# RPG a Day 2026 - 13: Strain
tags: #thoughts #thoughts/RPGaDay/2026
![[RPG a Day 2026 (illo).jpg]] ![[13 - Strain - Show (illo).jpg]]
I'm not going to sit here and write another 1,500-word essay on strain. Instead, I'm going to convert it.
Now, you may be asking, convert what into what? The answer is my favorite "vampire" setting/TV series, **[The Strain](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Strain_(TV_series))**, into a faction for **[[Starforged - Sundered Isles|Sundered Isles]]**. Because crossing the streams is what I do best.[^1]
> [!info] The Strain
>
> A **vampire society**, the Master's brood of strigoi, established and dug in. He's no longer trying to conquer the isles; he's already won this one corner of them. Quietly.
>
> **Type:** Society
> **Influence:** Established
>
> ### Society
>
> - **Chronicles:** Founded a great settlement; Fought a decisive battle
> - **Overseers:** Appointed local leaders — human collaborators.
> - **Touchstones:** Holds communal hunts; Favors isolationism and privacy
>
> ### The Cursed
>
> - **Role:** Vampires
> - **Aspects:** Forsakes the sunlight; Wields an alluring nature; Gathers unwilling supplicants or recruits
>
> ### Projects
>
> - Establish a safe refuge or headquarters
> - Expand operations to a new location or sector
>
> ### Quirks
>
> - Symbiotic relationship with a specific type of creature
>
> ### Rumors
>
> - Leaders are puppets of another power or faction
>
> ### Description
>
> The Strigoi are vampires of a particular bent, infected by a parasite that transforms their bodies from mere humans to inhumanly fast, incredibly dangerous monsters that feed on human blood and become less human and more insectile as they age. Their bodily fluids are all teeming with the worm-like parasite that makes them what they are. Exposure to any of those fluids almost invariably transforms the recipient into a new Strigoi.
>
> They survive by subverting human Quislings, promising them the immortality of infection should they serve with honor and duty, not revealing that their minds are just as transformed as their flesh in the long run. They have an affection for those in power.
>
> Sunlight can kill them; Elder Strigoi are affected all the more. All of them have more difficulty maintaining a human guise, particularly given the threat of sunlight.
>
> In order to destroy a brood, you must root it out entirely. This is extremely difficult because the parasite itself can survive for quite a while, properly preserved inside a human heart removed from a corpse.
Honestly, I love the idea of dealing with this particular type of vampire in the context of the **Sundered Isles**, because it really comes full circle to the original **[Dracula](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dracula)** in many ways. Except now you can use flamethrowers, necromancy, and shipboard cannons to take on the bastards.
For those who haven't had the pleasure of watching **The Strain**, let me put in a little something for you guys, too.
[^1]: Seriously, **The Strain** is my favorite vampire media. Certainly the first season thereof.
The bad guys have an excellent bad guy plan in the sense of it makes sense and it can actually work. The good guys find themselves caught up in a situation well beyond their understanding, but they have the tools to begin to comprehend. Sure, the protagonist is kind of a douchebag, but that's okay. So it goes. Plus, it repackages Dracula in such a way that it's hard not to enjoy. It knows and loves its source material, and that alone goes a long way with me.
Also, have a very long footnote.