Character Gen

[Bluehorse]

Hello and Welcome! 

Please post any comments or questions that you might have. 


Campaign ID # is 683

[Bluehorse]

I will post this first in case it's a deal breaker for anyone. 

I will require you to write up a short history/background for each of your characters. It doesn't have to be much, I am basically looking for 3 things:

Where are you originally from geographically? 

Do you still have any family there (or elsewhere) or any other ties to that area? 

How is it that you came to be a Ghostbuster?

Here is a pair of maps of the general area.

Map1.jpg (171.4 KiB) Viewed 1903 times

crouch-estate-sales-map.png (85.84 KiB) Viewed 1906 times

[Bluehorse]

Character Generation.
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The (not so) crunchy numbers.
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Starters:
Once you have a story and a background figured out for your character, this part is fairly easy. It will very much shake where you put your strength and weaknesses. Is your character brainiac with the muscle tone of a toddler? Is she a nimble ex-gymist that can dance around melee in a blink of an eye? Are they a jack of all trades? This all figures into how you distribute your points.
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Goals:
Every character has a goal that drives them to action. Some may have a drive to discovery of new sciences. Other may want fame and furtune. Some just want to get laid. Regardless, pick a single goal that defines your character.
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Traits:
Every starting character gets 12 points to destribute over 4 traits. No starting character my have a trait that exceeds 5 points. Every stat must have at least 1 point.
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Brains: How smart and quick witted your character is.
Muscles: How strong or tough a character is.
Moves: How quick and fast your character is.
Cool: How much swagger or appeal your character has.
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Talents:
Once you have worked out your characters Traits, you may assign 1 Talent per Trait. Your talents, such as physics, give you an additional 3d6 on an applicable roll when it comes into play. For instance, Egon is using his brains to figure out an equation to measure a black hole. He can roll his 5d6 for brains, but he will also get an additional 3d6 for his physics specialty, meaning he will roll a total of 8d6 which will make him much more likely to always succeed at these kinds of task.
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Brownie Points:
Every character starts off with 20 Brownie Points (Bp). Please put these where you normally would put HP. There is no maximum or minimum, so just keep up with the pool number. It is important that every player know that you will never have the number of brownie points you want, but you will always have chances to earn them or lose them. >:) Please, see the Training Manual page 6 for more details

You earn Bp by succeeding in missions and accomplishing Goals. These points can be spent to upgrade your character's talents at a cost of 30Bp = +1 to a Trait. Likewise, if a Ghostbuster is in desperate need of Bp and does not have enough, they can agree to permanently lose 1 point to a chosen trait for 20Bp. Spending Bp in game, if declared before the roll, will add +1d6 to every roll for every Bp spent. Example: spend 3Bp for an additional 3d6 on top of the original roll with all bonuses stacked. Additionally, spending Bp can help change the script. A Ghostbuster who is badly injured and requiring a hospital stay may have time taken off for Bp used at the time of the accident.

When you are using Bp to bail your Ghostbuster out of trouble, you must describe the action. Go into colorful detail of how they talk themselves out of the situation or get past an obstacle. It is also important to remember that you can overdo it. A great story could lead to the Ghostmaster refunding points for a great story, whereas crossing the line into dull or stupid rational can lead to being penalized additional Bp.

Gaining and losing Brownie Points:
Fail: Bp spend x50%. You only make back half what you spent upon completion.
Partial Success: Bp Spent x100%. You break even.
Full Success: Bp spend x150% +Bonuses. You make all your points back and additional points and bonuses to recognize additional accomplishments.
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[GreyWolfVT]

any chance there will be pre-gen. characters that we can choose from?

[Zeromancer]

Oh, is this story not going to be based out of New York City? That's cool and all, but being from NYC originally, I was looking forward to writing a native New Yorker in his natural environment.

Edit: I actually found that I already had some PDFs of WEG's GB rules. There's one that's simply called the Training Manual. That one's pretty bare bones and carries a 1986 copyright. There's another one called Ghostbusters International which displays the Ghostbusters 2 logo on its cover and has a 1989 copyright date. This one also lists its contributors, and it's fantastic. Sandy Petersen and Lynn Willis (RIP) of Chaosium, designers of many editions of Call of Cthulhu, and Bill Slavicsek whom I recognize from his work on the Dark Sun Campaign Setting for TSR. There are others, but those names immediately stood out for me.

[Bluehorse]

All very nice! To answer your question please see the OOC Thread where I just posted.

[Taaz]

I saw Julia had a weakness is this something additional like WoD because I cant find it in the training manual. If its additional is it similar to the reverse of your Goals in implemntation?

