GhostBusters Rules Addendum -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- There are five parts to this Addendum: 1. Ghost's Attributes - New way to list and battle ghosts. 2. Touch Result - A new Ghostly attribute. 3. Capturing a Ghost - Expanded rules. 4. New Ghostly Abilities Table - New abilities and a new way to roll them. 5. Glossary - Explanations of conventions and terms used in this document. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Ghost's Attributes Parts of the format from Ghostbusters Int. (GBI) for listing info about ghosts is used in our game. Ghost's now have Brains and Cool just like regular people. But instead of Muscles or Moves, they only have Power. However, see Materialize below. The other new attribute is Touch Result, described below. We decided to remove Ectopresence. Now, Ghostbuster attacks reduce the Power (and thus the effectiveness) of a ghost. When Power reaches zero, the ghost can be guided into a trap without resistance (See Capturing a Ghost below). Every round, a "wounded" ghost throws as many dice as its current Power (zero or 1 throws just the Ghost Die). If any 6's or the Ghost is rolled, 1 Power point is regained. If one or more 6's AND the Ghost come up, 2 Power points are regained. No more than 2 points may be gained in a single turn and a ghost may not exceed its normal maximum Power regardless of the roll. Ghosts in the Containment Grid DO HEAL NORMALLY, but cannot escape the Grid without outside help (power failure, shut-down, destruction of the grid, etc.) To compensate for this, I generally give ghosts a higher Power than listed in modules. Not much, just enough to make it challenging. This is the format we use to list ghost info, usually on a 3x5 card: ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Brains: # Goal: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Cool: # Mannerisms: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Power: # Touch Result: XXXXXXX History: Ghostly Abilities: XXXXXXX XXXXXXX XXXXXXX ----------------------------------------------------------------------- =========================================== 2. Touch Result Ghosts now have an trait called Touch Result. In most movies about ghosts, usually one of three things happens when a ghost touches, or passes through a living human. Roll on the table below to determine this trait for a ghost. Roll Result Description 1 Nothing - Neither the ghost nor the person are affected and it's probable that neither even notice. 2-4 Stun - Roll again; 1-2 the ghost is stunned, 3-6 the person is affected. No matter who's affected, the Stun is limited to one round. Any one so stunned must do nothing as the shiver runs through their body, like when you gets goose-bumps for no reason or an unexplained shiver (My dad used to call it "A goose walking over my grave"). No damage is caused. 5-6 Slime - Just like in the GB movies. A person is coated with ectoplasmic "goo" and must spend several rounds scraping it off before they can do anything else (1 round per point of Power the ghost had). =========================================== 3. Capturing a Ghost The Proton Packs no longer fire "containment" and "attack" streams; I found no evidence in either movie that there were different "modes" on those things. They fire only one kind of stream. But the length of the stream can be controlled for guiding a caught ghost into a trap. Now, if a Ghostbuster hits a ghost with a stream it removes one point of Power. However, if the 'Buster rolls high enough, he can take off more than one point in one hit. For every 5 points they succeed their attack roll by, take off one more point (1 for 5 or more points, 2 for 10 or more, etc.). HOWEVER, if a 'Buster rolls a Ghost, he loses the extra damage and only does one point of damage, no matter how well he scored. Any time an attack reduces the ghosts Power to zero (Power can't be negative), it is automatically captured. MULTIPLE ATTACK: If more than one 'Buster fires at the same ghost, and more than one succeeds on the attack roll, add up ALL THE POINTS EVERY GHOSTBUSTER ROLLED OVER THE DIFFICULTY SCORE and add them together. The ghost must then roll his Power and roll higher than this number or be caught by the streams, regardless of what the ghost's current Power is. Example: Rather than chase a ghost all over the clients house, three Ghostbuster's decide to ambush the ghost in a room. They set up in a place the ghost normally visits and wait for it to appear (maybe they use some sort of bait, depending on the situation). The ghost comes flying into the room with a Power of 6. All three 'Busters sight him and fire. The range is Short (it's a small room) and thus a difficulty of 10 (adjusted for a moving target). The 'Busters roll a 12, 