Jade Court during the Great Depression

[ClassDunce]

I’m going to be running a game that takes place during the Great Depression and I was hoping to use the Jade Court, basically I’m working under the assumption that they have a presence within the Asian American Immigrant communities. We don’t have any official information about the Jade Court and I guess what I’m wondering is if anyone has any ideas regarding it?

I’ve done a little bit of research regarding Asian Vampire legends. By little bit I mean an extremely small amount of research. I kind of like the idea of the Aswang though, appearing perfectly normal during the day but becoming flying monster at night, feeding on humans through a stinger on their tongue. Probably not much different from a Red Court vampire in that regard though, except that during the day they don’t have access to their stranger monster form.

http://www.vampires.com/a-japanese-bloodsucker/
http://www.vampires.com/the-dreaded-langsuir/
http://www.vampires.com/the-aswang/

[JosephKell]

I view them as Jiang Shi.  But that is because there are already two blood suckers (a living and a living dead), so another "emotional" (although it isn't really emotion, it is breath of life) vampire seems fitting.

In this case weak (normal) Jiang Shi are mindless, while stronger ones have reasserted self awareness.  So they will have a Master-Slave relationship also seen in Black Court.

Jade Court Vampire (Jiang Shi)
High Concept: Jade Court Vampire
Trouble: Blind Animal
Skills
  Alertness: Good (+3)
  Athletics: Fair (+2)
  Discipline: Average (+1)
  Fists: Fair (+2)
  Endurance: Fair (+2)
  Intimidation: Fair (+2)
  Might: Good (+3)
  Most other skills default to Average or Mediocre.
Powers
  Emotional Vampire [-1] (can feed via grappling)
  Claws [-1]
  Living Dead [-1]
  Supernatural Sense [-1] (Jiang Shi can smell the breath of the living as well as each other.)
  Feeding Dependency [+1] affecting the following powers
  Inhuman Strength [-2]
  Inhuman Speed [-2]
  Inhuman Toughness [-2]
  The Catch [+1] is "Eastern" holy stuff (and REALLY holy Western stuff) and sunlight.  Certain charm scrolls, when applied to a Jiang Shi's forehead, can cause paralysis.
Stress
  Mental OO
  Physical OOO (OO), Armor:1
  Social OO
  Hunger OOO
Notes
  Epic initiative, Good attacks (prefer to grapple in order to feed during combat), and Fair to Good defense.  The main defense humans have is holding their breath to become invisible.  Unfortunately, anyone killed by a Jiang Shi, will come back as one.
Total Refresh Cost: -8

Jade Court Master (Jiang Shi)
High Concept: Jade Court Master
Trouble: Blind Elder
Skills
  Alertness: Great (+8)
  Athletics: Good (+3)
  Conviction: Fair (+2)
  Deceit: Fair (+2)
  Discipline: Good (+3)
  Fists: Great (+4)
  Endurance: Great (+3)
  Intimidation: Good (+3)
  Might: Great (+4)
  Presence: Good (+3)
  Rapport: Fair (+2)
  Most other skills default to Fair or Mediocre.
Powers
  Emotional Vampire [-1] (can feed via grappling)
  Claws [-1]
  Living Dead [-1]
  Wings [-1] (Jiang Shi masters can fly, but don't have wings)
  Supernatural Sense [-1] (Jiang Shi can smell the breath of the living as well as each other.)
  Feeding Dependency [+1] affecting the following powers
  Supernatural Strength [-4]
  Inhuman Speed [-2]
  Supernatural Toughness [-4]
  The Catch [+3] is "Eastern" holy stuff (and REALLY holy Western stuff) and sunlight.  Certain charm scrolls, when applied to a Jiang Shi's forehead, can cause paralysis.
Stress
  Mental OOO
  Physical OOOO (OOOO), Armor:2
  Social OOOO
  Hunger OOOO
Notes
  Legendary initiative, Great attacks, and Good to Great defense.  The main defense humans have is holding their breath to become invisible.    Unfortunately, anyone killed by a Jiang Shi, will come back as one.
Total Refresh Cost: -11

Please note the lack of social skills for the "regular" Jade Court (and their trouble aspect).  They are little more than beasts until they eat enough to get a bit of self back.  Never enough to be free willed, but enough to be more than a feeding machine.  My idea for how they feed is to "crush" a person's chest to force their breath out (so that they can inhale it and their energy), hence the focus on wrestling.

I can see one Jade Court coming to America in a sarcophagus with a charm on its forehead.  The family that brought it may not know of the monster contained within, just that tradition demands they protect the artifact, unfortunately transit caused a small break in the case, allowing enough moisture in to cause the charm to break.  Now the guardians become food (and minions for the awoken master).

[AsaTJ]

I've developed a very unique feeding system for the Jade Court in my game that is a lot different from any of the current vampires... though I guess it's closest to White out of the three of them.  It's also a pretty huge spoiler and I know my players get on here sometimes, so if you want me to share it with you shoot me a PM.

[CMEast]

I like how so many of the Asian vampire myths describe floating disembodied heads and other body parts.

[Mij]

Really nice writeup, JosephKell!

[xiaolung]

Hey ClassDunce:

I haven't been here for a while. A while back, I did a write-up for the Jade Court. I took a completely different set of ideas and developed them, but I too thought about them as Jiang Shi. I don't know if it would work for your campaign, but you can have a look. Here is the original post:

http://www.jimbutcheronline.com/bb/index.php/topic,15947.0.html

I did not have the books at the time, but have started making the monsters up. Let me know what you think.