Mission 0 - Cup of Joe

[GreyWolfVT]

Roy getting mixed signals doesn't exactly know how to keep using his proton pack and deploy the trap at the same time but stops with the proton blaster and attempts to deploy the trap.

[Bluehorse]

The First Call
Cup of Joe
4:21pm
Aug. 8, 2018
Raining, slightly cooler, calming.

So much happens at once that it is hard to keep up with!

There is a sudden explosion of activity as the ghost is spotted, but just as it is getting ready to make a move, Jason hits it with an attack stream and it jerks letting out a harsh sound not unlike how you would imagine the sound of a tea kettle would be if run through a high gain guitar amp. Jason feels his proton gun kick like a mule, as does everyone else, but luckily he had dug in his heels and was ready for it. Plus rolled high enough to avoid the consequences of those wet shoes I was going to use for the ghost roll earlier. Good timing!

The ghost is then grabbed by Jacob and Lionel's beams in the next moment and held easily in place in its now weakened state. It keeps yelling and struggling, but seems to held in place! All three ghostbusters holding a beam on it can feel it struggling against the beams almost like an erratic arm wrestling match. They realize at this moment that their instructors were right, the paper targets are nothing like the real thing when it can fight back. There is certainly more happening than the feedback and recoil of the photon guns themselves, though this feels significant compared to the dialed-down training packs you have fired in the past.
Everyone here roll an easy muscle for me to see if you can hold onto the ghost with the unfamiliar recoil of the proton packs.
5+ means you are good to go and all you will need is a trap out to finish the job. This has to be an action in the next round though.
You've almost go this one in the box!

Poor Roy is getting so many mixed signals that he doesn't know what to do, so he tries to do everything at once. First, he realizes that he forgot to plug his photon gun into the pack and fumbles with it, and then in the middle of getting that ready tried to grab for his trap a second time with his hands already full and drops both. 1d6 to see what happens here. 1=something with the Photon Gun 6= something with the Trap, anything else, just a fumble and one round to recover.

[1d6] = 4
Luckily, nothing is broken and Roy is able to get his stuff together as soon as he can untangle the cords!

If you can make a hard moves or cool roll (Your choice since I can see this being the equivalent of keeping your cool or a dex save) on this, I will say you were able to toss out the trap as you untangled it. Otherwise, you will be able to in the following round and I will make it an automatic action.

Meta Game:

Okay, usually something like this would require a Brains roll, but I am willing to share a little meta with you now since this is a training mission so to speak, so this time it is free.

From your training, you can tell this is a very weak spirit overall, and has a power of 2, meaning that 2 beams on it is enough to hold it in place, but with two it would be able to roll to get free. Since Jason hit it with an attack beam, it is weakened to a 1, meaning that with the attack beam, and then the beamed from Jacob and Lionel, it is firmly held in place, so there is no way it can roll to free itself or attack. Basically, if you can hold on, you've got it right where you want it. Your training would tell you this so I am offering it as free info.

This leaves it up to Roy to get a trap out, and you will have no problem getting the ghost and wrapping up your first paycheck public service. Additionally, whoever has the other trap, can take the risk of turning off their own beam, and tossing out their own trap, but then the Ghost will also be able to make a very slim chance to getting free. This is food for thought
Please feel free to discuss what you want to do in the OOC thread. I actually encourage this as in my mind it is not different than if we were all sitting around the table and figuring out what our characters would do in this instance etc. More so since you would all have training in team operations and I figure you would easily fall into your individual roles, which the HR office would have considered before picking out the team for each station in order to cover a set of overall skills and jargon jargon jargon

There is an overall buildup of noise from the crowds outside as they witness the Particle Beam fireworks for the first time!

[Zeromancer]

Jacob tugged firmly against the ghost tethered to him by a beam of particle energy. It was a strange feeling. His brain told him that there was nothing tangible between himself and the target, yet he nevertheless felt the pull. He tightened his grip on the wand and attempted to maneuver the spirit into position for entrapment.

"We need that trap, Roy." he said coolly.

Muscle [1d6] = 6, Ghost [1d6] = 1

Hah! Take THAT ghost die.

