Unfortunately, only the first edition and it's adventure book (Boxed Nightmares) are available that I can see on RPGNow...

Palladium Books have been converting from print to .pdf for a while now, usually adding a couple of books every week.  But who can say when Beyond the Supernatural's second edition will reach the top of the pile.

Bafflingly, the Nightbane sourcebook Shadows of Light is available, even though that has been pretty much disowned and hasn't seen print in years.  Yet Beyond the Supernatural hasn't been converted yet.

Beyond the Supernatural is one of my favorite settings from Palladium Books. The Victim Rules of 1st edition being a particular highlight for me. The character generation is very streamlined taking only a few minutes. The characters are basic to model the average person you see in a horror movie.

I used to be on a irc chat room for Palladium fans and we would run victim games there a lot. A person would volunteer to be GM and come up with the game while everyone else made their characters. It usually only took about 10 minutes to get the game started. It was a lot of fun and sure made you think fast as a GM.

As a self plug Rifter 71-72 has an article by me for Beyond the Supernatural 2nd that adds ten knew monsters from Japan with HL&S.

The ordinary people/victim rules in the second edition are nice too.  There is an option to spend ISP at character creation to boost some abilities if you want "better than average but still unpowered" characters.

I sub' the Rifter and read through your Japanese monsters only a week or two back.  My Rifter #71-72 was sooo late arriving.

Quote from: Malleustein;8822122005, there was a limited edition hardcover and a retail softcover that remains on sale.  Unfortunately, the core book contained only a small handful of supernatural entities and no arcane magic, only psionics.

The planned sourcebooks Tome Grotesque and Beyond Arcanum remain unreleased to this day, though sneak previews have appeared in The Rifter.  Both books are occasionally mentioned in Siembieda's weekly updates but always pushed back in favour of RIFTS, Robotech and other more popular lines.

Yup - I bought the 2nd edition and was let down at the lack of magic (and long running lack of attention). My copy has prints of the 1st edition Arcanist and other "missing" character classes - I'd totally handwave them in rather than go without.

I remember buying the 1st edition when it came out (hyped in Dragon mag at the time). I enjoyed it and ran several sessions "straight" - I.e., serious ghost hunting. One of my friends still references one of the key sessions (where his non-believing PC began making more and more extreme rational answers as the circumstance got less rational).

Palladium system of not, it's still a favorite of mInc.

I've reconciled with the lack of arcane magic.  I've been tinkering with a setting that accepts psionics as the singular source of supernatural power anyway, so I don't really require mages.

The Nega-Psychic is a cool O.C.C. but it can be hard to rationalize the zombies, gurgoyles, vampires, etc. in the long term.  Especially if the group includes genuine psychic player characters.

When I DMed it way back I ended up with a group of normal, if professional, people. Not a one had magic or psi.

That is the way I prefer to Referee the game too.  I find the Palladium rules still create more "action/combat ready" characters than Call of Cthulhu, which maintains the horror movie vibe I like.

How high powered are the psi-rules? Lots of horror games if they introduce PC-psi make it pretty powerful which I think is against genre. Cthulhu d20 of all things was the best implementaion of it I've seen (not that I liked much else there, but they got psi right for that style of game).

New or old?

In the old version you had some fairly low level psi types like the Latent Psychic, Psi Sensetive, Psychic Healer or Genius, and then there were the more active types like the Physical Psychic and Psi Mechanic.

The Latent Psychic for example had 1 minor, major and physical power.
The Genius converted PPE into skill boosts.
The Physical Psychic purchased powers from a list and tended to be very flashy.

Electrokinesis for example did 1d6 damage. Pyrokinesis on the other hand did 6d6 with the hurled fire version. Or you could for example make yourself impervious to cold or take none or only 1/2 damage from fire.

Overall on the lower end of the power scale.

Quote from: Ronin;881664The system while a bit clunky isn't the problem for me. The fact that Tomb of the Grotesque, and Beyond Arcanum (Monster and Magic) books have been coming soon for what over a decade? It kills me, and shows Pally lack of support for the line.

You are upset at Palladium for being late on its books? Well, that's just adorable.

Quote from: Omega;881785System Shock

Did you mean Systems Failure? That was not only the best single Palladium RPG ever made, it was one of the best RPGs ever made.

A buddy of mine runs a Beyond the Supernatural game at Origins most years. He started running it during a time when our group rotated games week to week. I think because no one was running a game with a horror theme or in the modern era.
Also, the system is pretty simple; especially when you handwave stuff on the spot. With pre-made characters and a quick explanation of combat (d20+mods vs d20+mods) and skills (roll under d100), and magic/psionics (spend points) anyone should be good to go.

With BtS you aren't dealing with missiles, MDC, or robot combat. The setting is right now, so no long descriptions of goofball setting bullshit is necessary. It's also interesting to me because it treats magic and psionics in an almost clinical or scientific way. Instead of some lame 'magic simply exists and monsters are all old myths and legends.' I like the unique monsters; when I was a kid, the Dybbuk and Mindolar scared the shit out of me.

Anyway...

He says turnout is always lower than hoped, but suspects it has to do with the perception of Palladium and unfamiliarity with game setting, as it has been essentially out of print for over a decade.

Quote from: D-503;882920How high powered are the psi-rules? Lots of horror games if they introduce PC-psi make it pretty powerful which I think is against genre. Cthulhu d20 of all things was the best implementaion of it I've seen (not that I liked much else there, but they got psi right for that style of game).

In the first edition, I'd say psychics were low-to-medium in power.  There were plenty of utility abilities, but only a few for combat.  Though I generally find psionic player characters are good at avoiding a fight or "winning" without firing a shot but use of their psionic abilities (if not natural ones or skills).

In second edition, psychics have far less power they can use day-to-day.  Without a dangerous supernatural entity to confront, they are stuck bending spoons and walking across hot coals.  When investigating the supernatural and especially when such a threat looms, they get a pretty hefty multiplier to their I.S.P. (battery for psionic powers).

So without a threat, second edition characters are definitely weaker than first edition characters, but when facing off against a greater demon or ancient alien intelligence, they can bring a lot more to bear.  It is a mechanic I like a lot.

The nega-psychic remains the oddity.  Besides wearing dismissive blinkers, they can handwave away most non-physical attacks from supernatural entities but can seriously cramp the style of their psychic allies too.  Nonetheless, they remain powerful through both editions simply due to this ability to shrug off or diminish nearby psychic phenomena.

RPGPundit, start up a thread about Systems Failure!!


BTS and HU never wow'd me. I love Nightbane and that's my go-to Palladium horror and my preferred "World of Darkness".

I've read BTS and its got very good GM advice, but as a horror game, I was much more drawn to CoC and Chill. I really loved Chill for its concept as horrors as alien beings that feed off fear.

Though as horror goes, Chaos Earth lends itself nicely...but that game needs a 2e and a relaunch.

Wormwood was a pretty interesting near stand-alone bio-horror setting for Rifts too. Felt like it could have been its own game and would have done fine.