Beyond The Supernatural

More personal history:

I wrote in my last post that while Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was the first Palladium game I purchased, I wasn't really introduced to Palladium as a system until high school when a trio of friends (Ben, Mike, and Michael) showed me how such disparate games as TMNT, Heroes Unlimited, Robotech, and Ninjas & Superspies all worked together off the same universal engine. And, unlike the blandness of GURPS, these were games that lit up all my bells and whistles as far as getting an adolescent's creative juices flowing.

However, I ALMOST got into Palladium before high school through a different friend: Scott.

I believe Scott still lives in Seattle; we were 'friends' on Facebook (an app I almost never use) but he recently deactivated his account (as people tend to do). We were on-again/off-again best friends through elementary school (eight years), but went our separate ways in high school, reconnecting a bit during college, and passing into the realm of casual acquaintance / old (nostalgia) friend after that. The last time I actually sat down with him was before my kids were born; we had a coffee and forgave old grievances and talked about his mom who was dying of cancer at the time. It was a good chat...but I haven't seen him since.

ANYway. I've talked about Scott before, mostly in relation to my old (original) AD&D gaming group. But Scott, like myself, was interested in games outside of D&D. He introduced me to BattleTech (and CityTech and AeroTech and MechWarrior) and we played many battles around his dining room table. He was the first one of us to pick up Advanced Marvel Superheroes and was my GM for that, before those duties migrated to myself. He purchased GURPS (which we never used) and Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader (which we WANTED to play, but couldn't, lacking miniatures and not really grokking war games). And, Shadowrun, of course, which was a bit over our heads at age 12 (but which I would play quite a bit in later years).

But one of the last games he picked up, right before the end of middle school...and I can still remember how excited he was by it...was Beyond the Supernatural. And he was excited by it...so much that this was the one game of his that he didn't let me borrow (back in those days we were always swapping our game books with each other so that we could read them and learn the rules). Looking back, I'm not sure if this is because he wanted to keep the 'secrets' of the game to himself (considering that he would be the GM for the game), or because there was just SO MUCH to read and dive into...first edition BTS is over 250 pages long (a lot bigger than 1E Shadowrun, for example) and is chock full of all the lore and high concept stuff that would become a hallmark of trad RPGs of the '90s. Maybe he just never finished reading the thing before we graduated 8th grade and transitioned to high school.

It was many years later...probably college...that I would come across the game in a shop and, flipping through it, realized that it was a Palladium system and thus compatible with Rifts and all the rest. Astounding. As an old hand at Rifts (by that time) it was fascinating to see where all the PPE and ley-line mumbo-jumbo first appeared. 

Of course, by the time I was in university, Palladium was pretty much dead to me (except for the collecting of their always inspirational world books). I had tried running the game multiple times and it always collapsed under the weight of its own clunk. I had resigned myself to the fact that there were far better systems out there (at that time, I was all about White Wolf, and I could run their "Storyteller" system blindfolded). In fact, I had some college buddies who invited me to play in a one-off Rifts game with them (I wouldn't even have to run the thing)...I wasn't interested.

But their interest in Rifts was unusual at that time. Most of us were playing some sort of White Wolf game in the early 90s. Or some version of BRP. I was running Stormbringer every now and again, and there was an on-going Call of Cthulhu game in the dorms that I never got into...despite my love of Lovecraft and that whole "eldritch horror" genre that his work spawned/inspired. I own CoC (and the GUMSHOE game Trail of Cthulhu), but playing a game where you're powerless in the face of existential horror just never felt fun in the same way reading creepy stories did.

Which maybe why BTS still appeals to me...despite the turn-off of Palladium's system.

I mean: just look at that cover. This is EXACTLY what I want out of a "horror" game. A bunch of dudes in jumpsuits (obviously non-military) firing off automatic weapons while getting chewed up by some Monstrosity-That-Should-Not-Be while trying desperately to locate an exorcism spell in an ancient grimoire (do you read Sumerian?). I mean, THAT's the kind of "modern adventure RPG" I can get behind. No matter how much dumb-dumb might be in it, there's an energy there that's missing from the more staid and polished efforts on the market. Apologies to Unknown Armies, Chill, Delta Green, Esoterrorists, etc. but BTS got it pretty much right the first time.

