Vampires were introduced to The Sims 2 in the Nightlife expansion pack. For information on how to identify vampires and have your Sim "brought across" see my previous article, Vampires in The Sims 2: Identifying and Creating Vampires.

Your vampire Sim will have certain, shall we say, "cravings," but it is not necessary for your vampire Sim to feed on other Sims for survival. Vampire Sims are just as happy filling their Hunger need by cooking and eating regular food. (I decided that my Vampire character Bob would probably like spaghetti, since the meat sauce looks like blood.)

Vampire characters can fly, although I have never seen an NPC vampire do this. To make your vampire fly, click on the destination and select "Fly Here." Your Sim will transform into a bat, and fly to that destination. You can also choose "Stalk Here" if you want to see your Sim stalk around with her arm over her face, all malicious-looking.

Vampires, naturally, have to stay out of the sun. (Note that this includes sunlight exposure from windows, as well.) This means that from 7AM to 7PM, they need to stay indoors. A vampire in the sunlight will experience a precipitous drop in all of its needs. After a few minutes it will begin emitting smoke. Then it will combust, turn into a pile of ash, and Death will appear to usher your Sim on to the Sim Afterlife.

This sounds like a fairly easy thing to work around. After all, my regular Sims hardly ever go outside unbidden. However, when I decided to play my Vampire Bob, I found that he was repeatedly and irresistibly drawn outdoors during the day.

First, I moved Bob into a new house and bought him a coffin. (Your vampire Sim's needs will not decay while they are asleep in their coffin.) But every time someone rang the doorbell, Bob would awaken and go downstairs to meet them. Eventually Bob could not resist the temptation of the newspaper. Even though I kept clicking to delete his queued actions, he stood outside and read the stupid thing until he died.

This is the first time I have ever exited a lot without saving. Bob's death was all my fault, and I had other plans for him. If I was going to play a vampire again, I would take care to delete the front door during the day, to keep him inside.

Vampires can be cured with the potion Vampirocillin-D. You can either purchase Vampirocillin-D from the Gypsy (call her to set up a date, then purchase it from her), or run a witch character who follows The Way of the Light (if you have the Apartment Life expansion pack). Have your witch study The Way of the Light until Vampirocillin-D appears as an option under the Reagents menu when you "check abilities." Once your witch has made the Vampirocillin-D, have her give it to your vampire Sim as a gift. (In Bob's case, Bob refused to come over when my witch phoned him. Instead I had to have my witch give it as a gift to Bob's brother Baxter. Then I had to hop over to Baxter's lot and have him give it as a gift to Bob.)

To cure your vampire, take the potion out of his inventory and click on it to make him drink it. Your vampire will make an "ugh" face - I guess Vampirocillin-D doesn't taste very good. In short order, he will be transformed back into a lovely, flesh-colored human Sim.