WHAT ASPECT INTERESTS YOU THE MOST?

[Gallahan]

What aspect of BTS interests you the most? By "aspect," think different flavors of the supernatural, such as... Bigfoot, lake monsters, UFOs, conspiracy, "monsters," vampires, magic, mummies... etc. And, in what way does this interest you? How might you use this in a campaign/adventure?

[filo_clarke]

I chose Cosmic Insanity. I basically use BtS as a replacement for Call of Cthulhu, because my group and I prefer the character customization in Palladium over the various incarnations of the CoC game. But we still play against tentacle-faced gods, and unknowable star-headed monsters.

[Holister]

Long live HP Lovecraft. " Call of Chuthulu " and the Lovecraftian Mythos of the Necronomicon have always played an intricate roll in my games, and always will.

I even ran one or two on The Lazlo site. Give me some slathering, tentacle headed horror from some dark abyss anyday.

"Sanity check....HAH! I don't need no stinking sanity check!!"

[runebeo]

Long live HP Lovecraft. " Call of Chuthulu " and the Lovecraftian Mythos of the Necronomicon have always played an intricate roll in my games, and always will.

I even ran one or two on The Lazlo site. Give me some slathering, tentacle headed horror from some dark abyss anyday.

"Sanity check....HAH! I don't need no stinking sanity check!!"

Our game is heavily based on the Lovecraftian Mythos and Hellboy comics & movies. HP Lovecraft is even in the game as a spirit guide for his great grand daughter and we played out a Chuthulu return in Los Angeles, that played out allot like the movie Cloverfield with a few twist thrown in from the films the Happening & In the Mouth of Madness.

[Sir Neil]

I voted for Cosmic Insanity, but not in a Lovecraftian way. I focus on the BtS-Rifts connection. Splugorth cults are a favorite.

[Beatmeclever]

My BTS is heavily reliant on Kolchak: The Night Stalker-, Fringe-, X-Files-, Friday the Thirteenth: The Series-esque stories in which the characters are led to the scene of a recent event and they become embroiled in the aftermath and secondary encounters until they either stop the event from continuing or decide that their is no way to stop it and retire to write reports and help the affected people move to a new location - or die trying to get there.

[Gallahan]

So far COSMIC INSANITY and GHOST HUNTING are tied for first place in what interests you the most votes.

I was surprised that more people didn't vote on Zombies/Vampires/Undead. Of course, that is what Dead Reign is for (Zombies, at least).

H.P. Lovecraft is still a pretty big influence on modern-day horror it would seem, and rightfully so.

Will COSMIC INSANITY win? Only time... and the stars... will tell.

[Lord Z]

I voted for Conspiracy Theories, useful and fun in any game. Anyone who has read Court of Tarot wouldn't be surprised.

I am a little surprised that Cryptids aren't doing better. Crytids are much trendier right now than ghosts. I've lost count of the number of cryptid-themed televisiopn shows that have premiered in the last two or three years. Maybe if there was a second favorite poll, the crypties would have fared better.

Using H. P. As a spirit guide is a brilliant use of the Medium concept. I am already thinking of other literary and historic figures that could turn up as spirit guides.

[Holister]

I think that the ghosts are doing so well because of the influx in ghost and paranormal tehmed movies and shows ever since " PARANORMAL ACTIVITY " came out.

I am surprised that Palladium has hopped on this trend with a RPG or at least a suppliment where the PCs are ghosts. They could call it " AFTERLIFE " or something.

[Cybermancer]

I like 'em all pretty much equally.

[Gallahan]

--I think that another company has an RPG where the players are ghosts. I don't know if we can say the name of the company here, and/or the name of the game. That being said, watch out for the most dangerous wolves... they are white.

There is a HUGE FRONTIER of supernatural horror just WAITING to be EMBRACED by PALLADIUM.

Palladium, though... is pretty diverse. And huge. Rifts, by itself, is huge. It's good to see that they are accepting unsolicited manuscripts, again. This tells us that they want MATERIAL to publish. So, we might be seeing more BTS material, especially if they get some good, new "stuff."

