Dumpshock Forums

Karoline

Oct 17 2009, 01:26 PM

Welcome to an SR take on zombie apocalypses. There will be blood, there will be guts, there will be massive hoards of semi-mindless things trying to eat you. Lets see how long you can deny them your sweet sweet flesh.

So, bust out your shotgun, fire up your chainsaw, and lets get ready to fight for your survival.

Please post your character with your first post, and then wait until all the starting characters have been thrown up before posting any more so we have a nice grouping so that character sheets can be found easily. If you are in the reserve spots, please feel free to throw up a place holder post so that when/if you get in you'll have a spot near the front of the thread like everyone else. We won't be waiting on the reserves to post though, so if you want an easy to find spot, best act quickly.

I have mentioned several times that medkits wouldn't work quite like normal for the sake of this game. Here is how things are going to work. You'll have to keep track of 'meds' which will operate very much like ammo for the medkit. Each 'med' is good for healing up to 2 boxes of damage (With appropriate roll of course) so healing 4 boxes will burn up 2 'meds' and healing 7 will burn up 4 'meds'.

Meds are also good for fighting the nasty new HMHVV IV that is going around. The power of the disease will be dropped by 1 for each med over six that you take to help fight it. So if you burn 8 meds the power will be reduced by 2. Burning six or less meds on reducing power will not net you any kind of benefit except that using other infection fighting agents will be more effective. Proper use of these meds takes time, you'll need to burn a combat turn per med that you use on reducing power (Including the initial 6) but you need not do them all at once.

Finally, savor medkits will use 'nano meds' instead of regular meds to operate. Each nano med will heal up to 5 boxes of damage (With appropriate roll) and will have the added advantage of only taking a single combat round to apply instead of the normal combat round per box healed, however it will still take the normal number of combat rounds for the meds to take full affect (You'll be healing a box each combat round until the full affects are reached).

Nano meds can be used like normal meds to fight off the infection as well. Here they are once again far more effective than regular meds in that they only take one combat turn to apply reguardless of how many nano meds you use. They knock down the power by 3 per nano med used after the first two, so four nano meds will drop the power by 6. Please note that you can combine nano meds and regular meds for fighting the infection, with the first 6 combined power going towards overcoming the virus' resistance, and then additional power getting used to reduce the power of the virus itself.

Or an example of using the two together, you pop five meds and get no noticeable benefit against the infection. You then find some nano meds, and pop them as well, using 1 nano med. The power of 5 from the earlier does combines with the power of 3 from the new one, which breaks past the 6 barrier, and overall reduces the power of the infection by 2. I hope these rules aren't too complicated, and hope that they will provide for an extra 'survivor' element to the game as you have to manage your meds along with ammo, food, and water consumption. This will generally force you to keep on the move to keep finding more supplies, though if you find a large and secure enough stash of supplies, you could always try riding out the storm there.

Remember, the main objective for you guys is to not feed the zombies

Hope everyone has fun.

Marston

Oct 17 2009, 02:42 PM

Placing a holder here.

TheMidnightHobo

Oct 17 2009, 03:09 PM

Character Sheet for Richard Sivs

[ Spoiler ]

Moved some things around so he can buy his composure test now for Combat Monster if he needs to;took Str down to 2 to get Will 3->4 and got rid of a rank in survival and perception and didn't get Reaction Enhancers as betaware to buy up Will 4->5. Oh, and I caught myself having not paid for the first rank in Data Search, so that's down a level to pay for the first rank with Karma. Hope that's oqay; if not I'll go with the first sheet.

ravensoracle

Oct 17 2009, 06:26 PM

[ Spoiler ]

Background

[ Spoiler ]

crizh

Oct 18 2009, 06:21 AM

The Brute

[ Spoiler ]

Vignette

[ Spoiler ]

Marwynn

Oct 18 2009, 06:38 AM

"Brox"

Intro

[ Spoiler ]

Character Sheet

[ Spoiler ]

Street Magic Tradition

[ Spoiler ]

Karoline

Oct 18 2009, 05:42 PM

Excellent, looks like everyone has their character sheet up, or at least a placeholder. Feel free to talk on this thread now for planning what your first move will be.

triarchic

Oct 18 2009, 06:04 PM

Hope you guys have fun!

edit...

