Between Harold Ramis dying recently and the 30th anniversary, I've been mulling over my 1st edition Ghostbusters RPG. The basic campaign concept - do a bunch of slowly escalating jobs while researching the Big Bad, ending with the final showdown - is presented in a bit of a linear preprogrammed fashion, but it strikes me that you could easily sandboxify a Ghostbusters campaign. Randomly generated haunts should be simple given that a classification system already exists in the source material, and the setting practically screams out for a random event table that includes things like "surprise EPA inspection" and "Big Bad minions attack".

Ultimately I'm thinking that one could create an "automatic campaign" flowchart like Book 9 of MongTrav. It's mostly an ill-formed half-idea right now; anyone want to help me flesh it out?

One aspect of sandboxing is forcing the PCs to "hunt for what they eat" which in this case, the GB guys would have to go out and find jobs and clients, not just have easy call-in gigs.

They could be the new GB firm in the city, perhaps a city already overrun with spook chasers. They're the 3rd pizza place on the block and they have to beat the streets for their own clientele, starting with the cases that nobody else wants.

I don't think that's a necessary element of a sandbox campaign, frankly.  The point of a sandbox is that the PCs have freedom of choice and the environment reacts naturally to their actions. It's no less sandboxy if the calls are coming in thick and furious because now the team has to decide which calls to prioritize.  That Class V full-roaming vapour call you turned down?  Mayor's sister-in-law, and now your license is in jeopardy if you don't kiss a little ass and grease a few palms down at city hall - and that's time you're not spending on more calls, and now people are starting to throw things at ECTO-2 when you drive by because everybody knows somebody who was driven out of their home at 3 am because you schmucks were too busy to help the little guy.  And a third of those minor calls you're turning down in favour of the big jobs are really the cultists of the Big Bad performing minor rituals to open the way for the Oghdru Jahad...

Quote from: Spinachcat;738235One aspect of sandboxing is forcing the PCs to "hunt for what they eat" which in this case, the GB guys would have to go out and find jobs and clients, not just have easy call-in gigs.

They could be the new GB firm in the city, perhaps a city already overrun with spook chasers. They're the 3rd pizza place on the block and they have to beat the streets for their own clientele, starting with the cases that nobody else wants.

I could see the PC's actions skewing the types of calls they receive.  Radio ads on the smooth jazz station, flyers on historic houses and you'd gain a modifier to strength of spook and a bonus to your fee.  "No job is too big, no fee is too big!"  On the flip side, target a lower income demographic with newer houses and you might get more calls, but less powerful spirits and a smaller fee per call.

Now, the idea of competition is a goldmine of conflict within a sandbox.  Last Halloween, I ran a few sessions of a Ghostbusters campaign and the PCs group - based on the "Real" Ghostbusters had to deal with trouble caused by a group based on Filmation's Ghostbusters.  In a full blown sandbox, you could do quite a bit with multiple groups fighting for market share.

If you want to open up Ghostbusters from it's default mission kind of play you could do worse than checking out Inspecters for ideas. On one hand it's got a random client/case creation chart (it's not very detailed but it's a start) but more the point it's got rules for managing the franchise. In campaign context the idea of Inspecters is that managing the business and its resources become the sandbox element of the game.

I don't think Inspecters has the charm of Ghostbusters but it might help develop your own ideas for a Ghostbusting sandbox.

PS
Darkness Visible, the spy supplement for Star Without Numbers takes a very similar approach to making what is a mission driven genre into a sandbox. In Darkness Visible while the bulk of the game is sci-fi spy missions there is between session political management game which is sandboxy in the sense of it being player driven.

Quote from: Soylent Green;738348If you want to open up Ghostbusters from it's default mission kind of play you could do worse than checking out Inspecters for ideas.

I've got Inspectres, but the flashback/reality show mechanics weren't well received by my gaming group.