In a couple weeks, I'll be running a Castlevania one-off (with the potential to turn into a full campaign) for a few friends. So, naturally, I've spent the past couple days brainstorming how I will handle various aspects.

Most of my players are more familiar with the earlier Castlevania games (up to about Symphony of the Night), so I won't be drawing much from the newer games. What I'm thinking right now is a good, old-fashioned dungeon crawl through Dracula's castle, with frequent trap rooms, hordes of weak monsters, and the occassional boss fight.

I've created stats and pulled stats from existing Genesys material for many of the common Castlevania enemies (skeletons, ghouls, fishmen, armors, werewolves, ghosts, ect.). I'll be posting a complete list when I get home from work. On top of that, I have come up with a list of boss fights for my players to face, which I am currently statting out. The bosses will be Frankenstein's Monster & Igor, Medusa, Carmilla, the shade of Death, and Dracula himself. At the moment, Dracula and Death are the only two I have fully statted out.

Death is treated much like a Wraith from the Terrinoth book. However, he is a nemesis with more health, a decent strain threshold, and his damage is 3 with his scythe, with a crit of 1, breach 1, stun damage, and vicious 2. He also has Adversary 2, and forces a Hard fear check at the start of the encounter.

Dracula is statted similar to the vampire in The Haunted City, with several small and large changes. The largest two are that I gave Dracula a few ranks of Parry, and that I replaced the Blood Mist ability with The Beast Within, from the Mongrel archetype (and added flight to his abilities after he shapeshifts). On top of that, I changed his prefered spells. One is now Hellfire, requiring a Hard arcana attack check to target one enemy in engaged or short range. The attack has a crit of 2, Auto-fire, Burn 4, and Vicious 4. The other is 'Spectral Form'. An average arcana barrier check that reduces damage and gives him a ranged and melee defense of 4. This is to represent his teleportation in the games, and the fact that normally only his head is vulnerable to damage.

On top of all the creatures, I plan on requiring a variety of skill checks to get through the castle. Athletics checks to leap over crumbling sections of staircases, discipline to maintain resolve when a ton of bats come rushing out of an opened door, ect.

Like I mentioned before, I'll post more when I get home from work. But so far, what do you think? Any suggestions?

Sweet! I look forward to seeing more. Hmm, what about the whole holy water and whipping candle mechanic?

I've made two custom Careers and a custom Archetype (inspired heavily by an older thread on here) for this short campaign. (For the record, the Cowboy archetype exists mostly for a particular character that does not exactly originate from Castlevania. Quincy Morris, the Texan from Bram Stoker's Dracula novel.)

Vampire : Brawn 2 Agility 2 Intellect 2 Cunning 2 Willpower 1 Presence 3
Wound: 10+Brawn
Strain: 10+Willpower
Starting Experience: 90 XP
Special Abilities: Vampires treat Knowledge (Forbidden) as a Career skill. Vampires begin with one rank in Knowledge (Forbidden). You still cannot train their Knowledge (Forbidden) above rank 2 during character creation.
Undead: Does not need to breathe, eat, or drink (except blood), and can survive underwater; immune to poisons and toxins.
Fangs: Vampires add +1 damage to any Brawl combat checks they make. Their Brawl combat checks also gain a critical rating of 3 and the Vicious 1 quality.
Blood Call: When a Vampire damages a living target using their fangs, they may spend a maneuver to gain the benefits of a Painkiller.
Blood Dependency: Vampires do not gain the benefits of healing wounds with painkillers or a Medicine check. Vampires can heal wounds and strain naturally by resting.
Sunlight Sensitivity: When exposed to sunlight, Vampires reduce all their characteristics by 1 and halve their Wound and Strain Thresholds.

Vampire Hunter :
Athletics, Discipline, Perception, Vigilance, Melee (Light), Ranged, Coercion, Knowledge (Forbidden)

Cowboy :
Cool, Discipline, Perception, Riding, Survival, Brawl, Ranged, Leadership

On top of this, I have a couple of custom talents available to the Vampire Archetype. Dark Insight as a Tier 2, Vampiric Magic as a Tier 3, and Dominate as a Tier 4. These can all be found under Eliza Fallow's entry in The Haunted City. I'm not going to be including the Blood Mist ability for vampires in Castlevania (either for playable or NPC vampires), due to the fact that vampires in Castlevania typically transform into bestial monsters when injured, rather than transforming into clouds of mist.

I've also made some custom equipment to fit with the Castlevania theme, along with a handful of simple rules:

Holy Whip : Melee (Light), Damage +1, Crit 4, Range (Short), Enc 3, HP 1, Price 100, Rarity 8, Ensnare 1, Holy, Unwieldy 3
Chain Whip : Melee (Light), Damage +4, Crit 3, Range (Short), Enc 4, HP 1, Price 300, Rarity 8, Ensnare 1, Cumbersome 4, Unwieldy 3
Combat Cross : Melee (Light), Damage +2, Crit 3, Range (Engaged), Enc 1, HP 0, Price 75, Rarity 9, Holy
Holy Water : Ranged, Damage -, Crit -, Range (Short), Enc 1, HP 0, Price -, Rarity 2
Revolver : Ranged, Damage 6, Crit 3, Range (Medium), Enc 1, Price 300, Rarity 5, Pierce 5, The GM may spend 2 threat or a Despair to have the revolver run out of ammo.