Karoline

Oct 18 2009, 06:20 PM

It is PbP.

ravensoracle

Oct 18 2009, 08:46 PM

Probably stating the obvious, but it looks like we're a group of heavy hitters so far. I am not sure about Marwynn since he hasn't posted his character. A strong mage will help to round us out a bit. Although I think Brute will be able to handle his share in that department. I only wished I would have realized that the drone rigger wasn't joining us. The Matrix support he could have provided would have been an assest as well. I guess we'll have to rely on my pocket hacker [shudders]. If I would have realized we'd be week in that department I would have taken away the Alpha on my Muscle Augmentation and bought a much better Agent and software suite. [Big Puppy Dog Eyes at Karoline] but oh well it will just make the game more interesting.

I am thinking Jacob would have already told the group of his plan to head for the hills when they hit the safehouse. I just didn't want to start a conversation on the first post and ruin what anybody else wanted to post as their first. Anyways, I am thinking of finding a way out of Seattle is priority number one. We can pick up food and medical supplies along the way but don't think we should endanger our chances of getting out of such a high concentration of zombies.

So far we have stealth in double digits all around so I am thinking we avoid a confrontation as much as possible and ghost our way through Seattle.

I do have a question for Karoline. Will infiltration include taking measures to make sure our auras are incognito as well? I know we can't get rid of them but what I am meaning is taking extra steps to make sure that barriers are between us and open ground and the like.

TheMidnightHobo

Oct 18 2009, 09:01 PM

Aren't auras only a few centimeters from the skin anyway? I figured enough clothing and we'd be fine so long as we weren't casting any huge spells. If not, we should definitely take the back streets.

I agree that we'll need to get out quick, but I have no idea where; I'm not too well versed in the not-hugely-populated areas of SR lore (Not too many causes for runs out there!). I honestly figured with everyone having pretty decent stealthy stuff, we might want to go a bit out of the way to hit a gun shop or CVS-equivalent (or even a hospital? It sounds like they were the ground zero of ground zeros, so probably not) before we get out; there won't be too many places to get ammo and meds in the boonies.

Something I am kinda worried about is our lack of scouting equipment... I was kinda hoping for someone with tiny bug-drones or shapechange and extended masking or something, but yeah, with everyone having stealth, as long as we're smart about how we go, I figure we should be fine. Any chance we get a map of the area?

ravensoracle

Oct 18 2009, 10:04 PM

IRL I live in the boonies, trust me you can find ammo and a well stocked pharmacy in many small towns on the way. In fact with the lower populations areas are more likely to have supplies IMO because of less people being there to raid. Of course, we could always find the distribtution warehouse for the drugs and hit that. I mean it shouldn't be a hard to find the location of a major drug stores regional warehouse. I think my agent can get us a map easily enough.

TheMidnightHobo

Oct 18 2009, 10:51 PM

I thought the boonies of SR were more like uninhabited land (populated by ghouls and other creatures) with slim-to-no metas actually living there? I guess I was wrong. :O

Getting out quick sounds like a decent plan, then, with no need to risk our butts with ammo and meds in the city.

Marwynn

Oct 19 2009, 12:59 AM

Yep, I'll be your Magical Support for this "run" (as in we're running for our lives). I brought a fair complement of support spells.

Now I lack any micro or mini drones but I do have a pet Doberman... that has Chameleon Coating and Gecko Tips with Covert Ops 3, so it can go and have a look see. Plus it'll shoot things up.

Karoline

Oct 19 2009, 02:17 AM

You won't be able to hide your aura with clothing (short of going super eskimo style), and infiltration won't cover anything aura specific, but for the most part, things that make it hard to see you, make it hard to see your aura, so it will function similarly against astral perception tests, however some things will obviously be less efficient (Hiding in shadows won't help you much, nor will cham suits or anything like that.)

And no, you can't change your loadout to get a better pocket hacker. Lacking things is a very large part of the game, and you happen to lack a techy.

Karoline

Oct 19 2009, 02:39 AM

I'll be leaving IC posting up to you guys until you come up with a plan (Unless you decide to take too long, in which case something might find you) I'll keep up with OOC posting to answer any questions you have. I may occasionally do a 'flavor' posting if I'm in the mood.

Oh, and yes Hobo, Hospitals were basically ground zero, medical supply shops (Basically anything with a pharmacy attached) were also generally hit hard.

Marwynn

Oct 19 2009, 02:46 AM

I suggest DocWagon ambulances and the like. We may be able to find stuff there.

So where to first? Food and water is a priority, second is ammo for us all. By the way Karoline, how will you handle ammo? Like SR4A with its "class-based ammo"? Like all Assault Rifles use the same rounds, or will it be weapon specific?

