This page is dedicated to house rules that I use in my home game, as well as rules suggested to me by various House Guests. For simplicity sake I also include rules found in non-BTS relates Palladium games on this page, including where you can find it.

For ease of use, click on the following links to head to that section:
Combat Rules
Magic template for BTS!
Psychic Abilities
Reloading Rules
Skills & Attributes
Supernatural Related
Weapons Related
Using the Leap, Run and Swim stats on the Character Sheet
Calculating the Leap, Run and Swim stats on the Character Sheet
The Way of the Host: how to create and level up characters in my home game

Combat Rules

Bite

While most often used by monsters, demons and animals, a bite can be useful in a pinch if the character is desperate enough. The attacker gets no bonus to strike in additional to a -2 penalty to strike (meaning strike roll needs to be at least 6 or higher), and must be in grappling range of the target to perform.
Damage is only 1D4 (no damage bonus if any). Biting a supernatural being wont amount to much, but against a human/mortal, a bite is usually unexpected, painful and off-putting by most people. Victims of a bite must make a successful save vs. Pain roll of 12 or higher (include any P.E. bonuses) or lose their next action as they recoil back in fear and alarm.

Bite Entangle Note: The attacker can try to keep their a hold on their opponent with their mouth (biting down), and would be treated like an entangle, each additional action the character can keep biting down on their attacker, effectively performing an animalistic rip/tear type of attack that does 1D4 damage. However, entangling with their mouth leaves the biter wide open to attack and is not recommended.
Anecdote: In one of my old martial art classes, I heard a story about a guy bitting a police officer's arm and clamping down on it. The cop used his free hand to punch the guy's head, not only getting an easy shot, but broke several of the guy's teeth. Like I said, biting is an act of desperation - or in this guy's case a drug fuelled rage - and you're likely to be an easy target next action. From The Rifter #50, page 104.

Body Flip/Throw into another Opponent.

Players have attempted to perform this action enough that I had to make notes for it. While all the penalties are the same for the person being flipped/thrown, this attack costs the attacker an additional attack and another strike roll. The intended target can attempt to dodge the attack, and if struck has to maintain balance and has a 01-40% chance of being knocked down. Whether or nor they were knocked down, both the target and person being thrown takes 1D4 Damage + P.S. Damage bonus and lose an action.
From The Rifter #50, page 104

Body Parts and Called Shots

Inevitably, players like to perform called shots on specific places of their human/mortal enemies, and for obviously reasons. Taking a sword to the face is less welcome than say their hand, but its near instinctual to use the arms/hands to protect the face. Whether the P.C. strikes their face, arm or hand, a guideline for the penalties, amounts of S.D.C., the call shot number needed, and so on for these locations would be helpful.

To that end, I've long since purchased, downloaded and printed the PDF of
The Rifter #30, pages 41-44 and have added them to my G.M. Binder for easy access. I suggest all G.M.'s do the same as its an ideal guide to have on hand.

Brawling and Rampaging rules

When meta becomes important while dealing with incredibly strong supernatural beings, I use the Special Combat attacks for Brawling and Rampages rule from the Heroes Unlimited G.M's Guide, pages 54-58.
While it should be a rare occurrence as most supernatural creatures in BTS prefer the shadows and not drawing attention to themselves, there can and should be times where a creature throws sublety out the window and goes beastly on the investigators. Throwing cars, improvised power clubs, running power rams, bear hug power holds and the like can all be found here.

Crossbow Bolts are effective at lowering Armor Rating

Crossbow bolts are adept at piercing armor; they fire faster, with more efficient velocity and have better penetration values than an arrow. In short, bolts lower the A.R. of all armored targets by 2. The catch is that the shot must be within a 100 feet range, after that range bolts lose their velocity quickly. Also keep in mind that pain penalties and blood loss rules should apply to targets struck by a bolt.

Diving for Cover

The character throws himself to the ground or behind cover, usually to escape an explosion or hail of bullets. Can be done in place of a normal Dodge, uses any Dodge bonuses, as well as an additional +2 bonus, but requires an action to get back up. From The Rifter #50, page 104.

Grappling Rules, Revised

Another article I like to refer to as needed are the Revised Grappling Rules from The Rifter #3. While these rules don't provide much for dealing with the supernatural (most beings are too strong and durable for grappling to be effective), they work great against mortals who are in league with them.

Initiative modifiers, penalties and optional rules

I use the optional initiative rules from the Additional Hand to Hand Combat Rule located on pages 54-55 of The Rifter #7. I agree with the details as to why these initiative bonuses apply and they usually make the initiative rolls more interesting.

While I'm on the subject, I also have a house rule where the winner of the initiative can opt to let their opponent strike first if desired. There are times where reacting to your opponent is preferred to being the aggressor.

Initiative DOES NOT have to be re-rolled each round

Per Kevin S. in The Rifter #16, page 21: If a G.M. prefers, he can roll initiative each and every round. I usually do not. I'm of the same mind as Kevin in that I don't roll for each round unless something happens that creates a pause, or delay, or a change in the fight/combat somehow.

