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John Taber
United States
Santa Clara
California
Check out my RPG blog at http://www.usandacat.com/thelair!
Work hard, play hard!
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-== What is it? ==-
The Ghostbusters Roleplaying Game is a boxed set published by West End Games that was released in 1986. It’s subtitle is, "A Frightfully Cheerful Roleplaying Game." It was written by Sandy Petersen, Lynn Willis, and Greg Stafford from Chaosium. Chaosium is even given full credits with logos on the various manuals and box. The Ghostbusters RPG allows players to role-play as the infamous team from the first movie or to create their own team of ghost chasers. I am reviewing a copy of the boxed set that I purchased on eBay.
The boxed set is quite extensive. It is comprised of several goodies. All of the documentation is 8.5″ x 11″ with color covers and entirely black and white interiors. All of the punch out cards are three color (black, lime green, and white). Here is a summary of the contents:
* How To Play – 4 pages – Handout that describes how to play the game.
* 10 Minute Play – 4 pages – Handout that goes through an actual play session.
* 5 small red six sided dice plus a larger six sided Ghost dice – On the Ghost dice the 6 is replaced with the Ghostbusters logo.
* Ghostbusters Logo Patch – A iron on patch.
* Operations Manual – 64 pages – Includes a table of contents but no index. – This book is a set of adventures, adventure ideas, Ghostmaster (aka GM) tips, and NPC. It is written in a very non-traditional manner with “break the 3rd wall” comments from the authors to the readers and rule asides made in the middle of the text.
* Training Manual – 24 pages – This is a smaller rulebook that has expanded rules for the game. These rules include details on how the players can make their own Ghostbusting franchises. Like the Operations Manual is has a slew of comments from the authors and from the Ghostbusters themselves.
* 2 Sets Of Ghostbusters Corporation Forms – 4 pages each – Forms that can be used to enhance game play. For example there is a liability waiver form with tons of fine print.
* Punch Out Equipment Cards – Cards that are selected by the PC before each mission.
* Punch Out Character Sheets Of The Ghostbusters From The Movies – Can be used to play the main cast.
I have not played the game I have only read the material in the boxed set and one of the support modules. I may review some of the adventure modules in future blog posts as I acquire them.
-== What I Like ==-
The thing I like most about the Ghostbusters RPG is that it is VERY easy to play. This game is a perfect entry product for people who want to show their friends what roleplaying games are all about. The ages on the boxed set are listed as 12+ but I really feel like younger players would not have an issue playing the game. I’ll talk about the mechanics below and you can see what I mean.
One other strength of the product is the subject matter. Everyone has seen the Ghostbusters movies and understands the feeling of the genre. This is light hearted adventure fun.
I enjoyed reading the Ghostbusters RPG from cover-to-cover. The snippy comments from the writers were really funny and evocative of the setting. One interesting note about the writers is that they all went on to do many awesome products after the Ghostbusters RPG was released. A friend in the industry remarked to me that the Ghostbusters RPG is like the Velvet Underground of role-playing games. That is really true and very nicely put.
One other strength is that the rule mechanics strongly evoke the setting. When completing a task the player roles dice based on a stat. One of the dice is the Ghost dice described above. They total the dice against a success number set by the Ghostmaster. If the dice total more than the success number then the character succeeds at the task. If a Ghost is rolled on the Ghost dice something bad happens to the player. Thus a player could actually succeed at a task and still have something bad happen! For example, Egon wants to juice up his proton pack so he can try to contain 12 small ghost ducks which are frightening children on a park playground. The Ghostmaster says this is a difficulty 20 task. Egon rolls his 7 Brain dice and gets 22 and a Ghost. He succeeds at the task...but then wonders why his proton pack is getting so warm...REALLY warm!  Like the movie calamity seems to follow the Ghostbusters.
-== What I Don’t Like ==-
The most glaring weakness in the product is by far the artwork in the main two manuals. The covers are very simple Ghostbusters logos and interior art is very simple or cut directly from the movies. To make matters worse the artwork is also repeated many times throughout the text. The Ghostbusters iron on patch is "ok" but you can buy nicer ones online. The Ghost dice is cool but the Ghostbusters logo is not printed too well and I would actually be afraid of ruining it during actual play. My instinct would be to use a different dice instead. The punch out cards are nothing special but appear to be adequate. The cards and quality of the goodies are the only reason I am giving this product its current rating (i.e. a 9 out of 10).
-== Summary ==-
After reading the Ghostbusters RPG my first reaction was that this is a focused story game product written before people understood what that meant. There is not even a damage mechanic to speak of in the system...but the writers realize that then explain that it isn’t really needed. This game is frivolous fun and downright brilliant in design. I had heard that it was excellent and boy it delivers.
One big problem with the Ghostbusters RPG is in finding a copy of the game. I found my copy on eBay but it took quite a while to get and I paid roughly $50. That is a VERY good price for this product which is very tough to source. Expect to pay upwards of $75 to get a copy on eBay. I really wish whoever has the rights to the game would try and get a PDF copy made available. This is a game that people should play and enjoy. I give it my highest recommendation, "Fancy shootin’ Tex!"
I give it 9 out of 10 paws.
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Eric Dodd
New Zealand
Martinborough
Wairarapa
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Nice review! While I agree with the awesomeness of the three authors, they already had great RPG projects under their belts (RuneQuest, Call of Cthulhu etc) so your metaphor doesn't quite work...
Maybe Ghostbusters is the Cream or Gorillaz of RPG games...
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Jeffry Willis
United States
Oakdale
Minnesota
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JohnTaber wrote: Chaosium is even given full credits with logos on the various manuals and box. Holy Crap! They do! I never noticed that before.
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Bruce Moffatt
Australia
Brisbane
Queensland
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Great review of my favourite 'lite' RPG of all time. Sandy Petersen had already graced us with Call of Cthulhu by the time this came out. Many of the others had been working on Paranoia. It's a hell of a pedigree, and a solid, entry level system, even by today's standards.
Iron on patch? I didn't get an iron on patch in my copy...
I actually felt the use of the line art caricatures was kind of fun. It made the books come across like badly laid out sales brochures, and complimented the annotations you mentioned in your review.
The only think that really let this line down were the adventures. The quality of writing was hit and miss, and it was more often Aliens than Ghosts that the boys in beige were up against... Weird!
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John Taber
United States
Santa Clara
California
Check out my RPG blog at http://www.usandacat.com/thelair!
Work hard, play hard!
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Scrat wrote: Iron on patch? I didn't get an iron on patch in my copy...
Hi Bruce: I found out from a reply on my blog that the patch was actually NOT with the boxed set. Turns out that it was in the copy I acquired from eBay. I just assumed it was part of the set.
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Check out my RPG blog at http://www.usandacat.com/thelair!
