Ghouls are Creepy

A table for game masters to randomly determine a ghoul’s

personality!

Scott C. Aker
A King Ooga Ton Ton Production
 Introduction

Ghouls are creepy, frightening and occupy an interesting space on the undead pantheon. For one,
they’re fast and have an unending craving for flesh. They can easily hide, leap out of the shadows,
and paralyze targets. They also have the sinister ghoul fever, which kills and transforms the victim
into a ghoul after a few days, creating an atmosphere of fear and paranoia around anyone who has
recently been in contact with a ghoul.
However, ghouls are also intelligent, and retain many memories and personality traits of their former
lives. Ghouls are therefore an interesting contradiction. On one hand, they are reminiscent of
vampires, who are intelligent undead that can hide amongst society, while on the other hand, their
hunger for flesh puts them closer to mindless horrors such as zombies.
The Ghouls are Creepy table is a table for game masters to use when the player characters
encounter ghouls. Roll on Table 1 for some (or all) of the ghouls when first encountered to give them
a personality, or just some extra flavour. Ghoulish hunger can affect ghouls in different ways, as can
their former lives. Table 1 provides some inspiration for game masters to roleplay their ghoul
antagonists, mooks, and just random encounters.

How to use this table

If you need to spice up a ghoul encounter, roll a d20 and find the corresponding result on Table 1 for
one or all the encountered ghouls to give the ghoul a personality or “twist.” Table 1 also provides a
keyword to help inspire or remember the ghoul’s personality.
 Table 1: You encounter a ghoul!
The ghoul is dragging around three dog corpses on leashes and
1 Dog-walker appears to be taking them somewhere. Random bites of flesh
have been taken out of the corpses. They are not particularly
interested in the player characters and are more concerned that
someone will steal their dog meat than they are fighting
anything.

The ghoul looks like a regular elf and begs the player characters
2 Elf for help, saying “please help me. Take me back to the city,
please!” The ghoul is only trying to trick the player characters
into coming closer. In fact, the ghoul is a human (or local,
common ancestry) who has just risen as a ghoul, but by
coincidence has developed the elf-like ghoulish traits first.
Player characters within 5 ft. of the ghoul or succeeding a
relevant Perception, Religion or Lore check (DC13 or DC10 for
specific lore) notice sunken glowing eyes characteristic of a
ghoul.

Choose one of the player characters. The ghoul sees the player
3 Mistaken characters and immediately says “oh good! Some fellow ghouls.
But I see you have a living [ancestry] with you,” pointing out
the chosen player character. The ghoul has made an honest
mistake, thinking most of the player characters are ghouls, and
will try to convince the other player characters to kill and eat
the chosen player character. It will eventually attack the chosen
player character, and if the others attack back, the ghoul will
respond with genuine confusion. It won’t attack the other player
characters, instead wasting actions trying to reason with them.

The ghoul assures the player characters that they are a

4 Vegetarian vegetarian ghoul, and they don’t eat flesh. True to their word,
the ghoul can easily resist eating flesh. However, they insist as
a prize for their good behaviour they can eat the player
character’s hair and teeth. If the ghoul is not satiated with 1
foot of hair and one set of teeth, (or two of one option), they
will become violent.

The ghoul is wearing a tattered wedding dress and constantly

5 Bride asks “where’s my husband?” They will become increasingly
more agitated at the player characters but won’t attack unless
attacked first. There is a blood all over their face, and closer
inspection reveals a bloody bowtie and cufflinks nearby. The
ghoul ate their husband but does not remember.
 The ghoul acts in a distinguished manner and speaks in a
6 Gentleman British accent with received pronunciation. The ghoul constantly
refers to other ghouls as “disorganized minds.” However, as
soon as any blood is spilt on the battlefield, the ghoul says “oh
dear. Is that…sweet…nectar…oh how I would really…love a
taste…” and becomes mad with hunger and immediately and
ferociously attacks the wounded creature.

The ghoul considers itself a progenitor of ghoul society. It will

7 Leader issue commands to other ghouls, specifically telling them to
gang up on a single, badly defended/armoured player character
and constantly reminding them to “split the meat between us.”

The ghoul is an experienced ghoul and killer. It can speak and

8 Killer communicate easily with the player characters in a cool and
calculated manner, however, has reasoned that as a ghoul, there
is nothing morally wrong with hunting other humanoids in the
same way there is nothing wrong with a wolf that needs to hunt
deer to survive. The ghoul uses stealth and hiding to sneak up
on player characters but will happily sacrifice being undetected
to have moral debates with player characters.

The ghoul specifically wants to turn as many other creatures

9 Recruiter into ghouls as possible to advance ghoulish society. However, it
will first try to reason with player characters to convince them
into becoming a ghoul. The progression might go as follows:
“I won’t attack you. I have an offer for you.”
“I can help you solve your problem.”
“Have you ever been worried about dying?”
“I won’t hurt you, of course. Just a small bite on a willing friend
will do the trick.”
However, if the player characters are not convinced, the ghoul
will attack and attempt to turn them involuntarily.

