General BESM Discussion Topic

You mean we don't have this topic yet?

Big Eyes Small Mouth is a table top RPG with an anime theme. And by anime theme, I mean it's really not set to any particular setting, anime typical setting or otherwise. Point buy system pretty much allows you to do anything. It you haven't played it, go look it up, it's quite enjoyable to run and play.

So, questions? Stories about a campaign you had? How to build a certain character?

I've done one or two BESM games, Played in about three. Was part of a HORRIBLE CROSSOVER of one. Its a very cool system, But I've come to the conclusion that Powerflux is probably the most useful attribute in the game. Though I was trying to figure out some fun ways to use Power Variation.

The system is pretty versatile, but as with most Pointbuy systems, Can have Layers upon layers of modifiers on its attributes. You can describe just about anything, So long as you are willing to figure out the particulars. I was able to make "Shadow-Porting" pretty easily, But supernatural fear effects were kind of hard. And It seemed to be impossible, mechanics wise, to cause other people to move. But that might be a good thing, your mileage may vary. Also, Shield vs. Armor was the most oddly phrased attribute ever.

Had a REALLY BAD DM once, Gave us 400 or so, maybe 450 point characters. Told us to kill 2000 point villains, on our first game ever. Best line that came out of the campaign though, when discussing whether or not the dependent defect should be on a character, "He's not really Addicted to Vicoden, he just really really likes it."

edited 14th Mar '11 12:32:04 PM by Voot

Yeah, it definitely takes an experienced DM handle the games. The balance could be far worse, but I consider that secondary to the sheer level of customization.

BESM (2nd Edition) was the first tabletop RPG I ever played. It says something about its quality that I recommend it to any anime fans who also enjoy tabletop despite the following facts:

• The GM didn't know how to use it to its best advantage. (For instance, combat in our group always crawled, when it's supposed to go really, really fast in this system.)
• Most of my fellow players used one of two methods for coming up with ideas for characters: 1) Copy a favorite anime character wholesale, or 2) slap together a bunch of random traits and call it a character.
• I'm not really into anime anymore.

The potential for customization is so huge that I almost wouldn't call it a game, more like a game design tool, focusing on anime-style genres and cinematics. A wise GM will set some limitations on what the players can use to build their characters, to make sure there's a sense of cohesion. (Guess what else my GM didn't do?)

I know your Pain, and your Joy.

Seriously though, Should I try and go through and explain one of the campaigns I was gonna run? Might be long and wordy. Only got part way through it, though I feel like the group is interested in starting it up again.

edited 16th Mar '11 1:57:13 PM by Voot

Someone's selling BESM 2 for $10. Yes? No? I might be able to get it cheaper along with other stuff since I'm also interested in his D&D books.

I'm personally very unlikely to use it anytime soon. It would more so be something amusing/interesting to have on hand. And if anyone should ever do a campaign in BESM 2e.

edited 29th Oct '13 3:37:14 AM by GlennMagusHarvey

I've always hated the title. Something about it sounds just vaguely racist.

I've only played the d20 adaptation. We did something horrible and combined it with the Warcraft RPG that had come out and created Walcraft High School. Every player had at elast two characters; one student that they always played and a teacher as a GMPC. We rolled for GM at the start of every game, me acting as the Over-GM for the less experienced, and the session was set in their class.

Blood elf magical girl, pandaren ninja, night elf samurai, tauren Pokemon trainer, it was beautiful madness.

I thought the title sounds uncomfortably like "BDSM"...or at least the acronym does.

It seems that BESM is more like a multi-universe crossover for crazy parodies of anime. Can it be used for more serious play?

Get Kill 'em all Tomino or the Urobutcher as your GM?

(Makes high DC Soul roll, revives thread)

So, I'm not sure just how many people would even have this on their radar besides myself, but there's an official announcement about a fourth edition of Big Eyes, Small Mouth being in development.

I'm kind of three minds about this. One, I did find that 2nd edition BESM was actually a pretty flexible system that could work pretty well with the right limits in place to fix some of the jankier parts of the system (in particular, Transformation just did not work well, and the Sentai power required everyone building their characters around it to even come close to working).

Two, the disaster that was 3rd edition only partly fixed some of that jankiness, and I'm not sure whether we can expect much out of 4th... compounded by the fact that we can use Fate Core these days, which generally plays even more comfortably than BESM ever did. I'm honestly not sure there is room for BESM in the market to thrive these days.

