I'm So Embarrassed! My Uncle is a Bullet Train! Chapter 1

A few weeks ago I was contacted by my friend Yasa who told me he had read my posts on the Japanese TRPG 'Tokyo Ghost Research' and mixing it with Ghostbusters. He really liked the idea, downloaded the game rules, and decided he was going to run a session of it with his friends at their favorite game cafe. 

The only issue was he didn't feel comfortable going in without a pre-made adventure and wasn't certain he could come up with one himself. While there are some pre-mades for TGR available online, none of them are written with the idea of adding Ghostbusters elements. He asked if I could help. His group was likely to be 4-5 players and the session would last about 4 hours. 

I told him I'd be glad to assist. I had a sudden jolt of inspiration and came up with a scenario in no time. We met up on Discord to discuss it and go over any questions or unclear details. The end result was, 'It Seems My Uncle is a Bullet Train!", the title of which Yasa changed to 'I'm So Embarrasse! My Uncle is a Bullet Train!'. He ran it the weekend of July 20-21. 

He told me how it went and said it was OK to share it with all of you. As English is not his first language, he said it was cool to paraphrase his story in my retelling. 

Here goes...

GHOSTBUSTERS:

TOKYO GHOST RESEARCH

'I'M SO EMBARRASSED! MY UNCLE IS A BULLET TRAIN!'

Left to Right: Ryōsuke, Isamu, Sachiko, Kei, and Kimiko

Overview/Premise: The Japan Railway Construction, Transport, and Technology Agency has received numerous complaints over the past few weeks about Bullet Trains on a particular line and/or their operators having schedule issues, performing incorrect operations, experiencing malfunctions, and being generally discourteous to riders. Unable to get to the bottom of the situation on their own or with Police assistance, the JRCTTA has contacted Ghostbusters: Tokyo Ghost Research just in case the problem is paranormal in nature. 

Player Characters: Yasa and I came up with a twist on the original Character Creation rules, allowing each Employee to choose up to two Career Types. If they intended to play a 'traditional' Proton Pack wearing Ghostbuster, one of their Careers must be Sales.

The group ended up with:

Isamu -Sales and Investigations - Specializing in Social Interactions with People and Physical Action.

Kei -Sales and Technology - Focused on Equipment and Paranormal Science. 

Kimiko - General Affairs - Coordinating her Team with Public/Government Bureaucracy and managing the Project overall. 

Sachiko - Sales and Investigations - Specialized in Social Interaction with Ghosts and Detective Work.

Ryōsuke 'Ryo' - Sales and Technology - Having a Positive Attitude and Psychic Abilities. 

As noted in my previous post on Character Creation in Tokyo Ghost Research, each character chooses 5 skills between their Career(s) and General Skills. Most of the characters here focused on Career Skills with the exception of Kimiko and Ryo. Since Kimiko only picked one Career, she had General Skills that complimented her General Affairs abilities, specifically Communications and Connections. Ryo was Irish-Japanese and had the Psychic Powers of Distant Impressions (Psychometry) and Spirit Perception.

How it went: 

Introduction Scene: The Employees are sitting around the Ghostbusters: Tokyo Ghost Research office trying to stay awake and look busy. It's been a while since they'd had a Project and they were all pretty bummed and bored. 

Isamu and Sachiko were slacking off, playing a video game against each other at their desks. 

Ryosuke had just come back from a vacation to Ireland and was showing trip photos to Kei.

Kimiko was keeping busy with other work, filling out forms that had piled up on her desk.

Suddenly, the boss threw open the door of his office and enthusiastically announced a Project had come in! He called Kimiko into his office, closed the door, and explained what the job was. Meanwhile, the other Employees were trying to ease-drop at the door. Kimiko was told to put a Sales Team together and have them head out to Shin-Osaka Station in Osaka, Japan. The boss's office door swung open once more, sending the group comically scrambling to appear as if they weren't attempting to listen in. Kimiko shakes her head, assembles the Employees, explains what's what, and hands the Ecto-K keys to Isamu (who took the General Skill 'Company Car'). 

Ghostbusters: Tokyo Ghost Research Company Car - The 'Ecto-K'

An Ecto-Vehicle variant based on the Japanese K-Truck. 

Phase I - Investigation: As the team drives to the project site (about 6-8 hours from Tokyo to Osaka), Kimiko makes some calls to Shin-Osaka Station and her contacts in the Osaka Police Department. She starts to put together a more detailed understanding of what's been going on and assembles a file she can read to the team and hand in to the boss. What she learns is interesting; not just in what her contacts say but also in what they don't. 

On the suggestion of Isamu and Sachiko, the group stops for food and restrooms. This allowed for Roleplaying and Character Development. Isamu and Sachiko are highly competetive with each other. They are both very 'act first, think later'. There is also, possibly, unspoken romantic feelings between the two. At the same time, Isamu flirts with any pretty girl he meets, causing Sachiko to stare daggers at him.

