Ghost with the Most
Across all of the various forms of Beetlejuice media, the Ghost with the Most can be seen doing some pretty incredible things. This is all the more impressive when it comes to the original movie and the toys based on specific gags. The filmmakers had to rely on practical effects and gimmicks rather than the tomfoolery you can get with digital compositing and CGI. However, both approaches, when done correctly, can bring amazement and amusement in great quantities. When working in your tabletop games, remember to keep things grounded the majority of the time, at least within the confines of that game - you should do the things that make sense within that universe. That doesn’t mean, however, that you can’t add some incredible theatrical flourishes and descriptions. Is your evil wizard casting fireball? You don’t have to describe it as a simple beam of light streaking to the target. You could have them light their own head aflame, then detach it, and throw it at the target. (Yes, that doesn’t make much sense, but at least you can say "a wizard did it.") It's something different, a bit creepy, and all for show, and hopefully leave a memorable impression on your players.
Another bit of inspiration from Beetlejuice's whimsical and macabre original era would be to shrink things down. This has even happened in Never Say Dice's own games. You don’t have to transport your characters to Saturn to make great changes in their environment. Even if you present it in more of a Honey I Shrunk the Kids manner than Beetlejuice's chicanery with models, scaling the surroundings up and the characters down makes for a unique experience. The dangers change and things that were innocuously normal become creepy, weird, or deranged when experienced from a different perspective. You might even go all the way to a microscopic level and have your players fighting against bacteria and viruses in the laboratory of a mad scientist, evil wizard, or demon. While you can’t use this trick all the time, dropping it into a campaign now and again is an amazing change of pace for your games. You can pull it into any type of game - fantastical to futuristic and points in between. Make sure you focus on the fun and the absurd aspects (both horror and comedy) of the change.
Say it Again
Perhaps all sequels are nowhere near as good as their predecessors, or maybe it's just most of them. It can be difficult to capture the magic of the first time around in another go. Many are likely to argue the same about the second installment in this media franchise, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. While we won’t be getting into that debate at Never Say Dice, or at least not in this post, we can still draw inspiration from what the creators chose to do. Pulling off the same movie trick, or awesome adventuring session, twice isn’t the easiest task. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice reminds us of two great things. First, remember what's changed since the original go-around. Characters grow and change over the course of gaming sessions, but this leads to new challenges to overcome. It also leaves the past open for reminders: that villain or PC you no longer use might become a new running gag in a future session. Another inspiration we can pull from the second movie comes from pulling off the same gags again. Would it be as impactful if everyone was just possessed to sing Day-o yet another time? Put a twist on it! Change the song, change the control, change the venue. If that fire wizard has thrown his flaming head at the party the first encounter, when they go to cast fireball again, perhaps this time he shoots his fists at them.
As we immerse ourselves in the spooky season, it only feels right to revel in the macabre media memories of our childhoods. Certainly, Beetlejuice was a standout from this era we can revisit on a yearly basis. While the resulting inspiration the franchise brings to our games may not be necessarily macabre, that doesn’t mean you can’t apply them equally to darker games as well as more light-hearted adventures. As mentioned above, keep yourself open to both the fun and the absurd parts of gaming. If you’re going to play it all again, make sure to add bit of twist into things... even if it's just in the flavor text. Until next week, enjoy your tables and your dice... spooky or otherwise.
-A
