Tagline: A resource almost any GM of Sailor Moon should make every effort to get their hands on.

The Complete Book of Yoma: Volume 1 is the seventh Guardians of Order book I’ve reviewed for RPGNet (Big Eyes, Small Mouth; Big Robots, Cool Starships; The Sailor Moon Roleplaying Game and Resource Book; and the three Sailor Moon Character Diaries being the others). I continue to be impressed with their efforts, as the company steadily makes it way closer and closer to a hallowed inclusion on my “buy everything these guys do” list. The Complete Book of Yoma is a resource almost any GM of the Sailor Moon roleplaying game should make an effort to get their hands on.

WHAT’S IN THIS BOOK?

The Complete Book of Yoma basically has four primary features (in my mind, anyway):

COLOR SECTION: Let’s start with the glitz and the flash: In the center of the book you’ll find an eight page, full-color section printed on glossy paper. This section, like the plentiful use of art throughout the rest of the book, illustrates (yet again) the huge advantage which Guardians of Order has here: After all, if you’ve got a couple hundred animation stills to choose from, you can (and they do) provide four or five pictures of every single monster in the book without a second thought … because you’re not stuck having to pay the artists.

YOMA: The core of the book, of course, are the yoma themselves. I discuss these in a bit more detail below. (For those of you wondering, at this point, what the hell a “yoma” is, the answer can be found there.)

HOW TO USE YOMA: The first section of the book deals with how to handle the yoma in your campaign. A solid resource, it succinctly sums up the basic foundation on which these creatures exist – summarizing the standard formulas of the television show (and how to break them to make a better roleplaying campaign); who controls yoma and how; where yoma come from; general cosmology… the whole nine yards. The best part of this section, in my opinion, are the charts which statistically break down the yoma – by who controls them, what attacks destroyed them on the TV series, their type, and their gender.

RANDOM YOMA: This is actually a part of the first section of the book, but I’m spinning it off into its own section because I really liked it. Basically, Lindsey Ginou realizes that the yoma can be broadly classified in various ways (for example, there are the yoma who “charm people”). Thus you can, effectively, chart these – and once you’ve got the charts you might as well throw in some probability tables and get yourself some randomized yoma. The resulting charts can be used to actually randomly generate a yoma – or you can use the charts as a quick reference for designing your own basic yoma packages.

THE YOMA

Anyone with even a minimal amount of exposure to Sailor Moon will know that the basic structure of any given episode is simple: Sailor Moon and the Sailor Scouts face down a nasty magical creature. They are nearly defeated, but in the end they find the yoma’s weakness and defeat it. There’s also an arc structure to each season of the show (for example, during the entire course of the first season the Sailor Scouts are facing off against Queen Beryl.

So what’s a yoma? “Yoma” translates, roughly, in to English as “monster”. The Complete Book of Yoma: Volume 1 assembles and presents every single monster which the Sailor Scouts face down during the first two seasons of the show. (This includes the Cardians and the Droids, who are not, strictly speaking, yoma. But that’s just a technical distinction, and not all that important.)

Each yoma is given a full page description, and are arranged in the order they appear in the television series (thus the yoma from episode one appears first; the yoma from episode two appears second; and so forth).

Each yoma is described with: Their English and Japanese names, the name of the episode(s) they appeared in (English, Japanese, and translated Japanese), their type (defined in the introductory material), their master (who sent them), who defeated them in the show, and their final fate on the show.

Additionally, more lengthy passages are given describing their physical appearance, the significant events of their appearance(s), various points of interest, and (of course) their actual stats.

In case you missed it: With this information you (of course) get a standard monster manual entry for every yoma, but you also get a strategy section on how they can be defeated, and also adventure hooks on how to design a story around them.

A great deal of care has gone into constructing the yoma so that they behave exactly as they do in the television series. Using the rules of the Sailor Moon roleplaying game and the stats as they are provided, you can recreate the events of the television series exactly as they appeared on the screen. Guaranteed. Nothing is more frustrating than picking up a licensed RPG only to discover that you can’t create characters who can do the same things the characters the license is based on. No such problem here.

CONCLUSION

Having read this book, I really can’t imagine running a Sailor Moon campaign without it. At the end of the day it does precisely what every supplement should do: It helps you run the game, without being absolutely necessary.

In other words: Sure, you can run Sailor Moon without owning this book. There is absolutely nothing here that you cannot create yourself using the core rulebook. But The Complete Book of Yoma makes you ask a simple question:

Why would you want to?

And that’s why you should buy it.

Style: 4
Substance: 4

Author: Lindsey Ginou
Company/Publisher: Guardians of Order
Cost: $17.95
Page Count: 90
ISBN: 1-894525-00-0

Originally Posted: 2000/04/06

For an explanation of where these reviews came from and why you can no longer find them at RPGNet, click here.

Tagline: The best character sheets done for any game, ever. Period.

WHAT IS THIS?

This is a review of three associated products for Guardians of Order’s Sailor Moon Role-Playing Game (which I’ve reviewed elsewhere): The Knight Character Diary, the Dark Warrior Character Diary, and Sailor Scout Character Diary.

Essentially these are character sheets from a company that dreams really big (each 56 page pamphlet is for use with a single character). Each diary contains a 14-page character sheet, forty diary pages, a title page which you can personalize, and a dozen or so pictures (appropriate for each type of character) which you can use for your character portrait.

