Made using The Black Hack

GHOST HACKERS
Cobbled together by Jonathan Linneman
Cover art by Timothy B Paul
Based on The Black Hack by David Black (like, the sort of ‘based on’
where I use a bunch of it verbatim), with special inspiration (and some
stuff directly ripped off) from the roleplaying game Ghostbusters by
Sandy Petersen, Lynn Willis, and Greg Stafford. Seriously, not a lot of
originality here. You’ve been warned.
Thanks to David and all the other good people that have made TBH a
focus for creativity in DIY gaming. Special mention goes to Sophia
Brandt (dieheart.net) for maintaining a list of TBH resources, Bruno
Bord (the-black-hack.jehaisleprintemps.net) for maintaining easily
accessible TBH Open Game Content, and Jeff Call
(gelatinousdome.tumblr.com) and Thomas Williams for some
inspirational unlicensed hacks.
Everything in this work is Open Game Content with the exception of
product identity, which includes the name Ghost Hackers and all
artwork. If you like this product, you should check out The Black Hack
from Gold Piece Publications, the old Ghostbusters RPG from West
End Games, Tim’s art at facebook.com/timothybpaulart, and (if you
still have time) my blog at monstrousmatters.com.

Now. On to the Ghost Hacking…

WHAT THE HECK IS THIS?

This is v1.0 of Ghost Hackers (hereafter GH), a mini-game based on The
Black Hack (TBH) roleplaying game, as well as the 1986 Ghostbusters
RPG from West End Games. TBH is, in its own words, a traditional
tabletop RPG, played with paper, pencils and dice. It uses that Original
1970s Fantasy RPG as a base, but it adds and takes away elements to
make it a distinct streamlined flavor of the original RPG. Seriously, TBH
is infinitely hackable and sure to zap your brain with a bright spark of
creativity. If you haven’t checked it out yet, you should do so. Really
soon.

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THE POINT OF THE GAME
...is to have fun! There are no winners and losers in GH. (Who am I to
judge, anyway?) In fact, there’s probably even less “winning” in this
game than in a lot of other RPGs you may have played, since you really
won’t be gathering a lot of loot and worrying too much about getting
special powers at higher levels.
Think of this as your chance to own a Ghost Hackers franchise,
wherever you’d like to place it in this fantastic world of ours.
Congratulations, and good luck investigating the paranormal, solving
supernatural mysteries, and paying the electric bill for your firehouse
every month!

THE CORE MECHANICS

Everything a character might possibly attempt that could result in
failure is resolved by testing their traits; in order to successfully test a
stat, a player must roll below it on a d20. This includes attempts to
avoid damage or negative effects (what other games call “saving
throws”). Ghosts, monsters, and other villain types don’t make tests; a
character must avoid their attacks by making a test; the only time a
ghost would roll is for damage.
A Ghostmaster (GM) may decide that a particular course of action or
task has a higher or lower chance of success. They will ask a player to
roll an additional d20 when making a test; with Advantage the lower
result is used, and with Disadvantage, the higher.

ROLLING TRAITS
Traits are decided with 3d6 in the following order: Muscles (MUS),
Moves (MOV), Brains (BRN), Cool (COOL). Once all stats are
generated, two may be swapped around.

CHOOSING TALENTS
For each Trait, a player should select one Talent for their character.
These are the things that the character is markedly better at than most
other people. Here are some examples, to give you ideas to start from:

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MUSCLES MOVES BRAINS COOL
Lift stuff Fire a gun Physics Tell jokes
Kick stuff Drive a car Biology Tell lies
Move pianos Play pianos Read music Write music
Brawl Juggle Solve Debate
40 yard dash Video games Sudoku Charades

Players are really free to choose whatever they want here, as long as
it’s approved by the GM.
Whenever a character makes a test that could be aided by one of their
Talents, they have Advantage when making the test.

