Goto [ Index ]

Big Eyes, Small Mouth (BESM hereafter) is the "generic anime" RPG from Canadian design house Guardians of Order (GoO). This revised version of the game's second edition marks the rules set's third incarnation since 1997.

As the flagship title for GoO's Tri-Stat system, BESM walks a strange line between a traditional generic system and a bona-fide anime simulator. Overall, though, it strikes a healthy balance that should please both fans of "vanilla" universal systems and die-hard anime junkies.

Of course, this review's tagline has already provided you with a hint as to my personal anime bias. So allow me to explain: I hate the stuff. A lot. If it has big eyes, a small mouth or speed lines in the background, I want it dead.

Now, don't get me wrong. I hate most comic books, too, but even I recognize that a rare genius can elevate the medium above its moronic norms. Take Art Spiegelman's Maus, for example. Consequently, I'm sure that somebody from Japan has, at some point, produced a cartoon about something other than encephalitic breast-implant recipients named Sakura fighting off naughty tentacles or glowing angular men grunting constipatedly in front of psychedelic backgrounds or collectable monsters in any form.

I just haven't see any of them.

In fact, my all-consuming anime loathing kept me miles away from any version of BESM for over six years.

But the point of all this is: I was wrong about BESM. Very wrong. So if you don't like anime, don't worry. I figure if I can manage to pull a 180 on this one, just about anybody can.

BESM is not a big book. Roughly 6" by 9". It's a softcover with 208 black-and-white pages. The small size, soft cover and non-glossy paper could have been flaws, but the remarkable BESM interior layout (see below) turn them into strengths: The book is remarkably light and painlessly-transportable for all the information crammed between its covers.

BESM's cover art by Julie Dillon is an adequate rendering of a typical group of anime oddballs: A strong, silent samurai type with a big gun, a blue-haired Sailor Moon clone in a mecha suit of some kind, and what appears to be an elf riding a goat (!). It's not a bad piece, but it just doesn't scream "cover art" to me on any level. It works alright, but I can imagine about a million more exciting scenes that could have taken its place.

Interior art varies fairly widely. The average piece is decent, but slightly lesser in quality than a "professional" anime still would be.

Where BESM really shines, though, is in the typesetting, organization, and editing. I've spotted no significant typos or grammar flubs after a few weeks with the book, a rarity industry-wide. All of the relevant rules information is exactly where you would expect it to be. Space is never wasted and the book is never, ever a headache to read.

Style Rating: 4

As stated previously, BESM makes use of GoO's Tri-Stat rules system. Fundamentally, it's a point-based, effects-based character creation system. Players purchase various Stats, Attributes and Skills with a pool of initial points determined by the GM (15-60, usually, depending on desired campaign power level). Players can gain some measure of extra points during character creation by taking Defects that limit their characters in various ways or by creating cool "extras" for their character that please the GM (character sketches, stories, etc).

As you might expect, Tri-Stat characters have only three basic defining statistics: Body (strength, speed and toughness), Mind (knowledge, memory and problem-solving skills) and Soul (luck, drive, willpower and any oddball mystical capability that doesn't fit under Body or Mind).

Whether you like or dislike BESM, the three Stats will probably be why. They're the centerpiece of the entire system, and people tend to either love them or loathe them. For example, many people find combining all of the character's physical capabilities into one overall rating to be genius. Other absolutely cannot abide the notion of strength and dexterity being folded into the same Stat.

Now, I should point out that there are optional Defects available that render a character less capable at using one aspect of a Stat. For example, a high Body character who wants to run a big, slow bruiser can take the Not So Fast Defect in exchange for a couple extra points. This penalizes Body Checks based on speed, but not ones based on strength or constitution.

The addition of Defects, however, is rarely enough to placate those who greatly dislike the basic three Stat premise.

Stats are rated on a scale of 1-12, with 1 representing "Inept" and 12 representing "Best in the universe; unequaled." The relatively small closed scale can be troublesome for some, but I've observed that it holds up pretty well. The main reason for this is that character abilities that would normally "bust the scale" (like superhuman strength) are represented primarily by Attributes, not Stats. Thus, you don't necessarily need a 20 Body to represent the incredible abilities of somebody like Superman or the Incredible Hulk. 10-12 Body and multiple levels of the Superstrength Attribute work just fine.