Back to the topic of the thread: It's very inspiring to see that old H.P.L. still is a winner after all these years. His writing is magnificent and certainly inspired me when I first entered this genre. If you ever want to run an Antarctic campaign, do read "The Impossible Mountains" --or something like that, that he wrote. You might want to read-up on OPERATION HIGH JUMP and DEEP FREEZE ----real world military operations that sent carrier war groups to the Antarctic in 1947 (-1950s). Admiral Byrd was in charge and it is alledged that he discovered some "unusual" findings (an understatement).

[Lord Z]

That Lovecraft story is his noevlla, 'The Mountains of Madness.' I liked it. It is one of his later works wherein he stuck closer to sci-fi themes.

There are several games in which the PCs are ghosts. Three come to mind for me. It's not a violation of any forum rules to mention the names of other games here. I don't see Palladium doing a book like. PB has always avoided dealing with any afterlife themes in any detail. There is a brief mention here or there in three books that come to mind. The way that the Medium PCC is written, it dodges the entire issue. I actually asked Wayne if this it was an unwritten rule that PB was avoiding the theme. I never did get an answer.

[Gallahan]

Interesting point. And, really, if PB did do such a supplement for BTS, it would almost be its own game, like Dead Reign. The sourcebook for afterlife characters and the expansion of the "ghost" genre would be pretty huge.

It would involve not only several new character classes (D.C.C.s --Dead Character Classes), but an in-depth look at ghost hunting techniques, paranormal investigation and some new "monsters" associated with spiritual realms. I can see a rough Table of Contents:

1. Intro
2. D.C.C.s (Dead Character Classes)
3. An expanded look into Paranormal Investigation (a.k.a. Ghost Hunting)
4. A new kind of Party --involving P.C.C.s and D.C.C.s (integrating spirt dead characters with psychic ones)
5. Adventures and Hooks
6. New Gizmos
7. "Dead Spells" (new spells involving deceased characters and D.C.C.s)
8. Bad Medicine -or- The Ungrateful Dead (new monsters for the dearly departed)
9. New Tips on GMing
10. The Atmospherics of Game Mastering

[Holister]

I agree it would be really cool game. At least we would have to worry about the characters dying...again.

Maybe we have someone run this idea past them. I know I have allowed players to continue playing favorite characters that have passed as ghosts. It went pretty well actually since their was almost always either a psychic or medium in the game.

[Gallahan]

After only 16 votes, X-Filish things are tied, neck-n-neck with Cosmic Horror!

If enough people vote, the Powers That Be might get an idea about what players might want to see in a future supplement (I know, I know, we're STILL WAITING for the two that were promised).

NOTE TO PALLADIUM: At least give us the supplements by May 2011 so that we can play the game for a year before the Mayan calendar spells doom (possibly a RIFTS-type event) for the world.

Already, judging by the votes received, a supplement that involves some paranormal investigation mixed with government investigation of events of "high strangeness" ultimately leading to an intangible cosmic horror about to be reawakened might make for a JUICY campaign/source book. I'm sure the creative talent of Palladium is really busy, so this may never manifest.

But... Wouldn't it just be nice?

[vika]

So far I am the only vote for undead. I really like the vampires, mummies, zombies, and werebeasts from first edition.

I like most from them, but I would not vote for cosmic insanity. Probably if I must made second choice it would be paranormal investigation.

[Holister]

Werewolves ARE NOT undead. They are cryptids at best.

[Ronin Shinobi]

Paranormal activities, but I do have interest in, the Arcane, cryptozoolagy, and other supernatural phenomenons.

[Lord Z]

Our own Mister Loucifer is working on a manuscript for a sourcebook about ghost hunting. From the hints he has dropped, it should feature at least half the items listed in Gallahan's outline.

As of the time of this post, there is a tie for second place.

[Gallahan]

--Just his name, alone... "Mr. Loucifier" is quite... *illuminating.* For those of you who may not get the bad pun-thing, "Lucifer" is a.k.a. "The Bringer of Light" or "The Illuminated One." Pointless to point that out, probably, but I thought it was cool at the time.