Yeah, sure. It's my opinion. Others may beg to differ.

Just reading BTS takes me straight back to 1987. Man, I wasn't reading Shanarra books back then (not that I ever have); hell, I didn't even read The Lord of the Rings till the 1990s. No, I was reading books by Steven King, Peter Straub, Clive Barker. Mostly King, though...everything I could get my hands on. You can see a LOT of King-type tracings in BTS; ideas cribbed from The Dead Zone, Firestarter, and IT. Of course, you can also see a lot of the shlock horror that we were watching back in those days, too...things like Hellraiser and Phantasm and Poltergeist.

Beyond the Supernatural is a game that asks, 'What if Ghostbusters wasn't a comedy? And what if it was  written and directed by John Carpenter?'  

That doesn't sound pretty rad to you? It does to me.

And, yet, I confess it is a game for a different time. And I don't just mean "because it has an old-school'ish, clunky system." For someone of a particular age/generation (i.e me and the friends of my youth...who do you think got me into all that horror nonsense, back in the day?), it has tropes and ideas that we are intimately familiar with, lacking only some sort "dream fighting" psychic ability a la Dreamscape, Elm Street, or Masterton's Night Warriors series.

[come to think of it, I could use a little more Cronenberg/Scanners-style head exploding psychic powers, too...but that's just me]

The really nice thing about BTS is that it's self-contained: it is a complete game in and of itself. Or, at least, it was. There is (of course) a 2nd edition of Beyond the Supernatural that cuts out all the magic stuff (!!) and significantly reduces the bestiary...these things were going to be covered in two "later supplements." Which has never happened. 2E BTS was published in 2005, twenty-one years ago. Not sure we'll EVER see these books...at least not in Siembieda's lifetime.

Which is fine. My advice (as usual) is: stick with the first edition. Especially as it's still available for purchase as a PDF (in print some places as well). I'd say more on the subject but it would probably amount to flogging a dead horse...plus I'm digressing. 

As I was starting to say, Beyond the Supernatural is a game for people of a certain age and generation: people who remember what life before smart phones and the internet was like. Yeah, my kids love Stranger Things, too, but that series is just a period piece for them...like watching Downton Abbey. If I tried running a game for them set in 1987 (the year BTS was originally published), they'd have tremendous blindspots in the subject matter...not just with regard to history, but with regard to tropes and genre conventions.

You know how little kids know these days even about such 'old hat' monsters as vampires and werewolves? Seriously...they have no idea.  

Whatevs. I'm sure people are wondering why the heck I'm even talking about Beyond the Supernatural right now...other than it is another Palladium game that I've said I might find useful for the Heroes Unlimited campaign I'm developing. Well, that's just it: I DO think it would a useful piece to my campaign "puzzle" and, while Palladium takes a fairly secular view of supernatural evil (I'd guess Satan would simply be another "alien intelligence" on Rifts Earth...get the railgun!), unlike Mr. Siembieda, I AM a fan of "magic" in my comic book properties. Yes, aliens and galactic adventuring is fun (and I'm still reading the Galaxy Guide...we'll get to that), but I was a big fan of Doctor Strange, too. Hell, I like mixing both scifi AND mysticism...always dug that Syzygy Darklock guy from the Dreadstar comics.

Probably because he was a cyborg.

; )

1000+ Words

On the advice of Steven King, I decided I better write 1000 words this morning to fulfill my daily requirement as a would-be writer (hack or not). I put together a 1400 word post this morning regarding a lot of crappy feelings I have right now, but I didn't bother to post it...who needs that kind of attitude on a Friday morning?

I think I'm just tired...didn't get much more than four hours of sleep last night.

The next "Three Pillar" post will go up around noon today, just BTW.

K is for Kinfolk

[over the course of the month of April, I shall be posting a topic for each letter of the alphabet, sequentially, for every day of the week except Sunday. Our topic this month? Things necessary to take your D&D campaign from “eh, fantasy” to “kick ass.” And who doesn’t want that?]

