Beyond the Supernatural
| A Role-Playing Game of Contemporary Horror | |
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Front cover of Beyond the Supernatural first edition rulebook, illustrated by Richard Corben
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| Designer(s) | Randy McCall, Kevin Siembieda, Erick Wujcik |
| Illustrator(s) |
Covers: Denis Beauvais, Richard Corben, John Zeleznik Interiors: Stephen R. Bissette, Michael Dubisch, Kevin Long, Apollo Okamura, Ramón Pérez, Freddie E. Williams II |
| Publisher(s) | Palladium Books |
| Publication date | October 1987 (1st edition) January 2005 (2nd edition) |
| Years active | 1987–present |
| Genre(s) | Horror, mystery |
| Language(s) | English |
| System(s) | Megaversal |
| Website | palladiumbooks |
Beyond the Supernatural is a horror role-playing game published by Palladium Books. It has seen two editions released, both of which have introduced innovations on Palladium's standard mechanics. A versatile horror-themed game, it lends itself well to wildly different play styles and narrative tones, from schlock splatter-horror to intense psychological horror, with an entire spectrum of terror (or humor, or action, etc.) in between. Beyond the Supernatural is implicitly set in the modern day, wherein magic and psychic powers are real and monsters and demonic cults exist, but out of the public eye. This, however, is not set in stone, and most of the character classes are flexible enough to account for variant settings or time periods.
The first edition of Beyond the Supernatural was published September 1987 and was a joint project between Randy McCall and Kevin Siembieda, the president and lead game designer of Palladium Books. It had one supplement published, Boxed Nightmares, in November 1990; Boxed Nightmares was a collection of adventures, along with a faux tabloid. Much of the art for both titles was created by Kevin Long. Players could select one of several Psychic Character Classes (P.C.C.s), which determined their abilities; these included Psychic Sensitives, Physical Psychics, Psi-Mechanics (who required devices as crutches to make use of their psychic powers), Arcanists (who had studied magic), Parapsychologists (who had neither psychic nor magical powers, but a great deal of knowledge about both), Nega-Psychics (psychics whose great disbelief in the supernatural actually disrupted its presence), and ordinary people. The system used the then-standard Palladium combat and skills system, including variable educational levels for most characters; two individuals of the same P.C.C. could have substantially different training backgrounds and skill sets, with one being a doctoral student and another a high-school drop-out, depending either on the roll of the dice or character concept.
First edition's innovation's on Palladium's system was in terms of its supernatural powers. Beyond the Supernatural introduced the concept of Potential Psychic Energy (P.P.E.), which is invested in skills and psychic powers as a person develops, and is used to power magical spells. This replaced the older "spells per day" system that had been used in earlier versions of the Palladium Fantasy Role-Playing Game (1983), Heroes Unlimited (1984), and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles & Other Strangeness (1985). Psychic powers were also now organized into the categories of Physical, Healing, and Sensitive, instead of experience levels as they had been previously. Both of these innovations, and the metaphysical underpinnings for them, became standard in Palladium Megaversal games.
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