The Inside Scoop on Gaming

ANIME ROLEPLAYING AT ITS FINEST!

Alright, let me start with a little precursor. I'm a big anime fan and a big fan of roleplaying games. BESM was the first RPG I ever ran as a GM so I think I can offer a good idea to those new to GMing or roleplaying in general what BESM is like as a gaming experience.

Character Creation

Now, if you hadn't guessed, Big Eyes, Small Mouth is an rpg done in an anime style. It uses the Guardians of Order (or GOO for those of us who hate to type big words repeatedly) Tri-Stat system. The GM gives each player a certain number of attribute points based on what he or she decides the power level of the campaign will be. The player then divides these points amongst the three stats: Body, Mind, and Soul. The stats range from 1 (pathetic) to 12(best in the universe) with restrictions based on the Maximum stat value set by the GM. The remaining attribute points are spent on attributes which further enhance the character's natural (and supernatural atributes). Drawbacks may be taken to add more attribute points to the characters. For simplicity, the "natural" attributes and drawbacks are in a seperate section from the Metahuman attributes and drawbacks. While this leads to some page turning, it allows GMs to set limits on what is and is not allowed in a campaign. After selecting attributes and drawbacks, the players selects skills using their 20 skill points (this amount can be increased or decreased using the Highly Skilled attribute or the Unskilled drawback). When a player selects a skill, he or she must also select a specialization in that skill such as Melee Weapons:Sword or Science:Biology. These specializations add a 1 point bonus to the skill level for that particular specialization. Specializations can also be purchase seperately and are generally cheaper than raising a skill level. In a fairly unique idea (I've never seen it anywhere else), GOO provided a table listing the varying costs for skills based on the frequency and importance of a skill in a campaign style, so the gun skill might be expensive in an action adventure like "Gunsmith Cats" or "Trigun" while it might be really cheap in a teenage romance like "Sakura Diaries". After selecting skills, the player chooses equipment calculates secondary attributes like hit points and that's it. Character creation in just a few simple steps. If you think that might limit your creative ability to make a character you like then let me give you an example of the party from my campaign. We had a super-fast android girl with the curiosity of a three year old and a direction sense that would put "Ranma 1/2"'s Ryoga to shame, an eight foot tall mute and deaf guy with super-strength, his telekinetic seeing eye dog, and a lecherous super-deformed assasin (If you hadn't guessed, I was running pure anime-comedy style adventure).

The Rules

The key concept in the tri-stat system is role rather than roll. The only dice roll ever made is to roll 2d6 and compare the roll to the applicable stat or attribute (Attack Value calculated by adding all three stats together and dividing by three. Subtract two and you have defense). Skills subtract their value plus any relevant specialization from the roll and bad circumstances add to it. The objective is to roll less than the stat or attribute. Things like damage and armor are just base values. While this may seem overly simple, the lack of constant rolling makes the game very enjoyable with the right people.

However, the system has a very heroic style. Even in the low-powered campaign run by a friend of mine, our "normal" characters could pull of amazing feats (My character dodged fire from an assault rifle from point blank range and another character avoided an explosion from a grenade that hit him in the head). These were the exception rather than the rule, but if you're looking for true realism try another system. However, this doesn't mean that BESM campaigns are easy for the players, you just have to remember that even low-powered characters can pull of awesome tasks with a roll of a two (a critical success anyway) or three, and damage is not scaled for realism (a heavy handgun does 10 points of damage while a character with a Soul and Body of 1 each has at least ten hit points withou even taking any other attributes like Damn Healthy!) so a GM needs to think in a cinematic way. A single guard with a gun gets boring, but throw a room of big men with assault rifles at the characters and suddenly, they aren't so certain that a high ranged defense skill will be enough to save them.

For the Gamemaster

The back section of the BESM second edition is probably the best argument for purchasing the book. It contains information on the history of anime as well as definitions and examples of the major anime "genres" like magical girl shows like "Sailor Moon" and occult horror. There is also a section on some of the crowd-pleasing background elements often present in anime like cute girls with big guns and effiminate villains as well as ideas for including them in campaigns. There is long list of reccomended anime and manga for Gamemasters as well as general anime enthusiasts. However, there are almost no premade characters in the book so the Gamemaster has to create every single NPC he wants to use from scratch or try to find them on the Internet. Thank goodness for the ease of character creation. On the plus side, the point based system makes it fairly easy to judge the power of an opponent.

Artwork

If you like anime-style artwork, you will likely love most of this book. Although few of the illustrations really go well with the concepts they are supposed to represent, most of them are very impressive. A few of them (like the illustration for the Speed attribute) look rather stupid, but the overall artwork as well as the layout is quite impressive.

Summary

If you like Anime and roleplaying then BESM is the game for you. It blows away the other Anime products like Fuzion away in terms of capturing the spirit of the Anime genre. If you like roleplaying or Anime and can keep an open mind, I highly reccomend BESM. If you hate anime and would like nothing more than to blow Sailor Moon into tiny bits, hey, BESM has a Sailor Moon supplement with all the stats for the Sailor Scouts (you could probably also find them on the Internet) so buy BESM and blast away. If you hate roleplaying, try BESM, it's simple system and great character options might be what you need. BESM, 2nd ed. is a great product for anyone who enjoys cinematic roleplaying games.