CLASSES & EQUIPMENT

Everyone in GH is the same class…a Ghost Hacker! Really, feel free to
bring in characters from other TBH mods, though. The more, the
merrier.
Ghost Hackers aren’t especially proficient in any sort of weapons or
armor. It’s possible that they may carry weapons with them. If they do
use them, they’ll do 1d6 damage. That’s really not the Ghost Hacker
style, though, so most fighting they’ll do will be unarmed or
improvising, doing 1d4 damage.
Ghost Hackers are proficient in all sorts of wacky supernatural hunting
equipment, though! When going out on a mission, each team member
is able to carry three pieces of equipment with them. Just assume that
little old regular stuff, like cell phones and GPSs and whatnot, are
always on hand (unless something specifically happens that renders
them unusable or inaccessible). However, bigger and fancier items
like PKE meters, proton packs, and ghost traps need to be accounted
for. There’s a more detailed list of equipment toward the end of these
rules.
Finally, Ghost Hackers start the game (at 1st level) with 1d8 + 5 hit
points (HP) and gain 1d8 HP at each new level.

SAMPLE CHARACTERS
 Patrick Wonkman, Ph.D. Level 3, 18 HP. MUS 7 (Brawl), MOV
11 (Bowl), BRN 8 (Parapsychology), COOL 18 (Bluff)

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  Igor Spindler, Ph.D. Level 5, 28 HP. MUS 6 (Climb), MOV 7
(Dance), BRN 18 (Physics), COOL 5 (Blend in)
 Roy Krantz, Ph.D. Level 4, 25 HP. MUS 11 (Run), MOV 8
(Sneak), BRN 16 (Occult), COOL 7 (Orate)
 Warren Piedmont, Ph.D. Level 4, 27 HP. MUS 16 (Wrestle),
MOV 12 (Fire a gun), BRN 16 (Egyptology), COOL 6 (Bargain)
 Darla Brady Level 3, 21 HP. MUS 11 (Swim), MOV 16 (Play cello),
BRN 14 (Chess), COOL 14 (Reject creeps)

PLAYER’S TURN
During a player’s turn, a character may move and perform an action.
They could attack, look for a clue, talk with an NPC, check their Words
with Friends games, whatever. Often they will test their attributes to
determine the outcome (this is at the discretion of the GM). During
combat and other fast-paced situations, possible actions will be more
limited than when there is time to act more slowly and deliberately. If
there is a question of the order characters (players and monsters)
should take their turns, all players should make a MOV test. Those that
succeed take their turn before their opponents. (They must then act as
a group, deciding their own order for actions.) Those that fail
their MOV tests go after their opponents.

MOVEMENT & DISTANCE

Rather than track precise numbers, GH (like TBH) uses four abstract
ranges for measuring distances: Close, Nearby, Far-
Away, and Distant. On their turn every character can move
somewhere Nearby as part of an action, performing that action at any
stage of the move. They can forgo their action and move
somewhere Far-Away instead. Anything beyond Far-Away can be
classified as Distant and would take 3 moves to get to.
This system is designed to support the narrative “theatre of the mind”
style of play and is less concerned about tracking squares and fiddly
distances. For converting existing movement rates or measures, you
can treat Close as anything 0-5 feet away, Nearby as 5-60 feet away,
Far-Away as 60-120 feet, and Distant as anything farther than that.

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BASIC GHOSTOLOGY & OTHER MONSTROUS
MATTERS
HD represents a monster's level and the number of d8 rolled to
determine its HP. Alternatively, you can just give each monster 5 HP
per HD. These HP represent the amount of physical damage that the
monster can take before becoming incapacitated.
Many monsters are, or have the capability to become, essentially
immaterial. These beings may have a wide variety of origins but are
referred to in a general way as ghosts (although they may technically
be ghouls, gods, demons, daimons, spirits, kami, or any of about a
million other supernatural types). Physical attacks usually won’t work
against ghosts, but their HD represents their level of connection to our
physical plane…which conveniently matches the number of times
they must be hit with the beam from a proton pack before becoming
weak enough to manipulate into a ghost trap!

