GURPS 4th - Ghostbusters.pdf - SUCS

fall from a flagpole in 1927.Talking boards (the general name) allowsitters to contact ghosts without theMedium advantage or any other specialpowers. The ghosts nudge the planchette(via the sitters’ hands) to spell outmessages — but there is no guaranteethat the messages will be accurate, polite,or from any specific spirit unlessthe board is used with a summoning orcompelling ritual. Wooden talking board:$40, 2 lbs.Electric PentacleTL(5+1)Invented by Thomas Carnacki in1907, the electric pentacle marks the beginningof truly scientific ghost-breakingequipment. Forty mercury-vaportubes set in a pentagram shape, wiredin parallel to an induction coil, poweredby two 2.2 kWs lead-acid batteries willrepel spirits as the Pentagram spell (seepp. M124-125). The key is the specificwavelengths of blue light emitted by thetubes, which Carnacki determined to bethose most resistant to spectral force. Noghost can cross the light barrier withoutwinning a Quick Contest of Will versusthe barrier’s Power. Even fully materializedspirits or possessed humans cannotcross the pentacle, or throw any objectat the tubes. However, the tubes are delicate,requiring an hour and a successfulMechanic (Electrical)/TL(5+1) roll to setup. Any critical failure on a physical skillby the person inside or near the pentacleis likely to break a tube, and hence thebarrier.A 40-tube electric pentacle has aPower of 30, weighs 20 lbs., and costs$2,500. It is 10.5 ft. in diameter (33 ft.in circumference), and has enoughroom in the central, protected pentagonfor one person, who sits on the batterypack. More tubes allow larger pentacles.Power can be increased by simply increasingthe amount of electricity, eitherby more batteries, better batteries, inductioncoils, or transformers.NecrophoneTL(5+n)In the October 1920 issue of ScientificAmerican, Thomas Edison announcedthat he was working on a machine tocontact the dead. No plans or prototypeswere discovered in his laboratory afterhis death in 1931. In a séance ten yearslater, Edison directed two electrical engineersto the blueprints. Edison’s necrophoneis a sensitive electrical valve,powered by a chemical electrolyte solution,which amplifies spirit voices capturedby a large, trumpet-shaped aluminumdish-aerial apparatus. The ghostsspeak through a microphone hooked upto the valve. Tuning the necrophone toa specific spirit requires something connectedto that spirit or a summoning ritual.The ghost is not required to answer.A necrophone can also passively pick upghostly “chatter” in an area, much likeEVP. Using the necrophone requires anElectronics Operation (Communications)/TL(5+n)roll.The necrophone uses 0.2 kW, weighs22 lbs., and costs $800.Shanghai SandwichTL(6+1)During his fringe researches in thelate 1920s, Philo Farnsworth ran acrossthe optical formulas used in the specchiatormenta (see pp. 63-64), and adaptedthem using Crookes tubes and seleniumplates. He created a modern ghost trap,which boils down to a television camerafilming its own screen. Any ghostscaught between camera and screen aretrapped between them, unable to moveor use their powers without making aST -10 roll. (Fully materialized ghostsmake the roll at -4.) The transmitter andreceiver need only to be in line of sight;breaking this breaks the trap. Activatingthe equipment is a simple ElectronicsOperation (Communications)/TL(6+1)roll with a +6 bonus.Hard-boiled ghost-hunters used this“Shanghai sandwich” in the 1930s and1940s. It may be named after the “hall ofmirrors” in the Orson Welles film Ladyof Shanghai, or perhaps for the old customof “shanghaiing” (kidnapping) unwillingsailors.A descendant of this technology, infinitevideo imaging (IVI), has comeinto use with the advent of cheap videocameras and television sets. However,without the special tubes used in theShanghai sandwich, IVI can only captureimages, not actual ghosts, on videotape— a video equivalent of EVP. AnIVI setup is easy; anyone who can worka camera can do it.Farnsworth’s Crookes transmitter:2 kW, $40,000, 650 lbs. Selenium receiver:0.2 kW, $1,600, 60 lbs.equipment