Beyond the Supernatural
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| Beyond the Supernatural | |
|---|---|
 Beyond the Supernatural 2nd edition cover |
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| Designer(s) | Kevin Siembieda, Randy Cartier |
| Publisher(s) | Palladium Books |
| Publication date | September 1987 |
| Genre(s) | Horror |
| System | Megaversal system |
Beyond the Supernatural is a horror role-playing game published by Palladium Books. It is arguably the predecessor to Rifts, and considered by some users to be part of the past history of Rifts alongside the later game Chaos Earth. It is unique among Palladium's RPGs in that it lends itself well to wildly different play styles or narrative tone, from schlock splatter-horror, to intense psychological horror, with an entire spectrum of terror (or humor, or action) in between. This is quite different from the wildly popular Rifts series, in that BtS has little intrinsic storyline or background, and the rules are almost universally setting-independent, whereas Rifts' background storyline is inseparable from many of the rules concepts (such as character classes).
The history of the game's publication and the subsequent releases of supplemental material is frought with long delays (more than a decade for the arguably mediocre sequel, Beyond The Supernatural 2), and cancellations. This is in stark contrast to the seemingly infinite glut of decidedly non-essential Rifts Worldbooks and other Rifts supplemental material. Examples of delayed (or possibly cancelled) supplements for Beyond the Supernatural 2 include the Tome Grotesque and Beyond Arcanum books. These books are more or less necessary to play Beyond the Supernatural 2: the Tome Grotesque describes not only pre-made monsters, but presents rules for creating new ones, and Beyond Arcanum, which is planned the contain the rules for use of magic in the game, an inseparably vital aspect of the game.
Beyond the Supernatural has a small but dedicated fanbase, which has naturally had many repeated complaints that Palladium Books does not seem to give the game any priority over the Rifts series, which has traditionally been Palladium's primary "cash cow". Given that Rifts takes place in a science fantasy Earth totally unlike the real world, players wishing to use the Palladium Megaverse system in a modern setting must either adapt existing rules or use the rules for Palladium's other modern-day settings, which do not include rules for magic or supernatural monsters which are essential to Beyond the Supernatural.
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| Palladium Books | |
| Current role-playing games | |
| Fantasy | Palladium Fantasy |
| Horror | Beyond the Supernatural • Nightbane |
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| Out of print role-playing games | |
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| See also | List of role-playing games by genre |
