Ghostbusters: A Frightfully Cheerful Roleplaying Game (1986)
If there’s something strange in your neighborhood, who ya gonna call?
Straight Dopers!
Soooooo, all the D&D threads that have been flying around lately have got me worked up to play. And since I didn’t get into the last game, and it doesn’t look like anyone else is gonna start a game for me, I guess I’ll have to do it myself!
But, since we’ve already got one D&D-style game going, I thought I’d take a different route and try something else… Namely, Ghostbusters: A Frightfully Cheerful Roleplaying Game.
The year is 1986; the place, New York City. Players will take the role of a newly-opened Ghostbusters franchise; a team of four to six people who scratched up enough cash to buy the rights and equipment to run their own Ghostbusting center. A home base, containment unit, Busting equipment, and a vehicle are all part of the package (but have left our heroes deeply in debt and desperately hoping for a call.)
The ruleset is simple, and in fact is easily found online. To be honest, the adventure we’re going to play is also found online. Please do not read it if you plan to play with me! Seriously, that spoils all the fun. :mad:
Requirements:
1. Time to post, at least once, every single day.
This game will run with a one day = one turn timer. Every day at midnight, I will collate all the orders given during the previous day, and move the timer forward one ‘tick’. I’ll then post the results and start the next day’s timer. One ‘tick’ may be one minute, one hour, or one second in game time, depending on circumstances. If you have not made any response that day, your character is frightened and unable to act. Repeated and extended absences could mean your character had a breakdown and is now in extended recovery somewhere peaceful where nice young men in clean white coats are ever so helpful…
2. An account with roll20.net.
This is a free account, and as far as I can tell it works on all systems EXCEPT Internet Explorer. I use Chrome; apparently Firefox works as well, and I’m told Apple systems will work too. I will send the selected players an invitation, which will make the game available for them; un-invited people will be unable to see the map and certain other mechanical benefits such as dierolls. However, all the planning, speaking, and role-playing will take place in the official game thread here on SDMB. While technically it’s not strictly necessary to have a roll20 account, it would be very crippling in this game and therefore, I’m gonna make it mandatory. Besides, you want to see the pretty pictures, don’t you?
Edited to add: If your primary method of using the internet is phone, forget about it. Full-size screens are required to see details.
- You MUST NOT have played Ghostbusters before!
The campaign I’m going to run is literally printed out for you in black and white in the gamebooks. It’s also available online; a cursory search for it would take moments, and that would spoil all the fun. This game is NOT for cheaters or people who have already played it; let’s give the newbies a chance, ok? - Videoconferencing Ability
OK, this isn’t strictly required since we’ll be playing by post. But the roll20 system is designed with it in mind, and since it’s there why not use it. At the minimum, I’d like you to have a microphone/headset available, so we can have face-to-face contact on occasion. Primarily this will only be used early on in the game, for character generation and the like, but could come in handy later. Not having this is NOT a deal-breaker, but it could be a handicap.
To Apply:
1: Read the rules.
A very basic overview can be found here: Page 1, Page 2, Page 3.
Much more detailed instructions can be found here: Training Manual
DO NOT read any other information found on either of those sites, or anywhere else online. Spoilers abound!
To Summarize:
Place 12 points in four Traits: Brains, Muscles, Moves, and Cool. Each must have a value from 1 to 5.
Choose one Talent for each Trait, increasing your skill by 3 dice for that talent only.
Decide on a primary motivation for your character, such as fame, wealth, sex, or serving humanity.
Come up with a name and some backstory for your character.
Remember: the year is 1986! You’re not likely to be rich from the Dot-com bubble; the internet barely even existed at this point. Try to come up with a time-appropriate character.
- Post your character!
Right here in this thread, show me you’ve read the above instructions and understand the game basics.
- Choose other team members.
Tell me which of the other posters you’d want on your team, and why. If you’ve posted your character early, come back later after others have posted and see who’s available. Vote for one, two, three, or four other players to join your game.
- Wait.
Once we have a fair number of possible players recorded, I will go through and choose a group. This will be based primarily on votes received, how entertaining I think they will be, group dynamics, and ability to follow instructions. Weighting will be given for posting early, often, entertainingly, and certain other considerations. For example, I have a short list of names that will be given preference over others for various personal reasons, if they should post in time.
My goal is not to start a popularity contest, but rather to have the best possible group. Should unforeseen problems arise with this system, I reserve the right to ignore it and just pick whomever I want.
Other Stuff:
Due to limitations such as equipment, GM ability, and the like, the team will be limited in size. At least three, but no more than six, players will be chosen, with an ideal team size being five. If you are not chosen initially, don’t worry… we’ll keep your resume on file. Turnover can be high in this business!
There will be three threads active during this game: This one, an Out-Of-Character thread for questions and comments, and an In-Character thread where all the good stuff happens. In addition, the gameplay map will remain open at all times, allowing players to move their character icons on the map, roll their dice for their actions, and chat with the GM and each other (if anyone else is using it at the time.)
Game Start:
Ideally, the game will officially start one week from today, with the first turn ‘ticking over’ at midnight Saturday, June 15 if everything runs smoothly. Which it never does, so that date may be delayed a week. We’ll see.
So, post your characters and let’s get Ghostbusting!
