Oakland-Macomb Ghostbusters

Keys to the company car:

Funko Pop keychain

16 GB USB key

An update to PICO-8 plus an HTML template from GitHub user Headjump mean a few major things for the 8-big Ghostbuster dice roller.

First of all, we’ve got some standalone files. This means you no longer need a web browser or PICO-8 to run the game. Just hit these links up, unzip them to a folder, and you can start rolling dice on your desktop or laptop.

Windows

Mac

Linux

But that’s not all. The browser version now works on desktop / laptop and on mobile / tablet. Use the “Z” and “X” buttons for desktop, or the convenient on-screen D-pad and buttons for mobile.

Grab the source code from GitHub if you want it, or download the convenient .p8.png file, for running in PICO-8.

Disclaimer: To the best of my knowledge, none of this stuff should harm your device in any way. But the usual set of disclaimers, terms and conditions apply. These files are provided with no warranty. Use at your own risk. I'm not responsible if anything bad happens. You know the drill.

Sometimes you just want to get a game going, but there aren’t any dice to be found. What to do? Thankfully, we have a solution.

Introducing Ghostbusters: A Frightfully Cheerful Dice Roller for PICO-8, playable on browsers and any PICO-8 device.

That’s right! Our dice roller is coming at you in stunning 128x128 resolution, with 16 whole colors. Simply load up the dice roller, select how many dice you want, whether the Ghost Die is on or off, and hit “Z” to roll.

To use the roller in a browser, visit https://greenadder.neocities.org/gbdice.html

To download the .p8 file for PICO-8, visit https://github.com/GreenAdder/GBDice/blob/master/gbdice.p8

For the PICO-8-compatible .png file, visit https://github.com/GreenAdder/GBDice/blob/master/gbdice.p8.png or check the image file below.

Andre and Handel are two clerks at a convenience store and video shop, respectably.

Their storefronts have recently been the hangout spot of Ray and Quiet Bill. One is a loudmouthed hedonist and the other seems quiet and well-meaning, if a bit oafish and clumsy.

The only problem is that Ray and Quiet Bill have been dead since 2006.

RAY

Class IV Repeater

Power: 5

Ectopresence: 7

Powers: Materialize (looks like when he was alive), poltergeist, slime

Goal: Reclaim storefronts and parking lots as his turf.

QUIET BILL

Class IV Repeater

Power: 6

Ectopresence: 6

Powers: Materialize (looks like when he was alive), Murphy, poltergeist

Goal: He's just sort of looking after Ray.

Complications

Ray and Quiet Bill are actually quite popular in the local community after allegedly saving the world once or twice, plus a popular comic book that bears their likeness. They have have human followers ready to defend them.

Andre and Handel aren't exactly swimming in money, and their boss didn't authorize them to hire the lot of you. Getting paid might be a problem, but you might talk them into giving you some free sports drinks.

A man died in the bathroom back in 1994. His body was carted off, but his spirit is still inside and awfully confused. He's harmless (Class IV, P/E of 3, no powers), but his presence may throw off PKE readings.

If you can’t make it out to one of our events at a convention, we may try to put something together on Roll20 every once in a while (and by that we mean maybe a few times a year, tops).

It’s been a few days since MichiCon,so I thought I’d do a roundup.

Two of us showed up Friday and almost two of us showed up Saturday for the convention. Brian (that’s me!) was the only one who wound up being able to attend both days.

With only one exception, nobody cared at all about “old Ghostbusters” vs. “new Ghostbusters.” The general consensus was, “Hey, neat! Ghostbusters!”

This is how it should be. Any fan of Ghostbusters - any version of the Ghostbusters - is welcome at our table.

Day One

I had a full table for “Ghostbusters Vice.” But I’ll probably have to tighten that scenario down a bit if I’m going to run it again. I’ll definitely have to pare down the amount of locations. Other than that, and having to truncate it for time, people seemed to have fun.

The Michigan Pinball Expo was going on at the same time as MichiCon. So when the two of us weren’t setting up for the convention, we were checking PKE valances on the new Ghostbusters pinball machine. I highly recommend trying it out.

Day Two

Due to the age group of the people playing “Punk is Dead,” I tweaked the difficulty and the subject matter a bit. Much fun was still had zapping and trapping ghosts. It actually felt awesome seeing kids getting into both Ghostbusters and role-playing games at the same time. I sincerely hope I did a good job creating a welcoming environment for them.

