Back to Idle Gaming Chitchat: BESM d20

Of all the d20 and Open Gaming License products I have seen, flipped through, and read about only a handful have ever interested me. Other than the 3.0 incarnation of Dungeons & Dragons I currently own only one other d20 corebook, BESM d20. BESM stands for Big Eyes, Small Mouth which is the name of the successful anime-inspired generic universal ruleset published by Canadian-based Guardians of Order. BESM d20 takes much of the mechanics for the original "Tri-Stat" version and welds it onto a set of core d20 subsystems and then adds some original stuff. One of my favorite bits from the "original stuff" category is the addition of fifteen nifty anime character classes:

• Adventurer
• Dynamic Sorcerer
• Giant Robot
• Gun Bunny
• Hot Rod
• Magical Girl
• Martial Artist
• Mecha Pilot
• Ninja
• Pet Monster Trainer
• Samurai
• Sentai Member
• Shapechanger
• Student
• Tech Genius

It is not the intention of the authors to allow all of these classes into every anime-themed campaign. When establishing the initial parameters of a new campaign a BESM d20 gamemaster needs to intentionally winnow down the above list to which classes best fit a particular game. Heck, I could envision a Power Rangers game in which Sentai Member is the only class allowed to PCs. Personally I would allow more wiggle room, especially in a longterm campaign, but I think a successful shorter game could be structured that way.

Incidentally, I think some of the BESM d20 classes would work just fine in a standard D&D game. The Adventurer is a good jack-of-all-trades, better than any bard I've seen. The Dynamic Sorcerer is a great class for folks who like casting spells on the fly. The Samurai ought to work well as a fighter variant. The Ninja and Martial Artist look good, too. I think I prefer the Martial Artist to the standard Monk. Some of the other classes could also fit in with D&D. The Gun Bunny could make a decent archer. The Giant Robot and Shapechanger classes could make for nifty PC golems and lycanthropes. And unleashing Magical Girls upon a standard fantasy world sounds like too much fun. I call dibs on playing Sailor Scout Oerth! ^_^

(That would be the first time I've used a kawaii smiley. Did I do it right?)

Some other bits from BESM d20 that I'm fond of involve the combat system. Mapless, abstracted combat is the norm for BESM d20. No Attacks of Opportunity and no 5-foot Steps of Doom. That's a big relief for me. I can dig on a decent map-based combat system, even something as complicated as HERO, but the 3.0 D&D combat just doesn't do it for me. Another change that I like is that AC has been split into a damage avoidance component and a damage resistance component. Under this plan Armor Class represents the ability to avoid being hit while things like a thick hide or armor plating shave damage points off of successful hits. You know, the way many people have wanted D&D to work for 3 decades.

So I generally like BESM d20. But I see a couple of hurdles towards actually running it. First, the powers chapter (what they call "attributes") is a 35-page info dump that's a little hard to swallow. The second problem is related a bit to the first: I'm not sure how many people own the book. I had my copy out at last Wednesday's Savage Worlds game; only Pat and the GM seemed to recognize it. Even though I usually buy the manual, I'm not against folks playing rpgs that they don't own. My real concern is that games with lotsa kewl powerz often require significant consultation of the manual in play, even more so at character generation. I've just seen too many good games degenerate into a not-so-stirring round of "Can I see the book next?"

Fortunately, I see a good solution to both of these problems. Unlike every other third party d20 publisher I've seen, GoO actually has the balls to publish free System Reference Documents online. As far as I can tell, their Anime and Mecha SRDs give you all the good stuff found in BESM d20 and d20 Mecha. Armed with the SRD files, I should be able to produce my own "Player's Guide to [Campaign Name]" that includes all the system rules! This is why Guardians of Order kicks ass.

I've mentioned my two most recent BESM-inspired campaign ideas, "Super Sentai Golemriders" and "Steel Dragons". Before tackling either of those I think I will try something smaller, like my earlier "Samurai Song" idea. Basically, "Samurai Song" would be a one-shot or mini-campaign set in a fantasy version of Warring States-era Japan. With orcs. The first edition of the (not-so-)classic Oriental Adventures serves as the primary influence. All the player characters would be samurai or attached in some way to a samurai house. A castle previously controlled by the Good Guy Samurai clan is currently occupied by the Forces of Evil. Let the adventure commence!