Tinker's Damn claims to be an anime based rpg, but that seems to be just a nod to the author's prefered medium. In practice this game is like a lean and mean stripped down universal game a la GURPS.
The main rules are very simple and the mechanics rely only d20 for resolution and d6 for effects. In practice it works but may irritate some who like a bit of realism. Notably absent is statistics for weapons. Instead, like in Champions, weapons are built during character creation and the stats of one weapon can be different in different genres.
Appearance is a bit lackluster. The cover is white with a picture of Allison, the Caffinated Squirrel and the name of the game. The back cover features the cat-girl Mittens and a text description of the game written in a typewriter font (which IMO would look cooler but cliche distresses) that appears kind of cheap. Tinker's Damn also suffers from a horrible name and pictures in the margins which take up almost a quarter of a page on nearly every page. It's not as bad as Trinity in that you don't get the same picture every page, but rather an illustration of what the rules describe. For example, the page about healing shows Mittens swabbing Neosporin on a cut.
In fairness they aren't everywhere. sidebar descriptions of the rules appear where the illustrations aren't. In addition the cahracter sheet is cute. It's a page of notebook paper with places for you to write down everything... and a coffee stain.
The only thing I can say to Andrew is to work on illustrations a bit more. To qoute Dave Sim "It's where the lines MEET."
Graphic quibbles aside I love this game. The loose rules and encouragement towards some inconsistancy (design your own lightsaber with whatever stats you like. Same goes for an AK-47!) stick in a realism nazi's craw like a wishbone. Pregenerated characters usable as PCs are provided for each of the three campaign setting in the book. Unlike White Wolf Clanbook characters, these Characters are fun to read and I would consider using them.
The settings themselves are fun. Modern Cops with magic: Hot Rod Apocalypse was the one I played and it was ludicrous fun. The sapce opera setting left me a little cold but was a fairly well done example of anime space opera. The gem is the final setting of hot shot pilots from accross the world engaging in friendly competition after the end of WWII. It inspired me to finally write up a game setting based on Fear And Loathing in Las Vegas and the Fabulous Mint 400 depicted within. I'm itching to play it out.
It also inspired me to write up a campaign based on new wave musicians Devo and their particular mythos. It is weird and Tinker's Damn let me do it easier than HERO and allowed for zaniness that I'd feel bad about doing in GURPS.
I'd reccomend getting it. No repeat after me...
"Are We Not Men?"
Style: 2 (Needs Work)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)
