The New Ghostbusters Premiere

This is post number 15 in the series “31 Days of Ghostbusters,” a celebration of the franchise’s return to the big screen.

The new movie is out today! (Or, if you’re in Hollywood, it was last Saturday. Or if you’re at my local theater, it was yesterday.) This is my favorite image from the Hollywood premiere:

Eric Charbonneau / AP

I can’t compare with that one, my wife did get this shot of my son and me (and Slimer)…

A superfan behind us (who nearly squealed at every cameo in the movie) asked me after the movie where I got my Ghostbusters buttons. I got to proudly tell her “at the mall where I saw Ghostbusters…in 1984.”

I’ll write up my impressions of the new movie later, but for now just let me say I liked it enough to write some game content for it before 31 Days of Ghostbusters is over.

Have you seen it yet? Do you plan to? If you have, let’s keep this a spoiler-free zone!

Ghostbusters: The Next Generation

This is post number 14 in the series “31 Days of Ghostbusters,” a celebration of the franchise’s return to the big screen.


(Today’s post also appears on Gnome Stew, the best damn gaming website anywhere. I’m posting it here for continuity, but I suggest you read it on Gnome Stew. It’s prettier there.

Ghostbusters: The Next Generation)

The Ghostbusters RPG (which we talked about recently) may be dearly departed, but it lives on in spirit. Elements from Ghostbusters have made their way into later games, either in the form of game mechanics, philosophy, sense of humor, or subject matter.

Here are some of the games that were either inspired by Ghostbusters or that enable you to bring similar themes and activities to your gaming table. In some, you bust the ghosts; in the others, you ARE the ghost. Please note that we can’t cover every ghostly game, so if we didn’t mention your favorite, please sing its praises in the comments!

Ghost-Busting Games

InSpectres

“Battle the forces of darkness and try to keep your business afloat in a world of ghosts, demons, vampires and IRS agents.” – Memento Mori Theatricks, 2002

The introduction to InSpectres tells us that the game is loosely based on two things: Ghostbusters and reality TV shows. Like Ghostbusters, InSpectres is a rules-light design: a character has four skills and one unique talent; everything is driven by a few 6-sided dice; and the whole shebang is contained in one 80-page digest-sized book. It’s also got ID badge character sheets and “Cool dice.” The reality TV angle comes in with the game’s use of Confessionals, which are mini-scenes in which one player gets a moment to address the “camera” individually. One of my favorite things about this game (which I’ve repurposed for my Ghostbusters campaign) is the franchise dice concept, providing a pool of dice that the group can earn and any individual can spend.

Green’s Guide to Ghosts

“So you think strapping a nuclear reactor to your back and waving a proton-thingamahoochie around makes you a ghost hunter? Think again!” – 12 to Midnight, 2005

Green’s Guide to Ghosts is a ghost-hunting setting book for Savage Worlds. (A version for d20 is available, too.) The book is presented and narrated by Jackson Green, a professional ghost hunter who tells it like it is. Green’s Guide aims for coverage that is thorough rather than minimalist (not that this is a problem, considering Savage Worlds isn’t overly complicated), and offers a comprehensive selection of ghost hunting rules, equipment, and character abilities. One unique thing about Green’s Guide to Ghosts is its use of seances; in addition to providing rules for holding one in-game, Green’s Guide also gives the GM advice for staging seance scenes in real life. I’m also fond of the book’s comprehensive lexicon of paranormal terms, from ABE to Zener Cards.

vs. Ghosts

“Whom do you call when things go bump in the night? Ghost hunting with vs. Ghosts will make you feel good!” – Fat Goblin Games, 2016

This is by far the newest game in the list, because it came out just this week! vs. Ghosts is a rules-lite ghosthunting game featuring five attributes, a simple character sheet, and a Ghostmaster. Sounds like just what we’re looking for! Based on vs. Monsters—an even shorter product created as part of the 24 Hour RPG project—vs. Ghosts also features ghosthunting gear, ghost rules, and a well-illustrated section of sample ghosts.