Weapons with the Holy quality gain Breach 1 against Undead enemies.

Holy water behaves as normal water until it interacts with Undead enemies. As an action, your character can throw a flask of holy water at a point within short range, where it splashes in a radius large enough to encompass a single character and other characters engaged with the target. Holy water is treated as a corrosive atmosphere with a rating of 6 when it interacts with Undead enemies, and remains for two rounds, unless the GM determines that circumstances cause it to dissipate faster.

As for enemies, I have a handful of minions and rivals, and two nemeses finished so far:

Minions :

Ghoul : Br 2, Ag 2, In 1, Cu 2, Wi 1, Pr 1
Soak 2, Wound 4, Defense 0/0
Skills (group only): Brawl, Perception, Resilience, Vigilance
Abilities: Undead (does not need to breathe, eat, or drink, and can survive underwater; immune to poisons and toxins), Undying (may spend three threat from any check made by a PC to return one previously defeated Ghoul to an existing minion group, removing damage from the group accordingly. Spend a despair to return two Ghouls to a minion group.)
Equipment: Claws (Brawl; Damage 4; Critical 3; Range [Engaged])
Skeleton : Br 2, Ag 2, In 1, Cu 2, Wi 1, Pr 1
Soak 2, Wound 4, Defense 1/1
Skills (group only): Melee (Light), Perception, Ranged, Vigilance
Abilities: Undead (does not need to breathe, eat, or drink, and can survive underwater; immune to poisons and toxins)
Equipment: Rusty blade (Melee [Light]; Damage 5; Critical 4; Range [Engaged]),
Gremlin : Br 2, Ag 3, In 1, Cu 2, Wi 1, Pr 1
Soak 3, Wound 4, Defense 0/0
Skills (group only): Brawl, Cool, Stealth
Abilities: Opportunistic (Gremlins inflict 1 additional damage with successful melee attacks on prone or immobilized targets)
Equipment: Pointy teeth (Brawl; Damage 3; Critical 3; Range [Engaged]; Vicious 1)
Fishmen : Br 3, Ag 3, In 1, Cu 2, Wi 1, Pr 1
Soak 3, Wound 6, Defense 0
Skills (group only): Brawl, Perception, Stealth, Vigilance
Abilities: Amphibious (Fishmen can breathe underwater without penalty and never suffers movement penalties for traveling through water.)
Equipment: Fangs and claws (Brawl; Damage 6; Critical 3; Range [Engaged])
Phantom Bats : Br 2, Ag 3, In 1, Cu 2, Wi 1, Pr 1
Soak 2, Wound 4, Defense 0/1
Skills (group only): Brawl, Coordination, Perception, Vigilance
Abilities: Flyer, Blood thirst (When a Phantom Bat damages a target using his fangs, he heals wounds equal to the wounds inflicted),
Undead (does not need to breathe, eat, or drink, and can survive underwater; immune to poisons and toxins)
Equipment: Fangs (Brawl; Damage 5; Critical 3; Range [Engaged]
Shades : Br 1, Ag 2, In 2, Cu 2, Wi 3, Pr 2
Soak 0, Wound 6, Defense 2/2
Skills (group only): Brawl, Cool, Discipline
Abilities: Ghostly (may move over or through terrain without penalty. Halve damage before soak unless from magical source), Terrifying (at the start of the encounter, all opponents must roll a Hard fear check as an out-of-turn incidental), Undead (does not need to breathe, eat or drink, and can survive underwater; immune to poisons and toxins)
Equipment: Spectral hands (Brawl; Damage 1; Critical 2; Range [Engaged]; Breach 1, Stun Damage)

Rivals :