HOW GOOD IS IT?

Very, very good – surprisingly enough.

Personally, I don’t buy character sheets. The last time I bought a packet of character sheets was back in 6th grade, when I was an avid AD&D player and those of us in the group who could afford to splurge on store-bought character sheets (instead of writing it out on notebook paper) became possessed of a certain prestige.

In point of fact, I didn’t buy these – they came in the form of reviewer comp copies from GoO. But if I was playing in a Sailor Moon campaign I’d be sorely tempted to break my habit now that I’ve seen these.

For starters, the 14-page character sheet is absolutely wonderful. Often when you see extended character sheets like this all that’s really contained on them are lots of lines which are supposedly dedicated to “character history”. There are certain elements of that here (a page dedicated to it, but laid out rather nicely in segmented portions of your history – “Silver Millenium” and “Earth Childhood” in the Sailor Scout diary, for example), but by-and-large the extended sheet consists largely of closely targeted questions meant not only to spur your creativity, but also to facilitate ease of reference.

What this reminds me most of is another memory from my avid AD&D days (it’s nostalgia time). Back then I participated heavily on the FidoNet AD&D echo (like a Usenet newsgroup, but propagated at a much slower speed between individual BBS message boards). While there I happened to pick up something called the “Personal Code”, which was designed by a wonderful young woman named Alesia Chamness. It was a replacement for AD&D’s alignment system which encouraged the individual player to develop his character through a series of targeted questions. It was useful for defining your character in writing, for spurring creativity, and for developing your existing ideas. Really great stuff, and highly reminiscent of what you’re getting in this diaries.

The diary itself is done really nicely. The left-hand pages are plain white with a border which is evocative of the character type in question (a rose is in each corner of the border in the Knight Character Diary, for example). The facing pages, on the right side, takes advantage of the rich wealth of artwork which is available to GoO for this game line (in the form of animation stills) – the entire page is taken up by a grey-muted image (again, appropriate to the character type). Because they’re muted images you can easily write over these, and they end up providing a fantastic feel to the entire product. You’re not just buying a book of blank pages, you’re buying something that really ends up enhancing the recording of your character’s life and exploits.

Finally, the stock pictures at the end (which are designed to be xeroxed, cut out, colored, and pasted onto the title page which leads the book) are useful for the artistically-disinclined.

WHAT WOULD I CHANGE?

Not much. I’d probably drop the price down to $4.95, rather than $5.95. Crossing the $5 barrier to $6 makes these books seem just a little too pricey to me. On the other hand, I’m sure that GoO has priced these where they have because that’s where they can make a profit.

As for the actual content of the pieces, the only I’d change – or rather, expand – are the stock photos. I feel rather limited by the fact that the only picture they have are of the characters from the animated series itself. It’s really bad in the Knight Character Diary, because all you’re basically getting are a variety of pictures of Tuxedo Mask. Again, though, I don’t see any way for GoO to have done anything differently – they’re constrained by the artwork which is available to them.

IS IT WORTH IT?

If you’re the type who buys character sheets as a matter of course, then I would say definitely yes. The price may seem a little steep at first – but, trust me, you’re getting your money’s worth.

If you don’t typically buy character sheets, then there’s a goodly chance you aren’t going to break the habit with these. On the other hand, I’d suggest taking a peek at them next time you’re in the store. They just might surprise you.

Style: 5
Substance: 4

Author: Karen McLarney
Company/Publisher: Guardians of Order
Cost: $5.95
Page Count: 56
ISBN: n/a

Originally Posted: 2000/03/12

What I said about not buying character sheets was nothing but truth: When I first started roleplaying, I photocopied the sample sheet off the back of the BECMI basic manual (which produced the double-sided 8.5 x 11 character sheet 2-up on a single sheet) and got so used to using it that when I bought a pack of the official sheets they seemed weird to me. I don’t think I’ve ever actually paid for an official character sheet ever again.

Of course, in the digital era that doesn’t mean as much as it used to: Although I don’t buy them, I have used a variety of official sheets over the years. And a really great character sheet — like the Sailor Moon Character Diaries — really can transform a game. Most recently, the character sheets for Numenera and The Strange are like that: The former through sheer beauty and utility; the latter through the excessively clever method it uses for handling characters shifting between alternate realities.

For an explanation of where these reviews came from and why you can no longer find them at RPGNet, click here.

I have previously read (and reviewed) two other products from Guardians of Order: Big Eyes, Small Mouth (the first generic anime RPG) and Big Robots, Cool Starships (a vehicle construction system for BESM). I approached each of these books with a certain degree of doubt: Anime is capable of anything, so isn’t a generic anime game just another anime game? A simple vehicle construction system? Isn’t that an oxymoron? In each case, not only did the doubts vanish, but the books proved themselves worthy of lavish praise.

The Sailor Moon Role-Playing Game and Resource Book (henceforth the Sailor Moon RPG) was no exception when it came to doubts. I had no worries about the game itself (which uses a specially modified version of the TriStat engine used in Big Eyes, Small Mouth), but with the source material: Even if I was impressed with how well Guardians of Order had translated the Sailor Moon television series into game terms (and that was no sure thing, licensed products are devilishly hard to do properly), quite frankly, I didn’t really think the material itself was going to do anything for me. I’m not a rabid Sailor Moon hater – quite the opposite, I mildly enjoyed the handful of syndicated episodes I saw (although, per usual, I have issues with the American translation, dubbing, and censorship), but it simply didn’t seem the type of thing which was going to send me dancing through the streets singing its praise.

