How does it work?
I mean, a Pixy is at best, only a light snack to a ghoul . . Well, untill it vanishes at least . .
While a Centaur would last a family of ghouls for a week or so O.o
And Naga are somewhere in between i guess . .
Where are the limits?
What can ghouls eat to sustain their dietary requirements?
Obviously, Free spirits and AI's don't matter as they don't have much matter to begin with . .
And on the same line of thought: Infected Pixie/Naga/Centaur?
What happens?
What CAN infect them?

Refresh my memory (I may be thinking of pre SR4) but isn't the dietary requirement metahuman flesh, this would exclude pixies, centaurs, nagas, free spirits, dragons, etc. The ghoul is still best served attacking trolls if they want a large mean and dwarves if they want a small one.

One thing I always wandered: can ghouls feed on other ghouls? They are still metahuman, but it feels wrong somehow.

It's a ghoul eat ghoul world.

I could have sworn I saw an infected Sasquatch character/critter but I can't seem to find it now, so maybe I'm full of it.

Anyway, the HMHVV doesn't effect everyone equally. You can technically be infected and it do nothing to you. Of course, you are infected so you can pass the virus to someone else who can be end up turning in to a ghoul or vampire or whatever.

So for the critters that don't have a listed out come, I'd say they can't turn in to one of the infected.

I thought you had to be human to turn into a vampire?

http://wiki.dumpshock.com/index.php/HMHVV
"In one instances, an infected elf survived and expressed as a Nosferatu. This was proven dependent on one particular and extremely-rare blood type found only in particular human and elf subtypes." There's also some stuff about a troll variant in the paragraph above that line.
Don't have a clue as to the original source material. The page says it's Running Wild, but I haven't picked it up yet.

100% approval.

A f'ing vampiric Pommeranian?

i think the original original source was one of the german novels. i seem to recall some discussion about it on dumpshock a while back.

Check this out. Very nice take on infected pixies at least.

If an Infected can feed on other Infected, what prevents a Dzo No Qua to cut little bits of himself for lunch and wait for them to regenerate?

You know where your body has been, would you wana eat it?

He knows where he's been.

From a more technical standpoint, it could well be that the essence he gets from eating his finger isn't enough to grow back that finger, i.e. they could put off starvation but it would be a losing battle.

Edit: Dang, beaten while looking up the correct spelling!

Yah, i've read that thread with much interest, but i don't remember seeing anything official alluding to this topic ._.
Ah well, it's a good read anyway and has some very nice ideas and stuff ^^

It all tastes like chicken anyways.

How would a Ghoul or 'Runners know? Like they've ever had real chicken!

Again correct me if I'm wrong but the dietary requirement was to stop the Essence loss, so eating yourself wouldn't stop that. Eating another Dzo No Qua would work though. Gives new meaning to 69...

Puke!

Bow-chicka-bowow?

No, Dietary requirement and Essence Loss are two different things. All Infected have Dietary Requirement, only a few have Essence Loss. The Essence Drain power can get the lost Essence back, but you can only drain from a live and awake victim, and you don't have to eat her for the drain to work (althouh if she dies in the process, better not waste the meat...) Even with 2 Dzoo Noo Qua, it would only solve the dietary problem, not the Essence Loss.

I think I found a way to feed Ghouls on the cheap.

: Type-O : Cloned skin : 300nY : 4 hours growth time : human skin weights between 8-10 lbs :

Ghoul Body Weight (bw): 200 kilos
Dietary Restrictions: 5% of bw/month
Ghoul diet weight: 200 kilos * .05 = 10 kilos/month
Human skin weight in kilos: ~4 kilos/skin
Clones skin cost: 300 nY/skin

5% of 200 kilos is 20 kilos.
(20 kilos/month) / (4 kilos/skin) = 5 skins/month
(5 skins/month)*(300 nY/skin)=(1,500 nY/month)

For an additional 1,500 nY/month, you too can reap all the glorious rewards of being one of the Ghilani! Join our thinly-veiled metaphor for AIDS! Join the polyclub Cheaply Help Other Metavariant Peoples!

Reminds me of a character one person I knew had. He had an honest to God "good-aligned" ghoul character. He even had the Dependents flaw, his dependents being the people he unintentionally ghoul'ed (he kept them locked in a basement and fed them).

You ever go to a Kentucky Fried Chicken and ask them for a bucket full of just the skins? Has the idea of eating 8 pounds of chicken skin ever sounded appetizing? Puke. And yes, I do honestly believe that (the majority of) ghouls will be squicked out at the idea of just eating cloned skin. Even cannibals have standards.

Besides which the nutritive value of skin, if it has any at all, has got to be far below that of real meat.

"I want a leg." "Thigh!" "Breast!" "Arm!"

Any way the cloned meat thing would not work as such. It is to easy an answer. It is the aura that matters. You could clone a whole human, let him think, and eat him. Or cut bits of someone and then replace those bits with cloned body parts. That would end up being even more evil than eating people that have died of natural causes, but I could imagine a very unusual fetishist volunteering to feed the ghoul. Amputate, clone, reattach. Very twisted but someone would do it.