K is for Kinfolk…as in one's relatives and relations.

It’s strange how, even with a DM’s detailed history of a new campaign setting, so often relations and kin get left out of the mix. After all, what gives us a greater sense of our place in a history or society but our relationship to it through the lens of family?

For instance: when I talk to others about myself, I often explain my background as having been born and raised in Seattle, but half my family is from Montana and the other half is from the (Olympic) Peninsula. For folks native to this part of the country, that helps describe who I am as a person…a city kid whose immediate relations are from the Wild West or Fisherman Central. If I say I’m also the first person from either side of my family to get a college degree as a “traditional student” I am also explaining something about myself…and describing myself in relationship to my relatives. The same holds true if I say I was raised Roman Catholic from a long line of such individuals…if I add my “Austrian, English, and Scotch-Irish heritage” I am further coloring my background all in terms of who my family is.

I think most people do this kind of thing to one degree or another…discussing where they’re from not just in terms of PLACE but in terms of relationship to family and ancestry. When you do this, you’re not just explaining who YOU are, but who your RELATIONS are, too.

In D&D, most player characters have no sense of kin.

Certainly, there’s no requirement to describe one’s relatives when creating a new character. “I’m a fighter with an 18 strength! What more do you need to know?” Well, that’s great buddy…but what makes you any different from any other fighter. “Um…I wear a funny helmet?” Okay, fine. But in real life our sense of ourselves come as much from who we are (in terms of family and upbringing) as from our own individual accomplishments.

At least at first…as we get older and do more (cementing our own place in the world), we identify ourselves more by what we’ve done than by where we’ve come from. But certainly when we START OUT in life as young people (1st level characters!), our familial background is much more important than our “deeds of renown.”

And in older cultures (into which, presumably, your pseudo-mythic-medieval campaign world settles) FAMILY and KINFOLK were MORE IMPORTANT than they are today. It shows up in much of the fantasy literature that serves as the basis for the game. Perhaps, not Howard, whose characters were all stand-ins for himself, but in many of the others…including Marion Zimmer Bradley and Tolkien…you find the question of kinfolk to be an important one.

And a practical one…kin relations provide important help (and problematic conflict) in Tolkien’s books (including the War of Five Armies in The Hobbit and the wars of the First and Second Age in The Silmarillion). Oftentimes, kin relations provide the whole reason why certain characters travel together in the first place, creating instant connections and party motivation.

Just like gangs of the Old West (“outlaws have brothers…”).

Now, I will say that I am NOT interested in seeing ANY player (or DM) write up extensive genealogies or family histories for their characters. In a game where you could very easily get turned to stone, shot through with an arrow, or fall on your own sword there is absolutely NO NEED to do a lot of work on an extensive character backstory. I mean, do it if you want to (of course) but if you’re going to go through the trouble why not just write a novel or something?

BUT what I AM suggesting is that you have an idea of where your character comes from and to whom he or she might be related…even in your own adventuring party. This is part of the reason I did the 100 Reasons Table back in the day…it was nice to explain some reason why these characters were riding together. It helps invest more interest in the characters if you know that you’re related…siblings, cousins, half-brothers, whatever.

On a practical note, knowing your character has a younger sibling or cousin nearby also gives you an instant “inheritor of your stuff” should your character bite it…something that, as said, is fairly frequent in the D&D world. Just a little phrase on the character sheet: “Next of Kin: Harold the Bald,” for example, is enough. You don’t even have to note “Harold’s” class…just roll him up if your first character dies; you won’t even have to think of a name.

Another practical advantage of giving PCs kinfolks is the opportunity for contacts in places. Kinfolk should never provide a mechanical advantage to a PC, but I’d say it’s (generally) fine to choose whomever you want as a relation. For example, you’re running your players through T1-4 The Temple of Elemental Evil. Having finished sacking the gate house, the players are tasked with going to Nulb to further investigate the doings of the cultists. One player says:

“Hey, I’ve got an Uncle that lives in Nulb!”