Losing an attack means losing the NEXT attack/action

This question comes up enough that I've added it here, and it comes up most often when a character loses initiative and one attack (usually from being knocked down or body flipped/thrown). The victim loses their next attack, and no matter where they were in the combat order they're moved to last in the initiative order. This gives the attacker an advantage as they will not only end up with an extra attack/action over the victim, but they get to potentially attack twice for the victim attacks again. Found in The Rifter #16, page 20.

Moving while staying low

The character leans down and tries to cover their head and neck, making themselves a smaller target. This is typically done to run from from one point of cover to another. Opponents are -2 to strike, but note however that the character can only move at half their maximum speed and is -2 to any Perception rolls along the way. Found in The Rifter #50, page 104.

Parrying against large two-handed weapons

While the attacker has penalties when using such weapons (like a sledge hammer for example), the defender also suffers a -2 to Parry against them. Found in The Rifter #50, page 104.

Parrying an attack aimed at another character

A character can parry an attack aimed at another character (if close enough), but it will count as one of the character's actions as they must move in or lunge to protect the other character, thus it is no longer an automatic action.
Found in The Rifter #16, page 20.

While the attacker has penalties when using such weapons (like a sledge hammer for example), the defender also suffers a -2 to Parry against them. Found in The Rifter #50, page 104.

Parrying: Attacks and objects that cannot be parried

A parry in game terms is used to deflect an attack (if you have at least the basic HTH combat skill) or block an attack (which anyone can attempt to do). So if an attack cannot be deflected or blocked somehow, it cannot be parried.
This can include items like falling boulders, bullets, energy blasts, fire, etc.

Likewise, if you have no shield, hand weapon, or arm guards to parry with, you cannot parry a sword strike or other attack (without taking damage), unless the character can get in close enough (grappling range) to parry the attacker's arms (in this case rendering the longer weapon useless). For example, in a knife fight, parrying the opponents arms is possible and is more often done than parrying the knife itself. Found in The Rifter #16, page 19.

Parrying Ranged Attacks at Grappling Range

Erick Wujcik put it best when he wrote that grappling range is “when the characters are right on top of each other”. All grabs, grappling and wrestling attacks are on the table at this range. At this range, an attacker gets an obvious close range bonus when trying to shoot their opponent, but on the other hand, the opponent can effectively parry the attack by deflecting, pushing, shoving, entangling, or otherwise move hands/arms holding the gun forcing the gun to be pointed elsewhere when it fires.
Note: From here, a battle of entangling or disarming the gun usually follows. The gun holder can attempt to back up to get a clear shot (taking an action), but the opponent can close on their next action, getting a melee attack in the process.

Parrying large two-handed melee weapons

While the attacker has penalties when using such weapons (like a sledge hammer for example), the defender also suffers a -2 to parry against them. Found in The Rifter #50, page 104.

Power Punches/attacks take two actions and includes the next attack

This is another question I get asked enough that I've added to the list.
Power Punches and attacks always take up 2 attacks unless specifically stated otherwise. As with performing any attack that takes two actions, it uses the current action and their NEXT action. Note that they can still parry (automatic) or dodge on their next action. If dodging however, they'll lose the following attack if they don't have an auto-dodge ability.
Found in The Rifter #16, page 21.

While the attacker has penalties when using such weapons (like a sledge hammer for example), the defender also suffers a -2 to parry against them. Found in The Rifter #50, page 104.

Re-roll 1's and 2's when rolling for damage:

This house rule allows players to re-roll 1's and 2's when rolling for damage. This rule can be as harmful as it is helpful however as they are only allowed to re-roll once; if they roll a 1 or 2 again, the roll was meant to be and the number stands. This rule can be detrimental at times because, for example, if a player rolled all 2's and then re-rolled the dice, I've seen the outcome where all 1's were rolled the second time, reducing the damage total even further.
Note: This rule does not include 4-sided dice.

Reloading handguns & pistols without the W.P. Handgun skill

This house rule came up after a good discussion with a player. This is a case-by-case, but the idea is that if a P.C. does not have the Handguns W.P., they can still reload a weapon that that carry/use regularly. This comes from the understanding that modern handguns & pistols are easy enough to reload with little training or instruction, or even after watching a video or two on Youtube these days. Note that all the other rules for not having the W.P. applies and reloading takes three actions instead of two.

Rolling with punch/fall or impact uses the character's NEXT action

I've gotten enough questions on this subject that I'm posting this here.
A roll with a punch, fall or impact DOES take an action, and it will be the next action the character loses as they recover from the attack/fall or impact they rolled with (another action could be lost if character failed a save vs pain attempt; possibly more). Found in The Rifter #16, page 20.

Saving Throws automatically fail on the roll of a Natural 1

This rule was carried over from my days of running Heroes Unlimited and Rifts, games where getting incredibly high bonuses to saving throws are common place. Some of these bonuses would get so high that the character couldn't fail a roll, creating a false immunity in some cases. To counter this in my games, I took a page from the attack rule that states that a natural 1 is an automatic failed roll, and added it to saving throw rules. Ergo, no matter how high the character's bonus is, a roll of 1 is a failed saving throw roll.