Big Eyes Small Mouth (BESM), 2nd Edition
Big Eyes Small Mouth (BESM), 2nd Edition Playtest Review by Raptor21 on 28/01/02 Style: 5 (Excellent!) Substance: 4 (Meaty) BESM: THE Anime RPG Product: Big Eyes Small Mouth (BESM), 2nd Edition Author: David Pulver and Mark MacKinnon Category: RPG Company/Publisher: Guardians of Order Line: Tri-Stat System Cost: 29.95 Page count: 279 Year published: ISBN: SKU: 02-101 Comp copy?: no Playtest Review by Raptor21 on 28/01/02 Genre tags: Fantasy Science Fiction Horror Far Future Space Comedy Anime Superhero Generic	ANIME ROLEPLAYING AT ITS FINEST! Alright, let me start with a little precursor. I'm a big anime fan and a big fan of roleplaying games. BESM was the first RPG I ever ran as a GM so I think I can offer a good idea to those new to GMing or roleplaying in general what BESM is like as a gaming experience. Character Creation Now, if you hadn't guessed, Big Eyes, Small Mouth is an rpg done in an anime style. It uses the Guardians of Order (or GOO for those of us who hate to type big words repeatedly) Tri-Stat system. The GM gives each player a certain number of attribute points based on what he or she decides the power level of the campaign will be. The player then divides these points amongst the three stats: Body, Mind, and Soul. The stats range from 1 (pathetic) to 12(best in the universe) with restrictions based on the Maximum stat value set by the GM. The remaining attribute points are spent on attributes which further enhance the character's natural (and supernatural atributes). Drawbacks may be taken to add more attribute points to the characters. For simplicity, the "natural" attributes and drawbacks are in a seperate section from the Metahuman attributes and drawbacks. While this leads to some page turning, it allows GMs to set limits on what is and is not allowed in a campaign. After selecting attributes and drawbacks, the players selects skills using their 20 skill points (this amount can be increased or decreased using the Highly Skilled attribute or the Unskilled drawback). When a player selects a skill, he or she must also select a specialization in that skill such as Melee Weapons:Sword or Science:Biology. These specializations add a 1 point bonus to the skill level for that particular specialization. Specializations can also be purchase seperately and are generally cheaper than raising a skill level. In a fairly unique idea (I've never seen it anywhere else), GOO provided a table listing the varying costs for skills based on the frequency and importance of a skill in a campaign style, so the gun skill might be expensive in an action adventure like "Gunsmith Cats" or "Trigun" while it might be really cheap in a teenage romance like "Sakura Diaries". After selecting skills, the player chooses equipment calculates secondary attributes like hit points and that's it. Character creation in just a few simple steps. If you think that might limit your creative ability to make a character you like then let me give you an example of the party from my campaign. We had a super-fast android girl with the curiosity of a three year old and a direction sense that would put "Ranma 1/2"'s Ryoga to shame, an eight foot tall mute and deaf guy with super-strength, his telekinetic seeing eye dog, and a lecherous super-deformed assasin (If you hadn't guessed, I was running pure anime-comedy style adventure). The Rules The key concept in the tri-stat system is role rather than roll. The only dice roll ever made is to roll 2d6 and compare the roll to the applicable stat or attribute (Attack Value calculated by adding all three stats together and dividing by three. Subtract two and you have defense). Skills subtract their value plus any relevant specialization from the roll and bad circumstances add to it. The objective is to roll less than the stat or attribute. Things like damage and armor are just base values. While this may seem overly simple, the lack of constant rolling makes the game very enjoyable with the right people. However, the system has a very heroic style. Even in the low-powered campaign run by a friend of mine, our "normal" characters could pull of amazing feats (My character dodged fire from an assault rifle from point blank range and another character avoided an explosion from a grenade that hit him in the head). These were the exception rather than the rule, but if you're looking for true realism try another system. However, this doesn't mean that BESM campaigns are easy for the players, you just have to remember that even low-powered characters can pull of awesome tasks with a roll of a two (a critical success anyway) or three, and damage is not scaled for realism (a heavy handgun does 10 points of damage while a character with a Soul and Body of 1 each has at least ten hit points withou even taking any other attributes like Damn Healthy!) so a GM needs to think in a cinematic way. A single guard with a gun gets boring, but throw a room of big men with assault rifles at the characters and suddenly, they aren't so certain that a high ranged defense skill will be enough to save them. For the Gamemaster The back section of the BESM second edition is probably the best argument for purchasing the book. It contains information on the history of anime as well as definitions and examples of the major anime "genres" like magical girl shows like "Sailor Moon" and occult horror. There is also a section on some of the crowd-pleasing background elements often present in anime like cute girls with big guns and effiminate villains as well as ideas for including them in campaigns. There is long list of reccomended anime and manga for Gamemasters as well as general anime enthusiasts. However, there are almost no premade characters in the book so the Gamemaster has to create every single NPC he wants to use from scratch or try to find them on the Internet. Thank goodness for the ease of character creation. On the plus side, the point based system makes it fairly easy to judge the power of an opponent. Artwork If you like anime-style artwork, you will likely love most of this book. Although few of the illustrations really go well with the concepts they are supposed to represent, most of them are very impressive. A few of them (like the illustration for the Speed attribute) look rather stupid, but the overall artwork as well as the layout is quite impressive. Summary If you like Anime and roleplaying then BESM is the game for you. It blows away the other Anime products like Fuzion away in terms of capturing the spirit of the Anime genre. If you like roleplaying or Anime and can keep an open mind, I highly reccomend BESM. If you hate anime and would like nothing more than to blow Sailor Moon into tiny bits, hey, BESM has a Sailor Moon supplement with all the stats for the Sailor Scouts (you could probably also find them on the Internet) so buy BESM and blast away. If you hate roleplaying, try BESM, it's simple system and great character options might be what you need. BESM, 2nd ed. is a great product for anyone who enjoys cinematic roleplaying games.

Big Eyes Small Mouth (BESM), 2nd Edition