Ghostbusters Tegel Manor

[countingwizard]

So I've been secretly working on a slight modification of the OD&D rules in order to run Ghostbusters in the 1977 Bob Bledsaw Classic Haunted House Module: Tegel Manor. I've got an upcoming Halloween game I'll be running it for this weekend in Austin (Leander technically). The size of the group should be about 8 players, all Planet Eris veterans. I'll give an after session report of the event sometime after. I designed it to be slightly easier for people new to D&D, converting spells into a point pool, with each level spell costing an equivalent point.

Some changes I made are:

• Magic-User replaced with Medium class, which uses psychic powers (not from Supp. III).
  (Ex: Tangina Barrons, Danny Torrance, Gillian Bellaver, Charlene McGee)
• Thief replaced with Ghostbuster class, which can use ghostbusting equipment, pick locks, do mechanic/electrician stuff, and read languages/magic with skills.
• Fighting-man replaced with Monster-hunter class. (Ex: Kolchak, Dr. Robert Morgan, Peter Vincent, The Frog Brothers)
• Cleric replaced with Exorcist class, which exorcises instead of turns undead, dealing damage, no weapon restrictions, but with limited cleric spell use via miracles.
  (Ex: Father Tom, Father merrin, Father Karras, John Constantine)
• Armors have been converted (for the modern setting) into leather, kevlar (chain), ceramic (plate); and for ghostbusters: uniform/pack (unarmored), adv. uniform/pack (leather), hazard suit/pack (chain, but encumbered like plate), ecto-suit/pack (plate, but encumbered like overburdened). 
• Spell scrolls, wands, magic items, magic weapons, etc. have all been preserved and can be used by Mediums and Ghostbusters. Mediums don't need a skill, but they also don't have spellbooks or memorize spells.
  
• Addition of some modern weapons like guns, flashbangs, etc; all in line with the original melee weapon damage baselines (1d6).
• Monsters have been reflavored to be more colorful (literally) and closer to the ghostbuster movie mythos. Goblins may be blue or hot pink, and may be scientifically referred to as "transdimensional trickster entities" and "class I non-ethereal manifestations".
  
• Monsters still retain their original properties of being insubstantial spirits and physical creatures. Only spirits can be busted (and maybe vampires in mist form since ectoplasmic).
• Monster abilities slightly tweaked to make them less deadly. Slimes in particular match the movie counterpart rather than turn you into slime.
  Undead spirits will slime instead of level drain the enemy. Vampires and wights retain their level drain though...
• Characters can still be seriously injured/maimed, but will be KO'd instead of killed. They must be recovered from the manor and taken to a hospital to recover. Death is possible though, just not as likely due to modern medicine.
• Proton packs run on charges (~20), and take days to recover.
• Depending on the size of the group of players who show up, the Ecto-1 may contain additional proton packs and ghostbusting supplies for when you run out of charges.
  
• The town hotel can be used to rest in safety overnight, but you will have to return to the city in order to recharge your proton packs and dump ghosts into containment.
  

I'll post my materials once I've ran the game. I'm still working to get it operational for the party. I'm using Planet Eris as the baseline ruleset, since I need the single-saving throw, and the accelerated level advancement it provides (same xp rates, but increases HD, saving throw, and attack competence each level).

[edit: I will still post my materials, I'm just doing some final touches on them.]

[captainjapan]

Oct 17, 2019 7:39:04 GMT -6 countingwizard said:

So I've been secretly working on a slight modification of the OD&D rules in order to run Ghostbusters in the 1977 Bob Bledsaw Classic Haunted House Module: Tegel Manor. I've got an upcoming Halloween game I'll be running it for this weekend in Austin (Leander technically). The size of the group should be about 8 players, all Planet Eris veterans. I'll give an after session report of the event sometime after. I designed it to be slightly easier for people new to D&D, converting spells into a point pool, with each level spell costing an equivalent point.