Simultaneous Attack DOES take an action

This is another case of getting asked enough that I'm posting it here.
Doing a simultaneous attack counts as an attack and uses the character's attack up like normal. The character is skipping or opting NOT to use a parry (which doesn't cost an action/attack) to strike their opponent at the same time, meaning both of them likely take damage.
The benefit is that the character only needs to roll higher than 4 (including any bonuses or penalties) to strike their opponent (although if the opponent is armored they'll need to roll higher than the A.R. to injure them).
Found in The Rifter #16, page 20.

Simultaneous Strike: optional change your mind rule

When it comes to Beyond the Supernatural, a simultaneous strike against a player character is a frightening concept as most supernatural beings can usually deal out a lot more damage than they'll receive. What's especially scary is that a player character has no defense against it. Those creatures that are more instinct than intellectual are more prone to simultaneous striking just as much as those who realize that they can take a lot of damage than their mortal/human attacker.

This rule came from an option rule in The Rifter #30, page 37 under Dealing with Simultaneous Strikes, and its one that I like and have incorporated into my home game. When a player character attacks, and their opponent decides to simultaneous strike, the character can “change their mind” and cancel the attack. Instead, they can attempt to parry or dodge the simultaneous strike.

Penalties: This action costs the character two attacks (the one they were using to attack with and their next action/attack), regardless if they have auto-dodge or not, and only gets half their combat bonuses, rounded down (if any).
Also note that they have to decide before they roll to strike (they cant make a poor strike roll and say “on second thought, I'll cancel that and parry instead”).
Lastly, if the character doesn't have two attacks remaining that round, they cannot cancel their attacks and parry or dodge instead.

Telekinetic Punch ruling

Note: This house rule is more of a judgement call until I get around to clarifying it with Kevin.

Due to the way the last line of this psychic ability reads: “The power is used in conjunction with a normal physical attack that can also be parried or dodged by the enemy”, I added a house rule that says when physically striking an opponent (touch range), you can use this ability in conjunction with your normal punch/kick damage.

Example: Joe the Physical Psychic attempts to physically punch a Dimensional Ghoul after declaring he's using a Telekinetic Punch. If he fails to strike the ghoul, he fails with both punches and still spends the I.S.P.
If successful however, Joe does both the 2D4 damage of his karate punch AND the 3D6 damage of the TK Punch, as well as adding in his P.S. damage bonus. The risk of both punches missing the ghoul (as the ghoul can parry or dodge at this range) and losing the I.S.P. is worth the potential reward of both punches hitting for a lot of damage.

Of course its safer performing a ranged punch and more likely to hit the first time or two (until the opponent wises up to what going on and parries or dodges accordingly).

Psychic Abilities

There are several new and expanded psychic abilities from the RIFTS: CS Manhunters sourcebook that are perfectly suitable for using in Beyond the Supernatural. While they are not house rules, this seemed like the best place to put up and frame the samples Kevin sent the House for display. Click their names to download their PDF's.

Blind Combat - New Sensitive Psychic ability for BTS.

Brain Fog- New Physical Psychic ability for BTS.

Call to Life - New Psychic Healer ability for BTS.

Mind Bolt - Revisited; new damage levels and can now be taken by Psychic Healers!

Presence Sense - Revisited; note that this one is pending a final edit.

Transfer I.S.P. - New; Psychic Sensitive and Healer ability.

Homemade (or not canon, yet)
Psychic Abilities

Illuminate the Invisible - Machine Psionic/Psi-Mechanic ability

Chameleon Eyes - Physical Psychic Ability (coming soon)

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Psychic Ability Selection House Rule: For those players who are unsure about which psychic abilities to select for their character, I have a house rule that allows them to leave some or all of their selections open when they start playing. By doing this, the player can then select their characters psychic abilities as they need those specific abilities and/or decide their selections based on how their playing their character. This way the players are certain that their character would use that ability as they've already needed it and have used it.

The limitation with this house rule is that the player MUST decide on what abilities to take before the character goes up to the next level of experience. Any open slots not filled in at this point simply vanish; considered to be “wasted potential”.

Reloading Rules

I've never fully agreed with how fast reloading works in the canon rules, and as there are no true reloading rules in BTS-2 (not that I recall anyway), I realized this is my opportunity to update them to a more realistic method while keeping it simple.

Without the W.P.: Characters who do not have a Weapon Proficiency for that type of gun cannot reload it. This is canon in the BTS-2 book (pg.166). That said, at the GM's discretion, a character can reload a favored gun they're familiar with, taking three actions to do so. Between pop culture, online tutorial videos, and the ease of reloading modern day pistols/rifles/shotguns/etc., there's no reason for anyone to not know how to load a gun their familiar with and use.

With the W.P.: Most modern weapons come equipped with easy to load clips/magazines.
There are even are even “speed-loaders” for revolvers. The character can reload these types of weapons in two actions.

