampires wishes.	Very rare	3

Older Vampire Powers: Gained around 150 - 800 yrs of age

Power	Description	Type	Cost
Aural Weapon	The vampires aura can do 2d10 damage to those in 20' or be concentrated enough to almost push over a vehicle	Very rare	3
Command Animal	Can summon animals of a species and weres to serve them	Rare	3
Detect Lie	Can detect others lying to you when trying to.	Common	1
Fade from Sight	Invisibility for 2d10 rounds	Rare*	2
Hide	Hidden from all but master vampires, seem to be human	Rare	2
Old Gaze	Gaze can impart a portion of the vampires long life to others -- the impression of immense age is used to awe lesser beings	Normal	0.5
Project Stillness	Become unnaturally still and remove, very unhuman	Normal	0.5
Shift to Animal	Generally limited to bat and only for those without the power of flight normally	Rare	2
Turn to Mist	Lasts for 2d10 turns	Rare*	2
Very Tough	-5 A	Common	1

Master Vampires: Gained at 400+

Power	Description	Type	Cost
Block Power	Can prevent lesser vampires from using their powers	Rare	2
Drain Life	2d10 hp by touch	Common	1
Gaze of Power	Can obliterate a human's mind at a glance does 3d10 damage to others	Common	1
Know Power	Can look at lesser beings and have a 20% chance of knowing exactly what their powers are	Rare	2
Mastery	The vampire can summon storms and the elemenets to his or her bidding	Very rare	3

Master Vampires also gain 1-3 special powers of their own choice.

A vampire who becomes master over an area gains the ability to Block any power used in his or her vicinity and can command the lesser dead zombies, weak vampires, lesser mummies as if they were an animator. Most of them have a special feel and connection with the land they master.

* Are common for Eastern Vampires

Since their limits are built in, unless the player invents a special limit for their pc, they can only start with 10 points in powers.

Vampire limits:

Coffins: Blame hollywood for this one. Even up to the time of the infamous Dracula movie, coffins were extremely rare and only the very wealthy had them. However, to give the myth some credence, many vampires did come from the upper classes -- largely a way of enforcing their sense of superiourity over others.

Drinking Blood: Most vampires do require blood to live, but it can be as little as a quarter a pint a night. Contrary to popular belief, most vampires do not drain victims dry -- most vampires simply can't; it would be like a human drinking water constantly. All drinking blood does is keep the vampire alive but if they hold out more than 1d4 weeks, they began to get weaker. A vampire deprived of blood for more than a year goes into a coma.

Fire: This is not a myth. Vampires for some reason tend to burn very quickly. For game purposes, they suffer double damage from fire and if they shape shift while on fire, they literally combust 50% of the time. They heal fire damage human-slow 1 hp of it per day unless healed.

Garlic: Garlic itself doesn't affect vampires. Any strong herb can affect most of them with their enhanced senses. The same applies to weres.

Mirrors: Vampires have shadows and show up in them. Most of them can hide, or blur time to avoid being seen in one, which likely gave rise to this myth. The churches have propagated it with the notion vampires have no souls.

Religious symbols: These only affect a vampire if they are/were of that faith so it works on them symboloicly. Older vampires can face a cross unafraid, but it can still drive them off. Note that symbols will glow or burst in fire or whatever in proportion to the danger the vampire is to the holder.This burning can even harm the user of the cross d6 damage. Some vampires seem to be unturnable, for unknown reasons.

Running Water: A myth caused by vampires tendancy to remain in one area and rarely travel. The idea of vampires needing their home soil is as much a myth also, though some vampires keep little keepsakes like that to remind themselves of the life they left behind.

Silver: Silver harms vampires as it does weres, though they dont feel the same burning pain from it weres do. Silver does half damage to them, but they heal it at the rate of 2 per day, not 1.

Sun: A myth. Vampire powers might be weaker in the sun, but they are still vampires. Most vampires will find one or two of their powers work less effectively in the sun light but thats about all. Some vampire aren't even harmed by it at all, but generally they seem to be very old or very young.

Vampire Mentality:

Most vampires are old, from cultures and times where honour was real and keeping ones word sacred. Most of them pass this down to their progeny, so breaking one's word to a vamp is very dangerous business. Vampires are also rare because not many can survive the change into one, and fewer live out their first century as undead -- often dying by suicide or simple stupidity. However, the vampires that live past three or four hundred years are something else entirely . . . often something very, very inhuman.

What does it mean to be human? No one has ever really answered that but most agree the key components are emotion -- compassion, love, self discovery. Many vampires lose the first over time, sickened by human stupidity, by loved ones dying until they learn how not to care -- if you'd walked through Jerusalem during the Crusades, human life begins to lose a lot of meaning to you. And most vampires get so entrenched in who they are they they never discover themselves after a certain point. Older vampires also tend to become very bitter and morose, remembering wrongs before rights, the bad times over the good. Many others find adapting to modern times very difficult -- to the point of not understanding guns or cars. Most of them do know what they are, but how they work is unknown to them -- a few would seriously call it magic.

