Post originally by The Old Geezer at 2004-05-07 06:57:02
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Nice thinkin', Ray.
Good review.
PS The game doesn't have much long-term potential -we tried. It's hard to be consistently spontaneously funny, and if it's not funny, the game isn't much fun.
Post originally by Dan Davenport at 2004-05-07 07:08:09
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Overall, nice job on the review!
I have to say, though, that I found the game slipping from the style of the movie in much more than small ways. In fact, the humor is almost "wackier" than that of the cartoon.
The problem this game has is that it misses the point of the movie's humor: for the most part, it wasn't the <i>situation</i> that was funny, but rather the characters' <i>reactions</i> to the situations. I suspect that the authors felt that being faithful to this premise would have resulted in a comedy game that didn't really look like a comedy game, and so they inserted all the cartoonish aspects. Unfortunately, the result was a comedy game that doesn't really resemble the source material. From what I've heard of it, the <b><i>Men in Black</i></b> game had the same problem.
This, incidentally, is one thing that impressed me about the <b><i>Red Dwarf</i></b> RPG: the authors resisted the temptation to insert extra wackiness, understanding that most of the humor would be the job of the characters.
Post originally by Eddy at 2004-05-07 13:02:26
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I have the Men in Black game, and it has exactly that problem, as does Tank Girl. WEG seemed to think that licensed action/comedy RPGs had to, themselves, be funny.
Post originally by Cyn at 2004-05-07 13:21:54
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I actually had that problem more with <I>Red Dwarf</I> than with <I>Ghostbusters</I>, although I'll frankly admit that <I>GBI</I> was a lot closer to the edge. "Humorous" asides from the writer set my teeth on edge.
In the original <I>Ghostbusters</I> RPG, WEG was still able to use the movie material directly (in <I>GBI</I>, they had the names, but no likeness rights and most of the quotes have been removed). The only real section that "didn't fit" was the bit on Weird Science, which was definitely "toon Egon."
Post originally by Varkias at 2004-05-07 13:24:20
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It may not work well for a long-term CONTINUOUS game, but it works well for a string of episodic one-shots.
Any time we had just an hour or two, we'd break out Ghostbusters, and anyone that already had a character would use it. We were able to build up character continuities, and we generally had enough time in between to keep things fresh.
For example, my character was nearly always involved, and was 'in charge' of the franchise. He has severe problems with GBI's personnel department. "Can't you ever send me anyone competent and not insane???" :P
Post originally by Cyn at 2004-05-07 13:26:15
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<I>Ghostbusters International</I> wasn't bad, but it suffers a lot in comparison with the original <I>Ghostbusters</I>.
The original was closer to the movie in feel, not least because it used (believable) comments from the movie characters in sidebars much the way WEG's later <I>Star Wars</I> products used callouts from the game's signature characters. The game talked like the movie, which helps keep you in the right frame of mind.
The equipment rules were much simpler in the original, and the selection of both adventures and NPCs was superior.
I agree with most of the rest of the review (including, regrettably, the game's reasonably short shelf life -- <I>Ghostbusters</I> is not campaignable, and you really can't trot it out more than once a year or so), but I have to say, get the original. It's better in just about every way.
Post originally by The Wise One at 2004-05-07 19:01:20
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I must agree whole heartedly here. Ghostbusters Internatonal was the first RPG I ever played. Despite this bias, I must say that the original edition was superior in practically every way.
And yes, it is bloody hard to find the first edition. I searched for five years before I found one.
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