Wraith : Br 1, Ag 3, In 2, Cu 3, Wi 3, Pr 1
Soak 0, Wound 19, Defense 3/3
Skills: Brawl 3, Cool 2, Discipline 2, Ranged 1
Abilities: Ghostly (may move over or through terrain without penalty. Halve damage before soak unless from magical source), Terrifying (at the start of the encounter, all opponents must roll a Hard fear check as an out-of-turn incidental), Undead (does not need to breathe, eat or drink, and can survive underwater; immune to poisons and toxins), Silhouette 2
Equipment: Spectral claws (Brawl; Damage 2; Critical 1; Range [Engaged]; Breach 1, Stun Damage), Wailing cry (Ranged; Damage 2; Critical 5; Range [Medium]; Breach 1, Stun Damage)
Armor : Br 4, Ag 2, In 1, Cu 1, Wi 1, Pr 1
Soak 6, Wound 15, Defense 1/1
Skills: Discipline 3, Melee (Heavy) 3, Melee (Light) 3, Resilience 3, Vigilance 3
Abilities: Undead (does not need to breathe, eat, or drink, and can survive underwater, immune to poisons and toxins)
Equipment: Axe (Melee [Light]; Damage 7; Critical 3; Range [Engaged]; Vicious 1), Shield (Melee [Light]; Damage +0; Critical 6; Range [Engaged]; Defensive 1, Deflection 1, Inaccurate 1, Knockdown)
Werewolves : Br 4, Ag 3, In 1, Cu 3, Wi 1, Pr 1
Soak 4, Wound 12, Defense 0/0
Skills: Athletics 2, Brawl 2, Perception 3, Stealth 2, Vigilance 3
Talents: Adversary 1
Abilities: Bestial Rage (a werewolf that has taken damage reduces the Critical ratings of its attacks to 1), Regeneration (at the beginning of its turn, a werewolf automatically heals 2 wounds)
Equipment: Fangs and claws (Brawl; Damage 6; Critical 3; Range [Engaged]; Vicious 1)
Mummies : Br 3, Ag 2, In 3, Cu 2, Wi 1, Pr 1
Soak 4, Wound 14, Defense 1/0
Skills: Arcana 2, Brawl 2, Knowledge (Forbidden) 3, Melee 2, Vigilance 3
Talents: Adversary 1
Abilities: Undead (does not need to breathe, eat, or drink, and can survive underwater; immune to poisons and toxins), Regeneration (at the beginning of its turn, a mummy automatically heals 2 wounds)
Spells: Mummy's Curse (choose a target at short range for this curse and make a Hard Arcana check. If successful, until the end of the Mummy's next turn, the target decreases the ability of any skill checks they make by one and is staggered for the duration of the curse.)
Equipment: Cursed Staff (Melee; Damage 5; Critical 4; Range [Engaged]; Defensive 1, decrease the difficutly to cast Curse spells by 2, to a minimum of Easy)

Nemeses :

Death : Br 1, Ag 3, In 4, Cu 3, Wi 4, Pr 1
Soak 0, Wound 24, Strain 16, Defense 3/3
Skills: Melee [Heavy] 3, Cool 3, Discipline 3, Vigilance 3
Talents: Adversary 2
Abilities: Ghostly (may move over or through terrain without penalty. Halve damage before soak unless from magical source), Terrifying (at the start of the encounter, all opponents must roll a Hard fear check as an out-of-turn incidental), Undead (does not need to breathe, eat or drink, and can survive underwater; immune to poisons and toxins), Silhouette 2
Equipment: Spectral scythe (Melee [Heavy]; Damage 3; Critical 1; Range [Engaged]; Breach 1, Stun Damage, Vicious 2)

Dracula : Br 4, Ag 4, In 4, Cu 4, Wi 4, Pr 5
Soak: 6, Wound: 20, Strain: 18, Defense 1/1
Skills: Arcana 3, Brawl 3, Charm 4, Cool 3, Discipline 3, Knowledge (Forbidden) 4, Negotiation 3, Ranged 3, Vigilance 3
Talents: Adversary 2, Dark Insight (use Knowledge [Forbidden] to determine spell effects), Parry 3 (when Dracula suffers a hit from a melee combat check, after damage is calculated but before soak is applied, Dracula may suffer 3 strain to reduce the damage of the hit by 5. This talent can only be used once per hit.)
Abilities: Dracula's Brawn, Agility, and Intellect are treated as super-characteristics (When Dracula makes a check based on one of his super-characteristics, if the check generates a triumph, immediately roll an additional proficiency dice into the pool. If that dice generates another triumph, then roll an additional proficiency dice into the pool again. Dracula still gets to resolve all of the Triumphs as usual.)
Blood thirst (When Dracula damages a target using his fangs, he heals wounds equal to the wounds inflicted),
The Beast Within: If Dracula suffers strain in excess of his Strain Threshold, he is not incapacitated, but undergoes the following change as an out-of-turn incidental. He heals all strain; increases his Brawn and Agility by 1, to a Maximum of 5; and reduces his Intellect and Willpower by 1 to a minimum of 1. He deals +1 damage when making unarmed attacks, and his unarmed attacks have a Crit rating of 2. He gains the ability to fly. In addition, his jaws elongate into a muzzle, his ears stretch to points, his hair thickens and he grows more all over his body, his arms stretch into wings, and his eyes become those of a bat.)
Sunlight Sensitivity: While exposed to sunlight, Dracula reduces all his characteristics by 2 and halves his Wound Threshold and Strain Threshold.
Undead: Does not need to breathe, eat, or drink [except blood], and can survive underwater; immune to poisons and toxins.
Vampiric Magic: Dracula reduces the difficulty of all magic skill checks one step.
Spells: Dracula can choose any magic action allowed for the Arcana skill, and may select additional spell effects, as normal. His favored spells are:
Hellfire (Choose one target at short or engaged range for the attack and make a Hard Arcana check; if the magic combat check succeeds, the target suffers 4 damage +1 damage per uncanceled Success, with Critical Rating 2, Auto-Fire, Burn 4, Stun 4, and Vicious 4 qualities)
Spectral Defense: (Dracula makes an Average Arcana check; if the check is successful, until the end of Dracula’s next turn, reduce the damage of all hits suffered by one, and further reduce it by one for every uncanceled 2 Success beyond the first. In addition, Dracula gains Ranged and Melee Defense of 4)
Equipment: Fangs (Brawl; Damage 6; Critical 3; Range [Engaged]; Ensnare 1, Vicious 2)

8 hours ago, Mathadar said:

Sweet! I look forward to seeing more. Hmm, what about the whole holy water and whipping candle mechanic?

