The New Ghost Busters - RPG using Shadowrun 3rd Edition

Around 20 years ago I fell in love with a franchise I thought was dead. It was funny, it was spooky and it was wierd. I was never the same after seeing Ghostbusters for the first time. I too wanted to hold back the darkness with my wit and genius. Fighting with the heart of a lion against what goes bump in the night. Soon i ended up learning about Call of Cthulhu the table top game and Shadowrun. I decided I wanted to try to add the action of Shadowrun into the mystery and investigation of Call of Cthulhu. This birthed this madness below.

We only had a chance to play it once or twice, but every time we had just the best time. I hope this fills you and your friends with that same feeling. It begins with the assumption that the players have gotten a franchise right to the Ghostbusters after the 2nd Movie. Now that there are 3 more movies… its really up to you and your table how you want to handle it!

This hasn’t been truly play tested, so it will need some massaging in some parts, but if your up for something different. I hope you try it! If you do, let me know. I’d love to hear about your stories.

-D

Character Creation

• Character Sheet
• Firehouse Character Sheet

Here is the all important first step for players: deciding who your character is. Is he the strong silent type who would rather break something to solve a problem than to talk it out over dinner? Is he amazingly intelligent but worthless when it comes to pushing the junker the group drives when it breaks down? Or is he a whiz at spotting psychokinetic energy (PKE) but struggles to find the Quik-e-Mart on the corner?

Along with knowing your character’s strengths and weaknesses when it comes to physical, mental, and mystic abilities, it is also important to consider what is more important to him, the equipment he has available to him a.s.a.p. or the cash waiting for him as a sign-on bonus.

These are all things to consider at character creation because they will affect your character throughout the entire game. The top row of the table below lists the five categories players needs to consider when making their characters. If the table seems confusing now, don’t worry, keep reading. It is all spelled out after the chart.

Now that you’ve seen what there is to choose from, we’ll look briefly at each category.

Mystical Abilities

Is your character a mystic or psychic? If so, you will want to put either rank one or two into Mysticism/Psionics. This allows your character to tap into the mystic abilities locked in the inner recesses of the human mind. On top of that, there is a difference between Mysticism/Psionics at rank one or two. This affects the strength of your abilities. Fully-Active, Semi-Active, and None are explained below.

Fully-Active

Whether you were born awakened or had a near death experience that opened your eyes to what was really going on, you can do and sense things far beyond that which a normal person can. At this level you can use and do anything listed under Mysticism chapter. This allows you 40 mystic points.

Semi-Active

Same as above, only you can’t quite seem to get the hang of the more powerful arts. Or maybe you simply don’t know about them; whichever case, you can’t handle any of the powers listed with an asterisk by them. This allows you 20 mystic points.

None

If your character isn’t mystically or psychically active you still get a power score. To find your power score roll dice equal to your rank. Your character can still use magical spells or items they happen to find, however they can’t learn the mystic skills.

Skills

Choosing your skills is very important. After all, the equipment used by the GB is far from standard issue for anyone who isn’t trained specially by Ghostbusters. This emphasizes that skills do, in fact, make the man. Skills are divided into two different types: active and knowledge skills. Active skills are the things your character knows how to do. These can be anything from building a car to firing a neutrona wand. Knowledge skills are things your character knows about. These can range from parapsychology to mythologies, ancient Middle Eastern religions, or just recent TV shows. Whatever you may want to claim your character knows, just make sure the GM approves it and has it noted somewhere. Having the GM know what your character knows can help them prepare evidence or clues that only your character with his special knowledge would pick up. While there are infinite skills your character can have, some may have special rules. This will be discussed in detail in the Skills section of this book.

Attributes

Attributes are your character’s physical and mental abilities. They determine how well your character is equipped in several aspects of human existence. Attributes are divided into six different stats: body, brains, brawn, cool, moves, and will. No attribute may be above six at character creation.

Body

Body defines your character’s ability to resist or soak damage. This also dictates how much damage he can sustain before dying. A player calculates their character’s hit points by multiplying their body by five. If at any time a character’s hit points are reduced to the negative of their body stat, they are dead. For any disputes on damage consequences, refer to the Damage, Injury and Death section of this book.

Brains

Brains measure how intelligent your character is. This determines how hard, or easy, it is for him to find clues, put things together, or generally avoid being dumb. If your character is the epitome of a book worm, make sure they have the brains to back it up.

Brawn

This attribute dictates how strong your character is. Without brawn a character will have trouble moving heavy objects or carrying heavy things. With more brawn, a character can deal more damage in melee combat and generally look more muscular.

Cool

Cool pertains to the character’s personality. Cool helps you put the moves on the ladies or men. It also helps you keep your cool when something freaky happens. While the number you put in this attribute is your cool score, you also have cool points. To find your cool points, multiply your cool score by five. While you may be wondering what cool points do, this will be discussed later.

Moves

The moves attribute defines the level of agility, speed, and dexterity your character possesses. Remember, bulk tends to slow people down as well as make them clumsier.

Will

Will is the character’s mental strength. This is vital to mystics and psionically active people as it helps to reduce stun damage from using powerful mystic abilities. Will also determines the amount of stun damage you can take before you pass out. The amount of stun points a character can take is found by multiplying the character’s will by five.

Power and Pools

Power – Power defines your characters ability to tap into the powers from beyond. Your characters power points equal his or her power score. Attribute points can not be added to this attribute.

Action Pool – Action Pool is a pool of dice created by combining Moves, Brawn, and Body. Then, divide the result by two. This can be used towards any combat action. It refreshes at the start of each turn.

Power Pool – Power Pool is a pool of dice created by combining Power and Will, divided by three. This can be used towards any mystic or psychic power test as well as defensively. This pool refreshes at the beginning of every scene. New scenes are determined by the GM.

Skills

Skills are vital to the success of your Ghostbuster’s career. Skills are divided into two different types: knowledge and active. Active skills are skills your character can use actively, in other words they are skills that character use and perform. Knowledge skills on the other hand are skills that your character knows. Just because your character knows a lot about cars, doesn’t mean he can install a new engine, unless someone trained him on how to use the tools to do so, and how to prop it up, etc. That’s where active skills come in. Knowledge skills mostly help you with active skills. As well give you the information about things that will help your character. All skills have a linked attribute to them. This is mostly for Experience costs later on, however during character creation, if at any time you have a skill go above its linked attribute rating, it costs two skill points to rise. To use skills the player rolls 6 sided dice equal to his skill, difficulties are determined by the Game Master.

