31 August 2015

How to Win Friends and Influence NPCs

I normally have no use for social game mechanics in role-playing games (as my favorite activity in such games is role-playing), and ordinarily I ignore those character skills that are used to replace actual social interaction with skill rolls. I find it far more enjoyable to haggle in character than to roll a character's "Bargain" skill, far more challenging to attempt to be persuasive than roll a "Persuade" skill, and far more interesting to ask questions than roll an "Interrogate" skill.

Sometimes, however, rolling dice isn't anathema to the role-playing experience. Take the original Ghostbusters role-playing game. Don't take mine — get your own! Characters in Ghostbusters have four Traits (Brains, Muscles, Moves, and Cool), and one Talent for each Trait. Players and Ghostmasters may define Talents as they choose, or they can select from a list of examples. Many of the examples are social in nature and require one to roll against an opposing Trait or Talent. A Ghostmaster could rule that social Talents are not available, but a great opportunity would be missed: the opportunity for comedy. Ghostbusters is, after all, a game of humor first and foremost.

"How can saying 'I use my Seduction Talent' be an opportunity for comedy?" you might ask. Well, that's not all you say. You role-play it in addition to rolling for it. If the Ghostmaster decides that you were convincing, you are awarded bonus dice in proportion to your performance. If not, well, you roll normally. Regardless of whether you succeed or fail, there's always the chance you'll roll a Ghost, which generally means slapstick happens.

So, the answer to the riddle is "choose both." At least, choose both in those games where it can be beneficial to the gaming experience. You might find this could work in your Call of Cthulhu game, where a good performance could garner the player a skill bonus of +10% (or whatever seems appropriate). In a Fudge game with social skills, impressive role-playing might increase a skill by one or two levels. Regardless of the game system, the GM should feel free to call for any method that he or she determines is best at the moment. For instance, a GM might prefer to require role-playing at all times, but only call for a skill roll when he or she is undecided about a non-player character's reaction. In such cases, a social skill is an edge instead of a crutch. In Ghostbusters, though, choosing both is always best. It leads to more tomfoolery, which is never bad. Unless it is.

30 June 2015

Rolling a Ghost Is Easier Done Than Said

In my limited experience playing the Ghostbusters role-playing game, the most difficult part of Ghostmastering for me is trying to come up with consequences for rolling a Ghost in a rapid and entertaining way. "Rapid" is the harder of the two, especially if I'm running a game in the evening after working earlier that day. Sometimes it's just not easy to think of something that could go wrong without spoiling the results of what is otherwise a successful roll, and if you get lazy and start recycling the mishaps, it becomes boring, and both the novelty and trepidation of rolling a Ghost wear off like so many vintage, non-etched Ghost Dice. It occurred to me that maybe the solution is to require the Ghost Die to be rolled only under exceptional circumstances. When a situation is dramatic, it's easier to imagine how things can go comically wrong even when they go right. Then again, having to face those consequences even in the most commonplace situations can lend itself to gratifying amounts of slapstick comedy. Perhaps the only real solution is practice, practice, practice, which means I'd better game, game, game.

04 May 2015

Questionnaire for Starting Ghostbusters

This is a questionnaire I hand out to players as they are creating their Ghostbusters characters (inspired by a similar question-and-answer exchange from the Nerdyshow podcasts). Once the process is finished, I address each player in turn as if I were a representative of Ghostbusters International, reassure them that this is merely a formality, and ask them the survey questions, which they answer in character. This enables the players to introduce their characters to the group in a more natural manner and proceed directly to the adventure. Remember, there are no wrong answers, and there are no stupid questions. The reverse, however, may be another story.

[Edit: The questionnaire has been revised.]

Ghostbusters Survey Questionnaire

  1. Do you believe in ghosts? (Check one.)
    • Yes.
    • No.
    • Unsure.
  2. Tell us about yourself:
  3. Why do you want to be a Ghostbuster?
For those who want the "official" form, the Ghostbusters Survey Questionnaire PDF is available to download, print, and distribute to players for free.

22 April 2015

License to Drive (the ECTO-1)

One curious rule in the original Ghostbusters role-playing game is the requirement that one player must select the ECTO-1 card as one of the three equipment cards for any of the players to be able to store equipment in the vehicle. Now, absurdity is not necessarily anathema to the game or the movies, but this makes no sense at all and accomplishes nothing. After all, the character is just carrying a key, not the ECTO-1. If you wanted to carry your wallet, presumably containing your driver's license, would that count as part of your equipment? Do we need to make an equipment card for a ballpoint pen in case someone wants to take notes? Or an equipment card for a small notepad on which to write those notes?