15, and an 18. Adding up EVERY point over 10 we get a score of 15. Because it's a multiple attack, the ghost must roll higher than this with his Power to avoid capture. The ghost rolls exactly a 15 thus avoiding capture, but looses 5 Power points (one for the first Ghostbuster's roll, 2 for the second's, and 2 for the third's). If the third has rolled a 20 or more, all 6 points would have been lost and the ghost would have been captured anyway. ESCAPE: Any ghost that is captured has a chance to escape the streams before going into the trap since maneuvering the ghost into position for the trap is a tricky thing. Maneuvering a ghost into a trap takes 2 turns plus one for every Power point, if any, the ghost has while caught in the streams. If a ghost has or heals (see Attributes above) to a positive Power while captured, a Power roll is made. Every Ghostbuster must INDIVIDUALLY make an attack roll using the Power roll as a difficulty rating. IF ANY ONE OF THE 'BUSTERS FAILS THIS ROLL, THE GHOST ESCAPES!! This gives ghosts that still have a high Power a chance to use that Power to escape. A Ghostbuster may spend Brownie Points on any these rolls as normal. =========================================== 4. New Ghost Special Ability Tables Roll 1D6 to determine what list to pick from. At the top of each list is a Power range that a ghost must meet or exceed to qualify to have a from that list. A ghost has as many Ghostly Abilities as his highest mental trait. So, a ghost with a Brains of 2 and a Cool of 3, would get 3 Ghostly Abilities. Ghosts with a zero is both get 1d3 number of abilities. List 1 (1-3) List 2 (4-5) List 3 (6) (Power 1-5) (Power 6-9) (Power 10+) 1. Dematerialize Object 1. Animate 1. Control Mind 2. Eerie Light/Sound' 2. Paralyze' 2. Illusion 3. Murphy 3. Poltergeist 3. Materialize 4. Summon Pests 4. Possess 4. Frog 'n Prince` 5. Terrorize 5. Read Mind 5. Soul-sucking' 6. Zip' 6. Slime Attack' 6. Zap' ' - indicates new ability described below. - This power has changed a little to reflect other game-mechanic changes in this document. ` - a power adapted from the second game, GBI, and described below. Zip and Eerie Light/Sound I got from Ghostbuster modules. Slime attack, Paralyze, Zap, and Soul-Sucking I made mostly by myself. I admit I got the ideas for Zap from the first movie when Gozer shot lightning from her hands and almost knocked the guys off the building and Paralyze from the second movie when Vigo caused a glowing light to surround the guys that prevented them from moving. But Slime Attack and Soul-Sucking were entirely my own idea. Description of New Abilities for Ghosts: Eerie Light/Sound: Just as the name implies, the entity can create spooky light of any color and make scary haunting noises (moans, groans, chains rattling, floors creaking, large footsteps, etc.). Frog 'n Prince: This is the classic wicked witch ability to turn things into other things. The ability has a range of 5 hexes. If the ghost tries to change an inanimate object, assign a difficulty that reflects the object's mass. If attempted on a living target, the ghost pits his Power against the victims Moves. Usually, a ghost can only change objects and people into one form, like the fairy tale witch that turns things into frogs. The duration is 20 minutes for each point of Power. At higher Power levels, (over 12) the ghost can change the target into anything desired, within reasonable limits. (The Eiffel Tower or a Naval Carrier is NOT reasonable). Also at this intensity, the duration is permanent. But, the Ghostmaster should figure out some action, spoken word, or other circumstance which will change the victim back to normal. For instance, a princess kisses the frog, the victim-as-a-bird eats a worm, someone says "abracadabra", etc. At either Power level, the victim will have the abilities and the mannerisms of the new form and will remember everything that happens in the new form even after changing back to normal. (Think about if a 'Buster is turned into a phone and gets a call. He or she would remember both sides of the conversation. Interesting....) Materialize: Ghosts that can materialize, or permanently materialized entities (Vampires, Werewolves, Mummies, etc.) do NOT get Moves and Muscles scores. Instead, they divide their Power score between the two. The beauty of this part, for the ghosts anyway, is that they can CHANGE how these points are used each round. Since a trait minimum is 1, this has the effect that a material super-natural entity can have 1 less than their Power score for either trait each round, but not both. Example: A Vampire, with a Power of 9 swoops into a room with an effective Moves of 8 the first round. Second round, he grabs one of your heros by the throat with a Muscles of 8, having