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[sadron]

Not soon after my King arrived to live in my fortress (I'm not necessarily sure this is related) my militia commander was found dead with his blood drained. Now recently one of my hammerlords has been missing for a week. Checked his bedroom but he wasn't there so for the moment I have no idea where he is and if it was indeed a vampire attack again. It's happening pretty infrequently but thus far I have no idea who it is and I don't know how many of my population are affected. I'm hoping some of you could help in this matter.

[Corai]

I bet the vampire is the king.

[Wrex]

If you want to cheat, download the splintermind mirror of dwarf therapist and turn on cursecheck. If you want to do it the hard way, scroll through every dwarfs prefrences until you find one that is an ex citizen of eleventy billion places, then make him take a long walk off a short pier (Into magma. Water won;t work.)

[sadron]

That'd be quite the story to tell. I just wish I could catch him, each dwarf has their own 2x2 room with a chest and cabinet.

[GoombaGeek]

In the future, apparently you should put your bedrooms around heavily-trafficed areas (dining hall, main entrance etc.) and separate them with a glass wall (or window, but those can be destroyed).

I've never had a glassmaking industry good enough to work this, but you should catch your vampires in the act

Or, even better, temporary dorms until the vamp is caught.

[sadron]

I'm assuming it pops up in a message and pauses the game?

[Azure]

You should be screening your migrants on arrival for physical,mental and personality traits that are desirable for jobs you need done; catching a vampire is just icing on the cake. If you want to be 100% sure on catching all the vampires you need to seal off the fort. Have a depot airlock to let traders in and a migrant airlock to isolate and process incoming migrants. Screen and tag migrants as they filter to the migrant airlock.Tag those with alcohol withdrawal, lot's of former homes, heaps of jewelry, large kill lists, and so on. Watch and only let those that get thirsty out.

[misko27]

I'm assuming it pops up in a message and pauses the game?

Aha, your funny. No, it will appear, after the fact, in the justice screen.

[Kate Wissen]

To catch a vampire already in your fortress, forbid all food and drink, and block off water. Within a season everyone will be complaining with the exception of one dwarf. That dwarf will be your vampire.

A more laborious one is to check for dwarves without eating or sleeping thoughts. Since you likely have a bed and a dining room, the dwarf without either of these thoughts is your vampire.

[Xob Ludosmbax]

I wonder if you could make an automated vampire catcher.  Have an outer hall and an inner hall.  The inner hall is completely sealed, except when necessary.  The connection between the outer hall and inner hall is an airlock with a stockpile of food and booze.  Whenever any dwarf goes in, a pressure plate toggles the airlock letting the dwarf into the inner hall, then retoggles it after a time delay. 

[SnK-Arcbound]

The fastest long way of checking dwarfs after they are in your fort is to use the u menu and z-enter-esc-esc-up repeat to check every dwarf for the one with the laundry list of former factions. If using dwarf therapist look for a dwarf with 10+ skills with very little skill, and several social skills.

[Bartinyou]

Another possibility for the future, a little more tedious to do in an already existing fort, is to put your dwarves in large 21x21 bedrooms where each dwarf gets a 3x3 bed space and furniture.  This will catch most vampires on there first kill with 2-3 witnesses.  I also place my bookkeeper/manager's work space in the same room to increase the chances of catching the vampire.

As far as finding the vampire in your current fort, the easiest non-cheating way I could think of would be to look in your justice screen and find the accusers/witnesses of your current string of murders and look for the thoughts of "took joy in slaughter recently".  Any dwarfs with that tag line isolate in a walled off room with a lever profiled to only allow that specific dwarf to use it.  If that dwarf does not get hungry/thirsty within a few months game time, then you have found your vampire.

[jellsprout]

I doubt it is the king. Vampire kings never really try to hide their vampirism.

Vampires don't drink booze, but still get the "hasn't had a drink in a long time" thoughts. So you could check the latest immigrants for any such thoughts. It obviously doesn't work if you don't have enough booze available, though.

[celem]

Far whatever reason....I've had vampires arrive lacking that thought (the 'hasnt had a drink in a long time' and its varying degrees).  Im guessing they dont generate this lack in worldgen, or maybe this particularly vamp was cursed right before I founded the fort.

Once the sucka is inside then this thought will certainly manifest itself in time.  My point anyway was that you cannot rely on this single indicator when checking migrants (though a vamp is usually obvious by the 'v'-z' screen, there are several indicators afterall)

[Joben]

I had a vampire once that gave her own age as being younger than her daughter's.

That's not a great way to spot them because it's too obscure, and they might not have had children before they were turned. But it might help provide confirmation if you have a suspect.