How is BTS2e

[Denaes]

I have 1e and it always seemed 100% compatable with 2e stuff... expect for having more interesting techniques to cast magic and detect the supernatural that were left out of the other books.

So what got changed? Do they still have the Victim character rules? Did they expand on anything? Remove anything?

What did they do with the classes?

[Josh Sinsapaugh]

I like the 2nd edition.

Though they got rid of the victim rules (thank god).

~ Josh

[Denaes]

Whats wrong with having an option to play as victims? Did it punch you when you turned to that half-page?

[Josh Sinsapaugh]

Whats wrong with having an option to play as victims? Did it punch you when you turned to that half-page?

It just seemed unnecessary. The G.M. could easily apply that himself without written rules for it, and quite frankly it seemed like it was wasted space.

~ Josh

[demos606]

I dont need special rules to run a victims game. Never have, never will.

[Denaes]

So did anything else change about the book other than removing that option?

[Denaes]

Thanks for that link. I looked over the first few pages.

So what is BTS2e supposed to be a game about?

The origional game had a heavy theme of the Arcane, Places of Power, Ley Lines, etc. And none of that is in the BTS2e core book from what I gather.

Does it have classes or methods for creating some non-pyschic people? Or is this now just a game about psychic warriors of the modern age doing battle with monsters?

The book looked about as thick when I saw it in the store, if they cut out the majority of the content from the first edition book, what did they replace it with? Fluff?

I didn't get BTS1e until late in the game... maybe 2000 or 2001. I was so awestruck with the game (after having already read and played Rifts, Nightbane, Fantasy, N&SS, HU, etc) that it's not funny. It was like the missing link between the 1e games and the 2e games. It pretty much 100% compatable with the other games, just things were kept more vulnerable. Less heroic... as opposed to Nightbane which had a lot of the classes converted and they were like psychic superheroes.

But since I laid eyes on BTS1e, I changed how I gamed with some of the ideas they had. The far more in depth treatment on Places of Power, Ley Lines, Nexuses (Nexi? whatever the plural is) and other arcane bits as well as how the mundane interacts with the supernatural. I actually was annoyed at how the other 2e era games watered this stuff down.

Yeah you could run any palladium game with victims by making up your own weak versions of characters, but reading that section made me want to do it. And it showed palladium newcommers how to do it.

As of right now it seems like every part of the book that interested me in the first edition is not in the second edition. I think I'm very interested in the magic book though.

[gaby]

BtS ed2 was Good.

I think BtS,s Needs some Npc,s.

Both Heroes and Villains.

[Guest]

It makes a decent psionics sourcebook to BTS1, but as a stand-alone RPG, it's sadly lacking.

[Denaes]

The layout changed from Palladium's normal rules then setting to setting first, then rules. Some people liked it, but I didn't. After 15 years of flipping through a Palladium book, having things switched around just didn't feel right, but that's me.

Moreso than Nightspawn? That book started off with a good chunk of setting before getting into mechanics. In fact it threw us off that the ability score chart wasn't right up front.

The victim rules are gone, but there is an Ordinary Person OCC so you can still play clueless people.

Not knowing how they did it, it seems like a victim class, which if done properly and could represent a wide array of normals it would probobly work just as well.

The ISP multiplier is nice at times, but with the usual vague rules it can be hard to determine the proper usage. Things like having the multiple, basically giving free ISP to spend, and it goes away when? On the death of the supernatural menace? When it's out of sight out of mind? Can you sense your ISP being multiplied when a supernatural enemy is near but you don't see it, like a spidey sense? Plus having powers to start that you can't even use unless there is a large multiple in effect. How did you learn and practice this power?

This whole thing smacks of lack of Proofing and lack of Playtesting.

A Proofreader (or the Editor) should read through a game book making sure all the rules make sense and pointing out where things are vague and don't add up.

A Playtester should play the game and when a question comes up that the text doesn't answer, write it down. Bring it up with the Author/Editor and see if something needs to be clarified or added.

For these reasons, the Author should never perform these tasks. It just doesn't work. The Author knows all the answers. The author knows what he means to say and what is implied. Joe Blow reading the book can't read his mind.

Does it show that I've been a proofreader & playtester for a few RPGs?

[Marcantony]

Whats wrong with having an option to play as victims? Did it punch you when you turned to that half-page?

It just seemed unnecessary. The G.M. could easily apply that himself without written rules for it, and quite frankly it seemed like it was wasted space.

~ Josh

In your opinion.

[Sir Neil]

It just seemed unnecessary. The G.M. could easily apply that himself without written rules for it, and quite frankly it seemed like it was wasted space.

~ Josh

In your opinion.

?

Yeah, hence the "seemed" disclaimer in every sentence.

[jcfiala]

I'm curious about the differences between editions. I recently picked up 1st off of ebay to replace my copy that had gone missing (although I still have boxed nightmares), and I ordered the 2nd edition from Palladium as part of my attempt to help out. I plan on sitting down and going over them, possibly as a precursor to doing up some articles for the Rifter.

It sounds like 1st edition is similar to Call of Cthulhu/Chill in intention, and the 2nd is a little more like monster-hunting adventure. But, we'll see.

That's an interesting thread, btw, thanks for pointing it out.