The Ghost Busters via Ghostbusters: Doorways to the Great Beyond

In The Ghost Busters, the ghosts always enter the world of the living via a local cemetery. In addition, in the episode, "Dr. Whatshisname," Dr. Frankenstein explains to the Monster as they Teleport from the abandoned castle on Batwing Lane to the cemetery, "It is a bother to have to keep coming back here in order to materialize my laboratory equipment, but this is the Doorway to the Great Beyond." From these two facts, we can formulate the following rules for The Ghost Busters: A Clever, Courageous, and Strong Role-Playing Game (That Is Completely Unofficial):

Doorways to the Great Beyond

When ghosts enter the world of the living, whether by willing Teleportation or by being summoned, they must enter through a Doorway to the Great Beyond. Such Doorways are typically located in cemeteries or other sites of concentrated paranormal activity.

Certain ghosts have the special ability to Materialize Objects (usually to continue their work toward their Goal), but excessive use depletes a ghost's Ectopresence. In order to replenish their Ectopresence, they must return to a Doorway to the Great Beyond and tap into its psychokinetic energy reserves. Any materialized objects disappear when the ghosts who manifested them return to the Great Beyond or are otherwise banished, sent back, or trapped.

The Ghost Busters via Ghostbusters: Ghost-Busting

If, in an alternate universe, The Ghost Busters television show were adapted into a role-playing game similar to Ghostbusters: A Frightfully Cheerful Roleplaying Game, perhaps entitled The Ghost Busters: A Clever, Courageous, and Strong Role-Playing Game (That Is Completely Unofficial), the rules pertaining to ghosts and the busting thereof might look something like this...

Without exception, the ghosts that appear in The Ghost Busters are corporeal, having bodies that occupy physical space. They are opaque, they can touch and be touched, and they have the limitations of movement their former physical bodies had in life—they walk, use doors, and can even trip. The one ghostly Special Ability most or all of them share is Teleportation. Every ghost that appears singly (or the more powerful ghost in a duo) can Teleport itself and a ghostly companion using its Power. Short range Teleportation (line-of-sight or in the general vicinity) is a difficulty of 5. Medium range Teleportation (anywhere outside the general vicinity) is a difficulty of 10. Long range Teleportation (to and from the Great Beyond, perhaps) is a difficulty of 15 or 20. Sometimes ghosts appear of their own will; sometimes they are summoned by mortals. Regardless of the means of their manifestation, most ghosts try to avoid being sent back.

The primary tool in a Ghost Buster's Ghost Kit for dealing with supernatural entities is the Ghost De-Materializer. Looking something like a camera with an antenna and two handles jutting out horizontally on opposite sides, it can be aimed in the approximate direction of a ghost and activated, which causes the ghost to de-materialize from our natural world and re-materialize in the Spirit World, the Great Beyond, or wherever else it is supposed to spend its afterlife. In game terms, the Ghost Buster would use the Moves Trait or the Aim Ghost De-Materializer Talent once a ghost is cornered. The difficulty is the same as for ranged weapons: 5 for point-blank, 10 for normal, and 20 for long distance. If the Ghost Buster beats the difficulty, one ghost is instantly de-materialized. If the Ghost Buster rolls twice the difficulty or more, two ghosts are instantly de-materialized. If the Ghost Buster rolls three times the difficulty or more, three ghosts are instantly de-materialized. And so on. As you can see, the Ghost De-Materializer is a powerful weapon, but it is completely useless against certain ghosts that require unique methods to banish them. (Whether these de-materializerproof ghosts would be vulnerable to a proton pack is left to the Ghostbusters' experimentation and the Ghostmaster's discretion.)

The Ghost Busters via Ghostbusters: Characters

In 1975, a live-action Saturday morning television show called The Ghost Busters debuted (nine years before the unrelated movie coincidentally called Ghostbusters). Produced by Filmation, it starred Larry Storch as Spencer, Bob Burns as Tracy, and Forrest Tucker as Kong (collectively known as Spencer, Tracy & Kong, Ghost Busters). Spencer was a zoot-suiter, Tracy was a gorilla, and Kong was the one in charge.

