The Ghostbusters have appeared in Horror RPG Series 3, Season 1.
History[]
"We're ready to believe you!" - The Ghostbusters
The Ghostbusters were formed in 1984 by parapsychology professors Peter Venkman, Raymond Stantz and Egon Spengler, in New York City. The three professors specialized in paranormal research and had been funded by Columbia University for their studies. They eventually discovered evidence of real ghosts when they investigated a disturbance at the New York Public Library and encountered a ghost there. Unfortunately by this time it was too late, as Columbia University refused to fund their research anymore, deeming it a waste of money.
Wanting to continue their research, the trio formed their own organization they called Ghostbusters, to specialize in investigating paranormal activity around the city and using nuclear equipment Spengler had designed and engineered, also capture potential paranormal pests if possible. They were unsuccessful at first, until they got their first customer, a woman named Dana Barrett who reported a disturbing occurance at her home.
Venkman went to investigate Barrett's apartment, only to not come up with anything. Things would soon bloom big-time for the three though later that night, when they were called in to investigate a disturbance at a hotel. Employing their equipment for the first time, they managed to successfully capture their first ghost after a few unsuccessful attempts, and immediately, they became something of a sensation. They were flooded with calls and performed numerous investigations and captures, and made thousands of dollars everyday from their missions. They even got a new member of the team, Winston Zeddemore.
The Ghostbusters success was eventually tested by Walter Peck, a representative with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) who was suspicious of the equipment they employed to capture ghosts. Peck, convinced that the equipment was hazardous to the environment, would eventually obtain a court order to shut down the Ecto Containment Unit (ECU) after he was shunned away by Venkman during his first investigation attempt. The shutdown, which Spengler tried to futilely stop, resulted in numerous ghosts, poltergeists and other paranormal lifeforms to run rampant in New York City.
Worsening the situation was that an evil demigod named Gozer was seeking to overrun the Earth with evil, and employed the Devil Dogs Zuul and Vinz Clortho (who had terrorized Dana and her neighbor, Louis Tully) as pawns in the mission for demonic conquest. The Ghostbusters, who'd been jailed but later released under the orders of the Mayor, set out with their mission to save the Earth from Gozer, supported by the public and law enforcement in their duties.
The Ghostbusters managed to defeat Gozer (as well as Gozer's monstrous form in the guise of the Stay Puff Marshmallow Man, after Ray accidentally chose the form for Gozer to take) and saved the world, as well as both Dana and Louis (after they were both possessed by Zuul and Clortho to serve as the Gatekeeper and Keymaster).
The Ghostbusters were loved by the public for their duties, but the state government and EPA was less than pleased with the environmental damage that resulted from the destruction of the Stay Puff Marshmallow Man (which caused tons of melted marshmallows to pour into the city streets) and destroying much of the uptown high rise that served as Gozer's gateway into Earth. Due to massive property damage and numerous lawsuits from the state that made them unable to pay everything off, all four Ghostbusters sought out alternative professions for the time being to make their living.
They would be back in business five years later in 1989, when reports from Dana Barrett's infant son Oscar being endangered and nearly run over in the city streets after his carriage was seemingly driven on it's own prompted an investigation. An unauthorized drilling was set in the corner of First Avenue, where Oscar's carriage had stopped. The Ghostbusters discovered a massive river of slime oozing below the city, and a mass power outage was caused by mistake during the discovery after Ray was hurriedly hoisted out of the hole after creatures in the slime attempted to attack him.
The Ghostbusters were taken to court for property damages and ultimately found guilty after the judge refused to believe their claims of paranormal activity. A sample of the slime that Ray took during his journey down below in the city where he found the slime river that was kept inside a jar became active from the judge's angry demeanor. The slime ultimately triggered the surprise appearance of the Scolari Brothers, two murderers whom the judge had sentenced to death via electric chair years earlier.
The Ghostbusters, whose equipment had been confiscated by the authorities and was on display in court as evidence against them, was employed by them to ensnare and capture the Scolari Brothers. The capture of the Scolari Brothers' malevolent spirits made the Ghostbusters' service appreciated by the public again, and they were back in business, capturing ghosts all over the city.
Their return to form came at a good time, with Prince Vigo von Homburg Deutschendorf, a cruel tyrant from the 16th century who committed mass genocide and was greatly feared and despised by the populations of Moldavia and Carpathia. Vigo was an evil magician who specialized in the Dark Arts, and after his death, his unholy soul was transferred to a painting that now resided at the Manhattan Museum Of Art, where Dana Barrett was currently employed. The Ghostbusters soon deducted that Vigo was using the slime to absorb the negative emotions and vibes given off by the city's population and was using the energy to strengthen himself so he could be powerful enough to reborn through Oscar - explaining why he was after the boy.
