Forums of the Megaverse®

Just a question to get opinions/thoughts from those of you who GM/play BTS.

In BTS (1st ed), it seemed that while it was 'modern earth' with supernatural aspects, the supernatural, magic, etc. was a little more accepted than the real world. That was my personal opinion.

In BTS-2, it seems like that kind of went away and that the whole hunting/fighting supernatural is a true 'underground movement'. The Lazlo Society probably being seen as followers of 'woo-woo', quacks, etc. as well as any who publicly say 'yeah, the supernatural is real'. Loss of jobs, discredited if your character is a scientist/professor, etc.

So how prevalent is knowledge of the supernatural in your games?

Why I ask, is I am half-way through writing a BTS-2 Rifter submission based on anthropology/archaeology and CSI/Crime Lab occupations. They are what I see as both 'detective' occupations. the first on learning of the past and the second being able to help a party do things like making sure once the creature discorperates, the party isn't jailed because of any evidence left at a 'crime scene' could point to them.

I have a degree in Anthropology/Archaeology and my brother is a forensic scientist in a crime lab, so I do have some knowledge on these subjects. Just wondering if many of you take a stance that messing with the supernatural might lead your characters to jail time if they are not careful, or if after the big bad is defeated, the GM hand waves away any possible bad outcomes do to sloppy character actions?

Depends on the game I want to run, but a particularly reckless group who endangers innocents on a regular basis is probably going to have the PD building a file on them

I try to mimick our world as far as possible. Everybody's heard of it, very few actually believe in it. Being fringe has its advantages but at some port you may draw the eyes of the authorities, especially if somebody inside the police network is found to be disrupting investigations.

As far as BTS 1 goes, it was the first book of its kind and I don’t think when Kevin & Randy wrote it and it was a more “implied” idea that the world largely didn’t believe in it. But years of experience and many types of Horror games since then have shown Kevin that he needed to hit this fact much harder. But then, that my opinion on the BTS 1 may not be shared by all.

With BTS 2, its doesnt seem to be heading there at all… IT’S THE LAW!
As such I keep it that way in my game. The loneliness and paranoia of this law plays a big part of how my game runs. The characters form their strong bonds because they have to. Just being armed with the knowledge of the supernatural gives them power and responsibbility beyond the norm and those who dont have this knowledge and understanding CANNOT understand that.

Fortunately with the way the creatures are designed ,they hide in the shadows and out of the public eye, which usually means the characters have to go looking for them in such places. There are rare occasions of where things have happened in my game where someone spots them doing their job and I leave it to the players and how they act and handle the situation. As long as they are trying to keep a low profile, I go easy on them (lots of getting away as the police sirens are heard in the distance) and there is a contact or two in the police force who has helped helped them at times in return.

If they ever went blatant and seemed to be looking for trouble, I would respond accordingly.

My #1 philosophy with RPG is to have fun, and part of that is giving the characters (players) what they ask for. If they ask for that kind of attention, give it to them. If they ask to stay in the shadows and honestly try and stay there, let them.

I see skepticism and belief in the supernatural as flowing in waves. At times, certain cultures have a high level of skepticism, then that believe fades in the general population, and then it rises again. That's certainly how I portrayed things in the Court of Tarot history. Skepticism may have made some strides since the days of BtS-1, but really only among certain authority figures like police departments and universities which fire teachers for even mentioned Intelligent Design. The general populace right now is more prone to believe in chupacabras, aliens, angels, and horoscopes than ever before. Here is one example -- About ten years ago, a planetary alignment made major news. The same planetary alignment occurred in the 1950's, and it was was hardly mentioned in the newspapers. If you actively look for it, there are other signs. Even in literature, the rising popularity of classic fantasy and the declining popularity of science fiction are another symptom.

Ironically, the scientific community has been accidentally fostering this trend, in my opinion. Pardon me while I risk an ever so slightly political observation. The global warming climatologists predicted the global warming trend and presented their theory as fact before they actually had acquired enough evidence to support it. Global Warming did turn out to be accurate, but this is really more a matter of a lucky guessing than scientific deduction.

With the current trend towards predictions of doom in 2012, things will get worse for the skeptics over the next few years. The skeptics will be on the proverbial ropes until at least January 1, 2013. Nega-Psychics must be pulling out there hair about all this.

Back to the question, I don't get much opportunity to actually run BtS, and I'm involved in only one play-by-post game. If I were, I would base the general level of skepticism on the time and place in which the events are happening. My games often have elements of alternate history and even take place in different historic eras.

Lord Z wrote:The general populace right now is more prone to believe in chupacabras, aliens, angels, and horoscopes than ever before.

I agree to a point, but I'm not seeing it believing in them, I see it as more being amused by the thought of them. Its that kind of mass mentality that keep the world weekly news in buisness. People love reading about weird and strange things, but they never believe a word of it.

Reading about it in a blog, newspaper, website, the crazy cat lady next door are all very different that finding one face to face and ready to eat you alive. Oddly were more prone to disbelieve these moments than we do the silly stuff.