The Inside Scoop on Gaming

Just looking at the cover, this book had two big things going for it, as far as I was concerned. The first was the cover art, two very sexy catgirls, drawn by none other than Masamune Shirow, one of my favorite manga (Japanese comic book) artists. The second was the author's name. For those of you who don't play GURPS and are not familiar with the name David Pulver, he wrote some of the better GURPS books out there, including GURPS Bio-Tech and the excellent GURPS Technomancer setting. The fact that the book was by one of my favorite authors, and based on a Masamune Shirow work, was what prompted me to pre-order the book at Origins. It finally came in, and I must say I am pleased. Of course, as I mentioned before, I have biases towards the setting and the author of this book, so those must be taken into account when reading this review.

Overview

Dominion Tank Police is an anime (Japanese animation) based on the manga "Dominion" by the aforementioned Masamune Shirow. The anime, as the name would suggests, chronicles the (mis)adventures of a group of cops who drive tanks, rather than the more typical police cars. This special police force was brought into existence to combat the rather high crime rate (one every 36 seconds) in Newport City, the setting of the anime. Newport City is a weird-looking city of organic, biotech buildings, shrouded in a perpetual cloud of toxic bacteria. The setting is a rather grim one, with heavy doses of cyberpunk, yet the series itself is quite comical. For the most part, it revolves around two members of the Tank Police, Leona and Al, and their (rather cute) little tank, called "Bonaparte." They, and the rest of the Tank Police, try to foil the criminal plots of Buaku and his gang, the most notorious criminals in Newport City. In the process, many buildings get blown up, many tanks get destroyed (or at very least, toppled over by giant expanding phalluses (don't ask…)).

The Dominion Tank Police Roleplaying Game and Resource Book is, as the name would suggest, both a set of rules for running adventures and campaigns in the world of Dominion Tank Police, and a general guide to the series, with information on the setting, characters, and mecha (machines). For the roleplaying elements, it uses the Tri-Stat system from Big Eyes, Small Mouth. However, this book does not require BESM to play--it is a self-contained game.

Chapter 1 -- Introduction

The book starts out with an introduction to Dominion Tank Police, and to the mecha genre of anime. There are summaries of all the episodes of the OAV series (Original Animation Videos--like a miniseries intended to be released direct-to-video) on which the book is based. This should serve as a good overview of the series, but it is no substitute for actually seeing it. For those (like myself) who haven't seen the anime in a long time, it was a good refresher.

There's the obligatory "What is Role-playing" section which is essentially the same as every other "What is Role-playing" sections you've ever seen, but is certainly nice to have in a book that's geared as much toward fans of the anime as to fans of anime role-playing in general. There's a list of various anime and manga series set in the Dominion Tank Police world, and here lay my first disappointment. While I liked the anime series, I liked the manga better--as I mentioned earlier, I'm a fan of Masamune Shirow's work, and was slightly disappointed to see that some of the elements of the manga would not be represented in this book.

Finally, there's a rather nicely done snippet from an adventure, intended to show the sort of interplay between players and GM. The players portraying the two main characters of the anime did a good job of staying in character throughout this piece. I found myself chuckling out loud at some of the lines ("Ellen: No you idiot, You'll scratch Bonaparte! (To GM) I swat Al") and it's a nice introduction to the sort of things that Dominion Tank Police characters do.

Chapter 2 -- Character Creation

Character Creation is expanded from the rules in Big Eyes, Small Mouth, and I feel that the level of detail perfectly fits the Dominion world. The characters are not high-powered energy-blasting superheroes like in many anime. Rather, they are ordinary (well, maybe that's not the best word for it) people who just happen to drive large heavily-armored vehicles through the city streets. For those of you who are familiar with the BESM Tri-Stat system, every character has (as the name suggests) three "Stats," Body, Mind and Soul. These are similar to Attributes in many other systems, or to the Ability Scores in D&D. They represent intrinsic qualities of the character (physical, mental, and spiritual development, respectively). In addition, characters can have any number of "Attributes" (OK, the terminology CAN get a bit confusing) which represent more specific aspects of the character. For instance, a character may have a high Appearance and be handsome, beautiful, or cute. Or, perhaps, a character may Own a Big Mecha (such as a tank). Attributes also exist which add to the value of a Stat. For instance, a character with a Powerful Mind adds the level of this Attribute to his Mind Stat. Attributes are bought with "Character Points" and work much the same as in any point-based system.

