Help: Proton Packs (Ghostbusters 4th Ed)

[Toaster]

I was super excited to discover a rule book for Ghostbusters. But I am having some trouble understanding the mechanics of proton packs, particularly the [Bio-Electric] ones for fighting coporial undead.

Originally Posted by Ghostbusters.53

The target makes a Will roll against the field to escape each turn, until the running total of the field’s power is higher than the ghost’s ST+Will. Each additional bio-proton beam decreases the ghost’s roll by -2

the bit about the "running total" is what throws me the most. I wish the book offered a sample combat. If any of you have run a GB game or can help me better understand I'd be very greatful. thanks.

[The_Ryujin]

That book was an unofficial fan book that while very well done, sadly stepped too far over the line and violated SJG's copyright and they had it took down (and given how chill they tend to be with fans work, you can imagine how badly they stepped over that line). So do to that, there's real no way to get an official ruling on this.

[Toaster]

Yes thank you. I posted this while outside walking my dog thus did not do the searches until after and Found this which answers a ton of other questions about the content. I will attempt to follow the advice in post 3 and look up 'Ghost-breaking' in GURPS All-Stars to see if that can sate my needs.

Edit:spelling.

[Minuteman37]

Wait were they trying to sell it or something?

[Phantasm]

Originally Posted by Minuteman37

Wait were they trying to sell it or something?

No, I think it was that they made it look exactly like a finished official SJGames product.

[Dammann]

Or almost exactly? I only know this thing from forum discussion, but my sense is that the layout was great (as well as on brand for GURPS 4e), but it included plagiarized text from GURPS and other sources, and that the editing was not up to SJG par. So it looked about good enough to fool someone about long enough to harm SJG's reputation.

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by Minuteman37

Wait were they trying to sell it or something?

Making (or failing to make) money has very little to do with a lot of things.

They fraudulantly claimed it was a SJG product.
They also copied SJG trade dress, further reinforcing that this was a real SJG product, when it wasn't.
They fraudulantly claimed it was written by Bill Stoddard and Ken Height.
They fraudulantly claimed it was a licensed Paramount product.
They copied vast quantities of GURPS products, well beyond any sort of Fair Use defense and in direct violation of the SJG fan publication guidelines.

Even if you don't care about the copy-pasting of other peoples work and claiming you wrote it, the part where they violated Paramount's license and then said "THEY did it!" is pretty damned horrid.

EVEN ASIDE from that, it wasn't up to SJG house standards, but they led people to believe it was a SJG product. Cheap knock-offs are tacky.

[PK]

Bruno summed this up about as well as I could, so I'll just add this: Since this book was never legally available for sale (being almost entirely pirated text), anyone who acquired it thinking that it was an actual SJ Games product . . . is obviously a person who steals (illegally downloads) our ebooks.

Because there's a possibility that this isn't the case -- maybe your friend is the criminal who just happened to show you a copy of it while you were over -- I'm not going to break out the banhammer. But I'm definitely closing this thread.