The ghoul is a former thief and sticks to old habits by using

10 Thief stealth and silence to sneak up on their victims. The ghoul will
often wait in hiding for several rounds, observing the player
characters before finally leaping out to take a swift bite and
retreating into hiding, much like a pickpocket. The ghoul does
not like to fight and is quick to run away. However, the craving
for flesh will often entice the ghoul into slinking back towards
the player characters with the same tactics as before.

The ghoul was a regular, intelligent secretary in life, but had

11 Secretary never actually fought anything. They therefore mistakenly think
that smaller creatures such as halflings, goblins and gnomes are
weaker than larger creatures and will attempt to attack and eat
them first.
 The ghoul stands up perfectly straight. In life, they were a brave
12 Warrior and powerful warrior. The ghoul valiantly charges up to player
characters and attempts to defeat them in fair combat. They
view eating the flesh of a corpse a perfectly valid prize for
winning in a fair fight and say things like “I dare thee to a
square, hon'rable and fair! The prize? Thy blood and flesh, lief
and valuable to thee yet irresistibly sweet and tempting to me.
The p'rfect trophy, as we both value t so. Square up to me,
knight! Alloweth us beginneth our quarrel.”

The ghoul is part of an underground ghoulish cult, in which the

13 Cult member leader instructs ghouls to give in to their flesh cravings as much
as possible. The ghoul therefore constantly refers to “appeasing
the great master” when attacking and eating the player
characters and says things like “master would be so happy,” if
they even defeat or consume flesh of an opponent. It is never
clear if the cult is real.

The ghoul was a former dentist and has become slightly

14 Dentist obsessed with teeth as a result. He mistakes his ghoulish
hunger with an innocent obsession with teeth but has no ability
to hold himself back from consuming teeth or flesh when they
get the opportunity. The ghoul holds a medieval scalpel in one
hand and a pair of large metal pliers in the other hand (the
scalpel does 1d4 slashing damage, while the pliers do 1d6
bludgeoning damage. You can use the same attack bonus as the
ghoul’s claws, but without the possibility of Ghoul Paralysis).

The ghoul believes they have found a secret strategy to

15 Digger combat- burrow under the ground and emerge underneath the
target to attack. With a burrow speed of only 5 ft., this is not
the most effective strategy, but watching a cackling ghoul
burrow into the ground on sight of the player characters will
give the players a fright.

The ghoul acts with the personality of a child. The ghoul thinks
16 Child magic makes flesh tastier, and seeing a magic-user is like
seeing a massive, human-sized chocolate cake. They happily
fight player characters while audibly fantasizing about how
good the magic-users will taste (“Woo! I’m so excited to have
even a small morsel of those magic fingers.”).

The ghoul was an artist in a past life. The ghoul is found with a
17 Artist corpse, but isn’t eating it, rather is twisting its limbs into
strange geometric patterns, and using its blood as paint. The
ghoul will happily add other corpses to its artistic piece if they
become available.
 The ghoul owns a flesh farm deep underground. The ghoul sees
18 Farmer the player characters as cattle to be captured. It speaks mostly
in Necril (being a well-respected member of ghoul society) and
tries to capture at least one player character alive to drag
underground. Paralyzed player characters are good candidates
for capture.

The ghoul is completely mad with hunger and will leap at player
19 Mad characters to attack on sight. The ghoul is considered depraved
even by other ghouls and will continue to attack creatures even
after they have fallen unconscious.

The ghoul is much larger and plumper than a regular ghoul and
20 Hungry has completely given in to their hunger for flesh. While they can
still speak, communicate, and be reasoned with, they are simply
too hungry to do anything except fight living creatures with the
intention to eat them. The ghoul is extremely greedy and will
always fight more and more creatures to gather the largest
flesh harvest possible.

The ghoul is encountered when it has just recently transformed into a ghoul. It peppers the
player characters with questions and is confused about its current state, although they have
few memories of their previous life. It will not attack the player characters unless attacked
first.

The ghoul is missing an arm, which was eaten by ghouls when they were initially attacked
and turned into a ghoul. The ghoul has a young energy and is constantly trying to impress
any other ghouls in the area.

The ghoul has a long, mangled, and patchy beard from when it was alive. The ghoul speaks
like a pirate.

The ghoul is chewing on one of its own limbs when it is encounter. It is extremely gaunt. It is
desperate for flesh, but is extremely weak, and so hesitant to get into a fight.

The ghoul is constantly screeching about how loud everything is, saying things like “the
noise hurts so bad!” and “what is all that racket!” The ghoul always has their ears covered
and will attack player characters that do anything except sneak and do other silent actions.
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