It Slices! It Dices!

Now, anybody who's seen anything I have up on the web knows I don't have a problem with Amber, but I wasn't interested in picking up another 200-page book that says, "Make it up as you go." I want system. I *like* mechanics.

So when I finally actually looked at the book, I was pleasantly surprised to see that it does have some. Not a lot, but enough to play with. I have to note that I never DID actually pick up and look at the first edition, but my understanding is that this is quite animprovement over it, so if you did and were disappointed in that regard, give it a second look.

Now, to dig a little deeper. BESM is billed for simulating the various Anime genres, and those run broadly enough that it can handle just about anything else, too. The one thing it's strangely NOT well suited for, for reasons discussed below, is a multi-genre or crossover game. All the same, it is very nicely versatile: While I was giving it its first read-through, my girlfriend mentioned a dream she'd had which included a giant that could turn into a cat. In most games, I wouldn't know where to start.

In BESM, it's a pretty easy character to make...which shouldn't be too surprising, considering the Anime examples of spaceships that turn into cabbit crossbreeds. It's still cool that they pulled it off. Most of the system is character creation. I like this. Character creation is one of my favorite things. They do spend a fair amount of space on Mecha rules, which I'm afraid I have little interest in. Granted, I have all five House books for Battletech, but it's not my favorite genre.

On the other hand, those rules, like the rest, are more versatile than I make it sound - you can use the `mecha' rules for giant robots, yes, but you can also use them for war chariots, golems, fortress defense systems (be they technological or magical)...with only a little effort, you could even work out a pet dragon under the `mecha' rules.

All the rules are like that, frankly. It's neat.

It's a point-based system, with a suggested list of how many points the GM should offer to tailor the power-level of the game. For the most part, the points even make sense. It is a little bit weighted to give an advantage to taking very high levels of their three core Stats; they have a suggestion, in a completely different part of the book, for weighing those differently to bring averages back down, but it depends very much on the kind of game you want.

Nearly half of the book is given to the various powers and abilities ("Attributes") you can spend your points on. Add in the number of them that are either broad categories or versatile enough to convert directly to a similar power (usually the change between reaching an effect magically or technologically), and you have a list to rival the old Marvel Ultimate Powers Book. There are a few things that take a couple minutes thought and maybe some negotiation with the GM to work out. There's very little, if anything, that just won't work. (For example, after I wrote that, I thought I had one. Binding Contracts like demons might use aren't anything immediately obvious. But I'm afraid I can see at least two ways to do it, and there's probably a third, more complicated one.) [ednote -- However, there's no 'Plant Friendship' so they're obviously anti-druid. I'll bloom their kneecaps off. Erm.]

I have only one real concern with the scale of it, and it's similar to the old problem with the "Mega Damage" in RIFTS. There are things in BESM that can do a *LOT* of damage. There are somewhat fewer options for defending against this, but if the heavy damage weapons are going to be around, the PCs are going to *have* to have the heavy armor, or they're going to get toasted in one hit. {Quite literally - the way the system handles damage is also very much simplified, and the possibility of not just having a single, absolute damage value for every attack is an optional rule. A clunky optional rule, at that, but appropriate to the simplicity of mechanics they were going for.} They don't really suggest anywhere that a GM consider this as one of the things to limit in a campaign, but I do. If you're simulating giant-robots or giant-monsters or what have you, by all means, let people stack up on heavy hitters and heavy blockers. If you're looking for a more AD&D-style fantasy game, I'd put a cap on it. They have a much smaller `Defects' list. This is further limited by the fact that several of them are very much only suitable for NPCs. If you want to do much with these, I'd suggest picking up one of the GURPS Compendiums for more ideas. It's easy enough to figure how many points a Defect will give you - very few do more than two points, so it's just a question of "minor or major?" (To nail down my own suggestion, I'd say any 5-10 point Disadvantages from GURPS would be 1 point Defects; 15-25 point Disads from GURPS would be 2 point Defects. Higher than that and it's worth trying to talk the GM into giving you more back.)

Their skills system is the main part I find to be seriously damaged. Skill points are separate from other character points - the only connection is a `Highly Skilled' Attribute that can pick up some more, and an `Unskilled' Defect that can leave you dry. They give skills as `optional'.