Reloading Double (or triple) Barreled Shotguns: Takes three actions as these are sturdy, rugged beasts that can take abuse like no other, but they’re clumsy to load.

Loading a bolt onto a crossbow/harpoon gun/crossbow pistol: Takes two actions.

Reloading revolvers/bolt-action/lever-action/pump-action/machine-guns:
The character will need a full melee round or four melee actions (whichever is shorter).
Manual Reload Note: The character could perform less than a full reload for bolt-action, muzzle loaders and revolvers if in a hurry to fire. Takes two actions to load half the ammo capacity, rounding down. Example: A character can manually load three bullets in a six shooter or a common shotgun and be ready to fire it after spending two actions.

In the “Thick of Combat”: While in the thick of combat/firefight/under direct fire or being attacked by someone (or something), it takes twice as long to reload a weapon.
This rule comes from Heroes Unlimited (pg.204).

New “Tactical Reloading” Skill: Considered a Weapon Proficiency related skill,
Tactical Reloading is the practice (and perhaps art) of reloading quickly, even in the thick of battle. This covers the practice of placing clips and magazines in strategic, familiar places (ammo belts, bandoliers, etc.) and earning the muscle-memory experience to reload with little cognizant thought.

This skill can be taken as an Elective Skill for occupations in law enforcement, military, security work and those where practicing with and using guns is common practice. Alternatively, this skill can be taken at the cost of two Secondary skills.
Bonus: Costs one less action to reload a weapon (or two less actions while in the
“Thick of Combat”.
Requirements: Must have the proficiency for that weapon.
Limitation: Can only be performed once per round. Cannot be used with W.P. Archery.

Click here to download the PDF of these rules (rules were updated on 11/20/19)

Note: For those looking for more supplimental ranged combat rules, I encourage you to read the Supplemental Combat Rules article in The Rifter #19.

Skills and Attributes

Optional Quick Roll tables for Attributes

On pages 159-161 of the Dead Reign RPG main book, there is a optional table to quick roll your character's attributes. The benefits include not having any stats below 9 and being able to pick an aspect of your character (Brainy, Strong-Willed, Charismatic, Physically Strong and more) and get a guaranteed good attribute for that area. The down side of this option is that NONE of your stats will have the opportunity to roll higher than a 16-18 and get a 1D6 bonus roll added for an incredibly high attribute.

Weapon Proficiency Expert Upgrade

Similar to how select skills can attain a professional quality, W.P. skills can be upgraded to Expert at the cost of an additional two skill selections. These skill selections represent the extra time and resources devoted to mastering these particular types of weapons. The payoff to becoming an expert with that weapon type is that it doubles the bonuses earned from that W.P. skill.

Example: Joe selects the weapon proficiency skill Archery, but decides to become an expert, spending two additional skills to obtain this upgrade.
At level 1, Joe get gets a +2 bonus to strike (instead of +1). At Level 2 he gets a +4 to strike (instead of +2), at level 4 he gets a +6 to strike (instead of +3) and so on. His bonus to disarm (and the damage bonus house rule) also doubles.
Note: Needing two actions for a Called Shot or Aimed Shot stays the same,
as well as all potential penalties (shooting blind, shooting bursts, shooting at moving targets, etc.) and none of the tricks from Trick Shooting are altered.

Using I.Q. and M.E. attributes for percentage rolls

I believe that the I.Q. & M.E. attributes are important to characters in BTS, but they tend to go unnoticed and provide little use outside of a possible skill percentage bonus or a save vs. psionics bonus. I also believe that it can be difficult playing a character with a high I.Q. or who possesses skills than the player knows little about, and role-playing “brainy” characters suffers because of this.

In an effort to help these players out, I came up with a percentage system that allows the character to know something that the player himself may not know or had realized (“I’m not a scientist, but I play one as my character who knows this stuff”).  This rule also covers the aspect that a character may know something or could make an educated guess about something he lacks the appropriate skill for (“While I've never really studied any magic lore, I do recall hearing somewhere that you can use good quality kosher salt for banishment spells”), and for figuring out puzzles, riddles or mental challenges the player has given up on, etc.

The setup is similar to my shooting from the hip rules above as you add your character’s I.Q. stat, M.E. stat, and level of experience together (representing both the intelligence and the mental agility to recall obscure details or when figuring out a mental challenge) and attempt to roll under that number.

Note: If you plan to use this House Rule, I strongly recommend that you use the Go Mental! article from Rifter #19 as the skills presented in that article are all about mental attributes that don't get as much use as they should and includes some new physical skills and bonuses for existing skills.

Using the Diminishing Returns & Running Skill Optional Rules from “Go Mental!”

I use the optional Diminishing Returns and Running Skill rule from the
Go Mental! article mentioned above. I find them both to be appropriate in the modern day setting as they not only keep the physical skill junkie's in check, but also encourages them to pick other types of skills to round out their player character, making them more useful to the investigation team in general.