Holy Water, I treat as pretty much a more powerful "acid flask," but that only works against Undead. It also doesn't last for an entire encounter, as that would pretty much make it an auto-kill on any of the major bosses like Death or Dracula.

As for the "whipping candles" mechanic, I'm effectively dropping it. Many aspects of the original games (the bone towers, the ravens, the spiders, the zombie hands, ect.), I'll be handling through narrative and through simple skill checks. Assuming I have a player decide to use a whip, I might have one obstacle that can be overcome by using the whip as a makeshift rope to cross a gap in the floor or something, similar to how some Castlevania games have allowed you to swing on your whip.

At the moment, I'm thinking of making pre-made characters for some of my newer players, so they can get a feel for the game system before they try and wrap their heads around character creation. Some time in the next couple days, I'll be posting my character builds for Belmont, Fernandez, Alucard, and Morris. For fun, I might also build a Van Helsing character, and possibly a Mongrel character (though, who he would be inspired by, I have no idea. Perhaps Danasty? I dunno, I just want a werewolf player option). When I actually run the game, I'll allow my players to either pick from the pre-made characters or build their own.

As much as I love Castlevania and literally anything to do with it...why does the Chain Whip require two hands to wield? I know that Alucard and Soma both have a few two-handed weapons, but none of the whips have ever been shown to use or require a free hand

3 hours ago, RyuujinKatsuya said:

As much as I love Castlevania and literally anything to do with it...why does the Chain Whip require two hands to wield? I know that Alucard and Soma both have a few two-handed weapons, but none of the whips have ever been shown to use or require a free hand

I might change it to melee light. These were all just rough ideas off the top of my head. Have you ever tried swinging around 8 feet of chain? That stuff's heavy as heck. Made more sense at the time to treat it as melee heavy.

On 8/28/2018 at 6:15 PM, Underachiever599 said:

I might change it to melee light. These were all just rough ideas off the top of my head. Have you ever tried swinging around 8 feet of chain? That stuff's heavy as heck. Made more sense at the time to treat it as melee heavy.

Personally? No, but I have seen videos of people properly trained doing it, and what they tend to do is build up momentum first. I imagine the older games didn't do it for memory limitation reasons (though if I recall, there was a delay when attacking with the chain whip in the NES version of Castlevania III), and the more recent games either decided "good enough" or the chain is supposed to be some magical/alchemical super-light-weight metal. I'd definitely go with giving it some serious Cumbersome and Unwieldy - whips are not to be trifled with by the unskilled.

5 hours ago, RyuujinKatsuya said:

Personally? No, but I have seen videos of people properly trained doing it, and what they tend to do is build up momentum first. I imagine the older games didn't do it for memory limitation reasons (though if I recall, there was a delay when attacking with the chain whip in the NES version of Castlevania III), and the more recent games either decided "good enough" or the chain is supposed to be some magical/alchemical super-light-weight metal. I'd definitely go with giving it some serious Cumbersome and Unwieldy - whips are not to be trifled with by the unskilled.

I have changed the chain whip to use Melee (Light), and given it Cumbersome 4 and Unwieldy 3 to offset this. I have also finished building six pre-made player characters for my players to choose from, so that the first session can be mostly roleplay instead of character creation. (I have told all of my players ahead of time that I will have pre-made characters as an option, but they are all still welcome to build their own character with an equal amount of XP if they so wish to. These pre-made characters are strictly here to provide my players with the option to just jump right in if they want). I'll post the characters below.

Belmont : Laborer, Vampire Hunter
Brawn: 4 Agility: 3 Intellect: 2 Cunning: 2 Willpower: 2 Presence: 2
Wound: 22 Strain: 11 Soak: 5
Skills: Athletics 2, Coercion 2, Discipline 2, Knowledge (Forbidden) 3, Melee (Light) 3, Perception 2, Ranged 2, Vigilance 3
Abilities: Tough as Nails (Once per session, Belmont may spend a Story Point as an out-of-turn incidental immediately after suffering a Critical Injury and determining the result. If he does so, he counts the result rolled as “01.”)
Talents:
Tier 1: Durable (73 CRB, 155), Parry 1 (74 CRB 150), Second Wind (74 CRB 145), Toughened (75 CRB 140), Grit (73 CRB 135)
Tier 2: Heroic Recovery (88 RoT 125), Wraithbane (89 RoT 115), Toughened 2 (105), Durable 2 (95)
Tier 3: Toughened 3 (80), Durable 3 (65)
Tier 4: Death Rage (91 RoT 45)

Equipment:
Leather Armor: Soak +1
Holy Whip: Melee (Light), Damage 5, Critical 4, Range (Short), Holy, Unwieldy 3
Holy Water: Ranged, Damage -, Critical -, Range (Short), Holy, Limited Ammo 1

Belmont was built around two ideas. High damage to undead foes, and raw survivability. Hence, three ranks in Toughened and three ranks in Durable, Wraithbane, and Death Rage.

