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This additional setting material comes with a price, however. Magic is mentioned, but not detailed in this book. The yet to be printed Arcanum will detail magic. The game can be played without magic; only two of the monsters have any magical abilities, making it easy to use only psychic creatures and threats. It also does not include an equipment section, but this is not a major disadvantage. Each PCC comes with an equipment list. As these notes include damage for weapons, and weapon proficiencies include data like range, payload and more detailed damage ratings, they’re very usable in the game. For the rest, it will require a bit of research to find prices, but the book provides a good baseline of what people should have.
Without magic, psychic powers become the centerpiece of the game. Inner Strength Points (ISP), which fuel psychic powers, start with very small totals (the greatest 1st level total is 12 ISP), but they increase proportionally to the amount of supernatural danger the psychic is facing. This is an interesting mechanic, as it makes psychics much more focused on combating supernatural evil, but needs careful monitoring by the GM to avoid problems, and it is not clear how this works for those who embrace or are, themselves, supernatural evil.
Psychic powers, are now selected, instead of purchased, as they were in 1st edition. I regard this as a half-step backwards; while it is more consistent with other Palladium games, it is less elegant in execution, and places all powers as being equal in power. Many powers have a greater effect than they have in previous editions; Clairvoyance is more thoroughly described, and confusion about the Total Recall power has been clarified, along with other improvements. However, some powers are placed peculiarly; Detect Psionics remains exclusively a Healing, not Sensitive, power. Mask ISP & Psionics and Mask P.P.E. are both Sensitive, but Alter Aura remains exclusively physical. Exorcism is Healing, but Dispel Spirits is Sensitive and Mind Bolt, which was previously described as an electromagnetic bolt is Sensitive, not Physical (though it is now unclear if the power can still damage objects, or what it is made of). The end result is that the categories are amorphously defined, and based upon abilities already in a category, there is usually a strong argument that several powers from other categories should be included. These are the kinds of things that second editions should address.
Combat is still the Palladium standard, with a few improvements, and a few points which remain weak or confusing. The bright points in this combat system are some advice from Kevin Siembieda on how to run large combats more effectively by dividing it into individual combats, and dealing with that pair of combatants before moving to another. This would seem to make combat more cinematic and less of a free-for-all.
Ranged combat is somewhat improved from 1st edition Palladium games, though P.P. (Physical Prowess) still does not count towards strikes with firearms. Modern W.P. now have varying strike bonuses like melee W.P., and how various fire modes affect accuracy and ammunition are clearly delineated. Furthermore, the old “negative 10” rule (where the defender lost all bonuses, and had a further –10 to dodge gunfire) has been replaced with a more lenient negative ten rule, which leaves your P.P. and PCC bonuses to dodge, and only applies within 10 feet; up to 50 feet, it is only negative five. This is far more reasonable. Burst damage is now defined by weapons, with short bursts and long bursts having definite round requirements, rather than the previous 10%, 20%, and 50% of a magazine. These damages are listed with the weapon proficiencies, though there is a hiccup with sub-machineguns, which list two different weapon damages.
Combat skills are of the new style (beginning with three or four attacks per melee), but still suffer from poor design, in my opinion. Certain levels will be pointless to some characters, under relatively common circumstances (e.g. level 3 Hand to Hand: Basic provides only a kick attack, which a person skilled in Gymnastics or Acrobatics has had since learning the skill). Other Hand to Hand skills lack basic skills (such as Hand to Hand Assassin not providing the ability to perform a critical strike from behind), or weird situations with special attacks (such as Hand to Hand Commando being 10% more likely to Death Blow than Critical Strike from levels 9-14).
Armor is still based on the venerable AR system; this is less of a problem with BTS-2’s generally lower strike bonuses, though it still leaves armor an all-or-nothing proposition; it either stops everything, or nothing. On the whole, combat is marginally improved, but all of that is in terms of good advice and ranged combat; melee combat, armor, and combat skills remain mediocre.
Amidst this negativity, skills and professions are a genuine bright point. There are now sensible, concrete penalties to skills based on the situation you characters are in, something that is lacking in previous Palladium games except for very special skills. In most cases (all P.C.C.s except Autistic Savant and Parapsychologist), occupation is only somewhat tied to your P.C.C., and each occupation is a collection of skills, bonuses, and pay scales which define your mundane self; a physical psychic is likely to be a police officer or an athlete, but could also be a writer, entertainer, or dealer in rare books. It provides a lot of flexibility in character design. There are some options I would have liked to see, but it the list gives a good range and benchmarks for other professions. The skill list does have some weird points, however. The Communications list includes technology-based skills like Radio and Laser Communications, but also languages, performance skills, and creative writing (but not technical writing); this means that a Communication Engineer is inherently a good singer and public speaker, as they get a bonus to all Communication skills. Computer Repair still claims that “many computer repair personnel don’t even know how to turn the computer on!” Hand to Hand Commando, though detailed in the main book, is not available to anyone, even combat-oriented classes (such as professional fighters, hit men, or SWAT team members) or PCCs (such as Ghost Hunters and Physical psychics). Boxing still adds an attack, meaning training in hitting people with your fist makes you faster with firearms and polearms. There may be a reason for this, but it has not been explained in a rulebook.
