“Eh,” said Greg, as if it were a subject he’d rather not talk about, “I dunno…”

“Oh, here it comes,” said Alex. “Let me guess, you think it’s too sexy, right? You hate that they dare put eroticism into your oh-so-intellectual Sherlock Holmes stories, don’t you?”

“Well, no,” said Greg, “that’s not it. I mean, I don’t like that, but I’ve pretty much come to expect it from anything on television– everyone in show business is constantly giggling like a 13-year-old about how ‘naughty’ they are. Why should Sherlock be any different? That’s not what bugged me about it, but I haven’t quite put my finger on what it was.”

“How about this?” said Brigid, and swigged her drink. “They pretend to make Irene Adler a ‘strong woman’ by turning her into a dominatrix, specifically for the purpose of knocking her back down again. How about, for having the gall to be so uppity that she actually gets a brief advantage over Sherlock, she has to go all fluttery over him, then get swatted and crushed into crying and begging? How about the way at the end she’s finally kneeling in a freakin’ burqa, where she gets rescued like a goddamn damsel in distress because Sherlock had the ‘grace’ to be merciful after putting a whore in her place? How about because it’s the same damn misogynistic crap, just with a fresh coat of paint?”

Greg blinked at Brigid for a moment, then said, “Yeah, I think that might be it.”

-The Gneech

<-- previous B&G

I took some inspiration from Graywolf’s “Savage Ghostbusters”, but actually ended up using the gear stats from the Horror Companion (I love that SW has official stats for proton packs and ghost traps), with my own house rules for the application of psychomagnetheric slime. It’s very much a work in progress, as I get the hang for how SW actually behaves in play. I’ve got as good a grasp as I can get on the rules just from reading, but how a game reads and how it behaves at the table are usually two very different things.

One thing I’m undecided on, is the use of miniatures. Savage Worlds, for all its rules-liteness, is written with the assumption that you’ll be using minis, and while I like using miniatures for my Pathfinder game, I’m not sure I really want to be pulling out the mat and figs for busting spooks. Ghostbusters (when done right, anyway) alternates back and forth between freewheeling and terrifying, neither of which are really well served by counting squares; on the other hand, one of the fun things about Ghostbusters is how busting spooks is “just a job,” like being a plumber (or possibly an exterminator), and I can see how having the miniatures could make it feel more like blue-collarey work. (“Yo, Iggy, ya got yerself a nasty free-floating vapor at about ten yards, hit that sucker up with a capture stream and it’s Miller Time.”)

The fact that there aren’t easily-convertible Ghostbusters miniatures doesn’t help, but isn’t really that big a factor– I could easily make Cardboard Heroes-style figs if I wanted to. There have also been some really nice custom minis made, but that’s a bit of a stretch for my sculpting chops and would take forever.

I’ll poll my players on the topic (HEY PLAYERS: Weigh in on this! …That was easy.) and see what they have to say. I’ve certainly got plenty of monsters I could use as spook figs.

-The Gneech

As spooks go, Slimer is fairly harmless, but that’s mostly a factor of his essentially benevolent nature. Barely even sentient, Slimer tends to be clueless and whimsical, with a cowardly streak– if he were more viciously inclined, he would be capable of being hazardous. As it is, he generally just trashes the place and covers everything with slime in the process.

Slimer (Wildcard)

Type V Full-Roaming Vapor

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Creature: Phantasm
Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d4, Spirit d8, Strength d6, Vigor d6
Skills: Fighting d6, Intimidation d6, Notice d6, Spellcasting (Arcane) d8, Stealth d8, Throwing d6
Pace: 8 (run die d10), Parry: 5, Toughness: 5, Charisma: -2
Bennies: 2, Power Points: 10
Gear: Thrown Objects d6 (Str+d4, 3/6/12)

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Special Abilities:
Quirk (Gluttony)
Ugly
Arcane Magic
Ethereal
Fear
Flight (Ghostly)

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Arcane Powers:
Slime (Entangle) Restrained target suffers -2 Pace and skills linked to Agi and Str; Break free with Str or Agi; Single target costs 2 points, Medium Burst Template costs 4
Speed Doubles target’s Pace; Running is free with raise
Telekinesis Move single target weighing 10lbs times Spirit die type (50lbs with raise); Weapons use arcane skill and Spirit; Drop does Spirit+d6 damage

Text and artwork by John “The Gneech” Robey. “Slimer” and Ghostbusters copyright Sony Pictures and used for fan purposes only. “The Onionhead Ghost” originally created by Dan Akroyd. Stat block created by Hero Lab® (Registered Trademarks of LWD Technology, Inc. Free download at http://www.wolflair.com). Some inspiration drawn from “Savage Ghostbusters” by T. Jordan “Greywolf” Peacock. Savage Worlds is Copyright © 2004-2012 by Pinnacle Entertainment Group. All rights reserved.

So I’m looking at three basic options, and tossing them out here for interested parties to throw in their own $0.02 if they so desire. Input welcome and desired!

