The Adventures of Keith Garrett

This is post number 5 in the series “31 Days of Ghostbusters,” a celebration of the franchise’s return to the big screen.

The classic Ectomobile is a thing of beauty. It’s a “1959 Cadillac Miller-Meteor limo-style endloader combination car (ambulance conversion),” according to Wikipedia. Judging from the trailer for this year’s Ghostbusters movie, the latest Ectomobile is a repurposed hearse. For your game, sure, you COULD use one of those ideas for your franchise’s Ectomobile, but if you want to try out something different, read on for a few ideas.

(Note that, thanks to the Ghostbusters RPG being so light on the rules, I don’t even have to make up stats for these things! Have I mentioned how much I love the Ghostbusters RPG?)

Humvee

By Lance Cpl. Brian Marion [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Armored. Tough. Formidable. Your Ghostbusters would love to have one as their Ectomobile. Should you let them?

Consider this: will it be funny? Forget about whether it would be practical or realistic or actually useful. In a game of Ghostbusters, we want funny. Luckily, even something outwardly tough and cool can be an opportunity for comic relief. It’s big, for example—that might make parking at a job tough, as well as add difficulty to turning in a hurry and squeezing down a narrow street. Also, it’s a thirsty machine; how much of the team’s budget are they willing to spend on gas?

SUV

By OSX (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

A more humble SUV might be a good middle ground between the testosterone-overloaded Humvee and the soccer-mom-stereotyped minivan. Like the minivan, it screams “Suburban Ghostbusters!” But it’s also an icon of the early 2000s, and will help set a Ghostbusters game firmly in the present. (This is the vehicle my players chose in my most recent campaign.)

Minivan

By OSX (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

The main advantage to using a minivan as an Ectomobile is the sliding door on the side that allows a Ghostbuster team to disembark in a hurry when they reach the scene of a haunting. (And then pick up the kids on the way back from the job.) Know what’s another advantage? The Ghostbusters will look like total dorks hopping out of a minivan.

Full-Size Van

By The Conmunity – Pop Culture Geek from Los Angeles, CA, USA (Long Beach Comic Expo 2012 – A-Team van) [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

In addition to being less lame than a minivan, the regular van has an established pedigree in both action and comedy adventures. If it’s good enough for Mr. T and Scooby Doo, it’s good enough for your players! The trick will be to differentiate the Ghostbusters’ van from those famous fictional vans. (The logo and siren will help.) Or, maybe your players will enjoy riding in a symbol that’s reminiscent of other franchises. A lot of players like mashups like that, and would be thrilled to see such a plan come together.

Hybrid Car

Property of Mrs. Adventuresofkeithgarrett

Going in the other direction, a Ghostbusters franchise might take a more EPA-friendly route and opt for a more “green” Ectomobile, like a hybrid car. It may not be as stylish as an ambulance or a hearse or an SUV, but think of the comedy value! The more ridiculous your Ghostbusting players’ characters look, the better, I say. (Other opportunities to make your PCs look dorky include sticking them with a Volkswagen Beetle, a Mini Cooper, or a clown car.)

Bus

By Bill McChesney (Flickr: 32166 Albemarle County School Bus Road-e-o) [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

By Adam E. Moreira (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

By Alf van Beem (Own work) [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons

A full-sized bus, like a school bus or even a city bus, would hold a LOT of Ghostbusters. Plus their equipment. Plus a few passengers, if the team needs some extra money. For a smaller, hipper, more…smoky experience, try the classic Volkswagen Bus. A word of warning, though: don’t bother trying to shoot any pink elephants you see.

RV

By Claygate at en.wikipedia (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

If you like the bus idea but want to go even more extreme, plop your PCs down in a recreational vehicle. In addition to serving as transportation, the Ghostbusters could borrow an idea from Walter White and set up a mobile lab. The Ecto-RV might even pack a mobile containment grid for dropping off spooks on the go. (Of course, the PCs will want to be careful where they dump it.)

Station Wagon

Josephew at English Wikipedia [CC BY-SA 3.0 or GFDL], via Wikimedia Commons

All the style of the ambulance/hearse Ectomobiles without the convenient storage racks! Still, a wood-paneled station wagon would do nicely for a game set in the 70s (time travel?), or a franchise that’s low on cash, or a GM who really loves The Brady Bunch.