No, requiring the sacrifice of a piece of equipment for the privilege of taking your company vehicle on company business is beyond pointless. In view of this glaring imperfection in an otherwise flawless game system, I offer the following house rule:

A Ghostbusters franchise has access to two keys to the company vehicle, represented by actual keys. One key may be kept by one of the Ghostbusters, preferably the driver, preferably one who has a valid driver's license. The other key is the spare, which is kept at the franchise's HQ. If another Ghostbuster needs the key so he or she can go back to the company vehicle and retrieve a needed item, he or she will have to obtain it from the Ghostbuster currently in possession of it. If the exchange is possible, the actual key is passed to the player. The ECTO-1 card, if the company vehicle is being used, is kept on the table, and any equipment cards being stored in it are placed in a stack underneath it. Possession of the key has no bearing on the Ghostbuster's equipment cards.

Any excuse to use props at the game table can't be all bad.


In this photo, you can see that Winston Zeddemore has the key to the ECTO-1, as represented by an actual key. It is recommended that you use an old key as a prop (it's too easy to lose real keys as it is). If anyone else wants to get into the ECTO-1 because they forgot to bring their proton pack, they'd have to borrow the key from Zeddemore or have him accompany them. You don't leave your car unlocked in the Big Apple, especially if you're leaving things like unlicensed nuclear accelerators in them. Or spare change.

[Edit: Another option, suggested by one of my players, is just to assume that everyone in the franchise has a set of keys to the company vehicle. This is perfectly valid, assuming the franchise's Vice President of Auto Maintenance and Repair has no objections.]

20 April 2015

Game Components for Better Ghostbusting

One of the many ingenious innovations of the original Ghostbusters role-playing game was the inclusion of equipment cards. There were no complicated encumbrance rules involving weight or encumbrance units or Size ratings. You could carry three pieces of equipment without a penalty. If you had the Muscles to carry more, you could do it, but you couldn't do much of anything else unless you dropped something. As a visual and tactile reminder, you had a physical card for each piece of equipment with an illustration and a brief description of how to use it. Did you lose your PKE Meter? Surrender the card. Does your pal lend you one? Take their card. If there is a spare stowed in the ECTO-1, your pal can go back to where you parked it and grab the PKE Meter card from the equipment stack under the ECTO-1 card. Easy and fun.

How can we extend this game component innovation to other aspects of the game? Tokens are the obvious answer. Instead of tracking Brownie Points on a sheet during the game, give each player 20 white poker chips (or more or less if this isn't their first session with these characters). Every time they spend a Brownie Point, they must return a white chip to the Ghostmaster. Every time the Ghostmaster awards a Brownie Point, the player receives a white chip. The only time Brownie Points are recorded is at the end of the session when the Ghostmaster awards some, all, or more than all of the Brownie Points that the players spent. At the beginning of the next session, the players get the new amount of Brownie Points in white chips. This saves time at the table and reduces eraser detritus. And it's fun.

What else could benefit from being converted into poker chips? The obvious answer is damage. In the standard rules, injuries sustained by Ghostbusters result in Brownie Point deductions and time spent in the hospital. In the second edition rules (Ghostbusters International), an injury lowers a Trait of the Ghostbuster's choice, which can be healed by spending Brownie Points and, again, time in the hospital. Both are little too abstract for some sensibilities, so consider the following alternate rule:

Whenever a Ghostbuster is injured, he or she receives one or more red poker chips (known as Injury Points or Ouchies, perhaps) depending on the severity of the injury. Each injury is a separate stack. (For example, if a Ghostbuster is bitten on the leg by a werewolf, he or she might receive one red chip. If that same Ghostbuster is then hit by a car while running away from said wolf, he or she might receive a second injury of three red chips. These would be kept in two separate stacks.) Each red chip represents a penalty of one die deducted from a Ghostbuster's Trait roll if the injury would logically interfere with the action. (For example, after the first injury, the Ghostbuster could attempt to punch the leg-gnawing werewolf with no penalty to his or her Muscles trait because the leg is the injured limb, not the arm. On the hand, after getting struck by a car, the same Ghostbuster would probably have four dice deducted from nearly any activity that might still be accomplishable due to sheer pain and multiple fractures.) Note that no single Trait is lowered as a result of the injury. The penalty is signified by the presence of Injury Points (red poker chips), which are applied as appropriate to certain actions. One Injury Point may be removed per week spent in the hospital. Hospital stays may be shortened by one week per Brownie Point spent, although individual injuries greater than one Injury Point can never be shortened to less than one day of recovery. For added detail, one could place a card (the back of a business card will do) by each injury stack indicating the nature and location of the injury (for example, "Leg: dog bite," "Torso: auto accident"). Optionally, injuries that are completely neglected may accrue additional Injury Points at a certain rate until treated.