Ryo is health conscious and vegetarian. He has a mellow, relaxed, open-minded, and unconventional approach to life. He's warm and quite gregarious. Kei has a sweet tooth and only seems to eat sugary snacks, cakes, Pocky, etc.. She is introverted, nerdy, and socially awkward, while also being very intellectual and focused on her job. The two are quite opposite but get along really well. 

Kimiko calls the team and goes over what she learned. A few of the Bullet Trains running on a specific transit line, all of which pass through Shin-Osaka Station, have been performing strangely. Numerous maintenance checks have failed to reveal any mechanical problems. The trains in question open and close their doors at random intervals, speed up or slow down in the same fashion, and sometimes even turn or break in a way that has caused minor injuries. 

Only...

Speaking with her Law Enforcement contacts and reading the complaints very carefully she discovered a peculiar trend. In one instance, an older businessman yelled at a pregnant lady to hurry and get on the train; he even pushed her. Once she was on the doors suddenly and very quickly shut in the businessman's face and the train left the station. At another time, the doors refused to shut until two old women got on. The most curious incident occurred late one evening when a drunk man was harassing two high school girls coming home from an after-school club meeting. The train sped up and changed tracks abruptly, sending the man stubbling and falling hard to the floor. When he got up, the train did it again. The man got off at the next spot and was later treated for a badly bruised elbow and dislocated shoulder. 

"If this is a ghost at work it seems OK by me", said Sachiko. Isamu nodded in agreement while Ryo and Kei exchanged concerned glances. 

Once the PCs reached Osaka Station, Kei and Ryo immediately went to speak with the administrators, while Isamu and Sachiko went to explore the station platform. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary on the platform until they noticed a young woman in business attire eating onigari and drinking a bottle of lemon tea. They noticed that she sat, ate, watched a train or two go by and then left. Her expression was an odd mixture of happiness and sadness, switching between the two states several times. 

Kei and Ryo arrived not long after and Ryo tried using his Psychic Abilities to find signs of a supernatural presence. Kei walked beside Sachiko and Isamu as they continued to investigate, shining her Ghost Light into dark corners or anywhere they heard an odd sound. After a few hours the group was tired and frustrated (in character, having fun in real life) as they came up with theories as to what might be going on. Just as they were preparing to leave, the young woman from earlier returned. 

As most of the team went over to talk to her, Kei had the brilliant idea of calling Kimiko. Kei asked if they could get ahold of security footage of the platform. If so, she asked Kimiko to check it for the presence of the young woman. Kimiko got on it right away. 

"Good evening", Isamu began in a polite and cordial manner, "lovely weather isn't it?" The young woman only then noticed him and nodded yes, looking out over the tracks. "So...you must like trains." Isamu added, smiling wide and scratching the back of his head..

"I suppose", she said quietly, "my Uncle did. He liked them a lot. He was a train otaku, especially the shinkansen ('new main line' or what we in the US would call 'the Bullet Train')."

She started to tear up a little though her voice did not tremble. Ryo handed her a tissue. She thanked him so quietly no one could really hear her. "He would sit here with me for hours and tell me all about them. I loved that when I was younger. Not so much when I grew up. I just thought of him as my silly Uncle who loved trains."

Kei rejoined the others. Isamu asked her name and she replied that it was Kiko Sato. The Ghostbusters all introduced themselves to her. Ryo noticed the young woman had a book about trains in her bag. He motioned to it. "Was that his?" he asked. Again, she nodded yes but didn't speak. "May I...?", asked Ryo, gingerly stretching out his hand. At first she gave him the faintest of scowls but then relaxed seeing his warm smile. She shrugged and handed him the book. 

Ryo flipped through the tome but wasn't really reading it. He was using his Psychometry to get impressions of the woman's uncle off the book. As he did, Kei's cel phone rang and it was Kimiko. She confirmed that the young lady they were talking to came to the station twice a day, every two or three days, and had been doing so for a few weeks. She was never once seen boarding or getting off a train. 

"I'm guessing your Uncle died", said Sachiko matter-of-factly. Everyone gave her a cold, stern look and she reeled back in true 'Embarrassed Anime Girl' fashion. Big Sweat Drop on the back of her head. Kiko sighed and told them that yes, her Uncle passed away last month. A tired and depressed man most of the time, with a job he found boring and tedious. He ate poorly, smoked, and drank a bit too much. The only think that seemed to make him happy had been trains. "I'm sorry", said Sachiko, as much for her bluntness as for consoling Miss Sato. 

"I assume you're here about the strange reports of trains malfunctioning. It isn't the trains themselves, not exactly." The others were all about to say something but stopped themselves. Kiko stood up and said, with tears of shame, "I'm so embarrassed! My Uncle is a Bullet Train!" (the players burst out laughing at that moment). Before anymore could be said, Ryo's green eyes flashed bright blue and he turned around quickly towards the tracks.

"There's a train coming and yes, it's her Uncle!"

Chapter 2 coming soon - stay tuned!

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