OK, so I think one PKE meter per team is almost good enough. I know how to use it well, but you can have it. If you need help using it, Kris can help. I’ll put mine back and take something else.
Kris re-examines things, taking a night-vision visor and putting the PKE Meter back.
Works for me. I’ll hang on to the PKE Meter then. Thanks
Let’s verify this real quick:
Kris: Proton Pack, Ecto-Visor, Walkie-Talkie
Gerald: Proton Pack, Tobin Spirit Guide, Mobile Phone
Louis: Proton Pack, Ecto-Visor, Ghost Trap
Brian: Proton Pack, PKE Meter, Videocamera
tip: ecto-visors work best in darkness
tip: walkie-talkies work best in pairs
Reminder that you can always leave stuff in the car and come back for it later.
Kris swaps out the walkie talkie for one of the books.
I’ll try to make sure there’s a pair of walkie-talkies in the car, in case you decide to split the party.
66666 Flatbush Avenue
June 23, 1986
Monday Morning, 10:00 am
Part I:
The Adventure Begins
Our heroes have chosen their gear and loaded up the GhostMobile, in preparation for their first real assignment. With little to no idea what to expect, J.T. Roth has ensured a variety of items were loaded into the Ghostmobile. He and Kristopher took a few moments to verify that each Ghostbusters’ equipment was working properly. Then the crew packed themselves into the car, with Lou behind the wheel, and hit the road!
[spoiler]Final Results for equipment:
Kristopher: Proton Pack, Ecto-Visor, Spates Catalog of Nameless Horrors
Gerald: Proton Pack, Mobile Phone, Tobin’s Spirit Guide
Louis: Proton Pack, Ecto-Visor, Ghost Trap
Brian: Proton Pack, PKE Meter, Videocamera
Ghostmobile:
Ghost Trap (2)
Walkie-Talkies (2)
PKE Meter
Bullhorn
Alpine Gear
Scuba Gear
Parachute
Beach Kit[/spoiler]
Traffic is not heavy this morning, and Lou has little difficulty navigating his way across town to Flatbush Avenue. The neighborhood is predominantly lower middle-class, filled with tired apartment buildings and squished-looking row houses with concrete front lawns and in need of paint. Children of all races, colors, and states of cleanliness scamper about, riding bikes, playing catch, whacking each other with plastic ray-guns. They look real interested in the GhostMobile…
The closest available parking is several doors down from your destination; Lou pulls into a convenient spot near a broken parking meter and locks the doors as our heroes gear up. After a short walk, you arrive at 66666 Flatbush Avenue. This four-story building is much like the others in the neighborhood - an ugly brick box with all the charm of a state prison.
You notice three things as you approach:
- The much-defaced cornerstone says 1947.
- Loud, raucous laughter is coming from the building.
- All of the windows on the top floor have been boarded up… from the inside.
When you reach the attractive, institution-green front door, you see three doorbell-type buttons on a panel to the left. The bottom one is labelled Davidson - Super. The middle one is labelled LaCoque. The top one is labeled Pogoni. From the marks on the panel, there once was a fourth button above the others; it looks as if it has been removed… with a blunt instrument.
Sitting on the front steps of the building is a tall, skinny, homely man wearing taped-up eyeglasses. On his head is an old, colorless, beat-up ball cap with any logo it once held long since faded by time and weather. He wears a T-shirt with the formula for the area of a circle printed on it, blue jeans that are just a little too short for him in the leg, and an unfashionable pair of off-brand sneakers. He has both hands pressed over his ears, and doesn’t seem to notice your approach at first.
Hmm… that blue’s a bit much, I’m thinking? Kinda… look at this, and ONLY at this, isn’t it? Oh well. It’s an experiment, if it doesn’t work, I’ll stop doing it eventually.
Whatcha gonna do now, folks? 
For those playing along at home:
Tapping Gerald on the shoulder, Brian points at the man and says “That must be Don. Lets go see what’s up”.
I’m assuming Gerald is the spokesman for the team, or was it Kris?
Rolled a strut-my-stuff (22, no ghost) and a generic cool (11, GHOST!) for being suitably impressive getting out of the vehicle and impressing all the onlookers.
Gerald nods to Brian. “Yeah, Doc. Let’s do this, huh?” He heads over to the stoop and nods to the man sitting there.
“Mr. Davidson? I’m Gerald Jacobs. We’re here to help - why don’t you tell us what’s going on? And don’t you worry, sir - we’ve never failed a case.”
“Yeah, Gerald, go ahead and talk to him. See what he can tell us,” Kris says. “Gee, four stories…wish we’d brought…you know…some walkie-talkies!”
Ooops, I got simulposted there, since I walked away from the computer. Just pretend Kris said that before Gerald’s post.
Brian activates the PKE meter and scans Don, the door and general area of the entrance to the building.
[spoiler]What roll do I need for this? It will have to be when I get home.
3 items seems limiting! Why not 2 large and 2 small? That way we could have small items like the PKE and walkie talkies clipped to our belts.
[/spoiler]
Lou gets his equipment and walks toward Brian, watching for anything out of the ordinary.
Any time you make a die roll, do so using the skill that gives you the most possible dice. In this case, [COLOR=“Blue”]you will use a BRAINS roll. A case could be made for an EQUIPMENT EXPERT dieroll if Kristopher were to do this. Similarly, Gerald might argue that he could use PARAPSYCHOLOGY for this skill, and I’d probably allow it. PHYSICS, which is Brian’s BRAINS talent, would be just a little beyond the scope of this… uh… scope, so I’d probably deny that request. These are the decisions that eat away at a GM’s sanity if he thinks about it too much, and I’m not doing to well in that department as it is!