Well, I’m not dancing, but I’ll tell you right up front that Guardians of Order has successfully pulled the rug out from under my expectations once again.

THE RULES

The Sailor Moon RPG uses a customized version of the TriStat System, Guardians of Order’s house system originally used in its generic form in Big Eyes, Small Mouth. In my review of BESM (found elsewhere on RPGNet), I have given a comprehensive overview of the basic TriStat mechanics. Therefore, for the Sailor Moon RPG I am just going to briefly go over how those rules have been customized. Anyone curious in any specifics which I don’t mention here can, of course, take a look at my review of BESM.

Starting at the top of character creation: One of my minor problems (and they were all minor) with BESM was that stat generation defaulted to a random state (2d6+10 points which are distributed among the three stats), with the non-random options isolated at the back of the book. The Sailor Moon RPG not only corrects this problem, but goes one step better. Two methods are presented by which the GM can determine stat points: In Method A the GM gives everyone the exact same number of stat points. In Method B every character is given a static number of stat points, which is then modified by a random roll.

What seems to be missing are the options for unbalanced character creation – so that some characters will have more stat points than others. This option is given for the generation of attributes, so its oversight in stat assignation is odd. On the other hand, since there are attributes which modify the basic stats, you can get the same result through indirect means.

The character attribute system itself is a proto sub-attribute system. I describe it that way, because by the time I read the Sailor Moon RPG I had already read Big Robots, Cool Starships which develops and refines the mechanic in order to create a phenomenal vehicle construction system (reviewed elsewhere on RPGNet).

In the Sailor Moon RPG the sub-attribute system is used to specifically model the special powers of the Sailor Scouts (known as Sailor “Senshi” or “Knights” in the original Japanese) as well as the special powers of their Negaverse (or “Dark”) foes. Specifically you spend some of your Character Points to purchase either the Senshi/Knight Powers attribute or the Negaverse/Dark Powers attribute. For each level of these attributes you purchase, you get 10 Power Points in order to buy the sub-attributes which you are given access to (such as “Item of Power” or “Mind Control”).

And that about does it as far as customization goes.

This customization process works quite well with the TriStat system – which, due to its simplicity, take no more than half a dozen pages or so to explain (plus the particular attributes, many of which are specialized to the Sailor Moon universe). As a result you end up with a complete, stand-alone game which is also 100% compatible with other TriStat products. If you bought the Sailor Moon RPG first, for example, you could go out and buy Big Eyes, Small Mouth and use the attributes there to expand the scope and depth of your game. When GOF releases their licensed Dominion Tank Police game, you’ll be able to do crossovers easily. And so on. Nothing extra is required to play, but everything becomes an addition to your game.

THE RESOURCE BOOK

The other interesting thing about this book is that it is presented as the Sailor Moon Role-Playing Game and Resource Book. What’s this “Resource Book” stuff?

Well, this is not just a game – a large portion of the book is dedicated to being a general resource guide for fans of the Sailor Moon television show. So you get some general background on Japan (including the particulars of how their school system functions); a guide to the places seen in the Sailor Moon TV show; a Sailor Moon timeline; a “travel guide” to the Negaverse, the Moon Kingdom, the Planet of Makaiju, Crystal Tokyo, and Nemesis the Dark Moon; a character guide to all the major and minor characters; an overview to the mythological references made in the series; an episode guide complete with summaries; a bibliography of Sailor Moon’s creator (Naoko Takeuchi); a guide to Japanese pronunciation (and a minor glossary of some major terms relating to Sailor Moon); a guide to the meaning of the character’s names; a reference to the Sailor Senshi attacks (and translations of them); a yoma/cardian/droid list; a guide to on-line Sailor Moon resources; translations of the opening songs; and a credit list for the creative personalities behind the show.

As you’ve probably already noticed, a large amount of that stuff is fairly typical of what you’d see in any RPG – setting information. So why call it a “Resource Book”? Because by calling it a resource book, Mark MacKinnon is able to get the book into places where an RPG could never go. People who would never see (and would never consider buying) such a roleplaying game, will see (and perhaps even buy) this book. Recent reports seem to be bearing the theory out.

And that’s great. The young females who are the primary (but not only) audience for Sailor Moon are precisely the demographic to which RPG’s have never appealed. Indeed, I can’t think of any better property which could be developed than Sailor Moon which would both appeal to these new fans, and also have some potential of attracting established roleplayers. Nor is there any system better built than the TriStat System to function as an introduction to roleplaying. Anyone with young daughters or nieces who they would like to get interested in roleplaying could probably do no wrong in giving them a copy of this book as a birthday or Christmas present.

THE SETTING

If you’re anything like me, you’ve probably been reading this review with a bit of a jaundiced eye. Sure, the system is nice. Sure, the presentation is superb. Sure, the game functions great as an introduction for new players. But play a bunch of pubescent girls who run around in skimpy outfits?

A digression is called for.

