How come the ghoul touch in C&C lasts for turns, as opposed to rounds? Looking at the D&D 2nd edition printing of the ghoul, it was rounds.

Just curious if anyone had taken note of this and if you are running it "by the book" (as printed in M&T) or if you house-ruled it to rounds.

Me, I made it rounds. I like the suspense it creates when a player is sitting there on pins and needle wondering if he is going to get a chance to get back into the fight. Make it turns pretty much removes that suspense.

Due to an ugly situation with players many years ago, I have also changed the paralyzing touch of the ghoul to rounds. Not that I WANTED to, but 6 or 7 PCs of 2-3rd level were nearly TPK'd by a band of 4 ghouls! Bad dice rolls will kill ya good. At one point the entire party was paralyzed at the same time. The players were aggravated to no end, but as the PCs were about to be devoured two of the PCs were unparalyzed because I, on the fly, changed the paralyze to rounds instead of minutes.

Unfortunately, now that I have done that, the players have come to think that all ghouls paralyze for rounds instead of minutes.

And if any of my players are reading this... GET READY TO FEEL THE STING!~

~O

LOL, nice Omote, as always.

I do think that is the right call though. It certainly does not make ghouls any less frightening, and personally, I like having them more "available" (lack of a better word). Making it turns means you really gotta be careful when throwing them out there, but still....even with rounds, ouch, they are still very scary to face.

So is "turns" right by the book though?

Yes. Turns (minutes) would seem to be correct. It's been that way through 3 printings. Serl would be the only one to say for sure.

~O

The AD&D ghoul, as was the source of much inspiration for C&C creaturedom, lists no duration for the paralysis. So turns was a sort of compromise... between infinite and 'over before you realize it.' 2nd edition AD&D was never consulted for anything.

OSRIC measures the paralysis in 3d4 turns, LL in 2d4 turns, BFRPG in 2d8 turns, D&D RC in 2d4 turns (and, equally, Dark Dungeons in "2d4x10 minutes"), and 3e in 1d4+1 rounds.

So, the OSR versions at least agree on turns, but SRD measures in mere rounds. In short, it seems to have been widely agreed that the Ghoul touch paralyzes for several turns throughout most of the game's history, until 3e.

Not quite, the 2e version was measured in rounds...

http://www.lomion.de/cmm/ghoul.php

You know, the more I think about it, why limit ourselves to one ruling on this. Lower HD ghouls paralyze for rounds, while more foul, more powerful (ie, higher HD) ghouls paralyze for for longer durations, even lasting turns.

Measuring the effect in minutes rather than mere seconds seems more reasonable.

I'm not sure I agree with that, as a general rule (nothing wrong with it though). Ghouls are mythical creatures, there is no precendent to say "Oh yea, when a Ghoul claws you, you cannot move for X mins or X seconds.

I could play under either ruling. Heck, I can run it either way.

Just going by the original rules for them. That's as close to a precedent as you'll get for game rules.

Ah, you're right, the one version I didn't check.

2e...always the oddball.

LOL!

Why split hairs? the paralysis lasts until they EAT YOU

I really like minutes instead of rounds. It makes them very scarey indeed. I recently ran a game where the players moved around a dungeon full of ghouls like people in zombie apocolypse game. If was very fun.