You’re-The-Ghost Games

Wraith: The Oblivion

“Do you listen to the voice inside your head telling you to just let go? Or do you still fight, still love, still feel the passion that won’t let you rest?” – White Wolf, 1994

The fourth game in White Wolf’s World of Darkness, Wraith let players cross over to the other side and play as ghosts. Like the other World of Darkness games, Wraith provided character choices that encompass different types of fictional representations, so your ghost might the kind who can possess people, or haunt a location, or manifest physically, or enter the dreams of mortals. A unique element of Wraith is the fact that each character has a Shadow, which is the dark side of that character, controlled by another player!

Orpheus

“What if you could die and return to your body, to live again?” – White Wolf, 2003

Orpheus was another World of Darkness game, published after Wraith, though the Orpheus line was designed as a limited release of six books. Player characters in Orpheus could be ghosts, or they could instead be living people with the ability to enter the spirit world. Players in this setting use their spectral abilities (which are reminiscent of those in Wraith) to investigate and confront ghostly threats.

Geist: The Sin-Eaters

“Death is a door. You are the one with the key.” – White Wolf, 2009

(OK, sure, this section is looking pretty well dominated by White Wolf Games. What can I say—they clearly have a leaning in that direction! And so do at least a few Gnomes…Martin wrote a preview of Geist back in the day.)

After White Wolf rebooted their World of Darkness in 2004, they published another take on the ghostly experience called Geist: The Sin-Eaters. Players are not exactly ghosts; they are the titular Sin-Eaters, and each Sin-Eater is spiritually tied to a ghostly being called a geist (an aspect of death). I like the fact that in Geist your character’s cause of death has a mechanical effect, such as the type of geist that’s drawn to you, and the kind of powers you can use. Like its older brothers, Geist had powers aplenty, plus atmospheric details like fetters and ectoplasm and haunts. Geist was a limited-run series, consisting of the core book plus a Book of the Dead.

Beyond

“Can you resolve whatever holds you back before Entropy steals your name?” – Stew Wilson, 2013

The record for “ghostly minimalism” (surely that’s a thing?) has a new champion in the form of Beyond, a two-page pay-what-you-want RPG. (And one of the pages is the character sheet!) As you might expect out of such a length, Beyond is strongly story focused. The game rotates the role of GM (called “Entropy”) between players, changing every scene. The to-the-point rules include a dice pool of red, white, and blue six-siders plus a list of simple but classic ghostly powers. There’s not much story guidance here, but if you and your players like taking a basic idea and improvising off of it, this game is a spooky place to start. (Er, spooky in a good way.) And if two pages is just too much reading for you, the designer also offers a lite version of the game called Unfinished, weighing in at 150 words.

Have you played any of these ghostly games? Or do you have others to recommend? Are you running a new (or old) Ghostbusters inspired game using another system? Let us know below!

Ghostbusters Adventure Seeds

By hobvias sudoneighm (https://www.flickr.com/photos/striatic/1629269/)
[CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

This is post number 13 in the series “31 Days of Ghostbusters,” a celebration of the franchise’s return to the big screen.

I’m following a fine tradition here. The Ghostbusters Operations Manual contained 21 adventure ideas. Ghostbusters International added 19 more. Well, I’m not being paid for this, so I’m only giving you five. Today, anyway.