Of course, you may also run into the problem of characters at the same power level having very similar Stats. With only 12 values to choose from, and an even smaller range of them truly appropriate at a given power level, you may run into a group of characters that all have Stats within a point or two of each other. Since Attributes define characters just as much as Stats, this can be a fairly easy to ignore "problem", but gamers used to less granular Stats could easily decide that they don't like it, for aesthetic reasons if nothing else.

Overall, though, I personally find BESM's approach to character Stats to be one of the most elegant and functional ones ever created. Aesthetic concerns aside, it works.

After Stats, character are encouraged to use their remaining points to purchase Attributes. Attributes represent a wide variety of special abilities. Everything from a group of bootlicking toadies that follow your character around and obey his whims (Flunkies) to exotic forms of movement (Flight, Speed, Teleport etc) to the ability to launch any kind of attack imaginable (Weapon/Special Attack).

BESM is "effects-based" in the sense that none of these Attributes necessarily have a mandated representation within the game world. Their rules effects are described, but their sources and appearances are not. Thus, a character with Flight might be a flying superhero, an inventor with a custom jetpack, a wizard with a levitation spell or a bird-man with wings. All possible versions of Flight are covered under the same base Attribute.

Most Attributes are rated by Level, with each Level costing a particular amount of points. The higher the Level, the more expensive and effective the Attribute. For example, a character who buys Flunkies 1 (at a cost of one point) has a single thrall he can order around. One with Flunkies 6 (cost: 6 points) has between 13 and 20 such characters at his disposal. Most Attributes have six Levels of effect described, with the GM given the responsibility of adjucating the use of hypothetical higher Levels.

A few Attributes deserve special mention:

Own A Big Mecha is BESM's vehicle creation Attribute and is a major high-point of the system. Other incarnations of Tri-Stat, notably Tri-Stat dX, have included either extremely poor alternate versions of Own A Big Mecha or no really accessible vehicle creation system at all. BESM neatly outshines the other Tri-Stat games in this area. Own A Big Mecha (which essentially grants the player a pool of Mecha Points to purchase Attributes for his character's vehicle) is the Holy Grail of vehicle subsystems. It's fast, consistent with the rest of the rules (purchasing Attributes for vehicles and characters is essentially the same process) and can model anything from a dump truck to the Death Star. It's the best I've seen in any system.

Dynamic Sorcery and Magic are BESM's two attempts to model most forms of magic, psionics, ki powers and other "spell-type powers." For brevity, though, I'll use magic terminology for the rest of this description.

Both Attributes are very different and very good at what they do. Magic is straightforward. Players get a pool of points for building spells with the other Attributes. Each spell costs Energy Points to cast and maintain. The exact amount of Energy Points vary depending on the power of the spell and the customized options players tack on (Focus and Ritual, for example, decrease the cost, while Silent and Stilled increase it).

Dynamic Sorcery, on the other hand, is a more freeform Attribute. Players state what they want to do. The GM decides if it's possible within the very broad limits of their Dynamic Sorcery Level. If it is, the player attempts a Soul Check. If the Check is successful, the spell is cast as desired and the character loses an amount of Energy Points based on its overall power. It's about as rules-light as a magic system can get and a good counterpoint for Magic's more fixed and "crunchy" approach.

BESM's Attributes cover most of the major bases and are reasonably complete. For abilities not covered, the players and GM are encouraged to create a new one with the Unique Attribute framework. Are there additional Attributes that I wish had been included? Sure. Some sort of a "counter power" that lets you counter or dispel the Attribute manifestations of others might have been useful. Overall, though, most stuff is covered and the framework for plugging in what isn't is simple to use.

Following Attribute buying, the player may elect to take some Defects for his or her character in exchange for extra Character Points. Defects are the usual assortment of mental, physical, social and supernatural woes that anyone familiar with GURPS or HERO System will recognize. Ageism, Nemesis and Skeleton in the Closet are some examples of ways you can cruelly blight your alter ego for profit.

