Note: This reviewer, though not unfamiliar with Anime in general, has no experience of Dragon Ball Z. Hence this review will relate the
effectiveness of the Dragon Ball Z adventure game as a stand-alone game, regardless of any other Dragon Ball Z product.
The purpose of the Dragon Ball Z adventure game is to allow role-playing games in super-heroic adventures on the cosmic scale. As
the author relates it is possible and even reasonable to create characters who can destroy planets in a single attack. He also makes the point the the average dragon ball Z NPC makes Superman (tm) look puny.
Does this make the game a worthwhile addition to a gamer's collection, or simply unplayable?
There are three major portions, the first a description of the Dragon Ball Z universe, the second the rules, and lastly a lengthy section of
campaign advice.
The game world presented is an over the top version of earth, where humanity includes humanoid wolves, rabbits and other animals.
There are five large cities, one for each cardinal direction and a capitol city, although there is no real central government. What makes
this world more interesting is the afterlife, known as the Other World. In this game death isn't the end, its an opportunity to train your
martial arts to an even greater level. This is especially true since nearly every main character in this book has died at least once, being
brought back by the Dragon Balls. All in all, this world is enjoyable and can easily allow many humorous games. On the other hand a
serious game would be nearly impossible in this setting.
The rules are based on the instant fuzion system, and are intended to be simple and easily learned. The basic rules, especially those for
normal actions and character creation are the generic instant fuzion. These are reasonable for a new player to pick up and use a simple
Characteristic Skill 3d6 versus a difficulty to handle nearly all actions.
What is much more intriguing is the power rules. These are meant to simulate the wide variety of ki powers the characters in the series
possess. Each character has a maximum power (which is random) as well as a power up trait, derived from the Mental and Physical (the other two characteristics are Move and Combat). Each phase the character may use a power or power up. Powers include Energy Blasts, Deflections, Boosted attributes and Flight. There is a great deal of strategy discussed about when to use which powers, including a play by play analysis of a fight, which helps to show how the combat system can be used.
Unfortunately, the combat system contains a few noticeable flaws. First, the actual power-up system is not very well explained, needing
some example or definition of game terms. Second, the Boosted characteristics allow actions to be purchased for next phase, these cost the smallest allowable expenditure of power (10) per action gained and do not exclude using power-up as one of these actions
(though you can only power-up once per phase). This in particular seems far to powerful, considering the two main limiting factors in
power combat is current power and number of actions.
Another interesting feature is the experience system. All experience is gained by fighting (not necessarily winning) and training. In fact it is quite lucrative experience-wise for a low-powered character to fight a more potent one, simply due to the experience gained. Of
course the risk of being sent to the Otherworld can often out weight that advantage. Normal training is fairly weak in experience
contributions, but a variety of strategies are suggested for enhancing it, such as increased gravity and magical training halls. The one
problem with the experience system in Dragon Ball Z is that no chart of costs is presented for increasing skills, power and other
character attributes. The only information given is that experience must be spent in groups of 10. While it is not hard to develop a
system for spending experience, the lack of set rules for this makes the experience system seem much more confusing that it was
probably intended.
The campaign advice provided is 25 pages of this book and starts with general provisions for a fighting anime style game. Following this
is a description of basic plotting like that which appears in anime. All sagas (or campaigns) start with a hook (to get the characters
involved), a series of cliffhangers and developments (combat and interaction based scenes respectively), leading to a climax and
resolution. Each of these scene types is given a page or more of suggested options, from Amnesia as the hook to Happy Ending
Resolutions. This section is surprisingly thought provoking even for experienced gamesmasters. It is also almost essential for anyone to
run a game in the Dragon Ball Z setting, otherwise it would be very difficult to achieve a mix of combat and interaction in the game.
All in all, the Dragon Ball Z Adventure game is a thought provoking game for those intrigued by the fighting anime genre. Its mechanics
are useful, but could have been put together and explained more carefully.
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