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Message: <blockquote data-quote="The Sigil" data-source="post: 1631409" data-attributes="member: 2013">To be honest, I haven't really checked out BESM.  I knew BESM released an SRD, and I knew it was an anime-based game, and since I have little interest in Anime (that's not title Record of Lodoss War) and less interest in Anime RPGs, I didn't think to check it out... and I certainly didn't realize it was a point buy system until it was pointed out in this thread.When the link was posted in this thread, I followed it and looked at their Chapter on Feats.  From the looks of things, they handled things much differently than I did.  Their system, for instance, prices Feats at 2 points each (which IIRC from the post earlier, should translate to 200 XP each).  I handled most things with escalating costs - your first Feat, for instance, runs you 50 XP; your second Feat 100; the third 300, the fourth 600, and so on.  So I would say right there is a significant difference; I charge you more to increment from +3 to +4 than I do to increment from +1 to +2.  I haven't checked out the rest of BESM yet, so I can't speak to how well they match up (or don't).  This "extra cost" is done for two reasons - one, it helps things "match up" to the XP Curve set by the Core classes, and two - it helps mitigate the effects of synergy (since it's more likely that picking up a fifteenth Feat gives you synergy with another Feat you already have than picking up a second Feat does).And I have actually found that one of the things I *have* to do as a game designer is exercise a bit of "willful ignorance."  For instance, I put of buying - or even browsing through - Mongoose's Quintessential Bard until I was finished with my final revision of the Enchiridion of Mystic Music... to make sure I developed things independently.  These days, I pay attention to reviews of products, and have to decide (a) "is it something I like," and (b) "is it something similar to what I'm doing - or planning on doing?"  If it's not (a), I don't buy it.  If it is (a) but also (b), well, I have to delay my purchase until I'm done so as to not run into any problems of claims that I derived from the product without properly crediting it.  Anyone who audited my bookshelf and my hard drive and my ISP records can tell you I haven't seen BESM until today - the day AFTER my product is released and thus a day too late for any infringement. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />The method I used to create Buy the Numbers was actually to sit down with an enormous Excel Spreadsheet and set up all of the equations with everything determined except some constants I fed into the equations.  When I got results where most of the time, building a "Core Class Character" of level X (and I tested levels 1-20) with these rules fell into the "normal" XP range, I stopped plugging numbers.  It was about a 3-month game of trying to balance about a dozen equations, some of which I had to "guess at" as I went along.  You can never have a "perfect" match, I don't think - characters just don't get a lot of abilities at certain levels (like 13th) and get many at others (at 12th, for instance, you get a feat, and ability score increase, and all your saves get bumped, in addition to any other stuff your class is giving you).  But I tried to get close enough.--The Sigil</blockquote>

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