Investigating the slime beneath the city nearly cost the Ghostbusters their freedom when the Mayor's corrupt assistant had them imprisoned and committed to a psychiatric ward for their claims. However, the Mayor had them released after mass paranormal chaos broke out through the city. Unable to break through the massive shell of slime that encoated the MMOA that had Dana, Oscar and a possessed pawn of Vigo's, Janosz Poha, the Ghostbusters devised a rather extreme method of breaking into the MMOA by heading to the Statue Of Liberty.
Spraying the interior of the SOL with the mood slime that the Ghostbusters had managed to turn positive, they were able to commandeer the SOL into the city and over to the MMOA, where they repelled in. They eventually faced off against Vigo, but defeated him in time to save the city and the world. The Ghostbusters were again thanked for their service, and permanently remained in business from this moment onwards. Over the next two decades, they continued to capture malevolent spirits throughout New York City.
Role in Horror RPG Series 3, Season One[]
The Members[]
Peter Venkman[]
Peter Venkman have appeared in Horror RPG Series 3, Season 1.
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"What I'm saying is that sometimes shit happens, someone has to deal with it, and who are you gonna call?" - Peter Venkman
Dr. Peter Venkman is something of a joker, albeit extremely cynical and dry. He tends to goof around and crack jokes even in the most serious and life-threatening of situations, but despite his overly jokey demeanor and personality, he can get serious and stern in the event his allies or loved ones are endangered and he won't stop for anything to save them all. He has a very womanizing attitude that tends to turn off many of the Ghostbusters' clients, but he was on and off with Dana Barrett before the two eventually married after the River Of Slime incident in 1989, and he became the stepfather to her son, Oscar.
Venkman was one of the original three Ghostbusters, having been with the founding members from the very beginning and he since has remained an integral part of the organization. Despite his comedic attitude and personality, he not only gets serious when in a dangerous situation involving his friends or family, but his demeanor has occasionally even convinced law enforcement and city officials to take more drastic action regarding unbelievable and unexplained paranormal happenings in the city.
Peter Venkman stands six feet three inches tall and weighs around two-hundred pounds. He has short brown hair that's gone grey with age and blue eyes. He has a robust and slightly chunky build. Like the other Ghostbusters, his attire consists of a flight suit that's been specially designed and modified for their usage.
Raymond Stantz[]
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"You know, I just can't believe things have gotten so bad in this city that there's no way back. I mean, sure, it's messy, it's crowded, it's polluted, and there are people who would just as soon step on your face as look at you. But come on! There's gotta be a few sparks of sweet humanity left in this burned-out bird. We just gotta find a way to mobilize it!" - Raymond Stantz
Dr. Raymond Stantz is the heart of the Ghostbusters, always with a child-like spirit and demeanor, and he's full of nostalgia, often reminiscening to his childhood and sharing his memories with his co-workers. Despite this, he takes his job as a Ghostbuster very seriously and after Dr. Egon Spengler is one of the most intelligent and educated Ghostbusters in the fields of paranormal research. His vast knowledge of the paranormal makes him one of the most useful Ghostbusters in not only his education, but also his ability to commandeer much of the Ghostbusters' equipment, having operated just about every tool they've employed.
Ray is perhaps the most clumsy of the Ghostbusters, having made his share of grave errors during his time with them, such as when he came close to causing the destruction of mankind twice when they faced Gozer (when he denied being a God after being asked and when memories of the Stay Puff Marshmallow Man prompted Gozer to take the form of the mascot in a massive physical form), and during the River Of Slime incident (he accidentally hit a cable after being reeled out of the hole drilled into the ground that led to the River Of Slime, and he was possessed by Vigo before a showering of positive mood slime saved him). Despite his clumsiness, he's always been an extremely dependable and valuable ally for the Ghostbusters, and is the most optimistic and hopeful of the four.
Raymond Stantz stands six feet one inch tall and weighs between one-hundred eighty-five to two-hundred pounds. His body type is slightly chunky. He has short brown hair and brown eyes. He wears the signature Ghostbusters coveralls, that usually come in either grey, beige or charcoal.
Egon Spengler[]
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"Don't cross the streams." - Egon Spengler
Dr. Egon Spengler is the primary founder of the Ghostbusters as well as the inventor of their technology which they employ to capture various paranormal pests throughout the city. He is the most intelligent and knowledgeable of the Ghostbusters, having done extensive and exhaustive amounts on the paranormal. He's the most serious of the Ghostbusters and as a child hardly ever had any toys, his only toy being part of a slinky that he straightened. His very serious personality and demeanor combined with his immense scientific knowledge and education have made him somewhat of a social outcast, and his speech which consists of very complex scientific jargon often has to be simplified by his comrades.