Alucard : Vampire, Dark Prince
Brawn: 3 Agility: 3 Intellect: 3 Cunning: 2 Willpower: 1 Presence: 3
Wound: 15 Strain: 14 Soak: 3 Defense: M2/R1
Skills: Arcana 3, Athletics 2, Brawl 2, Cool 2, Discipline 2, Knowledge (Forbidden) 2, Melee (Heavy) 3
Abilities: Undead: Does not need to breathe, eat, or drink (except blood), and can survive underwater; immune to poisons and toxins.
Fangs: Vampires add +1 damage to any Brawl combat checks they make. Their Brawl combat checks also gain a critical rating of 3 and the Vicious 1 quality.
Blood Dependency: Vampires do not gain the benefits of healing wounds with painkillers or a Medicine check. Vampires can heal wounds and strain naturally by resting. When a Vampire damages a target using their fangs, they heal may spend a maneuver to gain the benefits of a Painkiller.
Sunlight Sensitivity: When exposed to sunlight, Vampires reduce all their characteristics by 1 and halve their Wound and Strain Thresholds.
Talents:
Tier 1: Shapeshifter (84 RoT, 145), Grit 1 (73 CRB 140), Parry 1 (74 CRB 135), Second Wind (74 CRB 130), Toughened (75 CRB 125)
Tier 2: Heroic Recovery (88 RoT 115), Improved Shapeshifter (89 RoT 105), Signature Spell (89 RoT 95), Grit 2 (85)
Tier 3: Battle Casting (90 RoT 70), Grit 3 (55)
Tier 4: Improved Signature Spell (91 RoT 35)

Signature Spell:
Hellfire: Arcana (Hard Difficulty), Damage 6, Critical 2, Range (Medium), Vicious 2

Favored Spells:
Wolf Shape: Arcana (Hard Difficulty), if the check is successful, until the end of Alucard’s next turn, Alucard increases his Brawn by 1, adds damage equal to his ranks in Knowledge (Forbidden) to unarmed combat checks, and ignores the effects of difficult terrain and cannot be immobilized. While under the effects of Wolf Shape, Alucard does not gain the benefits of any equipment such as armor or weapons.
Bat Shape: Arcana (Hard Difficulty), if the check is successful, until the end of Alucard’s next turn, Alucard increases his Agility by 1, gains a ranged and melee defense equal to his ranks in Knowledge (Forbidden), and gains the Flyer ability. While under the effects of Bat Shape, Alucard does not gain the benefits of any equipment such as armor or weapons.

Equipment:
Elaborate Robes: Defense 1
Fangs: Brawl, Damage 4, Critical 3, Range (Engaged), Vicious 1
Greatsword: Melee (Heavy), Damage 7, Critical 2, Range (Engaged), Defensive 1, Pierce 1, Unwieldy 3

I gave Alucard a custom Career to better fit with the skillset I image him utilizing (the career skills are just the 7 skills he has access to, plus Charm). I've also given him two "unique" spells, Wolf Shape and Bat Shape. I did my best to make them relatively balanced. They're basically an altered version of Augment, but they only raise one particular attribute instead of all skill checks, and they each provide perks at the down side of not being able to use Alucard's equipment. It's also worth noting that I did give Alucard the ability to transform into a monstrous state, similar to Dracula. This is due to speculation around Alucard having a "final form" that he simply refuses to use in most games. However, the final form can be seen from time to time in Symphony of the Night, when Alucard is turned to stone by certain enemy attacks, if I remember correctly. So, I felt it was worth giving Alucard the Shapeshifter and Improved Shapeshifter talents.

Belnades : Intellectual, Witch
Brawn: 2 Agility: 1 Intellect: 4 Cunning: 3 Willpower: 3 Presence: 2
Wound: 10 Strain: 18 Soak: 2 Defense M1/R1
Skills: Arcana 3, Discipline 2, Knowledge (Forbidden) 3, Skulduggery 2, Stealth 2, Vigilance 3
Abilities: Brilliant! (Once per session, Belnades may spend a Story Point as an incidental. If she does so, during the next check she makes during that turn, she counts her ranks in the skill being used as equal to her Intellect.)
Talents:
Tier 1: Grit 1 (73 CRB 145), Second Wind (74 CRB 140), Dark Insight (84 RoT 135), Desperate Recovery (73 CRB 130), Knack For It (CRB 73 125)
Tier 2: Heroic Recovery (88 RoT 115), Signature Spell (89 RoT 105), Grit 2 (95), Second Wind 2 (85)
Tier 3: Grit 3 (70), Second Wind 3 (55)
Tier 4: Conduit (91 RoT 35)

