[Ghostbusters] Salty Seamen at the Strip Club

[KevinH]

Lacking a copy of Inspectres, I decided to run the classic GB RPG.

One thing I stole was the Confessional. I told the players they were involved in a fly-on-the-wall documentary. This worked really well, and is ultimately my point for this post.

So, there is a new GB franchise in Bristol, UK. The players are in the office annex (it's friday lunchtime, so they're in the pub, and have been since 9am). They get a call, ghostly sailors have appeared in the centre of town and the city council wants them gone before the harbour festival tomorrow.

Grabbing their to-go cups (full of beer) the players rush into town, barely braking in time to avoid driving into the harbour. Immediately, one guy lets loose and blows the head off a statue.

Oddly enough, they actually form a plan. They form a ring around the ghostly sailors, ready to blast them while the New guy readies the trap. Tech guy fires into the water, splashes the CEO whose pack explodes launching him into a crowd of Japanese tourists. While trying to sort this mess out, the sailors' ship appears; a ghostly galleon sailing up the street firing its cannon into various buildings, including the strip club.

The ship launches a raiding party into the strip club, the 'busters suck the remaining crew from the ship which drifts up the hill. While the CEO and the Science guy head back to HQ to empty their one trap (hey, they couldn't get enough venture capital to afford two) Tech guy and New guy follow ship.

Well, at this point Godzilla appears. New guys asks CEO via radio if the franchise has a Pokeball and is directed to Games Workshop. Godzilla, meanwhile gets into a bakery and eats loads of doughnuts, then finds out about the new Krispy Kreme, so goes charging off developing a huge sugar-rush.

Since the city hasn't mentioned Godzilla, the guys ignore him (leaving him in a mall, trying on hats) and try to take out the remaining ghostly sailors, currently going beserk raiding pubs for rum, carrying strippers and generally being obstreperous.

New plan, lead the sailors to the Llandogger Trow (our old gaming haunt and famous as the model for the Admiral Benbow pub in Treasure Island) and capture them there. At this point, the guys needed a bear costume, a rubber chicken and a hundred pounds of Gefilte(sp?) fish to complete their plans.

Well, the plan succeeded, although it was discovered that, like Shields and Lasguns, Gefilte fish and proton packs do not play well together. Pub destroyed, ghosts trapped and sharks left floundering on the dockside as the guys presented their bill to the city.

Most of the truly whacked out craziness came from the Confessional. What was interesting was how the players reacted to it.

a) From the PoV of the "confessor", it was a moment of sole (and unbreakable) authority. There were no rolls, no arguments. If a thing was said in the confessional; it was true. Nobody abused that authority, but everybody enjoyed throwing the most bizarre stuff into the mix.

b) It was interesting watching the other players work out how to include random complications.

It worked really well. I haven't laughed so hard in a long time.

My final point is that, possibly, a Confessional could be a valid, functional part of PTA3. It's a powerful tool.

Kevin

[Nick Caldwell]

Sounds like fun!  What were one or two of the best bits that got added by confessional?

I guess the root question that I'm curious about is what would the game have looked like WITHOUT the confessional mechanic?

~ nick caldwell

[Jared A. Sorensen]

Lacking a copy of Inspectres, I decided to run the classic GB RPG.

That's something easily remedied!