Who You Gonna Call? [OOC and Info]

Hey everybody! I’m a long-time lurker, occasional poster, and first-time GM! I’ve had a lot of ideas for campaign settings before, but they all sucked for a number of reasons which I hope to avoid. Without further ado, let’s get into the background information to this one…


Ponies and their ilk are capable of great things via magic and technology - moving the sun and moon, creating a living forest, and transporting themselves to alternate dimensions. But one subject that has been taboo, unknown, or just plain outlawed over the years is the realm of the dead. For the longest time, nopony knew what lay beyond the threshold of life and death, and many were too scared to investigate.

But all that changed when parapsychologist Dr. Spengler and his friends were called in to investigate strange phenomena at the Canterlot Library and found what the doctor would describe as “a ghost” within. Dr. Spengler and his friends worked to capture and/or study this ghost and failed, but refined their techniques as more and more ghosts sprang up in remote places across Equestria… but that was ten years ago. Now Dr. Spengler’s comrades are retired and senile, and Dr. Spengler himself has resorted to showing off his “scientific doodads” to colts for money. But when ghosts start becoming more and more prevalent in everyday life, a new band of researchers must form, capable of, say, busting these ghosts before anything tragic were to happen…


Characters:
Crystalite - Artesian Maverick
AProcrastinatingWriter - White Whisper
Elacular - Rhinestone Eyes/Bell Mare
Copper Rose - Sweet Puff
Bronymous - Hallows and Gallows

Paper Shadow - [Working on it - RealLife.exe]
JacenCaedus - [Maybe?]

Behind the Scenes/Character Knowledge FAQ:

Wait, FAQ? Do you really get asked these questions frequently?
… No… But I figure this is an easy way to get this knowledge out there quickly!

Skype or PbP?
PbP, though I may create a Skype group chat.

How many characters are you looking for?
Four to six. I figure that’s a small enough group to keep me from going insane and swearing off GMing forever.

What kind of characters?
As you may have guessed, this is based on Ghostbusters. As such, this is a dark comedy-inspired setting, so no grimdark characters straight out of Fallout Equestria or one of those “canon character is secretly a murder-rapist” fics. No ghost characters, because that opens up a door I don’t want to go down (why is a ghost busting his own kind)? Characters can have prior experience with ghosts as long as they didn’t come out on top, don’t have anything specifically prepared to deal with further ghost attacks, and didn’t work with Dr. Spengler before. Other than that I’m rather lax about character concepts.

Where and when does this take place?
You start in Ponyville, ~20-25 years before Twilight Sparkle becomes a princess. You'll be travelling all over, though.

Are we using the Abilities system?
Yes! (Partially to get me familiar with it as well)

What about StairC’s questionnaire?
Fill that out if it helps you understand your character. While it’s incredibly helpful, it’s not required to get a spot.

What will characters actually be doing?
I intend to have everyone start in the same town - maybe Ponyville, maybe Canterlot, who knows? There will be an introductory mission there where they get together, get to know each other, and become the Ghostbusters or whatever they want to call themselves (going off the rails notwithstanding - but why would you want to join a campaign about being a Ghostbuster if you didn’t want to be one?) After that the group has a choice of missions to go on to investigate ghost-related activities around Equestria. Once all of them are complete, SPOILERS!

Sounds a bit like [insert campaign here].
It probably is, but not intentionally. Unless [insert campaign here] is the Canpaign of Jokers or Investigators of the Odd, both of which are now inactive. I based the “Mission” structure, and investigating weirdness aspects, on them, and nothing else on them! Honest! I-it’s not like I… liked them for being part of them or anything… baka…

Are there any homebrew rules you’re running?
I’ve come up with a few but they’re not in any state to use for this campaign. I do use a system of dice checks based on how awesome the feat you’re attempting is based on the FATE system but that’s not exactly game-changing.

How often do you expect players to post?
I understand that real life gets in the way of games, but I would be very, very happy if you could post at least once every two-three days, depending on how active the game is going. Posting once a week would make me less happy. If you still intend to be part of the game but won't post for a while I'd appreciate notice.

Any more questions, feel free to ask me!

You're about to be a much busier poster,one sin sets starts again. Coincidentally, I'd like to express interest in this game. I would try to reserve a slot but I'm not yet on dryable ground computer wise. But if that changes in the next week I'd want in.

Sure, I can put down that you're interested. I can wait this next week and see if your situation changes. If it doesn't, maybe I'll start with a small party and have you join mid-session.

Hmm. I'm sorely tempted to enter a younger version of a certain NPC I have in My Little Warehouse... this strikes me as exactly the way Maverick might have mispent his pre-Warehouse days.

I did a little bit of looking and say that, if you're interested and want to use the character, go ahead! timeline schmimeline it's ghosts and Artifacts we're talking about here

I'll play too. As I said in another topic, a good dose of something new might be what it takes for me to recover from my PonyTales burnout.