Why not run with it? Pick a likely candidate (any of the NPCs…heck, you could ask the player to describe his uncle’s trade and temperament to figure out a likely candidate), and let it be. It gives the party a starting point to the adventure, rather than making them “canvass the tavern for clues” (again). The NPC doesn’t need to help them or provide any equipment or information that he wouldn’t normally provide the PCs (just because he’s an uncle doesn’t mean he’s had any recent contact/relationship with the nephew/niece).

If you get tired of your players using the tactic with every town they come to limit them to D8 or D12 “random exploitable relations.” So long as the PCs are spending time in a particular part of the game world, why wouldn’t they have relatives in all the nearby towns? I have relatives scattered all around the Pacific Northwest!

So what if one of your players says,

“Hey, the King is my Dad!” What then, huh?

Again, I’d say why not run with it? Just remember, the character doesn’t receive any mechanical advantages:

• The character still starts with the same starting equipment/money as any standard character. Why isn’t he rich? Maybe he’s an illegitimate child, or an exiled one, or in disguise. Maybe he’s simply the youngest child and his older siblings received all the “perks.” Maybe he HAD perks, but he’s been robbed by highwaymen recently and now needs to adventure to gain gear fit for his royal status.
• The character gets no special treatment with regard to the law and taxes; in fact, he’s probably got to be doubly law-abiding as A) he’s been raised to respect the King’s Law, and B) he has a responsibility to embody the King’s Law. Sure, he might not face impalement like a peasant (unless he’s a magic-user in a land where witchery has been outlawed)…but then neither should most PCs (re-read that part about de-protagonizing).
• What if the character is next in line to the throne? Well, he doesn’t inherit said throne until he’s achieved the proper Name (9th) level of course…and even then, he’ll probably have to prove his worth by first establishing his own domain (Barony). Assuming, of course, he’s even a character class that would be interested in ruling (clerics and magic-users would probably abdicate to a younger sibling). Anyway, he wouldn’t achieve the mantle of King (or Queen) until his parent was ready to step down anyway…probably in about 20-50 years (roll D4+1 x10 to see the current ruler’s longevity)…by which time, the PC will have probably retired from adventuring anyway. And if/when he DOES inherit the throne, he’ll probably need to pay upkeep to get the castle “back in shape” after being run practically into the ground by a doddering old ruler.
• What about favors, special treatment in court, etc.? No more should be given to the child than to any other character of the PC’s stature. Remember, as PCs rise in level, they will be receiving audiences (and quests) from the local ruler anyway…and certainly they will receive fawning attention (and resentful plotting machination) from the normal courtiers. At 1st level, the King has more important heroes to speak and treat with than his beloved (or spoiled) child. The character can still gain audience, but the secrets of State will not be shared with the PC until he or she has “proven their worth” (i.e. gone up sufficiently in level).

The same holds true for any powerful NPC relation a player character chooses to have. “My grandpa is the Archmage of the Wizard College.” “My auntie is the High Priestess of Llolth.” That’s fine…but important NPCs are busy with their important responsibilities, and will have less time to devote to their kinfolk…unless their kin can be of use to THEM.

In the end, such individuals provide MOTIVATION, possibly INFORMATION and ADVENTURE IDEAS/HOOKs, and (most importantly) CONNECTION to the game world. That’s the important part of kinfolk and what they can do for your campaign. Not only do they help players to discover something more about their characters (namely, to whom they’re related) it helps weave themselves into the tapestry of the campaign world.
: )

Psionics, Power Gaming, and Death

I was a pre-teen power gamer.

I admit it. Much to my everlasting shame I was horrible, horrible! I was rampantly abusive! I made life miserable for other players at the table with my grandstanding and diva-like behavior. My character was a one-man wrecking crew…and he wasn’t even a Cavalier or a 3rd Edition Fighter! Just thinking about it makes me feel dirty and guilty...though as a Roman Catholic, guilt and I have a long and semi-healthy relationship.
; )

Not that that my character didn’t DIE many times…as with all our D&D characters back then, he faced the same high mortality rate as any other character. In fact he probably died MORE often than others (probably a half dozen times if not more) due in part to his many solo adventures. Fortunately, we were playing Advanced Dungeons & Dragons where death is simply a minor set-back…my character was wished back to life so many times, it became a bit of a running joke in our gaming group.