One of my favorite RPGs is Amber, a game based on the series of popular fantasy novels by Roger Zelazny. Although I find its system to be tremendously innovative, what draws me back to the game time and time again is the setting. For whatever reason the basic Amber canon, as described by Zelazny, functions only as a starting point for a host of variation. I, for example, have played in a variation where Amber was completely destroyed, and another where the entire Court was replaced with alternates (King Oberon became Queen Titania, Dworkin the ancient man became Rozel the young female, the players assumed the roles of a brand new set of children, and so on). Some have theorized that this was brought about because of the unreliability of the narrator in the original Amber books (was he really telling the truth? or was his version merely a plot to accomplish something else?); others point to the basic necessity of any licensed property to modify the canon in order to leave a place for the PCs to participate; and some have pointed to Wujcik’s decision to model multiple interpretations of the major characters in the main rulebook. In my opinion all of that had something to do with it, but when you boil it all away, Zelazny based his world on strong mythological archetypes. Those archetypes are extremely resiliant to massive amounts of change, and indeed, have been subject to thousands of alterations over the course of human history. It is little surprise, therefore, that Amber not only stands up under such change, but thrives under it.

In any case, the world of Amber has been twisted and distorted in any number of interesting and original ways. It’s fan community is a vibrant thing in which ideas are swapped and every conceivable alteration and possibility is considered, adapted, and used in various combinations.

I bring all of this up because I see the same potential in the Sailor Moon RPG, with the same type of groundwork being laid (almost certainly unintentionally) by Mark MacKinnon as was laid by Eric Wujcik. The basic mythological themes of Naoko Takeuchi’s characters and plots, combined with the need to modify the canon for a roleplaying game, leads inexorably to the great potential found in variating the Sailor Moon Universe. I have already considered several interesting possibilities (including one in which the Sailor Moon manga and anime series are a set of propaganda films distributed by the evil Sailor Senshi, while the truth is that the Negaverse is fighting to protect our world from their machinations and eventual domination).

As for “playing young girls in skimpy outfits” being a problem for you, the method of your salvation is built right into the game. Rules for creating Knight characters (such as the Tuxedo Mask from the series) are built right into the system. I immediately began pondering the possibility of a campaign where all the PCs are Knights, while the Sailor Senshi were relegated to fulfilling roles similar to that of Tuxedo Mask.

A COUPLE OF BAD THINGS

I came across two things in the Sailor Moon RPG which are regrettable:

First, many of the attributes discuss and use Energy Points to one degree or another. The only problem here is that you don’t find out what “Energy Points” are until Step Six of Character Creation (because its a Derived Stat), while the Attributes are discussed in Step Four of Character Creation.

Second, the Sailor Moon RPG suffers from what I’ve begun to call the “Guardians of Order Index Problem” – in which every entry in the index has exactly one reference. For example, according to the index, Sailor Moon is only mentioned once in the entire book (the reference is to her character sheet write-up). There is actually one exception to this: Each episode of the Sailor Moon TV show ends with a segment called “Sailor Moon Says” in which a little moral is provided for the day’s story. MacKinnnon used these to great effect throughout the book as boxed text, often finding very appropriate ones which complemented what the main text was discussing. In the index all four of these are mentioned.

CONCLUSION

I highly recommend the Sailor Moon RPG for five reasons:

First, the “Resource Book” portion of the title should be considered anything but tacked on. It is the first such resource book published for Sailor Moon in the States, and it is a wonderful resource. Any fan of the Sailor Moon TV show would definitely enjoy the book just for its reference purposes.

Second, it acts as a wonderful (if previously unmentioned) showcase for Sailor Moon art. The text is liberally sprinkled with highly appropriate selections from the manga and anime, including a full color section of pin-ups.

Third, the Sailor Moon RPG acts as a showcase for the enduring strength of the TriStat system. It’s sub-attribute system, as well as the host of new attributes introduced for the Scouts and Negaverse powers, would be useful in quite a few BESM games.

Fourth, I think that the Sailor Moon universe has tremendous flexibility and potential. The Japanese have far more respect for their children’s media tastes than American cartoon makers typically do, and as a result Sailor Moon benefits greatly from an unexpected depth of character and unique mythology. As a result, campaigns set both within and without the “canon” the series have a surprisingly huge amount of rich source material to draw from.

Fifth, and finally, the Sailor Moon RPG acts as an excellent introductory volume for roleplaying – particularly for young girls and fans of the Sailor Moon anime and manga. I have a cousin who, when she gets a couple of years older, will probably be getting a set of Sailor Moon tapes, some Sailor Moon manga, and a copy of this book. I’ll corrupt her yet.

For some this book will just be silly; but for many it will hit the nail right on the head. In short, I can’t say “every roleplayer will enjoy this book”. However, I think every roleplayer who has a broad palate should at least give the book a try… particularly if anything in this review has caught your interest.

Style: 5
Substance: 4

Author: Mark C. MacKinnon
Company/Publisher: Guardians of Order
Cost: $25.00
Page Count: 209
ISBN: 0-9682431-1-8

Originally Posted: 1999/08/16

This really was a groundbreaking RPG and the “Resource Book” approach was, according to all reports and evidence, highly effective at reaching out to new players. It was one of the few instances where I feel a small RPG company was actually really, really successful at reaching outside of the existing hobby.