Use Physical Prowess percentage bonus for Physical Skills

This one may come off as nitpicking, but I've never liked adding the I.Q. percentage bonus to Physical Skills. In meta terms, a PC with an I.Q. of 24, and a P.P. of 10 would have a better chance of success at working parallel bars and rings than another player character with a P.P. of 24 and an I.Q. of 10.

While gymnastics training teaches you the skills to use the bars and rings, its the person's agility, dexterity and physical talent that makes them excel at it. The same logic applies to every other % based physical skill available.
This bothers me and makes little sense. I think the canon bonus is well meaning and designed to keep things simple , but it bothers me enough that I made a house rule for it.

My house rule is that for physical skills, you gain % bonuses from a high P.P., not I.Q. The process is the same in that you use the I.Q. bonus amount for the skills. Example: A P.P. of 24 would add a 10% bonus to all physical related skills.

Alternatively, I've had a few players grumble about this rule (usually because their player character had a high I.Q. versus a low P.P.). If your players grumble, you can alter this house rule to where they can use I.Q. or P.P. bonus, whichever is higher. DO NOT give both.

Note that a high P.S. is not used as these skills are more about agility & dexterity than brute strength. There's an argument that it could apply to the Swimming skill, but Swimming already benefits from P.S. as the swimming speed is based on it. However, if a player makes a strong case for it, feel free to give him the option to use P.S. attribute number as a percentage bonus for swimming instead of their P.P. or I.Q. attributes.

W.P. Gimmick/Improvise

This Weapon Proficiency is for those players who understand that sometimes you have to make use of whatever you have on hand as a weapon, and by any means available to them. These can include bar stools, chairs, broken bottles, pens, pencils, pistol whipping, using the butt of a rifle or choking with cables, belts, leashes, neck ties, and so on. Some common sense needs to come into play with this skill however as most objects will break quickly when used as a weapon (this wasn't their intended purpose). My general rule is the object suffers ½ the damage it deals.
+1 to Strike at levels 1, 3, 6, 9, 12, and 15. +1 to Throw at level 4, 8, and 12.
    Small objects: small and/or light objects like pens, pencils, flashlights, deer antler, bottles, pool balls, bricks, skulls, bowling pins, etc. does 1D4 damage +P.S. bonus (includes throwing damage).
    Larger objects: Wooden, plastic and plaster items like chairs, bar stools, crutches, large planks, bowling balls, bowling pins, bed posts, champagne bottles, prosthetic limbs, etc. do 1D6+1 damage +P.S. bonus.
—Metal objects like foosball rods, gum ball machines, handrails, paper cutters, tire irons, electric conduits, iron frying pans, drive shafts, fire pokers, gas pipes, rebar (bent or straight), etc. does 1D8+1 +P.S. bonus. Throwing any of these items does 1D6 damage +P.S. bonus.
   Flexible objects: Objects like coat hangers, neck ties, T-shirts, plastic bags, belts, cables, leashes, extension cords, piano wire, etc. does 1D4 damage per choking attack to S.D.C. for the first melee round (15 seconds), then 1D4 directly to Hit Points for every continued choking attack afterwards. Note that these type of attacks tend to be ongoing and requires escaping the hold somehow.

New Trick Shooting selections

I love the W.P. Trick Shooting skill and felt that more tricks were needed.
-Spaghetti Western (or Pistols Akimbo): The character can fire two handguns simultaneously without an off hand penalty (which is usually -2.)
Burst penalties still apply as normal.
-Fanning: Fanning is a revolver shooting technique (made famous in western movies and television) in which one hand holds the trigger and the other hits the hammer repeatedly. This turns the cylinder and hits the firing pin, in that order, allowing for 'semi-automatic fire' of single action revolvers.
This trick is performed in shooting shows (where trick marksmen entertained crowds with shooting tricks) fast draw competitions and by many a curious target-practicer; but it was probably not common in actual fire fights, because it doesn't lend itself to most real-life tactical situations, in accuracy or cover. However, there are times it can be a useful action.

When taking Trick Shooting (see page 216 of BTS-2) and selecting Fanning as the trick, the character may fire in bursts with a revolver. Note that this trick requires using both hands.
Firing three bullets takes one action to perform; strike bonus is reduced by half and damage is bullet caliber used (typically 3D6) x2.
Firing all bullets requires two actions to perform, has a penalty of -6 to strike (considered a wild shot) and damage is bullet caliber used (typically 3D6) x4.

Secondary Skills are given regardless of Occupation

Not all the available occupations offer new skills as player character's progress in levels. I don't agree with this (we live in an age where schooling, seminars, certification classes and training programs are easier than ever to attend), so I added a house rule that player characters gain two new secondary skills at level 3, 6, 9, 12 and 15, in addition to what their occupation provides.

I also allow players to convert these two secondary skills into one elective skill if they want a skill from their available Elective Skills (getting the skill bonus provided).