Signature Spell:
Coven Fire: Arcana (Average Difficulty), Damage 8, Critical 2, Range (Engaged to Medium), Vicious 2
Favored Spells:
Frozen Crystal: Arcana (Hard Difficulty), Damage 8, Range (Engaged to Medium), Ensnare 3
Lightning Bolt: Arcana (Hard Difficulty), Damage 8, Critical 2, Range (Short to Medium), Auto-Fire, Stun 3, Vicious 2

Equipment:
Heavy Robes: Defense +1
Magic Staff: Melee (Heavy), Damage 4, Critical 4, Range (Engaged), Defensive 1, the first Range effect does not increase difficulty. In additional, Attack spells increase base damage by 4
Holy Water: Ranged, Damage -, Critical-, Range (Short), Holy, Limited Ammo 1

Pretty straightforward, I build Belnades as the powerful spellcaster that she is. High Strain, a way to recover strain faster, a staff that amps the damage of her spells and gives her better range, and a variety of 'favored spells' that are useful for different things.

Danasty : Mongrel, Soldier (Pg 152)
Brawn: 3 Agility: 3 Intellect: 2 Cunning: 2 Willpower: 3 Presence: 2
Wound: 15 Strain: 14 Soak: 4
Skills: Athletics 2, Brawl 3, Discipline 2, Melee (Light) 3, Perception 2, Ranged 2, Survival 2, Vigilance 3
Abilities: The Beast Within (When Danasty is incapacitated due to exceeding his strain threshold while in human form, he undergoes the following change as an out-of-turn incidental. He heals all strain; increases his Brawn and Agility by one, to a maximum of 5; and reduces his Intellect and Willpower by one to a minimum of 1. He deals +1 damage when making unarmed attacks, and his unarmed attacks have a Crit rating of 3. In addition, his jaws elongate into a muzzle, his hair thickens and he grows more all over his body, and his eyes become those of a wolf. Danasty reverts to a human form after eight hours, or if he is incapacitated.),
The Human Spirit (Once per session, Danasty may make a Hard Discipline check as an out-of-turn incidental. If he succeeds, he may either trigger The Beast Within or avoid triggering it when he exceeds his strain threshold.)
Talents:
Tier 1: Desperate Recovery (73 CRB, 155), Grit 1 (73 CRB 150), Parry 1 (74 CRB 145), Second Wind (74 CRB 140), Toughened (75 CRB 135)
Tier 2: Heroic Recovery (88 RoT 125), Berserk (75 CRB 115), Grit 2 (105), Second Wind 2 (95)
Tier 3: Grit 3 (80), Second Wind 3 (65)
Tier 4: Enduring (80 CRB 45)

Equipment:
Commoner’s Clothes: Soak +0
Daggers (two): Melee (Light), Damage 5, Critical 3, Range (Engaged), Accurate 1
or,
Daggers: Ranged, Damage 5, Critical 3, Range (Short), Accurate 1, Limited Ammo 2

Another fairly straightforward character, Danasty is just a freedom fighter cursed with lycanthropy. A theme I will have with Danasty and Alucard will relate to their transformed states. While in the shapeshifted form, I will have the players roll discipline checks at certain moments to fight back against their inner monster and maintain a level head. Failure could mean that they briefly see their allies as foes to be slain and/or eaten (Of course, the players will be able to constantly fight back against this dark nature, getting to roll a new discipline check each round, hopefully with boosts from their allies to help them remember who they are).

Dr. Van Helsing : Intellectual, Healer
Brawn: 2 Agility: 1 Intellect: 4 Cunning: 2 Willpower: 3 Presence: 3
Wound: 12 Strain: 15 Soak: 3 Defense 1/1
Skills: Cool 2, Discipline 2, Divine 2, Knowledge (Lore) 3, Medicine 3, Melee (Light) 2, Survival 2, Resilience 2, Vigilance 2
Abilities: Brilliant! (Once per session, Van Helsing may spend a Story Point as an incidental. If he does so, during the next check he makes during that turn, he counts his ranks in the skill being used as equal to his Intellect.)
Talents:
Tier 1: Templar (87 RoT 145), Surgeon 1 (74 CRB 140), Apothecary (84 RoT 135), Toughened (75 CRB 130), Rapid Reaction (74 CRB 125)
Tier 2: Heroic Recovery (88 RoT 115), Inspiring Rhetoric (76 CRB 105), Scathing Tirade (77 CRB 95), Surgeon 2 (85)
Tier 3: Painkiller Specialization (79 CRB 70), Improved Scathing Tirade (79 CRB 55)
Tier 4: Defensive (80 CRB, 35)

Spell:
Holy Sanctuary: Divine (Hard Difficulty), until end of Van Helsing’s next turn, reduce damage of all hits Van Helsing suffers by one, and further reduce it by one for every uncanceled two Success beyond the first. Opponents the GM determines are the antithesis of the character’s faith automatically disengage from Van Helsing and may not engage them for the duration of the spell.