That being said, I'll have a character up sometime between tonight and a couple days from now

...what about half-ghosts, a la Danny Phantom and his Ghost Portal lab accident? I'd guess 'no' but if I didn't ask, I'd kick myself.

I'm tempted to say no, but if written well Danny or a similar character could technically fit in the boundaries - no prior experience with Spengler/ghost scientists, no (or brief but unfavorable) prior experiences with ghosts, nothing that prepares him to fight ghosts. So if someone wanted to make a Danny-type character they could but it would undergo pretty heavy scrutiny to make sure they don't have any unfair advantages over non-half-ghost players.

Also, someone is singular. I'm not going to allow more than one half-ghost in the game. Every player taking the same character concept is boring.

Well this sounds very interesting! If you are willing to deal with a player completely new to any sort of Tabletop RPG, I would be happy to join, I have started to put ideas for background together in my head, but nothing really concrete.

JacenCaedus wrote:Well this sounds very interesting! If you are willing to deal with a player completely new to any sort of Tabletop RPG, I would be happy to join, I have started to put ideas for background together in my head, but nothing really concrete.

I can help you out with both backstory and build if you like. PM me and we'll hash it out.

By all means, feel free to join! We're a welcoming and friendly community here.

Indeed, be a neat experience to play alongside someone new as well. Not to mention, more friends is always better than less friends.

Of course, that's being a little presumptuous

Let's play a game. It's called Good News Bad News. By the rules, Bad News comes first.

Bad News: I can't get Google Docs to behave right now, which means no GD character sheet.

Good News: I found something else called Text Uploader that can make do until GD comes back.

Bad News: There is a cap on how many characters you can have, and Arty has a lot of abilities. I can't include his Back story in the same file. Which means, instead, that I'm just going to post it right down there in that spoiler instead (It's pretty easy to understand, so I think I can get away with it...)

Good News: Link! Yaay, at last!

Backstory:

Game accepted, sir! Everything looks good to me!

Hey, I'm interested in joining this and I have a character concept which I think would work quite well. But first, I have to ask permission for two things.

1. Would it be okay to play a sort of Mediumish character? As in someone who can see/speak to/sometimes channel ghosts? She would have a ghost companion who is the only one she can actually see and talk to.

2. May I use one of the old Utility Talents?

1. Since nothing about the character as described screams "knows how to fight ghosts" to me, I don't have a problem with it. Be warned, though, that outside of the ghost companion there won't be much of an issue seeing/speaking to ghosts.

2. We're using the Ability system and not Utility Talents.

Edit: If you tell me what it is I could allow it and give you some amount of Ability Points it would cost - I feel guilty saying flat-out "no".

Ah, thank you. I was hoping I would be allowed to use this ability.

Get Back Down Here! (Speak With The Dead) - (X) 1/Day
Preparation Time: 10 Minutes
Touch a creature’s corpse or skeleton and call its soul back into its body. You must have at least its skull or face. You empower the creature to speak even if it’s decayed enough it shouldn’t be able to. You may compel the creature to answer one question truthfully and without distortion regarding experiences the creature had while alive. The spirit, whether willing or not, remains in the corpse for twenty minutes or until you dismiss it.

Well, comparing it to Animal Speak and Speak with Nature, it seems like a (3) point ability. I mean, it does the same basic stuff Speak with the Dead does.

Alright. In that case, the first draft of my character sheet will be added to this post shortly. Thank you.

Okee, how's this look?

Rhinestone Eyes

Seems kinda silly to put The Stare under the Element Of Magic... You're also two talents short on Magic (You get five, not three.)

On your combat build:

1) Seems kinda redundant for both of us to have Conjure Spectre. If TextUploader will let me edit I can take it off though, I'm not set on it.

2) Swap out Take Life with Drain Blood. The flavor still matches, and it opens up a neat combo with Where It Hurts:

Standard: (+3) Draw Blood
Minor: (-1) Drain Blood
Reaction: (-2) Where It Hurts

This way you effectively deal 1d12+1 damage AND 1 ongoing AND gain 3 HP AND still have just as much Energy as you started with. (Incidentally, this is about the same tactic Pyro is using; except I elected to specialise more and use Fleshrender   

It looks good to me! One of my major worries, though, is that Bell Mare being constantly in a state of Dream Step might be broken. If you still want it to be a constant effect it might end up being nerfed by other ghosts being able to detect her.

Yeah, that definitely works. Other ghosts can see her just fine. Also, if it helps at all, Bell Mare is probably going to go out of her way to be entirely unhelpful to Rhinestone.

Great - consider yourself in!

And yes, I'm still reserving spots for Procrastinating and Bronymous until further notice. Jacen, you can still grab a spot if you want one/feel confident enough to submit a character sheet.

No worries. We're all still in the "waiting for characters" phase right now so we might not start up that quickly.

]inb4 everyone and their dog submits a character

Believe it or not, I'm working on mine.

I was wondering, actually, would it be possible to house-rule that (so long as we still only take one of either) Elemental Affinities do not require taking the corresponding Elemental Resistance? I'm wanting my character to be immune to cold and able to spit fire.