Meet Your Calamity

To my knowledge — and I shall correct myself if I am mistaken — the first role-playing game to employ a wild die was Ghostbusters: A Frightfully Cheerful Roleplaying Game. Referred to as the "Ghost Die," it was included in every dice pool and bore the Ghostbusters insignia in place of the 6. Whenever a Ghost was rolled, something disadvantageous happened to the player character affected, regardless of whether the roll indicated success or failure and regardless of whether the roll was made by a player or the Ghostmaster. Other role-playing games would adapt this idea, referring to it as a Wild Die, Drama Die, etc. Some would assign the negative effect to the 1 instead of the 6; some would even add a positive effect to the 6. Some would include the wild die in the dice pool; others would make the wild die something to be rolled in addition to the dice pool. Many game systems have utilized the wild die in different and interesting ways, and the Awfully Cheerful Engine!, inspired as it is by Ghostbusters, has introduced its own innovations. Please meet the Calamity Die.

As with most other dice pool games, the Awfully Cheerful Engine! has assigned the negative effect (the "Calamity") to the 1 rather than the 6. Unlike Ghostbusters, the negative effect only takes effect if the roll is a failure, and it only effects the player character who rolled it. (I think this is a splendid decision.) The other difference here is that it is one's fellow players who dictate the nature of one's Calamity. Hopefully, this leads to hilarious or at least entertaining results befitting a comedy role-playing game, but if the players are reticent, I'm sure the Director (GM) can rise to the occasion.

Learn more about the Awfully Cheerful Engine! from EN Publishing.

Random Ghost Die Result Generator

According to the rules of Ghostbusters: A Frightfully Cheerful Roleplaying Game, something bad should always happen whenever a Ghost is rolled on the Ghost Die. The nature of this bad thing is left to the Ghostmaster's diabolical devices, and this is usually not difficult to do when it's the antagonist who rolls the Ghost. The Ghostmaster merely increases the effectiveness of whatever the antagonist was attempting or tosses another complication into the situation. But what happens when a Ghostbuster rolls a Ghost and the Ghostmaster can't be bothered to come up with another critical goof-up on the fly? I'm glad you asked, because there are two tables for just such an eventuality — one for successful rolls and one for failed rolls. And here they are!

If You Succeed and You Roll a Ghost...

Roll 1D6

1. You do the thing, but then you take a pratfall.
2. You do the thing, but then you drop something you need.
3. You do the thing, but then you forget what you were doing for one round.
4. You do the thing, but then make too big a deal about it, reducing your Cool to 1 until you succeed at something without rolling a Ghost.
5. You do the thing, but then you break it, jam it, weaken it, or otherwise render it useless.
6. You do the thing, but must immediately make another roll to make the success stick.

If You Fail and You Roll a Ghost...

Roll 1D6

1. You also slip and fall. Spectacularly.
2. You also somehow manage to drop everything you are carrying.
3. You wander aimlessly, talking to yourself, until someone or something snaps you out of it.
4. You apologize excessively, reducing everyone's Cool by 1 until you succeed at something without rolling a Ghost.
5. You also render it (whatever "it" is) useless. Try something else next time.
6. You very loudly curse your failure, which attracts everyone's (and everything's) attention, blowing your cover completely. Everyone in your group is stunned by this display for 1 round.

Another method of addressing the pickle that is narrating the result of the Ghost Die is described in The Discretionary Ghost Die. Use with discretion.

The Discretionary Ghost Die

The notorious Ghost Die of the Ghostbusters role-playing game is a wondrous thing. It is, perhaps, the earliest known example of a "wild die," meaning a die that is rolled with another die or a dice pool to introduce the chance that a result may be drastically influenced in a harmful or helpful way. From the Ghostbuster's point of view, the Ghost Die is never helpful. It complicates success, it exacerbates failure, and it rewards foes.

As I've mentioned previously, coming up with entertaining consequences every time a Ghost is rolled can be taxing on one's imagination and may even slow down the game. When rolling a Ghost becomes a nuisance rather than a novelty, it's time to reassess the role of the roll, if you will.

My solution is the discretionary Ghost Die. Don't include it in every roll. Roll the Ghost Die only when a ghost or any other supernatural phenomenon is involved. When Ghostbusters are knocking on the door of the spirit realm, that's when it's time to let the Ghost Die build tension. As per the rules, when a ghost rolls a Ghost, it benefits the ghost. When a Ghostbuster rolls a Ghost, it still benefits the ghost, regardless of whether the Ghostbuster's roll is a success or failure.

Furthermore, don't treat it as a D6. The discretionary Ghost Die is only rolled when the paranormal is encountered, so treat all faces except the Ghost as blank. It's an extra die used as a special effect — it is not part of the dice pool.

The best part is that the Ghostmaster only needs to worry about the ramifications of rolling a Ghost when there's a ghost to make it easy.

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.