Karoline

Oct 19 2009, 02:49 AM

Well, I really don't know much about ammo, but to my knowledge there are a reasonably limited number of types of ammo. So yeah, we'll go with the class based ammo unless you have a really exotic type weapon (Like the sniper rifles would each require their own ammo)

Cthulhudreams

Oct 19 2009, 02:53 AM

If there is a bench of players, can I join? I wanted to get a character in but got side tracked by more pressing concerns (i.e. job apps)

Karoline

Oct 19 2009, 02:57 AM

QUOTE (Cthulhudreams @ Oct 18 2009, 09:53 PM)

If there is a bench of players, can I join? I wanted to get a character in but got side tracked by more pressing concerns (i.e. job apps)

Since when is a job more important than a game?

Certainly you can join. http://forums.dumpshock.com/index.php?showtopic=28422 is the recruitment thread, so feel free to look over there for character creation rules and such. At the moment there is currently one active player on the bench, and two others on the bench who have temporarily bowed out due to being too busy. So please, feel free to make a character and submit it, and if a survivor falls, you'll be on the list of replacement survivors to be found locked in closets (Or whatever

)

Cthulhudreams

Oct 19 2009, 03:07 AM

Hah! Shame the sequel is on the banned list here.

Will do, I have a half done character. Point of intrest: 500 BP + 100 Karma makes for tough characters.

Karoline

Oct 19 2009, 03:30 AM

QUOTE (Cthulhudreams @ Oct 18 2009, 10:07 PM)

Point of intrest: 500 BP + 100 Karma makes for tough characters.

So do modified Ghouls, especially when they are available in the hundreds of thousands. I have mentioned these aren't your garden verity ghouls. May the mage help you when a cybered up troll IV Ghoul shows up.

Cthulhudreams

Oct 19 2009, 08:31 AM

The toughest thing is making sustainable characters. SR4's two shot health mechanics really limit your character options in terms of 'carving it up' through legions of undead. Most SR character concepts can easily 'go nova' but doing it again with no reloads is much harder.

Anything with essence drain would be better. The 'optimal' character for dealing with zombie hordes is actually a vampire as far as I can see, because he can use essence drain to reload.

Cthulhudreams

Oct 19 2009, 08:31 AM

The toughest thing is making sustainable characters. SR4's two shot health mechanics really limit your character options in terms of 'carving it up' through legions of undead. Most SR character concepts can easily 'go nova' but doing it again with no reloads is much harder.

Anything with essence drain would be better. The 'optimal' character for dealing with zombie hordes is actually a vampire as far as I can see, because he can use essence drain to reload.

Karoline

Oct 19 2009, 01:23 PM

I don't think healing is all that limited. First aid can easily pull 2-3 boxes, and magic healing can also pull several boxes. This means a good healing skill, good medkit, and of course the limited healing supplies are all going to be very important, and it also means that taking damage actually means something. Any time damage is taken, the reaction is 'Oh drek, I'm closer to dying now.' as opposed to standard SR reaction of 'Darn, I have -1 for the rest of the run.'

This 'run' is purposefully designed to be dangerous and deadly with a high lethality rate.

Also, essence damage does ensue, and 1 point worth means you're a zombie.

TheMidnightHobo

Oct 19 2009, 01:36 PM

Is the virus only contaminative through bitings and scratching, or should we be worried about the city's water and food supplies? I'd say we should get bottled water anyway, and canned food (or equivalent) just to be safe.

I think this thing hit hard enough, fast enough that people didn't really have time to stock-pile things, so supermarkets should be good targets.

Karoline

Oct 19 2009, 01:43 PM

The virus can be transfer via contact with the infected, their blood, or their saliva, so if you think there is infected blood/saliva/skin in the food/water, then you should avoid it. Otherwise there isn't any reason to suspect either. It should be noted that no source of the new strain was ever confirmed or even anything more than media speculation. It could have come from some company's food/water, it could have come from the city water supply. No one is really sure, so eat/drink from various sources at your own risk.

Oh, and I know I stated that IV ghouls came from regular Ghouls mutating in the original recruitment thread, but that was just initial thoughts, and isn't necessarily how things got kicked off.

Enjoy your paranoia

Marwynn

Oct 19 2009, 03:30 PM

Methinks Brox should've learned the Sterilize spell. Or Clean Water... Or that magical food thing. Well, at least we can stay awake for long periods.

Karoline

Oct 19 2009, 03:43 PM

QUOTE (Marwynn @ Oct 19 2009, 10:30 AM)

Methinks Brox should've learned the Sterilize spell. Or Clean Water... Or that magical food thing. Well, at least we can stay awake for long periods.