In a high-powered game, or one that's going to be run mostly without dice, I'd agree. In an average or lower powered game, or even at the lower levels of `high' if your group likes to use the dice, I don't. Without Skills, you're going to be trying to get under a 4 on 2d6 a LOT, and on the bell curve, being able to bump that up a little makes a huge difference, both for the characters and for the game playability.

I have three problems with their skills system as it stands, and they stem from the same root. Instead of charging skills at a flat rate or according to how hard they are to learn, they multiply the cost according to how *important* they are to the game.

It actually sounds good on the surface. It's a *neat* idea. It just happens to be a bad one. `Filler' skills are cheap, `core' skills are very expensive. Think about it for a minute.

It's almost impossible to have a good martial artist in a Martial Arts game, a good driver in an Autoduel game, or a good strategist in a Military game. What's up with that? Everything else stays the same, though, so your Martial Arts game will have a fire-breathing, astrally-projecting, precognitive, teleporting...white belt. Your Autoduel game can have a fire-breathing, astrally-projecting, precognitive, teleporting... student driver. I don't buy it.

Mind you, magic is handled as an Attribute, not a skill, so you can be just as good a Magic User in a fantasy or occult game as you can in, say, that Autoduel game, if the GM allows magic. My second problem, only slighly less critical, is that this completely nixes character portability. This is where the multiple-genre games fall apart, too. Supposing you've made a character for a martial arts game, stretching yourself a bit so that she's actually a gold belt, and, noting that Computer skills are awesomely cheap in a martial arts game, you fill her out by making her a hacker non-pariel.

Now you run into someone, maybe at a convention, running a BESM Cyberpunk game. A martial-artist hacker is a great idea for a Cyberpunk character. The only problem is, you have to completely refigure her skills. The real problem is, your hacking skills suddenly cost an extra 30 points, because it's a very important skill in Cyberpunk. And since fighting is, too, you're only saving a couple points on the martial arts, at best.

So in a Cyberpunk game (which actually would take some doing to run in BESM, but it's not impossible), you could have a fire-breathing, astrally-projecting, precognitive, teleporting gold belt...who can just about find her way around Windows. I still don't buy it. My third problem may be just me. As I said, I like making characters. I don't always have a world ready to put them in. With this skills system, I have to leave those out until I find out how important they're going to be. Otherwise, I risk making a character for the Medieval Fantasy setting, using their suggested costs, only to find out that the one I want to play in takes place on a caravan route, and Business Management is important enough to suddenly cost twice as much.

And I STILL don't buy it.

The first problem, at least, can be easily fixed, either by capping off the multiplier a little earlier (stopping at X4 instead of X6 would make a huge difference), or dramatically increasing the number of skill points offered. The portability issues really aren't reparable without scrapping the whole concept, though, and for such an otherwise flexible system, that's a serious flaw.

After character creation, they have a brief section on the game mechanics ("Roll 2d6, try to get under the relevant Stat", but they make it last). Then they have an even briefer section of Expanded Game Mechanics; all optional rules, but still simple enough I don't see any reason not to use them. Then comes an only slightly-longer section on Role-Playing In Anime, which is handled pretty well. It's a good thing they don't waste much space on it - it has some ideas and suggestions, but nothing you won't already know if you're even passingly familiar with Anime, which most people picking up the game probably are.

Finally, there's the index. Wow. They indexed it beautifully, not just in the index, but all through the book. When they say something is on page 47, you can just rest easy knowing that it is, indeed, right there on page 47. It's enough to make you wonder if they did any editing at all, since that usually throws indexing off, but on that note, I have to say, it's well edited, too. A few errors slipped through, of course, with a notable 5-time repetition of "does possesses" (page 137, if you're curious), but nothing jarring even to a former copy editor. Oh, and the art isn't half bad. Less cheesecake than, be I completely honest, I may have hoped for, but it's tasteful, and supports the genre, and the variety to the genre, well.

Overall, I'm not at all disappointed I bought it. It's not the Holy Grail of Gaming, but it's probably at least close to the Holy Grail of Anime Gaming. Fix the skills system, and you're good to go.