The ''Supernatural Role Playing Game'' is a

role-playing game A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of player character, characters in a fictional Setting (narrative), setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within ...

Margaret Weis Productions Margaret Weis Productions, Ltd. is a games publisher located in Williams Bay, Wisconsin, United States and founded in 2004 after Margaret Weis and Don Perrin, the two founders of Sovereign Press, divorced. Games Margaret Weis Productions is ...

that was released in 2009. It is based on the

television series A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, or cable, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are typically placed ...

Supernatural Supernatural refers to phenomena or entities that are beyond the laws of nature. The term is derived from Medieval Latin , from Latin (above, beyond, or outside of) + (nature) Though the corollary term "nature", has had multiple meanings si ...

'' and was the final game to use the

Cortex System The Cortex System is a collection of related roleplaying games. Its most recent iteration, ''Cortex Prime,'' was designed by Cam Banks and published by Fandom Tabletop. Prior versions appeared in the licensed roleplaying games published by Marga ...

The Game

Like most

role-playing games A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of player character, characters in a fictional Setting (narrative), setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within ...

, ''Supernatural'' requires several players; one person to be the

Game Master A gamemaster (GM; also known as game master, game manager, game moderator, referee, or storyteller) is a person who acts as an organizer, officiant for regarding rules, arbitrator, and moderator for a multiplayer role-playing game. They are m ...

and two to five others to play hunters such as

Dean Winchester Dean Winchester is one of the two protagonists from the American drama television series ''Supernatural'', along with his younger brother Sam. He is portrayed primarily by Jensen Ackles. Other versions of the character having been portrayed by ...

and Sam Winchester. It also requires multiple polyhedral

dice Dice (singular die or dice) are small, throwable objects with marked sides that can rest in multiple positions. They are used for generating random values, commonly as part of tabletop games, including dice games, board games, role-playing ...

ranging from four-sided to twelve-sided.

The setting

The Supernatural Role Playing Game is set in the world of the Supernatural TV series and focuses on an elite group of hunters who deal with

supernatural Supernatural refers to phenomena or entities that are beyond the laws of nature. The term is derived from Medieval Latin , from Latin (above, beyond, or outside of) + (nature) Though the corollary term "nature", has had multiple meanings si ...

threats A threat is a communication of intent to inflict harm or loss on another person. Intimidation is a tactic used between conflicting parties to make the other timid or psychologically insecure for coercion or control. The act of intimidation for co ...

ordinary people do not believe exist. The very first chapter of the book sets the scene and is called ''Be Afraid of the Dark''. It was produced in 2009, before the fifth season had aired and so doesn't contain any information relevant to the series after this date, but uses information from the show, the graphic novels, and the novels.

The Rules

Supernatural was the final role-playing game published using the

, and the final one by Jamie Chambers; all subsequent games from

have been produced under the

Cortex Plus The Cortex Plus System is a toolkit RPG system that evolved from Margaret Weis Productions, Ltd's Cortex System. It has been used for four published games and one published preview to date, and the design principles are in the ''Cortex Plus Hack ...

system. The system itself uses dice of various sizes ranging from 2 sided (a coin) to 12 sided for attributes, skills, Assets (positive character traits), and Complications (negative character traits). When trying a challenging task, roll the dice for the relevant attribute, skill, and any relevant assets and complications, and compare against a target number decided by the GM. Character creation is point buy by category, with a separate pool for skills and stats, and the size of the pool depending on how powerful the characters are intended to be.

History

The rights to the license were acquired in the spring of 2007 by

Margaret Weis Productions, Ltd Margaret Weis Productions, Ltd. is a games publisher located in Williams Bay, Wisconsin, United States and founded in 2004 after Margaret Weis and Don Perrin, the two founders of Sovereign Press, divorced. Games Margaret Weis Productions i ...

(MWP). It was also around this time that

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

best-selling

author An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states: "''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...

Margaret Weis Margaret Edith Weis (; born March 16, 1948) is an American fantasy and science fiction author, of dozens of novels and short stories. At TSR, Inc., she teamed with Tracy Hickman to create the ''Dragonlance'' role-playing game (RPG) world. She is ...

announced that the license to

Dragonlance ''Dragonlance'' is a shared universe created by Laura and Tracy Hickman, and expanded by Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis under the direction of TSR, Inc. into a series of fantasy novels. The Hickmans conceived ''Dragonlance'' while driving i ...

was not renewed so that the company could focus on the Supernatural RPG as well as their work on the Battlestar Galactica RPG. The ''Supernatural Role Playing Game'' was one of the three new Cortex media games published by

, one each year between 2007-2009, after the '' Battlestar Galactica Role Playing Game'' (2007) and the '' Demon Hunters Role Playing Game'' (2008). It was finally released in August 2009. Early indications by Jamie Chambers place the first official game event to be at Gen Con 2007 in

Indianapolis, Indiana Indianapolis (), colloquially known as Indy, is the List of U.S. state and territorial capitals, state capital and List of U.S. states' largest cities by population, most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the county seat, seat of ...

. This will include "two adventures that will allow players to experience the Supernatural Role Playing Game for the first time outside of our internal playtesting and development."{{cite web, url=http://www.winchesterbros.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=483&Itemid=2, title=WinchesterBros.com Exclusive - Q&A with RPG Guru & Developer, Jamie Chambers, date=June 10, 2007, accessdate=2007-06-26 The reception was lukewarm, with ''Flames Rising'' declaring "If you are already a fan of the Supernatural TV show and want to play out the kind of adventures that happen to its protagonists, this book will come as a real treat. If you don’t know the show or are just looking for a game in which present-day heroes deal with supernatural menaces, this probably is not the game for you."Supernatural RPG Review
Flames Rising, January 10, 2010 Jamie Chambers, writing for '' Transformative Works and Cultures'' concluded: " heSupernatural Role Playing Game doesn't contribute anything too novel to the genre of RPGs. ... Even the incorporation of the television show's characters, monsters, and plots into the text as potential a campaign suggestions parallels industry practice, but this does not diminish the potential of players and game masters to appropriate the show and make it their own."Book Review: Supernatural role playing game, by Jamie Chambers
'' Transformative Works and Cultures'', no. 4

References

Horror role-playing games Margaret Weis Productions games Role-playing games based on television series Role-playing games introduced in 2009