Oh hindsight, you are a cruel Mistress indeed. Staying awake is good. There haven't been any -confirmed- reports of the IV Ghouls sleeping, but there really haven't been many confirmed reports of any kind about the IV Ghouls other than the fact that they are highly aggressive, seemingly of limited intellect (Though some of you have encountered notable exceptions to this rule), tougher than nails with something to prove, strong enough to make Trolls envious, and that the infection can be spread by contact with the creatures, their saliva, their blood, and of course bites/scratches that manage to break through armor.

Anything beyond that is speculation or particular first hand experience (The fact that they respond to sound and smell has been reasonably easy to observe).

ravensoracle

Oct 19 2009, 11:28 PM

QUOTE (Karoline @ Oct 18 2009, 09:17 PM)

You won't be able to hide your aura with clothing (short of going super eskimo style), and infiltration won't cover anything aura specific, but for the most part, things that make it hard to see you, make it hard to see your aura, so it will function similarly against astral perception tests, however some things will obviously be less efficient (Hiding in shadows won't help you much, nor will cham suits or anything like that.)

That's what I was actually asking for. I know you can't cover it with clothing I just wanted to make sure infiltration checks also included making sure your aura isn't out in the open which is what it sounds like you're saying.

QUOTE (Karoline @ Oct 18 2009, 09:17 PM)

And no, you can't change your loadout to get a better pocket hacker. Lacking things is a very large part of the game, and you happen to lack a techy.

I didn't think you would let me. It was only a half-hearted request. I was thinking the way I asked would have hinted that it was more a joke.

As to postig our planning IC, I am waiting for eveyone to at least post once before I post. I am of strong opinion that I shouldn't interfere with anyone's introductory post.

As to the topic of posting, how often do you other players believe you'll be able to participate. The reason I am asking is that I play on other sites and if someone is only posting once every 3or 4 days than the group should be aware of that so we aren't watching the board chomping at the bit for our own next post. It wasn't mentioned in player selection and can greatly affect a game. Especially if more players want to post daily and others can't keep up with that. Not complaining, but I just think it is a topic that needs to be covered early on so the game doesn't die.

TheMidnightHobo

Oct 20 2009, 12:24 AM

QUOTE (ravensoracle @ Oct 19 2009, 07:28 PM)

As to the topic of posting, how often do you other players believe you'll be able to participate. The reason I am asking is that I play on other sites and if someone is only posting once every 3or 4 days than the group should be aware of that so we aren't watching the board chomping at the bit for our own next post. It wasn't mentioned in player selection and can greatly affect a game. Especially if more players want to post daily and others can't keep up with that. Not complaining, but I just think it is a topic that needs to be covered early on so the game doesn't die.

I can post, depending on the day, after noon or after 5 pm, so I'm good for several or more posts every day if that's what the rest of you guys want.

Marwynn

Oct 20 2009, 12:54 AM

I can post daily depending on the thread's speed.

ravensoracle

Oct 20 2009, 01:14 AM

I didn't say it but I can post daily, maybe more depending on what I am doing that day. The weekends are more iffy depending on what I am doing with my family and how close I am to my computer.

Karoline

Oct 20 2009, 01:16 AM

Hehe, yeah, I figured it was a joke... Guess I could have responded more jokingly

Hmm, I wonder what happened to Crizh. He hasn't posted anything in quite a while, well, only about 2 days I guess. I'll give him a while longer to start up. Hopefully he'll be able to post more and this was just a little hitch.

Suppose I should have mentioned a posting time in the recruitment thread. I think that since this is a survival horror/actiony type run, faster post times would be nice to keep things moving and keep people a bit on edge.

Personally I generally do a fair number of posts a day, and should be able to keep up with you guys most of the time (Though I sometimes have long stretches away from the computer)

Cthulhudreams

Oct 20 2009, 03:59 AM

Incidently, SM says hiding in real shadows works fine against Astral sight. Just an FYI, total respect if you're playing it differently. My biggest learning from playing games is that you need to get straight how the rules operate.

Anyway, by 'reload' I meant 'get ready to do your shtick again' - it's hard for a maximum firepower character to reload, because ammo is limited. Magicians need down time - but a vampire can just summon a high force spirit, drain another ghoul and instantly be able to summon another high force spirit etc.