[Taaz]

Jason held tight on the pull of his proton stream. Whew this was different than the simulations back in training. The ghost seemed to be weakened from the opening salvo and it looked like an opportune moment to get it into the box. "That last throw really took the steam out of him"

Muscles: [2d6] = 3 Ghost:[1d6] = 3

He heard Jacob call for the trap but continued to focus on wrangling the specter.

[GreyWolfVT]

Roy

Cool: [1d6] = 3

[Bluehorse]

Roy

Cool: [1d6] = 3

since Roy's cool is 3 you can roll 3d6. So that is 2d6 and 1d6 since one is a ghost dice. Go ahead an reroll. Also, for every Bp you want to spend, you get an additional1d6. Now would be a good time to spend some.

[GreyWolfVT]

Roy

Cool: [1d6] = 3

since Roy's cool is 3 you can roll 3d6. So that is 2d6 and 1d6 since one is a ghost dice. Go ahead an reroll. Also, for every Bp you want to spend, you get an additional1d6. Now would be a good time to spend some.

still pretty lost on what you mean but i think the below is what you want....
Cool: [2d6] = 11 G:[1d6] = 6

[Zeromancer]

It's like a Difficulty Class in D&D 3e/Pathfinder, the higher rolls let you do more complex tasks. The Ghost die is a pretty nasty foil to success though, and can ruin your day 1 out of 6 times.

[Taaz]

And the brownie points are like hero points or action points, other games use different names but you started with 20 and you can use any number to add that many extra dice. So if you say I spend 3 brownie points on this roll, you can add 3d6 to however many dice you are already rolling.

[GreyWolfVT]

I am not familiar with 3e only attempted in once about 18 years ago i didn't retain any of the information. However the "brownie or hero" points. That sounds a little bit like max_vale's Star Wars d6 game and force points.

[Taaz]

Was that a d6 star wars game? If so it is based on this Ghostbusters system and very close rules wise.

[Zeromancer]

Okay, so maybe the D&D analogy wasn't a good one then. Basically tasks are divided into Automatic (no roll required), Easy (total of 5 on your dice), Normal (or moderate) (total of 10 on your dice), Hard (20 or more), and Impossible (30 or more). Impossible jobs aren't actually impossible, but highly improbable without a lot of luck, help, or both. With this system, certain tasks are beyond your character's normal reach, unless you spend the Brownie Points. For example, if the Difficulty is 20, but you only have 2 d6s to roll, you simply can't do it without help. I for one don't plan on spending them frivolously though, as once you accumulate a certain number (30 I think?) you have the option of increasing one of your character's base stats by 1. If spending them can salvage an encounter, fine, but I also want to think about long term growth.

WEG made both the Star Wars d6 game and the Ghostbusters game, so they're probably very similar.

[Scott308]

Lionel "Freight Train" Williams

So far, wrangling a real, live ghost, while more difficult than using the training targets and proton packs, is a bit easier than taking down a quarterback- though not nearly as much fun! Lionel is easily able to maintain control of the beam holding the ghost in place.

Muscle: [4d6] = 14; Ghost Die: [1d6] = 4

[Bluehorse]

The First Call
Cup of Joe
4:22pm
Aug. 8, 2018
Raining, slightly cooler, calming.

The team is easily able to hold the weakened ghost in their beams and seems to be completely held. However, there is an impending problem as one by one the Packs Fail Safe alarms begins beeping! The automatic shut off is about to trigger on the three packs which have been firing for nearly 30 seconds without stopping. The internal cores are about to hit the critical temperature where the packs will automatically shut off in order to let the core cool and not overheat.

The teammates look sidelong at each other realizing a set of realities that they would need to be addressed right away.

Option one: Hold the ghost knowing that (in the next round) the packs will shut off and reboot, and then be able to fire again from a safe temperature.

Option two: Release the trigger and allow the packs to recover now, and refire (In the next round)

Option three: Click the override to the safety sequence, which would buy some time, but at a risk. (You will get 1 extra round with no worries, each round after that you will have to roll 3d6 for each round after that at increasing difficulty to see if you pack overheats and basically you will be wearing an atomic bomb which can take out a city block... along with you and everyone else present at the moment... but you can say you got the ghost!)

Roy

Cool: [2d6] = 11 G:[1d6] = 6

Roy was still having trouble and rather than getting his photon gun and the trap untangled, he actually makes it worse and will have to burn more time trying to get things together.