Equipment:
Heavy Clothing: Soak +1
Combat Cross: Melee (Light), Damage 4, Critical 3, Range (Engaged), Holy
Holy Water: Ranged, Damage -, Critical -, Range (Short), Holy, Limited Ammo 1
Medical Supply Kit: Once per encounter, Van Helsing gains the equivalent of a single Painkiller. He also adds a boost die to all Medical checks.
Painkillers (three)

I took the opportunity with Van Helsing to create a healer character. While not the most capable combatant, Van Helsing's inclusion would be a desperately needed healing presence, and his Holy Sanctuary ability is an excellent way to keep him alive when facing hordes of foes.

Quincey Morris : Average Human, Cowboy
Brawn: 3 Agility: 4 Intellect: 2 Cunning: 2 Willpower: 2 Presence: 2
Wound: 15 Strain: 12 Soak: 4
Skills: Brawl 2, Cool 2, Discipline 2, Leadership 2, Melee (Light) 2, Perception 2, Ranged 3, Survival 2, Vigilance 3
Abilities: Ready for Anything (Once per session as an out-of-turn incidental, Morris may move one Story Point from the Game Master’s pool to the player’s pool.)
Talents:
Tier 1: Finesse (84 RoT145), Parry 1 (74 CRB 140), Quick Draw (74 CRB 135), Toughened (75 CRB 130), Quick Strike (74 CRB 125)
Tier 2: Fan the Hammer (76 CRB 115), Coordinated Assault (76 CRB 105), Dual Wielder (76 CRB 95), Lucky Strike (76 CRB 85)
Tier 3: Eagle Eyes (78 CRB 70), Dual Strike (90 RoT 55)
Tier 4: Deadeye (79 CRB 35)

Equipment:
Heavy Clothing: Soak +1
Bowie Knife: Melee (Light), Damage 5, Critical 3, Range (Engaged), Accurate 1, Vicious 1
Revolver: Ranged, Damage 6, Critical 3, Range (Medium), Pierce 5, the GM may spend 2 Threat or a Despair to have the revolver run out of ammo.
Reload (one)

And lastly, we come to Morris. A fairly straightforward ranged character who can become extremely lethal in close range while dual wielding his bowie knife and revolver.

I've also written up some fluff text for each of these characters, describing why they have ventured to Castlevania on their individual quests to kill Dracula. I won't bother posting the full fluff text here, as these posts are already so much to try and read through. The fluff text is mostly for my players, who are all far more roleplay-focused than they are mechanics-focused. Each bit of fluff text gives the character's desires, strengths, fears, and flaws. This should more easily allow my players to get into character, even though these aren't characters that they have made themselves. So far, I know at least three of my players have taken an interest in playing one of these pre-made characters rather than spending the time to build their own. We've all had a few of those days where what was supposed to be a Session 1 wound up being 6 hours of character creation, and for a one-off like this, my players all seem inclined to skip that process.

For what it's worth, no, I did not build these characters to be equal. I'm not overly concerned with balancing them, as this is all for what will pretty much be one to three sessions. I did build them all using around the same XP (except in regards to skills, as after I had spent all of the original XP, I went through and raised the rank of every skill each character had by 1), but for equipment, I just gave each character what I felt was appropriate for the character, with no real regard to cost.

So what do you guys think? Did I do a suitable job with recreating these classic Castlevania characters? Any questions or concerns?

This is quite interesting. What is the power level that you have in mind for Castlevania? Is it really down to earth and gritty, or are we talking about highly competent individuals?

Kinda both? Think 80's action movie. "Regular"-ish people doing awesome things.

Are the characters above from any particular period in the continuity, or are they a unique version for the play-testing you'll be doing? They all look pretty good, though with the other characters, it would seem they are most likely incarnations from Castlevania 3: Dracula's Curse?

37 minutes ago, RyuujinKatsuya said:

Are the characters above from any particular period in the continuity, or are they a unique version for the play-testing you'll be doing? They all look pretty good, though with the other characters, it would seem they are most likely incarnations from Castlevania 3: Dracula's Curse?

Van Helsing and Quincy Morris are both from the 1890's, the same time frame from when the Dracula novel is set (given that we know the events of Dracula took place in the Castlevania timeline). The rest are incarnations of other Castlevania characters. You are correct that they're mostly inspired by Dracula's Curse, but I deliberately excluded the use of first names with Danasty, Belnades, and Belmont because those are recurring bloodlines in the Castlevania series. It's mostly just to give my players wiggle room to make these pre-made characters more their own. So while the characters are all inspired by the Dracula's Curse characters, they're actually basically unique versions for the game I'll be running.

Very cool stuff! How did it go with your group? Did the chain whip weapon work ok?

I'd love to borrow some of these adversaries, if you're cool with it -- with credit of course.

Borrow away! The game went really well, and everyone had a blast. As far as we could tell, all weapons worked as intended (though there were only three sessions, so your mileage may vary).