Karoline

Oct 20 2009, 10:34 AM

QUOTE (Cthulhudreams @ Oct 19 2009, 10:59 PM)

Incidently, SM says hiding in real shadows works fine against Astral sight. Just an FYI, total respect if you're playing it differently. My biggest learning from playing games is that you need to get straight how the rules operate.

Anyway, by 'reload' I meant 'get ready to do your shtick again' - it's hard for a maximum firepower character to reload, because ammo is limited. Magicians need down time - but a vampire can just summon a high force spirit, drain another ghoul and instantly be able to summon another high force spirit etc.

Hmm, does it? I'll have to look over the rules again. I figured that since the Astral doesn't have normal light sources and whatnot, and since auras are luminescent by all accounts, shadows wouldn't exactly work because they wouldn't necessarily exist in the same places, and even if they did, hiding something in the dark that glows isn't all that easy. Like I said, I'll look into it. I don't mind admitting that I don't quite have the rule book memorized verbatim.

Yeah, I know what you meant by reload, and like I said, that is the entire point of this campaign. It isn't a case where you just burn through ammo at a thousand shots a second, it is something where magicians need to be very careful and thoughtful about what they cast, because they don't have infinite time after the battle to recover from their wounds. Summoning a high force spirit, draining a ghoul, and then repeating is exactly what I -don't- want. With regeneration, essence drain, and immunity to virus, it would be basically pointless.

Maybe you aren't getting that this is supposed to be set up as a survival horror type game, because your suggestion is about negating one of the key aspects (In my opinion) of the game, and that is the fact that you don't have infinite resources, you don't have infinite ability to heal, you don't have the ability to fight forever and a day. One of the key aspects is that you are vulnerable, that your life is basically on a clock that only stops if you can get somewhere truly safe.

Cthulhudreams

Oct 20 2009, 11:04 AM

Oh I see what you want to do - but it's a challenge to be beaten. The players obviously want to defeat the clock. This means bringing the relevant mix of skills and equipment to the table that will enable them to win. It's just like SR4 regular, but instead of the various bits and pieces like social skills, recon astral/mundane/electronic, maximum firepower, stealth firepower etc, you need a different set of tools.

In the case of 'zombie panic' you one of the things need to be able to go nova to fight off a big zombie pack, but you also need to reload under high stress conditions! It's going to happen, so the character has to deal with it. If you cannot go nova and then reload, you've got a major problem.

Karoline

Oct 20 2009, 11:13 AM

QUOTE (Cthulhudreams @ Oct 20 2009, 07:04 AM)

Oh I see what you want to do - but it's a challenge. The players obviously want to defeat the clock. This means bringing the relevant mix of skills and equipment to the table that will enable them to win.

In the case of 'zombie panic' you need to be able to go nova to fight off a big zombie pack, but you also need to reload under high stress conditions!

Exactly, now you're getting it

The idea is that they will have to try and find that balance of putting out enough power to fight off the zombies, but hold back enough so that they can do it again as many times as possible. Of course if they don't fight hard enough they'll end up with wounds, and too many wounds will make the next encounter all the more difficult.

It is one thing that often bugs me about games like D&D and SR (Though this can be changed by play style) is that characters have to get through a very small number of difficult encounters in which they go all out, and aren't too concerned with the consequences (Ammo/spell expenditure or injury) because once they get through the few encounters they'll have all the time in the world to recover. When you take away that recovery time, you have a very different game. The mage isn't nearly as big a powerhouse because he can't take as much risk with a point or two of drain because it can't be healed (Or in D&D the mage only has a limited number of spells that has to last more than a single battle). Ranged types have to balance conserving ammo with making sure things don't get into melee with him. Melee types... well I guess they don't change a ton, but they need to be more wary of taking wounds, so might end up on the defensive more often.

Cthulhudreams

Oct 20 2009, 11:44 AM

You're going to need to be careful with ammo availibility in game, it's what will swing the power balance.

ravensoracle

Oct 21 2009, 12:40 AM

Another Q; What is the battery life on equipment? And where are the rules for generators and such?

TheMidnightHobo

Oct 21 2009, 01:43 AM

Anyone else up for hitting supermarkets and then hightailing it outta here?

ravensoracle

Oct 21 2009, 01:54 AM

I also want to hit a camping supply store as well but we may do that after we get out of the city.

Marwynn

Oct 21 2009, 01:54 AM

I figure the Stuffer Shack's gonna be ransacked, but whatever's there would be more than nothing. I'm up for it.

Karoline

Oct 21 2009, 02:17 AM

QUOTE (ravensoracle @ Oct 20 2009, 07:40 PM)

Another Q; What is the battery life on equipment? And where are the rules for generators and such?