I am not going to torture you anymore with this. Next round you will have your gear sorted. You can choose to either throw the trap or fire your proton pack, just roll moves for the success of that action.


In the meantime... BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! Time to make some hard decisions!

Remember that you need to keep at least 2 beams on the ghost to keep it held, so once again I will suggest a little planning in OOC before taking action and we will see how the dice roll after that. Good luck everyone!

...I for one don't plan on spending them frivolously though, as once you accumulate a certain number (30 I think?) you have the option of increasing one of your character's base stats by 1. If spending them can salvage an encounter, fine, but I also want to think about long-term growth.

Ah! But if you are successful in your mission or meeting other goals, you will earn back all spent Bps as well as an additional 50%. So if you spend or otherwise loose 10 Bp in a mission you will get back 15 in the end. And yes, 30Bps you can buy up one you your stats.

WEG made both the Star Wars d6 game and the Ghostbusters game, so they're probably very similar.

Yup! The Ghostbusters game we are playing was the precursor to the SW game.

[Zeromancer]

Jacob looked down at the warning indicator on his neutrona wand with a somewhat annoyed expression on his face. Similar to that look when the batteries in your remote control are no longer fresh and the only recourse is to smack the thing around. Without a second thought he toggled the override switch and continued to hold the ghost firm.

"Who's got the other trap?" Jacob called out.

OOC: I think it was Lionel, but I could be wrong

[Taaz]

Jacob called out and Jason looked at the other 2 whos packs were chirping. "On it!" He shouts as he powers down his pack, letting the wand fall to the retention strap on his belt. He unholstered the trap and tossed it underneath the stunned ghost.

Moves: [4d6] = 14 Ghost:[1d6] = 4

I used 3 brownie points for my Moves roll.

Jason was so intently focused on the shot, he was trying to impress his new colleges and a whole new town. So whether luck or divine intervention the trap landed exactly where he had aimed. He stomped on the footswitch. "Opening the trap!" And A bright cone of energy fills the room.

[GreyWolfVT]

Roy having finally un tangled everything will attempt the trap this time and forego the proton pack.

[Scott308]

Lionel "Freight Train" Williams

Seeing his proton pack is beginning to hit a critical stage, Lionel selects Override, trusting his teammates will be able to get the trap set before the portable nuclear reactor destroys the city.

[Bluehorse]

The First Call
Cup of Joe
4:22pm
Aug. 8, 2018
Raining, slightly cooler, calming.

Lionel and Jake take the risk and holds the ghost in place, throwing caution to the wind as the alarms beep loudly and at an ever-quickening pace, lending an additional sense of urgency to their situation.

Jason drops his neutrino wand and grabs the trap, throwing it with trained precision, all those hours practicing with the prop traps back a GBU paying off in a big way! "Opening the trap!" and there is a loud electronic buzz and squeal as the bright cone of energy fills the room! Everyone remembers the #1 caution from training... Don't look into the trap!!!

The Ghost cries out again as the two particle beams hold him in place and he is quickly sucked into the trap! When the trap doors slam shut, and Jake and Lionel shut off their proton packs, there is a sudden eerie silence to the coffee house where the next sounds are the two overheating proton packs disengaging their cores, the Ghostbusters can see them open and allow the reactor cores to come out, and after a 5 count and much steam, they retract back inside with a loud click and the packs themselves power up again into a ready setting, waiting to be fired again just as a pair of quick beeps acknowledge they are ready. Then the only other sound is the steady pulsing beep of the trap as the red light indicates the ghost is contained inside.

Roy finally has his gear in order and can join the others in looking badass as soon as they recover from the sudden completion of their first job. Someone may remember that Mr. Zedmore was once quoted as saying A Ghost going into the trap at the end of the job is like an explosion happening backward... There is all this noise for so long and then it is all kind of swallowed up and gone so suddenly, you sometimes think it couldn't possibly be so quiet, and yet it is.

The Coffee House is a wreck, but as you look around, you realize that there is no obvious damage caused by your team. A job well done!


Brownie Point Pool
Dr. Jason O'Roarke: 14/20
Jake Matz: 20/21
Lionel 'Freight Train' Williams: 20/20
Roy O'Dowd: 18/20

[Zeromancer]

OOC: No offense Blue, but you mixed up Jacob and Jason. I knew I shouldn't have picked a name so similar to Taaz's.