Some changes I made are:

• Magic-User replaced with Medium class, which uses psychic powers (not from Supp. III).
  (Ex: Tangina Barrons, Danny Torrance, Gillian Bellaver, Charlene McGee)
• Thief replaced with Ghostbuster class, which can use ghostbusting equipment, pick locks, do mechanic/electrician stuff, and read languages/magic with skills.
• Fighting-man replaced with Monster-hunter class. (Ex: Kolchak, Dr. Robert Morgan, Peter Vincent, The Frog Brothers)
• Cleric replaced with Exorcist class, which exorcises instead of turns undead, dealing damage, no weapon restrictions, but with limited cleric spell use via miracles.
  (Ex: Father Tom, Father merrin, Father Karras, John Constantine)
• Armors have been converted (for the modern setting) into leather, kevlar (chain), ceramic (plate); and for ghostbusters: uniform/pack (unarmored), adv. uniform/pack (leather), hazard suit/pack (chain, but encumbered like plate), ecto-suit/pack (plate, but encumbered like overburdened). 
• Spell scrolls, wands, magic items, magic weapons, etc. have all been preserved and can be used by Mediums and Ghostbusters. Mediums don't need a skill, but they also don't have spellbooks or memorize spells.
  
• Addition of some modern weapons like guns, flashbangs, etc; all in line with the original melee weapon damage baselines (1d6).
• Monsters have been reflavored to be more colorful (literally) and closer to the ghostbuster movie mythos. Goblins may be blue or hot pink, and may be scientifically referred to as "transdimensional trickster entities" and "class I non-ethereal manifestations".
  
• Monsters still retain their original properties of being insubstantial spirits and physical creatures. Only spirits can be busted (and maybe vampires in mist form since ectoplasmic).
• Monster abilities slightly tweaked to make them less deadly. Slimes in particular match the movie counterpart rather than turn you into slime.
  Undead spirits will slime instead of level drain the enemy. Vampires and wights retain their level drain though...
• Characters can still be seriously injured/maimed, but will be KO'd instead of killed. They must be recovered from the manor and taken to a hospital to recover. Death is possible though, just not as likely due to modern medicine.
• Proton packs run on charges (~20), and take days to recover.
• Depending on the size of the group of players who show up, the Ecto-1 may contain additional proton packs and ghostbusting supplies for when you run out of charges.
  
• The town hotel can be used to rest in safety overnight, but you will have to return to the city in order to recharge your proton packs and dump ghosts into containment.
  

I'll post my materials once I've ran the game. I'm still working to get it operational for the party. I'm using Planet Eris as the baseline ruleset, since I need the single-saving throw, and the accelerated level advancement it provides (same xp rates, but increases HD, saving throw, and attack competence each level).

Too, too cool! I was just searching the forum for Halloween themed od&d

[countingwizard]

I've retyped out the module and changed all the treasures, some of the room descriptions, and some of the monster stats. I wonder if it's enough to claim parody rights so I can publicly share it.

I learned a lot from how Bob Bledsaw laid out his dungeon. The room names are sparse enough to provide direction but encourage on-the-fly creativity during a game, and the room descriptions are always laid out in a way that prevent the referee from just reading from the book. Like, the referee has to pause, read the paragraph, and then describe what is in the room for their players. But d**n did he have problems with spelling. Every single instance of the word "animate" (and there were many), was misspelled in creative and exciting new ways. There is also how the room description key is used as a secondary source of information, but the module is actually designed around navigating using only the map; room names, sounds/smells, statues, traps, etc. are only mentioned on the map. Monsters are inconsistently statted throughout the module, sometimes skeletons are 1/2 or 1 HD, zombies are sometimes 1 HD or 2HD, ghouls sometimes have paralysis or don't, sometimes shadows deal damage other times they only drain strength. The description of each monster strongly infers the type of reaction intended too; like some monsters don't have HD or stats listed because they are clearly supposed to react peacefully.

[tetramorph]

I am so sad to be missing this.

Y'all have fun.

[countingwizard]

I plan on running one session of it at NTRPG Con, and I hope to make this a Halloween tradition like Jimm does his movies.

[countingwizard]

So I barely got everything together and prepped before the game on Saturday. I was still filling out pregens when my players showed up, and I was still missing a monster manual for changes I made to monster abilities and descriptions (in my head), player aids for weapon damage, ghostbuster equipment charge usage, and a list of psychic powers/miracles by level. However I was able to print out three user manuals that described in detail the effects of each psychic power, miracle, and ghostbuster equipment (and charge usage), so they were able to look through these as we played. I explained everything as we went along, so the session was a bit slower than a normal D&D game we were all familiar with. The players really had to feel out how to use some of the new tools I gave them. Norm (Trollandflame) kept using his ecto-goggles everywhere instead of his PKE meter, because he didn't realize he could get much of the same information from it without using up charges [note to self, reduce duration from 6 turns to 1 turn for goggles to emphasize it's specialized purpose]. A few of my ghostbusters kept thinking it was ok to carry and use firearms they got from the supply van. Otherwise the game was very fun, and it did not feel like I was forcing the ghostbusters into a rule structure that wasn't built for it. The one change I'm going to make for future games is that there can only be 1 monster-hunter, 1 exorcist, and 1 medium.