There are many active skills, only governed by GM approval and common sense. A few active skills that are required are electronics and energy weapons. The rest are up to the GM and players.

There are also quite a few knowledge skills as they can represent everything from occult lore to soap opera fandom to bar trivia. The GM should go over players knowledge skills to make sure they are useful and fair All knowledge skills are linked to Brains. So GMs beware. Here is a list of a few skills I made up.

Equipment

The key to being a good Ghostbuster is in the gear. No one would be able to tackle a spirit without their trusty proton pack, and containment trap. The equipment priority simply states what equipment you got to keep when you finished your training through GB HQ. Each of the following is gear that can be bought with your equipment points allowed in character creation. All entries have three parts. The name, the cost and of course what the stupid thing does. However, before you purchase your own equipment, this is what the standard GB satellite is equipped with:

• An official GB Ecto-vehicle
• A central containment unit
• Sleeping quarters for up to 4
• A T-1 connection
• An Cheap server
• Up to 4 offices
• Average PC’s in all offices
• A meeting room
• A kitchen/dining area
• A debit card with cash for food allowance
• An Low Lab for testing specimens
• An Low Electrical workshop
• Anything else given by Storyteller

And without further adieu, the stuff you get to buy…

Equipment Points

Proton Pack (7)–Standard issue proton pack, its used to contain ghosts to help improve the chance to catch ghosts in a trap. It takes a single round to power up before it can be used; the power switches on located on the side and on the wand of the weapon. To attempt to use the proton pack to contain a spook. The wielder must succeed in a contested energy weapons vs. power of the spook test at difficulty 5, and get at least three successes. These weapons are dangerous, powerful and above all destructive as hell, although they can’t harm ghosts, they pretty much can fuck up anything else. Whenever used they ALWAYS cause collateral damage. For each dice rolled that comes up a one, does one dice of damage to something in the vicinity.

Proton Pack (10) [Improved] – Same as above, except a lot more accurate, so its difficulty for containment streams is only 4.

PKE Meter (3) – PKE meters allow the user to make an electronics test to detect ghosts and things they are inside or very attached to. The difficulty is 12 – Power of the spirit. If the ghost has a hiding or using a concealing power and it’s in active use. The difficulty is increased by 1 per success of the concealing test. Each success with the PKE Meter can be assigned to one part of information. You may either check the power level of the ghost, its direction, how much of an area is affected by PK energies or the distance. It can be any combination until the successes are reduced to zero.

PKE Meter (6) [Improved] – Same as above accept that the difficulty to find ghosts is 8 – power. As well this allows a bonus plus two dice on electronics use while trying to find ghosts with it.

Containment Trap (3) – This allows the user to make an athletics test at difficulty 5 to position the trap. Once the user has gotten three successes they can close the trap. Only 1 ghost may be trapped in a single trap at once. If one was to open the trap with a ghost inside it can easily just slip out.

Containment Trap (6) [Improved] – Same as above accept that the difficulty is reduced by 1 and the unit can stick to walls and also can trap 2 ghosts at a time.

Body Armor (*) – Body armor is used to reduce the amount of damage a person takes from injuries via combat or simple misfortune. For every 2 points spend on body armor the armor provides a single dice worth of buffer against damage. Body armors rating can not exceed 10.

Kirlian Camera (4) – This item allows for an electronics use at difficulty 4 to see if something carries a ghostly aura. Ghosts sometimes appear in these photos at Game Masters approval. However this is not the easiest and fastest way to see if a ghost is inside something. These cameras require special developing agents to develop properly so it takes at least an hour to perform developments get decent results. The camera does not give you the ability to see ghosts who aren’t manifested! As well with a successful test of knowledge Metaphysics a GB can tell what mood the ghost is in by the color of the aura. Standard test is 6, the more powerful the ghost the easier this is.

Kirlian Video Cameras (6) – Same as above except it doesn’t allow you to detect if someone is being possessed. However it does give you the ability to see ghost moving and acting while reviewing the tapes. The camera does not give you the ability to see ghosts who aren’t manifested! With a successful test of knowledge Metaphysics a GB can tell what mood the ghost is in by the color of the aura. Standard test is 6, the more powerful the ghost the easier this is.

Kirlian Goggles (8) – These special lenses allow a person to see unmanifested ghosts. There are EXTRMELY rare and should be brought to the game masters attention if you are purchasing them. With a successful test of knowledge Metaphysics a GB can tell what mood the ghost is in by the color of the aura. Standard test is 6, the more powerful the ghost the easier this is.

Thermographic Camera (2) – Ghosts have a habit of lowering the temperature in the area they are in. This camera allows the user to see in the photos is pockets of cold are in the area of the picture once developed. Again the view finder of this camera isn’t treated in anyway shape or form. So you must have the pictures to see the pockets of cold.

Thermographic Video Camera (4) – Same as above only its in video form. However the lenses of this camera are treated so you can see the cold pockets and even see what the temperature of the pockets are with the camera. As well as video proof.

Thermographic Goggles (3) – Again, same as above only the goggles don’t allow for degrees simply shows the users different colors for varying temperatures.

Neural Brain Scanners (5) – This nifty little device allows an electronics test at 15 – power of the spook to detect possession or ghostly compulsion over the target. This device needs to be connected to the target head and then of course to a desktop computer or laptop. When the ghost attempts to take over the target or simply is inside the target, the targets normal brain function is overlapped. This device shows that distinction.

Stress Induction Test (6) – This device is your average polygraph test; useful when trying to find truthful customers. However the major flaw is that it’s not 100% accurate and if the victim simply believes he isn’t lying then test will not show he is. So be careful, ghosts have a funny way of convincing people…

Spectral Analyzer (5) – This device allows your Ghostbuster to make an electronics test TN 6 to see if normal pictures have kirlian auras, or spectral traces. Only one success is require to discover if the picture has either a ghost in it, or the objects were possessed at the time the picture was taken or the picture itself has some kind of ghost quality. The results are determined by your GM.