Right now, ANY BTS supplement would be nice, even if it's just something to show us all that BTS isn't a dead horse, that there's STILL A PULSE!!!

We need 7ccs oF SUPERNATURAL, stat!!

-----It looks like COSMIC INSANITY and all the intangibly grotesqueness that goes with it is ABSOLUTELY DOMINATING that day. Perhaps this means that all of the other genres are not really genres in and of themselves at all. Perhaps this means that ALL OTHER GENRES are nothing more than "SUB-GENRES" falling under the canopy that is COSMIC INSANITY, and all things Lovecraftian.

Only the votes will ILLUMINATE the truth that is out there...!

[Gallahan]

Okay....! After ONLY 25 votes, it looks like Paranormal Investigation is TIED (!) with Cosmic Insanity!

Looks like the verdict is in, or is it? Are there REALLY REALLY REALLY only 25 fans of BTS interested enough to vote on this? I am rather surprised.

But hey, here's to GOOD PEOPLE (raise my glass); there are very few of us.

[Lord Z]

I don't know why, but poll participation has always been slow and low here at the megaversal forums. 25 is actually a high number of participants from my point of view. For several months, probably a year, I ran a poll based game which hypothetically matched faction from different Palladium lines in a survival torunament. It never did spur the discussions I wanted to see. I consistantly spent way more time and energy on the scenarios than people spent playing the game. Even using two websites and leaving polls open for up to two months at a time, participation was still in the single digits. With a sampling that low, screwy results happen. When the mutant elephants of Ganash (AtB) beat the Mechanoids, I gave up.

[Cybermancer]

I remember those polls. I think I voted in a couple before giving up.

[Lord Z]

Thanks for the support Cy-guy.

Back to this thread, it would be nice if someone broke this tie.

[krate]

I use BTS for just about everything mentioned in the poll... and all those flavors are good. I love horror RPGs and I try to diversify the adventures so that things don't get old and stale. Plus, I really love all those horror flavors.

Sometimes, the adventures involve solving murders or tracking down magical tomes and artifacts. Sometimes, it's clearing out a haunted house that has plagued a small town. But I try to mix it up though. Sometimes the bad guy is a normal "crazed" person, sometimes it's a vampire or some other creature and sometimes it's a Nasty Tentacled Thing From Beyond trying to come through to our world. Of course the players are always trying to kill these things, banish them and just plain survive intact.

BTS is such a flexible system you can do just about anything AND I like all those options on the poll. It's a perfect match.

[Gallahan]

Very true, all of you.

I suppose I was hoping for a head-and-shoulders victory for one of the genres. But, having the race for first tied, and having second place very close by, means that future supplements will most likely be a well-stocked buffet, with a little bit o' this and a dash o' that and a heaping of this. That's good, because it fits the mold of many of Palladium's products, --with a little bit of something for everyone.

[Lord Z]

Mephisto, are you proposing a change to what the Horror Factor actually represents or are you suggesting the creation of a different stat?

[Lord Z]

The recent Rifter article about Horror Factors took the approach of Horror Factors being that catch-all stat. The article expanded upon the theme and gave situational guidelines, but it didn't change the mechanic much. Parts were useful, but overall the article just was not moving in a direction that interested me. This should proabaly be in its own thread.

Back to the topic at of this thread, it seems to me that conspiracies are a major theme on the Lazlo board. The Society of Shadows, that werebeast clan, and the Bradford Group are a few I've noticed, and these are just the conspiracies whose existence has been confirmed. It seems to be an aspect that people enjoy even if it is not their favorite.

[Gallahan]

Hey, it looks like we have a winner, for now! "X" marks the spot. But, that really makes a lot of sense, because that "aspect" involves a lot of sub-genres of horror. Even Stephen King penned a script for one of the episodes, and it was FANTASTIC to watch. That show covered so many different kinds of horror which allowed a diverse audience. Conspiracy buffs loved it, "monster of the week" fans loved it, UFO enthusiasts loved it. I don't think it touched much on the Cthulu-esque aspect of horror, but hey, you can't have it all.