  1. “The Deck of Magic Cards.” A deck of cards from the game Magic: The Gathering (or another card game of your choosing) has been accidentally enchanted, and several cards come to life during a game at a hobby store. The Ghostbusters must subdue the cards, confiscate the deck to keep other cards from coming to life, and locate the source of the enchantment—which as the characters arrive is already working its mojo on something even more heinous and dangerous. Perhaps the cards are enchanted by an Egyptian playing card box (in the form of a little bitty sarcophagus), and the owner of the box awakens, too. The owner wants to play with his cards, which are an ancient Egyptian version of the same game from the beginning of this story—and they cast even more deadly spells. (Do the Ghostbusters have any of those enchanted Magic cards left? If so, they can use them to fight the Big Guy.)
  2. “The Acupuncturist.” An Exorcist rip-off parody. Begins with an American-born Chinese man visiting the Ghostbusters offices to tell the team about his possessed mother. The client produces a jar full of green puke as evidence. After the Ghostbusters visit and verify that there is indeed a possession going on (and serve as the targets of the foulest language imaginable), they realize that standard ghostbusting won’t work in this case—they need an exorcism. But not just any exorcism will do; because of the host’s belief system, a Catholic exorcist won’t work—they need an acupuncturist. The Ghostbusters can call one in or try it themselves (if they have an appropriate Talent, or even an almost appropriate Talent, or even the flimsiest excuse for a related Talent, such as Poker).
  3. “In Containment.” The tables are turned as the Ghostbusters find themselves trapped inside their own containment grid. Whether they’re victims of an experimental upgrade that made their grid overzealous, or something has happened to the team to turn them incorporeal and trap them, the Ghostbusters now have the “opportunity” to explore their ecto-prison from the inside. And while they’re working on escaping the grid, they also have to contend with all the spooks they’ve incarcerated here–and some of them aren’t too happy to see our heroes.
  4. “Lil’ Ghostbusters.” A paranormal effect turns the Ghostbusters into kids while they’re on a mission. And maybe not all at the same time, so adult Ghostbusters have to keep the little ones out of trouble. (Brownie Point awards to kid ‘busters who “act out” appropriately.) The effect could be caused by a ghost, or it might be localized property generated by a special building or landmark.
  5. “Gotta Bust ‘em All.” A new augmented-reality smartphone game lets people pretend to capture cartoon creatures they “see” in the real world. Problem is, something is making the game TOO real—in one part of town the monsters people capture are manifesting physically and causing all kinds of havoc. What kind of nearby force or entity is causing ectoplasmic energy to coalesce into cheerful, colorful gremlins?

Ghostbusters Campaigns


This is post number 12 in the series “31 Days of Ghostbusters,” a celebration of the franchise’s return to the big screen.

The (natural) assumption in the Ghostbusters RPG is that your Ghostbusters will be running around modern-day (or close enough) Earth zapping ghosts for money. But that’s not all you can do with Ghostbusters! Join me in my time-and-space-machine and we’ll take a look at a few alternate options to use when building a new Ghostbusters campaign.

Alternate Time Periods

Many other games assume that the action will be set in the modern day, and that’s not a bad way to run Ghostbusters. This is arguably the way that the Ghostbusters RPG is intended to be used—at the time it was written, everything in the game was either modern or even a little bit futuristic. That’s great and all, but let’s see what kind of fun we can have busting spooks in other times!

Classic Era (1980s)

The Ghostbusters films were made in the 80s, and both editions of the game were made in the 80s, so it’s not a stretch to figure someone is going to want to have their game set in the same decade. You get to describe the fashions! Play the background music! Act out the celebrity guest stars! And you don’t have to worry about ubiquitous technological nuisances like smartphones and email short-circuiting your ghost story.

Other Past Eras

One way to set a game in the past—before the founding of the Ghostbusters in the 1980s, I mean—is to start the team in the present and then strand the in the past after some kind of temporal accident. Another way would be to have your players take on the roles of a team of Ghostbusters that history forgot—pioneers who were busting ghosts using charmingly low-tech solutions, such as steam-powered proton packs or tesla coil ghost traps. Either route could give your Ghostbusters the opportunity to bust ghosts in the Wild West, ancient Rome, or the caveman era. (Probably best not to stay too long in that last one, since there will probably only be a handful of ghosts!) Note that setting a game in the 1920s will let you use your Call of Cthulhu background material (and maybe throw some Lovecraftian horrors at the team).

The Future

Getting your Ghostbusters into the future can happen the same as it would for the past: send them there, or start them there. (It looks like the upcoming animated series Ghostbusters: Ecto Force will do the latter.) What differs is the flavor of their adventures as they operate in a world of cold fusion power, flying cars, and cyberspace. What is it like to be a Ghostbuster in an age when the line between a ghost and a human intelligence stored in the cloud becomes blurred. Something else to consider about busting ghosts in the future is that the spooks the players encounter could be people who are still alive today!

Paranormal Ghostbusters

Who says Ghostbusters have to be humans…or mortals? You might base a campaign on the premise that one or more of the player characters are non-human entities. Maybe psychics turn out to be excellent Ghostbusters. Or maybe Ghostbusters, Inc. rolls out a work release program with the goal of transitioning some of the more well-behaved spectres into productive afterlives by employing them as probationary Ghostbusters. In a campaign set in the future, players might be alien Ghostbusters, or robotic ones. (InSpectres, an excellent spiritual successor to Ghostbusters, contains a whole chapter on this topic. More about InSpectres is coming soon.)