Note: Previously, Brian could have used his LISTEN skill instead of a simple BRAINS roll to listen to the telephone. There wasn’t really much more he could have learned in this particular case, but the option was there.
As far as the equipment rules… well, they’re the rules. I didn’t invent this game, someone else did. True, I’m running this game, and I can bend, break, or ignore the rules as I wish, as well as coming up with new ones. But on this, I think it’s balanced properly, and so 3-Items is all you can carry into combat.
You character CAN carry more (Up to one item per MUSCLES) but it encumbers him to do so, and he can’t do anything else effectively until he puts something down.
Edited to add: Brian’s MUSCLES is 2, so… yeah. Nope. 3 items.
Johnny Bravo, STRUT-HIS-STUFF is sufficiently inclusive that you don’t need that additional COOL roll, and so I will ignore it (and its Ghost Die) because I’m nice like that. :dubious:
Lute, the only thing out of the ordinary that Louis sees (beyond what I’ve highlighted in blue earlier) is the fact that the neighborhood children (and a few adults, and teenagers) are gathering around the GhostMobile, interested in this strange new thing dropped into their world. Quite a few of the people in the neighborhood are also watching you and your group, curious as to what’s going on, but none of them seem important. No dieroll is needed here. If there’s anything in particular you want to examine closely, a BRAINS roll would be needed, but… see the previous sentence. 
JT Roth has asked the group to let Gerald be the spokesman. That doesn’t mean you have to do what he asked. Kristopher also has a high SMOOTH-TALKER skill, which he could use, and of course any of you can talk to people. Gerald is just the ‘coolest’ member of the group and therefore has the best chances of getting people on your side, making him the obvious choice for spokesman.
[/COLOR]
Brains roll for using the PKE Meter. 11 - no ghost. Pretty feeble roll considering I have 5 dice!
Gerald and the rest of the crew arrive at the steps to 66666 Flatbush Avenue; Gerald has Strutted His Stuff so successfully that everyone watches in awe as they approach!
Don Davidson takes his hands off his ears and stands to greet the Ghostbusters when they arrive. “Oh, wow!” he exclaims, clearly impressed, his eyes roving about as he looks you each over. “You look different on television!” he says, confusing you with the Original Team, but you quickly explain that you’re a local franchise. He doesn’t seem any less impressed. “Wow, those are real Proton Packs huh? Can I try one on? How do they work? Is this where the nuclear accelerator is? Have you ever tried reversing the polarity? I bet if you…” and on and on, not even waiting for an answer. He’s obviously more impressed with the technology than with you!
After a few moments, you cut in and ask him about the troubles. Reluctantly, he accepts the change of subject and explains:
“Well… it started just a couple of months ago. I kept getting complaints from the tenants, that their neighbors were playing their televisions too loudly. The funny thing was, everybody was complaining about everyone else! After a while, we figured out that it wasn’t anybody in particular… everybody’s television would randomly turn itself on, all by itself! Even happened to me! Now it’s happening all the time, and we can’t stop it! We’ll turn the television off, and it’ll turn itself back on. We’ll turn the volume down, and it’ll turn itself back up! We even tried unplugging the sets, and they’d plug themselves back in! It’s gotten to the point now that we just kind of leave them be; the noise is awful, but nothing we can do seems to help, they just keep turning themselves back on!”
While the rest of the crew are talking with Mr. Davidson, The Professor gets some readings with his PKE meter:
Brian rolls 11, no ghost, for a BRAINS test. He gets accurate readings… he thinks.
The surrounding neighborhood has very low PKE readings, indistinguishable from background noise.
The building itself has relatively high PKE readings; there is definitely a supernatural presence at this location. Analysis shows that it’s most likely a Class II or possibly Class III spirit; readings are sporadic but not high enough to indicate anything overly dangerous. Further investigation inside may be helpful to locate and identify whatever might be causing the readings; only residual energies can be detected from outside.
Don Davidson himself is giving off low level PKE readings, but higher than one would expect from a normal person.
“Look, we can’t just stand here on the street all day,” say Don. “How 'bout youse guys come inside? I got some beer in the fridge, we can go in my apartment and talk there, where it’s more comfortable?”
Do you follow him inside? If so, you can ask him questions and he’ll answer as best he can. I’ll continue my habit of trying to respond to any talking throughout the day, because conversations can take so long at the rate of one sentence a day!
If other actions are desired, let me know and we’ll work those out in their turn.
Brian finishes scanning and shares the results with Kris. He then turns to Don and asks a few rapidfire questions:
- How many units per floor?
- How many are occupied?
- Is there a basement?
- Why is there only 1 button per floor on the panel? (or only one labelled?)
- What’s with the top floor? Why is it boarded up?
Brian is all for following him in, but lets the rest of the team decide.
Kris nods vigourously at everything Brian says. Meanwhile, he is scanning his Spates book for any info. on ghosts that match the description of what Don said, involving electronics being turned on, etc.
Kris rolls 6 + 5 for his Brains roll, no GHOST.
Don answers Brian’s questions:
- One
- All of them
- Yes
- See #1
- That’s Doctor Panama. We… uh. Yeah. We don’t bother him.
Kristopher checks his book:
The Spates Catalog lists a number of spirits; however, it was written long before the modern era, and as such, has no information about televisions. It does, however, mention several ghosts with telekinetic abilities (poltergeists etc) and a few that possessed other pieces of machinery, such as early automobiles, farm equipment, printing presses, factory machinery, and the like. Clearly, the ability to possess a television or pretty much any other item is not unusual in the supernatural world. Kristopher does glean that, in these cases, there is usually some relationship between the spirit and the item possessed. For example, a man killed by being crushed in a printing press who repeatedly printed damning testimony against his killer, and similar entries.