GURPS 4th - Ghostbusters.pdf - SUCS

GhostbustinGIf there are ghosts, then not all ofthem will be benign. When a living personsteps into the world of ghosts, someonehas to be on hand to help him out.Ghost hunters look for ghosts. Mediumstalk to ghosts. Occultists study ghosts.Ghostbusters make sure the ghosts don’tbite — and bite back if they do.If you’re running or playing in aghostbusting campaign or scenario, it’simportant to keep two things in mind:environment and mood. All good ghoststories are about locations, as the archetypalhaunted house demonstrates.Keep the setting’s feel about you; do researchon reputed hauntings. The genrebegins with the “occult detectives” of theVictorian and pulp steampunk eras, butghostbusting is still going strong fromThe X-Files to Danny Phantom.Don’t get too hung up on logic, orrules, or looking up Fright Check modifiers.Ghostbusting is campfire horror,you and your friends against the darkness.Scare each other, and revel (justa bit) in the campy glory of it all, fromelectric pentacles to proton packs.And one more thing: don’t go into thebasement alone.- Kenneth HiteAbout theAuthorsKenneth HiteKenneth Hite fervently believes that hewas the first person to buy Call of Cthulhuin the state of Oklahoma, and hasbeen playing horror RPGs almost continuouslysince then. He wrote GURPSCabal and the third edition of GURPSHorror, from which much of this bookderives, and co-authored GURPS WWII:Weird War Two. His “Suppressed Transmission”column covers high strangenessfor Pyramid magazine, it has beencollected in two volumes to date. Kennethholds an M.A. in International Relationsfrom the University of Chicagoand a Bachelor’s degree in Cartography.He lives with his wife Sheila in Chicagowith many a quaint and curious volumeof forgotten lore. He has never knowinglyseen a ghost.Michael TrescaMichael “Talien” Tresca is a writer,speaker, artist, and gamer. He has publishedthree D20 modules: Tsar Rising,All the King’s Men, and The DancingHut from MonkeyGod Enterprises. Hehas written numerous supplements,including Mercenaries: Born of Bloodfrom Otherworld Creations, and CombatMissions from Paradigm Concepts.Michael contributes to Relics from AEGand The Iron Kingdoms CampaignGuide from Privateer Press. He has alsowritten magazine articles and reviewsfor Spectre Press’ Survival Kit series,Dragon Magazine, Scrollworks, and D20Weekly, D20 Filtered and Pyramid. Michaellives in Connecticut with his wife,who is an editor, and his cat, who is fluentin English.Fritz BaughFritz contributed the Time Line, pp.11-13. Fritz was a pretty active gamerwith a small circle of friends throughoutthe late 80s and most of the 90’s. Theystarted with Ghostbusters: A FrightfullyCheerful Role Playing Game in 1986,about the same time The Real Ghostbusterswas coming onto television andblowing their minds. Fritz has written alot of Ghostbusters fan fiction, which isreadily available on the web.William H. StoddardWilliam H. Stoddard is a freelancewriter and editor living in San Diego,California, in an apartment crammedwith books. He was introduced to RPGsin 1975 and has played them ever since.His main other hobby is research; newgame books give him an excuse for evenmore library visits than he would makeanyway. His previous work for SteveJackson Games includes GURPS Steampunkand four other books, as soleor co-author, as well as contributions tonumerous other books.Aaron AllstonAaron Allston became editor of SpaceGamer magazine in 1980 also begandesigning game supplements on a freelancebasis, for Steve Jackson Games andthen for Hero Games. In 1983, shortlyafter Space Gamer won the H. G. WellsAward for Best Role-Playing Magazineof 1982, he went freelance full-time as agame designer, doing most of his workfor Champions issuer Hero Games andDungeons & Dragons publisher TSR.In 1988 he began working for WestEnd Games on Ghostbusters International,among others. He branched intowriting and by the mid 1990s had twonovels under his belt.He began writing on the Star WarsX-Wing series in 1997. In 2006, Allstonlaunched the Star Wars The Legacy ofthe Force series with a hardcover entitledBetrayal.Aaron lives in Round Rock, Texaswith four cats, and a dog, avoiding therays of the accursed sun.Douglas KaufmanDoug published his first game, Ace ofAces, while he was still in college gettinghis bachelor’s degree in General Dramatics.He went to New York to become anactor, but ended up as a game designerat West End Games. There he workedon such games as Star Wars: Star Warriors,Arabian Nights, Kings & Things,and Paranoia.From there he moved into electronicgaming at Microprose Software andGames Channel at America Online. Hedid freelance work for Firaxis on AlphaCentauri which led to his comingto Firaxis, where he helped design SidMeier’s Alien Crossfire and Sid Meier’sAntietam. Now he’s designing state-ofthe-art,cutting edge games never beforeconceived of in the history of man.GhostbustinG