The Faries:

The Fae, or fairies, or shining ones, or whatever one wishes to call them are the Custodians of Life -- a level of strength higher that the Lords of Life and Death hold. They oppose the existence of vampires and are the only think that truly terrify even master vampires. Their are two varieties of Fairy - mortal and immortal. The immortal type never age, and live in some alternate land of summer rthat rarely touches modern earth any longer.

Powers:

All fairies:

Power	Description	Type	Cost
Awaken Old Blood	Those with fairie blood learn it, quickly	Common	1
Charm	Command one person who finds you sexually attractive to obey you	Normal	0.5
Glamour	The ability to create illusions in the minds of others	Common, Rare, Very rare	1,2 or 3
Time Sight	See into most likely past or future	Normal	0.5
True Sight	See vampires, weres etc, for what they are	Normal	0/5

Mortal Farie Powers:

Power	Description	Type	Cost
Animal Speak	Talk to an animal	Common	1
Blessing of Nature	Animals gain -5 ac, +20 hp in the faries presence if they chose	Rare	2
Fast	+5 to base movement rat	Common	1
Fire of life	2d10 * 3 fire damage to undead	Common	1
Fire of life	1d10 * 2 fire damage to ANY vampire	Rare	2
Flight	The fairie shrinks, grows wings and flys at normal speed. Gains -5 hp, -3 ac, +2 to hit	Very rare	3
Glamour	Cause people to disbelieve what they want to	Common	1
Glamour	Create illusions of terrain	Rare	2
Hide Power	You look human	Common	1
Immunity to Lyncanthropy	Can't become weres	Normal	0.5
Immunity to Vampire Bite	Can't become vamps	Normal	0.5
Life Song	Heal a total of 10 damage per level every day	Common	1
Open the Gates	Allows a mortal born fey to bridge the gap between this world and the Fairies one	Very rare	3
Project Power	Warmth of a spring or summers day, with smells, sounds etc.	Common	1
Resistance to Iron	-2 damage from iron	Common	1
Resistance to Silver	1/2 damage from any silver	Common	1
Sense Power	Sense any power close by	Common	1
Speak to Stones	Psychometry with stones	Common	1
Super Stat	+4 to Charisma, Dexterity - can only be taken once	Common	1
Super stat	+1 to Strength, Constituiton, Intelligence or Wisdom	Rare	2
The Seeking	You can find one person, place or thing with part of their body to guide you.	Normal	0.5

Immortal (or true fairy/Sidhe/whatever) powers are Dm knowledge only.

Mummies

Mummies are a powerful variety of being known for their magic and refusual to remain dead -- some have even survived being burned to a crisp by means of their almost unnaturally powerful strength of will. While rare in this day and age, these beings tend to be very powerful and almost unstoppable.

Power	Description	Type	Cost
Destroy Aura	Without any special aura themselves, mummies can stop someone elses (prevents any shape change or use of powers on others)	Normal	0.5
Gain magic	Can now learn and cast spells. If the mummy already can, they gain the ability to use the magic of the dead.	Rare	2
Healing	Heal 5 damage every round	Common	1
Hear Thought	Read the minds of those close by you and thinking about you	Normal	0.5
Immune to Damage	The mummy doesn't feel the pain from any wound they take	Rare	2
Night Sight	See in darkness as well as daylight	Normal	0.5
Resistance	Allows one to resist one chosen thing (Fire, earth, air, water, wood, electricity, magic, metal, bullets etc.) and halves damage from it	Common	1
Sight	Can see the animal/power of others by looking at them	Normal	0.5
Strength of the Dead	+8 strength, can only be taken once	Common	1
Toughness	-3 AC	Normal	0.5

Note that mummies have no known weaknesses save beign truly killed via decapitation and burning.

Things like zombies, clerics, wizards, gods or politicians will be known to pcs when (and if) they ever meet them.

Increasing Powers

Method 1: Experience is spent to increase powes. 500 exp = 1 Normal (0.5) power increased by 1. 1000 is a Common power, 2000 a Rare and 3000 increases a Very Rare power by 1 rating. To gain new powers, you pay the first cost times .5. In other words, to get a new Normal power you pay 750 exp (500 * 0.5); Common is 1500; Rare is 3000; and Very rare is 4500.

To get rid of 1 point of a limitation you pay 1000 exp, though this can be reduced if you RP it also at Dms discretion.

Method 2: Players gain 1 common power every 2 levels they advance. So, to increase a Very Rare power They would have to wait until level 6 (1 for level 2, 1 for level 4 and 1 for level 6 = 3 points to increase it by 1.) While this results in less exp being spent to gain powers, it makes power increments very dull. Getting rid of limits requires you spending the 1 Common to reduce the limit by 1.

The current game will use Method 1.