If you read BESM and were disappointed at its lack of a skill system (its attributes only covered a few of what would traditionally be skills, such as Art of Distraction and Acrobatics) the Dominion Tank Police book has one, and it works pretty well. Skills are bought with "Skill Points" which can be increased by raising yet another Attribute.

Finally, characters may take Defects. If you've played GURPS, you can think of Defects as being similar to Disadvantages in that system. The main difference is that Defects give at most 2 bonus Character Points, and thus are not as prone to abuse as GURPS Disadvantages.

One of the things I liked the most about this section was the liberal use of examples. Especially nice was that one of the examples was Leona, the main character from the series. If you were disappointed in R Talsorian's Bubblegum Crisis RPG, and the way that the characters from the series were constructed with no regard to the character creation mechanics, and indeed were higher-power than most starting characters, you will not be disappointed with this book. In addition, each Attribute and Defect has an example taken from one of the series characters, so that you can get some idea what a character with that Attribute or Defect is like.

Series Characters

This sub-chapter contains background and game information for all the main (and not-so-main) characters in the series, hero, villain, or bystander. This is nice for the GM who may want to throw, say, the Puma sisters (the two sexy catgirls from the cover) into an adventure, as well as for fans of the show who might like some of the less well-known bits of information. (For instance, the resident scientist in the Tank Police is named after the man who developed the Gaia hypothesis, fitting considering the environmental themes that run through the series). This chapter also contains game statistics and background information on the tanks and other mecha from the series.

Between Chapters 2 and 3 are a set of color plates. These are all stills from the anime, and can be used to show players what a particular character or mecha looks like. They're pretty good, but again, I liked the art in the manga better than in the anime.

Chapter 3 -- Game Mechanics

This is where all the rules that are likely to come up during gameplay can be found. Dice rolling is simple, and generally consists of rolling 2d6 and trying to roll under one of your Stats, or under your Combat Value (computed after character creation). Skills, if appropriate, subtract from your die roll, and difficult tasks add to it. I haven't had a chance to run a Dominion Tank Police adventure, but I have run other scenarios using the Tri-Stat system, and it is very simple and easy to use. Characters tend to be very tough and hard to kill, but this is in keeping with the rather light-hearted anime feel. Characters in anime routinely survive injuries that would kill or seriously wound real people. Also in this chapter are a subset of the Big Robots, Cool Starships (BESM Mecha supplement) rules that are appropriate for the Dominion universe.

In general, this chapter is considerably more detailed than that in the basic BESM rulebook, and those who want a little more structure in their game mechanics may want to take a look at it.

Chapter 4 -- The World of Dominion

This chapter covers various aspects of life in the Dominion world. Topics covered include the toxic bacteria cloud that shrouds the Earth (including effects of breathing it without a mask), crime, important locations and organizations in Newport City, and technology (including, of course, tanks). There are plenty of adventure seeds in here, especially in the section on organizations (what if an anti-Tank Police activist group tried to sabotage the tanks, and the Tank Police had to foil a crime while trying to keep their tanks together at the same time, for instance). This section is the most likely to appeal to non-gamers.

Oddly enough, there are a set of player guidelines here. This is a strange place for them, consider the general de-emphasis on the gaming aspect in this chapter.

Chapter 5 -- Game Master's Section

GM's can find plenty of inspiration here. Aside from general advice on scenario and campaign creation, there's a good section on villains. This is especially appropriate, considering that the villains in Dominion Tank Police (the Buaku gang) are rather sympathetic characters, and not just faceless evil people. Buaku has his own goals besides the money and power that normal criminals seek (read the manga to find out just what those goals are, and how he achieves them). Advice is also given for letting the players be criminals, with the Tank Police as the "villains."

Unlike some licensed gaming products, the Dominion Tank Police book suggests deviations from the canonical plot, some subtle, some not-so-subtle. This is nice, and accurately reflects the various versions of the Dominion world in the different anime and manga series.

Chapter 6 -- Sample Adventures

There are two adventures in this chapter. One is for Tank Police characters, and the other is for criminal characters, either members of Buaku's gang, or some other gang of thieves. I haven't had a chance to run either of these, but looking over them suggests that they're fairly well-done. I especially like the listing of character goals. Too often it's hard to look at an adventure and see just what it is the players are supposed to accomplish. Having these goals explicitly laid out makes it easier for the GM to avoid railroading his players. The players should likely figure out on their own that they need to, for instance, steal the valuable German stamp--how they do it is up to them.