Pickup Truck

By High Contrast (Own work) [CC BY 3.0 de], via Wikimedia Commons

This is a must for Southern Ghostbusters. Though the truck can’t hold a full team of ‘Busters, it DOES boast a lot of storage capacity. A two-person Ghostbuster team could operate out of the truck for an extra-long shift without needing to return to HQ to swap out traps or proton packs. (Proton pack gun rack sold separately.)

Motorcycle Fleet

By The original uploader was Naru-W at Japanese Wikipedia [GFDL or CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Why does your franchise need to limit itself to a single vehicle that all the Ghostbusters have to fit inside? They might enjoy motorcycles instead, letting the team split up whenever they want. (As we know, they can do more damage that way.) Sure, a Ghostbuster would have difficulty firing a proton pack while riding a motorcycle (safely, anyway), but from the GM’s point of view, crashes are fun to describe!

Did I forget any entertaining options? If so, let me know below!

The soundtrack to Ghostbusters is one of my favorites. The album mostly consists of 80s pop songs–some of which were clearly only added to pad out the song count–with a few pieces from Elmer Bernstein’s movie score. (A separate score album also exists, but that one sadly saw only a small print run.) While I’d prefer more of Bernstein’s amazing ghostly music, this album is a lot of fun and well worth repeated listenings.

As a GM running a Ghostbusters game, your use of this soundtrack might differ depending on your group of players. For a gang of long-time hardcore Ghostbusters fans–those likely to be familiar with the entire soundtrack, not just the main theme–use the whole thing. Several tracks do nothing to evoke a spooky mood (I’m looking at you, Laura Branigan), but for those of us who grew up listening to this album, they still scream Ghostbusters. If, instead, you have a group of players who don’t even know where in the movie “I Can Wait Forever” was featured, you might wanna stick to the key mood tracks, which for my money are “Ghostbusters” (both versions), “Cleanin’ Up the Town,” “Savin’ the Day,” “Magic,” “Main Title Theme,” and “Dana’s Theme.”

(Do you know which song appeared in the movie but not in the soundtrack? I’ll tell you in a minute.)

Track-specific notes:

1. Ghostbusters (the theme song). Ray Parker, Jr. managed to create a catchy theme song without having to come up with a rhyme for “Ghostbusters,” and I appreciate that. I absolutely burned out on this song when it was first airing on the radio, but I can take it again now. Starting a game session with this theme song might be corny, but you know what? It’s Ghostbusters. Corn it up.
2. Cleanin’ Up the Town. This is the music that played when the Ghostbusters got their first job and tore across town to bust the slimer at the Sedgewick Hotel. You might use it for chase music, or as background for a montage you and your players narrate about how the team captures a series of lesser ghosts before the night’s real action begins.
3. Savin’ the Day. Love this one. Even more than the theme song, this is the track I think of when I imagine a team of Ghostbusters on the job and saving the city. (Yes, I imagine that a lot. Leave me alone.) Recommended for a montage as above, or when facing a difficult challenge that non-Ghostbusters just can’t handle.
4. In the Name of Love. At this point in our listening, the soundtrack says, “Hey, remember how this movie was made in the 80s? Remember the Thompson Twins? Here they are!” This song has nothing to do with the film, and is only here because it was playing on the radio in the firehouse. And yet I love it, because I’ve listened to this album since I was 14. Use it in your game like they did in the movie: randomly.
5. I Can Wait Forever. In my estimation, this Air Supply song is the low point of the soundtrack (still leaving it far superior to the best track of Ghostbusters 2). Here’s a tip for using this track: most music players have a “next track” button. Use it. (Fun fact: this song’s appearance in the movie was in the scene where the team is being evicted from the university; the song comes from a worker’s headphones.)
6. Hot Night. I like this offering from Laura Branigan better, though it still doesn’t have a thing to do with the movie. It was playing in Louis Tully’s apartment while he talked to Dana about working out. With that in mind, you might use it in a scene involving exercise, or the 80s, or a ghost with heat powers? Good luck.
7. Magic. I absolutely love Mick Smiley’s “Magic,” even though I have no idea what the hell it’s about. I just know it’s the song that was playing when the escaped ghosts were flying through the city and Dana’s apartment walls blew away, and that was BADASS! The song is mellow, and parts are a little eerie, so that might facilitate use in a scene where that’s the mood.
8. Main Title Theme. We finally reach the first of the two tracks from Elmer Bernstein’s score. It appeared in the movie when the team was walking up the stairs of Dana’s apartment building toward the end. This is a wonderful piece, jaunty and whimsical and just a little reminiscent of ragtime music. It also features ghostly sounds that make it spooky, but in a fun way. To me, this music says, “Here are the Ghostbusters, and they’re doing something low-key.” It wouldn’t fit an action scene, but would be great background to social interaction, or searching for something, or even shopping for supplies.
9. Dana’s Theme. Picture Dana walking across the street to carry her groceries up to her apartment. This is the music that was playing. Appropriately, it’s an orchestral piece in which Dana’s cello might feel right at home. The second of two Elmer Bernstein compositions, this track would make fine accompaniment to an exploration scene, or one introducing a new character (especially if the character is a love interest for a character with Sex as her Goal).
10. Ghostbusters (Instrumental). Same as track 1, but without the singing. This might be a less-distracting way to work the theme song into your game. Just don’t be surprised if your players sing along anyway.