SAMPLE ENEMIES
 Slimy apparition (ghost) - 1 HD. Leaves goo in its wake.
 Grim reaper (ghost) - 2 HD. Looking to score some souls.
Actually not all that grim (he just doesn’t get your jokes).
 Romantic vampire - 3 HD. Popular with the ladies, turns
victims into vampires, doesn’t sparkle in sunlight.
 Typical wolf man - 4 HD. Not as popular with the ladies, but
more fun to be around. Turns victims into werewolves.
 Polevaultergeist (ghost) - 5 HD. A very athletic spirit.
 Dusty old mummy - 6 HD. Wounds from a mummy won’t heal
until they are supernaturally cured.
 Confectionery kaiju - 20 HD. Sweet, fluffy, and deadly.
Crushes buildings with a smile.
 Bronze Age god (ghost) - 100 HD. Better put some thought into
this one. If it asks if you’re a god, say yes.

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ATTACKING, DEFENDING, & DAMAGE
When a character attacks a monster, they must roll below
their MUS Trait for a Melee Attack or MOV for a Ranged Attack.
Likewise, when a monster attacks, the character must roll below
its MUS against a Melee Attack and MOV against a Ranged Attack to
avoid taking damage. A GM will often give the trait required for the
test. It is possible for Talents to give a character Advantage on these
tests.
Monsters deal damage based on their HD, dealing 1d6 at 1 HD and
adding 1d6 at each multiple of 5 HD (e.g. 2d6 at 5 HD, 3d6 at 10 HD, etc.).
However, if you’d prefer to use the damage stats listed in a module that
you are playing, you can certainly do that instead!

CRITICAL DAMAGE & ROLLING A GHOST

If a player making an attack rolls a 1, they double the result of the
damage dice they roll or double the effectiveness of the beam strike,
if using a proton pack against a ghost.
Rolling a 20 in any situation, meanwhile, is referred to as “rolling a
ghost.” If players roll a 20 when avoiding an attack, they take double
damage. In any other instance, rolling a ghost means that the GM gets
to introduce an unexpected complication into the scene.
For example, if the Ghost Hacker Lauren Lottsdale tries to leap to a
chandelier to avoid getting slimed by an approaching apparition,
she’ll probably make a test against her MOV Trait. The GM disagrees
with Lauren’s argument that her Talent of Folding Paper Airplanes will
help her in this case, so she only rolls one d20. She rolls a ghost (a 20)!
Not only does Lauren fail the test (and get slimed), but the GM decides
that the (very expensive) chandelier has been jarred just enough that
Lauren can see its chain about to come unscrewed from the ceiling…

LUCK POINTS
Ghost Hackers start out every adventure with a number of Luck Points
equal to their current level. These Luck Points can be used to alter the
game in a few different ways. Players may spend a single Luck Point
to (1) gain Advantage on a roll where they wouldn’t normally have it,
(2) suddenly remember that they brought a certain piece of equipment
along on the adventure, or (3) cancel out damage that would render
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them dead (when they reach 0 HP). The catch is that the player must
give an entertaining description of how this situation came to be.
For example, if a 1st-level Ghost Hacker falls from the top of a 20-story
building, they’ll probably take enough damage to…be dead.
However, the player may spend a Luck Point to explain that a mattress
store happens to be moving into the bottom floor of the building and
had luckily left a stack of their wares on the sidewalk, cushioning the
Ghost Hacker’s fall and enabling a viral YouTube video. The GM
accepts this, and the player can continue the adventure from the
sidewalk, in the midst of a crowd of surprised onlookers.

DEATH & DYING

When a character is reduced to 0 HP, they would normally be dead. If
they have any Luck Points remaining, they should spend one of these
to prevent the fatal damage. If they don’t…well, GH isn’t meant to be
all that deadly of a game, although there should be some
consequences for the choices made by a Ghost Hacker.
So…if a character hits 0 HP with no Luck Points left, the GM should
rate, on a scale of 1-5, how bad the decisions were that led to the
character’s death (or near-death, as you’ll see…and decisions rated 5
are the worst, by the way). The player then rolls 1d6; if the result is
greater than the target number, the player is just knocked out for a few
rounds and can then return to action with 1d4 HP and Disadvantage
on all tests for the next hour.
If the result is equal to or lower than the target number, however, the
character dies and immediately becomes a ghost taking part in the
adventure. They maintain the same Traits and Talents and gain the
ability to float. Whether they are helpful or haunting to the other
players is up to those of you playing the game!