The P.C.C.s are well done. The Autistic Psychic Savant has enough abilities to be useful to a team of investigators, but is handicapped (quite literally) by severe role-playing restrictions. I do not usually endorse game-mechanical advantages being balanced by role-playing restrictions, but these are large enough, and GMs are provided with strong guidelines on how they manifest. Diviners are well-done, with interesting and useful abilities to differentiate them from the Psi-Sensitives. Psi-Mediums are a well-written class; their abilities have an interesting flavor, their spirit guide provides the GM with an interesting, constant NPC, and their abilities are not overbalancing. Like Diviners, they have their own niche which somewhat overlaps with the traditional psychic sensitive, without completely overwhelming them. Firewalkers are reminiscent of Rifts Bursters, but lower powered (in keeping with the setting), and more customizable, thanks to a wide selection of Pyrokinetic abilities.
Genius and Natural characters, along with Ordinary People, have the ability to spend a pool of bonus P.P.E. to improve attributes, skills, and various d20 rolls (such as saves, perception, and combat abilities). This is a great way of adding to characters, allowing players to individualize the characters they play. Ghost-Hunters are very physical characters, with mechanical and combat aptitude, psionic powers which allow them to effectively fight the supernatural, and the ability to make and use some psi-mechanical devices. In a way, I see this P.C.C. as being too good; it can fight like a physical psychic or natural, makes items like a psi-mechanic (including the game’s only armor), and has his own abilities, as well. Their only real weakness is a lack of detection abilities, but Ghost Vision goggles reduce that somewhat. If the ability to make the psi-mechanical items were removed, they would be somewhat more balanced. Latent Psychics are interesting; all of them have a comparable amount of psychic powers to other P.C.C.s, but cannot necessarily control them. How they view their powers affects which powers they have available, but they can only choose a few (about half of their total) that they are capable of calling upon at will. All of their other powers activate at the Game Master’s will, when the psychic is upset, scared, or otherwise stressed. I would also caution that this class is fairly easy to min/max; several sensitive abilities engage on their own anyway, so your latent psychic being unable to control Sixth Sense or Clairvoyance doesn’t mean as much as being unable to call upon Electrokinesis or Healing Touch at will.
Nega-psychics are well in-line with the previous edition; they are psychics who disbelieve in the paranormal to the degree that they disrupt psychic and magical powers. While they are a wonderful P.C.C., and very well realized, this seems more suited to an antagonist or a single P.C.C. game; they would seem to be difficult to integrate their staunch disbelief into a normal team environment.
Parapsychologists are highly educated believers who approach the paranormal scientifically. In some ways, they are an easy key to the game, having professional credentials that many others will lack, though they're not so necessary that a game without one will be crippled. Though most are non-psychic (an option to play a psychic parapsychologist is included), they understand a lot about psychic powers, magic, and monsters, and can provide information without psychic powers.
Physical psychics use their abilities to effect changes in themselves and the physical world. They are similar to Psi-Sensitives and Psi-Healers in that each focuses on a single psychic category to the exclusion of others, and has a few abilities that others lack. These classics are the cornerstones of the game, but the physical psychic has one glaring omission: the lack of the pyrokinesis power. While the Flame Walkers will always be the primary fire-bugs, the physical psychic has no pyrokinetic powers at all, despite the power being mentioned by name in the class description.
Psi-mechanics are slightly buggy. First, they begin with a whopping 24 powers they are capable of building into devices, and will have up to 9 of those available at the beginning of play (not counting their two Machine Psionic powers, which do not require devices). Secondly, given enough time, it is in a psi-mechanic’s best interests to make his device, take it apart completely, and then put it back together again. This is because duplicates cost only half the usual P.P.E., and he receives all P.P.E. back when a device is destroyed. Create the device, destroy it, and rebuild it, and it now takes only half the required P.P.E.. This is probably not how it is intended to work, but it is how it works, as written. When it comes down to it, there is one important question: Will people enjoy this game? If they’re looking for a horror game, be it Lovecraftian or Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I believe they will. Palladium’s system can still use improvement, but it’s a solid game which has been adapted to fit well with the genre. Many of its difficulties can be easily glossed over or fixed by a competent Game Master, and those not familiar with Palladium’s previous work will likely find fewer difficulties than experienced Palladium gamers with established issues (like, I must admit, myself). This is not a game to buy at all costs, but definitely one to invest in if you are a fan of either Palladium or horror.
