Ectozone.com News Archive

When I got into the Ghostbusters online fandom fourteen years ago, the thing that got me noticed--that made the fan fic and everything else seem like something worth doing, that made Ludicris and SpecterHarness decide to invite me into the Ghostbusters West Coast--was the Ghostbusters Omnibus Timeline. At the time, before Youtube and the DVD set, it was about as comprehensively researched as I could manage...and encompassed virtually all of the entire GB lore at the time, this being before the "revival" which made the (to me) dumb decision to jettison 97% of the lore of the franchise to that point.

Anyway, that's all over and done and re-litigating it is a waste of time. That being said, over time as Youtube and the DVD set and the GBWiki came into prominence, a few things started to need revisions as more information came to light. Remember the flap about Charlie/Jim Venkman a few years ago?

But I think more than anything the thing that really started to bug me was a problem with Extreme Ghostbusters...I'd somehow written myself into the position of having all forty episodes occur in the space of about three months (September through December 1997). That seemed a bit crowded. And more, there were references in the show itself that indicated events that took place throughout the year.

So just fix it, right?

Not quite that easy, as the characters' birthdates were based on an assumption of age 18 in September 1997 (except Roland, who I set as 19). Numerous references in the Timeline and in Ectozone fan fic were based on those dates.

Well, recently I decided I really needed to take that plunge. More than anyone, it was the work of Rosey "EGBFan" Collins (a longtime collaborator, beta reader, and moderator at the Ectozone message board) and her brother Jake at their web site that prompted it. She'd done a lot of the work of "spreading" the events of all forty episodes over the course of 1997. I didn't follow Rosey's list 100%--I interpreted, for example, the contradictory dating cues from "Home Is Where The Horror Is" differently than she did--but a lot of it's her work and I credit her appropriately.

Along with that, all of the Extreme Ghostbusters are one year older. I carried the changes over onto the Ectozone Fanon Timelne, which means that there will inevitably be some in-story references I will have to revise, but I think this is a change that, in the long run, it made sense to make.

While I was at it, I ran both Timelines through a spellcheck--so there's a lower number of dumb spelling errors than before.

--Fritz V. Baugh

August 17-20 were the fiftieth installment of GenCon! So how did it go?

"You will buy super deformed orc minis. And then you will buy a $4 Convention Center hot dog!"

Lots of 13th Age, the game that DnD 5E should have been. Bestiary 2 was, to me, the RPG highlight of the show--I mean, good grief, in addition to lots of owlbear stats, they gave us the serial-numbers-filed-off 13th Age version of the Bullywug, so how can I resist?

More Ars Magica including what is, for the forseeable future, the final book of the line. It was available last year, but I was too depressed by the end of the series to buy it.

And yeah, I bought some more Gundam models. This is what I'll probably be doing instead of writing for the next couple months (though I still hope to get some writing in; "Coda and Terchi's Extreme Adventure, Part Two" is partially done)

The miscellaneous stuff I bought, as well as the GenCon 50 badge (in the badge wallet I bought last year). There are better Ghostbuster patches out there, but hey, I at last have a second part of the Ghostbuster uniform I'll probably never actually make (after the Mattel PKE Meter). And the Oddish was just too cute.

The big hit of the convention was the Exploding Kittens booth, which was basically set up as a vending maching run by lolcats.

But what was the best part of GenCon 50 for me?

Pointy Hat Games is live!

I've known "Vincent Belmont" since 2003, and two years ago he and his wife "Jill" did a combination playtest/demo of their game Elemental Conflux. Well, this year, they managed to snag a booth (#3039, kind of out in the "nosebleed section" of the Convention Center, but you have to start somewhere) and, on Thursday morning, I had the honor being their first paying customer.

It's a great game with fairies, redcaps, dragons, genies, and of course a familiar looking wizard. They'll soon be offering a Kickstarter for their second game, Dungeon Dash, and I fully intend to let you know when that happens.

GenCon 50 was awesome, and as of this writing (August 29, 2017) only 340 days until GenCon 2018!!!

--Fritz V. Baugh

It's the Ectozone's Fourteenth Birthday! It's already bugging me to let me have its ears pierced!

Oh, and here's a new story:

Ghostbusters: Love Songs--Magic
January 1995--Timeline Year Thirteen
Ray and Liz arrive in England, where Liz was trained as a wizard. What if her Aunt Tegan doesn't approve? And why is there a skunk in Ray's room?

I realize it's been a while since my last story. October and November of last year dropped emotional atom bombs on both the personal and the macro scales, and for a long time telling silly stories about silly imaginary people just didn't seem worth doing. I think I'm better now.

Thanks everybody for their patience

--Fritz V. Baugh

Ghostdiva is one of the contributors to Ectozone fanon; she used to have her own web site, but it's been "frozen" so she's asked for some help getting her stories back online. I'm happy to oblige, of course.

One of those stories is an Apocrypha she wrote years ago, and posted on a board even she's not sure of anymore...

Ghostbusters Apocrypha: The Ties That Bind
By Ghostdiva
Apocrypha Era Two
Janine need some new help--she's pregnant. Charlie Venkman just happens to be in town needing a new job. These two facts collide in a way that will bring to light an old tragedy that may prevent a new one.

The other story is actually a fairly important one in the lives of the future Ghostbusters (just three years away from being the "present day" Ghostbusters), now available directly on the Ectozone:

Ghostbusters 2024: A Different Kind Of Hero
By Ghostdiva
2024--Timeline Year Forty-Two
The ever-logical Eden Spengler finds herself in unfamiliar territory when she meets a passionate young doctor. Like a Spengler a generation ago, she's torn between her strange new feelings and the safety of logic...and to top it off, not all of her teammates seem approving.
(First Posted January 7, 2007)

Check'em out if you haven't already!

--Fritz V. Baugh

Joined: February 3, 2003

My GBN profile is now fourteen years old, incredibly moody, and blaming me for everything that goes wrong in its life.

Much like the world at large, the last year as a Ghosthead had been one of soaring highs and gutteral lows. And, truth to be told, for some of the same reasons.