Egon is the designer and creator of the arsenal and equipment employed by the Ghostbusters, and he utilizes all of the equipment well, though perhaps not as efficiently as some of the others do. He is the most strategic of the four Ghostbusters and often does extensive planning, and he's also very knowledgeable about history. The Ghostbusters couldn't get their jobs done without Egon on the team, thanks to his expertise and education.
Egon Spengler stands six feet two inches tall and has gained weight in recent years, weighing around two-hundred pounds or so. He has a chunky body type. He has brown hair in a quasi-"flattop" style that's gone grey with age and brown eyes. He wears the usual Ghostbusters coveralls.
Winston Zeddemore[]
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"I'm Winston Zeddemore, Your Honor. I've only been with the company for a couple of weeks, but these things are real. Since I joined these men, I've seen shit that'll turn you white." - Winston Zeddemore
Winston Zeddemore joined the Ghostbusters shortly after they first began and became hugely successful for capturing ghosts all over New York City. He formerly worked as a security guard, before he became interested in joining the Ghostbusters. He quickly became a valuable member of the team, their success at defeating both Gozer and Vigo being something that wouldn't have been possible without his help due to the additional manpower. Winston is the most physically strong of the Ghostbusters and his strength has been put to good use on more than a few occasions.
Winston is noted for his very down-to-Earth and personable personality that makes him easy to get along with, and he also employs the most common sense of the four Ghostbusters, often trying to devise rational and logical solutions to the problems they face daily. Despite his warm personality, he gets very serious when the situation calls for it, and he's always determined to help his comrades out in any situation.
Winston Zeddemore stands six feet tall and weighs around one-hundred ninety to two-hundred ten pounds. He has an average yet very strong body build. He has black hair and brown eyes. Like the other Ghostbusters, he wears the signature coveralls when on duty with his comrades.
Trademark Gear[]
The Ghostbusters employ a very wide array of state-of-the-art equipment to track and capture paranormal entities of every sort. The following are their main pieces of equipment.
The Proton Pack[]
The Proton Pack is the main piece of equipment employed by every Ghostbuster. The Proton Pack operates on an unlicensed nuclear accelerator backpack that is teeming with protons and raw nuclear energy. The pack itself is mounted onto an A.L.I.C.E. packframe that makes it wearable and adjustable straps for easier carrying. The Proton Pack's power is wielded with help from the Neutrona Thrower, which harbors the protons after the Proton Pack itself drives the energy from the pack and throw the Neutrona Thrower. The way the proton beam is able to ensnare a ghost or other supernatural or paranormal lifeform is that all paranormal forms of life are built up of Ectoplasm, which consists of Psycho Kinetic Energy and it carries Neutrons (a neutral energy charge) and Electrons (a negative energy charge). Protons, a positive charge, cling to the Electrons and thus ensnare them - making it possible for whoever is wielding the Neutrona Thrower to ensnare a ghost. The Proton Pack's cells have an extremely long lifespan, with a half-life of 5,000 years, and the proton beam itself can also be adjusted to fire at longer lengths with the control switches on the Neutrona Thrower.
The Proton Pack is obviously a very dangerous piece of equipment, not just because of the powerful protonic energy it fires, but also because the proton streams should never be crossed, as that results in Total Protonic Reversal (TPR), which causes every molecule in the human body to explode at the speed of light instantaneously. While there have been times the streams were crossed and nothing happened (such as the defeat of Gozer), this is extremely rare and the streams should never be crossed. The Proton Packs can also overheat sometimes, and overheated packs should never be used and should be given time to cool down, otherwise the risk of a nuclear explosion is very high.
Ghost Trap[]
The second key piece of equipment employed by the Ghostbusters, the Ghost Trap is installed with a generator that generates an Electromagnetic Field (EMF) inside a very strong steel grid, which can ensnare a ghost and suck them inside the trap like a vacuum cleaner. After a ghost is captured, the Ghost Trap must be taken to the Ecto Containment Unit (ECU) to store them within forty-eight hours, otherwise the battery that powers the trap will wear off and the ghost will escape. The Ghost Trap can be recharged and should be daily. The Ghost Trap is activated with a stomp-on pedal that is connected to a cable wire and once the pedal is stepped on with enough force, the trap opens and unleashes the EMF, and any ghosts under it are caught.
As with the Proton Pack, the Ghost Trap is also dangerous to use. The Ghost Trap should never be looked into once the EMF is out, since doing so will completely burn off your retinas and render you totally blind.
PKE Meter[]
The PKE Meter is a simple-working device that detects and tracks ghosts by their PKE (Psycho Kinetic Energy), which is what ghosts and other paranormal lifeforms consist of. The PKE Meter detects a ghost not only by it's PKE, but it also gives the user the class of ghost they are facing. The lights on the PKE Meter blink and move at an increasingly faster rate the closer the user gets to the ghosts. The PKE Meter can be recharged with batteries or even plugged into the Proton Pack to give it semi-infinite energy. The only real safety precaution using the PKE Meter is that it can overload sometimes and explode when too much activity is detected.