[side note to folks wanting to be 1st edition power gamers…getting wished back is definitely the way to go. There’s no loss of Constitution as with Resurrection and as long as you’ve got a little elf blood in you, the extra aging is no big deal]

One of the things that made my character so all-fired powerful was his incredible psionic might. Yes, you know those “un-balanced” psionic powers you’ve read so much about. My character had psionic power for days, man…and the lax rules with regard to game balance (at least by 1st edition rules…we never owned Eldritch Wizardry) truly made him a god-like force in the campaign. It certainly didn’t hurt that he was a bard, and had sky-high attributes (as all 1e bards do), since this is the general determination of psionic ability in AD&D.

Although he had many psionic powers, plus most of the lettered Attack/Defense ranks, only two abilities really jump out in my memory as being his “bread & butter,” and they were really the ones that made him infamous within our campaign: Cell Adjustment and Telekinesis.

Cell Adjustment is basically “self-healing.” Every psionic point you spend (and my character almost certainly had a couple hundred banked) would heal a certain number of hit points. I don’t have my book in front of me, but I’m pretty sure it was a better than 1-to-1 basis (maybe 4 to 1? That sounds right). Since psionic points regenerated extremely fast with rest and “meditation” my character could enjoy extended solo delves relying on no one besides his own badass abilities. As a young fighter, just beginning his adventuring career, it all but ensured he would survive to the higher levels (which he did...boy, did he ever!).

[hmmm…I sure probably stop talking about the character in the 3rd person. After all, it was ME, all me, piloting this monster]

The other ability *I* made great use of was telekinesis. TK as a power is ill-defined in D&D. One can use it to “move things with your mind” like hitting people with big rocks and stuff. Okaaay…what about manipulating smaller things? There’s a maximum weight limit, but no minimum…can you use TK to, say, suck the air out of a person, creating a vacuum crushing your opponent from within? Can you manipulate the tumblers in a lock to open it without setting off traps yourself?

Basically, our campaign was run where, if you could imagine it (and explain it) the sky was the limit within the limits of your powers. There was no attempt at “game balance;” like comic book artists or horror novelists (Stephen King was a great inspiration for us in the 80s) if it sounded possible we’d allow it to happen. No one was interested in “keeping the game balance.” Neither were we attempting to destroy game balance or “break the system.” We (the DMs) thought it would be cool to have a dude in the game with crazy-ass telekinetic powers and there was no attempt at reining him (me) in.

Besides which, he still died. Often. Despite the -8 armor class and the hundreds of hit points and the periapt of protection against poison +4 (another must-have for the power gamer)...despite even the cell adjustment.

I can remember the last (or one of the last) times my guy ended up taking a “dirt nap.” He was solo-ing (again) this time through a classic module I’m sure I’ve mentioned before: Q1: Queen of the Demonweb Pits. He was round about 20th level at the time (bard level…he was maxed in his other classes) and carving up the ranks pretty good with his dual-wielded Hammer of Thunderbolts and Vorpal Shortsword.

[did I mention how ashamed I feel? Sorry folks…but really I HAVE matured since in the last 23 years…honestly!]

I got to Lolth’s “spider ship” and was pounding the opposition with a combination of invisibility, backstabbing, druid spells, and sheer combat firepower (javelins of lightning, etc.). Got to Lolth and had that bitch ON THE RUN…beat her down, forced her to move, found her again, beat her down some more. Eventually, we ended up in her “last stand” room…a chamber with several animated warrior statues that engaged me while the Queen beefed herself with healing and boosts.

It was somewhere around round two or three (I think) that she hit me with a Cone of Cold and I noticed I’d forgotten to use my Cell Adjustment ability during the running fight.

And I died…again.

But of course, tramping on the turf of a demon goddess as I had, you can probably guess that my character didn’t stay dead for long. Lolth herself brought me back to life…only so that she could torture me 24-7 in a kind of Zeus-Prometheus relationship (not that my character received anything so sweet and gentle as a griffon ripping out my liver daily). And no, I was allowed no rest or relaxation to regain (or use) psionic strength.