Session Report:

Ghostbusters got called out to an ancient coastal fortress/manor in Maine by a director named Señor Spielbergo. He was filming his magnum opus, "Poultrygeist II", when on one night of shooting major paranormal activity started occurring, beginning with the complete re-arrangement of the interior rooms and halls. Some of his crew got lost, others came out jibbering and insane, etc. So the ghostbusters pulled up to the manor during a localized storm (likely caused by strong PKE activity), and were met by the owner of the Manor, Roger Rump, and a vampire hunter named Eddie Frog (now adult, Lost Boys). Some others who were also present and waiting were two exorcists: Father Merrin (Exorcist I), Father Lamont (Exorcist II); and a medium named Tangina Barrons (Poltergeist).

The ghostbusters questioned Ronald, while Eddie, the exorcists, and the medium armed themselves with military surplus from Eddie's blacked-out van. Ronald was not very honest or forthcoming about the dangers they would so face, so together with the three ghostbusters (Winston, Egon, and Peter) they all approached the front door, which Roger unlocked for them. A nearby statue turned its head and asked where they were going. The ghostbusters took readings and got their first glimpse of the kind of adventure/investigation this was going to turn into.

Entering the place they immediately encountered their first ghost, a demonic looking spirit with horns and great batwings, wearing a butler's uniform who offered to take Winston's wet clothes and or proton pack. The spirit then floated through a wall when Winston said "no thanks buddy." As the rest of them entered, they noticed a few bodies piled up next to the door. They were crew members who had been strangled to death and left there to take out like trash. There was some brief interaction with a haunted painting; the effects of which were avoided. That encounter made them wary of looking at any of the portraits they would later encounter. Egon used his giga meter, and discovered a major source of PKE activity coming from the south by southeast, potentially explaining the cause of the haunting.

They faced a locked door (one of three) in the foyer, which Peter failed to lockpick open, so Winston got out his crowbar and busted it open with force. They entered the hallway beyond, and tried one of the doors. That door opened into a room covered from floor to ceiling in some kind of deranged mural of symbols and blasphemy. Father Lamont went in there to get a better look, and what he saw made him sick to his stomach (literally). He also saw a cane in the corner and tried to grab it, but it flew up into the air and whacked at him until he left the room. Once back in the hallway they heard screaming from a nearby room. They decided to head back to the Foyer and search for secret doors. Finding none the group opened the large door into the great hall.

The great hall was a huge room (160' x 110', 160' is the width of a football field), lit by a pair of fires in a two hearths at opposite ends of the room. A pair of long tables were set the length of the room towards the center, and several skeletons were seated at them, silent and unmoving, slouched; some with cups in hand. The room was scattered with broken movie-set lighting equipment that had been knocked over. Egon put on his ecto-goggles and was able to see a generalized PKE disturbance in the air on the western side of the room. Egon was also able to detect that the antique shotgun on the western wall was a paranormal object that was attracting ghosts, so Peter went over there and put it in a plastic sample bag for safe keeping. The rest of the group wandered around the room. Winston tried the light switch, finding it not operable, but made a successful electrician check to determine that the power for the whole place had gone out, and that the only way to turn it on would be to reset the breaker at the junction box. He had noted seeing the powerlines coming into the house on the west side, and thought the junction box might be over there. Eddie convinced Winston that they should go out and turn it on while the others stayed put (they had walkie-talkies), but I used referee fiat to prevent the splitting of the party because I was already juggling so much between explaining new rules, running the module for the first time, and having to remember the ghostbuster equipment and medium's passive detection capabilities. Looking around the room, they noticed the skeletons were real (not props), and were not surprised when a zombie entered from the south door, and staggared toward them moaning and coughing. They nearly blasted it, but when Father Merrin failed to automatically exorcise it, and it gained first initiative, they held their fire. It turned out to be an actor/extra in make-up, named Pete Diggler, who had been lost in the house all day long. He asked them where the exit was, and Eddie told him the group was lost too, and that they would have to get out of there together (I then changed his alignment from Good to Neutral). Eddie and Pete chummed it up real good, with Eddie bumming a smoke from Pete (the special kind of "cigarettes"), and gaining +1 WIS for 12 turns by smoking it. Meanwhile Tangina was looking at the eastern-curtained portion of the room with the others, and found a secret door. The group was called over, and they opened it up.

