As October is traditionally a “spooky” month, let’s examine one of my older, “spooky” RPGs: Beyond the Supernatural (4th Ed, 1991) by Palladium Books.
Beyond the Supernatural (henceforth abbreviated BtS) was one of those games set in a world of mystical cults, demons, vampires, zombies, Things That Man Was Not Meant to Know, Elder Gods (like the Cthulu mythos of Lovecraft) and so on. As the game was written by Palladium Books, it uses a version of Palladium’s mostly-standardized game engine. Palladium had lots of RPGs back in the day, starting with their Palladium Fantasy Role-Playing Game and including Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Rifts, Ninjas & Superspies, After The Bomb, the Robotech RPG; newer games by Palladium include Dead Reign RPG and Nightbane RPG. These share a standard set of game mechanics including character design methods, combat system, abilities, and so forth. As this particular book was published in 1991, the publishers made sure we all knew that this was JUST A GAME, to be taken no more seriously than Monopoly or checkers. To quote: “If you find yourself turning out lights and lighting candles, wearing a robe, casting spells or seeing spirits, toss this book out the window and talk to somebody quick. Talk to your Mom or Dad, a friend, a priest, a psychologist or someone who cares, because this isn’t normal. Remember, it’s just a game.” As was typical of RPGs of this time (goodness, twenty-five years ago!), BtS included a section on “How to play a role-playing game.” This discussed how to imagine the scene, how to interact with the gamemaster, how to interpret your character, and so forth. The book then launches into the RPG engine’s requirements (2d4, 4d6, 2d8, 2d10, and 2d20, plus the character sheets, pencils, and paper), a glossary, and then a step-by-step guide to creating a character. Character creation is not too difficult, but it is a fairly long process. One generates ability scores for eight abilities, then determines hit points and SDC (Structural Damage Capacity); next, you select a Psychic Character Class (PCC), occupation, education & skills, equipment & money, and finally you round out the character. Almost all of this is contained in various tables. Each PCC requires a different amount of Experience Points (XP) to increase in level, and each PCC has a very different outlook on the world – both of the “normal” world and of the supernatural world. There are even optional rules for “normal” (“ordinary”) people to be player characters, to replicate those types of stories where “Joe Blow” stumbles into something pretty bizzare. Choosing your PC’s PCC and occupation, then equipping the PC, is probably the most time-consuming part of character creation in BtS. Some characters (and creatures, and bad guys) use magic, and they do so in diverse ways… spells, rituals, natural abilities, etc. (The book continuously points out that magic isn’t real, just in case we don’t know that.) Others use various psychic, or anti-psychic, powers. Adventures in this game are fairly familiar to anyone who likes Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the X-Files, the stories of H. P. Lovecraft, Kolchak the Night Stalker, or other scary, weird, bizarre tales. Anything may happen, and the “bad guys” might be evil cultists, “Things From Beyond”, classic monsters like vampires or werewolves, or even Scooby-Doo type “monsters” (people disguising themselves as scary things in order to get away with being naughty). As in the Lovecraft stories, insanity is a constant threat – as is physical injury and/or death. As with many of the games in my RPG horde, I haven’t played this (even though I’ve owned the game for a quarter of a century). There are many reasons, in this particular case, but the primary two are (1) the system isn’t the easiest in the world, and (2) the genre has never been popular amongst the gamers in my RPG circle. Grab some dice, and let’s start killin’ some goblins – er, I mean Mind Slugs … Sum non Satis? Commodore Tank Clark, SFMD Team Leader, 33rd STARFLEET Rangers (“The Paladins”) “Have Phaser, Will Travel”
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Commodore Tank ClarkCommodore Clark has been the Team Leader of the 33rd STARFLEET Rangers for several years. His monthly articles about games (usually Role-Playing Games -- RPGs -- but sometimes about other tabletop forms of entertainment) appear regularly in the Regulator Charge!, the ship's newsletter. Archives
September 2017
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