[Circle of Hands1.1] Ghouls

[Moreno R.]

From the Ghoul's description:

A ghoul has the B+1 and Q+1 of the person when he or she was alive, and Armor 3. It attacks at a distance with its chilling howl, which is resisted by W vs. 12. If the target is affected, he or she loses a die of effectiveness to all actions, or in combat, must cede the advantage die. A target may only be affected by one ghoul's howl at a time. It cannot howl when engaged in ordinary combat.

1) A Ghoul can be "single most problematic individual", the one who gets "a sum of scores equal to that of the highest-sum Circle knight currently in play"?

2) From the description the Ghoul seems a mindless monster that you hear (and smell) miles away. That sort of description is "the way all ghoul are" or it's simply the "common ghoul" and you can use exceptional individuals for a venture? (some example of things  exceptional ghouls: able to use spell, or able to mingle in a community without being discovered, able to build a cult of people who want to live forever by eating travelers, able to plan an ambush, able to talk and negotiate, etc.)

3) It's not clear how the "howl" work: let's say you have two ghouls, howling: you have to roll a single time, and if you roll over 12, you don't need to roll again in the same scene?

4) Again the "I don't understand how the howl work" problem: When you fight the ghoul in ordinary combat after failing the roll against his howl, he has to stop howling to be able to fight you. Does this mean that the effect stop, or it continue?

[Ron Edwards]

1) A Ghoul can be "single most problematic individual", the one who gets "a sum of scores equal to that of the highest-sum Circle knight currently in play"?

Yes, before the +1's it gets to its scores for being a ghoul. It wouldn't be a very interesting problematic individual, but it could be very problematic in some way and therefore a viable option.

2) From the description the Ghoul seems a mindless monster that you hear (and smell) miles away.

Not quite. Its breath is vile up-close, but it doesn't stink much beyond that range.

That sort of description is "the way all ghoul are" or it's simply the "common ghoul" and you can use exceptional individuals for a venture? (some example of things  exceptional ghouls: able to use spell, or able to mingle in a community without being discovered, able to build a cult of people who want to live forever by eating travelers, able to plan an ambush, able to talk and negotiate, etc.)

I was not planning for ghouls to have any of those features. It's conceivable that a person who dies and becomes a ghoul could have been a wizard who set down some spells upon himself or herself as enchantments, so would be more interesting than most of them. But ghouls cannot socialize with humans, they cannot pass as humans, and they aren't conversational. they cannot behave in any way aside from carnivory or the weird, clearly dysfunctional rote imitations of their former lives.

Liches are the only undead who have personalities.

3) It's not clear how the "howl" work: let's say you have two ghouls, howling: you have to roll a single time, and if you roll over 12, you don't need to roll again in the same scene?

Right.

4) Again the "I don't understand how the howl work" problem: When you fight the ghoul in ordinary combat after failing the roll against his howl, he has to stop howling to be able to fight you. Does this mean that the effect stop, or it continue?

The exact situation you're describing confuses me. The ghoul's howl works or it doesn't work, once. If it works, its effect is now in place for that character during the whole scene. If it doesn't, it doesn't. I think you might be thinking that the effect is a matter of the ghoul continuing to howl, which is not the case.

The combat qualifier only means that if you are able, in some way, to engage the ghoul in combat before it howls, it can't take an action to howl while it's busy fighting you.

[Ron Edwards]

I definitely should have mentioned that once affected by a ghoul's howl, a character may still throw off the effects with a successful W vs. 12 roll, as an action.

[Moreno R.]

I definitely should have mentioned that once affected by a ghoul's howl, a character may still throw off the effects with a successful W vs. 12 roll, as an action.

Again and again? Because an affected character has already failed his W vs. 12 roll...

Could a character continue to pump B to try again and again before the ghoul attack, until he succeed?

[Ron Edwards]

Yes. I'm not sure I get what you're asking. A person fails the roll upon the ghoul's first howl. For his next action, he rolls W vs. 12 to see if he can shake off the effect. He fails. His next action, he tries again. It seems to me as if you're making this harder than it is.

The pumping is fine too, but B doesn't grow on trees.

[Moreno R.]

Yes. I'm not sure I get what you're asking. A person fails the roll upon the ghoul's first howl. For his next action, he rolls W vs. 12 to see if he can shake off the effect. He fails. His next action, he tries again. It seems to me as if you're making this harder than it is.

It's a general thing, even for spells, like "Puppet", Beast, Trailtwistwer, etc?

Some of these have the chance to end the spell with a vs 12 roll, but these don't list the initial v12 roll to resist in the first place, and they say "a" vs12 roll, not "v 12 rolls".

This makes a huge difference in the best tactics against these spells (or in the best way to use them)

[Ron Edwards]

There isn't a general rule for these spells.

When no initial resistance roll is listed, there isn't one. Some spells take automatically and then have an ending-condition like pumping a point of B or succeeding in a particular roll. For these spells, the attempt to throw it off may be repeated.

Some spells have an initial resistance roll, which, unless I'm misremembering, is all-or-none right when the spell takes effect and is thereafter not repeated.

If there's a spell of this type which doesn't fall into either of these categories, let me know and I'll explain it.