The new Ghostbusters

[Rook Seidhr]

Something in that style, anyway. I don't like to play canon characters. (I might make an exception for Holtzmann though.)

I only play system games, so maybe Mage: the Awakening 2nd ed? The setting would have to be hacked. (Oddly, I don't think it would work as well just to play Etherites in Mage: the Ascension. The other kinds of mages would get in the way.)

[ReijiTabibito]

Actually!  There's a few systems you could use to simulate good old GB!  I'm sure someone will mention the basic GB game released...late 80s, 90s, I think?  But there's also a Ghostbusters module for GURPS, which I happen to have in my possession.

Alternatively, there's also FATE and...well, this would make it a bit more cinematic Ghostbusters, but also the system Anima Prime.

[Kunoichi]

The Official d6-based Ghostbusters RPG that was published back in 1986 has been out of print for long enough that it's freely and legally available in various places online.  It does have the advantage of having been designed from the ground up to be a proper Ghostbusters game, and I don't recall it feeling particularly clunky or outdated from the sessions of it that I've seen.

I'll take a quick look through google and see what else I can turn up for system possibilities...

[Rook Seidhr]

Actually!  There's a few systems you could use to simulate good old GB!  I'm sure someone will mention the basic GB game released...late 80s, 90s, I think?  But there's also a Ghostbusters module for GURPS, which I happen to have in my possession.

Great Ghu, no. No GURPS for me please.

I've never seen the old Ghostbusters game in the flesh, but it sounds…wackier than I'd enjoy? IDK.

Alternatively, there's also FATE

Yes, there's always Fate…I've gotten somewhat burned out on it. It does everything sort of OK, but nothing really well, IMO.

(Totally pedantic aside: since the publication of Fate Core, Evil Hat's trade dress now uses "Fate" not "FATE.")

and...well, this would make it a bit more cinematic Ghostbusters, but also the system Anima Prime.

Way too cinematic for me.

Unknown Armies 3e might work as a ruleset, too. Again, total setting replacement required. Trying to think of other suitable urban fantasy/horror games.

[ReijiTabibito]

If you want urban fantasy games (I would personally argue that Ghostbusters is not horror, because horror is about powerlessness and Ghostbusters is about kicking ghostly butt with hilarious complications), there's a couple more I could throw out there.

CthulhuTech (I only have V1, V2 is currently being developed ATM) features a solid mixture of horror and fantasy - you can even have players with psychic powers like ESP and Telepathy.

There's also Urban Arcana for d20 Modern...but you didn't hear about it from me, I hate d20 Modern.

Normally, I wouldn't mention this one, but since you noted that the whole setting would need an overhaul, there's a game I backed on Kickstarter a while ago called Hunt the Wicked - it's supposed to be a sci-fi story where you play bounty hunters, but I've seen people do setting hacks of the system that have nothing to do with spaceships and laser guns quite easily.

There's also Unisystem - WitchCraft and Armageddon, though those would lack the technological aspects of being a Ghostbuster.

Finally. there's Wushu.  Wushu is actually a pretty system-light getup, and it can be used for nearly everything.  Wushu's basic system (there's really only two types of scenes in it - combat and roleplaying) for combat is that you describe your action in as much detail as possible - each detail gives you an extra die to roll when you roll them (the GM usually institutes a cap for a given comabt).  When you roll the dice, you look for an applicable Trait - every character gets 3 Traits, and each Trait has a rating.  That rating determines the strength of your skill with that Trait, and the higher the number, the better.  You roll the dice, and any die that shows a number less than or equal to your Trait rating succeeds, all the rest fail.  Roleplaying is handled freeform.  It's pretty simple.

[Rook Seidhr]

A friend elsewhere suggested reskinning Apocalypse World 2e…I'm not sure. Monster of the Week definitely wouldn't work.

[ReijiTabibito]

I wouldn't recommend Apocalypse World, mainly because it and its derivatives - Urban Shadows, Legend of the Elements, and others - require playbooks for the different types of characters, and if you don't use one of the actual published forms of AW, you would have to come up with all of those playbooks and moves yourself.  That's a ton of work, speaking as someone who has tried it before.

[Kunoichi]

I've never seen the old Ghostbusters game in the flesh, but it sounds…wackier than I'd enjoy? IDK.

The published adventures for it were pretty wacky, but the system itself is flexible enough to handle something a little more gritty and truer to the films in tone, from what I've seen.  It doesn't do horror that well, admittedly.

