Simplifying Dice Pools in Ghostbusters

Task resolution in the original Ghostbusters role-playing game is already quick and simple. You roll a number of dice equal to your Trait or Talent and try to equal or beat a difficulty number. Meet the invention of the dice pool. In theory, it's perfect for a cinematic role-playing game befitting Ghostbusters (the movie). In practice, counting all those dice over and over again slows the pace of the game and becomes boring. Tedium is the mortal enemy of role-playing. No one role-plays for the purpose of being bored to death.

There is nothing wrong with the dice pool system itself, but for a game like Ghostbusters to remain interesting, it might help to refine it. My own preference is to follow the example of All for Me Grog, a jaunty pirate role-playing game by Ryan Shelton. Instead of counting the numbers on each die, one counts the number of dice that show an even number. Three evens constitute a successful roll. In an opposed roll, whoever rolls the greatest number of evens wins the conflict. Not only does it make the process quicker, it makes it intrinsically more fun (in my experience, at least). It makes results a bit swingier (as befits the genre), and it encourages Ghostbusters to spend Brownie Points freely (a good thing). The Ghost Die can be used normally, with the "2" and "4" counting as one even each and the "Ghost" signifying that Something Bad Has Happened. This dice pool system, with its static "three evens" difficulty number, also spares the Ghostmaster from having to set an arbitrary difficulty number for every task.

If there is one modification I would make in adapting this dice pool to Ghostbusters, it would be to adjust the "three evens" rule in respect to one task only (probably): ranged combat, as follows:

Range	Minimum Number of Evens
Close	1
Short	2
Medium	3
Long	4

[For more information about All for Me Grog, see my article here in Theoretical Swashbuckling. Buy it here at DriveThruRPG.com.]