Unfortunately, within a few short years the internet had grown to a point where “Resource Books” were irrelevant: Online resources and wikis wholly replaced them. It’s probably not wholly coincidental that Guardians of Order didn’t last very long after that. As I said in my review for BESM, I miss ’em. They came close to nailing something really special, but in the end they missed it.

For an explanation of where these reviews came from and why you can no longer find them at RPGNet, click here.

Tagline: A simple vehicle construction system. An oxymoron? Not so. Big Robots, Cool Starships succeeds at the impossible.

Big Robots, Cool Starships, the first supplement for the Big Eyes, Small Mouth roleplaying game, is perhaps the most surprising gaming product I have read all year.

Did I say surprising? I meant mind-blowing… as in “mind-blowingly good”.

Why is it surprising? you ask. (We’ll get to “mind-blowing” later.) Very simple: This book should not be anywhere near as good as it is.

First off, it is a vehicle construction system for a simple game. And when I say “vehicle construction system” I mean “vehicle construction system”. BRCS doesn’t cut corners and it doesn’t fudge (any more than BESM does). It is a concrete, dynamic, flexible system with precise definitions and seemingly limitless potential. This type of thing should not exist. And yet it does. BRCS not only succeeds at being a true system, it also manages to pull it off without becoming far too complex for the basic game. We’ll get back to how this is all possible in a couple seconds.

Second, BRCS is written by David L. Pulver. I also discovered (by reading Mark C. MacKinnon’s Foreward to the book) that Pulver signed on as Associate Line Editor and Senior Staff Writer for Guardians of Order back in November of ’98. This would, of course, be the same acclaimed David L. Pulver who wrote GURPS Biotech, GURPS Mecha, GURPS Vehicles, and the forthcoming revision of GURPS Space. It isn’t surprising, therefore, that Pulver can turn out products of sterling quality. What is surprising is that Pulver is working on BESM. I can’t imagine a longer, or stranger, jump than the one taken from GURPS to Big Eyes, Small Mouth. What is even more surprising is that Pulver, one of the Founding Fathers of vehicle construction systems in my mind, could have turned out BRCS — which is unlike any VCS I’ve seen before.

Then again, maybe that isn’t so surprising either.

By this point I’ve either tantalized or bored you enough. What the heck is this Big Robots, Cool Starships thing, anyway?

THE SYSTEM

Big Robots, Cool Starships is – in its own words – “a mecha/SF supplement for Big Eyes, Small Mouth”. It expands the basic BESM system to allow for more dynamic mecha play – “mecha” being used in its more broad-based definition of “any mechanical device found in anime”. To sum up, therefore, BRCS is a vehicle construction system (plus some general campaign info) for big robots, combat cyborgs, really cool cars, cybernetic body armor, starships, fighters, tanks, and just about anything else you can think of with two gears to rub together.

Note the word “expand”, above. It’s there for a very good reason. When most games have a book described with the blurb “new rules for XXX!” what that really means is “the system in the core rulebook for XXX was so crappy that we’ve completely ripped it out and are starting over from scratch; plus we’re charging you extra for the privilege of having decent rules”.

BRCS isn’t like that at all. The system for “giant robots” and their ilk in the core BESM rulebook works just fine. BRCS is, literally, an expansion of that basic system. It doesn’t replace; it adds to.

“But wait,” you say, “If the basic system works just fine, why does it need expanding?” The answer is simple: It doesn’t need expanding. But some people might want it expanded. If you’re running mecha-oriented campaigns, then the rules in BRCS will provide you with more options, more detail, and more innate potential. Think of it like this: In first grade you learned about addition. It wasn’t until later on that they taught you multiplication. Was the system you had learned for addition incomplete because now you had this new thing called “multiplication”? Of course not. Multiplication was simply an expansion of your mathematical concepts – more useful for some things; less useful for others. Same thing applies here.

BRCS accomplishes this expansion in a five-step process: First it redefines the “Own a Big Robot” attribute from the basic BESM rulebook to include all sorts of mecha. (“Ah ha! They did change something!” Oh, calm down. Would you have preferred it if they added a whole new attribute which accomplished nothing at all? Sheesh.). Second, they made it so that both “Own a Big Robot” and “Cybernetic Body” give you a pool of “Mecha Points”. Third, they added the attribute “More Powerful Robot” to get you some additional Mecha Points. Fourth, they added the “Personal Gear” attribute to cover situations where a character has access to gear your average person probably wouldn’t (okay, this isn’t really all that important, but I wanted a “five-step” process not a “four-step” process — so sue me). Finally, they inserted a six-step mecha design process between Step Five and Step Six of character creation as described in BESM. These steps are conveniently numbered 5A through 5F.

Basic character creation in BESM is an eight-step process. Half of those had nothing to do with the system at all (they were entirely conceptual). Similarly, three of the six steps to mecha design as described in BRCS are conceptual in nature, not mechanical – Step 5A is “GM Discussion” (self-explanatory); Step 5B is “Mecha Outline” (get your concept); and Step 5F is “Mecha Background” (when all the numbers are hashed out, your write up the details to “personalize your creation”). Therefore it’s steps 5C, 5D, and 5E which are the meat of this system. Let’s take a closer look.

