Is there any reference to how much the bounty on ghouls is? I remember it being mentioned in one of the books but can seem to find it anywhere.

Gunderson does, 20 to 100 nuyen a head in the old SR game for the genesis..

Page 64 of Running Wild.

Ghouls - 1500

Who pays though?

That would be the UCAS or CAS government.

Hmmmm, Is that a fairly universal thing? Our campaign is in Hong Kong. I know that there are some efforts to grant ghouls the same rights as other meta-humans, has that occurred anywhere yet?

Awesome!

Of course it would be just 10 pages ahead of my current spot in Running Wild...shesh.

I think that in Runners Companion (SR4) there was mention of which countries were HMVV friendly and which tended to shoot on sight.

It talks about it in RW too, iirc. THe CC granted ghouls the status of 'people' along with a handful of critters recently. There are apparently only a few places that will actually take bounties on them anymore, although not all of them will give them SINs, and those SINs are always criminal ones.

http://www.picturesforsadchildren.com/index.php?comicID=280

That's hilarious... I wish this could be incorporated into a run some time

Note that it was only the Corporate Court that gave various critters sentient status. Only those corps regulated by the CC have to comply (and they don't have to *employ* the critters, or ghouls, if they don't want to). Nations can still do whatever they want...

One of the dumbest moves by the authors as of yet ... with the possible exception of Big D the Friendly Dragon actually winning the election.

they killed him off right afterwards you know.

Which by itself makes the entire thing even dumber, not to mention the unspeakable horror that is the novels revolving around the entire affair.

I can't comment about the novels, I never read them myself. But the game related material wasn't bad. In fact, I rather liked the whole thing - killing off the big D was a gutsy move for the writers. I know I never saw it coming.

I hope SR4 keeps us all slightly off balance just like the old FASA crowd did. Those guys knew how to write/create an atmosphere of political/corporate paranoia that seemed believable and fun to play with.

Meh, it would have been better if Big D was actually killed as opposed to committing sucide, but then again I don't think it was at all reasonable or believable for him to win in the first place. The devs should have never allowed the fans to decide that election...

He killed himself? Where's that in the cannon?


Honest question, I didn't keep up with the novels and the like.

It's in the Dragonheart Trilogy of novels. While it is canon that he killed himself, it's one of those things that only a dozen people in the world might know.

Nasty idea: But ever thought abot GHOUL FARMING?

They are infectious like hell, so producing new ghouls is no problem. Keep some of them close to starvation, throw in some people, turn them to ghouls, kill 90% of them off and collect 1500,00 per head. Sure that's not sth you would like your runners to do, but a real lowlife gang might resort to this measures to actually "farm money" (as seen on WoW).

Might even be a hook to an adventure: Someone at the "ghoul bounty office" is wondering how it is that 50% of all ghoul bounties payed in the last term has been collected by the same 3-4 people. Cops ain't interested ("that's what your office is for; ghouls ain't our concern") so the guy at the office juggles the numbers so that he frees bounties for 10 ghouls (= 15.000,00) to hire a SR team to investigate the "top bounty collector's whereabouts and methods".

Just thinking...

AAS

A bounty on feral ghouls makes sense but is disastrous if it applies to a Ghoul buisness man who actually have his condition listed and is a legal citizen and have to travel in areas with less than healthy laws - are people allowed to shoot him on sight?

Not to mention that the infection risk and inherent danger of hunting these feral nightmares should pay more.

You need to kill 2 a month just to keep up with a low lifestyle.

Let's just say that "The Preacher" would have a talk with them...a very final talk about fiery damnation and their next final destination...and throw them to their own ghouls before killing them all.

iirc, that was the actual outcome of people sending in a ballot sheet that was found in the back of a sourcebook or other.

Like I always say, people have the leaders they deserve. If the people chose Dunkelzahn it is their own gain/loss.

That doesn't make it any less dumb, if you think it was a dumb idea.

Ghouls must be rare, if the bounty is that high.

