Spooktacular
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| Spooktacular: A Cheerfully Spooky Role-Playing Game | ||
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| RPG published by Yaruki Zero Games |
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| Rule System | Sixtacular | |
| Authors | Ewen Cluney | |
| First Publication | 2018 | |
Spooktacular: A Frightfully Cheerful Cheerfully Spooky Role-Playing Game is a retroclone of Ghostbusters: A Frightfully Cheerful Role-Playing Game with select elements from Ghostbusters International. It follows in the wake of many such attempts to revive the spirit of old or abandoned games, and in one key regard it definitely succeeds, as just like the games it's inspired by it is obviously a cash grab.
System
The author has very graciously released the entire Sixtacular system under an open game license, which shows his talent extends to borrowing things from Wizards as well as West End Games.
Because you can download the entire Sixtacular ruleset from DriveThruRPG for free, it seems pointless describing it. Instead, it makes more sense to compare it to the system in Ghostbusters RPG.
Muscles and Moves have become Action. Brains is completely unchanged Brains. Cool still exists, but the fourth stat Contact incorporates elements that Cool and Moves used to cover. You still assign 12 points, between 1 and 5 to these. Talents add 3 extra dice just like with the original.
However, new to Sporktacular is Archetype, which gives you 6 (or 12, if you want weirder ones) mini-splats to give your character something cool to do, generally spend Brownie Awesome Points on.
Equipment is handled with complete inelegance in the Sixpacular rules, with a complete cop out of "[y]ou will have to decide for yourself, LOL". The Sparktacular rules themselves handle this a little better, but it's very minimal, with every character wielding an Etheric Ray Thrower, two more choices from the list of important gear, and the group as a whole getting a Ghost Trap. Much like the first Ghostbusters RPG (but lost in Ghostbusters International) the rules mention that Equipment Cards are good, then completely fails to provide them even in the PDF.
Setting
There are three paranormal investigation companies briefly detailed in the book, namely Wraithzappers, Ghost Rooter and Phantom Finders. The book encourages groups to invent their own, and are helped by a table to generate the name, so look out for Creature Eaters, Specter Keteers and Curse Dusters. There's no overall setting (except for the obvious), although the book has a short section on how paranormal investigations would look in a number of locales. Once again, the "[y]ou will have to decide for yourself, LOL" spirit is in full swing.