"Ghoul" "Magic"

[Greg 1]

As you may know if you've seen my other thread, I'm working on a setting in which PCs are different sorts of vampires. One of these is the "Ghoul".

I'm also basing most, but not all, vampire abilities on the standard GURPS Magic system, using stored blood as Fatigue.

I want Ghoul special abilities to be focused on the use of dead animal matter (including human matter). But I'm not sure what I want the abilities to be.

One possibility I'm entertaining is to say that the Ghoul PC can can any spell in Magic, but the spell will only work if cast on dead animal matter. That might be a boring option, though.

Thoughts? How do I make it choul to play a ghoul?

[johndallman]

Make them the setting's equivalent of alchemists: the magicians who can store magic in liquid dead animal matter, i.e., blood. Things you might have them do include:

• Preserving blood: a necessity for everything else, and very useful for all vampires who must conceal their nature.
• Storing FP in blood, creating an equivalent of paut.
• Making elixirs.
• Storing spells, which affect the drinker.

[Anders]

Bonecrafting sounds like a natural choice.

[pawsplay]

Well, you can have animated corpses, obviously. You could also have "corpse-bombs" that unleash some necrotic effect when disturbed. Spells that warp bone and flesh into other shapes. Imbueing bones with venomous magic to use as swords and arrows.

[David Johnston2]

Most of the ideas that come to mind would be spells that aren't already in the book. Such as:

1. A spell that when cast on brains lets the ghoul read the memories of the deceased.

2. A spell that lets them "steal the face" of a corpse. Useful if ghouls have an obviously nonhuman physical feature.

3. A spell that temporarily animates corpses as mindless puppets.

4. A spell that causes corpses to explode into shards of bone shrapnel.

5. A spell that reshapes bones into useful implements,

6. A spell that reanimates a corpse as another Ghoul (not much easier than true resurrection.)

7. A spell that reverses damage and decay on the dead.

[ajardoor]

Literally had a Pyramid article titled Ghoul Magic.

Had about four or five Path/Book Rituals, notably one for gaining memories by eating a brain/cerebral fluid.

[Greg 1]

Originally Posted by ajardoor

Literally had a Pyramid article titled Ghoul Magic.

Had about four or five Path/Book Rituals, notably one for gaining memories by eating a brain/cerebral fluid.

Thaumatology III! Thanks for the tip. :)

[Astromancer]

The Arab ghoul (the original) had illusion powers. They could disguise themselves in beautiful forms. The exception to their illusion powers is their inability to cover their incredible stench. (Ghouls, Satrys, Fauni, orcos, orchi, orculli, and kallikantzaros, are all myth reflections of the methane gas often released by swamps.)

Giving Ghouls illusion powers along the lines of disguise spells seems right.

[edk926]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

Most of the ideas that come to mind would be spells that aren't already in the book. Such as:

1. A spell that when cast on brains lets the ghoul read the memories of the deceased.

2. A spell that lets them "steal the face" of a corpse. Useful if ghouls have an obviously nonhuman physical feature.

3. A spell that temporarily animates corpses as mindless puppets.

4. A spell that causes corpses to explode into shards of bone shrapnel.

5. A spell that reshapes bones into useful implements,

6. A spell that reanimates a corpse as another Ghoul (not much easier than true resurrection.)

7. A spell that reverses damage and decay on the dead.

They aren't in the books, but most look like they could be done with re-skins of the existing spells instead of developing a new spell from scratch. 1) Might work as a form of Divination. 2) Could be a variant Steal Beauty. 3) Specialized Animation spell. 4) Specialized Explode spell. 5) Could be modeled like Shape Plant. 6) Not sure here. 7) Specialized Healing Spells.