Step 5C: Mecha Sub-Attributes. The BRCS system for mecha creation is extremely similar to the basic BESM character creation system. Not only is BRCS an expansion to the BESM rules, it is a seamless one – the system naturally fits right into the existing character creation process, as if it had always been meant to be there. To avoid not only the “let’s replace everything” syndrome, but also the “tacked on rules” syndrome is, quite frankly, amazing (have I used that word and its synonyms often enough to make this review’s conclusion clear, yet?).

Character creation in BESM starts with the purchasing of Attributes (with five discrete levels). BRCS mecha creation starts with the purchasing of Sub-Attributes (with six discrete levels). These are things like “Super Strength”, “Space Flight”, “Artificial Intelligence”, and so on. Like BESM character creation, BRCS is very much an open-ended effects-based system – you purchase “Space Flight” in order to build intergalactic battlecruisers and 20th century spacesuits alike. The system is incredibly dynamic and resilient, although it tends to scale poorly: You can build BMW’s and intergalactic cruisers; but you can’t have them face off against each other very well. This isn’t a major issue, and can easily be worked around in the rare circumstance when it actually crops up (for example, by giving the intergalactic cruiser appropriate action resolution bonuses based on its size, etc.; or you could just GM fiat the situation out of the way, the necessary difference between the technology levels before the problem crops up being large enough that there is really only one logical conclusion in most of these situations).

Step 5D: Mecha Defects. The next step in BESM character creation is the selection of Defects – which give you Bonus Points to spend on additional Attributes. Similarly, Mecha Defects (“Exposed Occupants”, “Hanger Queen”, “Start-Up Time”) give you additional points to spend on Mecha Sub-Attributes.

Between purchasing additional levels of “Own a Big Robot” or “Cybernetic Body” (which give you big chunks of extra Mecha Points); purchasing “More Powerful Robot” (for smaller chunks of extra Mecha Points); and Mecha Defects (for very small, precise chunks of extra Mecha Points) you should be able to tweak things for your character in just the right way so that there is little or no slop in the number of Mecha Points you purchased versus the number of Mecha Points you need to build your mecha.

Step 5E: Mecha Derived Values. Finally you figure out the mecha’s “Armour”, “Health Points”, “Energy Points”, and “Combat Value” based on its attributes. Action resolution proceeds normally.

As I said with character creation in BESM: It don’t get much easier than this.

OTHER STUFF

So Big Robots, Cool Starships is a vehicle construction system, focusing on mecha. Right? Right.

But wait… there’s more! The book also contains:

1. A brief, two page overview of the history of mecha in Japanese anime. It is surprisingly detailed considering its short length (particularly considering the broad definition of “mecha” with which the supplement is working). Noticeable oversights (at least to me) included Bubblegum Crisis and Armored Trooper Votoms. Plus, Pulver tends to ignore manga entirely (even when the series he is talking about was manga before it was anime). I was also upset that he referred to Robotech as the English translation for Super Dimensional Fortress Macross — if you don’t have the space to detail the controversy regarding the relationship between those two pieces of animation, then please don’t mention them at all.

2. A chapter on “Mecha Combat and Other Actions”. You might be thinking “new rules”, but you’d be wrong. With the exception of a couple of charts on “Falling Damage” and “Crash Damage”, health points for buildings, and a list of suggested mecha-related resolution modifiers the section is pretty much ruleless. This is for the best: The basic BESM resolution mechanics are more than capable of handling mecha. This is a testament not only to the strength of BESM’s mechanics, but also the strength of Pulver’s design system (insofar as it remains completely compatible). So what is in this section? Guidelines. Stuff you might not think of, but which Pulver takes the time to mention and bring to your attention. Excellent stuff. With a system like BESM I don’t need a rule for every occasion, and by simply bringing the stuff to my attention Pulver has done more than enough. Kudos for this restraint, which leads to a far better product than if these twenty pages had been packed full of useless rules (which would have ruined the simple elegance of BESM).

3. And we’re still not done. Pulver includes a short section on potential mecha campaign settings (from Ancient Japan to High Fantasy to Modern Day to Far Future); a game seed for each of those campaign settings; and a sample adventure.

4. Finally, I just want to make note that with this product Guardians of Order has moved up my list from “company which produces interesting stuff” to “company whose stuff you should buy”. The minor quibbles I had with their production values in their first publication (the core BESM rules) have evaporated; their general art quality has improved tremendously (although I’m still spoiled by the folks over at Dream Pod 9, so I’ll say they could be even better); their writing remains spotless (particularly with Pulver at the helm); their product conception is elegant; and their future plans look bright (with Dominion Tank Police and Demon City Shinjuku RPGs in the future as well as additional supplements for BESM).

5. To end on a weird note: BRCS has a two-page index with an entry for just about every major concept in the book. This is great, right? Wrong. Every single entry has exactly one (and only one) referenced page number. According to this index, for example, “Big Eyes, Small Mouth” is referenced only once: On page six. Not only is this, of course, inaccurate, it’s actually mentioned on page five and page seven as well. This is completely bizarre. Out of curiosity I went back and checked the core BESM manual. It’s the same damn thing! I don’t get it. This is not how indexes work!

