Ghouls and Body Heat, A Question About The Setting Options

[Chall]

Hi.

I'm new here so please forgive me if I'm asking questions that have already been answered.

Do Ghouls have body heat? The reason why I ask is because I'm sending the PCs up against them in the pitch dark. (They're blind so what do they care). I specifically need to know how well they'd show up in Thermographic vision.

If they keep room temperature it could be very very interesting.

If they are invisible to Thermographic vision (or nearly so) would the PC's only option be using flashlights? Or is there any other tech that can get around the whole lack of light thing?

Chall

[Azralon]

Ghouls in Shadowrun are not undead. They're living beings infected with a magical virus. They eat and -- presumably -- perform all other metabolic functions, so odds are they give off body heat.

[FrankTrollman]

Indeed, they presumably run pretty hot, as they are in some places listed as eating about 4000 Calories a day and they are still distinguished for being creepily thin for their height.

-Frank

[Grinder]

Do you have a page reference for this?

[FrankTrollman]

[Grinder]

But the average ghoul eats 780 grams in one week or did i get it wrong? So no big deal, consuming 4,000 calories in one week.

[Grinder]

Yeah, i got it wrong. They probably eat more than just 780 grams per week. S***.

[FrankTrollman]

No. It's 780 grams in a day, once per week.

-Frank

[PBTHHHHT]

780 grams is 2.08 lbs of meat for those of y'all who are wondering and 78 kilograms means the guy weighs 208 lbs.

Frank, read again what you posted... that's per week.
"1 percent of their body weight in metahuman flesh per week "
That's only 2.08 pounds of meat a week, I'm sure you can do more than that. Plus, have you seen what a cyclist in the Tour de France eats per day?

Some examples of caloric intakes:
http://www.ultracycling.com/nutrition/calories.html

The average daily intake that's recommended is:
"UK Department of Health Estimated Average Requirements (EAR) are a daily calorie intake of 1940 calories per day for women and 2550 for men."
http://www.weightlossresources.co.uk/logou...orie_intake.htm

edit: I was too slow, but I was having fun pulling up links and info. hehe.

[FrankTrollman]

Actually, the guy weighs 172 pounds.

-Frank

[Grinder]

So can we assume Ghoul Average eats ~750 grams metahuman meat per week and the rest of his diet is a "normal" amount of meat?

[nezumi]

Reading through the background stuff, it does sound like they require a lot of meat-based foods. I've never heard of a ghoul that can survive mostly on soy (even with it's one weekly human steak). But I also don't think ghouls necessarily manage to get all of those calories. They're basically predators, from what's given, and predators as a general rule have pretty inefficient digestive tracks.

But that's just pure speculation on my part :)

[Grinder]

We had a longer thread here not long ago.

edit: This may help: http://forums.dumpshock.com/index.php?show...10735&hl=ghouls

This post has been edited by Grinder: Dec 23 2005, 10:39 PM

[emo samurai]

Can they eat human collagen gotten from liposuction operations? If they could, that would totally destroy the whole problem of having to eat people.

[PBTHHHHT]

Ugh, I must have used the wrong pound type on my conversion program. I redid it by hand, 2.2 lb per kg, you're right, it should be 172. Hmmm... I used the troy instead of the other one, that probably made the difference.

Still, that means only 1.71 lb of meat.

[PBTHHHHT]

[emo samurai]

So... they COULD eat collagen and not piss people off, except for the chop shop that sells the stuff for lip implants?

[FrankTrollman]

Yes, there are lots of ways to get human flesh for eating without killing or corpse camping anyone to get it.

But... why would you want to?

-Frank

[Gothic Rose]

Fat cells aren't flesh. So, I don't think they'd be able to just eat the collagen.

Ghouls have to eat that much METAHUMAN flesh or they get sick. They still need to eat other meat. Ghouls are incapable of digesting cooked foods, or most other things, period. They're strictly carnivores (although in our game, my ghoul is allowed to drink Alcohol) which makes it kinda sucky for the food costs. They have to have real meat. Of course, that said, they can always just drag the ganger that attacked them back home.

My ghoul character's pads always had a full walk in meat-locker. Always.

[FrankTrollman]

I really hate whipping out dictionary references in internet discussions, but I can't let that one stand:

[Chall]

Thanks for the replies. Got lots of ideas now. :)

In retrospect its probably cooler for the chracters not to walk around with flashlights.

[emo samurai]

So... ghouls can live peacefully with humans, as long as there are plenty of liposuction clinics nearby?

[Darkness]

Well. On a thought, would you, as flesh eater, only eat the fat of a – mmmh – cow?

Would then, metahuman fat suffice for ghoul?

It might sustain him, yes. But the taste... come on. The ghoul doesn't just want to slurp the blubber from a tube or plastic bag, stemming from some obscure liposuction clinic.
He want's to bite and taste the real deal. The tender, juicy and "well hung" meat. The muscle. The tissue.
Yum!

[emo samurai]

[Darkness]

If their target has a shotgun that is.
Normaly they will naturally tend to eat the dead. Up until that point in time, when there is no more carrion to be found.
As the predators that they partly are (they are part scavenger too), they will inevitably prey on the weak first.
The homeless, the children, the sick. Everything weaker than them, which is intruding on their hunting grounds, or just living nearby.
And they are hunting in packs, probably even setting up traps.
They will avoid anything not worth the trouble. Unless, of course, they hunger for flesh, because no easy prey has been caught for some time. Then they will attack the armed, and the stronger specimens of their prey.

Of course that is only for the more animalistic ghouls. As previous sourcebooks, and the 3rd ed. rules have stated some of them remain nearly their old self. And AFAIK, and i haven't read Loose Alliances yet, there is at least one ghoul (or ghoul-influenced) organisation out there, buying the dead from those who don't need them anymore, or don't want them.

But then again. If ones spouse died in a gang shooting, just because he or she was at the wrong place at the wrong time - would one rather see him or her properly – even if it is poorly – buried or cremated, than live in the knowledge that those at the morgue sold the body to them and that it has been eaten?

Their need for metahuman flesh will inevitably bring metahuman haters against them.

Even if they only need bodyfat from the clinics to be satisfied. They are still consuming it. They are the embodiment of every cannibalistic myth ever to be heard of.
They will still be hunted. Because people will fear, that those things will get a taste for the human, and change their diet, from body fat, to something more "substantial".

Unless Big D's Will regarding a substitute for metahuman flesh for the ghouls isn't fullfilled, no normal and unstrained co-existence will be possible.