Ecto-Goggles[]
The Ecto-Goggles are modified surveillance goggles that have standard vision modes as well as Night-Vision and Infrared, and invisible ghosts are detectable and visible to the wearer, thanks to a device installed inside that makes a ghost's PKE visible and thus also reveals the ghost.
Ecto Containment Unit (ECU)[]
The Ecto Containment Unit (ECU) is where all captured ghosts are stored. The ECU functions like a prison for ghosts that the Ghostbusters capture. The ECU is a custom-built storage facility that employs a high voltage laser containment system that keeps the ghosts from escaping, thanks to a powerful grid inside it, making it function like a larger ghost trap but with infinite energy, which it runs on. Ghosts are inserted into the open ECU door by inserting a Ghost Trap with a captured ghost, then close the door and re-lock it, set the entry grid and neutralize the field. When the light is green, the trap is clean and the ghost is imprisoned forever.
The ECU holds an infinite number of ghosts and is very large and takes up an entire wall. The ECU is highly secure, utilizing hand prints, voice recognition and a back-up system, and it runs on an enormous amount of energy courtesy of a megavolt system that fuels the ECU with upwards of three megawatts. The ECU is usually very well-maintained and there is rarely a need to go inside it with a special protective suit to keep it clean.
The ECU is never to be shut down, as doing so will cause an explosion thirty times more powerful than that of a nuclear explosion and will free every ghost contained inside. Since the Walter Peck incident, the shutdown switch has been removed, making it impossible to ever shut down the ECU again.
Ecto-1[]
The former vehicle of transportation used by the Ghostbusters, the Ecto-1 is a heavily modified and customized 1959 Cadillac Ambulance that has an array of lights and sirens mounted atop and also sports some equipment, including a large PKE meter mounted atop and it has several rocket boosters in the back to increase the speed in the event of a serious emergency. In the event the car crashes into a river, there's an inflatable raft installed below.
Ecto-1A[]
When the Ghostbusters went back into business in 1989, they re-vamped the Ecto-1 to become the Ecto-1A, a heavily advanced update. The Ecto-1A has all of the features of the Ecto-1 and more, including a PKE satellite that can detect ghosts throughout the city, more lights and sirens, a computerized LED scrolling screen and it also has an additional nitro booster mounted atop to increase the speed even higher. Making the Ecto-1A more useful is the increased capacity (it can hold upwards of eight passengers instead of the Ecto-1's somewhat limited four) and the storage space in the back for the equipment is also much bigger.
The Ecto-1A has been the main mode of transportation for the Ghostbusters since 1989, and the logo was updated to include the original "No Ghost" logo as well as the second logo with the ghost giving the peace sign, as a means of showing victory over the paranormal in the city.
Slime Blower[]
The Slime Blower first came into use during 1989 with the River Of Slime incident, with the discovery of a massive river of highly negative and volatile mood slime that was feeding off of the negative emotions and vibes of the city, turning them into something physical and dangerous. When a sample of the mood slime was taken, the Ghostbusters were able to make it positive by surrounding it with positive vibes, and they bred more of the positive mood slime. The positive mood slime was something they needed to take down Vigo The Carpathian, but it also became a useful tool in curing those who were demonically possessed.
The Slime Blower was created as a means of using the mood slime as a non-lethal weapon. The Slime Blower consists of a massive tank loaded with gallons of positive mood slime that is mounted onto an A.L.I.C.E. packframe and is more heavily enforced and secured than the Proton Pack, with more straps for easier wear. Two air tanks are attached to the sides of the slime tank, the heavily compressed air pushing the mood slime through the tube connected to the Slimethrower, which shoots out the slime at a very fast and powerful rate, with physical force comparable to a fire hose. The air is triggered by the large lever on the Slimethrower, which functions like a water lever. Once it's pulled, it releases the compressed air and keeps on rapidly hurling the mood slime until it's closed.
Janosz Poha, a possessed victim of Vigo the Carpathian, being showered with positive mood slime that'll cure him of his demonic possession without harming him.
While not the most useful of tools for the Ghostbusters, it is the preferred tool to use during exorcisms and it's also harmless both to people and the environment, making it a practical and useful enough tool. The only side effect of the mood slime is that it leaves the cured person acting abnormally happy for a little while before wearing off.
Tripod Trap[]
The Tripod Trap is a rarely used piece of equipment that employs the same type of EMF the Ghost Trap does, but instead of sucking in ghosts, it creates a grid-type enclosure that'll make objects float in the air and trap a ghost inside the grid, giving the Ghostbusters enough time to employ the actual Ghost Trap to trap them.