The number of Injury Points given to an injured party may depend on Ghostmaster fiat, the attacker's degree of success (one Injury Point for a standard success, two for rolling twice the amount that was needed, three for rolling thrice the amount that was needed, etc.), or the roll of a die (probably a Ghost Die).

Blue poker chips deserve a piece of the game component action, too. Blue poker chips are used to represent being slimed. Whenever a Ghostbuster is slimed, he or she receives a number of blue chips (Slime Points) equal to the ghost's current Ectopresence. Each Slime Point penalizes a Ghostbuster's actions by one die. Unlike Injury Points, Slime Points penalize all actions. You just can't do anything in a dignified manner as long as you're covered in ectoplasmic goo. Also unlike Injury Points, blue chips are kept in a single stack. Subsequent slime attacks simply increase the slime stack. Brownie Points are really no help in alleviating the inconvenience of being slimed. All the poor slob can do is go back to HQ, take a very long shower, and put on a new jumpsuit.

Further Thoughts

The simplicity, efficiency, and free-form style of Ghostbusters are among its most attractive features, especially when the rules subside into the background and allow role-playing and player skill to be the stars. The Brownie Points and how they interact with damage are one aspect of the game that wasn't jibing for me. If Brownie Points are a reward, a Ghostbuster shouldn't be able to lose them, only gain them or spend them. If a Ghostbuster gets wounded, he or she should gain a wound that impairs him or her. If the Ghostbuster wants to be healed, there are two choices: recover the old-fashioned way with medical bills and bed rest, or spend Brownie Points to shorten both. It should be a matter of choice how one uses one's Brownie Points. It makes them more of a resource, and thus an aspect of player agency. Brownie Points can still be used to add dice to rolls or invoke limited (Ghostmaster approved) narrative control to avoid disaster, but they shouldn't do triple duty as hit points. Injury Points allow players to see what state of health they are in, and decide what they are going to do about it.

Even if you decide to use Injury Points and Slime Points, they don't have to represent quantified penalties to rolls. You can still fully embrace the free-form spirit of the game and just have the poker chips represent the severity of injuries and the extent of sliminess in terms of how much they hinder a Ghostbuster or how much time it requires to deal with them. Instead of telling the Ghostbuster he or she has a -1 die penalty to all Moves and Muscles rolls due to a werewolf bite on the leg, you could just say such-and-such action is not possible. In fact, you can do it both ways. You can say certain injuries penalize certain actions by -1 die per chip, but other injuries just cause pain and discomfort, and maybe get worse, which could lead to other interesting, non-meta-game-related problems. I think that's probably the way to go.


As you can see from the poorly shot photo, Ray Stantz has one red chip representing a werewolf bite on his right leg, three red chips representing general torso injuries from being hit by a car, and on top of everything he was slimed by a ghost with an Ectopresence of 1 (hence the blue chip). Fortunately, he has 20 white chips representing Brownie Points to ameliorate his condition.

07 April 2015

Welcome to Decidedly Six-Sided

Decidedly Six-Sided is devoted to the most ubiquitous of gaming randomizers—six-sided dice—and those games that utilize them, whether they are marked with pips, numbers, letters, symbols, or pictures. This is not to say that I don't have an appreciation for other kinds of dice (and I have the dice and additional Web logs to prove it), but I wanted a repository for my thoughts on all those games I enjoy that have interesting ways of using the world's most common type of die. I wouldn't be surprised (nor should you) to find forthcoming articles addressing topics ranging from Craps to Zombie Dice, from Parcheesi to The Settlers of Catan, from Napoleon to Field of Glory, from Tunnels & Trolls to Risus. (I'd even say Fudge, but I have another Web log for that.) The D6 family of games will also get the spotlight as I have a particular interest in the original Ghostbusters role-playing game, which was the ancestor of them all.

Keep on rolling.