I actually had a couple more enemies that I forgot to post on here:

Frankenstein’s Monster : Br 5, Ag 1, In 1, Cu 1, Wi 1, Pr 1
Soak 6, Wound 20, Strain 8
Skills: Athletics 3, Brawl 2, Resilience 3
Abilities: Undead (does not need to breathe, eat, or drink and can survive underwater; immune to poisons and
toxins)
Undying Vigor (When Frankenstein’s Monster exceeds his wound threshold, he may immediately
attempt a Resilience check with a difficulty equal to his highest Critical Injury as an out-of-turn incidental.
If this check succeeds, reduce his current wounds to one below his wound threshold, and Frankenstein’s
Monster continues fighting. He still receives a Critical Injury from exceeding his wound threshold as
normal.)
Talents: Adversary 1, Durable 2
Equipment: Fists (Brawl; Damage 5; Critical 5; Range [Engaged]; Disorient 2, Knockdown)

Igor : Br 2, Ag 3, In 3, Cu 3, Wi 1, Pr 1
Soak 3, Wound 13, Strain 12
Skills: Coordination 2, Medicine 1, Stealth 2, Vigilance 2, Melee (Light) 2, Ranged 2
Abilities: Tactical Direction (may spend a maneuver to direct one friendly minion group or rival within medium
range; that group or rival may immediately perform a free maneuver or add a boost die to its next check.)
Talents: Adversary 1
Equipment: Dagger (Melee [Light]; Damage 4; Critical 3; Range [Engaged]; Accurate 1)

Carmilla : Br 3, Ag 3, In 3, Cu 2, Wi 2, Pr 4
Soak: 4, Wound: 16, Strain: 14, Defense 1/1
Skills: Arcana 2, Brawl 2, Charm 3, Cool 2, Discipline 1, Knowledge (Forbidden) 3, Negotiation 1, Vigilance 2
Talents: Adversary 1, Dark Insight (use Knowledge [Forbidden] to determine spell effects)
Abilities: Super Characteristics (Carmilla’s Brawn, Agility, and Intellect are treated as super-characteristics. When
Carmilla rolls a triumph on any Brawn, Agility, or Intellect check, she immediately rolls an additional
proficiency dice into the pool. If that dice generates another triumph, then roll an additional proficiency
dice into the pool again. Carmilla still gets to resolve all of the triumphs as usual.)
Blood thirst (When Carmilla damages a target using her fangs, she heals wounds equal to the wounds
inflicted),
The Beast Within: If Carmilla suffers strain in excess of her Strain Threshold, she is not incapacitated, but
undergoes the following change as an out-of-turn incidental. She heals all strain; increases her Brawn and
Agility by 1, to a Maximum of 5; and reduces her Intellect and Willpower by 1 to a minimum of 1. She
deals +1 damage when making unarmed attacks, and her unarmed attacks have a Critical rating of 2. In
addition, her jaws elongate into a muzzle, her ears stretch to points, her hair thickens and she grows more
all over her body, she grows a tail, and her eyes become those of a cat.
Sunlight Sensitivity: While exposed to sunlight, Carmilla reduces all his characteristics by 2 and halves
her Wound Threshold and Strain Threshold.
Undead: Does not need to breathe, eat, or drink [except blood], and can survive underwater; immune to
poisons and toxins.
Vampiric Magic: Carmilla reduces the difficulty of all magic skill checks one step.
Spells: Carmilla can choose any magic action allowed for the Arcana skill, and may select additional spell
effects, as normal. Her favored spells are:
Equipment: Fangs (Brawl; Damage 5; Critical 3; Range [Engaged]; Ensnare 1, Vicious 2)

Igor and Frankenstein's Monster are intended to be run together, and I let players use Advantage to notice that Frankenstein's Monster was plugged in. Unplugging him gets rid of the Undying Vigor. That might have been one of the most fun encounters of the entire mini-campaign, honestly.

As for Carmilla, she's mostly just there to give the players a little taste of what Dracula will be like. I roleplayed her as creepily as I could, drawing heavily from the material that inspired her original appearance in Castlevania.

Also, I fudged the rules for Dracula when I ran the game. When he used the "Spectral Defense" spell, I themed it as Dracula fading into mist. That mist was technically "engaged" to every character, as the mist filled the whole room. This allowed every character the opportunity to hit him without needing maneuvers to move around, and it also allowed Dracula to "teleport" between uses, going from engaged with one character to engaged with someone else across the room the next time the spell wears off. And using the Nemesis rules that give a single Nemesis a second turn at the end of the round allowed him to have one "attacking turn" and one "Spectral Defense" turn each round, making him a deliberately frustrating boss-fight until he used up all his strain and transformed (at which point I stopped using Spectral Defense and focused on pure offense).

That Drac fight sounds super frustrating and super fun at the same time. Spectral Defense/Mist Form should probably be a +P modification, considering the impact it could have in a ranged-heavy game/party. All in all, the bosses seem really well done.