The Inside Scoop on Gaming

I finally bothered to pick this up, after seeing it intermittantly in various stores (and reviews here). I love anime (certain parts of it, anyway), and had high hopes for this, but was, ultimately, very disappointed.

It seems in many areas, the big debate is system versus setting. As a knee-jerk system guy, I figured that in a multi-genre game, my needs would be primarily addressed. I mean, surely anyone that's going to buy a dedicated-anime game would be familiar with the genre conventions (otherwise, why do it), and without a setting, what else is there? Apparently, not much.

The system is okay, but certainly nothing special (to the degree I bothered to understand it). No skills (but, okay), set damage amounts (except on a roll of double-1), and a generation sequence that seemed for all the world like GURPS minus-minus. The combat was clunky, and vague; there was no compensatory interaction system worth mentioning.

All it all, the format, with one column per (small) page and large typeface seemed to prevent much substance. I keep getting the idea that there were germs of good ideas lurking beneath the surface, but for my 16 bucks, I wanted something more than vague ideas. Compared to Mekton Zeta (form late, lamented R Talsorian), which offered so much more in the right direction, there just isn;t anything here. No rules for magic, giant robots beyond super-basics (when the magic and psi rules from GURPS Basic Set seem comprehensive in comparison, you know you've got a problem!). I know the vehicl;e book came out, but I wonder.

It just seemed like the sort of thing, if you left out all the background mods (that is, just reduced them to a paragraph or so; not much less than what you get here), that would have made a lot of sense as a free Abode Acrobat preview you could get off the net for free. But not for 15.95.

Style: 3 (Average)
Substance: 2 (Sparse)

Big Eyes, Small Mouth
Author: Mark C. Mackinnon Category: game Company/Publisher: Guardians Of Order Line: BESM Cost: 15.95 Page count: 96 ISBN: 0-9682431-0-X SKU: 02-001 Capsule Review by Hans Visser on 08/15/99. Genre tags: Fantasy Science_fiction Modern_day Space Comedy Anime Generic	I finally bothered to pick this up, after seeing it intermittantly in various stores (and reviews here). I love anime (certain parts of it, anyway), and had high hopes for this, but was, ultimately, very disappointed. It seems in many areas, the big debate is system versus setting. As a knee-jerk system guy, I figured that in a multi-genre game, my needs would be primarily addressed. I mean, surely anyone that's going to buy a dedicated-anime game would be familiar with the genre conventions (otherwise, why do it), and without a setting, what else is there? Apparently, not much. The system is okay, but certainly nothing special (to the degree I bothered to understand it). No skills (but, okay), set damage amounts (except on a roll of double-1), and a generation sequence that seemed for all the world like GURPS minus-minus. The combat was clunky, and vague; there was no compensatory interaction system worth mentioning. All it all, the format, with one column per (small) page and large typeface seemed to prevent much substance. I keep getting the idea that there were germs of good ideas lurking beneath the surface, but for my 16 bucks, I wanted something more than vague ideas. Compared to Mekton Zeta (form late, lamented R Talsorian), which offered so much more in the right direction, there just isn;t anything here. No rules for magic, giant robots beyond super-basics (when the magic and psi rules from GURPS Basic Set seem comprehensive in comparison, you know you've got a problem!). I know the vehicl;e book came out, but I wonder. It just seemed like the sort of thing, if you left out all the background mods (that is, just reduced them to a paragraph or so; not much less than what you get here), that would have made a lot of sense as a free Abode Acrobat preview you could get off the net for free. But not for 15.95. Style: 3 (Average) Substance: 2 (Sparse)

Big Eyes, Small Mouth