Appendix 1 -- Mecha Design

This is a subset of the Big Robots, Cool Starships mecha design system, which I feel is one of the best (if not the best) mecha creation system out there. It is an effects-based system, meaning that you specify how fast your tank goes, not how many horsepower its engine produces. This makes it simple to use, and easy to get the results you want. I recommend that book (Big Robots, Cool Starships) as well, even though many of the rules in that book are also available in this one.

Appendix 2 -- Personal Gear

This game has a somewhat unique approach to equipment. Rather than giving characters a starting amount of money to buy stuff with, it assumes that "mundane" items like a furnished home, clothes, watch, microwave oven and so on come "free" with the character. They're not likely to have an impact in game terms, and thus can be largely ignored. Everything else is either a "minor" item (pistol, bulletproof vest, computer) or a "major" item (rifle, motorcycle, LAW rocket). This makes that aspect of character creation easier, but may lead to problems later on (OK, you've just robbed the armored car--now what can you BUY with all that stolen cash?) There is a section on money in the game here though, so that helps.

Overall Impressions

I liked the book. Then again, I like Dominion Tank Police, and I tend to like books by Pulver, so perhaps that's not surprising. In general, though, it's a good source of information about the series, and has a fast, smooth-playing rules set. The book is in general well laid-out, with a nice two-column layout throughout. The art consists mainly of stills from the anime (with the exception of the front and back covers, which are Shirow art). It's obviously appropriate for the material, and in general well done, although some of the art is repeated several places.

If you're a fan of the Dominion Tank Police OAV series, you'll probably like the book. If you are a fan of the manga series, you most likely will also like the book, although you may be disappointed in the lack of information on the manga. (I was really hoping for stats for the sand submarine that appeared toward the end of the manga, and the spider-like battle platform). If you're new to Dominion, I suggest renting the OAVs and watching them. If you like what you see, you will probably like the book. For those who are fans of the Tri-Stat system in general, you may want to consider picking up this book for the rules it adds (such as the skill system) and for the extra detail offered for some rules.

Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)