(By the way, the song that appeared in the film but not in the soundtrack was “Disco Inferno,” by the Trammps. It played during Louis Tully’s party. Speaking of “Disco Inferno,” stay tuned…I’ll have more on that topic later in the month.)

One of the defining features of the Ghostbusters RPG is the Ghost Die. This is a 6-sided die with a ghost symbol taking the place of the 6. Every time a player attempts an action, he includes the Ghost Die as part of his dice pool. Whenever the ghost comes up, something bad happens. (Mwa-ha-ha-ha-haaa!) The GM (Ghostmaster, in Ghostbusters) operates in a similar way, always including a Ghost die for NPC actions, but when a ghostly NPC rolls a ghost, the result is something beneficial to the ghost!

I like how this gives more varied results than success or failure. You can get a critical failure (low dice total and a Ghost), failure (low dice total and no Ghost), success (high dice total and no Ghost), and success with a catch (high dice total and a Ghost). I also like that the Ghost replaces the 6, so in addition to having to deal with the negative consequences of rolling a Ghost, you also get shafted out of the 6 points you would have earned if it hadn’t been a Ghost Die!

Besides that, though, it’s just plain fun that in about one out of six die rolls at the table, something screwy is going to happen to the Ghostbusters! The game encourages the GM to make these incidents funny (as if we wouldn’t), and when I run Ghostbusters, one of my favorite things to do is figure out the unfortunate, inconvenient, sometimes-painful, and always-funny consequences of rolling a Ghost.

Custom Ghost Dice

It shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise that after 30 years, the paint that makes up the ghost symbol on a ghost die might be a bit faded. (That’s mine up at the top of the page.) It’s easy enough to use any old die, so long as it looks different than the non-ghost dice, and you remember not to count the 6, instead treating it like a Ghost. Or you can find other dice that have a symbol on the 6 for this purpose, which is just as easy as using an authentic Ghost Die, just 50 to 95 percent less cool. (Also, be warned that some specialty 6-siders have the symbol on the 1 instead of the 6. Bastards.)

I tried making my own Ghost Dice recently using regular dice and printable self-adhesive circle labels, but I wasn’t successful. I’m happy with the dice I picked: Chessex 16mm d6, opaque white with black pips (I bought a block of 12 on Amazon, Chessex part number CHX25601). But in my first attempt I used 0.5” labels, and they were too small (the pips were visible at the edges of the Ghost sticker). I moved up one size to the 0.625” labels, which were a better fit, but I couldn’t get the template to line up correctly—printing in both Word and OpenOffice Writer resulted in the Ghost symbols being out-of-sync with the labels, getting worse toward the right side of the page. (Sweet Gozer, messing with image and table alignments in Microsoft Word is soul-crushing! In case you want to show me you can do better, the labels I tried were OnlineLabels.com, item OL1575WX in standard white matte.)

While writing this post I found a website called Nerdy Show that sells custom-etched Ghost Dice for $1 each. I’ve ordered some, and I’ll update this post when they arrive to give you my impressions.

To my fellow Ghostmasters: How’s your Ghost Die holding up? Have you found a good replacement?

Let’s throw a Ghostbusters-themed party! “Why should we do that?” asks the person who’s not a true fan. OK, here are a few reasons why you might do such a thing:

• You’re planning to run a Ghostbusters game, and don’t want any “norms” who witness it to be confused.
• You’re excited about the new movie, and want to celebrate!
• You are depressed about the new movie, and want to forget about it by focusing on what you love about the original Ghostbusters!
• You like any chance to pretend it’s Halloween.

Here’s what my wife and I did for our last Ghostbusters party.

(In case you’re wondering, all 4 of the above are true for me.)

Theme Up Some Food

We did some simple brainstorming when planning our party.

