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[OT] BESM 2nd edition
- Thread starter Asmor
- Start date
Tsyr
Explorer
Gak, the new revised is black and white?
/me runs out to try to pick up another copy of the color version
Anyhow.
Someone was right about what they said above... BESM is much easier if you start out with the character in mind and try to build it from the system, not take the system and true to build a character with it, if that makes any sense.
For example, say I wanted to create a wizard-type character. I could use Dynamic Sorcery and choose my level of raw power... this would give me sort of an ars-magica-esq system of magic, or I could use the Magic ability, choose how many points I want to spend (Lets say I have a Magic skill of 5, which gives me 50), then I would go through the book and use the skills provided to make up spells, spending points as I go. This would create a slightly more vancian feel.
Those same skills could be used exactly the same way, however, to create a master of ki manipulation, a priest, a psionist... and here comes the interesting part... something completely unrelated to magic. For example, while Dynamic Sorcery normaly costs 4 points per rank, for 2 (or sometimes even 1) points per rank I get a limited ability... I could restrict it to weather or something If I was staying magical, but, and here is the fun stuff... I could create a character using Magic or Dynamic Sorcery, and take the limitation of "only in cyberspace". Viola. I've created a shadowrun/matrix-esq character. Or I could use Magic to create a super hero, using my points to build powers such as super-speed, super-strength, energy beams, metamorphosis, etc. Or I could build a superhero that was more focused on certain skills by taking them as innate abilities rather than point-fuled powers like Magic has.
And this is one of the neat features... things look remarkably similar in BESM for the different "systems" in the game... for example, the game has no "mecha system" per-say. A mech character sheet and a players character sheet look much the same, and are built much the same way. A character who wants to be a mecha pilot takes ranks in the Owns Big Mecha trait, and like Magic, how many points you put in to it determines how many mecha points you get to spend to build the mecha, which is built basicly the same way you just built you character (There are, of course, some mecha-only abilities, but many of the abilities players take are also used by mecha... no need to re-print material after all). You can make weapons the same way if you want some unique weapon (Magic swords, uber-guns, etc).
Just about any concept you want can be done in BESM... I've got piles of character sheets I made in my spare time (As people have said, once you learn the system, character generation takes like NO time with this system, and I rolled up my first character a half hour after opening the book for the first time.), and I've got tons of things... fantasy characters, horror characters, supers characters, cyberpunk characters, etc. Some of them (supers for example) do take a lot of points to build, but its perfectly possible. Despite being an anime roleplaying system, it really works just fine for most anything. I've run Dragonlance games with BESM just fine, for example.
/me runs out to try to pick up another copy of the color version
Anyhow.
Someone was right about what they said above... BESM is much easier if you start out with the character in mind and try to build it from the system, not take the system and true to build a character with it, if that makes any sense.
For example, say I wanted to create a wizard-type character. I could use Dynamic Sorcery and choose my level of raw power... this would give me sort of an ars-magica-esq system of magic, or I could use the Magic ability, choose how many points I want to spend (Lets say I have a Magic skill of 5, which gives me 50), then I would go through the book and use the skills provided to make up spells, spending points as I go. This would create a slightly more vancian feel.
Those same skills could be used exactly the same way, however, to create a master of ki manipulation, a priest, a psionist... and here comes the interesting part... something completely unrelated to magic. For example, while Dynamic Sorcery normaly costs 4 points per rank, for 2 (or sometimes even 1) points per rank I get a limited ability... I could restrict it to weather or something If I was staying magical, but, and here is the fun stuff... I could create a character using Magic or Dynamic Sorcery, and take the limitation of "only in cyberspace". Viola. I've created a shadowrun/matrix-esq character. Or I could use Magic to create a super hero, using my points to build powers such as super-speed, super-strength, energy beams, metamorphosis, etc. Or I could build a superhero that was more focused on certain skills by taking them as innate abilities rather than point-fuled powers like Magic has.
And this is one of the neat features... things look remarkably similar in BESM for the different "systems" in the game... for example, the game has no "mecha system" per-say. A mech character sheet and a players character sheet look much the same, and are built much the same way. A character who wants to be a mecha pilot takes ranks in the Owns Big Mecha trait, and like Magic, how many points you put in to it determines how many mecha points you get to spend to build the mecha, which is built basicly the same way you just built you character (There are, of course, some mecha-only abilities, but many of the abilities players take are also used by mecha... no need to re-print material after all). You can make weapons the same way if you want some unique weapon (Magic swords, uber-guns, etc).
Just about any concept you want can be done in BESM... I've got piles of character sheets I made in my spare time (As people have said, once you learn the system, character generation takes like NO time with this system, and I rolled up my first character a half hour after opening the book for the first time.), and I've got tons of things... fantasy characters, horror characters, supers characters, cyberpunk characters, etc. Some of them (supers for example) do take a lot of points to build, but its perfectly possible. Despite being an anime roleplaying system, it really works just fine for most anything. I've run Dragonlance games with BESM just fine, for example.
Asmor
First Post
Just tried making my first character, sorta. I made his mecha (which, if you're interested, is a motorcycle that transforms into an exo suit). The first half (motorcycle) took a while for me, but mainly because I was still looking around to see what fit. I could definitely see where you need an idea in mind, the sheer number of options available precludes any hope of making something on the fly (same thing with Freedom Force. It's friggin' impossible to make a character in that game without an idea!). But after that I built it's suit form a lot faster, and I'd have to say that in my limited experience (White Wolf's games, D20, Champions) it was the most fun I've had making a character, and the most flexible.
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