CONCLUSION

Big Robots, Cool Starships is, in my estimation, one of the best supplements of its type I have ever read. I’ve never seen a rules-based supplement mesh so seamlessly and effortlessly with its mother product. BRCS doesn’t leave you feeling as if you were ripped off by the mecha rules in BESM; yet at the same time once you own it you know you wouldn’t want to play without it. On top of it all, Pulver has thrown in campaign seeds and a fairly interesting adventure.

When I need a simple system which is, nonetheless, a solid game engine (so that I don’t have to fudge a lot of different things to make it work) BESM has become the game I look to. BESM is the best game of its type I have encountered. The same holds true, now, for BRCS — even if I’m not sure there is another product like BRCS out there.

In short, Big Robots, Cool Starships is not only an excellent product, it is a solid product. You won’t be disappointed.

Style: 4
Substance: 5

Author: David L. Pulver
Company/Publisher: Guardians of Order
Cost: $15.95
Page count: 110
ISBN: 0-9682431-3-4

Originally Posted: 1999/08/06

As I mentioned in my review of Big Eyes, Small Mouth, the second edition of the game remains a go-to system for me. And BRCS remains one of the best vehicle construction systems I’ve ever used (although it has been awhile since I had cause to actually pull it out and play around with it).

For an explanation of where these reviews came from and why you can no longer find them at RPGNet, click here.

I had mixed feelings coming to Big Eyes, Small Mouth: A Universal, Japanese Anime Role-Playing Game. First off, I’m a huge fan of anime. But having seen Ranma 1/2, Slayers, 3×3 Eyes, Kamui, and Mai (among many others) I know that if you’ve got a universal anime game what you’ve really got is a universal game, period. If you strip the affectation of the animation away from anime you’ve stripped away the only common element which binds all of it together – and since I don’t spend my game sessions madly sketching animation cels…

On the other hand I had heard nothing but unreserved praise for the game (except for a handful of people who had never laid eyes upon it declaring that they “don’t do anime” – the loss is theirs, of course). So, like I said, I came to BESM with mixed feelings.

I’m happy to say that not only were “they” right, but I was right, and Mark MacKinnon was right when he said that the game was “easy to learn, fun to play, and in the spirit of anime”.

To understand how all these contradictions resolve themselves you first have to understand how I feel about “universal games”. Many have said that a “truly universal” roleplaying game is impossible. When some people say that they mean that no single game engine can satisfy everybody. This is true. When some other people say that they mean that no single game engine can model at multiple levels simultaneously – a simple engine cannot adequately model ultra-realism; a complex engine cannot adequately perform when asked to run fast and furious action. This is also true.

But when some other people say that a “truly universal” roleplaying game is impossible what they mean is that no game engine can model all possible genres.

This is false.

(Actually all of these statements except the first are false if you expand them to include meta-systems in addition to systems proper. A meta-system such as FUDGE, for example, which gives you systems to modify the system itself can easily modulate itself to handle multiple levels simultaneously.)

It is false because it has been done quite successfully several times. GURPS and Hero, for starters, are both very successful at being universal engines – they just suck at being simple systems.

Which brings us back to BESM, which succeeds quite handily at being a universal anime game by giving us a set of rules which is quite adept at modeling the type of reality postulated by about 95% of the anime out there (it can model the other stuff, too, it just won’t be quite as good at it). You end up with fast, furious combat. You end up with simple, but richly developed characters. You end up, in short, with a very good game which is capable of not only handling your favorite anime – but just about any other story you care to throw at it. Sure it’ll handle some things better than others (the same way that GURPS handles modern day realism better than it will ever handle super-heroes or Hong Kong action flicks), but it will handle it.

THE BASIC SYSTEM

BESM is simple. Dead simple. Character creation:

1. Assign Stats. Roll 2d6, add 10 and distribute the points between your Body, Mind, and Soul stats.

2. Character Attributes. Take 10, 15, or 20 points (depending on the level of campaign your GM wants to run) and assign them to your attributes. These are things like “Extra Attacks” and “Own Big Robot (OBR)”; the more points you assign to each one, the more signficant that attribute is.

3. Character Defects. Take up to 3 defects (each worth either 1 or 2 bonus points, depending on their severity, which can be spent on other things).

4. Derived Values. Calculate your Combat Value, Health, and Energy Points from your basic stats and attributes.

(There are actually eight steps to character creation outlined in the book – I’ve omitted the ones that are purely conceptual in basis.)

Taking actions? Make a stat check by rolling 2d6 under your stat (modified by the difficulty of the situation). Combat? Initiative is determined through a die roll compared to your Combat Value. You can take one offensive and one defensive action in a round. To attack you roll 2d6 under your Combat Value. To defend you roll 2d6 under your Combat Value (negating damage). Damage equals your Combat Value plus the Weapon Damage Value. Mental combat is essentially identical with a couple of twists.

That’s basically it, folks. It don’t get much easier than this.

ANALYSIS

Before going any further, let’s get the bad stuff out of the way. First, while the art in the book is good, it is not great. Considering that the game is entirely built upon the precepts of a visual medium this was a little disappointing, but not heartbreaking. It’s clean line art and, like I said, is good. It just ain’t Takahashi.

Second, I consider the summary of all physical characteristics into the Body stat to be a mistake. I can name quite a few anime titles off the top of my head (Ranma 1/2 and Project A-ko for example) in which a massive, physically powerful character is laid waste by the quicker, faster main character. This is moderated somewhat by some elements of the attribute system (such as “Extra Attacks”), so it isn’t a complete killer.

