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Big Eyes Small Mouth (BESM) Second Edition Revised

In Short: An excellent, well written, modular, universal game system that offers fantastic flexibility.

Introduction

I purchased BESM because I had spare cash, it looked nice and I have a small, discerning taste in anime and manga so I wanted to see if there was a system that could do it justice. I've now had BESM for over a year, I've run 3 different mini-campaigns (hard sci-fi, comedy Caribbean pirates and a semi-pastiche on stock Japanese computer RPGs) with 5 different gaming groups. There is much to commend about BESM with a couple of caveats.

General Book Aesthetics and Anime Trappings

This is a review of Blue Book BESM. Which is second edition revised. The green covered BESM, plain old second addition, was in full colour, on high quality paper, with full page manga artwork - most of which was fantastic. Blue Book BESM is in black and white, the artwork has been reduced to box outs and the paper has been reduced a little in quality, however if I had been reviewing Green Book the Style rating would have been 2 rather than the 4 this version is getting. Why? I hear you ask. Well because the Green Book was organised (What did Bruce Baugh say? Never be offensive in a review?) in a way that probably made sense to someone, somewhere. *cough*. That's slightly unfair the Green Book organisation does make a certain kind of sense it is just impractical as a reference book during play. The Blue Book is organise along much, much simpler lines and it greatly benefits from it. BESM (both books, and indeed all supplements) has a truly fantastic index, simply the best I've had the pleasure to use.

The back of the rule book states that BESM is "The multi-genre anime and manga role-playing game." I would say that BESM is "The multi-genre role playing game with extensive advice on running games in an anime and manga style". Mine doesn't scan as well but I think it's a more accurate description. BESM's anime trappings are resting on top of, not buried within, a good solid rules core. If you don't like anime then this shouldn't put you off using the system.

Character Creation

This is the core of the book. Slightly over 100 pages of a 200 page product is turned over to the task of creating characters. BESM is powered by the tri-stat system, as a result each character has three stats, Body, Mind and Soul rated from 1 to 12 with 4 being average human for each stat. Stats are bought with Character Points, the exact number a player receives depends on the power level of the game as decided by the GM. Stats are either bought on a 1-to-1 linear scale or a logarithmic scale depending on the GM's choice. Players also have a number of derived stats which are health points (standard hit points), energy points (for powering magic/psionics and other things), shock value (pain resistance), attack and defense combat value (for combat). However stats are only part of a character's make-up and taken by themselves would lead to pretty limited character creation options, the real meat of the system is attributes and defects which are also purchased with character points.

Each attribute is rated on a 1-6 scale (although nothing stops the GM allowing greater levels as long as they are scaled accordingly) each level costing between 1 to 10 CPs per level. Some of the attributes progress in a linear fashion some in an exponential curve. For example Heavy Armour gives a character 10 points of armour per level purchased, however Jumping starts by giving the character 5 times standard jumping ability, then ten times, then twenty, then fifty and so on. As you can see a few character points can go a long way. The attribute system is effects based, that is the attributes give the character an ability not how the ability is got. For example Jumping Level 2 might be because your character is a member of a cat like race or it could be because of bionic legs the Jumping attribute itself only specifies that the character can jump ten times standard human distance. These two points leads onto an important statement about character creation in BESM.

There are two ways to make a character in BESM.

Way 1) A player goes over all the character options repeatedly, finely balancing the resultant stats and attributes looking for points efficiency whenever possible.
Way 2) A player can come up with a character concept, flesh out the details and then in discussion with the GM pick out stats, attributes and defects that define the character.

Way 1 is the method that people may well take when first presented with such a flexible system (I did). The problem is that this way will take at least an hour if not several. A secondary problem is that it is very easy to create optimised fighting machines who are complete character voids. Way 2 is what I consider the correct way and is indeed the way presented in the rule book as the second step of character creation (incidentally step 1 is "Listen to the GM"). However, it's all too easy for players to skip step 2 and get right on to assigning stats and attributes. From experience way 2 is faster, gets a 'better' character overall and is less of a maths nightmare (OK, the maths may only be addition and subtraction but as you work your way back and forward through over one hundred pages of character options the mistakes start to creep in). The key about character creation that simply isn't mentioned strongly enough in the rule book is that the GM needs to keep a tight reign on character creation, BESM lists a universal set of attributes, the GM needs to decide which are in his setting and which are not.

