Check Out The Official Free COWBOY BEPOP Playtest Document [Update: It’s Gone!] [Back Again!]

My Marvel Multiverse RPG playtest softcover arrived this morning (over a month after the pre-order date, but that's another story!) but another playtest document went live today--the Cowboy Bebop Roleplaying Game playtest document! You can download the 38-page document for free from DTRPG.

UPDATE: The title has been removed without explanation from DTRPG.

UPDATE 2: Now it’s back again.

Cowboy Bebop (カウボーイビバップ Kaubōi Bibappu) is a Japanese animated television series, movie, and other media created by Shinichiro Watanabe. Set in 2071 and centered on the adventures of a gang of bounty hunters in space, the story delves into the unresolved issues of the protagonists' past, exploring concepts such as existentialism, boredom, loneliness, and the influence of the past.

Don’t Panic Games, the team that brought the amazing universes of Cowboy Bebop, Naruto, Attack on Titan, and Tokyo Ghoul to tabletop gaming…

In partnership with Mana Project Studio, the creative studio, and publisher that designed Journey To Ragnarok, Historia, Nightfell, Norse Grimoire, Seven Sinners, and more…

With the collaboration of award-winning Italian authors Fumble, known for Not The End Roleplaying Game…

Are all coming together to offer you a pioneering experience, bringing the world of Japanese Anime to a Tabletop Roleplaying Game!

LET’S JAM!

The material in this playtest document is preliminary and not definitive. The game and graphic designs may be different in the final product.

 

[GreyLord]

Never was interested in Cowboy Bebop, but apparently some are.

Of anime, I did enjoy Macross many decades ago. Lodoss War.

Didn't like Slayers. Didn't like some of the more...erotic? (is that a good description without going into detail) stuff, didn't like Lupin, or the Studio Ghibli stuff.

Never really gave Cowboy Bebop a chance though. Would there be anything in it that I enjoy or would interest me?

 

[Bolongo]

I’m not sure whether you’ve seen it before is relevant.

Ouch! Why so aggressive?
All I'm saying is that as an ordinary customer of DTRPG, who only interacts with them by browsing their store for stuff to buy, there was no way for me to know this stuff.
Now, they might well think that I don't need to know, and they might be right. This might be nothing to worry about.
But like others in this thread, I changed my password just to be sure.

 

[Ondath]

Never was interested in Cowboy Bebop, but apparently some are.

Of anime, I did enjoy Macross many decades ago. Lodoss War.

Didn't like Slayers. Didn't like some of the more...erotic? (is that a good description without going into detail) stuff, didn't like Lupin, or the Studio Ghibli stuff.

Never really gave Cowboy Bebop a chance though. Would there be anything in it that I enjoy or would interest me?

Anime's relationship with fanservice (the term people use for gratuitous eroticism in the medium) is really problematic, and if that's unacceptable for you, it's understandable but does limit the list of anime that you could watch. Cowboy Bebop has it to a certain extent (one of the main characters, Faye Valentine, wears some oddly skintight clothing, the very first episode makes a female side character lean in a very weird way, things like that), but it's one of the more mature (in opposition to juvenile) anime out there. I binged it while I was down with COVID two months ago, and it was really fun. To this day, it's seen as one of the cult favourites (alongside things like Akira and Neon Genesis Evangelion) that you should absolutely watch if you want to get into the classics of the medium.

As for the game, I'll need to read the rules a few more times to get how they work, but I like how they tried to tie musical ideas, which is very in line with how the anime worked as well. I've got a GM friend who's the biggest Cowboy Bebop fan I know, so I immediately sent the rules to him to see what he thinks!

 

[eyeheartawk]

Anime's relationship with fanservice (the term people use for gratuitous eroticism in the medium) is really problematic, and if that's unacceptable for you, it's understandable but does limit the list of anime that you could watch. Cowboy Bebop has it to a certain extent (one of the main characters, Faye Valentine, wears some oddly skintight clothing, the very first episode makes a female side character lean in a very weird way, things like that), but it's one of the more mature (in opposition to juvenile) anime out there. I binged it while I was down with COVID two months ago, and it was really fun. To this day, it's seen as one of the cult favourites (alongside things like Akira and Neon Genesis Evangelion) that you should absolutely watch if you want to get into the classics of the medium.