Actually I think it says in RC that ghouls can live off of clone tissue and medical wastes, so eating cloned muscles and organs wouldn't be any issue. Hell, a ghoul could eat all the factory rejects of the cloned organs. Anything that's malformed, or where the cell-cell bonds didn't form right, leaving leaking membranes in the organ. It would be cheaper to grow a new lung, then try to reseal all the alveoli which didn't form right.

Alright, if the ghouls need to have mana, can't they get a batch of FAB-III, feed it a spirit every once in a while, and eat the tapioca that results? It would be a vegetarian ghoul.

Ghouls weigh the same as their original metahuman type, and according to SR4A page 72 that is:

Lars

Oh, neat. Also, I got the weight wrong, it's 20% of body weight per month.

Dwarf
10.8 kg/month
3 skins/month
900 nY/month

Elf
16 kg/month
4 skins/month
1,200 nY/month

Human
15.6 kg/month
4 skins/month
1,200 nY/month

Orc
25.6 kg/month
7 skins/month
2,100 nY/month

Troll
60 kg/month
13 skins/month
3,900 nY/month

The skins could likely be fortified with other metahuman proteins to up the nutritional value, maybe blood. So our enterprising Street Doc can whip up a clone or two to drain blood off of at whatever rate the bloodsack can be made to produce. OM NOM Long Pork sausage.

Bandersnatch! For when being a Yeti isn't quite enough!

This reminds me of when Latent Dracomorpohsis was described as the ultimate 5BP quality for total immunity to HMHVV..

Interesting - never thought about the quality that way.

It can be argued though that getting HMHVV before becoming a dracoform might make the quality null and void.

I suppose so. It only says that you can't take any Infected qualities if you have Latent Dracomorphosis, so then I guess it's a question of what comes first, the quality wipe or the Infection?
You can't be Infected if you have the quality, or you can't keep the quality if you get Infected?

Plus there's all that hassle of randomly becoming a dragon. Who wants that kind of headache, amirite? 120 karma in the hole is quite the cosmic debt to pay off...

"Oh man! I just took this quality for metagame purposes! Now I'm a dragon and completely developmentally paralyzed! Oh cruel fate to be thusly boned!"

An infected drake . . *shudders*

Infected Great Dragon ....................................................................

Well, at least there will never be anyone getting fired and unemployed from that corporation...

You made me do it...

HMHVV-X
The HMHVV-X is the most rare version of the HMHVV virus and should really be called DGDVV [Dragon-Great Dragon Vampiric Virus] but even that is not a completely correct description.

Their most popular description is simply Dracolish…

The dragon becomes extremely emancipated and bubbling gangrenous sores and scars erupt on it’s body, leaking acidic pus. The entire dragon becomes a magical nightmare that literally leaks mana that must be replenished at regular intervals. Its eyes become sick glowing pits of smouldering mana.

At first the dragon will not have any specific discomfort but over time the disease will ravage its body and mind and only the strongest of dragons have the willpower to overcome the creeping madness that consumes them.

Few if any of these things exists in a feral state since they will be hunted down when found – the sentient dragons on the other hand have a few working behind the scenes. It is rumoured that the Triads in Hong-Kong is controlled by a Feathered Serpent Dracolish.

Attributes: As Dragon + Dzoo-no-Qua
Powers: As Dragon +Dzoo-no-Qua
Dietary Requirements: Metahuman and/or Dragonflesh (1% month) and Essence (As Vampire)

Like there is now?

"Well Philips, you've really screwed the pooch now. Seems that you're more trouble than you're worth. They're transfering you, or rather, HE is transfering you. To the Berlin Office." "NO! NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! Please no!!!" "It's already been done. Here's your ticket, we'll mail your next of kin the contents of your desk."

Well, we had one toxic twisted Great Dragon allready (feuerschwinge)
And we have one toxic twisted blood insect shaman sasquatch.

Thats quite somethink, i didn't even think those 4 thinks as exactly compatible.

Edited becouse i cant count

Toxic Twisted…

Is that a toxic that has become a hardcore enviromentalist and joined greenpeace?

Blood insect…

That promotes insect evolution and saves nature through blood sacrifice?

Shaman…

And follows one seriously self conflicted mentor spirit.

Sasquatch…

Who performs at runner hangouts as a living playback machine for the bands.

Beatbox Death Machine!

Are you mad? The skin's the best part of roast chicken!

...But RAW...flabby, slimy, chicken skin...

Ok, yes, raw skin? That's kinda disgusting.

But then, so is raw chicken.

Grilled, add some spices... yummy

Actually they are... I think I'll write that thread finally.

Colloquially known as the Giant Furry Mosquito.

I think we have those in Winnipeg. I slapped one when she tried to draw my blood, and she threw me into the middle of the street, and started to curb stomp me.

yes, equal rights for dragons! just because they look like 40 foot long winged firebreathing lizards doesn't mean they don't deserve equality!

(sorry, i couldn't resist... i believe the word you're looking for is emaciated.)

Dunkie for President!