Shotgun Flashlight (1) ­– These flashlights are 50K candlepower flashlights with a battery life of 10 hours. They mount on the top of proton wands and any other long barreled ranged weapon.

On-site Portable Lab (3) - Kit contains assorted Physics and Chemistry equipment. Chemistry supplies include vials, beakers, Bunsen Burners, acid/base testers, pH testers, and anything else allowed by storyteller. Physics kit contains impressive, but not highly expensive and sensitive tools. Easily acquirable and transportable objects such as a stopwatch, pendulums, mirrors, small telescopes and microscopes, spectrum analyzers, prisms, and equipment, small static electric generators/testers and a cheap graphing calculator.

Commonly Acquired Items

Most equipment Ghostbusters need is actually totally mundane, from cameras to notebooks and office supplies. Not everything needs to come out of your equipment points, only the really powerful hard to come by things are taken out of that. Normal things are paid for with straight up cash and normally straight out of your pocket. Whatever gets the job done that’s our motto. Equipment comes in five grades, Used, Cheap, Average, Expensive, and sometimes even ridiculous.

Used – 50% of normal price with 1 major flaw or 2 minor flaws. Cheap – 75% of normal price and 1 minor flaw. Average – 100% of normal price and no flaws or merits. Expensive – 150% of normal price and 1 minor merit. Ridiculous – 300% of normal price and 1 major merit or 2 minor ones.

Equipment Merits and Flaws Improved Range (Minor Merit) – The device works at 150% range. So cameras can see farther, radio waves can be picked up from farther away, and explosives radius is increased.

Improved Life (Minor Merit) – The devices lasts 150% longer than listed, so laptops that have super long battery lives, flashlights that never seem to die, and flares that seem to burn forever.

Extra Feature (Minor Merit) – The device has one extra feature that is agreeable by the storyteller. So flashlights might be able to change colors, radios might be able to send transmissions as well, etc.

Just Won’t Die (Major Merit) – the device can take punishment that it just shouldn’t survive. Radios that still work that fall from buildings, cell phones lost for the winter buried inside snow that work perfectly once spring comes along, etc. Any accidental damage should be ignored, unless storyteller agrees the device is dead.

Look at it go! (Major Merit) - This thing is impressive, not only does it work wonders, it does them five times faster than anything else ever had and probably ever will. The device accomplishes all feats in 1/5 of the time and offers a +4 dice benefit to all skills related to device use.

Weatherproofed (Minor Merit) – The device can operate while under heavy weather conditions such as thunderstorms, hail, etc without penalties.

Just what I need (Major Merit) – Once per story the device has the ability to be converted into something utterly useful. MacGyver style conversions are perfectly acceptable as long as storytellers allow and should for the cost of this merit. Matches that can double as small grade explosives, flashlights with “just the right wiring” to start a dead car, etc.

This looks like a job for… (Major Merit) – At any time this piece of equipment could be used to perfection the storyteller is obligated to let you know it’s a good idea.

Foreign (Minor Flaw) – Your device has foreign parts and or hard to find batteries. Have you ever gone to Wal-Mart for a FF battery? Me either, but your character is forced to buy high priced secondary items to make it work.

Unpredictable (Major Flaw) – The device has a mind of its own. It seems to work on and off. Whenever the storyteller deems dramatically appropriate the owner of the device rolls a 6 sided dice. On a result of a 1, 2, 3 or 4 the device fails, resulting in comic mayhem, Cell phones that start picking up radio transmissions, cameras that polarize, and laptop that suddenly can only recall pornographic history at the least appropriate times. The more malicious the better, however the device can not be destroyed permanently from the affects of this flaw.

Out Dated (Major Flaw) – Sometime when you need a camera anything will do, even if it’s a 1920’s replica of a camera that require $120 bulbs. Whatever it is that you bought, its old brother, real old and requires quite a bit of extra work and some knowledge that not just an everyday person has. Laptops running windows 3.1, servers hard coded in red hat 1.0, camera that require flashbulbs and dark rooms to process or maybe just a beta tape recorder. You need special older harder to find devices for this device.

The Glitch (Minor Flaw) – This device has a small glitch be it cameras that take 5 seconds to take a picture or cell phones that just can’t seem to keep a carrier signal something about the device is flawed and annoying as all hell. Whenever the storyteller deems appropriate, the player must roll a d6. On a result of a 1 the device glitches some how for 30 seconds, on a roll of a 2 the device glitches for 15 seconds, and anything higher, the device functions normally.

Examples:

Headset Radios ($150 per pair)– These two way radios fit neatly over the subjects head so you can share communications over 1 mile in distance; useful in the day and age of crappy and expensive cell phones.

Laptop (Depends on quality) – This incredibly useful item allows the GB to cross reference notes, names, and words with all sorts of tomes, books, and references the GB has access to on CD. This allows him to research on the go, as a side note this item has a 2 hour battery life. Extra batteries can be bought at $100 per battery. Characters may purchase a Poor, Average, or Excellent laptop. A Poor laptop costs $900, the Average is $1500, and the Excellent goes for $3000. The exact features on each laptop are subject to the storyteller’s judgment. While using a laptop, the time it takes for Research and Data Searching is halved. A cheap laptop gives a +1 bonus dice, Average gives a +2, and Excellent gives a +4 to all Research Rolls while using the laptop. However, the character must possess a Research skill to benefit from the bonus dice.

Boom Microphone ($200) – This large movie style microphone allows the user to record incredibly faint sounds, including any nearby ghosts. Ghosts sometimes can be picked up speak and moving on tapes. The users can hook up a pair of earphones to the microphone and hear what its recording. Meaning they MAY hear the ghosts being recorded, however this is rare, most of the time ghosts can only be heard on the tape.

Battery Operated Handheld Voice Recorder ($50) – Small device allows you to record conversations or notes to oneself. It will catch sounds up to 30 ft away. If a boom mic is attached, it increases to a 100 ft range. The battery has a life of 10 hours.

Emergency Kit ($100) – This kit includes a Swiss Army Knife, a package of 6-pack of batteries, jumper cables, tow rope, gallon of water, a blanket, 3 days rations, 10 road flares, matches, cheap AM/FM radio, First Aid Kit (Includes bandages, antiseptic, smelling salts, gauze, stitch kit with medical grade floss, tweezers, and anything else feasible and allowed by the storyteller.)