As for the game, I'll need to read the rules a few more times to get how they work, but I like how they tried to tie musical ideas, which is very in line with how the anime worked as well. I've got a GM friend who's the biggest Cowboy Bebop fan I know, so I immediately sent the rules to him to see what he thinks!

Us Men of Culture call that "plot".

 

[Haiku Elvis]

It's not the simplest rules and it is definitely not the full ruleset and still needs some proof reading but it's a playtest so that is just an observation not a criticism. Reading it fresh the thing I didn't notice before is its DNA is strongly Blades in the Dark.
Its a dice pool game where the player leverages tags (called traits) to build a pool. These can be skills, origin, ship or even memory (backstory based).
Unlike PbtA or Blades it's not the highest number that signifies full success, partial success or failure, its the number of 4+ successes rolled.
The USP here is as the session moves through it's four stages or tabs, increasingly more dice are switched out for Negative dice that have consequences attached. So by the finale its almost certain success with consequences will be the best result available.
It's here it gets a bit squiffy as the rules are not exactly clearly written and it feels a couple of key points are missing.
Basically the player chooses how many dice to keep after the roll with the idea being if the player includes say one success from a Negative dice the GM could match that by taking another consequence die (1-3 on a negative die) if there is one and use it to max out the negative side of the result.
In the Narrative Authority section (very Blades in the Dark) it says the GM can spend consequences to complicate the scene but there is no info in what one consequence would equal or two or three.
Also in the gamble section. which has definite errors, (it refers to a doge at one point instead of gamble and doesn't actually specify what to roll this is only specified on the chart) it mentions 'if' the negative dice result is a consequence. But as written a negative die roll always has a consequence. Either success with consequence on 4+ or consequence only on 1-3. I suspect at one point a 4+ was just a success even on the negative die and although that was changed it wasn't updated evenly. Some points only refer to consequences coming when the GM takes a negative die, not when a player takes a negative die themselves.

The main outcomes of a test seem to be:

1) Enough success to match the difficulty using only positive dice. Success no complication.

2) Enough success to match the difficulty using only positive dice. Player chooses to take a negative die success to overachieve (not sure how that works) but this has a complication attached. Additionally now the GM can take a negative die themselves (if any are left) upping the consequence level.

3) Some successes but not enough using only positive dice - Player chooses not to add a negative die success to the total. Player succeeds partially but no bad side effects. (this is assumed. It says the player can choose less successes to avoid complcations but doesn't say what the outcome is like. Maybe it avoids complications but fails allowing an alternative test)

4) Some successes but not enough using only positive dice - Player chooses to take a negative die success to get a full success. = test succeeds but there is now a consequence attached from the negative die, plus the GM can also take an equal number of negative dice left on the table i.e. More consequences. (as said before the consequence economy isn't explored so this may be very risky or a no brainer)

5) no successes. Test fails but possibly without consequences and just doesn't work. (this isn't really discussed as in example 3 it only says players can choose to leave successes on the table to avoid consequences)

There is an additional meta currency called rhythm points that can be used to auto succeed or help another player by adding dice. This (help) feature starts expensive then gets cheaper to encourage players to go their own way at the start then come together as the story progresses.

Rules for tests below if you wish to parse them yourselves.

Finally narrative authority chart notice the GM asks players to fill in story details and players can suggest consequences to GM. This ain't your daddy's trad RPG.

 

[aramis erak]

Never was interested in Cowboy Bebop, but apparently some are.

Of anime, I did enjoy Macross many decades ago. Lodoss War.

Didn't like Slayers. Didn't like some of the more...erotic? (is that a good description without going into detail) stuff, didn't like Lupin, or the Studio Ghibli stuff.

Never really gave Cowboy Bebop a chance though. Would there be anything in it that I enjoy or would interest me?

CBB (the show) has, at times, been accused of being "Traveller through an Anime Lens"... it shares a lot of the tropeset crom the CT rules... but not so much with the OTU...