The three of them worked in a dingy office on the tenth floor of a building that was presumably shaped like the Flatiron Building (considering three of the walls had an exterior ledge).

To receive their Ghost Buster assignments, Kong would send Spencer and Tracy to a general store across town (with Tracy at the wheel of a 1929 Whippet) to retrieve it in the form of an audio tape concealed in a random object, which, after playing a message from someone named Zero, would self-destruct in usually five seconds.

Invariably, their mission was to intercept a ghost or two and send them back to the Great Beyond. The ghosts were drawn like magnets to the same cemetery every week, and they would inevitably decide to take residence in what they called a castle (which is confusing because it resembled a castle from the inside, but its exterior appeared to be a creepy mansion).

Dispatching a ghost typically involved zapping it with the Ghost De-Materializer, but occasionally it required fulfilling other conditions specific to the ghost.

Ghosts, in general, seemed to be more substantial as they were incapable of passing through solid matter and frequently interacted with physical objects. They could, however, teleport, which they did frequently, and some could turn invisible. Some had unique powers, such as the mummy's ability to transform any mortal it touched into a mummy.

Could The Ghost Busters be adapted to a role-playing game using the rules of Ghostbusters: A Frightfully Cheerful Roleplaying Game? It can! The question ought to be, "Should it?" We'll do it anyways.

Welcome to The Ghost Busters: A Clever, Courageous, and Strong Role-Playing Game That Is Completely Unofficial. (The title makes sense if you've heard the theme song.)

And here are the titular characters...

---

Spencer

Brains 2 (Ventriloquism 5)
Muscles 3 (Flee 6)
Moves 3 (Music 6)
Cool 4 (Impersonate Celebrities 7)
Goal: Fame

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Tracy the Gorilla

Brains 2 (Magic 5)
Muscles 7 (Intimidate 10)
Moves 2 (Art 5)
Cool 2 (Prop Comedy 5)
Goal: Fame

---

Kong

Brains 3 (Library Science 6)
Muscles 3 (Flee 6)
Moves 3 (Aim Ghost De-Materializer 6)
Cool 3 (Boss Others 6)
Goal: Wealth

---

Between the three, they have a jalopy for transportation, a Ghost Kit (including a Ghost De-Materializer), a wide assortment of hats for Tracy, a few books, many filing cabinets, an antique typewriter, an antique telephone, and various art supplies (again, for Tracy).

ZAP!

The GROGNARD Files Interviews Marc Miller

The GROGNARD Files podcast revisits Traveller with special guest Marc Miller in Episode 69. Time to Jump!

Ghostbusters via Tricube Tales: Combat

In a previous article, I explained the challenge resolution rules of Tricube Tales as I thought they might be applied to Ghostbusters. Here, I shall attempt to describe how Tricube Tales resolves combat and how I would apply it to, again, Ghostbusters. Please read the previous article (and the article previous to that) for a better understanding of this one.

In addition to karma, which can be spent to reduce the difficulty of challenges, characters start with 3 points of resolve each. Characters lose resolve (usually 1 point for a failure and 2 points for a critical failure) whenever they fail a dangerous challenge such as combat. Characters whose resolve is reduced to 0 are eliminated from the scene (although they can usually return later with restored resolve) and/or may be given an affliction, which operates as a quirk.

Combat encounters are assigned both difficulty and 2 to 3 effort tokens. If the challenge is lost, the character loses resolve. If the challenge is won, an effort token is removed for each successful die result. When all of the effort tokens are depleted, the enemy is vanquished.

