Tabletop Games for All the Vampires Hiding in the Shadows

In solo roleplaying game Thousand Year Old Vampire, “you chronicle the many centuries of a vampire’s existence, beginning with the loss of mortality and ending with inevitable destruction. Prompt-driven play and simple resource tracking provide easy rules for exploring your character’s human failings, villainous acts, and surprising victories. Expect gut-churning decisions and irreconcilable acts.”

(Honestly, I know this one isn’t really intended to be comedy—but there is an element of satire, and no vampire TTRPG list is complete without this gorgeous game.)

“Gothic Society brings the world of Gothic horror to the sleepy English countryside or the sprawling metropolis of Victorian London. Vampires, werewolves, spirits, and demons haunt the rain-soaked streets, but the most terrifying evil of all hides beneath the veneer of gentility of the citizenry. Bargains have been made, passions inflamed, and plots hatched with unspeakable powers.”

“Emo Vampires is a quick, collaborative storytelling and role-playing game for three or more people. It is envisioned to be played ironically in the world of The Twilight Saga, but can be adapted to any modern, Paranormal Romance setting involving mythical creatures and Gothic influence.”

In Bubblegum Vampires, “you’re a vampire in an infinite urban cauldron of muck and rot, of psionics and wizards, of danger and shadows. Though you are surely terrible, great, horrifying, (etc.), half the day is an enemy to your people; so set forth through the night to make your coin, secure your dwellings, and vanquish your infinite enemies.”

From The (Un)Life of a Vampire Lady’s Minion: “A wail and yet another shrieking demand from the spoiled baby vampire. You have to take a deep breath to calm yourself—wait, you can’t. You’re an undead, raised by your mistress, who will make the rest of your undying life miserable if you don’t keep the toddler happy.”

“You’re a new vampire and it’s not quite as straightforward as you imagined. Maybe you’re struggling to accept your new form, or maybe your feeding habits are testing your roommates’ patience—it’s not your fault that you have to keep a bag of blood in the freezer! Perhaps you’ve tried to talk to your living friends about it; while they’re kind and sympathetic, there are some things they just don’t get.

“In your search for help, you’ve stumbled across Vamp Camp, a local support group for vampires and the only one in your area. In this game for 2-6 players, you’re going to attend your first Vamp Camp meeting. You’re not sure what to expect but at this point, you’ve got nothing to lose.”

“Bloodbeam Badlands is a game for at least two players, including a Game Master (GM). It’s a game about vampires stuck surviving a post-apocalyptic world where the sun never sets, what it means to keep moving when the deck is stacked against you, the immortal facing mortality with every step. It’s also a game about being really cool vampires with cool vampire powers and cool magic guns going on rad adventures in a rad world filled with rad things.”

“Oops, All Draculas! is a d6 (six-sided die) dice pool game using either tarot or Dracula by Bram Stoker (or your favorite Dracula book, do you, live your best Dracula life) and can be played with or without a Dracula Master. In it, you play as various styles of Dracula all living together in a home of your design. Whether from internal or external forces, shenanigans ensue. Be they Dracula hunters, new Draculas in town, werewolves, or the hated Home Ownership Association, a Dracula’s life is never easy. “

“Vampire Cruise is a 40-page TTRPG adventure zine, ready to play with any rules-light OSR-style system. It includes maps, lots of vampires, a mummy cult, and room service.”

“It is time for the annual neighborhood Block Party. Attendance is mandatory by decree of the Neighborhood Association, so you and your housemates will be attending. Two things—one: you are required to bring a dish for the potluck, and Karen is notoriously hard to impress; and, two: you are a goddamn vampire.”

Tall Vampire Ladies: “In this Lasers & Feelings hack, heavily inspired by Resident Evil: Village’s Alcina Dimitrescu, you will play a group of extremely attractive, extremely tall but also extremely murder-prone vampire ladies inhabiting a castle being invaded by a hapless man in search of something, and your goal is to get him out of the castle, dead or alive, so you can continue your life of leisure and evil in peace.”

“Vampire Roommate is a one-page RPG about a mortal and a vampire living together as roommates. Using a jigsaw puzzle to time and progress play, they will begin telling the story of how the mortal slowly realizes the truth of the vampire’s nature. This story ends when they either kiss, or the vampire kills the mortal.”

“For centuries, vampire clans have waged wars over petty squabbles, debts, and livestock. Commanding legions of vampires, hordes of demons and underlings, the world has been decimated several times over due to such recklessness. To prevent yet another devastating aftermath over simple disputes, the great leaders of the vampire clans formed an eternal agreement. All conflicts, be it rival or inter clans, would settle their dispute through competitive games. Games specifically picked and agreed upon by all parties involved prior to the day of battle. From Manchala to Cricket, many games have been played and changed, every era having its favorite. But in the ripe age of the 21st century, one game has stood out as the champion amongst favorites... This is Vampire Baseball.”

“Look Out World, Dracula Needs A Wingman! is a one-shot tabletop roleplaying game designed for 2-5 players in which they must bolster the relationship between a terrifying creature of the night and one of his crushes, while dealing with increasingly chaotic scenes at the club. The game contains some suggestive themes (appropriate for mature audiences), Dracula (appropriate for 19th century Irish authors), and fourth-wall breaking humor (appropriate for immature audiences).”

Interview with Some People Who Believe in Vampires is “a tongue-in-cheek game about monsters who present themselves otherwise.”

“In Four Sherlock Holmes and a Vampire (Who Is Also One of the Aforementioned Sherlock Holmes)—officially abbreviated as either Four Sherlock Holmes and a Vampire or FSHV—four players play four Sherlock Holmes who team up to solve mysteries and one-up each other. Secretly, one or more Sherlock Holmes may be vampires. Can the four Sherlock Holmes find out who among them could be a creature of the night?”

In So Long and Fangs for All the Blood, “you are a vampire with special powers. Your main goal is to survive by sucking blood (or consuming some other vital essence), but you have other secret goals as well. You also have a major weakness and some serious angst.”

“How Do You Do, Fellow Humans? is a rules-light, diceless, gm-less hot mess for 3-4 players to live out your best vampire sitcom life. In this storytelling game, you take on the role of new roommates who are secretly very old vampires.”

“You’re a sexy hairdresser who’s also a vampire. You work in a salon with your sexy hairdresser friends who are also vampires. Your clients know the deal, as does your boss—they overlook the screaming ancient abyss in your eyes because you are so good at cutting hair, and also you are very sexy.

“You got a letter in the mail, written in vampire code. It’s a warning. “We are coming for you.” Uh oh—time to defend the salon from a great evil! It’s annoying that this happens every Wednesday, but otherwise this job is pretty great.”

“Taco Bela Lugosi [is] a battle of wits between Dracula and Van Helsing using saucy language. This is a role playing game for two people designed to be played while eating Taco Bell. The main mechanic of the game revolves around Taco Bell sauce packets.”

“Welcome to We Are Not Vampires, the reality competition where regular Joes do regular stuff in normal ways! Throughout the program, our competitors will be put to the test, going head-to-head in contests designed to test their humanity in ways both simple and complex. On the line—a quarter million dollars!”

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