The Ectozone: The Ghostbusters Universe At Your Fingertips

It's that time again!

GenCon 2022 was held on August 4-7, and of course Ogre and I went. We haven't missed one since 2011 (except for 2020, but there wasn't an in-person one so I'm not counting that one.)

It was a little closer to "normal", but of course...

Normal can be a fairly relative term. Even as a guy who leans to the left side of the political spectrum, it did seem a little odd that the health and safety standards this year were actually more restrictive than last year's. The fact that they were expecting a lot more people is about the only reason I can think of that begins to make sense.

Fortunately, my friends at Point Hat Games made it this year. Their talking hat Brimley got them some great buzz this time (we think that Exploding Kittens and their lolcat-run booth not showing up greatly helped) and PHG actually ran out of some of their product on Sunday afternoon. I saw it happen! These are great people and I'm glad to have known their CEO for almost twenty years; I wish I could tell you about some of their exciting future plans, but I don't want to get turned into a frog.

"Anyone else feeling a bit stiff?"

"No, I'm not that Digimon that Fritz likes. Sheesh."

I hear Bezier's game "Cat In The Box" is pretty good...but dammit...

I'm not the only one who said they'd have made a lot more money if they were selling those stuffed cats!!!

So back at my very first GenCon in 2005 I almost got to meet Ernie "Winston Zeddemore" Hudson. Well, my streak of almost meeting Ghostbusters actors is now up to two: here to promote a game based on A Goofy Movie was...

Jason "Garrett Miller" Marsden. But since the booth was charging forty freakin' dollars for autographs or pictures, well, I had to pass on that one.

Now if only Maurice LaMarche or Laura Summer would show up somewhere I could end up failing to meet them at...

In better news, Naomi VanDoren showed up again, and this time I found a print I liked and bought it. Which is the one above.

Okay, time for the usual pictures of the haul.

The GenCon dice from Crystal Caste and Gatekeeper (once again, fortunately they're nowhere close to Keymaster Games), along with a Beholder mini and a Pathfinder mini. Being a blonde female human, dressed in red, brown, and some gold, with a bladed weapon in her left hand, this is as close to her as I'm ever likely to get to one my characters without ordering a custom.

Speaking of Pathfinder, the latest book Dark Archive was out, and as a guy with a wierd affection for the psionic classes, which Paizo mostly stayed away from in PF1, I was interested to see this. Their Focus Point mechanics looks to blend well with the classic Power Point flavor of previous DnD editions.

Also got to talk with Rob Heinsoo when I bought the Drakkenhall book for 13th Age. They're getting ready to do a kickstarter for a revised core book; I hope to get into that one.

Kind of a surprise purchase was Renegade Games' new Power Rangers RPG. It's the Essence 20 engine, the same as their recent GI Joe and upcoming Transformers RPGs; maybe with that in mind it should have been called the "Hasbro Essence 20" system. Anyway, it looks interesting. Go Go Power Rangers!!!

Yeah, I'll show myself out.

Just 252 days until the next one!!!

In other news, no new story yet, but I've been working on it. It should be complete before the end of the year, I hope.

--Fritz V. Baugh

My own take on the Ghostbusters. Some of my own creations aren't this much fun to write! Click HERE to see the stuff...

Five newest stories (newest on top)

Tales From The Ectozone: Deek's Report
2022--Timeline Year Forty
It's hard to shock the Chronicler of Realities and a Chronomancer, but recent events in timeline 681 have done just that.
(First Posted May 13, 2022)

Ghostbusters International: The Werewolf of Notre-Dame, Part Three
September 2022--Timeline Year Forty
Well, the ad hoc GBI team's found the werewolf. Now the big question is--can they survive long enough to find out why it's terrorizing Notre-Dame?
(First Posted December 21, 2021)

Ghostbusters: When I'm Sixty-Four
November 21, 2021--Timeline Year Thirty-Nine
A song on the radio inspires Professor Egon Spengler to muse about his life on the occasion of his sixty-fourth birthday.
(First Posted November 21, 2021)

Ghostbusters International: The Werewolf of Notre-Dame, Part Two
September 2022--Timeline Year Forty
As Charlene, TJ, and Marie investigate Notre-Dame, Holtzmann inspects the Eiffel Tower. None of them know the werewolf may be closer than they realize.
(First Posted August 10, 2021)

Ghostbusters International: The Werewolf of Notre-Dame, Part One
September 2022--Timeline Year Forty
Paris has been safe from the supernatural for the last thirty-seven years. Until now. GBI sends an eclectic ad hoc team to investigate--is a werewolf just a werewolf, or is there something wrong with the Eiffel Tower?
(First Posted July 6, 2021)