Genius P.C.C. may upgrade their skill selections to Elective

Something of an add-on to the rule above, the Genius P.C.C. has the option of upgrading all their Secondary Skills to Elective Skills automatically when they go up in levels. This allows more skill options for the Genius to choose from and these new skills earn whatever applicable bonuses that might come from taking it as an Elective skill.

New available occupations in Dead Reign® RPG

Pages 86-98 of Dead Reign® RPG offers several new occupations that work just as well in BTS. The list includes the following:
Builder/Construction Contractor, Criminal: Thug/Gang Banger,
Engineer: Electrical or Mechanical, Farmer, Creative Writer,
Professional Driver: Big Rigs, Professional Driver: Specialized, Store: Clerk, Store: Owner/Retailer, Student: College and Wait Staff or Cook.

“Trust and Intimidate” and “Charm and Impress”

The Trust and Intimidate: A Way of Life and the Charm and Impress: The Key to Success articles from The Rifter #60 and The Rifter #61 are both good articles to keep around for players who want to make better use of their M.A. and P.B. stats. In a modern day setting, there's a lot of opportunity to use these attributes and the bonuses gained from them.

Save vs. Disease/Poison Against Supernatural Diseases

Inspired from the Dark Places® sourcebook (pg.20), when a character gets an infection or catches any disease, he gets to make a saving throw vs Disease after treatment. This is the same as attempting a save vs. lethal poison.
Any supernatural based or even related infection is potent and the character must roll a 16 or higher to save.
If the wound is not professionally treated, the character still gets to roll to save vs disease, but does so with a penalty of -3 to save.
A successful save means the character suffers the penalties listed under the symptoms of his particular type of infection for half the usual period, the infection heals in half the time, there is no permanent damage, and any wounds heal with minimal scarring, unless stated otherwise.
Note: P.E. attribute bonuses apply to saving vs disease.

Yoga skill change from The Rifter #7

The World Warriors article (starting on page 39 of the Rifter #7) not only has some good Martial Arts to consider for BTS characters (Ghost Hunters, Natural Athletes and Physical Psychics especially), but also good physical skills to consider, including the skill Yoga.

However, there's a bonus for Chi which doesn't apply to BTS (that's a Ninja's & Superspies ability). Instead, any psychic character that takes this as a Scholastic/Elective skill gains +1 to their base I.S.P. while any mage or non-psychic character gets an additional 1D4 added to their base P.P.E.

Taking this as a Secondary skill only grants the PP, MA and balance bonus.

“Save vs Insanity” bonus is also added to “Save vs Pain”

Simply put, all characters who have a Mental Endurance attribute of 16 or higher may include their “save vs insanity” bonus to their saving throw vs pain. Dealing with pain is just as much of a mental effort as it is a physical effort and this house rule reflects that.

Skill Rolls, When the Character Does Not Have Them

From the Railguns & Dragons website: There comes a time in game a player will want to do something with his character, but does not have the skill for it and its frustrating to that player and even more frustrating when no one in the party has the skill as well.

So now the group sits there, trying to figure out ways around the situation or a different path to take, because of this skill they don't have. Well good news is that anyone can attempt MOST of the skills and its the GM's call on which skills would fall under “anyone can” attempt...

Click here to read the Evil DM's house rule concerning skills (or lack of)

The Supernatural

Deceiving abilities will mask a creature's supernatural aura

This may be something that's already official, but was overlooked in the main book (planning to confirm this with Kevin the next time I talk with him).

When supernatural creatures use shape changing (like the Dar'ota), inhabiting the dead (like the Dybbuk or the Hoarse Whisperer) or are otherwise hiding or concealing themselves in plain sight (like a Tectonic Entity, Syphon, or Scaring Crow) or when using psychic/magic like Psychic Invisibility, their abilities also shield their supernatural aura from psychics. The trade off to this is that the creature cannot use any of their offensive talents unless stated otherwise in their details.

For example, a group of psychic investigators could be having a conversation with a Dar'ota who currently looks like a beautiful woman. None of them will experience a psychic adrenaline rush unless it transforms suddenly or attacks them in some way with her supernatural strength. Using any sort of offensive spells or ability will reveal her supernatural aura to the psychics.

While I'm on this subject, there are abilities that can alert the psychic to the creature's true nature, but this will not automatically trigger an adrenaline rush. For example, if a Diviner uses See the Aura of the Supernatural, he would see through its disguise, but this will not trigger a power boost. The Dar'ota will still need to unleash its aura somehow to trigger the boost.

Weapons

Wooden baseball bats do 1D12 damage:

This house rule came about as I feel that 12-sided dice are getting ignored more and more. So between my personal sympathy for the neglected 12-sided die, the fact that my players love arming their characters with baseball bats, the realization that baseball bats are potentially more lethal than a 1D8 suggests, I raised the damage of wooden baseball bats to 1D12.
The wide swing (pun intended) of the damage possibility of 1-12 also represents the physics of a baseball bat as you have to hit with a small and specific area of a bat to do real damage.

Aluminum bats now does 1D8 damage while Composite Professional bats still do 2D4+2 damage per hit (taken from page 114 of the Dead Reign main book).