Dominion Tank Police Roleplaying Game and Resource Book
Author: David L. Pulver Category: game Company/Publisher: Guardians of Order Line: Tri-Stat System Cost: $19.95 US Page count: 165 ISBN: 0-9682431-2-6 Capsule Review by Tarkuss/Jason Lescalleet on 08/27/99. Genre tags: Science_fiction Comedy Anime Asian/Far_East	Just looking at the cover, this book had two big things going for it, as far as I was concerned. The first was the cover art, two very sexy catgirls, drawn by none other than Masamune Shirow, one of my favorite manga (Japanese comic book) artists. The second was the author's name. For those of you who don't play GURPS and are not familiar with the name David Pulver, he wrote some of the better GURPS books out there, including GURPS Bio-Tech and the excellent GURPS Technomancer setting. The fact that the book was by one of my favorite authors, and based on a Masamune Shirow work, was what prompted me to pre-order the book at Origins. It finally came in, and I must say I am pleased. Of course, as I mentioned before, I have biases towards the setting and the author of this book, so those must be taken into account when reading this review. Overview Dominion Tank Police is an anime (Japanese animation) based on the manga "Dominion" by the aforementioned Masamune Shirow. The anime, as the name would suggests, chronicles the (mis)adventures of a group of cops who drive tanks, rather than the more typical police cars. This special police force was brought into existence to combat the rather high crime rate (one every 36 seconds) in Newport City, the setting of the anime. Newport City is a weird-looking city of organic, biotech buildings, shrouded in a perpetual cloud of toxic bacteria. The setting is a rather grim one, with heavy doses of cyberpunk, yet the series itself is quite comical. For the most part, it revolves around two members of the Tank Police, Leona and Al, and their (rather cute) little tank, called "Bonaparte." They, and the rest of the Tank Police, try to foil the criminal plots of Buaku and his gang, the most notorious criminals in Newport City. In the process, many buildings get blown up, many tanks get destroyed (or at very least, toppled over by giant expanding phalluses (don't ask…)). The Dominion Tank Police Roleplaying Game and Resource Book is, as the name would suggest, both a set of rules for running adventures and campaigns in the world of Dominion Tank Police, and a general guide to the series, with information on the setting, characters, and mecha (machines). For the roleplaying elements, it uses the Tri-Stat system from Big Eyes, Small Mouth. However, this book does not require BESM to play--it is a self-contained game. Chapter 1 -- Introduction The book starts out with an introduction to Dominion Tank Police, and to the mecha genre of anime. There are summaries of all the episodes of the OAV series (Original Animation Videos--like a miniseries intended to be released direct-to-video) on which the book is based. This should serve as a good overview of the series, but it is no substitute for actually seeing it. For those (like myself) who haven't seen the anime in a long time, it was a good refresher. There's the obligatory "What is Role-playing" section which is essentially the same as every other "What is Role-playing" sections you've ever seen, but is certainly nice to have in a book that's geared as much toward fans of the anime as to fans of anime role-playing in general. There's a list of various anime and manga series set in the Dominion Tank Police world, and here lay my first disappointment. While I liked the anime series, I liked the manga better--as I mentioned earlier, I'm a fan of Masamune Shirow's work, and was slightly disappointed to see that some of the elements of the manga would not be represented in this book. Finally, there's a rather nicely done snippet from an adventure, intended to show the sort of interplay between players and GM. The players portraying the two main characters of the anime did a good job of staying in character throughout this piece. I found myself chuckling out loud at some of the lines ("Ellen: No you idiot, You'll scratch Bonaparte! (To GM) I swat Al") and it's a nice introduction to the sort of things that Dominion Tank Police characters do. Chapter 2 -- Character Creation Character Creation is expanded from the rules in Big Eyes, Small Mouth, and I feel that the level of detail perfectly fits the Dominion world. The characters are not high-powered energy-blasting superheroes like in many anime. Rather, they are ordinary (well, maybe that's not the best word for it) people who just happen to drive large heavily-armored vehicles through the city streets. For those of you who are familiar with the BESM Tri-Stat system, every character has (as the name suggests) three "Stats," Body, Mind and Soul. These are similar to Attributes in many other systems, or to the Ability Scores in D&D. They represent intrinsic qualities of the character (physical, mental, and spiritual development, respectively). In addition, characters can have any number of "Attributes" (OK, the terminology CAN get a bit confusing) which represent more specific aspects of the character. For instance, a character may have a high Appearance and be handsome, beautiful, or cute. Or, perhaps, a character may Own a Big Mecha (such as a tank). Attributes also exist which add to the value of a Stat. For instance, a character with a Powerful Mind adds the level of this Attribute to his Mind Stat. Attributes are bought with "Character Points" and work much the same as in any point-based system. If you read BESM and were disappointed at its lack of a skill system (its attributes only covered a few of what would traditionally be skills, such as Art of Distraction and Acrobatics) the Dominion Tank Police book has one, and it works pretty well. Skills are bought with "Skill Points" which can be increased by raising yet another Attribute. Finally, characters may take Defects. If you've played GURPS, you can think of Defects as being similar to Disadvantages in that system. The main difference is that Defects give at most 2 bonus Character Points, and thus are not as prone to abuse as GURPS Disadvantages. One of the things I liked the most about this section was the liberal use of examples. Especially nice was that one of the examples was Leona, the main character from the series. If you were disappointed in R Talsorian's Bubblegum Crisis RPG, and the way that the characters from the series were constructed with no regard to the character creation mechanics, and indeed were higher-power than most starting characters, you will not be disappointed with this book. In addition, each Attribute and Defect has an example taken from one of the series characters, so that you can get some idea what a character with that Attribute or Defect is like. Series Characters This sub-chapter contains background and game information for all the