GPS ($400) – These expensive little toys tells you where you’re at in latitude and longitude.

OnStar ($300 to install, $30 a month)

Palm Pilot ($500) – works as a small computer and can hold dates and numbers.

Digital Camera ($400) – takes digital photos!

Binoculars ($40) – allows the uses to see up to x20 farther

Pager ($50 to buy, $10 a month) – simple paging system that shows the number of whom called.

Bonus

Bonus represents how much cash your character received from GBHQ as a sign-on bonus. This cannot be raised or lowered after character creation. As a side note, a sign-on bonus is just that; a bonus received only once, upon the start of employment. Your character may exchange his bonus for more equipment points. For every 10,000 dollars he spends he can gain a single equipment point.

Magic

Magic does in fact exist; however, this is totally up to the GM to decide what role it plays in the game. Spells are primary used to combat the forces of darkness when its power has grown beyond the use of proton packs and containment traps. So anything beyond class VII.

Mysticism and Psionics

Mystics are very rare, and much sought after by GB HQ. These few individuals have amazing abilities from sensing ghosts to exorcising them from the living. Once you have chosen to be awakened so to speak you must choose to either be a psychic or a mystic. Mystics come from witches homes, and covens, maybe some Jewish families still practicing the kabala. The character must be practices in the arcane arts, and must understand what he has been taught before he can fully use all of this birthright powers.

Psychics however were just born or given the talent to do what they do. Or in the latter case something horrible or a near death experience changed there ways.

All powers are listed in this section. The cost is the initial cost before you can buy levels in the power. After the initial cost, each level beyond that costs 1 point. These are character creation prices. Experience will be discussed in the experience chapter.

Sense PKE (2) – With this ability one has the ability to feel if PKE entities are close. The difficulty is set at 10 – power of the spirit. The first success allows the person to tell where and how many spirits there are. The extra successes after each tell the mystic or psychic what core emotion is in the PKE. This power requires no PP expenditure.

Trance (1) – Trance allows the character to enter a state of relaxation that allows him or her to see unmanifested ghosts. This power takes 10 minutes to start and after that he may spend 20 minutes per success at TN 4 to stay in the trance. Anyone violent shakes or combat end this power. This power requires no PP expenditure.

Exorcise (5) – With this ability, the user can push a spirit outside of a possessed victim’s body. It’s a contested roll of the spirits power divided by 2. Each attempt costs 2 PPs

Relive the Moment (3) – With this ability, the user can attempt to relive a moment in which made an area, person, object emanate PKE. The difficulty is based on the intensity of what created the PKE. They difficulty should be somewhere from 2 (Pain, Suffering, Anger – Auswitiz Concentration Camp) to 15 (Fear, Anger –A fight with a parent where voices weren’t even raised, to 8 (Suffering, Fear, Regret – A house where children were abused but no one ever died). Very powerful “moments” give psychic feedback that can mystically damage the user. At GM’s discretion, the moment will deal a small amount of mental damage to the one reliving the moment. While reliving car accident upsetting, reliving a plane crash where hundreds of people died is traumatic. Each attempt costs 1 PP.

Follow the Invisible Trail (2) – With the use of a pendulum the mystic or physics can follow a ghost s/he has seen and used Sense PKE on. Once s/he has done that he can follow it anywhere. The pendulum hangs in the direction of the ghost, how far the pendulum moves shows how far anyway the ghost is. If the tip is straight down the ghost is somewhere in the area. If the pendulum completely defies gravity (points straight out and holding there) means it could be miles away. This power costs 1 PP.

Harden the Mental Fortress (3) – With this power, the mystic or psychic can make it harder for a ghost to use emotional, mental or possession powers on himself or with a great stress, on someone else. The user adds his rating of Harden the Mental Fortress to any resisted mental or social ghost power. The user may also buffer other characters with his/her rating on the ratio of 2:1, round up.

*Forebode (6) – Forebode allows the physic or mystic visions of the future; good or bad the visions come as strange symbolic and cryptic messages. They never are blunt or to the point. The player may ask for a forebode rolls whenever he or she is starting something new; however the GM covers all the rest of the incidences when the player may use forebode. This power cost 2 power points.

Empathy (2) – Empathy is an incredibly powerful way for physics and mystics to get on the good side of people. With this power, you may sense emotions and even surface thoughts of your chosen target without the target feeling any uneasiness or side affects. The difficulty is based on the targets willpower. This power costs 1 pp per victim, per use.

*Cleanse the Blight (8) – This is one of the potent abilities mystics and psychics have in there armory. With this power, the fully active user may attempt to clean the PKE residue from an object, person, or place, whatever it happens to be on. Difficulty is set at the power of the person whom created it. (Only ghosts can PKE energies, so whatever ghost fills the thing with PKE, its power is the difficulty). As well if the mystic is in the presence of the ghost, s/he may attempt to simply erase the PKE it holds, severely weakening it. Every two successes against the power of the beast, reduces its power by 1 for a week. If the ghost loses its last point of power it’s disrupted into nothing. Some say the ghost moves on, others say a much more gruesome fate awaits those whom are banished as they say; whatever the case is up to the GM. This power costs 3 power points a use.

Merits and Flaws

No one is perfect. This section helps make sure your Ghostbuster isn’t either. Here is a list of merits and flaws that may help you generate something else that may suit your character. Consult your GM with any of your ideas or for any other ideas he or she may have. I had rules for these but it seems to be missing from my original document. I’ll have to dig to see if i can find were i wrote the rules. You can make up your own or just ignore this section!

Merits Genius [4 pt]

Hot Shot [2 pt]

Acute Sense [2 pt]

Bargain Boy/Girl [4 pt]

Danger Sense [2 pt]

Fast Reader [2 pt]

Guardian Angel [6 pt]

Huge [2, 4, or 6 pt]

Power Buffer [2, 4, or 6 pt]

Unshakeable [3 pt]

Sexy [2 pt]

Flaws Ignorant [2 pt]

Old Injury [2 pt]

Addiction [2, 4, or 6 pt]

Blind [5 pt]

Color Blind [2 pt]

Criminal Record [2 pt]

Deaf [3 pt]

Dogged by Fringe Media [3 pt]

Nightmares [2 pt]

Shaky Hands [3 pt]

Slow Learner [3 pt]

Combat

As with any game, not everything can be solved in a peaceful matter; this is especially true when hunting ghosts. It is only natural that a person and/or supernatural being would lash out when threatened verbally or physically. Combat takes place whenever the character experiences an aggressive action or initiates an aggressive action. Combat falls into the following sequence.