Maximum Damage limits: Due to their design, both wooden and aluminum bats breaks if it does more than 25 points of damage is dealt in a single hit. Composite Professional bats break if more than 31 points of damage are dealt with one hit.

Dead Reign Note: Till something is released with more details concerning weapons in BTS, the weapon stats in the Dead Reign main book is a great resource for weapon stats and damage.

Melee weapon proficiency damage increase bonus

While taking a look at how a melee weapon proficiency works, virtually all weapon experts that I've researched or talked to agree that being proficient in knowing how to use a particular weapon not only means they have more precision (hence the bonuses), but they are also more lethal with it in combat.

However, while precision is covered in the Weapon Proficiencies via combat bonuses, there's no accounting for their practiced weapons being more dangerous / lethal / damaging. In the current format, anyone can pick up a weapon that they've never used before and be just as lethal with it as the 15th level guy with a W.P. in the same weapon. “I have a knife, and I know how to use it” should be scarier than it really sounds in its current format.

To compensate for this, I've created a house rule that adds a +1 damage bonus that's accumulative at levels 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, and 14, to all melee weapons that the character has a W.P. for. And just like new skills that are added/selected as the character progresses, these bonuses start at 1st level.

Example: A character at 3rd level takes a Blunt W.P. as a new skill. When the character reaches 4th level, his Blunt W.P. is now considered to be 2nd level and gets a +1 damage bonus to his blunt weapons.

Melee weapons do maximum damage with a critical hit:

This house rule stems from the joy of getting a critical hit with a melee weapon only to be deflated and left frustrated due to a poor damage roll.
For example, if a character without a damage bonus gets a critical strike with a baseball bat and rolls a 1 for damage, all he gets are a lousy 2 points for a critical hit.

I understand this frustration, especially as most BTS characters tend to have lower P.S. attributes, and therefore have less damage potential than other RPG's. So I allow my players to increase the damage of their critical strikes to the maximum amount of the melee weapon being used. Using the baseball bat example above, the minimum damage of a critical strike is raised to 8 for aluminum bats, 10 for composite professional bats and 12 for wooden bats.

Pocket Knife/Utility Knife/Box Cutter Limitations

Select tools and objects, like a pocket knife, are useful in a lot of different ways, but have their limitations...

A pocketknife is a foldable knife with one or more blades that fit inside the handle that can still fit in a pocket. It is also known as a jackknife or a penknife, though a penknife may also be a specific kind of pocketknife. A typical blade length is 5 to 15 centimeters. Pocketknives are versatile tools, and may be used for anything from opening an envelope, to cutting twine, slicing a piece of fruit or even as a means of self-defense. They are often used as everyday carry knives.

While a character's personal strike bonus and any strike bonuses from having the W.P. Knife skill can be used, a pocket knife cannot be used to parry with and are to clumsy and small to be effective as a throwing weapon (although throwing at an opponent's eyes at close range could be an exception).

Also keep in mind that that the maximum damage a pocket knife can do before breaking is 12 S.D.C. / Hit Points.

Pistol whip and rifle/shotgun smash damage

For reference, a pistol whip, or coldcock, is where a person bludgeons an opponent with the butt of his range weapon. Does 1D4 damage, plus damage bonus, while smashing with the butt of a rifle (AKA “hittin' them with the soft end”) does 1D6 damage, plus damage bonus. This does not require taking the skill W.P. Blunt to perform (The Rifter #19, page 20).
Note: Any W.P. Blunt bonuses do not apply to this attack as this is not the intended method of using the pistol/rifle/shotgun (and its difficult to perform this type of attack with any real accuracy). However, characters with the
W.P. Gimmick/Improvise skill (see below) may add the strike bonus to this attack.

Concerning shotguns (and buckshot)

The shotgun is a favorite weapon in my group, so much so that the game mechanics needed to be looked at, discussed and fine-tuned every now and again. So after some discussing, some tinkering and some play testing here and there, I've come up with the following house rules when using shotguns:

-When using buckshot ammo (which scatters and covers a 3 foot area up to 30 feet away and then covers a 10ft area for another 30 feet), such a wide area coverage lowers the A.R. rating of the target by -2 due to more coverage by the spread of the buckshot.
For example, firing at a Dybbuk with a round of buckshot only requires a roll of 11 or higher instead of the usual 13. The trade off is that buckshot doesn't do as much damage or travels as far as solid slugs.

-When using buckshot ammo on a shotgun that’s equipped with a flashlight, all “single shots” (not bursts) gets an +1 bonus to strike when the flashlight is turned on and illuminating the target. The mentality here is that between the mandatory close range use of buckshot and the fact that the flashlight beam typically has a radius of about three feet in diameter, whatever is in the flashlight’s beam will effectively get hit. As a lot of BTS games take place in the dark (or in poor enough lighting that a light source is needed), this is a rule that comes into play often. Coincidentally, this mentality has been tested and proven in a lot of first-person horror survival video games.