How do we use these rules in the world of Ghostbusters? Perhaps ghosts with 2 effort tokens require one challenge to weaken them with a proton pack and one challenge to maneuver them over a ghost trap. Ghosts with 3 effort tokens require two Ghostbusters to each make a successful challenge followed by a third challenge to slide a ghost trap under them (although maybe a very qualified Ghostbuster could do it alone with a lucky roll). Difficulty will vary, of course, and certain entities may have effort tokens in excess of 3, or they may require more complicated means of disposal. In addition to difficulty and effort tokens, ghosts will, of course, have other (mostly paranormal) abilities. The GM would be wise to exercise these abilities to ridiculous extremes.

Let's look at an example of an encounter between a Ghostbuster and a ghost in need of busting.

Winston Zeddemore
Trait: brawny
Concept: Ghostbuster
Perk: combat expert
Quirk: Ghostbusting novice

Slimer Junior
Difficulty: 5
Effort: 2
Description: free-floating poltergeist

Winston Zeddemore, responding to a call from a local restaurateur, discovers a free-floating poltergeist haunting the dumpster behind the restaurant in question. Priming his proton pack, Winston must make an agile roll. Since his trait is brawny, not agile, but the challenge is related to his concept (Ghostbuster), he rolls two dice. If he wants to regain some previously lost karma, he can raise the difficulty to 6 before he rolls by using his quirk of being a novice at Ghostbusting, but in this example he chooses to roll against the normal difficulty of 5.

With two dice, Winston rolls 5 and 4. The 5 is a success. He hits the target and Slimer Junior loses 1 effort token. The 4 is not a success. He can either roll again and hope for another success (at the risk of failing and losing 1 resolve as a consequence), or he can use his perk of being a combat expert to lower the difficulty to 4, which would give him two successes immediately, bagging and trapping the ghost in one fell swoop.

And that's how I would adapt Ghostbusters to Tricube Tales.

I think.

Playtesting would be in order.

Ghostbusters via Tricube Tales: Challenges

[The following article, describing how challenge resolution works in Tricube Tales, originally appeared as a response to a comment on this article. Note: I changed the word "task" to "challenge" in keeping with the terminology used in the rules. In a future article, I will likely tackle the subject of translating the antagonists from Ghostbusters to Tricube Tales.]

Challenges are resolved by rolling one to three six-sided dice. The GM will call for a trait roll (agile, brawny, or crafty) and state a difficulty (4, 5, or 6). If any die equals or exceeds the difficulty, the character succeeds.

If the challenge matches both the character's trait and concept, the player rolls three dice. If the challenge matches one, but not both, the player rolls two dice. If the challenge matches neither the trait nor the concept, the player rolls one die.

Characters start with 3 points of karma each. If the player wants to reduce the difficulty after rolling, the player can spend 1 point of karma to reduce the difficulty by 1 if it can be related to the character's perk. If the player wants to increase the difficulty before rolling, the player gains 1 point of karma and the difficulty increases by 1 if it can be related to the character's quirk.

Dr. Raymond Stantz
Trait: crafty
Concept: Ghostbuster
Perk: expert on Occult Studies
Quirk: overly enthusiastic

So, if the GM says deciphering the mystical writing in a pentagram requires a crafty roll with a difficulty of 5, Ray rolls three dice (because he's crafty and it fits his concept) and succeeds if any of them come up 5 or 6. After rolling, he can choose to spend a point of karma and reduce the difficulty by invoking his perk (Occult Studies expertise). If he wants to regain karma, he can raise the difficulty to 6 before rolling the dice by invoking his quirk (overly enthusiastic).

If the GM says firing the proton pack at the lethargic poltergeist requires an agile roll with a difficulty of 4, Ray rolls two dice (because he's not agile, but he is a Ghostbuster) and succeeds if any of them come up 4, 5, or 6. He can probably justify using his perk or his quirk to modify the difficulty.

If the GM says using a crowbar to bludgeon a hostile robot requires a brawny roll with a difficulty of 5, Ray rolls one die (because he's not brawny and the task does not fall under the purview of being a Ghostbuster) and succeeds if it comes up 5 or 6. He cannot invoke his perk since robot-fighting is unrelated to Occult Studies, but he could use his quirk of being overly enthusiastic to raise the difficulty and regain karma.