1. Initiative – Initiative is rolled the moment combat starts. Take your Moves and divide that number by three. This is the number of d6 you’ll roll. The numbers rolled are added to your Moves and this is the speed at which you move, or your order in the scheme of the combat order. For every round, subtract ten from your total initiative. You may make an action for every round that you begin with a positive number. For example; if you roll a 15, you may make two moves. The first round you will move at 15, the second you will move at 5, and the third, you cannot make a move because you no longer have a positive initiative.
2. Action Declaration – Each player, in ascending order (1, 2, 3…), declares their action. The GM assigns applicable modifiers to the action.
3. Dice Rolls – In order of descending initiative, players may roll to determine the success of their actions. This is when attack rolls are made and damage is calculated.
4. Action Resolution – Per success or failure, the Storyteller determines the outcomes of the actions.

Ranged Attacks

To make a ranged attack, simply roll your ranged combat skill at TN 4, you may use any dice allocated from your action pool for such a test, but only equal or less than the skill you are using to attack with. Note the successes generated by this test. Subtract your success from your opponent’s defense test. If your test yields positive results, then your attack hits, dealing damage equal to the weapons damage score. Every two extra successes increase the damage of the weapon by one. Ranged attacks can only be dodged.

Melee Attacks

To make a melee attack, roll your melee combat skill at TN 4, you may use any dice allocated from your action pool for such a test, but only equal or less than the skill you are using to attack with. Note the successes generated by this test. Subtract your success from your opponent’s defense test. If your test yields positive results, then your attack hits, dealing damage equal to the weapons damage score. Every two extra successes increases the damage of the weapon by one

Dodging

Every combat round you are allowed to allocate dice from your action pool. Whenever a melee or ranged attack test against you, roll your allocated dice at TN of 4, note your successes. If you score more successes than your opponent, you take no damage from his attack.

Parry

Every combat round you are allowed to allocate dice from your action pool. Whenever a melee attack test against you, roll your allocated dice at TN of 4, note your successes. If you score more successes than your opponent, you take no damage from his attack.

Damage

Damage is calculated by rolling the damage rank of the weapon with d6 and adding all dice together. There are two types of damage: Physical and Mental. Physical damage is inflicted by anything capable of killing an individual, such as swords, guns, proton blasts, moving vehicles and the like. Mental damage is incurred through slightly less lethal means. Tasers, small blunt weapons, normal unarmed combat, psychic attack, and ghost powers are prime examples. When characters reach physical damage overflow of 0 and below, they fall unconscious. However, if the damage overflow is greater than their negative body attribute, they are dead. For example, a character has Body 6. Once they reach 0, they are unconscious. They are not dead until they reach -6. When a character reaches 0 Mental, they pass out. When characters reach Overflow greater than their Willpower, they enter a coma.

Catching Ghosts

As the main purpose of this game is to feel what it is like to run around the city and save people from paranormal ectoplasmic entities, you will be using this section a great deal. The most common combat is GB the RPG is attempting to catch ghosts. This is a three step process.

1. The players in question roll imitative just as if they enter normal combat rounds. In order of initiatives they declare their actions from lowest to highest. After declarations have been made the players act in order from highest to lowest. When using a proton pack to attempt to contain a ghost the players makes an energy weapons roll at TN 5. If the player is using an improved proton pack the TN is reduced to 4. The ghosts dodge successes remove the successes achieved on this attack, if the attack score a negative or zero successes the attack misses. On a result of 1 or 2 successes the player has gotten a lead on the ghost and can fire the next round on a -1 TN. Once the players has gotten 3 successes on one attack, the ghost is contained and can be held in place. Each player that holds achives three successes on a containment attack add a -1 bonus to the TN of closing the trap.
2. The player or players whom are currently holding the ghost may pass on their initative and continue to hold the ghost until the trap is closed. Every round they hold the ghost they make an opposing strength challenge at TN equal to the ghost power. The ghost receives a -1 TN penalty per players that succeed on a containment attack and is forgoing their initiative past the first.
3. Once the ghost is being held its all the matter of getting him in position of the trap and then closing it. Only a player whom is not currently holding the ghost may attempt to throw and close a trap on a ghost who is being held. The player throwing the trap makes a ranged attack roll at TN 4. Only 1 success is needed to position the trap under the ghost. A failure results in an under or over thrown trap (1-50 over, 51-100 under). In either case the trap must be thrown again next round until a successful throw is made. Once the throw is successful is completed the player may close the trap, trapping the ghost inside.

Game Masters Section

So you have taken on the responsibility of running Ghostbusters Role Playing Game! You’ve got big shoes to fill but don’t worry most of the stress is going to fall onto the players you just have to make sure they don’t do anything way…way out there.

Building Records

After your players have created their characters they are going to need a base of operations. This requires two things, money and planning. First the players need to decide what type of location their building is going, and then what is going into it. More than likely they are going to spit out actual locations at you. Your job is to decide what type of location that is low, medium, high, or luxurious.

Building type Description

Each type above has a effects over all the entire building, mostly having to deal with cost. The rest will be detailed later. Within each building are types of rooms, from garages to offices. Your building will need them in order to keep functioning, labs for research, workshops for repairs, and storerooms for storage.

Room Ratings and Description

Some of the rooms your building will have ratings that help in various ways. These are important to figure out before you begin plotting and maybe even before you decide how big your building is going to be. Each rating will be described with the room it is in.

Offices – Offices are needed to do paper work and take up only one square. Every building needs at least one office. Offices have no rating.

Garage – Garages are need for minor repairs as well as major repairs. For every vehicle your team owns a garage is needed to house it. Garages take up two squares that have to connect to one another either vertically or horizontally, not diagonally. As well they must touch the outside of the building. You can’t drive your vehicles through offices to get to your garage. Garages take up two squares per 3 rating they possess. These rooms must also connect. When repairing vehicles the highest difficulty that can attempt to be repaired inside that garage is rating + 1.

