Blast From The Past: Big Eyes, Small Mouth

Because 'GARPS' sounded stupid...

Ah, the anime boom. You remember that one, back at the turn of the 21^st century, when anime was everywhere. Like many people, I was caught up in that wave. Of course, since I had been watching anime since I was a kid (without knowing what it was), it wasn't such a new thing to me. Now, role-playing in a anime setting, that was new...

A nickel for anyone who knows who this is

I remember very well when the first edition of this game was released. My friend showed me this slim, manga-sized, grey book that had some so-so anime style art on the cover. Inside, however, inside there was a very simple but very fun system designed around the troupes of anime. This first edition didn't even have skills, it was that simple. The core of the game was based around three stats (thus named the Tri-Stat system): Mind, Body, and Soul. Simple enough that you could translate ANY character to it from any setting. The stats were from 1-12, with higher being better. While not perfectly balanced, they did include a rule that if your character had 12 in all three stats, you ascended to become one with the universe. The stat were divided to create your Attack Combat Value, your Defensive Combat Value, your Health Points and your Energy Points. 

Ah, the old school books

Once you got finished with your basic stats, you could spend whatever points you had left over on Character Attributes. These Attributes varied from “fun and flavor” type things to stuff that would really help you out by boosting your combat abilities, your socializing stuff, and so on and so forth. These Attributes were rated one to six and cost points per level. Some allowed for synergy between them. For example, if you took Appearance at a high enough level, you would get some levels of Art of Distraction for free. As always, there were some Attributes that would clearly unbalance the game or make things hard for the GM, so whoever is running the game would have to keep a close eye on character creation.

You're Under Arrest is a viable campaign setting. Because it's awesome.

If you were running out of points for your character, you could get some points by taking Character Defects. Like Attributes, there were levels of Defects, but only two. The first level was usually the “flavor” level of Defects, not really having a mechanical effect on the game but allowing you to give you some stuff to play in the game.

Lina Inverse will cut you. With a sword made of nightmares.

One of the more interesting things in the game was the “Unique Character Attribute or Detect” they put in the game. Let's say you want you character to be able to do something, but it isn't covered by the Attributes or Defects the creators came up with. You could sit down with your GM and discuss what you wanted to do and work out a point cost per level. Pretty nifty, right?

I like the idea of little girls with guns and magic powers. I just want them in pants!

The creators of the game, Guardians of Order, started buying up some licenses for anime and made a few games based on popular anime. And some not-so-popular stuff. The first one, and the only one without any skills, was the Sailor Moon RPG and Resource book. It included stats for the main characters in the show, mentioned stuff from the later seasons, and included an episode guide for the series that had been released by DIC back in the day. Then, they expanded the system with some supplements. The first one was “Big Robots, Cool Starships” which gave us rules for cyborgs, robots, spaceships, and other stuff like that. While some of this was mentioned in the original book, it was cool to get some details you could use. Then came “Hot Rods and Gun Bunnies” which focused on the “modern action genre” of anime. It seems that the company went down two different paths: Genre guides and series guides. Most of what was released were things that had been finished, things like Dominion Tank Police and Tenchi Muyo. They also did Demon City Shinjuku, which was an odd choice in my opinion. Unlike the first few they did (Sailor Moon, Tenchi Muyo, and Tank Police), which were series that allowed for building a setting and characters you could explore, Shinjuku was a movie. And it wasn't even that long, either. Maybe in had a manga that explored things in more detail, but there's no mention of it in the RPG. It always felt weird to me. It had an interesting premise and the book is very well done, allowing for groups to explore the setting. After they did a bunch of their own settings, usually based on anime. Things like Cute And Fuzzy Cockfighting Seizure Monsters (bet you can't guess what that one is based on...) and Centauri Knights. Fun fact to know and tell: Guardians of Order managed to score the license for a Song Of Fire And Ice RPG. You might known it by another name: Game of Thrones. But, George R.R. Martin held on to the rights, so when the company folded (before the game was released I think), he was able to keep it under wraps.

This is the cover for the Dominion Tank Police RPG

Soon, things had gotten pretty big. If you wanted to make your own game, you had to buy the core book, then a supplement for the genre you wanted to use that. And then a second one if you wanted to mix and match them. So, the company did the logical thing, they released BESM 2^nd Edition. Then, 2^nd Edition Revised. And then 2^nd Edition Revised Revised. These later editions added in Skills. To make things interesting, everyone got a set number of skill points during character creation. And the cost of skills depended on what genre the game was set in. Skills felt like an unnecessary addition to the game, as they added a small bonus to the roll and they usually cost so much, characters would have only two or three skills. And almost exclusively based on combat skills.

Much like GURPS, it was starting to suffer from too many supplements and minor changes to make things more balanced. But, there were so many supplements by this point. Because, not only had they done the original expansions and the RPG and Source Guides, now they were releasing Ultimate Fan Guides, which detailed parts of series that were being released (and very popular) for new series being released by the major anime companies as part of the increasing boom.

I saw the first episode or two of this. It was a gender swapped Trigun.

And, then, there was 3^rd Edition BESM. Which was released right before the company went bust. From what I've seen, 3^rd Edition made drastic changes to the system (like another famous RPG system that I won't name right now...). But, it was too little, too late. I'm always checking up on RPG books are my local used book stores and occasionally check places like eBay, and I've never seen a copy of BESM 3^rd Edition. PDFs can be found, however.

The "gun toting terror in hot pants" herself.

So, there you have it, a bit of history for BESM, as well as the basics of the mechanics. To me, it comes as advertised. It's a light, simple system that's designed for people new to roleplaying and wanting to capture the essence of anime. It's a fun system for playing in various worlds you see on the screen. In addition to anime, the system can work for other types of animation or anything that doesn't need hyper realistic rules. That said, it suffers from its age. This was before the D20 System was anything more that a twinkle in Monty Cooke's eye. It's not well balanced and can be easily abused. In this day and age, there's a few other systems that can do the same thing and are better balanced or easier to use.

"In the name of the moon, I must punish you!" I know people who would enjoy that...

But, BESM will always have a place in my heart. Back in the day, before these new systems were around, you didn't have a lot of options. I remember, way back when, I would hang out with my friend (who was also into anime) and watch a show. While we were watching it, we'd discuss how we'd translate into the system, what stats and Attributes the characters we were watching should have. It was always fun to do. Those were the days.

A true classic. Leiji Mastumoto is a master.

Nostalgia aside, I still dig out my books and flip through them. If nothing else, it's something to get ideas from.