Any fans of BESM d20?

[Geoff Watson]

BESM d20 is rather bad, taking the worst elements of both systems.
The bits from BESM are vague, while the d20 bits are overly specific.

It isn't balanced in the slightest, but the authors assume that anyone who even looks at balance is a idiot who doesn't know how to roleplay.

Geoff.

 

[LoneWolf23]

So how would you recommend fixing it?

 

[jeff37923]

Got to say that I like BESM d20, haven't had any problems with it.

 

[Donovan Morningfire]

So how would you recommend fixing it?

"The only winning move is not to play."
- the computer from War Games

Personally, I felt it was more of an attempt to cash in on the market success of d20, when BESM should have stuck with updating their own system. Unless you had players who made every effort to stick with a core concept, it was surprisingly easy to make a character that was broken in one or more fields (Adventurer and Giant Robot), or was incredibly gimped (such as the Sentai Ranger if nobody else was playing a Sentai Ranger).

BTW, BESM 3rd edition is perhaps one of the slickest RPGs I have every laid eyes on. It has the structure of 2nd edition, and fixes a lot of the glaring loopholes that powergamers could easily take advantage of.

 

[Stormborn]

I think the key to "balance" in a BESMd20 game, if such is desired, is for the GM to define the genre of game that is going to be played. It cannot simply be a hodge-podge of styles. If you are going to do a Power Rangers game then everyone needs to be Sentai Rangers, for example. On the other hand, some catagories of anime do not need anythign resembling balance. If all the players are having fun then who cares? If they are not having fun then it should be adressed quickly, find out why, and then deal with it.

 

[starwed]

I was interested enough in it to concoct a partial XML version of the SRD, but ironically I've never actually played the dang game.

 

[ha-gieden]

I played the original BESM, which I thought worked rather well *IF* the GM and player worked together on their concept. The GM had to have some serious flexibility, and the player had to have a sense of fair play.

Later, we tried BESM d20. I think that they tried to get too specific, and their (half-hearted) attempts at equalizing the classes really created a wider divide. Rules were emphasized more; in BESM the rules were very much intended as guides and not considered "hard and fast".

The biggest difference seemed to be that BESM was a "build" system, while d20 is level-based. The level-based approach allowed the characters to get stronger faster, and that once again emphasized the imbalance between the character classes.

I like the concepts, but neither approach really seemed sufficient.

 

[solomoncane]

I have often used BESMd20Rev as a toolkit to build things for other games (mecha, wierd creatures, etc). In this way, I as GM control the "balance" and tweak the rules to fit with other systems.

I'll admit that I've never really had any desire to run it as is.

However, many exotic one-shots have been crafted with only Grim Tales, d20 Modern, and BESMd20Rev.

 

[strahd99]

I have both the core book and and mecha compendium. I have never run the BESM D20 rules per se...although I use the Mecha book for a upcoming future setting. This setting I hope to be able to dedicate a website too once my isp and start getting along better. I have had only positive experiences using the books as a tool kit. I use the books in conjunction with D20 Modern to play out anime style games. I am interested in the monster book in order to custom build creatures. (Not to derail the thread.....But would a thread for the items that we have statted out be a reasonable idea? I have been debating starting said thread for a few days now.)

 

[HellHound]

I ran a great "Sailor Moon" style RPG using BESM d20 for a group of 12 year old girls. It was very successful - the only change I made from the rules as written was the addition of the damage save rules from Unearthed Arcana / M&M.