Mystic/Psychic Workshop – These rooms are very simple, normally filled with pillows, incense and music that calm the soul. This is a place for relaxation and meditation that helps the open minded to work their mojo. This area takes up only a single box per every three rating it possesses. Mystics and Psychics regain power points equal to the rating of the workshop for every hour spent in silent meditation. As well the max level a psychic power can raise is equal to workshop rating.

Laboratory – Ah, the laboratory. This wondrous place is full of beakers, test tubes and tons of fun to even the least educated person. To the select few who actually know what the purple stuff in flask all the way to the left is, this is their play ground. This is a must have to anyone who wishes to understand the newly found ooze that creped out of McCain’s place. This area takes up a single box per rating it possesses. For each rating the laboratory is, the scientist may attempt a research roll TN equal to the laboratory rating + 2.

Sleeping Quarters – This is also a require room. This is a simple place to sleep. For each person staying in the building one box must be used for sleeping quarters purposes. Sleeping quarters do not have ratings.

Storage – Storage is used to store things that don’t fit in a desk drawer. Large things take up storage space; this will be described later in the building chapter. These areas take up one box per storage unit you want.

Library – The Library is a very complex room that serves quite a few purposes. First it houses all of the team’s books from the oddities f metaphysics to the science of physics. Second it helps mystics discover new powers above and beyond what they new have. These rooms take p 1 box for every two rating it possesses. The highest level a mystic’s power can rises after character creation is equal to the library ating. Also the highest TN any research roll may be is Rating + 2.

Rec. Room / Toiletries – This is also a must have for any building. It takes up two boxes. You may increase the size of either the oiletry or rec. room as you please. These have no ratings.

Kitchen – Another must have if players are living at the building. The kitchen takes up one box, and it has no rating.

Workshops – Workshops are vitally important to your team. This is the place that houses the supplies to repair and build the various the tools of the ghost busting trade. These rooms take up 1 box per rating they possess. The high TN any B/R roll that can be made is the rating plus + 2.

Once you have what is needed for your building record the maximum box allotment. Taking into account empty room you want to add on to later but aren’t full of equipment either. Then find out how much it all costs based on location of your area using the chart below.

Ghosts, Spirits, and Gods

Ghost busting isn’t always about plain and simple ghosts believe it or not. In the BG universe there are three types of beings, Ghosts, Gods, and Spirits, Hence the name of the chapter. Ghost are entities of once living people who crossed the veil of death whom posses new found powers to feed there passion. Spirits are entities that are collective energies from man that manifest as something. And gods are the ancient beings who rule over the other dimensions.

For the most part, Ghostbusters go out and fight the good fight against the ghosts of our time. So this chapter will mainly deal with ghosts; however spirits and gods will have there section.

The creatures of the night are made as per the character creation rules above, with a few exceptions. First off the power attribute, this determines how spiritual powerful your spirit, ghost or god is. Your minor ghost of an old dog may have a power of 2 or 3. A ghost of an old serial killer out for blood might have a power score of 6 to 12; a god above man like Gozer would have a power score of 20 or 30. For every point of power the spirit, ghost or god possesses he or she may take a power of a ghostly edge.

The beings from beyond have several powers and abilities far beyond that of human capability and some that just wouldn’t make sense if humans could do. I tried to make these are generic as possible so not to limit your ghosts in what they can do. If you want your ghost to have a power, feel free to make it up, you’re a Game Master, who’s to challenge god? And such is this list of mondo ghost and spirit powers!

Classes

Ghostbusters, to the premier defense science of this decade. The following information will prove indispensable in your ghost hunting. Classification of ghosts, specters, haunts, and Things That Go Bump in the Night is the first step toward conquering these manifestations. With this starting list of paranormal definitions, you are on your way to a glamorous career full of adventure. 

Class I: These are undeveloped forms, insubstantial and difficult to see. Interaction with their environment is limited and enigmatic (e.g., spectral lights, voices and sounds, ectoplasmic vapors, etc.). Simple application of a proton pack beam is normally effective.

Class II: Manifestations focused in this time and space, Class II ghosts and up can physically manipulate things in this world. These forms are vague, inconsistent, or incomplete (e.g., floating sheets, ghostly hands, animated lips, etc.). Although a proton pack beam is normally effective, some Class II ghosts have the capacity to return attacks.

Class III: Anonymous Haunting. Distinct human form and personality is evident, but former identity (i.e., as a living being) is not established. If established, ghost is reassigned as Class IV. Often difficult to deal with, Class III ghosts generally possess sophisticated means of defense.

Class IV: Identity is established. They have a distinct human form and personality with known identity, such as General Custer or Cleopatra. Economic disposal methods include research into the background of said entity, as well as possible communication with it.

Class V: These are ectoplasmic manifestations of definite but non-human form. Speculation includes the theory that Class V’s are formed from emotionally-charged events or as side effects from ritual summoning. (The spud Peter Venkman talks about so much was a by-product of the rituals that a cult held in the Sedgewick Hotel’s basement.) These typically require extensive proton pack implementation to eradicate.

Class VI: Ghosts from lower life forms. A giant penguin was once seen attacking a mugger in Central Park. Later it was discovered that the penguin was a ghost. Unique solutions are often required to handle these entities, including research into habitats, allergies, natural enemies, etc.

Class VII: Metaspectres. Obsessively malevolent, exceptionally powerful, and exhibiting control over subordinate forms, such entities are potentially very dangerous. These are often identified by primitive cultures as “Demons”. Entitles which fit this classification include Gozer and Zuul. Neutralizing them is usually a problematical undertaking at best. Most standard procedures are futile. The most realistic plan is to take measures to prevent these things from entering the sphere of influence in the first place.

Traits

Ghost traits vary, presenting everything from spooks to nuts. Though official terminology has not been regularized, a few commonly used terms are discussed bellow:

Free Floating: A ghost that moves about at will, with no regard to buildings, people, or time and space as we know it. Sometimes just called “free”.

Focused: The ghost is tied to the specific locale in which it first appeared and cannot stray from it.

Full Torso: Some ghosts have full torsos; some have arms and legs, and some have no head and the like. Full torso apparitions are relatively rare – many haunting are indistinct below the chest.

