The Short Version
This is not Anne Rice. The monsters are not sympathetic characters.
This is not Scream. There is no hip, young cast made up of today's hottest young stars giving off wisecracks before getting disemboweled by some random, pointless killer in a spiffy mask.
This is the Brothers Grimm. A story with a lesson wrapped in a veil of monsters and ritual killings.
This is X-Files. Investigation into the paranormal, searching for meaning in a world just left of reality.
Beyond the Supernatural is that rarest of gems in its genre: Horror done right. There are no guys dressed up like mimes acting all gloomy, there are no vampires giving interviews, there are no random people getting killed in a senseless bloodbath. Sure, you can run it that way if you want, but the game isn't built for campaigns of that nature. The game is built to simulate the world of paranormal investigation, a genre where what happens isn't as important as what we learn from it. And that's the way the genre should be handled.
The Long Version
Beyond the Supernatural is billed as "a role-playing game of contemporary horror." This may have been true in 1988 when the game was published, but the horror genre has gone through some changes as of late. Beyond the Supernatural is set in the late-eighties world of pseudo-scientific research in the paranormal. This is the kind of world the inspired shows like X-Files and even movies like Ghostbusters. More H.P. Lovecraft than Anne Rice.
The game opens up with character creation. The game uses a system similar to Heroes Unlimited with characters coming from a power category, called a Psychic Character Class, and rolling on an Educational Table for skills. Out of all the Palladium games I've run, I find I prefer this system for skill selection to the others. It provides a more realistic separation between the types of powers one has and the level of schooling one has taken than the Rifts OCC/RCC system or the Systems Failure/Ninjas system of OCC determining both powers and skill programs. The other systems may be more appropriate within their settings, but this is the best choice that Palladium has fielded for a 20th century, in my opinion. An added bonus here is a random chart for why one has chosen the life of a paranormal investigator. Some may not think that a random background chart is needed, since players will or should build their backgrounds in their minds, but personally I like additions like these tables. They provide me with options I may not have thought of and the means to pick a background I'm not inclined to play if I want a challenge.
Combat is the old Palladium Standard, without expanded kicks or damage multipliers by ammo amount. Since the expanded hand to hand rules didn't exist at the time the book was written and since fist fighting with werewolves and ghosts is a generally silly idea, there's no real problem with the cut-down combat rules. The vehicle combat rules are missing, but since car chases aren't a big feature in this sort of setting anyway, their lack isn't an immediate issue. Eventually, though, someone is going to get chased down a road by a monster and the lack of clear and coherent rules, or even just a damage rating for hitting a monster with a Hummer, will annoy some GMs.
Psychic Character Classes follow the combat rules. Here we see the precursors to a number of character types that appear in later books. An early version of the Rifts Techno-Wizard, the Psi-Mechanic, appears, as does the Natural/Genius from Nightbane, the Latent Psychic from Heroes 2nd, and the original Nega-Psychic. The PCC list doesn't feel all-inclusive, though for the life of me I couldn't think of anything to add, save maybe a religious character type.
Psychic powers come next, featuring the first appearance of the format adopted in all of Palladium's post-Rifts games. Super-Psionics are not here, with powers that normally go in the super section mixed into the lesser categories. A couple of interesting powers, notably Divination, crop up that were removed from later games.
Magic follows that, marking the first use of PPE and Ley Lines in a Palladium game. Everything is fairly standard for a Palladium magic system here, save for two points of note. First, the description of how magic works is much more thorough in this book than it is in any other Palladium book I have seen. The reasons why things work the way they do are explained rather than quickly glossed over. This is probably just because magic is a major factor in the setting, but the background information here would be of use to any Palladium gamer who uses magic extensively. The second point of note is that Beyond the Supernatural's mage class, the Arcanist, is by far the most powerful mage at first level Palladium has put out, save possibly some Federation of Magic classes. The character won't have anywhere near enough PPE to make full use of their abilities, but the average of 21 spells (minimum of nine, maximum of forty-two) spread out over levels one through nine is more than enough to make a Ley Line Walker seem like a pansy in comparison. This seems somewhat out of synch, since the majority of the character classes in the book are not built to the same power level.
Background on Ley Lines, Nexus Points, and Magic Triangles follow up. Once again, anyone who uses magic extensively in their games would find this section of use. Most of the info can be found throughout several other books, but here everything is compiled into one spot. In addition, there are notes for harmful effects that come from hanging around nexus points for too long. These rules don't appear anywhere else in Palladium that I am aware of, but they can be nice for discouraging wizards from sitting on nexus points for long periods of time.
Monsters are listed, but there's nothing there really of note. They do the job and are pretty representative of the kinds of monsters the PCs will face. A random monster table is included for those who want a beastie not listed, as well as a random table for making an evil mage. Like I said, nothing standout, just functional.
Sandwiched between the monsters and the general GM section are a variant ruleset for running horror games. These rules are short, quick, and do what they are supposed to do: simulate Slasher flicks. The characters are weak, none-too-bright, none-too-skilled, and not fated to live for long. These Victim Rules are fun for a single night's worth of gaming, but aren't built to support long campaigns.
The real prize of the book comes in the form of the GM's section. Up until here, the book has been fairly standard. Sure, the sections on magic are useful to anyone who runs a Palladium game, the PCCs have some historical value, and there are some nice random tables, but otherwise, the book has mostly been just people who hunt monsters. An average game that doesn't really inspire the imagination. The GM's section changes all of that. In a little more than two pages, Beyond the Supernatural managed to change my expectations of the horror genre entirely, leading me to suspect that there may actually be scary stories worth my time and that a horrifying roleplaying session may actually be possible. Some random tables for making an incredibly generic adventure follow, along with some NPCs and pre-made adventures, but those two pages are worth a large portion of the admission price themselves for any horror fan.
Equipment and guns round out the book, but I think they are the exact same as found in Heroes Revised and Ninjas and Superspies. Fine for the late eighties, but getting a bit dated now.
Layout is Palladium Standard. Functional, but not really pretty. Everything that goes together stays together, though. This reduces the amount of page turning one finds in other Palladium Books, like Heroes 2nd.
Steve R. Bissette provides a lot of the interior art. His style is harsh and angular, supporting the horror elements of the game well. Unfortunately, little of it does more than say "Yes, this is a horror game." The artwork is used sparingly, though, and only rarely to just break up blocks of text.
As a game of paranormal investigation, Beyond the Supernatural is a nice game. The setting is generic, not tying the game into any particular plotline or location. The background material is note perfect, though a serious GM may want to supplement the game with outside research into mythology and what not. Unfortunately, the majority of the material really doesn't jump out and frighten, putting the majority of the weight of injecting life and terror onto the GM. A Second Edition with a few tweaks here and there and it would fit my idea of a horror game to perfection.
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