Played Ghost Lines tonight with Jim and Charlotte . It was good fun.

I had them floundering as a 3 person newbie crew because their legendary lead bull was too drunk to operate. After they nabbed the ghost of the anchor of his former crew and foiled his suicide attempt, he sobered up a bit and gave them solid advice on how the operation worked. It was good fun, made me sorry it was a leaving-town-one-shot.

I’d love a lay-out map of a few different kind of cars (Passenger, Royal, Cargo, Engine, Caboose) both inside and up top but maybe it is more fun to draw them. Or maybe it is more fun to draw them if you have developed any talent for drawing.

I wasn’t 100% on what was the difference between a ghost Silenced and a ghost Cleared but it wasn’t anything we couldn’t suss out after a bit of play. Based on the stats on the sheet, it is more difficult to silence a ghost but I wasn’t sure what went into that. I felt like my ghosts weren’t creepy enough, or maybe the ghosts were fine but the general atmosphere wasn’t creepy enough. I dunno, maybe I just have trouble with creepy.I found myself coming up with Bull slang on the ride home:

Rook and Hook: When you don’t web or contain a ghost but just beat the shit out of it with your lightning-hooks.“Our spider lost his web-thrower, so we just resorted to rook and hook.”

O.A.R.-web: Stands for Owl-Anchor-Rook-Web, referring to a catch when everything goes smooth and according to plan.

“First catch as a journey-man and it was O.A.R.-web”

2 in 1: When you beat a possessed person to death and have to deal with the original ghost and the ghost you just made from killing the bloke.

“Passenger’s head started spinning and we got over-eager, 2 in 1’ed the poor bastard.”

The game reminded me that I really like working-class fantasy heroes. There aren’t nearly enough of them. If I played through a long game, I’d be tempted to see what a strike would look like among the Ghost Line bulls.

Cool Player Moments:

Jim’s bull in a grappling tussle with a ghost, breaking open a jar of electric oil and threatening to burn out both of their souls.

The joy and pep with which Charlotte’s bull went at her work. Would a dozen or so sessions have lessened her love of the job?

Link to conversation over on G+