Repeater: May refer to a self-regenerating PKE force (common with ritually-summoned spooks) or to a spook with obsessive repetitious behavior patterns (i.e., always manifesting at a certain place and time). Even when the ghost can be captured or eliminated, some agency continues to produce successive haunting. Such ghosts reappear periodically until the source can be disabled.

Vapor or Mist: A common but imprecise term, it may refer to a Class I or II entity, or any insubstantial haunting.

Ghost Character Creation

Because ghosts care so little about equipment or physic powers (they have their own). They needed their own chart.

Innate Powers

All ghosts have a few innate powers. These do not count toward their power count as per character creation. Invisibility – All ghosts are invisible unless they choose to manifest. However almost all ghost manifest to scare off mortals and Ghost can not attack or use powers while invisible.
Incorporeality – All ghosts are also incorporeal. They are immune to physical attack. Unless a special device is made or the use of a proton wand is done, ghosts are pretty much invincible. Absorption of Power – Lastly all ghosts have the ability to adsorb power from other ghost or from the places of power. Ghost make a power test TN of 5. Every success while in the presence of a disrupted ghost or place of power restores one point of loss power. Points above a ghosts max reduce by one per hour until down to the ghosts’ normal max.

Power and Places of Power

Power is a universal trait, generated by extreme emotions. Psychics, Mystics, and Ghosts have the ability to tap into that power. Most people don’t even know it exists beyond feeling the slight impressions from places with great power. Most people fear what they don’t understand nor can they interact with. So such places are mostly revered as haunted. Power collects the more people believe that some places holds power. So a subway where 15 people died in a horrible mass wreck tends to be a place of power. A happy sunshine groves were children play tends to hold little power. Places of power have ratings based on how many people believe that its “haunted” and how old the legend. A new discovered body inside a house may only yield a rating 1 place of power or PoP. A cave where black beards treasure is held, along with his ship, body as well as the rest of the crew, that has a cursed laid upon it that anyone who steals his treasure drowns at midnight…tends to have ratings of 10 or more. Use the chart below when creating places of power. Also, places of power display powers of their own sometimes. Most of these powers revolve around scaring people out of them or possessing objects within them. When PoP’s use ghost powers, use the rating of the PoP as the power level for the power.

Ghost Powers

Control Animals This power allows the spook to control animals of a certain type, Dogs, cat, mice, monkeys, etc. The control is total, meaning the spook can force animals to do anything there body is capable of doing. A dog can’t drive a car. However when controls more than one animal all kinds of things are possible. As states above a dog can never drive a car, but two could. The spook can control animals equal to its power. If the animal is small and very weak, the game master may allow the spoke to control its power x2 of animals. The spook can issue mental commands to the animals at a range of his power in 10 yard radius times his power.

Confuse The endless hallway or the forbidden forest; these images bring about what the spook can truly do with a power such as this. With the power the spook can confuse a person into believing he is lost, or that a hallway just isn’t going to end. This doesn’t allow the spook to control the actions or thoughts of a person, simply to make an area appear as if it doesn’t end, or that roads or forest just lead back to the same place.

Enhanced (attribute) Enhanced attributes make ghosts overly powerful. Often spirits are faster or stronger than humans could ever be. A spirit can take this power more than once, every time increasing the enhanced attribute by one. There is no limit to how powerful these attributes can get, only how many points you can drop into it.

Scare Ghosts can terrify the living better than anything else in the entire world. With a successful power roll verse the difficulty of the targets willpower. Each success makes a Ghostbuster lose a cool point. If a Ghostbuster looses 5 cool points from scare, he or she flies into a fit of terror can has a 50% chance to run in terror (1 - 50) or an equal chance to just stand there in total awe (51-100).

Conceal The powers of the choir invisible are almost endless. One of which is to make something invisible much like themselves. To do this they simply concentrate for a single turn and conceal the person, place or object in ectoplasm each success increases the difficulty of sensing the object with PKE monitors.

Binding Binding allows the spook to hold a character to the ground. This basically allows the ghost to freeze someone in place. Gozer used this power when he shot all the GBs with lightning. This power is incredibly powerful being that it removes the ability to dodge. So be wary. To use this power the ghost makes a power test against the victims moves attribute (for multiple targets, used the highest moves score). Each success may be used to bind a character for a round or binding another person. So if a spook scored 5 successes with this power, he could either bind 5 people for one round, bind one person for 5 rounds, or 3 people for 2 rounds. But the amount of people to be bound must be declared before the roll is made, if the ghost fails to achieve enough success to bind each declared victim the ghost fails to bind any.

Telekinesis Ghosts often pick up objects; make things move and just in general cause chaos at a range. With the power the ghost can make a telekinetic force. A power test verse 4 is made. Each success gives the ghost one plus success in strength which can be used at a distance of his power in yards.

Create/Control Element Ghosts can sometimes project elements of destruction. Gozer had the ability to throw lightning, some other ghosts can make fire and some ghosts can even create and control water. The ghost can make attacks with the elements they can create and control. These attacks do power plus 1 dice of damage per success over the defenders dodge successes.

Telepathy With Telepathy a ghost can speak to a person without having to manifest physically, as well as talk with someone who isn’t in there vicinity. Telepathy has a range of power in miles. No matter the language of the user, the victim can always understand the user. Language barrier mean nothing to the thoughts and ideas of the mind.

Mind Probe With mind probe the ghost have sift through the persons mind and try and steal memories so he can better fit in or just learn about his opposition. To do this the ghost makes an opposed power vs. willpower roll. A successful roll allows the ghost to sift through the targets conscious memories.

Control Actions With an opposed power verse willpower roll, the spook can force a person to do 1 action per success over the opponent. These actions can’t be suicidal, but they can be dangerous and homicidal. A suicidal action would be, “shoot yourself in the head, stab yourself in the neck, jump off the top of the statue of liberty”. A dangerous action would be, “walk along the ledge of this building, attack a police officer, and break into a bank.”

Influence This much more subtle form of control, gives the victim a feeling about something. For instance, the spook could give a feeling of dread while the victim was walking in front of a building, or a feeling of accomplishment when he killed someone, or maybe even the feeling of arousal when he was performing some task for the ghost. The ghost can only give feelings and impulses not outright commands. This is another opposed power vs. willpower roll. Each success allows the spook to give one feeling/emotion to the victim.

