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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mannahnin" data-source="post: 9365456" data-attributes="member: 7026594">Although since the Ghoul monster entry in OD&D references Chainmail, in which the duration of Ghoul paralysis is "one full turn", I'd be disinclined to assume it's meant to be permanent.  Turns in Chainmail of course are one minute long, so one could certainly interpret Ghoul paralysis as lasting either for a D&D round (one minute) or for a D&D Turn (ten minutes). Gary eventually did put a duration in 1979's Village of Hommelet, right?  And Moldvay's 1981 Basic set made "the usual type" of paralysis (in both the Carrion Crawler and Ghoul entries) last 2-8 Turns if not cured sooner by Cure Light Wounds.Eh. Both of the items you've cited are examples of disabling poison which renders the victim unconscious.  Indefinitely in a death-like sleep in Snow White's case, and for a few hours in Shelob's case (as Shagrat explains).  These aren't wakeful paralysis.Paralysis in fiction, especially associated with monsters, is most often (almost always?) a consequence of fear. Someone startled and frozen in terror, unable to move or get away.  The Universal Monsters Mummy commonly caused this effect, for example, which allowed it to shamble up and kill the victim without said victim running away.  Mummies do this in D&D, too.  The sight of one in B/X causes a save vs paralysis or the victim is frozen in fear until the mummy attacks or leaves LOS.  The AD&D mummy, as one would expect, has a more complex version of the same rule.Roger E. Moore in his well-known The Elven Point of View article from Dragon #60 (and Best of Dragon #3) suggests that Ghouls paralyze by triggering fear of mortality, and speculates that Elves' resistance to Ghoul paralysis may be derived from their long life and (relative) lack of that fear.The idea that durations would be specifically linked to an encounter is certainly gamist, but some conditions and magical effects being temporary has been part of the game since its inception, and derives both from reality and folklore.  Real conditions such as conversion disorder ("hysterical blindness") resulting in blindness, inability to speak, frozen breath, seizures, numbness, or paralysis, or being stunned, in shock, or frozen in fear are normally temporary and wear off once the stressor goes away or the person has time to acclimate and recover.</blockquote>

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