Cats and dogs living together

This was the first play using the 7TV Paranormal Exterminators Programme Guide. The scenario was the first in the guide ("Cats and dogs living together") which is based on the first Ghostbusters film but I expanded the casts to around 36 points by adding a Sergeant and four Cops to the heroes side...

...and remixing the villains side to comprise two Demon Dogs, the Bell Witch and the Missing Link as co-stars, with two Harbingers, two Spectres, a Sewer Alligator and (of course) Slimer.

The three foot square playing area included the Ghostbusters Firehouse headquarters, some factory buildings and a playground in Central Park.

The defending heroes of Kieron and Stuart deployed in "Riverdance" formation on one side of their starting edge...

...whilst the attacking villains of David and James deployed more spread out so that they could make a good start for the majority of the five objective tokens.

We played with the 80s Genre plot cards and the first one drawn required an Extra to move into contact with any enemy co-star.  It had to be Dana Barrett in Gatekeeper form being drawn to Peter Venkman.

The heroes ignored her and pressed on together further into the park, with Winston then bravely engaging alone with the Demon Dog that had moved up to the central objective marker.

Despite his beam gadget knocking down the Bell Witch, Winston was swiftly the first casualty.  Having collected all the objective markers between them, both heroes and villains held off a bit in expectation of a super supernatural event in the finale.  Control of both Harbingers switched between the teams and they were used to harry the rears of the casts.

As the game entered the final act and the Destructor was summoned, Ray Stantz foolishly recalled his favourite corporate icon from his childhood, and the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man stomped into New York.  This figure stands about 17cm tall and I was very pleased to find this original 1984 model on eBay a few years ago.

However I was less pleased that he entered on the heroes' turn in the place we agreed it made most dramatic sense to enter.  The heroes were ready for him and he was melted before the villains had a chance to cause havoc with his impressive range of attacks.

The film ended here but this wasn't a scenario end condition so, although disheartened, the villains battled on.  Slimer did get to slime Venkman who subsequently killed him.  The Sewer Alligator together with Louis Tully's energy blast made short work of the Sergeant and another couple of cops. 

However, the involvement of the Bell Witch really turned the tide, as did a crazy cop who kept firing into close combat, missing and taking out his colleagues instead.  Over a couple of turns, the heroic cast melted away almost as quickly as the Destructor.

So although the heroes earned big points for taking out the Marshmallow Man plus one of the Demon Dogs, the villains earned more points by wiping out all of the Ghostbusters, giving them a minor victory.

Thoughts on the scenario:

• the rules say the referee decides where the Marshmallow Man appears. Without a referee, we agreed beforehand the Destructor would enter along the central road from the villains' starting edge, which dramatically made sense, but from a game perspective it might have been better to randomise which end of the road. And I think he should enter in the first villain turn during the Finale so he actually gets a go before being toasted!

• the finale as described in the scenario is 10 turns (longer than the first two acts together) as Heroes can only take one card each time, and Villains don't take one at all. A longer finale was welcomed as it would give the Heroes a better chance of finishing off the Destructor but given how quickly they accomplished this, playing out the remaining turns felt too long. I think we will add a Scenario End Condition of destroying the Marshmallow Man. Storywise, it's the climax and it felt odd to continue playing.

• the Bell Witch can gain plot points for each enemy near her, and then use these to change dice rolls to 1s or 6s. In close quarters, this effectively rendered her invulnerable. We wondered whether she was overpowered but I think we should try more ranged attacks on her before concluding that. It is worth noting that the Ghostbusters only used their proton packs on the Marshmallow Man and didn't trap a single ghost.

All in all a great game, with Star Qualities and Special Effects that capture well the action and story of the movie.