Editing Vampire: The Requiem (section)

==Ghouls==
As in ''Masquerade'', a [[Ghoul]] is a human who's been fed vampire blood to turn them into an unaging toady. '''Unlike''' in ''Masquerade'', being a ghoul is a whole lot less fun, and far less of a free power-up for humans.

See, vampire blood - Vitae - is incredibly addictive. It's like cocaine mixed with liquid orgasm. But more than that, it carries a mystical compulsion, making you increasingly enthralled to the vampire you drunk it from (known as the regnant). Drink three times from one vampire, and you're addicted to it. And this blood bond, this Viniculum, is all but impossible to break on your own - it'll go away on its own if you don't drink that vampire's vitae for a year, but the Vinculum creates an artificial but intense love for your regnant that compels you to do whatever they command you to, whether you want to or not. Mortals are most susceptible to this, but other supernatural beings are vulnerable as well. In vampiric society, it's commonly imposed on other vampires as a form of punishment.

To turn somebody into a ghoul, a vampire feeds them a point's worth of Vitae and spends a point of Willpower - naturally, they tend to wait until their future ghoul has a full-blown Viniculum developed in order to ensure their loyalty. Once that happens, bam, they're a ghoul. They immediately stop aging and gain a single dot in Celerity, Vigor or Resilience - exactly which Discipline is chosen by their vampiric creator. They can learn further Disciplines, but at double the cost of a vampire learning them, although they're considered Blood Potency 0, can only spend 1 point of Vitae per turn, and their "Vitae Pool" is equal to their Stamina dots. They can also burn Vitae to augment their physical prowess and to heal wounds, just like a vampire.

Ghouls need to feed regularly, as only the presence of vitae in their system sustains their existence; this requires drinking a point's worth of Vitae from a vampire, with either the vampire or the ghoul spending a Willpower point to "charge" the Vitae, once per month. They can technically "fast" by simply not using their Powers - so long as a ghoul has at least 1 unspent point of Vitae in their system, they still count as a ghoul, no matter how long it's been since they last fed - but if they ever have to spend their last Vitae point, then they immediately lose the powers of the ghoul. The state itself isn't lost permanently; a fresh drink of Vitae will bring them back to the eternal night, but they can't use any of their Disciplines, and time starts catching up on them. As in, they age a year for each ''day'' they go without feeding. And if they do manage to find fresh Vitae, they don't reset the clock, they just pause it at a new point.

Needless to say, the longer a ghoul has been around, the more dependent they are on drinking Vitae - age will turn them into dust if they've been alive long enough.

That's not to say that rogue ghouls don't happen. Usually, it's because somebody else killed a ghoul's master and left the ghoul alive, or a vampire wasn't able to renew the Vinculum on his ghoul and the ghoul ended up defecting to another vampire's service. But any Hunter cell stupid enough to try turning themselves into ghouls to become better vampire hunters, a la [[Hunter: The Reckoning|the Society of Leopold]]? They're up shit creek without a paddle. Or even a boat. 

Ghouls who lack a vampiric master will take desperate measures to get their fix, up to and including killing vampires for their Vitae. While these cases are uncommon, they happen enough for most vampires to realize that they should never underestimate what their servants can do if left to their own devices. 

In 2nd edition, these rules are tweaked slightly. For starters, that monthly feeding of preservative Vitae no longer requires either party spending a Willpower point after the initial ghoul creation, and they can't be knocked unconscious by Bashing damage. That's the good news. The bad news? A ghoul whose failed to upkeep themselves can't halt the decay by taking just one sip of precious Vitae anymore. Nope, now they keep aging until they've ingested Vitae equal to the Blood Potency of the last vampire they drank from before they missed their monthly dose.

The 1e "Ghouls" sourcebook also covers things like Ghoul Families - akin to Masquerade's Revenants, animal ghouls, and plant ghouls. These were re-introduced in the 2e "Half-Damned" sourcebook.