Most equipment is going to be semi-infinite. Commlinks for example you won't need to worry about unless you go for weeks without power (The rules never mention any kind of battery life, or even the slightest thing, fluff or otherwise, about them ever having to be recharged. I figure they are so efficent and their batteries last so long and power is generally so available, that the battery running out on a commlink is basically unheard of unless you live on top of a mountain.

Now, if you guys start to go several weeks without getting to a power source, commlinks will begin to give low battery warnings.

Oh, I also figure that commlinks draw power from anything that they are hooked into directly (via cable) including an implanted datajack. So yeah, commlinks you really won't need to worry about.

Cham suits are similarly 'low drain' items. So long as you guys manage to find some kind of power and get enough time with it to reasonably recharge it, and aren't using it 24/7, it will be a long time before you have to worry about it.

So yeah, unless it specifically states some sort of power limit (Vehicles and drones) you won't need to worry just too much about power for it. This is partly because fluff has never led me to believe that these items have an even remotely short power limit, and partly because I don't want you guys having to track even more stuff (Already tracking food, water, ammo, meds, and vehicle/drone time, as well as damage, don't want you guys to have to track your commlink, cham suit, and a half dozen other little items as well)

crizh

Oct 21 2009, 11:06 AM

Sorry guys, I'm on holiday up North and it appears that mobile broadband coverage North of Inverness is less than stellar.

I will try and keep up and contribute but I may be a bit slow.

I'll be back in civilization on Saturday evening....

Karoline

Oct 21 2009, 11:22 AM

QUOTE (crizh @ Oct 21 2009, 06:06 AM)

Sorry guys, I'm on holiday up North and it appears that mobile broadband coverage North of Inverness is less than stellar.

I will try and keep up and contribute but I may be a bit slow.

I'll be back in civilization on Saturday evening....

Sounds good. No mobile broadband coverage sucks. Personally I'm like a technomancer, if I don't get my internet fix I start going crazy

Do what you can manage and we'll do what we can. Enjoy your trip and look forward to this game really moving forward starting saturday/sunday.

budoka05

Oct 24 2009, 10:04 AM

I'm interested in the game, so I'm putting a place holder here for the wait list. I'll post my char sheet soon.

Karoline

Oct 24 2009, 12:29 PM

QUOTE (budoka05 @ Oct 24 2009, 05:04 AM)

I'm interested in the game, so I'm putting a place holder here for the wait list. I'll post my char sheet soon.

Certainly, interested to see what you come up with.

This seems like a good time to preform a bit of thread necromancy. Hopefully Crizh will be posting today, and then we can get this game rolling again.

crizh

Oct 24 2009, 07:10 PM

I'z back. Post immanent.

Can I ask Karoline, are these new Ghouls using Echolocation? It occurred to me that it might be the case from some of your previous posts and it would be very obvious to an Adept who has Echolocation himself, might even make them easier to hunt...

I'm going to put a bit of combat in the opening post, so it would be helpful to know how they compare to the average Ghoul as seen in the main rulebook.

Karoline

Oct 24 2009, 07:30 PM

QUOTE (crizh @ Oct 24 2009, 03:10 PM)

I'z back. Post immanent.

Can I ask Karoline, are these new Ghouls using Echolocation? It occurred to me that it might be the case from some of your previous posts and it would be very obvious to an Adept who has Echolocation himself, might even make them easier to hunt...

I'm going to put a bit of combat in the opening post, so it would be helpful to know how they compare to the average Ghoul as seen in the main rulebook.

Woo, welcome back. Echolocation is the ability to interpret the bouncing of sound off of objects to create a rough sketch of the surroundings. This doesn't grant any ability to tell if anything else is using echolocation around you (Though you'd be more easily able to tell if they are purposefully making sounds to echolocate with). As it is you haven't noticed them doing that, though the sound could be ultrasonic or infrasonic, thus out of the range of your hearing.

While I wanted to keep the adjustments secret, I'll make some reveals. There are actually multiple IV Ghoul templates in operation, but the important parts for you of the 'Hoard' template (Which is what the vast majority of the IV Ghouls are) are that all physical stats are one higher than the basic Ghoul template, and they gain an extra IP. They also have thick skin which gives them +2 impact armor (Basically running off the 'bark skin' quality). It also seems likely that their mental stats are lower, but that is harder to tell for certain.

There are of course other changes as well, but these are the most immediately noticeable ones (And most relevant to a combat scene).