Experience with BESM?

[Stormonu]

I just got BESM (revised 2nd) PDF as an early Christmas gift to myself and I was wondering if there were any folks here familiar with it.

I'm contemplating running a Robotech-like game (maybe using the Sentinels timeline), or perhaps a sort of Pokemon-styled game for my 10-year old. I'm still reading through the rules so I'm not familiar with the system yet.

What is the game's strengths? What are its weaknesses?

Is Guardians of Order still in existence? I tried to go to their website www.guardiansorder.com, but nothing came up.

 

[Luce]

Guardians of order company went down due to financial problems, the 3rd edition of BESM was published by WW. The said edition is very rare and thus expensive, as well as re-working the system heavily. IMO 2nd edition is the better of the two.


strengths & weaknesses?
Well, I find it to cover the target matter very well. I cannot think of any anime that I have watched that cannot be reasonably approximated by the rules. One way of thinking about it, BESM is the GURPS of anime.
Very flexible point buy system. That being said, as in many point buys it is possible to create a character who is under efficient in the particular setting. So the DM guidance is very important while the players build their characters.

I would start by pigeonholing my intended game in one of the suggested genders: cyberpunk, mid evil fantasy, modern military, horror, space opera, romance etc. The book have a breakout table of how important the different skills are in each case.

The system encourages the player to take some weaknesses (defects) for extra starting points/ and limitations for some of the attributes (ex. magic with spell components or powerful attack which takes a time to charge up/can only be used few time per day/ costs health etc). Some of those disadvantages are rp based (being discriminated due to age, disctracted by the shiny/food etc) so make sure that the players do not get away with something which (nearly) never comes up.

May I also recommended the following character builder: Big Eyes Small Mouth Character Generator
while you still need the book for the attribute/defect descriptions I find it a useful tool.

PS: For Pokemon style game I would suggest either getting the supplement "Cute and Fuzzy Seizure Monsters"
or Welcome! - Pokemon: d20 Version for a fan-based D20 take on the subject.

 

[Artur Hawkwing]

Personally I used the BESM d20 system (or third edition when such a game draws my interest). Mostly for the ease of mind that comes to players when they see the 'd20' logo on the product. 3rd Edition has a wider range of options available for it.

Sadly I didn't get to BESM until d20 came out, but I did run a Sailor Moon tr-stat game previous to that.

 

[Fanaelialae]

It depends on which version you're running, but overall Luce's description matches my own experience.

It's fun as long as you don't mind a (relatively) rules-light system, and character creation has the potential to create significant balance issues in the campaign if you aren't careful.