[Edit: I replaced "Explanations and Examples" with "Challenges" in the article's title.]

Ghostbusters via Tricube Tales: Characters

I have yet to play or run Tricube Tales, but I thought I would test its effectiveness at translating well-known fictional characters. Naturally, I chose Ghostbusters.

Tricube Tales (available here through DriveThruRPG) is a minimalist role-playing game that resolves actions using 1d6, 2d6, or 3d6. Characters are created by choosing a trait (agile, brawny, or crafty), a concept (selected or created by the player), a perk (which lowers a task's difficulty at the price of karma), and a quirk (which raises a task's difficulty, but awards karma).

This is how I translated the main characters of the first Ghostbusters movie:

Dr. Raymond Stantz, a crafty Ghostbuster who is an expert on Occult Studies, but overly enthusiastic.

Dr. Egon Spengler, a crafty Ghostbuster who is a brilliant inventor, but socially clueless.

Dr. Peter Venkman, a crafty Ghostbuster who is charming, but vain.

Winston Zeddemore, a brawny Ghostbuster who is a combat expert, but a Ghostbusting novice.

Janine Melnitz, a crafty secretary who is confident, but sarcastic.

Louis Tully, a crafty lawyer who is dedicated, but awkward.

Dana Barrett, an agile musician who is brave, but naive.

News at 6-Sided: Monsters! Monsters! 2.7 Released

Trollgodfather Press has released a 2.7 edition of Monsters! Monsters! on DriveThruRPG (in preparation for the eventual release of a 3rd edition that will include expanded rules for non-monster adversaries). In November, the "1976 Zero Edition," an early draft of the rules, was also released. Both editions, as well as the 2nd edition, are currently available as PDFs. (The 2nd edition softcover book is available here.)

• Monsters! Monsters! 2.7 Edition
• Monsters! Monsters! 1976 Zero Edition
• Monsters! Monsters! 2nd Edition

Looking Back at Past Goals

Back in 2016, I dared to post some New Year's resolutions for Decidedly Six-Sided (entitled "Short List of Six-Sider Goals") and never looked back. Well, let's look back now and see how I fared in the intervening years.

"1. Run more sessions of the 1st edition Ghostbusters role-playing game."
Status: I did! (Not nearly as many as I would have liked, but I did run more sessions.)

"2. Complete my own version of universal D6 role-playing rules."
Status: I haven't completed them (although I'm close), and they aren't D6 rules (although they can be played with six-siders and there is a D6-style option), but I am confident I will achieve a version of this goal this year. (A glimpse of its progress can be found in Omnia Pro Omnibus.)

"3. Acquire a set of new casino-style six-sided dice."
Status: Negatory. This was the easiest goal to achieve, and it still languishes in one of my online wish lists. I have no excuse.

"4. Run Deluxe Tunnels & Trolls."
Status: Didn't happen; won't happen. The deluxe edition made a handful of changes that were helpful, but many more that overcomplicated a famously simple game and made it seem less fun to me. It also provided unnecessary details that left less to the gamer's imagination. Earlier editions were freewheeling and inspiring. The deluxe edition feels stubborn and curmudgeonly. I might lift a few new rules and incorporate them into a 5th edition T&T game, but I am not interested in investing the time required to wrap my head around all the changes made by the deluxe edition. Plus, Flying Buffalo and Ken St. Andre no longer have anything to do with T&T, so it seems pointless to pursue it.

"5. Run Classic Traveller."
Status: Still haven't done it; still want to do it.

"6. Post here more often."
Status: Succeeded. My annual output has gone from single digits to double digits, and I hope to continue the trend.

As you can see, the results are mixed. (I could have predicted that.) Maybe I'll make a new list of goals for 2024 and revisit it in 2032...

Be seeing you...

The D6 System and the Duel

If you need alternate dueling rules for your adventures with The D6 System, read Peter Schweighofer's Dueling Blades (also found on his D6 Resources page at Griffon Publishing Studio).