-Shooting one handed with a rifle is attempted with a -2 penalty to strike, even when aiming or using call shots (unless using the Trick Shooting skill). However, if an action is taken to aim a shotgun that’s loaded with buckshot, the penalty is removed, due again to the area coverage of the scatter.
Note: A saving throw to keeping balance should be made when attempting this (see Shooting from the Hip below for determining how to save.)

“Shooting from the hip”

“Hip shooting” is an action/reaction with a handgun, shotgun or rifle as seen in the movies & on TV. This reaction is usually done as a "surprise reflex" or "quick initiative" action when the character wasn't aiming at anything and his rifle was slung or held at his side. As BTS creatures love sneak attacks and jumping out at characters from the shadows, trying to beat the creature's initiative when its attacking you is an outright survival mechanism (especially if you tend to have lousy dodge rolls).

The rules work like this: The character gets a +3 to initiative when hip shooting, but is at a -2 to strike (no aiming bonus are added as the sights are nowhere near eye level and there's no time to aim). As the stock isn't braced against the shoulder (its at waist level), there's no recoil absorption when the weapon fires, and may throw the character off balance (needs to make a saving throw to keep his balance).

Using percentage dice, the character attempts this save by rolling lower than the combined total of both his P.S., his P.P., and his experience level. For example, a 5th level character with both a P.S. & a P.P. of 20 would need to roll a 44% or lower to save. Failing this roll means the character is off balance for the next two actions and loses any bonus they may have for those two actions (be it attacking, defending, dodging, etc.)

Note: Characters that have the Sense of Balance skill (obtained from the Ballet, Acrobatics or Gymnastics skills) may use this in place of the tallied up attribute numbers.

Its been pointed out that the player can do a simultaneous strike if they fail their initiative roll. If a Player Character does this, they can still attempt the hip shooting tactic if they are holding the appropriate weapon.

“Close Combat Firearm Rules”

The Zombie Close Combat Firearm Rules on page 182-183 of the Dead Reign main book works in many situations with little modification in BTS and I encourage you to use them. In fact, there's a of rules in DR that works well in BTS, so I encourage you keep a copy of the main book and its expansions (Dark Places in particular) on hand if you don't already and consider them to be reference books in your BTS library.

Revolvers, Break-Action Shotguns, Bolt-Action Rifles and Crossbows do not jam

This rule was added and clarified due to one of the player characters at my table being a “wheel gun" fan. As this rules also applies to other weapon types, I've included them in the rule.

GM’s that use any sort of critical fumble rules, such as the Lucky Psychic rules in The Rifter #53, or situations that could cause a weapon to jam should note that revolvers, break-action shotgun and crossbows never jam like semi-auto handguns and pump-action shotguns do. Instead of jamming, the bullet/shell is considered to be a dud or misfired and just sits in the chamber, or in the case of a crossbow the bolt fires and simply misses the target. This saves the character the time and actions of switching or unjamming the weapon.

It's also worth noting here that these weapons are built to be sturdy and keep on working in harsh conditions and can take up to 5x their damage ability before breaking (as opposed to the normal 3x).

Ecto-Slayer Shotgun damage explained and range added

This weapon is missing its range and most (including myself) found the damage to be confusing (see page 53 of BTS-2). To that end, I went to the source (Kevin Siembieda) to clear up the confusion. This is what how he put it:

“The simple way to explain this is that both the number of D6’s and the 'plus' damage increase. So at level two the shotgun would do 2D6+2, then 3D6+3 at level three, 4D6+4 at level four and so on. So in time this shotgun becomes a pretty badass weapon, especially against Ancient Evil, Alien Intelligences, and creatures vulnerable to fire as it does double damage to them! And 150 feet would be the appropriate range.”

UPDATE: This rules is being clarified in the upcoming Creature Feature sourcebook and once published will be removed from this page.

All Shields Provide a +4 Bonus to Parry

Between a mix of my past self-defense training and martial art classes and being encouraged from other resources, not only are humans instinctively protective of themselves in combat, but carrying a shield encourages the carrier to use it.

Beyond the weight of carrying them, using a shield, regardless if its an older shield (buckers, oval roman shields, crusader shields, etc) or modern shield (ballistic shields, police entry shield, tactical shields, etc.), they're easy to use and provides some cover, even when not actively using it. Therefore, all shields (specifically designed to be shields) provides a +4 parry bonus.

Using the Leap, Run and Swim Stats on the character sheet:

In a modern day horror game, skills like running, jumping and swimming can be essential to survival. However, the main book provides little detail concerning these traits, so I came up with a set of rules for my home game.

Calculating the Leap, Run and Swim Stats on the character sheet:

Added by popular request, this page details how to calculate the “Miscellaneous Section” info, located on the back of the character sheet.
For your convenience I've also linked a PDF file for you to download and keep at the bottom of the page.

The Way of the Host: How to create and level up BTS characters in my home game:

I have several house rules for my players to use while creating their character's as well as when leveling them up. Click this link to download the PDF.

Also, see the newly added Character Creation Room for a more in-depth look at creating characters the Host's way.