Customer Reviews

Ghouls: Fatal Addiction (Vampire: The Masquerade)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book, moreso than any other recently released WoD product places emphasis on just how sick, twisted ,and screwed up the World of Darkness is. Ghouls have always gotten the shaft, but now, the storyteller has the materials at hand to properly motivate that unrepetant bloodjunkie,or some smug Ghoul player who cops a quick fix,'lives forever', and moves along. Addiction, what happens to a ghoul feeding off Malkavians or Nosferatsu, Blood Bonds, Revanents, it's all covered. If you're a newer storyteller and are choosing books to purchase, pick up the two core books and Ghouls. HIGHEST POSSIBLE RECCOMENDATION.

Ghouls: Fatal Addiction is just about the best supplement I've read thus far for V:TM. Entertaining and informative, it's a very good guide both for players and storytellers. The presentation is unique and the informative valuable. I recommend it for anyone who has a serious interest in either playing a ghoul character or storytelling a chronicle which uses ghouls to any great extent. Top notch job on behalf of the authors and White Wolf

I love ghouls. When I'm the storyteller, I make sure we have ghouls in our games and I love when players are willing to take on ghouls as characters. Why? They are an interesting combination of vampire and human, a mixture of emotions, and far more powerful that most storytellers and players would like to believe. This book gives you some insights into ghouls though I've seen other passages in other "world of darkness" books which should have been included here. I was expecting a read guide to all ghouls you see so that did disappoint me greatly. The pictures are probably some of the scariest in the series and in fact have turned off one really great player from being a ghoul -- very sad because he was so talented and he had such potential as this character. I think another ghoul book perhaps modeled on the "Children of the Night" book would be a great aid. Surely there are very powerful and very important ghouls in the world of darkness too.

Okay...so, i hear everyone here extolling the virtues of this book as a great addition for you if you're a *real* roleplayer. Well, I am, and have been for a dozen years. making real chronicles for real characters, many games without a dice roll to be found. And I *hated* the premise of this book.

Why?

Because they tried to take away my freedom. They've been doing this a lot with official supplements. In the original supplements, they gave you a flavor for ghouls, just a taste, and several different suggestions. One of them was the blood junkie mentality, one was the stubborn independent, one was the loyal but stupid slave,etc. And left it to you to define your ghouls.

Now they're telling me how each clan treats its ghouls. Not how some older members treat them, not how the majority treats them. Basically, every Kindred in existence treats their ghouls like dirt on the bottom of their shoes if they're not dissecting them for the amusement of their friends and the ghouls take this treatment willingly because they're *all* essentially heroin junkies needing their next fix. Great. Thanks for taking away the variety. I've played ghouls like this. But what made them stand out was their uniqueness, their difference from other ghouls the PCs run into. One of these days White Wolf is gonna stop telling me how to play. Their supplements are supposed to enable me to make a chronicle to hold my players attention, be it horror, action, intrigue, whatever. I was really looking forward to this adding to the shadings of my world. Instead, I haven't used it once, since all it does is flatten everything to yet another shade of boring grey.

This book gives you the right material for makeing and playing a ghoul in a game also more of the political asspect of the game.

This is a great book, but I wanted to comment that a lot of people read it and were scared by it. Some of it deals with rather adult content, but this is White Wolf we're talking about here: almost EVERYTHING in the World Of Darkness is adult, mature, scary, and...well, dark.

I didn't find it frightening at all. Then again, this comes from a guy who read Clanbook: Baali without batting an eyelid.

So if I had to "warn" others about the adult content of this book, I'd honestly say that it's nothing out of the ordinary in the World Of Darkness.

This book is by far most the best book out there on a vampire's slave. Basics: Vampires rather than useing a human as its servent, a vampire will ghoul a mortal or animal to become its slave. I highly recommend this book to any one who plays Vampire: the Masquarde. This book is great except for one thing, its use of foul lanuage lowering its rating from a 10 to a 9. Again, I must say this is one of the best vampire sourcebooks out there.

This is a necessary addition for those game masters that prefer role playing to roll playing. Whenever someone makes a ghoul, they simply make up some stats and a name. There's more to it than that. And this book shows you that there is more to a ghoul than just a weak lackey. Look for Clan differences in ghouls; as well as the introduction of the infamous sireless ghouls. They'll do anything to get just one drop.

You don't need this book to play ghouls or have them in your game. The book is based on 2nd edition, spends a lot of time talking about how little ghouls know about vamps, etc. Save your money and time by creating basic rules of your own.

Ghouls Fatal Addiction focuses the social interactions between ghouls and their respective domitors (masters), with special consideration of the various clan habits and the roles ghouls can play within and outside of kindred society. Unfortunately some chapters appear twice, first in the subjective view of an ghoul or vampire then described in an objective rules-style. This seems rather odd and makes reading a bit boring.
Though the book has many details about the ghouls anatomy, it lacks information on the perception of ghouls via disciplines such as Auspex, Thaumaturgy etc. Can you see only her or ever her domitor? Etc.
If you are a vampire, always remind every ghoul, even if she loves you, might be a threat and kill you one day without warning.