A key part of the character creation system is the concept of point breaks. Point breaks are attributes that you purchase for X character points and they give you Y character points back where Y is greater than X. Own a Big Mecha, Magic and Item of Power are the three major point breaks. The idea behind point breaks is that the abilities they grant have a built in limitation - your mecha can't got everywhere with you, magic drains energy points and Items of Power can be stolen, lost & plot deviced. So with Item of Power you can use the points you've gained to design your own magic sword, super laser death zap gun or nano-doc healing system. Magic allows you to purchase almost any other attribute which you can use at the cost of energy points. Own a Big Mecha though is the daddy and then one that all players an GMs love. Each level of OBM (which costs 4 CPs a level) gives a stonking 20 CPs back with which to design a giant robot type. Designing mecha is almost identical to designing characters. All mecha start life as a human sized, suit of power armour with two arms, two legs and 40 health points, the mecha CPs are now spent to add armour, weapons, sensors, size etc to match the players/GM's idea of the mecha using the same attributes used to create characters plus some mecha only additions. Incidentally just because the attribute is called Own a Big Mecha doesn't mean we can only design biped fighting machines; OBM can be used to construct tanks, ships, cars, planes, even buildings (just give it the Limited Ground Movement[Level 2] defect).

There is an optional skill system added to the mix. Character get a number of skill points (which can be increased by spending CPs) to purchase skills. Skills have the same six level range as per attributes. A very standard skill list is presented but there is a twist of excellence thrown in the mix. Depending on genre skills have a different points value per level. Thus in Space Opera the skill Cooking costs 1 point per level while in a Teenage Romance it costs 4 points a level, a skill's cost being a function of how useful the skill is. 1 point per level represents a "background" skill given to round out a character concept while 6 points a level represents a skill that will be used pretty much every session. Importantly BESM assumes a minimum level of competence based on genre, in a cops and robbers game every player would be assumed capable of driving a car so a character wouldn't have to take driving to cruise around in a patrol car, or ranged weapons to fire a gun, characters who have the skill though have got that extra training/edge over those who don't.

Finally there are defects. Defects are a way of adding interesting quirks to a character or out right disabilities. Most defects have two levels, level 1 is an interesting quirk, level 2 is a major disability. Defects give back only 1 point per level so they are not an way to get easy points. All the standard defects are there from Recurring Nightmares to Loss of Limbs as well as some Anime specifics like the highly annoying Girl/Guy magnet. There are stat modifying defects like Not So Fast/Tough/Strong/Agile/Good at Combat which gives characters smaller effective stat values for specific tasks.

So that's the mechanics of character creation. The real question is what kind of characters can you make? In my experience - anyone, from gun bunny (in an After the Bomb like literal sense) to angsty vampires. It's possible to design any piece of equipment, vehicle or character concept using this comprehensive yet straight forward effects based system. It's easy and fun, it spans genres with ease and with a knowledgeable GM it's quick.

System

Modular. Flexible. Rules-Light. These are the tri-features of the tri-stat system.

If you do not like rules-light systems then BESM isn't going to change your mind. The system is roll 2d6 looking to get equal to or under the most relevant stat. Modifiers are applied to the roll. Each level in a relative skill subtracts 1 from the roll, the difficulty of the task adds or subtracts from the roll and situational modifiers as decided by the GM modify the roll. That is it. Combat has minor embellishments. Combat is divided into rounds that represent 1 to 10 seconds each, at the start of the round all players determine initiative by rolling a single dice and adding it to their attack combat value. A countdown system is then used with players acting on their initiative number. To attack you need to roll equal to or under your attack combat value on 2d6. If a hit is scored then the target gets a defense roll looking to get equal to or less than their defense combat value with a +2 penalty on each roll after the first in a round. If that roll is failed then damage is inflicted, which is equal to the attackers attack combat value plus their weapons damage rating.

In total 32 slightly larger than A5 pages are taken up describing the rules so what is on these other pages you may ask given that I've summed up the basic system in 184 concise words. Well there's tables of example modifiers for combat, critical damage rules, mecha damage, recovery & repair, example weapons and armour, expanded movement rules, impact and falling damage tables, a scad of extra combat options, a comprehensive wrestling/grappling section, extra nasty damage rules for realistic games, a variable damage system, psychic & mind combat and finally sample health/armour values plus rules for attacking buildings and planets. Phew. And BESM is rules light, most of these rules are optional and are based on the basic rules, roll equal to or under the appropriate stat with modifiers on 2d6.