In fact, there wasn’t much of me that was kept alive, as I recall…a shapeless lump of flesh, deformed and brutalized and cut on, kept alive and animate only by Lolth’s will. Well, that and my ring of regeneration, which she allowed me to keep wearing if I remember correctly (so she wouldn’t have to spend so much energy on healing).

The story of my eventual escape from torment (after several game months) is a post for another time. Suffice is to say that it was NOT my own badass character that freed himself (he was too busy writhing and suffering torment to find his amulet of the planes).

[did I mention I was a poster child for the "munchkin class?"]

; )

Blue Starred Mages and Goat F***ers

Anyone recognize this book?

I love Marion Zimmer Bradley (or MZB as she is affectionately known).  For all the skeletons and scandals in her closet, how can you not love a little old lady that channels antediluvian history, writes like a crack-addled wiccan, and helped found the SCA?  I mean that with all sincerity...I find her stuff great.  And she did A LOT to promote other authors (especially of the small scale, fantasy writing type).  You want to talk "old school?" Check out her Darkover novels for some real crosses of sci-fi and psionics with Sword and Sorcery pulp.

Of course, for my money I prefer Lythande...but we'll get to her/him in a second.

I do hang out with kids these days (of the under 17 crowd), and I see the kind of fiction kids are reading. I haven't read those Eregon books (written by a kid in Eastern WA) or the Twilight series (set in Port Angeles, WA land of my father's folk).  But I have read the entire Harry Potter saga and I say...this is the most popular fantasy series out there?  Wow.

Back when I was a kid I read a lot.  Steven King  and John Saul for horror and suspense; Piers Anthony, Robert Aspirin, and MZB for a lot of the rest.  I've grown out of the horror (though I did read the entire Dark Tower saga by King), and Anthony and Aspirin I've long since left behind (you start reading Moorcock and Anderson and you wonder why you ever bothered...you start reading the REAL Howard and Lovecraft stuff and Moorcock and Anderson start paling in comparison).

But Bradley was and still is great. The Mists of Avalon (which I didn't read until my 20s) is a great book, as is The Fall of Atlantis.  The Darkover series shares a lot with McCaffery's Pern, though just as gritty (if not moreso).  Hell, I even read Warrior Woman, though it is pretty weak, especially compared to Marvel's Red Sonja comics.

But Lythande was pretty badass.  Bradley created this character for a short story in Robert Aspirin's Thieves World anthologies, though the character only appeared once or twice.  Bradley wrote several short stories for the character outside of Thieves World, and all (to my knowledge) are compiled in the character-titled book.

Lythande is a warrior-mage, one of the Order of the Blue Star.  All the mages of the Blue Star have a blue star tattooed on their foreheads, and have access to great magical power...with one condition.  Each mage possesses a single secret, individual to that particular mage, that if ever revealed and spoken aloud by another, causes the mage to lose all of his power.  It's an extreme taboo that once broken, no amount of atonement will repair.

Lythande's secret is that she's a woman...the only female member of the Order.  And because it's her secret, she is forced to hide her sex for fear of being stripped of all power and left vulnerable to her enemies.

Quite fun really. The mages of the Blue Star are not a cooperative lot...in fact, they actively seek to discover other members' secrets so that they can slay them with impunity.  As one might surmise, many of the stories involve Lythande having to complete some adventure where her secret is in danger of exposure.  Rest assured, she always comes through thanks to sword, spell, and wit.

And sometimes luck...my favorite story is one in which she is in direct confrontation with another member of her Order.  While involved in an actual physical duel (note her two swords in the illustration), the opponent's are bantering back and forth and she hurls the epithet "goat f---er" at her foe...and his momentary hesitation and loss of composure clues her in that she has inadvertently discovered his occult secret.  Lythande stops and deliberately states "you have sex with goats," whereupon he loses all his powers. She then runs him through in cold blood.

Priceless.

Anyway, not a bad thing to mix into any particular home-brewed D&D campaign.  I have an upcoming post where I discuss allowing mages to wield any weapons (just like a fighter) with no expense of "game balance." Lythande is yet another example of the warrior-mage (like Elric or Gandalf).