From that google search I mentioned, I was able to find a system called InSpectres that also looks like it was designed from the ground up for a Ghostbusters-type game, but it looks like there's aren't any ways to easily get ahold of the rules for that one without paying money.  It also doesn't seem to do horror very well, either.

I did stumble across some people suggesting use of Hunter: The Vigil, if that seems like something that might better fit the tone you're looking for?

[Rook Seidhr]

From that google search I mentioned, I was able to find a system called InSpectres that also looks like it was designed from the ground up for a Ghostbusters-type game, but it looks like there's aren't any ways to easily get ahold of the rules for that one without paying money.  It also doesn't seem to do horror very well, either.

I own a copy of InSpectres. Played it once. It's hard to play if you aren't used to that specific style of gaming (very hard scene framing and trying to read each other's minds).

EDIT: I haven't read HtV but isn't it kind of low-powered? Though I suppose if you take bog-standard mortals and just let them tech the tech, that's pretty close to the movies.

[ReijiTabibito]

I saw InSpectres at my local con, last time I was there.  I considered taking it until one of my table-mates said that they had it, and reviews I've read of the game mostly suggest that you need to have a regular group that's played together for a while in order for it to really work well.

Nearly all of the NWoD games are low-powered, at least as default, unless you're willing to turn up the crank on the extra experience given out to players when they make their characters.  You can hand out 60 experience to Hunters at the start of the game...but those are seasoned veterans, people who have been on the Hunt for quite some time.  While it's been interesting to see the new game lines done with NWoD, I wouldn't recommend them.

[Rook Seidhr]

reviews I've read of the game mostly suggest that you need to have a regular group that's played together for a while in order for it to really work well.

My assessment as well.

[ReijiTabibito]

Riv, random question.  How attached are you to the technical aspects of the GB game - proton packs and ghost traps and those goggles Ray always wore and the PKE meter?

[Rook Seidhr]

The specific tech used in the movies? Not too much. Tech in general? Very much attached. It wouldn't be Ghostbusters without what amounts to technomagic.

[ReijiTabibito]

Okay.  I just ask because there are other games out there which can have you fight ghosts - like the previously mentioned WitchCraft (which uses the Unisystem), but that's nearly all mystical action and exorcisms and the like.  No proton packs there.  Knowing that will help me figure out what would be good systems and what wouldn't.

[wander]

Surprised that Geist:the Sin-Eaters hasn't been mentioned yet, which is all about dealing with ghosts in the nwod.

Not really a technology and gear-based game per se, though you can assign charms and stuff to the Sin-Eaters that give various effects (the Manifestation powers the game has). These can pretty easily be reskinned to fit the ghostbusters feel more. I'd also say that outside of Hunters and aside from a Sin-Eater's ability to shunt death off to other poor unexpecting saps, Sin-Eaters are some of the lowest powered splats in the nwod and ones who can hold gear that has most of their powers. I'd even say you could reskin the Pass On Ceremony as the ghost-trap, off the top of my head.

[ReijiTabibito]

Geist could work, if you were willing to go with a slightly less technical feel.  Geists get their power through their bonding, the power is inside of them - they need Keys to access the power, and if memory serves you do need a physical object, at least at first, to be able to do that, and Geist is definitely more lighthearted on the NWoD side, but you are still a supernatural creature, not a human with shiny objects.

Upon further review, I've found a few more possible entries, along with some that would need...work.

BESM - it's definitely cartoon-based; better for The Real Ghostbusters rather than the movies, but 3rd edition would let you build that sort of character.
Cypher - this system has had two major incarnations (Numenera and The Strange), but I know the system itself is out there, floating around, after the creators released the previously-mentioned settings for it.
Mutants and Masterminds - you were already talking about building a world anyways, so the fact that it's slightly more calibrated for the superhero genre shouldn't be too much, right?
PDQ - I've got the base book floating around here somewhere, but the major book I usually keep in front of me is the Ninja Burger guide, which is one of only a few settings I've seen PDQ used for.

And the...ones that need work.

Blades in the Dark - it's meant more as a nod to games like Dishonored and Thief, except with a crew of smugglers/thieves/whatevers, but there is a significant supernatural presence in the game, and players themselves don't have the power to deal with them, they need special equipment for that.
FUZION - I used this a long, long time ago...unfortunately, the only FUZION book I have left nowadays is Bubblegum Crisis, and mecha-cyberpunk is not precisely the genre we're going for here, but the basics are in there.
RWBY - the thing of it is that the game book (the one that exists) is pretty tightly tied to portraying a show of the genre that RWBY is...which is not precisely conducive to the genre that I picture Ghostbusters to be, nor the action level.