[Bluehorse]

This is something i am adding as a storypoint similar to WoD. There is no specific list but rather something for you to have fun with freely. I hadn't realized that i forgot to include here in the notes. We all have a thing that distracts us... what is your character's thing?

[Taaz]

Oh no problem I just wanted to make sure, I would say my charachters biggest weakness would be being absent minded and like getting lost in his own world. Would that be acceptable? Or should it be something with more weight?

[Bluehorse]

I would perfer something more tangible but perhaps it can be something more specific? Something with a tigger that as a GM i can pull and have it in your way.

[Taaz]

Ok I will keep looking, might look online for som ideas because I dont have anything like that in mind yet but I like it as a concept

[GreyWolfVT]

the GM is going to pull a tigger? what to strange for triggers Brett

[Taaz]

Two Questions:

Could you list some of what you are looking for for weakness I have thought and nothing is coming to me so I turned to random tables online but they are either very system specifice, super edgy gritty traits that I dont think would work, or too silly like a fear of mayonnaise. So it would help me if there was a short list like goals of things you are looking for.

Also what starting equipment are we allowed to have? My character would have books on the occult and if Tobins or the Spates catalog costs money I don't want to have him whipping out his favorite Roylance guide with a personal signing from Dr Stantz or something and have that be an issue.

[Bluehorse]

Two Questions:

Could you list some of what you are looking for for weakness I have thought and nothing is coming to me so I turned to random tables online but they are either very system specifice, super edgy gritty traits that I dont think would work, or too silly like a fear of mayonnaise. So it would help me if there was a short list like goals of things you are looking for.

Also what starting equipment are we allowed to have? My character would have books on the occult and if Tobins or the Spates catalog costs money I don't want to have him whipping out his favorite Roylance guide with a personal signing from Dr Stantz or something and have that be an issue.

Dont over think the weaknesses. It should be simple like cannot resist a dice game or in Julia's case she loves pastries. It is something that serves as a distraction to obtaining your goal.

I have listed your start equipment on the starting money pole. I really intended anythint else to be things you were able to purchase later as you complete missions. I would be interested to hear from others GMs how you handle this sort of thing in your own games. I dont want someone to simply declare i walk on set with all the goodies ready to take on Zuul, I'd like this to build up over time from smaller ghost to big bads later much like the movies. I am more than willing to allow certain things like i am for Taaz's character knowing Latin simply because it fits with his character's backstory, but as you see with Julia, her brain talent was specifically languages which is why i added french and latin to her sheet. Ehat do y'all think?

[Taaz]

Sure and that is my thing I don't want to have like all the answers or anything. But my character is basically a grown up GB fanboy so i figure he has just an odd collection of books. Probably more like hard copies of what is available to the busters, maybe like fancier or 1st editions.

I should have cleared the languages thing with you, I apologize I would have swore you could speak a language for every dot but i checked the rule book and even GBI and nothing so i think i just made that up in my head, or maybe im confusing something from WoD.

Ok so would something like "Never Passes up a Party" work? Easy to get him off track with fishbowl margaritas and nachos?

[Bluehorse]

Sure and that is my thing I don't want to have like all the answers or anything. But my character is basically a grown up GB fanboy so i figure he has just an odd collection of books. Probably more like hard copies of what is available to the busters, maybe like fancier or 1st editions.

I should have cleared the languages thing with you, I apologize I would have swore you could speak a language for every dot but i checked the rule book and even GBI and nothing so i think i just made that up in my head, or maybe im confusing something from WoD.

Ok so would something like "Never Passes up a Party" work? Easy to get him off track with fishbowl margaritas and nachos?

No worries! Like I said, when i was reading the story and all I was like, okay, that makes sense for his story. Let's do that. And yeah, I think that is WoD you were thinking of.

I LOVE the idea of his weakness being that he is a Party Animal! Fits well with the character I think. As far as the books go, let's make that a thing in that he has a collection of weird books. We can do a roll now and then to see if by some snowballs chance he has something that actually tells you something usful. I have no problem with that if it sounds good to you.

[Taaz]

Awesome!

[Zeromancer]

On the note of personal belongings, Jake's 2010 Yamaha V-Max VMX17 is due to arrive via shipping crate in a week or so. What would a guy whose hobby is mechanics, and enjoys driving as he does be without his motorbike? lol

[Bluehorse]

Wow. Those have come a long way since my 1980 model Honda XL

[Taaz]

My first bike was 85 Rebel 500, yay to 80s Hondas! Hmm Jason might need to look around for one so we can go riding