[Armorlord]

Ended up voting Other. Almost selected Paranormal Investigation before I noticed it was tagged with 'ghost-hunting'.
I prefer Paranormal Investigation that leads into 'All of the Above'. Could be Demons, could be Aliens, might even be just a Hoax.. or it could be the insidious tentacle of an Alien Intelligence wrapping around events to give itself a foothold(er, tentaclehold?) in our world.

[Gallahan]

From what I've read when people select "Other" in the pole, it's usually a combination of several BTS aspects, as the previous post stated: paranormal investigation leading to several kinds of things, demons, ghosts, --whatever.

That's the beauty of the BTS system/world, -it combines so many genre's of horror. I enjoy a good story or campaign with several elements peppered in there, too. After all, just about all good campaigns and adventures should include the "investigation" element. In fact, most good stories in any genre involve a mystery of some kind, and the main character(s) try to solve it while overcoming the obstacles set forth by the antangonist.

I was surprised that not too many people were interested in the Cryptoids/reptoids/bigfoot aspect. Maybe because there are real people out there in the real world actually hunting/searching for these creatures makes them less fictional for a game? Or maybe they just aren't exciting enough. I mean, what do you do, in a game, when you finally find bigfoot!? LOL --He's not trying to hurt anyone, not trying to take over a town or the world, and most people don't consider them to be evil.

[Lord Z]

Gallahan, you didn't see Mr. Loucifer's review of Bigfoot Wars, did you?

As mentioned above, I suspect that Cryptids would fare better if there were an option to vote for a second-favorite. Cryptids are still popular, but they might be beginning to burn out on their own popularity. How many television series have aired about this concept within the last years? I can think of five off the top of my head.

[Gallahan]

Gallahan, you didn't see Mr. Loucifer's review of Bigfoot Wars, did you?

As mentioned above, I suspect that Cryptids would fare better if there were an option to vote for a second-favorite. Cryptids are still popular, but they might be beginning to burn out on their own popularity. How many television series have aired about this concept within the last years? I can think of five off the top of my head.

No, I did not see the review. I will look for it. I remember a fun B-movie on (then) Sci-Fi called something like Sasquatch Mountain. It was really enjoyable. The kind of movie you'd watch with friends and drinking soda (beer, if of age). Sure, this kind of adventure could be spawned into a BTS tale. But, it's also like who wants to fight bigfoot versus demons and dimensional beings? I think cryptids are so close to reality that people want a distinct line: black vs white. Most people don't want their "fantasy" games to stray into the gray area of what might be a fringe aspect of our very real yet undiscovered reality.

Just some thoughts....

[Cybermancer]

Gallahan, you didn't see Mr. Loucifer's review of Bigfoot Wars, did you?

As mentioned above, I suspect that Cryptids would fare better if there were an option to vote for a second-favorite. Cryptids are still popular, but they might be beginning to burn out on their own popularity. How many television series have aired about this concept within the last years? I can think of five off the top of my head.

No, I did not see the review. I will look for it. I remember a fun B-movie on (then) Sci-Fi called something like Sasquatch Mountain. It was really enjoyable. The kind of movie you'd watch with friends and drinking soda (beer, if of age). Sure, this kind of adventure could be spawned into a BTS tale. But, it's also like who wants to fight bigfoot versus demons and dimensional beings? I think cryptids are so close to reality that people want a distinct line: black vs white. Most people don't want their "fantasy" games to stray into the gray area of what might be a fringe aspect of our very real yet undiscovered reality.

Just some thoughts....

I'm not going to speak for most people but for myself and those I've gamed with, it has never really been an issue. We cross our fantasy and reality all the time. NPC's occasionally come from people we know in real life. We definitely use real life events and places.

Certainly Big Foot exists beside aliens, ghosts, the boogy man, mutants, wizards and heroic warriors. I've never seen this black and white thing in person. I've found people are more likely to embrace fantasy if it's mixed with a bit of reality. The strange becomes palatable along with the familiar.

[Gallahan]

Good points. I suppose when it comes down to just about anything, it's all very subjective, ultimately, and people will like what they like for whatever personal preference(s) they might have. I agree with you, I prefer to have stories intertwined with a bit of reality and fiction.