BRP/5 — a.k.a. “Call of Cthulhu on a d20″

I’ve tinkered around before with a homebrew version of BRP (i.e., the system used for Call of Cthulhu), which runs off a d20 rather than d% just to keep the math simpler. So for example, if your CoC character has 55% in a skill, the BRP/5 version would have “+11″ with that skill, with the idea being that you roll and try to beat a 20.

The advantage of BRP is that it’s fairly fast and flexible, but still is a granular enough system to feel like it has some meat to it. The disadvantage in this particular case is that I’d have to do all the system converting, which is something I enjoy tinkering around with but will definitely take some time.

Savage Worlds

One strong contender that I’m looking at is Savage Worlds. Billed as “Fast! Furious! and Fun!” Savage Worlds has a lot of fans among people who like generic systems but don’t like the mathiness of GURPS or HERO. I’ve never actually played it before, but I do own a copy of the “Explorer’s Edition” and have poked around with it a little. The basic rule seems to be that you have Stats/Skills represented by a d4, d6, d8, d10, or d12, and you need to beat a 4 to succeed. Combat is a “Fighting” or “Shooting” skill check, followed by rolling damage and comparing it to a target’s toughness– beat it and they take a wound, fail and nothing happens. It also has a built-in “Wild Die” mechanic that could easily be remapped to the Ghost Die, which is one of my favorite mechanics of the UHM system.

Seems pretty straightforward; the hard part would be getting used to all the nomenclature (“raises” for “criticals,” “aces” for “rolling the max,” etc.) and system quirks (drawing playing cards for initiative, for instance). The most complex part of the system appears to be the actual character creation rules, which are a point-based system that changes the cost of things based on prerequisites and such. Doing it on paper would probably give me a headache, but it’s easy enough to do with Hero Labs.

Savage Worlds has the advantage of already having been written and there being resources for it out there, while still being a fast-moving rules-lite system (at least, once we get used to it) that’s still a bit more robust than the UHM system. The disadvantage, of course, is that it’s a new system we’ve never played before and have no idea what it’ll actually be like in play. Of course, we could always just try it for a few sessions and see what we think.

Option Three: If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It

Of course, the UHM system does work well enough and there’s little compelling reason we couldn’t just stick with it other than my never-ending desire to tinker with things. Not knowing my players’ opinions on the subject, it’s hard to say (hence this post). If they are attached to the UHM system (or just loathe to learn a new one), it’s certainly still an option on the boards.

Any thoughts on the subject?

-The Gneech

-The Gneech

She died later that same year, respected by all, and was buried in the Duchesne family plot– the second largest in the cemetery. But now she has risen from the grave… to demand that she be moved to a plot with a better view of the Potomac.

Vanity Duchesne

Class IV Focused Full Torso Repeater (Physical, Intelligent)
Muscles 3 (Claw Her Way Up From the Grave 6)
Moves 3 (Duck Behind Cover 6)
Brains 2 (Know Social Status 5)
Cool 2 (Raise a Fuss 5)
Power 4; Ectopresence 8

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Goal Be the Belle of the Cemetery
Special Abilities Fly, Poltergeist, Summon Pests
Weaknesses Motivator (remove her bracelet, and she will be put to rest); Restricted (only manifests midnight-dawn)
Appearance Rich, portly, snobbish, and dead; sort of a zombie Margaret duMont. Whenever she uses a power, someone looking for unusual effects may attempt a Brains 15 roll to spot that her bracelet glows even more than usual.

Animated Mink Wrap

Class V Materialized Focused Fashion Faux-Pas (Physical, Mindless)
Muscles 4 (Entangle 7)
Moves 3 (Dodge 6)
Ectopresence 3

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Goal Protect Mommy!
Appearance Vanity’s favorite fashion accessory, she was buried with it. Now it growls, bites, and attacks anybody who threatens her.

Bitey Skulls

Class II Materialized Focused Nuisance (Physical, Mindless)
Muscles 1 (Bite 4)
Moves 2 (Dodge 5)
Ectopresence 1 (destroyed on successful hit)

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Goal Bite Ghostbusters
Appearance Bouncy, roly-poly, clattering pile of skulls that Vanity animates with her Summon Pests power. Roll 4d6 (Vanity’s Power): every 3 points rolled creates a pile of Bitey Skulls. If she rolls a ghost, add +1 to the stats of all piles created. These are not terribly dangerous, but they do give Vanity time to flee when threatened.

Ghostly Yap Dogs

Class VI Focused Status Symbol (Ectoplasmic, Mindless)
Power 3; Ectopresence 3

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Goal Protect Mommy
Special Abilities Horrid Barking (Power vs. Cool or Ghostbuster is at +5 Difficulty to all actions for a round from distraction); Slime Bite
Appearance A small pack of ghostly yap dogs with diamond-studded collars (unfortunately also ghostly). Although it appears as 3-5 dogs in any given manifestation, it is a single creature created by Vanity’s Summon Pests power (DC 10, rolling a ghost gives the dogs +1 to all stats).

Who ya gonna call?

-The Gneech