Man, Palladium RPGs exhaust me. In a good way, but still, exhausting. This is the first edition of Beyond the Supernatural (1987). Players take various sorts of psychics who then investigate supernatural mysteries that can fall anywhere on the horror spectrum, from farcical to gruesome.

As with most Palladium games, there are at least two truckloads of rules too many. The main innovation here is Potential Psychic Energy (PPE) which is how Psychic Character Classes (PCCs — it wouldn’t be Palladium without lots of abbreviations) do their thing. It’s basically a point system for any sort of mental powers or magic and replaces the D&D-derived spells-per-day style systems that were in TMNT, Palladium Fantasy and other games up to this point. PPE and the underlying psychic/magic systems would become an important component of Rifts. A fun section of source material tackles Ley lines and sites of power that will also be important for that later game (and is, along with the bestiary, which includes a lot of unusual monsters from non-European traditions, is the most fun section of the book). I tend to think Palladium games are too complicated for me, and I definitely think this one is too much for horror (and too combat oriented). YMMV of course.

So much amazing artwork, though. A cover by Richard Corben? Hell yea! Kevin Long was still pumping out illustrations for Palladium at this point, but this is one of the rare times I think he’s out-shined — Steve Bissette contributes a ton of work to this book, and it is all grimy and shadowy and full of toothy danger. It’s hard to compete with a master.