If there were a lot of them, people would have enough incentive to kill them, just out of fear. And if there were a lot being turned in, the gov't couldn't afford to pay the bounties.

Step 1: Spray an entire stadium full of people with HMMV-III blood.
Step 2: Apply thermobaric explosives.
Step 3: Profit.

Not really, and that is not high.

Let's take a look at the risks.

-HMMV Infection Risk
-Being eaten alive
-Hunting something that naturally hunts you
-There are always more than one of them
-Some of them are as smart as you
-Some of them have better ware than you
-Some of them are magicians
-Some of them have lots of guns
-Some of them have friends who dont care if they are ghouls
-Those friends might come after you
-Ghoul Drake Magicians are a pain in the patookus to take down...

End result:

It's not like hunting down a regular criminal or shooting a stray cat.

Not to mention that one could make a drive by in Glow City if it was that easy.

I think you need to wait a week so that what you kill are actual Ghouls and not just people sprayed with blood - they must be infected first otherwise you go in for mass murder.

If you sprayed the blood in the first place you still go in for mass murder, conspiracy, and terrorism.

They have weekly sports events. A little thing like mass ghoulification isn't going to keep the true fans away.

I didn't mean to blow them up on the spot. It's just that's how all my plans end.

Step n-1: apply thermobaric explosives.
Step n: profit.

I think you would be apprehended as a criminal either way.

1. Terrorist Action
2. Setting of an explosive device
3. Disturbing a public event (the fans WILL hunt you down for wrecking the game)
4. Assault (well, at least assault)
5. Attack with a Biological weapon
6. Fraud (you are creating a revenue from nothing - the IRS will have your ass)

Not to mention any GM who let you get away with that in the first place needs to have his GM's License revoked

Reminds me of an old Knights of the Dinner Table comic. Brian (The groups Rule Lawyer/Power Gamer) finds some owlbear eggs after killing some adult Owlbears. He proceeds to take the eggs, hatch them, uses magic to age them, lets them make more eggs then kills them for XP. Wash, rinse, repeat.

Bull

Drat! The plan was going so well up until step 1!

I think you can only really do that in Paranoia.
(Jim really did achieve Ultraviolet status during play)

I have an Official Shadowrun Gamemaster license around here somewhere from FASA

Drakes can't be ghouls.... Drake trait makes you immune to Infection.

You have some good points. But we're not talking about tricked out shadowrunners going after ghoul mages for an extra 1500 in spending money. I'm thinking out-of-work weekend warrior types. Small groups of them who gear up for it. But I guess if the city can pay someone 15,000¥ for clearing out an infestation, that's cheaper than hiring someone full time.

I'm also ignoring the game rule where if you get anywhere near one, you're automatically infected. If that was true, the city would bring in military forces. That's too big a hazard to ignore. But let's not get into that rule again.

They'd likely burn down a block just to get 1 of them actually, but ya.....

Well, don't forget that you need a bunch of licenses to get the bounties - all the hunting and bounty-hunting licenses and that. That shoud be a major turnover for SINless.

As for Dunkelzahn biz - why even care about what's in the novels when it's generally agreed that they are horrible and destructive to the setting?

Because the dragon is still dead and the books are still canon. ShadowRun has never issued a retcon. The only apparent retcons were issues that were left semi-obscured and the details "known by the masses" were just rumor. I mean, if you check Runner's Companion you'll notice the section on Drakes says they're not SURGE, but does have a bit of shadowtalk from someone who says they are. The only reason, we as players know they're not is because of the rules and fluff from Dragons of the Sixth World ('true drakes' versus 'bred drakes' etc).

Don't forget that ghouls aren't weak. Bunch of armed humanoids with Body 7 and Init 9 isn't an easy prey for wanna-be-bounty hunters. Besides, ghouls usually live in places like Barrens - you have to get there first (dealing with local gangs, for example). And the ones like Chester are able to send a shadowteam against such idiots.