Speaking of “Extra Attacks”, however, brings me to my next objection. Each point you put into “Extra Attacks” only gives you one extra attack and defense in a combat round. Since you can only put five points into an attribute this means you can’t get more than six attacks in one round. Considering that Ranma can throw a couple hundred punches in the blink of an eye I found this tough to swallow. Sure this can be moderated, once again, if you begin to bring some other attributes into play (such as “Massive Damage”) and fudge around the edges – but now we’re edging more towards the power meta-system of Hero, and that’s painfully out of place in a game this simple.

And as long as we’re obsessing over the attribute system, let me point out the final injustice of all. Most of these attributes are very loose in describing what their actual effects are. This is understandable considering the breadth which must be covered by fairly simple categories. (“Item of Power”, for example, describes the Level 3 as being “item offers a good advantage to the character.” This is differentiated from Level 4, which “offers a great advantage to the character”.) My objection, as noted, is not this level of abstraction – rather it is the last attribute listed in the book: Unique Character Attribute. This is “covers” anything “not detailed above an anime character might possess”. While an understandable kludge (you can’t be expected to list everything) the insult is rubbed in when a list of twenty or so examples are then given. Considering how vague some of the preceding attributes were (others were quite concrete – like “Extra Attacks”) what was the point of this list?

Another minor quibble would be the partial randomization of attributes. As a general rule I dislike this. In specific I find it rather bizarre in this system, which is designed with open-ended interpretation in mind (note the vague, guideline-like nature of the attributes) to suddenly tie itself into the need for randomization. You trust your players to know the difference between a “good” item of power and a “great” item of power, but not enough to responsibly handle the point totals for character creation? On the plus side, there’s an optional rule that fixes all this.

Alright, that’s all the bad stuff out of the way. It makes quite a list, but you can ignore most of that because the system’s too simple for you to be sweating the small stuff. The cool things about this game far outweigh the bad.

First, as I’ve mentioned before this is a simple, elegant system. If you’re looking for a simple system which is also fairly rigid and objectively consistent you don’t want to look here (although you might want to take a look over at Unknown Armies, which has done that very well). This is a simple system which provides you with a very rough guide to how things should go – it is a framework on which stories are draped. It is just enough removed from cops and robbers that you’re not going to get into arguments over whether or not you were shot, but it also hasn’t become so formalized that the rules seriously bind you into much of anything. Sometimes that’s just the type of balance you need. And BESM finds that balance very, very well.

Second, this is a very well put together manual. It is very short and undersized, but that’s okay considering how simple the rules are (and the price – you aren’t being overcharged for the material). MacKinnon has done a simply brilliant job of organizing the material in a logical order and then, for added goodness, isolating the important information into two flow-charts (one for character creation and one for action resolution) and a single table (of weapon damage values). You can run the game from those three single-page references and never have to look at the rules. On top of it all a readable, clear font was used.

Third, there’s a lot of good stuff crammed in there besides the game. You’ve got an introduction to anime and roleplaying; plus a section on advice for players and GMs; a nice summation of anime adventure settings and adventure themes set in each of those settings; a bibliography of major anime series; a list of anime resources; a few optional rules; biographies of the creators; and (perhaps the most important test of all) a thorough, complete index.

All in all, Guardians of Order should be very proud of its first foray into publishing a roleplaying game. The game itself is good and well worth the money, but by including an extensive index and demonstrating more than competent organizational skills they’ve proven that they are capable of turning out high quality product in the future. I look forward to taking a look at their Sailor Moon game as soon as I get a chance.

CONCLUSION

What I think BESM would really excel at is as a introductory roleplaying game. The subject matter (capable of covering everything from Pokemon to Sailor Moon) is something which easily captures the attention of young children. The rules are simple and easy to learn, plus a strong emphasis is put on character over hack ‘n slash play (this is one of the few books that includes a section on player advice, instead of just GM advice). The book itself is cheap enough that you can easily afford to buy multiple copies for a group you’re interested in converting.

Beyond that, though, BESM is simply a very good game. It is far too simplistic, in my opinion, to successfully support a long-term campaign, but I will definitely be giving it consideration the next time I sit down to design a one-shot or short series. At fourteen bucks I don’t think you can go wrong here – whether you like anime or not. (And if you don’t you’re not hurting anyone but yourself through your sad negligence of an amazing medium. “Time spent watching anime,” as MacKinnon says, “Is time well spent.”)

Style: 4
Substance: 4

Author: Mark C. MacKinnon
Company/Publisher: Guardians of Order
Cost: $13.95
Page count: 96
ISBN: 0-9682431-0-X

Originally Posted: 1999/04/26

It’s strange looking back at the earliest days of Guardians of Order, as we all began to figure out that this plucky little upstart was bringing something really special to the industry. Sadly, we also couldn’t foresee their eventual downfall. They came close to nailing something really special… but somehow they just missed it.

The second edition of Big Eyes, Small Mouth remains one of my “generic triumvirate”: If I’m looking for a generic system to run something, the first games I look to are BESM2, Hero, and D20. (It used to be BESM2, Hero, and Silhouette. But I haven’t run anything using the Silhouette system in over a decade.)

For an explanation of where these reviews came from and why you can no longer find them at RPGNet, click here.