[Cybermancer]

Good points. I suppose when it comes down to just about anything, it's all very subjective, ultimately, and people will like what they like for whatever personal preference(s) they might have. I agree with you, I prefer to have stories intertwined with a bit of reality and fiction.

I find those are the ones that have the best creepy feel to them. Certainly the ones I invest in the most.

[Lord Z]

Yeah, it depends on the gamer. I personally enjoy the surrealism or elements of reality twisted into something unreal. Most of my players seem to prefer non-Earth game world with as much disconnect from reality as is feasible.

[Gallahan]

Yeah, it depends on the gamer. I personally enjoy the surrealism or elements of reality twisted into something unreal. Most of my players seem to prefer non-Earth game world with as much disconnect from reality as is feasible.

Without mentioning any other game systems or worlds, I think that's why the FANTASY meets HORROR (or vice versa) realm is pretty popular. Imagine mixing the horrific elements of BTS with the PALLADIUM FANTASY game. In fact, imagine characters from BTS transplanted into the Palladium Fantasy world. Suddenly, all monsters would have a horror factor, because us people from this (the BTS) world might be frightened by goblins or worse.

Or, throw in elements from BTS into that fantasy setting, such as mood setting, atmosphere, perhaps a horror factor... Think of movies like ARMY OF DARKNESS (fantasy horror) and ALIEN (sci-fi horror). There must be some good use of horror in RIFTS, too.

I think that a neat product for Palladium to release (when they find someone with the time to write it) would be a campaign that involves characters from MULTIPLE Palladium worlds/systems. Sure, it would be tough... but would it be possible to have characters adventure through various Palladium settings in one, grand campaign? What a way to introduce players to all the worlds... and to increase sales of systems/books like NINJAS AND SUPER SPIES, or MYSTIC CHINA or RECON or whatever.

[Lord Z]

I am in a long running play-by-post game like that. I have a HU character, but we are currently in the Palladium Fantasy world hunting a specific collection of rune weapons.

[Gallahan]

I am in a long running play-by-post game like that. I have a HU character, but we are currently in the Palladium Fantasy world hunting a specific collection of rune weapons.

Well, Z, it looks like it's gonna be a THREE-WAY tie. Darn shame that no category won by itself. But, such is the multifaceted nature of HORROR I suppose... Still, darn shame.

[Gallahan]

Just one vote is all we need to BREAK THIS 3-WAY TIE!!! C'mon... someone out there can VOTE! ANYONE. Just cast your vote and stop the pain! Your vote is important!

[mrloucifer]

Our own Mister Loucifer is working on a manuscript for a sourcebook about ghost hunting. From the hints he has dropped, it should feature at least half the items listed in Gallahan's outline.

As of the time of this post, there is a tie for second place.

If there's something I've learned about writing something factual, is that research is involved, and that slows writing productivity down considerably. But we both know Mr Loucifer is a fantastic writer, so I have no doubt that his book will be a very interesting and enjoyable read.

You flatter me Mephisto.

And yes, this manuscript is slow going, not just because I have I life I also need to live (the wife and child wont permit otherwise) or that I'm going back to school, but trying to find the time for the outrageous amnt of research I've been pulling and trying to get the right mix of "reality" vs. "BTS reality" right, its been a painfully slow process. The "Victims" book I'm also working on is coming along much faster.

But on the bright side, all this extra time needed gives me a unique perspective... a lot of your have said or brought up bits & peices of info and ideas that I've been compiling to possibly create (in my own litttle way of course) and put in the sourcebooks.

[mrloucifer]

--Just his name, alone... "Mr. Loucifier" is quite... *illuminating.* For those of you who may not get the bad pun-thing, "Lucifer" is a.k.a. "The Bringer of Light" or "The Illuminated One." Pointless to point that out, probably, but I thought it was cool at the time.

-- just call me Mr. Cifer... Mr. Lou Cifer.

[Holister]

Oh you lil' devil.