After Defects are Skills. The BESM Skill system is optional, but recommended by the designers. If desired, the GM can rely entirely on appropriate Stat Checks to cover pretty much the same ground.

Character purchase Skills with an initial allotment of Skill Points (usually 20), which are separate from the Character Points used to purchase Stats and Attributes. Each Skill Point is worth 1/10th of a Character Point and the two can be exchanged on that basis courtesy of the Highly Skilled Attribute (grants ten bonus Skill Points for one Character Point) and the Unskilled Defect (grant one bonus Character Point for every 10 Skill Point sacrificed).

The costs of Skills in BESM depend upon the campaign genre. Included in the book are eight sample charts with costs listed for different Skills in genres ranging from Cyberpunk to Teenage Romance. The more useful a particular Skill is within its genre, the most it costs per Level. For example, Sports costs 1 Skill Point/Level in a Cyberpunk campaign and 5 Skill Points/Level in Teenage Romance.

Skill use is simple. The player adds the character's Level in the appropriate Skill to the Stat that governs it and tries to roll at or under the resulting value on 2d6. When a character acquires a Skill, he or she also selects a specialization to go along with it. Acrobatics (Balance), for example. The character's Skill is treated as one Level higher than normal with respect to any specializations.

Next, the player calculates the Derived Values for his or her character. These include Health Points (hit points, basically) and Energy Points (magical/psychic/whatever capacity). These are factored with fairly simply formulae like Body + Soul x 5 for Health Points.

One Derived Value of note is Combat Value. This important number is the basis for attack and defense rolls. After the three Stats, the method for calculating Combat Value (CV) is the most controversial aspect of the Tri-Stat rules.

Basically, Combat Value is equal to the sum of all three Stats divided by three. For example, a character with Body 6, Mind 7 and Soul 5 would have a CV of 6.

Supporters of this method like the idea that physical ability (Body) is presumed to be equal to quick wits/cunning (Mind) and luck/determination (Soul) in deciding the outcome of a fight. Detractors tend to not like how an extremely smart professor (Body 4, Mind 8, Soul 4) and a big, buff bruiser (Body 8, Mind 4, Soul 4) would both be nearly equal in combat ability (the bruiser would have more Health Points, though). How willing you are to accept this particular abstraction is a good indicator of whether BESM is the game for you.

Finally, the player has the option to earn a few more precious Character Points by impressing the GM with an entertaining character story, portrait or other campaign aid.

Whew.

Obviously, with these first 131 pages of BESM devoted entirely to character creation, it's a fairly involved process. There's a lot to read and consider and a lot of choices to make before you'll have a complete character ready to go. This is especially true if the players opts to purchase any Attributes like Flunkies, Own A Big Mecha or Servant, all of which require other vehicles or characters gained through the Attribute to be statted-out via the same process. This may seem odd, as BESM is frequently trumpeted as a "rules light" game. To an extent, this is true. The game's actual mechanics are few and quite simple. Make no mistake, though: BESM is a "mechanics light" game with very detailed character creation. If this sounds like a good deal to you, go for it. Expect light rules when playing, but do not expect character creation that flies by like Over The Edge or Risus (or even your average d20 game with pre-made classes). Is the flexibility worth the effort? I think so, but your mileage may vary.

Once the character creation section wraps up, we have the game mechanics themselves.

All BESM resolution attempts involve rolling 2d6 and looking to roll at or under a target number. Said target number is usually equal to a Stat, a Stat plus an appropriate Skill or the character's Combat Value (for attack rolls) or Combat Value minus two (for defense rolls) .

After the issue of success or failure is decided, the degree of success/failure is determined. Basically, the lower you roll under the target number, the better you do. The higher a failing roll, the more catastrophic the failure. In character-versus-character contested rolls, the character with the greater success (or less severe degree of failure) gains the upper hand.

One note: Since BESM is all about rolling low, the text is filled with references to "-X bonuses" and "+X penalties." Not the sort of thing that bothers me, but some gamers just hate this sort of thing.