Which brings us neatly on to modularity. I'm a software engineer, I think I can spot good object oriented design when I see it. BESM has good object oriented design. Each section (lets call them modules to keep the computing metaphor going) of BESM stands by it self with very low coupling to other sections however modules taken as a whole have excellent cohesion. What does this mean in plain language? You can tinker with the system. There isn't any repetition. One section doesn't contradict or rely on another section. As long as you keep the format of the inputs and outputs to a section the same you can mess around with the internals without fear of affecting anything else in the system. There are a lot of third-party combat systems for BESM (see below) but all they change is the combat system, nothing else. It's trivial to add and subtract rules to the system. Their is no mook rule in BESM, a mook rule is easy to design as long as you derive it from the base system of 2d6 looking to roll under and you don't have to change anything else to drop it in. Likewise removing rules is easy due to the fact that each section of the rules doesn't depend on another to work. As a compulsive game tinker I find this ability to mess around with a system so easily to be a major selling point of BESM.

Flaws

There are problems about the combat system used in BESM. There are also many solutions, however I'm going to present the problems as they are so that you can see if you agree with the widely discussed problem identified. Characters have a Attack Combat Value (ACV) and a Defense Combat Value(DCV). The ACV is (Body + Mind + Soul) / 3. DCV is ACV - 2. To attack someone roll equal to or under your ACV with appropriate modifiers. If you are hit then you get a choice to defended by rolling equal to or under your DCV. For each attack past the first that you choose to defend against you get a +2 modifier to the defense roll. As a Feng Shui GM I find having to make two rolls for each combat, however minimal the additional time rather than one, makes combat drag a bit. However that's personal preference, the real problem with the system is high level opponents wailing on each other. Once you have a high effective ACV and DCV (due to skills and attributes), say 10 or more, then it becomes near impossible to miss or avoid dodging. It can be argued that this is in genre for some styles of anime however it's not true for all anime and leads to boring combats. A solution to this is presented in BESM called trick shots which allow you to apply a positive modifier to your character's attack roll to give your opponent the same positive modifier on their defense roll. However this leads enterprising young fellows with time on their hands to compute tables of exactly how high a penalty you should take to get the optimal chance of success when striking your opponent. This is not a huge problem as their is no way for a player/character to know the exact ACV/DCV of their opponent but it may be a problem for some groups. Many fans of BESM have come up with alternate combat systems, some even involving my precious single roll mechanic and they are dotted around the net. Despite this I still use the BESM combat system as is, even in my Pirates game which was run on a very high powered 50 character points (respectable low powered super heros can be created with that many points).

I may be a self-described BESM fanboy but in my view the one major failing is the advancement system. Advancement like many parts of the system is optional but in this case it feels... tacked on. The idea is to give players a Character Point every five sessions or so and a bonus skill point every couple of sessions. Great role-playing gets an extra CP. The trouble many have with this is that a Character Point is a powerful thing and can represent a big jump in power and getting a bonus CP for good role-playing would represent a huge leap, it's like leveling which I'm not a huge fan of. I prefer advancement to be more gradual and organic. It's easy enough to ditch BESM's advancement system and use something else but the system as given is lacking in my opinion.

Finally, BESM can be used to form the core of a excellent game however some work will always be needed for each specific game ran using it. For example in a sci-fi game the GM is going to have to spend time codifying technology and racial abilities as game effects, design spaceship as mecha, possibility adding in some space dog-fighting rules. To me this seems obvious for a generic system, but I have read some complaints that BESM is bland. In my view BESM is as bland as any system without setting, BESM allows you to do anything, it can't itself describe everything possible in a 200 page book. There is 20 pages of advice on running anime themed games as well, number one advice for both GMs and players is "Watch lots of anime".

Summary

BESM is a great system. It's simplicity and modularity makes it an ideal multi-genre system. It's very, very quick to teach. GMs need a good grasp of their setting before letting players design characters for it. The anime trappings are simply that, decoration and do not effect the core system. BESM can be what you want it to be from low powered and Cuthulu-esque to amazingly over the top. There is a large range of supplements which is continually growing, from the excellent hard sci-fi Centauri Knights to the Pokemon-esque satire Cute and Fuzzy Cockfighting Seizure Monsters. I can do nothing but recommend BESM, even if you hate anime. However if the anime thing is really getting in the way then take note that Guardians of Order are releasing Tri-Stat Dx. The core character creation and rules presented in BESM plus the additional rules from Silver Age of Sentinels minus the manga artwork and anime style advice. It will only cost $10, don't make me hunt you down and kill you.