[Gallahan]

Mr. Loucifer,

Do you know if your book(s) will be published before the other BTS core rulebooks? It would be nice if they published them beforehand. I was going to state in the other thread (party killer intro) that with this BTS message board, players and GMs alike have a great resource, everything from random tables (Hollister has made some fantastic ones!) to the BTS Character Thread to Story Ideas and GM-ing techniques... It's the next best thing to having a book to flip through.

[mrloucifer]

Mr. Loucifer,

Do you know if your book(s) will be published before the other BTS core rulebooks? It would be nice if they published them beforehand.

He hee.. not at the rate their taking to write.

I would be really suprised if they chose to publish "Beyond the Paranormal" before the other two books as Kevin has refered to them as core books, which means we only have 1/3 of the set required to play the game (which is a twisted compliment in that the first one was written so well that we've been able to play an incomplete game). In all honesty, I would hope that Palladium put out the magic book before they'd tackle the ghost sourcebook as magic will have a place in it as much classic paranormal inveastigation techniques and all sorts of new ghosts and entites.

The victims sourcebook however, that could easily be published before the other two books as it all about the average joe schmoe dealing with unimaginable things that are out to get him.

[mrloucifer]

Mr. Loucifer,
I was going to state in the other thread (party killer intro) that with this BTS message board, players and GMs alike have a great resource, everything from random tables (Hollister has made some fantastic ones!) to the BTS Character Thread to Story Ideas and GM-ing techniques... It's the next best thing to having a book to flip through.

Ya know, I put some thought into that... if someone had the time, knowledge and gumption to come up with a topic that's specifically designed to catalogue to paste topic links and subjects to form a library of information of sorts, I bet we could get it a permanat link at the top of the BTS page for easy access.

I do agree that there is a bulging treasure trove of ideas, thoughts, theories and more in the BTS section of the forum, but its so spread out that its more or an easter egg hunt finding them.

Before I got the notice that I'm to be losing my job in September (and going back to school because of that), I had considered starting my own little website somewhere that would perform a simialr task, but I lack the IT or web developing skills to do it. Thats when I got inspired to go back to school for web development. If I dont know it right now, eventually I will.

[Gallahan]

Mr. Loucifer,
Before I got the notice that I'm to be losing my job in September (and going back to school because of that), I had considered starting my own little website somewhere that would perform a simialr task, but I lack the IT or web developing skills to do it. Thats when I got inspired to go back to school for web development. If I dont know it right now, eventually I will.

Sorry to hear about the job, for you and for everyone else since we may not see that website for a while. I can sympathize, as my own job was suddenly put into peril about a month ago when the company I work for lost their contract, which sent close to three hundred people scrambling to either sign on with the company that won the contract -or- relocate if the current company found a position for you (most likely) somewhere else. -Even government work isn't guaranteed these days.

I'm still working on the random tables for the next generation of the Handy Dandy; although this one won't be called "Handy Dandy" because it is certainly not small, but very comprehensive. There might even be a section of random horror soundtracks LOL.

The idea you had for a single topic with links to "sourcebook" style material threads is fantastic. It would really take someone who has a continual and extensive knowledge of quality material. Or maybe a group of people, each post lists their top 5 threads. Hmmm...

ADDED: Oh, and that's wonderful that you're going to school for web design. That's my achilles heel too. I'm a graphic artist / visual information kind of guy, myself. I need to learn web design myself. Only, I would really only be able to do it online (wife, 2 young kids, work), and I've never gone to school online before, let alone for something like web design. You know, for those of us into this sort of thing, we should form an informal 'virtual gathering of the minds,' and perhaps help each other out with projects and the like. There might be a synergy in such an informal, friendly, fun type of group. Only, I don't know if this BTS message board would be the best location. Any ideas?

[Gallahan]

Ghost hunting and paranormal investigation WINS!!!!! It was a LONG, close race. But, in the end, what makes the PARANORMAL "fun" won the poll. I'm saying that it *won* because it took so long to get to this point, where the three-way tie was finally broken. However, that might change if more people participate....

[mrloucifer]

YAY for ghost hunting & paranormal investigating!