main (and not-so-main) characters in the series, hero, villain, or bystander. This is nice for the GM who may want to throw, say, the Puma sisters (the two sexy catgirls from the cover) into an adventure, as well as for fans of the show who might like some of the less well-known bits of information. (For instance, the resident scientist in the Tank Police is named after the man who developed the Gaia hypothesis, fitting considering the environmental themes that run through the series). This chapter also contains game statistics and background information on the tanks and other mecha from the series. Between Chapters 2 and 3 are a set of color plates. These are all stills from the anime, and can be used to show players what a particular character or mecha looks like. They're pretty good, but again, I liked the art in the manga better than in the anime. Chapter 3 -- Game Mechanics This is where all the rules that are likely to come up during gameplay can be found. Dice rolling is simple, and generally consists of rolling 2d6 and trying to roll under one of your Stats, or under your Combat Value (computed after character creation). Skills, if appropriate, subtract from your die roll, and difficult tasks add to it. I haven't had a chance to run a Dominion Tank Police adventure, but I have run other scenarios using the Tri-Stat system, and it is very simple and easy to use. Characters tend to be very tough and hard to kill, but this is in keeping with the rather light-hearted anime feel. Characters in anime routinely survive injuries that would kill or seriously wound real people. Also in this chapter are a subset of the Big Robots, Cool Starships (BESM Mecha supplement) rules that are appropriate for the Dominion universe. In general, this chapter is considerably more detailed than that in the basic BESM rulebook, and those who want a little more structure in their game mechanics may want to take a look at it. Chapter 4 -- The World of Dominion This chapter covers various aspects of life in the Dominion world. Topics covered include the toxic bacteria cloud that shrouds the Earth (including effects of breathing it without a mask), crime, important locations and organizations in Newport City, and technology (including, of course, tanks). There are plenty of adventure seeds in here, especially in the section on organizations (what if an anti-Tank Police activist group tried to sabotage the tanks, and the Tank Police had to foil a crime while trying to keep their tanks together at the same time, for instance). This section is the most likely to appeal to non-gamers. Oddly enough, there are a set of player guidelines here. This is a strange place for them, consider the general de-emphasis on the gaming aspect in this chapter. Chapter 5 -- Game Master's Section GM's can find plenty of inspiration here. Aside from general advice on scenario and campaign creation, there's a good section on villains. This is especially appropriate, considering that the villains in Dominion Tank Police (the Buaku gang) are rather sympathetic characters, and not just faceless evil people. Buaku has his own goals besides the money and power that normal criminals seek (read the manga to find out just what those goals are, and how he achieves them). Advice is also given for letting the players be criminals, with the Tank Police as the "villains." Unlike some licensed gaming products, the Dominion Tank Police book suggests deviations from the canonical plot, some subtle, some not-so-subtle. This is nice, and accurately reflects the various versions of the Dominion world in the different anime and manga series. Chapter 6 -- Sample Adventures There are two adventures in this chapter. One is for Tank Police characters, and the other is for criminal characters, either members of Buaku's gang, or some other gang of thieves. I haven't had a chance to run either of these, but looking over them suggests that they're fairly well-done. I especially like the listing of character goals. Too often it's hard to look at an adventure and see just what it is the players are supposed to accomplish. Having these goals explicitly laid out makes it easier for the GM to avoid railroading his players. The players should likely figure out on their own that they need to, for instance, steal the valuable German stamp--how they do it is up to them. Appendix 1 -- Mecha Design This is a subset of the Big Robots, Cool Starships mecha design system, which I feel is one of the best (if not the best) mecha creation system out there. It is an effects-based system, meaning that you specify how fast your tank goes, not how many horsepower its engine produces. This makes it simple to use, and easy to get the results you want. I recommend that book (Big Robots, Cool Starships) as well, even though many of the rules in that book are also available in this one. Appendix 2 -- Personal Gear This game has a somewhat unique approach to equipment. Rather than giving characters a starting amount of money to buy stuff with, it assumes that "mundane" items like a furnished home, clothes, watch, microwave oven and so on come "free" with the character. They're not likely to have an impact in game terms, and thus can be largely ignored. Everything else is either a "minor" item (pistol, bulletproof vest, computer) or a "major" item (rifle, motorcycle, LAW rocket). This makes that aspect of character creation easier, but may lead to problems later on (OK, you've just robbed the armored car--now what can you BUY with all that stolen cash?) There is a section on money in the game here though, so that helps. Overall Impressions I liked the book. Then again, I like Dominion Tank Police, and I tend to like books by Pulver, so perhaps that's not surprising. In general, though, it's a good source of information about the series, and has a fast, smooth-playing rules set. The book is in general well laid-out, with a nice two-column layout throughout. The art consists mainly of stills from the anime (with the exception of the front and back covers, which are Shirow art). It's obviously appropriate for the material, and in general well done, although some of the art is repeated several places. If you're a fan of the Dominion Tank Police OAV series, you'll probably like the book. If you are a fan of the manga series, you most likely will also like the book, although you may be disappointed in the lack of information on the manga. (I was really hoping for stats for the sand submarine that appeared toward the end of the manga, and the spider-like battle platform). If you're new to Dominion, I suggest renting the OAVs and watching them. If you like what you see, you will probably like the book. For those who are fans of the Tri-Stat system in general, you may want to consider picking up this book for the rules it adds (such as the skill system) and for the extra detail offered for some rules. Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 4 (Meaty)