Create Illusion With this power the spook can graft illusions out of protoplasm. These illusion seem as real as real can be, you can see, smell hear, feeling and taste the illusions however, they can not hurt the victim in anyway shape or form. To do this the ghost simply need to make a successful power roll verse 4. Each success allows the ghost to fashion one illusion, or affect another target. So if the ghost wanted to manifest two ghostly heads floating around and make two people see the illusion, he would need 4 successes. As well the illusion can be use to frighten the targets. If the ghost wants to scare the victim he must set aside successes to fear, each successes dedicated to scaring the bejesus out of someone causes the victim to make a cool roll, failure does SuccessD3 points of cool loss. Success means the victim only loses a single point of cool, as he endures the sights.

Silence With this power the ghost can cause an eerie silence to come over a place. Within this globe of silence the nothing can be heard, nothing creates any noise and voices are utterly silenced. This is often used when the ghost wishes to have persons screams heard. To use this power the ghost simply makes a power test against 4. Each success adds 1 round of silence in the ghost’s power in yards.

Possession This common power allows spooks to taken over bodies or objects, or even the most potent aspect of this power, a place. While possessing an object, the ghost has full control over the object or place or person. So while inside the person, the ghost has full use of the body, however it does not have access to its memory. While in an object the ghost can make the object move, and do things it normally couldn’t do as long as it could have that capability. So a table could run, but a TV could not, but it could turn on and off, turn the channel, etc. A statue could move, pick up things, if it had arms and fingers, etc. If a spook possesses a house they have access to anything built into the home. So they could open doors, lock them, move windows. To do this the ghost rolls his power verse whatever he is using. Use the charts below.

Levitate Levitate allows the ghost to be able to move vertically up or down, and to basically fly. There is no roll for this power, but they move at Power in mph.

Eyes of the Pack With the ghosts enslaving ability, he has to have the ability to keep track of all of his slaves. That’s where this power comes in; with eyes of the pack the spook can see through his slave’s eyes and even use his powers through the victim. To use this power the spirit must sacrifice a point of power permanently and invest it in the victim, from that point on, the person is consider the ghost for ranges of power.

Manipulate Dream Some spirits and ghost have the ability to change what a person is dreaming or even powerful ghost can change what a person is daydreaming. The only factor is that the person must be in either asleep or in the alpha state, such as watching TV, reading, anything where his mind is distracted. The ghost has the ability to change literally anything in the dream. The only draw back is that it’s just a dream; you may not harm anyone in the dream, but the person may believe he is harmed; either way when the victim wakes up, all bets are off, all things disappear and the state is over.

Mist More often than not, the places where ghosts stay is covered by a fine mist making it all the spookier. This is a terrible easy affect to cause. The ghost simply makes a power roll verse 4. Each success allows the ghost to create a 10 cubic feet of mist. As you can bet it’s pretty easy to cover the front section of a building or a powerful ghost to cover an entire building or forest. This increases all difficulty on sight related challenges while in the mists. So GBs firing Proton packs in the mist are at +1 difficulty modifier while standing in the mist.

Spirit Static Spirit static allows the ghost to increase the difficulty of detecting spirits and ghosts with PKE meter. A power roll against difficulty 4, for each success increase the successes needed to detect a spirit with a PKE meter, cameras, etc. This power has no affect on infra devices. The pictures and recording seem to come out fuzzy, or static as if disrupted by EMP.

Electrical Chaos With a power roll determined by your storyteller, 4 from being an incredibly intense system where millions of things could go wrong to 10 where it’s an incredibly simple machine where the problem could be found in seconds of looking at it. This only works on a single machine or network. However destroyer a server in a power plant….well that’s something on its own. Each success paralyzes the system for 10 minutes.

Experience and Goals

Experience is totally dependant upon completion of goals. Goals have two parts to them; a description and a rating. Goals can range from discovering a new class of ghost to just getting laid. At the beginning of character creation, give your character 15 points of goals. No goals may have ratings higher than 6, at this time. The rating represent how important to goal is to your character or to the story if the goal is assigned as per GM request.

At the end of each session, the GM will help you go over your goals and see if you achieved any or at least took a good step toward one. If you do in fact complete or take a good step toward one you GM may award. If a goal is completed then, you are awarded its rating in experience. If you make a big step toward a goal, the GM may award experience based on how close you are to completing the goal; normally 1 or 2, but no more than ½ the rating of that goals value (rounding down). So GMs, no awarding 2 experience to someone with a value of 3, who barely took a step toward a goal. GMs this is your baby, treat goals with a lot of respect, because they can really mess up your game if peoples goals are too easily completed, or to far out there. Also try and help your players when creating goals so they can actually be completed.

Once you have experience what do you do with it? Well you spend it obviously! Here on this chart, are how much raising things costs as well as improving Mystic skills.

Storytelling

Storytelling in this world is actually rather difficult; trying to stay away from the world will be destroyed theme gets hard on the story teller. However there is always ways around that. First off ensure that you will have a good solid reason for going out, money is always an option however sooner or later everyone will get rich. Some of the better reasons are to help friends and family. Get better press, clear your name, or maybe just for fun. Make sure the GBs will enjoy the reason or have a damn fine reason for doing what they are doing!

Next make sure to give the ghosts some background info, make sure they have a reason for being on the other side. Give them a purpose, like Vigo! He wants to be born again to further his reign of terror.

Character Histories or Backgrounds

While a character background is not necessary, it may do wonders for game play. Having a history to work off of, players tend to have goals for their characters. Also, it helps people play the role instead of simply the game. Now, it is understandable why many people are not interested in creating backgrounds; they take a lot of time and effort to write. A great motivation tactic is to offer experience points for a background.

Notes: As always I hold no rights to this Ghostbusters, Ghostbusters is a trademark of Columbia pictures in which I do not challenge; I do however holds the rights to the rules of this game, but I simply wanted to make a game that people will love. So if anyone has any problems with it, e-mail me at Dean@nullsheen.com, as well if anyone has any questions or comments or something to add to this e-mail me and I’ll add it if it works, Thank you.

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