BESM combat is fairly simple. Initiative, rolled each round, is 1d6 + CV. The attack procedure is as follows: The attacker attempts an attack roll. If he succeeds, the attack is on target and the defender typically attempts a defense roll (unless he or she is unaware or immobilized or just plain doesn't want to). If the defense roll succeeds, the attack is averted. If not, the defender suffers damage. After being canceled out one-for-one by the value of the defender's Armor or Force Fields (if any), the remainder of the damage is subtracted from the defenders Health Points. Reach zero Health Points and you die or fall unconscious.

An indefensible critical hit is the result of any natural attack roll of two. This can result in double damage, triple damage or quadrupal damage/instant death (depending on dice rolls and GM whim). As with all critical hit systems, this rule has a tendency to be rougher on PCs than average NPCs. PCs are in almost every fight over the course of the campaign, an average NPC only one or two. Even a mook has a flat 1/36 chance of laying the unavoidable big hurt down on a PC with a given attack roll. Furthermore, a defender suffers a cumulative +2 penalty to each defense roll after the first in a given round. This is another factor that can make swarms of goons very dangerous. The Extra Attacks Attribute helps mitigate this by granting a number of additional defenses each round before penalties begin to accrue.

Speaking of mooks, BESM has no "mook rules" other than a suggestion that the GM cut the Health Point totals of "unimportant NPCs" in half to reflect their cannon fodder status.

One interesting aspect if the BESM damage system is that all attacks are considered to automatically do maximum damage with each hit. A 30 damage attack does exactly 30 damage each and every time it hits, unless the attacker deliberately chooses to deal less. The net effect of this is that most attacks fail, but the ones that do connect are significant threats. An optional rule allows for more "normal" variable damage, however.

Since the difficulty for attack and defense rolls are largely fixed and completely independent of who you're attacking or whose attack you're fending off, it's clear that highly-skilled combatants will have a tough time hitting each other, which can result in some very long combats. The solution provided for this problem is Trick Shots. Basically, an attacker accepts a penalty to his or her attack roll. If a hit is scored, the defender's defense roll is penalized by a like amount. It's not a perfect solution, but it works well enough for me.

Following the basic combat rules are additional details on gritty combat options (shock, critical wounds, etc), wrestling, disarming, called shots and such. Typical stuff, but useful for GM's that want more detailed combat.

The remainder of the rules section is rounded out with things like a serviceable generic weapon chart, falling damage, psychic combat, blowing up buildings and planets and even a set of sanity rules (called Psyche) that read like they're straight out of Call of Cthulhu. The latter is an unexpected plus for horror GMs like me.

Once the rules conclude on page 167, the remainder of the text is given over to the inevitable GM advice chapter. Sure, you've probably seen it before, but it's pretty well done. Campaign types, plotting and common genre tropes are covered in decent detail. This is where most of the actual anime content of the previously mostly generic text comes in. If there's an anime cliche, from "Attack Phrases" to "Naughty Tentacles" to "School Uniforms, it's here.

The next section is a bibliography of selected anime films, television, books and websites. Not bad if you're into that sort of thing, I suppose.

Finally, we're treated to a decent index, a (good) three page photocopiable character sheet and four pages of ads for other GoO products.

Substance Rating: 5

Is BESM good? Oh, yes, it's good. If (and only if) the fundamental design philosophies of the Tri-Stat system appeal to you instead of making you want to headbutt your dog in rage, it just might be the best generic system currently in print.

How anime is it? Not very, actually. The vehicle subsystem calls everything a "mecha" and the melee weapon stunt Attribute is called Kensei, but if you retitle some Attributes, change the character names in the examples and delete the art, BESM is no more an inherently anime game than GURPS. This is why I regret avoiding BESM for so long.

How does it stack up to the other Tri-Stat games? As far as I'm concerned, it's the best of them, although not by an overwhelming degree. Without the unnecessary presence of Silver Age Sentinels and dX's complicating Power Modifier Values and with a much superior vehicle system, BESM edges out the competition ever so slightly.

How flexible is it? Extremely. I can see it doing most genres very well and with a minimum of tinkering. Of course, many games can do everything, but no game can do everything in a way that everyone is guaranteed to like.

So if you're looking for a fast, simple generic system with robust character creation, BESM is a winner and a class act...even if you don't like anime.

Style Rating: 4
Substance Rating: 5

Help support RPGnet by purchasing this item through DriveThruRPG.