The players seemed to have an easy time hitting their target numbers, but the dreaded ghost symbol kept showing up on their dice. Eventually we mutually agreed this was because their franchise had been mailed cheap knockoff power cells by Peter Venkman, due to him considering their franchise a low priority. A player told me once the adventure was over, his character was going to drive to NYC personally to punch Venkman right in his face.

When someone can take a series of wonky rolls and make an in-universe explanation for them, that’s good role-playing.

Overall

Metro Detroit Gamers’ two annual conventions WinterCon and MichiCon have been a regular fixture for decades. We definitely want to return in the future. With any luck, all three current members (and any possible future members) of the OMGB can make the entire convention next time around.

Before any adventure starts, I like to make sure I have the table all set up for players. Each seat at the table receives:

Player handout for that scenario. This is just a quick-and-dirty summary of the rules, a plea to avoid taking things too seriously, and a shout out to @gbresurrection as a place to get involved with the game.

Recruitment flier for the OMGB. We’re looking for new players, and a semi-regular game.

Personnel file - known in some circles as a character sheet.

Mechanical pencil. It’s for writing stuff.

Twenty green glass aquarium beads. I use these to represent brownie points for the purposes of a one-shot scenario. I keep a stash for myself to tempt players.

One small Nestlé Crunch bar. “You... You’ve earned it.”

In addition, I place all the equipment cards (and the Zener deck I use for initiative) in the relative center of the table.

The general idea is to have this all set up before players arrive at the table. It serves to hopefully attract prospective players while also speeding things up once the session begins.

Generally I have character creation be part of the session, because it’s relatively quick and simple and I like letting players be in control of their own fates to an extent. But I think I might start going with pre-generated characters in the future (leaving the “name” space blank). This will expedite things even further, and it will hopefully mean having teams whose Traits and Talents work well with one-another.

We’re all about fun. Role-playing games are fun. Ghostbusters is fun. Making your own proton pack is fun.

What isn’t fun: Excluding others. Creating division. Negativity. Turning fandom into a competition.

If you show up to any of our gaming events at a convention, we promise we’ll do our best to provide you with a fun, inclusive and positive experience. It doesn’t matter if you’ve memorized every page of Tobin’s Spirit Guide and the Spates Catalog, or if you’re brand new to liking Ghostbusters.

Is your favorite version the 2016 movie? The 1984 movie? The cartoon? The IDW comics? Something else? It’s all good, friend. We want you to have a good time.

Our first release is coming sometime this February for the low, low price of free. We’ll release more details soon.

Ghostbusters; A Frightfully Cheerful Role-Playing Game has some interesting mechanics, but is also a bit “rules-lite.” I’ve devised a few ideas that will enhance gameplay without bogging down the flow of the game with too many extra rules.

The idea is to keep the deceptively simple mechanics intact, and to keep up the theme.

To that end, let me show you how I’m going to handle initiative as a GM.

Situated between the dice and equipment cards (Both from “Ghostbusters: Resurrection” ) is a Zener deck. You might recognize those symbols from the beginning of the 1984 film.

Zener decks consist of 25 cards - five of each symbol. Give them a shuffle and deal one out for each player and each NPC.

Now just count the lines.

Circle - One “line” (Not really a line, but you get the idea)

Plus - Two lines

Three wavy lines - Three lines (duh)

Square - Four lines

Star - Five lines (Technically an open star has ten lines, but once again you get the idea)

The higher numbers go first. Those who get dealt the same shapes are assumed to go simultaneously.

Example: Kylie, Winston and Egon find themselves staring down a pair of Class IV repeaters. The GM deals initiative.

Winston: Star

Kylie: Plus

Egon: Square

Red Ghost: Star

Blue Ghost: Wavy lines

Winston and Red Ghost are assumed to resolve their actions at the same time (which will mean Winston will either need a very good Moves roll or try attacking Blue Ghost).

Coming soon - a PDF of “Ghostbusters: Punk is Dead,” a fan-created module for “Ghostbusters: A Cheerfully Frightful Role-Playing Game.”

Coming later: A set of house rules you can use to spice up your own Ghostbusters RPG sessions.