Ghostbusters in the 2022 Character Creation Challenge

 Day 23 of the #charactercreationchallenge asks a very simple question? Who're you gonna call? 

One of the classic breakthroughs in game design, Ghostbusters is exactly calibrated to what it needs to be to play Ghostbusters. It's the first of the dice pool systems, and the proto-d6 system that eventually powers Star Wars. The core concept of Ghostbusters is articulated in the movie: "The franchise rights alone will make us rich beyond our wildest dreams." The PCs are all people who have purchased the franchise rights to set up a Ghostbusters in their town. Now, some of these people have the technical and occult skills to match the original team. Many do not. I still want to run a Ghostbusters game hanging on the core theme of "Small Business Is Hell."

In any event, Ghostbusters are built with 4 attributes - Brains, Cool, Moves, Muscle – each of which has a specialization of the players design. (Player developed skills! Another game design first!) My image for the campaign I'd hypothetically be playing in is a group of people who quit their horrible jobs during the pandemic's Great Resignation who have clubbed together to purchase a Ghostbuster's franchise. My PC is specifically informed from trips to the grocery store where the butcher and seafood department were manned solely by their supervisors as all the regular staff had either resigned in their 70's or quit becau
se too many of the customers were screaming, entitled idiots. That fits my idea. 

Graham Giles

Concept: grocery store butcher who decided fighting the undead was better than not fighting the living

Brains: 3 (Portioning and Ordering 6 – his add to the business side of thing)

Cool: 2 (stay calm when facing a screaming monster/customer 5)

Moves: 3 (working out aggression with a proton pack 6)

Muscle: 4 (cleaver and knife, baby. Cleaver and knife 7)

Hey, what a surprise, it's another strong guy, and one who is really well positioned to deal with corporeal undead as well as incorporeal ones. I'd be happy to shift the Moves specialization to something else if it meant avoiding stepping on someone else's niche.