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.