Even if "ghoulism" is not as dangerous as in RAW (let's say, Vector: Injection and lower Power), it's still dangerous. Ghoul always can attack from behind and bite your ass off. Enough to become Infected.

EDIT:

I looked into Augmentation - Contact diseases are spread by direct contact (touching skin of Infected), not just getting near one.

I would actually advocate that you need a little bit more than a mere touch. Being bitten by one could also constitute as a contact vector and be more in feel with how ye olde zombie horde tales.

Otherwise everyone living in hiding as a Ghoul with the appropriate ware could walk around and just touch people to infect an entire city. Places like Beaches, Bathhouses, Saunas would be a good place to start if you really want to infect people.

Even better, get yourself a nurse/doctor outfit and walk around touching patients, that get in contact with doctors and then touches new patients...

It's a death wish from the ghoul... Sooner or later somebody will scan him astrally and put a heatwave on his head (and start a hunting season for all ghouls in the sprawl). AND at first the ghoul has to gain nuyen for the 'ware, find some good (and willing to work with Infected) disguise specialist/surgeon.

Maybe a Contact with ghoul infects only with Power, let's say, 2?

Ghoul Encounter of the first kind: You hear about the Ghoul
Disease Power: 0

Ghoul Encounter of the second kind: You See the Ghoul
Disease Power: 0-1 (Depending if he throws chosen body part or bodily fluid your way)

Ghoul Encounter of the third kind: You meet the Ghoul - He breathes on you...
Disease Power: 1

Ghoul Encounter of the fourth kind: He shakes your hand and have a chat with you
Disease Power: 2

Ghoul Encounter of the fifth kind: He nibbles a little on you
Disease Power: 4

Ghoul Encounter of the sixth kind: You get in the sack with the Ghoul
Disease power: 6

Ghoul Encounter of the seventh kind: He bites you, you bleed.
Disease Power: As per SR4 rules

Actually Jopp has it about right. RAW makes becoming a ghoul easier than breathing. It isn't only contact with a ghoul that can cause infection, but contact with their blood or saliva (Or any bodily fluid, and likely things like bits of skin as well) as well, and the power is impossibly high, even with medicine you're going to be a ghoul.

So, all a ghoul has to do is get a nanopaste disguise (Or any kind of disguise that would let them blend in. Heck, depending on how bad they are, maybe some decent makeup work) to be not noticed, and then go into a subway and sneeze some. Maybe pose as a preacher or something and try and shake people's hands. Sure, a mage might find them out if they decide to astral scan them, but they'll have already infected hundreds of people, who will go on to infect thousands more.

Even scarier, an awakened ghoul. Uses a physical mask for disguise, then uses initiation to disguise their aura. Bam, can't be detected, and can walk around infecting tons of people by sneezing on them, shaking their hand, leaving some skin on the toilet seat or sneeze on the soap dispenser.

RAW says that one halfway competent ghoul could cause a Zombie Apocalypse with minimal effort.

Heck, honestly, just have a ghoul sky dive without a parachute into a heavily trafficked area. Splat goes the ghoul and little infectious pieces go all over the place, infecting dozens of people, most of whom will go away and start infecting others before the situation can be contained.

ShadowRun: Giving "suicide bomber" new meaning.

It also says the disease doesn't always "strike" someone and the reasons for this behavior are unknown (game-wise is a way for the GM put ghouls against the player without them freaking about getting infected), heck, we just had a game las week where one of runners got scratched by a ghould and I've told my GM I will put him quarantined in a room with C4 and any breach will kill him until I know he insn't infected.

Schrödinger's Ghoul? ;P

Oh god...

Crop Duster Drone
Well processed ghoul bodily fluids or just well processed ghouls.
Fly straight over downtown seattle during high traffic hours, well trafficed popular spots and club entrances...

Grenade Launcher drone
Well processed ghoul bodily fluids or just well processed ghouls.
Splash Grenades

Hmm, are there MORE rules for Infection power?

The one I can find you roll Magic+Charisma VS victims Body+Willpower.

I dont think regular bodily fluids are allowed to roll...