Beyond the Supernatural

Since this game manual has been discontinued, copies have become expensive. I was able to find one here that was in great shape, and at a wonderful price.

This book could be the beginning of a lot nights staying up late fighting evil extra dimensional beings planing to bring hell on Earth and for me Beyond the Supernatural is a flash from the past. This was the first RPG game that I cut my teeth on. Anywho, When most people think of a D20 rpg game they think of D & D 3.5. There was a game before its time. Beyond the Supernatural is one of many books under the umbrella of Palladium's RPG gaming system, and yes it is an older system but it has stood the test of time. Beyond the Supernatural has a setting, in my option, of a modern day Cthulhu mythos meets HellBoy with a small amount of X files thrown into the pot. You are a Supernatural detective trying to save the world from vampires, gangs of monsters from other dimensions, and demons from hell. They are transported to Earth with a little help from "Rifts", or gateways that link our world to theirs, and these Rifts just so happen to be linked to real world locations. Some of these places are the great pyramids of Egypt and the serpent mound of Ohio. These are just two of many other ancient supernatural hot spots. That was a brief description of BtS now lets move on to the system. Beyond the Supernatural is an older D20 system. The rules for combat are pretty straight forward. If you are proficient with the weapon i.e. if you choose a weapon proficiency skill, for example sword w.p., when you attack with your character you have a plus to your D20 roll. They also takes into consideration your attributes. Meaning, if you have a high P.S."Physical Strength" then you will have a plus to your damage roll, like D & D. Also if you wear armor the attacker meeds to roll higher then the A.R. "Armor Rating" to punch through it, which means the character take all of the damage. If the attacker does not roll high enough then the armor takes all of the damage. A players health point and taking damage is also different then D & D. You have two sets of damage locations one for SDC "Structural Damage Capacity" and the Other for Hit points. SDC is the amount of Damage you can take before your vital organs start taking damage. Taking Damage in Beyond the Supernatural could turn some players away, because, one bad grenade throw means you wipe out your whole team. Skills are a bit different from D & D's. Palladium systems uses percentile dice. The highest percentile a character's skill can reach is 98%. This leaves room for a failure on a skill check. One of many examples where Palladium applies real world reasoning into a RPG system. The chance of a failure makes the system more believable. Then there is the negative points of the Palladium system. The reason I did not give it a five star rating applies to if a character wants to learn a new skill they need to go back to college and take a class or classes allowing them to learn a new skill. If the character has 200 bucks per class then they can learn a new skill, if I remember the option for learning new s

Now in an expanded second edition, Beyond The Supernatural is a role playing game by Kevin Siembieda that is set in the modern world where the heroes include ordinary people as well as those with the gift of paranormal abilities. This is also a world of shadowy horror, strange creatures and dark magic. This 256-page role gaming compendium features extensive backgrounding and a lush setting; 14 psychic character classes including Fire Walker, Ghost Hunter, Medium, Psi-Mechanic, and Psychic Sensitive; 42 occupations (including Professional Psychic and Psychic Investigator); more than one hundred psychic abilities; The Lazlo Society and Lazlo Agency; as well as entities, fiends, and creatures of darkness. Beyond The Supernatural is a strongly recommended addition to any dedicated role gamer collection, this fantasy role-playing game offers easy to learn rules to get even the most novice player up and running quickly.