Three, ugh, Mark Mackinnon burned a lot of bridges back when BESM 3rd collapsed. I mean, part of it wasn't his fault (the economy at the time screwed him a bunch), but there are enough crap decisions he did made (like stiffing a whole bunch of the contributors to BESM 3rd, and nearly doing so to Silver Age Sentinels contributors - there's a non-zero chance that what he did edges into the bounds of tax fraud) that I'm just reticent to be excited because of his involvement.

Is BESM 4th still expected, and if so, when?

Edited by GlennMagusHarvey on Jun 19th 2019 at 11:28:33 AM

Kickstarter on July 9th. Back at your own fucking risk.

I'm interested in buying the game, but a Kickstarter by this guy, no chance in hell - not until he can show product.

BESM is probably my favorite RPG of all time. I'm a huge fan of 1E and I even own hard copies of BESM 1E books I bought off Amazon. I own the 1E Core Book, the Sailor Moon tie-in RPG, and two supplements: Hot Rods & Gun Bunnies and Big Robots, Cool Starships.

I'm excited for BESM 4E and I will support it, regardless of Mark Mac Kinnon's past mistakes.

I wouldn't mind running an online campaign using the old-school Big Eyes Small Mouth rules.

I've been burned on other Kickstarters by people who had burned bridges in their industry, and that instance didn't have nearly as many red flags as Mackinnon does.

Not only that, but reading a bit more into the Kickstarter... I really don't like how the earlier pledge levels only get you the "Naked" edition (which is stripped down... including the cover art putting the characters just in their underwear, which is awkward when you consider that the magical girl on the front). You have to jump up to $35 before you guarantee getting a copy of the full game, and even that's only in PDF form. In comparison, you can get both a digital and physical copy of Fate Core for $25, and I still hold that system is much more robust and capable (plus, the creators don't have Mackinnon's issues). Like, I know that part of backing on Kickstarter is that you pay a little more to get in on the ground floor in many cases. Even with that said, though, no way would I jump in until I knew that previous issues were solved. And even then, I'd need for someone to show me what BESM 4th could do more elegantly than any other system I play.

Eh, I'll still back it when I get the chance.

Yeah, Mark C. Mackinnon had made some mistakes and he handled the demise of Guardians Of Order in the worst way possible. But keep in mind that this was in 2006 and since he sold the remnants of BESM to White Wolf at the time, BESM is now property of Paradox Interactive, who are a lot more wary of their tabletop division and who they will trust with their IP. Especially since V5 turned out to be a complete trainwreck that alienated the old Vampire fans and also royally pissed off the Millennial crowd (for lack of a better word) that they were actively courting with V5.

The unpleasant controversies about the god-awful V5 Camarilla supplement were the final nail in the coffin and Paradox had to dissolve White Wolf, letting Modiphius publish the other V5 books that were already greenlit for publication before White Wolf was dissolved.

Now, how does this relate to the revival of BESM?

Paradox doesn't want another backlash like they had with V5, especially since their tabletop IP's are small fry compared to their grand strategy video games. If Paradox thought Mark was going to do the same things that led to BESM dying out in the first place, they wouldn't allow him to do this Kickstarter or even let him use the IP.

Even if Mark C. Mackinnon was going to back out of the deal and scam the backers, I think Paradox would have some sort of fail-safe to ensure BESM gets released and the people who backed it will get something of value out of their hard-earned money.

In my personal opinion, I think all this uproar over Mark C. Mackinnon trying to bring back BESM is little more than overblown nonsense, driven mostly by whiny old grognards who are still salty about what happened back in the 2000's with Guardians of Order.

Given that it's been over a decade and that he's working under Paradox Interactive's oversight, I think Mark C. Mackinnon is going to deliver on his promises, whether due to a change of heart or because he knows that this IP is no longer his and the ones who do own it are probably watching him like a hawk for several obvious reasons.

Let's not break out the torches and pitchforks just yet. If you don't want to back the BESM Kickstarter, that's cool. But don't jump the gun and assume it's a scam either.

Edited by NinjaGoth on Jul 24th 2019 at 8:29:18 AM

In my case, I'm staying away because of the $35 price point and the bundling. I don't want Naked. I'm not paying a dime for it, and I'm not impressed by someone who thinks that his new idea is so great that the customers of his old game will all want it.