• Ghosts
• Slimer
• Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man

And we stopped there, because right away we knew we had to make ghost-themed marshmallow cupcakes. (My wife and I were really into the show Cupcake Wars at the time, so we knew our mad science creation in the kitchen would involve cupcakes.)

We found a recipe for smores cupcakes, and made our own candy toppers featuring Slimer and the Ghostbusters logo.

Sure, they look a little rough, but they were great!

Other ways you could theme up your party food include:

• Ghost cookies (it’s easy to find a ghost shape cookie cutter)
• A marshmallow man
• Green punch
• Twinkies
• Jars containing green “slime” gelatin
• Any leftover Halloween candy (If you have any candy in July left over from October, it’s definitely gonna be scary.)

Decorate

Image: CatchMyParty.com

Create a Spooky-Sounding Mood

And Play a Ghostbusters Game!

I mentioned the Ghostbusters roleplaying game in the previous post. That’s what we played at our last Ghostbusters party! If you’re not fortunate enough to have a copy, it’s not hard to use another, more modern (and available) game system. I’ll write more about this, too, in a future post.

Beyond RPGs, you still have plenty of options. Ghostbusters: The Board Game is pretty sweet…

A few non-Ghostbusters games would also fit the mood, including Betrayal at House on the Hill, Castle Ravenloft, and perhaps Dead of Winter.

Besides the Ghostbusters board game, my top pick would be Mysterium. In this game, one player is a ghost and the others are psychics. The ghost player must, without speaking, lead the psychics to discover who killed her, in what location, and with which weapon, using complex images that are especially prone to different interpretations. Play it by candlelight!

Image: Libellud.com

How about you? Have you hosted a Ghostbusters party, or been to one? If so, I want to hear about it, as well as your favorite ghost-themed foods, decorations, music, and games. Please share!

Come with me on a trip back in time. It’s 1986, two years after Ghostbusters premiered in theaters. I’m sixteen years old and shopping in the bookstore at the Mall of Memphis. (That was its name. Don’t worry, Memphis has more than one mall.) This is the same mall where I had previously bought a Ghostbusters shirt and the full set of Ghostbusters buttons. (Yep.) There, in the back of the bookstore near the magazines, I spy this boxed Ghostbusters game.

The game was called Ghostbusters: A Frightfully Cheerful Roleplaying Game, by West End Games. I had already played a few RPGs—Star Trek, Villains & Vigilantes, maybe a few others—so I knew right away that if a box said “roleplaying game” and also said “Ghostbusters,” it was something I had to have. So long, allowance!

What an amazing game this turned out to be. The game was funny, and simple, and elegant, and did a great job of capturing the spirit of the movies. (#SeeWhatIDidThere) Here are the basics:

1. You have four Traits and four matching Talents. Traits are attributes, including Brains, Cool, Moves, and Muscle. Talents can be anything that could be governed by the Trait, such as Parapsychology, Getting a Date, Climbing, and Breaking Down Doors.
2. You roll a number of 6-sided dice equal to your Trait rating (which is typically between 1 and 5), adding 3 dice if your Talent applies.
3. One of the dice you roll is a special Ghost die, with the Ghostbusters logo on the 6. If a player rolls a ghost, something bad (and probably funny) happens.

That’s most of what you need to know to play the game! There’s more to it than that—the box is full of goodies including the dice, a player’s guide, a GM’s guide (including adventures), and some way-cool equipment cards—but most of it is gravy.

Sadly, the game is long out of print, but you can sometimes find a copy on eBay.

I didn’t realize at the time what a big deal it was to find a game with such streamlined mechanics. Not having played games like D&D or Champions or Rifts yet, I didn’t know that the relatively lightweight games I’d been playing weren’t the norm for everyone. Even so, Ghostbusters WAS the simplest of the games I’d played—yet it didn’t give me the feeling that anything was missing.

Also, this was my first exposure to West End Games, and it led me directly to one of the great loves of my life, Paranoia. Specifically, it was this bit in the introduction: “We were going to do this one straight—you know, pleasant, friendly, informal, but not too wacky—nothing like PARANOIA. But somehow we just couldn’t help ourselves.” I remember reading that and thinking, “Does this mean Paranoia might be even MORE funny than this game?” (Spoiler alert: yep.)

This 31 Days of Ghostbusters series is my love letter to Ghostbusters—part of that is the movies, of course, and the animated series and video games and board games and collectibles and more. But mostly it’s a tribute to one of the best roleplaying games ever.

I’d like to hear from you, too. Am I reaching any fellow Ghostbusters players out there?