Thanks to Zoom and the interest of a surprisingly large number of players, I have run two sessions of Ghostbusters: A Frightfully Cheerful Roleplaying Game in the last two weeks (Saturday, November the 14th, and Saturday, November the 21st). At the moment, three members of the Toledo Ghostbusters have busted ghosts in 1980-something northwest Ohio:
- Carroll "Carl" Düsseldorf (played by Sarah),
- Ray Stantz, PhD [helping out while staying with relatives] (played by Mary Lou), and
- Thalia Wainwright (played by Emily).
Two other members (played by Zippy and Joe) will be joining upcoming sessions.
I won't do a session report, but I will share a few facts:
- The Toledo Ghostbusters HQ, like the original in New York City, is a former fire station.
- The primary vehicle of the Toledo Ghostbusters is a black hearse with purple and orange lights and flags bearing the Ghostbusters logo.
- The Ghostbusters acquired two mascots (Norwegian forest cats formerly "employed" at Perspective, a premier avant-garde boutique that inexplicably acquires rare occult books).
- Carroll Düsseldorf has recently starred in a workplace instructional video highlighting peaceful methods of dealing with ghosts.
Ghostbusters is a moderately prop-dependent role-playing game, so how well does it adapt to Zoom, my virtual role-playing medium of choice? Surprisingly well. The Ghost Die, of course, can be replaced with any ordinary six-sided die of a different color or size than the rest of the dice. I trust my players to roll their own actual dice, so no dice-rolling app is necessary. Equipment cards are great for in-person games, but players can discuss with the group what they want to carry and just record it on their character sheets. Character sheets fit on an index card and characters can be generated in as little as five minutes. Name, four Traits (Brains, Muscles, Moves, and Cool), four Talents, and a Personal Goal are all you really need to start playing.
Zoom has opened some great gaming opportunities to me, and I'm glad to be running Ghostbusters (and other games) again. Who knows? Maybe I'll be able to introduce players to some of my other favorite role-playing games...