Exotic Settings

Not only can we leave New York City for our ghost-busting adventures, we can leave the United States entirely. The Ghostbusters are fully capable of causing property damage on a global scale—and beyond!

Other Countries

If the Ghostmaster in question already lives somewhere other than the U.S., then this option is a no-brainer, and will be “domestic” rather than “exotic.” But either way, setting a Ghostbusters game in another country can bring new, unique elements into play. Irish Ghostbusters will probably get sick of dealing with banshees, while Middle Eastern Ghostbusters battle genies. All while dealing with their country’s internal politics, of course.

Other Worlds

Probably best tied with a far-future setting, basing the Ghostbusters on another planet would provide numerous ways to change up a game. If it’s an alien planet, consider whether the ghosts of these aliens even behave remotely similar to human ghosts—they may not even behave similar to the aliens that are still alive. What happens when an alien ghost possesses a human? Can ghosts travel between planets? Do aliens make good Ghostbusters? Is there a star empire made up entirely of alien spirits?

Other Realities

If you want to be REALLY far out, establish a franchise in another dimension, such as an alternate Earth. Perhaps on this Earth, the Ghostbusters are all superheroes and don’t need special equipment to fight ghosts. Or ghosts and mortals live side by side and the job of the Ghostbusters (or “Ghost Department”) is to act as police officers and keep the peace. Or everything is the same as on our Earth except that the PCs have goatees. (Yep, even the women.)

Got a campaign idea to share with me? On at least one Earth, I’m all ears!

Gaming Soundtracks: Ghostbusters II

This is post number 11 in the series “31 Days of Ghostbusters,” a celebration of the franchise’s return to the big screen.

I feel like I’m not being completely fair in rating both this album and the original Ghostbusters soundtrack, because while I’ve listened to the original movie’s music lots and lots of times since I was a teenager, I only got around to trying out Ghostbusters II a few years ago. Some of the tracks from Ghostbusters get a pass from me for the sole reason that I’ve been listening to them since childhood. That won’t be true of any tracks below.

Listen. I didn’t love this movie. And I didn’t love this soundtrack. But I’m gonna power through and see if there’s anything worth mining out of it for a Ghostbusters game. Let’s get this over with.

The Ghostbusters II soundtrack was released in 1989. Where the Ghostbusters soundtrack at least had two tracks pulled from the film score, this one did not; it contained only pop and rap songs, most (but not all) of which were used in the movie. The album tracks are:

  1. On Our Own by Bobby Brown. Average. It IS a Ghostbusters-specific song, as much as, say, “Cleanin’ Up the Town” from Ghostbusters, in that it mentions the Ghostbusters. It just doesn’t scream “ghost-busting” to me like that song does.
  2. Supernatural by New Edition. Skippable. Has nothing to do with the movie. File with Air Supply in Ghostbusters.
  3. The Promised Land by J. T. Taylor. Same as above.
  4. We’re Back by Bobby Brown. Like “On Our Own,” this track does feel specifically related to the Ghostbusters, so that’s a plus. The only way I could see it applying to an in-game scene is if your player characters are returning to ghostbusting after a long absence.
  5. Spirit by Doug E. Fresh & The Get Fresh Crew. If you or your players are fans of ’80s rap, then this track might work. Like the Bobby Brown tracks, this is a Ghostbusters-specific song, and could accompany an action scene or a montage.
  6. Ghostbusters by Run D.M.C. As Ghostbusters theme songs go, this one is the second. Still, it is sort of a tribute to the original song, and if you’re in a rap mood, it gets the job done. Use it to start a session when your players are tired of the original, or nostalgic for Ghostbusters II.
  7. Flesh ‘N Blood by Oingo Boingo. As a song, this one works for me more than any of the others on this album. As music for a Ghostbusters game, not so much. Still, if your game has a need for a new wave sound, you might pair this one with another appropriate Oingo Boingo song, “Dead Man’s Party.”
  8. Love is a Cannibal by Elton John. I’m an Elton John fan. I own Elton John albums. This is an okay Elton John song, but not for Ghostbusters. Skip it.
  9. Flip City by Glenn Frey. Next. Oh, that’s the last track? Good.