POWERFUL OPPONENTS
For every HD above the character’s level, add +1 to every roll the
player makes for any attribute test that would determine the outcome
of a conflict between them and a ghost, monster, or other non-player
character…e.g. a level 3 character defending against an HD 5 ghost’s
attack would add +2 to their roll.

7
HEALING & RESTING
Characters may gain HP from spells, potions, and abilities, although
these aren’t as common in GH as they are in other sorts of RPGs. They
can never gain more than their maximum. Once per day, after resting
for at least one hour, they may also roll 1d8 and regain that many HP.

EXPERIENCE
In GH, as in TBH, the traditional experience system has been
completely discarded. For every session / case / adventure / major
event the character survives (and stays out of jail), they gain a level.
(The GM will decide which rate to follow, and it’s recommended that
this decision remains more or less a constant throughout the campaign
- and a GM should be clear and upfront with the players so they know
where the “goalposts” are.)

GAINING LEVELS
When a character levels up, their maximum HP increases by a roll of
1d8. Also, a player should roll a d20 for each Trait; if the result is higher,
that Trait increases by 1. Finally, if the new level is a multiple of 3, the
player can choose one new Talent for their character. This will
probably mostly affect creating characters at levels beyond the 1st,
because really, how long could you be planning on playing a Ghost
Hackers campaign?

USAGE DIE
Any item in the equipment section that has a Usage Die listed after it
in parentheses is considered a consumable item or a piece of
equipment with a limited charge. When that item is used, in the next
turn its Usage Die is rolled. If the roll is 1-2, then the Usage Die is
downgraded to the next lower die in the following chain:
d20 > d12 > d10 > d8 > d6 > d4
When you roll a 1-2 on a d4, the item is expended and the character
can’t use it again until getting more or recharging the equipment back
at headquarters.

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SAMPLE EQUIPMENT
This is a partial list of equipment that may come in handy on
paranormal investigations. Players are free to use other equipment
that they think Ghost Hackers should have access to (or even make up
themselves), with the GM’s approval.
 Awesome Ghost Hacking Vehicle: Has a lot of really cool
scientific-looking equipment stuck all over it. This doesn’t
count as one of a Ghost Hacker’s three items, but is a great way
to store extra stuff (and to get from point A to B).
 Beach Kit: Gain Advantage on “Are you having fun at the
beach?” tests.
 EMF Meter: This is the current rage in ghost investigations;
it measures the electromagnetic field. Does it mean anything?
Who knows.
 Ghost Trap (d8): Use to…trap ghosts. The Usage Die
represents the number of attempts you get to use it. Once
there’s a ghost inside, using it again will allow the first one to
escape.
 Infrared Camera: Sometimes ghosts will show up on this,
even when you can’t see them normally. Sometimes it’s just a
smudge on the lens.
 PKE Meter (d20): The best ghost-detector in the field; it
measures psychokinetic energy.
 Proton Pack (d12): An unlicensed nuclear accelerator. Fires
a beam that helps guide ghosts to a trap. Does 1d12 damage to
material items.

ADVENTURE IDEAS
Honestly, you can probably use modules designed for other RPGs
here…just figure out a reason your heroes have to, say, venture into a
kobold-filled dungeon beneath a library. You can also find some great
ideas in the West End Games Ghostbusters books. Or, if you’re stuck
looking for a plot, roll 1d15 and check the table starting on the next
page for inspiration.

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OPEN GAME LICENSE Version 1.0a
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The Black Hack Copyright 2016, David Black
Ghosthackers Copyright 2016, Jonathan Linneman
Ghost Hackers Copyright 2017, Jonathan Linneman
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monstrous
matters