The room beyond opened up behind a statue, into a small open-aired interior courtyard, with rain pouring down into it. Various statues lined the sides. A big heap of dung was piled in the center, crawling with freakishly giant beetles (bombardier), and Eddie stepped forward to meet them as they flew toward the group, opening up with his submachine gun in full-auto. The battle was soon underway, with one of the exorcists also firing with a revolver, and two of the ghostbusters using their proton beams to blast the bugs. Eddie had some issues landing his hits under full-auto (-2 to attack), and at one point fumbled and shot himself in the foot for half damage; but he was able to kill one of the beetles. The other two beetles proved tougher, but Winston, with some quick thinking, pulled out his atomic destabilizer (a smallish/shotgun looking weapon) and zapped one of the beetles into ectoplasmic form just as his comrade proton-grappled it. The following round the other two ghostbusters also grappled it, and threw out traps, and it took about 3 rounds to get it successfully captured as it struggled to get free. I believe Eddie finished off the last beetle (using better dice).

So the courtyard being cleared they tried to head out a door but found it barred from the other side. A roaring sound as if from a wild animal could be heard coming from beyond, and Tangina reached out with her ESP to detect thoughts but found none. Eddie pulled out his compact chainsaw and made fast work of the bar by sawing through that section of the door. Beyond they found a narrow 5' wide passage, which they went down until they reached a curtain. Eddie quietly poked the tip of his gun through the curtain and peeked his flashlight into the room beyond. He spotted three giant spiders crawling around a large room of stone walls/blocks. Then he opened up on them, again full-auto, but started splitting his attacks to spray and hit all the spiders. He was very effective, but these were some big spiders and they were all still had 3/4th health. The rest of the group charged into the room, opening up with their firearms as well. Father Lamont and Eddie were both bitten by spiders, but resisted the effects of their powerful venom, taking minimal damage. Otherwise the room was mostly cleared in quick order. Egon used his Giga Meter again, and found that the biggest PKE disturbance located beneath the room they were in. They searched the room, finding a secret door to the east (and carefully examining the other side of it were able to see it was "one-way"), as well as noticing a cage trap just adjacent to the door.

The group headed through the secret door into a short hallway, while Eddie and Pete kept it propped open. They entered into a sitting room with several statues and a paint easel. A brush began painting them as they entered, and they noticed that the statues were surprisingly detailed, and looked suspiciously like production crew members, complete with badges and everything. They eventually forced open one of the other doors in the room, and left before the painting could be completed, but doubled back upon finding it a dead end. They then went through a different door from the painter's room, and found a hallway with a couple portraits. They looked at one of the portraits to see if they could communicate to it to ask it how to get beneath the manor, but it wasn't a talking painting. Then they returned to the throne room, looking for a nearby way down.

Tangina remembered she had the psychic power to summon a friendly ghost to serve her for 6 rounds, so she conducted a seance in the throne room and brought forth a class VIII non-repeated full-torsoed spectre. She asked it a question but it was not capable of speech, so she used another psychic power to channel the spectre, giving it possession of her body. It introduced itself as Hathor McCatskill in a gruff man's voice. The group questioned the spectre, asking it where it came from, how it got here, where the PKE event was, what it was, and how to get to it. The spectre said it came from the dark place, chased by a storm and drawn by the white light. Once here in our world, it wandered around for a bit, but was soon called by Tangina. It thought that the gate it came through was beneath the manor, somewhere on the 4th floor, and that to get downstairs they needed to go through a door it then pointed to. They thanked Hathor, and then the players wondered if they could keep Hathor around somehow. I told them Tangina could channel it as long as she wanted, but that body would basically be shared between the player and the referee. Hathor was happen to continue inhabiting a living host, but if he left possession he would only be under Tangina's command for 6 rounds before leaving (Hathor expressed a desire to get out of the manor, it was full of evil spirits). The players figured out that the spectre could be yoyo'd back and forth via possession and free-floating as necessary to perform tasks; the number of rounds of control remaining being reduced every round it was untethered.

The players then followed the spectre's directions and found the 2nd floor of the dungeon (manor was 0th floor). Down there they found branching hallways, and asked the spectre which way he came from, but it was at a loss. It had floated through floors, and only knew of the staircase.

And that was where the game ended, to be continued the next Halloween; perhaps with the addition of some new characters.