shifted his Power. But, since he can't dodge very well with his Moves at 1 while he's chocking the poor guy, he makes an easy target with a proton beam. Now, maybe after getting smacked a few times with a beam and losses a point or two in Power, he decides discretion is the better part of valor, pumps his Moves back up as high as he can after being damaged, and flees. Or tries to anyway, unless a few mad 'Busters get him first. Paralyze: A ghost with this ability can cause enemies to become Paralyzed if they fail a Muscle vs. Power roll. The ghost can Paralyze as many people as he has power points. The power lasts until the ghost is dispelled, distracted, or the persons being held make a Muscles roll higher that the ghosts Power (made every three rounds). The effect will last one round after the ghost stops concentrating while the victim's nerves and muscles "wake up" from the paralysis. Slime Attack: The ghost can throw balls of ectoplasmic slime, allowing it to slime a person without having to touch them. Only ghosts with a SLIME Touch Result can have this power. Use Power vs. Moves to determine if the ball of slime hits the intended target. Soul-Sucking: This ability is reserved for demon-level ghost (Power 10+). Roll all other Powers normally. Initially, Power for any other ability is zero, as a demon who has this ability must suffer a different Power score for each Ability. Soul-sucking starts off as a Power of 1. To suck a soul, the demon must roll vs. the target's Brains or Cool (which ever is higher). The person attacked like this will feel the presence of "evil" unless a Ghost is rolled on the Ghost Die. If the demon fails, he cannot attempt to suck that person's soul again for 24 hours and the person will feel compelled to leave the area of "evil". If the attempt is successful, the demon drains Brains and Cool to zero at a rate of 3 points (die) per round. The demon can add these points to any ONE of his other ability's Power scores. Any person who's soul is sucked (both Brains and Cool are zero) become mindless slaves to the demon that drained them and no other influences can control their minds. They will obey every command of the demon, even if it means their own destruction. The only way to restore a person that has been drained is to kill the demon, trap him in a ghost trap, or exorcise him from this dimension. The points gained from a victim are permanent ONLY IF the demon COMPLETELY drains a person to zero or until one of the above conditions is met. Any points gained from a "partial" drain (victim gets away before both Brains and Cool reach zero) are lost at a rate of 1 per 8 hours. Victims of partial drains recover at the same rate (1 point per 8 hours). Zap: This ability causes streams of lightning to flash out allowing a ghost to repel their targets. Everyone in front of a ghost using this power is affected. If the target fails a Muscles vs. Power, they must spend one day in the hospital for every point by which they failed the roll. If they win the check. they are jut thrown around and don't look to cool to on-lookers (Cool scores reduced to half for 12 hours). Zip: All characters in the game move a number of hexes, or spaces, equal to their Moves if they're normal or Power if they're a ghost. This ability simply allows a character to move as if it's score was 3 points higher. Glossary Definition of Terms 1d3: This means throw a d6 and divide in half, rounding up. So a roll of 1-2 would be 1, 3-4 would be 2, and 5-6 would be 3. Ability: Usually called "Special Ability", these are the ghostly powers or super-natural things most people can't do, like dematerialize objects, murphy, or slime attack. Attributes: Refers to the entirety of all the information about a single 'Buster, star, ghost, or guest. Such information includes Traits, Talents, Abilities, Goals, Mannerisms, etc. Extra: Any character NOT run by a player, but is instead run by the Ghostmaster. Sometimes called "Non-Player Character", or NPC. Ghost: Any super-natural entity that is no longer naturally alive. They are usually run by the Ghostmaster. Although ghosts are usually ectoplasmic (incorporeal or not solid), this term refers, in general, to even physical super-natural beings such as Vampires, Werewolves, Mummies, and Zombies. Star: This games way of saying any character run by a real player. Also called a "Player Character". Talent: Refers to the skill associated with each Trait. Examples might be Bluff, Run, or Fire Weapon. Trait: Any of the six "main" characteristics of stars, guests, or ghosts. They are Brains, Cool, Moves, Muscle, Power and Touch Result. Only ghosts can have the last two. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This document created and maintained by Dead 7 at dead.7@lois.org