To set the mood of the party, I printed out all character sheets on fluorescent orange (MH), green (GB), yellow (EX), and pink/purple (ME) paper. I created a custom DM screen, printed on green paper, with one side having illustrations from the Real Ghostbusters Cartoon coloring book. I replaced the lights in the dining room with blacklights, and had a dry-erase board mounted on my wall, and used fluorescent orange and yellow markers to help visualize some of the mapping elements. I bought 14 sets of glow-in-the-dark RPG dice to use in the game, and added some additional fluorescent dice I didn't realize I had, including some awesome transparent dice that glowed brightly green under blacklight. We had gravestones out in the front yard, and torchlight-bulbs flickering in the porch lights. It was pretty cool, and added to the spooky 80's ghostbusters aesthetic.

[Finarvyn]

What an awesome adventure! Thanks for sharing this story.

[Melan]

That's a truly inspired reuse of Tegel! Cool.

[Deleted]

Oct 21, 2019 9:54:22 GMT -6 countingwizard said:

Session Report:

...

"You. You're good."

[countingwizard]

I will probably have a rules guide or whatnot up this week. Monster manual for Ghostbusters will have to wait until I run it again at NTRPG Con 2020. The game is basically a set of house rules that sits on-top of the 3LBB apparatus. It can coexist with D&D, especially with a little additional time travel or interdimensional exploration. I would like my Monster Manual to replace some of the original descriptions of D&D monsters. I've also considered a full undead rewrite; although I will probably just start with the ghost-types and add some additional monsters like gremlins (1/2 HD invisible goblins), etc.

I ran Ghostbusters for a middle school group, and they got a surprising amount of the manor explored within 2 hours. I let them split the group and it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. I also put them out in front of the manor and let them start busting without any backstory. I'll probably do that every time I run it now.

[Finarvyn]

Nov 5, 2019 8:09:41 GMT -6 countingwizard said:

I ran Ghostbusters for a middle school group, and they got a surprising amount of the manor explored within 2 hours. I let them split the group and it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. I also put them out in front of the manor and let them start busting without any backstory. I'll probably do that every time I run it now.

Funny to think about the difference in editions. I'm so used to 5E groups that get a couple of rooms explored per hour; back in the day OD&D folks could get a decent-sized dungeon level done in a couple of hours.

Tegel Manor is pretty large, so your groups must have been pretty fast and efficient.

[captainjapan]

What would you say the monster encounter to room ratio was in Tegel Manor?

[countingwizard]

Nov 5, 2019 10:31:04 GMT -6 Finarvyn said:

Nov 5, 2019 8:09:41 GMT -6 countingwizard said:

I ran Ghostbusters for a middle school group, and they got a surprising amount of the manor explored within 2 hours. I let them split the group and it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. I also put them out in front of the manor and let them start busting without any backstory. I'll probably do that every time I run it now.

Funny to think about the difference in editions. I'm so used to 5E groups that get a couple of rooms explored per hour; back in the day OD&D folks could get a decent-sized dungeon level done in a couple of hours.

Tegel Manor is pretty large, so your groups must have been pretty fast and efficient.

It was a weird mix. Basically the part of the party that split went out and explored room after room after room trying to map the whole place rather than interact. The other group interacted with and searched the great hall; one person from that group fell into a teleport trap and found himself in a rat nest but was able to orient himself by finding the way out and then looking out a window. Another person in that group was the psychic, and decided to use all his PKE to summon a friendly class III ghost, and use levitate and dance in the air while his ghost danced around him.

The saddest and most soul crushing part of the game was that no one had ever seen the original two ghostbuster movies or cartoons. The reason so many kids were at my table was because I have a reputation as being an awesome referee and I was going to be running a game for the first time this school year. I've been avoiding it since their club is so large now (40+ kids) that last semester I couldn't get anyone to join my games because they all wanted to run their own games.

[countingwizard]

Nov 5, 2019 10:51:18 GMT -6 captainjapan said:

What would you say the monster encounter to room ratio was in Tegel Manor?

It is very hard to say, since empty rooms are unlabeled on the room key/descriptions, and because nearly every room has unexplained paranormal phenomena. Some of the level drain and deadliness of the dungeon is exaggerated, some isn't. Wandering monsters are mostly one-at-a-time appearances of undead family members; a great many of them are monsters that do not level drain. Also, the 10 HD ghosts that populate the mansion do not level drain, they age a person touched by 10-40 years.

I would say the labeled rooms of the manor (ground level) have a 50% chance of containing a monster, and that the dungeon levels have a 70% chance of containing a monster.