I used the Tri-Stat DX system document to run a reasonably effective short campaign inspired by Mega Man X. I was satisfied enough.

Quote from: Simlasa;867519What's the primary difference in how OVA addresses anime vs. BESM? The main thing seems to be to present the tropes, have fast combats and maybe some social mechanism for soap opera elements.

It's the way the 'stats' work.  There's no unified int/dex/str mechanism in OVA, just a baseline assumption, and there's a list of attributes that you can add to it.  Like being handsome, having minions, being filthy rich, being super fast, so on and so forth.  It's a loose system that can be both freeing and utterly maddening for those wanting detail.  You counterbalance that by choosing anime appropriate flaws to get a balance of 0 or some other criteria that you can choose.

In the end it's pretty freeform which has its own hassles to deal with.

Quote from: Christopher Brady;867787In the end it's pretty freeform which has its own hassles to deal with.

OK, yeah... that doesn't sound like my sort of thing.

Quote from: Simlasa;867942OK, yeah... that doesn't sound like my sort of thing.

Let me clarify, not to change your mind, but to explain a little better.  The base mechanic is a roll bunch of d6, take the highest add modifiers.  If you get multiples you add them together and again, take the highest (so if you roll 4 dice and get 1, 2, 2, 6, although the twos add together, the end result is going to be 6 anyway, cuz it's the best you got.

Attributes add dice, flaws subtract dice.  And no matter what you always start with 2d6 for everything you want to do.

What I meant by 'freeform' is that Attributes can include things like Strength, Magic ability, Shapeshifting, Healing, having a Mecha/Vehicle...

The actual rules are very loose and open to interpretation to the point of 'there's no wrong way' to actually adjudicate them.  For example, there are no Falling Rules, but you can using the base mechanics decide that your 'realistic' (it's anime, if something isn't violated -Physics, other Sciences, Sense of Disbelief, School Girls- within 5 minutes of the show or game, there's something wrong) that they will take X damage (which X being the multiplier) whenever they fall a certain amount of feet, done.

That's what I meant by 'freeform', maybe 'open to interpretation' might have been a better choice of words

Again, not trying to change your mind, just clarifying.

Quote from: Christopher Brady;867991Again, not trying to change your mind, just clarifying.

It's the Attributes as, seemingly, open-ended descriptions that kind of puts me off. I'm sure, like Fate, it plays well with the right group. I'd happily try it... but if I'm going to run something I think BESM sounds more my speed.

Quote from: Simlasa;868025It's the Attributes as, seemingly, open-ended descriptions that kind of puts me off. I'm sure, like Fate, it plays well with the right group. I'd happily try it... but if I'm going to run something I think BESM sounds more my speed.

Honestly, I wish I had the 3e book.  I seem to have lost all my 2e ones.  But for now, OVA works for me.

Quote from: Simlasa;868025It's the Attributes as, seemingly, open-ended descriptions that kind of puts me off. I'm sure, like Fate, it plays well with the right group. I'd happily try it... but if I'm going to run something I think BESM sounds more my speed.

IIRC, attributes aren't open ended per se in OVA. There's a list of them to buy from, just like the list of "extras" or whatever they call them in BESM. (Have a big mech, ludicrously attractive to the opposite sex, etc.) It's the same list as in all the anime or supers style games of this type. And it has the same detriments--points cost seem arbitrary at times, and it is possible, even accidentally, to min/max/munchkin a character. And sometimes, like supers games, getting exactly what you want for a character concept can take some thinking/design, especially if you are trying to stay under a points cap.

I think a lot of games of this type would benefit from having templates. Certain character types players like should have templates you can modify to make it easier for players new to the system to get into it. Wading through several dozen attribute/characteristic options to find the one you want can be daunting/annoying. Or, trying to make a certain type of character work they way you want.

Quote from: Doc Sammy;867339Was it? I did not know that. I just discovered this site today.

I must admit, the Sailor Moon RPG for BESM 1e is one of my favorite RPG supplements out there.

No, it wasn't. But you're still welcome at theRPGsite! Even for talking about the Sailor Moon RPG.

I'm a fan of BESM - at one point I got in as a playtester for the line, and after that got a free copy of just about everything they made until BESMd20 came along.  

I've got a copy of 3rd, but I'm more happy with the 2nd edition books that I've got.  A lot of fun stuff came out of that.

Quote from: RPGPundit;868266No, it wasn't.

Too late, the legend is already growing.

The problem with the Sailor Moon RPG is that the planned follow-up books never came out so it only covers season one.  How am I supposed to proceed without canonical stats for the Sailor Starlights?

Quote from: yosemitemike;868410The problem with the Sailor Moon RPG is that the planned follow-up books never came out so it only covers season one.  How am I supposed to proceed without canonical stats for the Sailor Starlights?

I won a free copy of the original BESM back in 1997 at Gen Con, and that hooked me. I bought 2E (but not the revision, nor 3E), and the Sailor Moon, Tenchi Muyo!, and El-Hazard supplements. The writing for these, particularly the latter two, was very strong, as they were also "fan guides."

I ended up running a pretty fast-and-loose game with some friends where we took all three of those anime and mashed them up, together with Dragonball Z (using some very off-the-cuff adaptations of the Fuzion RPG of the latter title). The kicker was that some DBZ villains were the bad guys for the campaign, which kept the PCs (who were from the former three series) completely on the defensive, despite being powerhouses in-and-of themselves.

It was only one session, but it was so completely gonzo that everyone had a lot of fun. (I later wrote up some homebrew rules for DBZ powers under the Tri-State system in anticipation of a follow-up game which never happened. I stumbled across a print-out of those very recently, and was quite tickled, since I hadn't thought of them in years.)

I always favoured TFOS over BESM, probably since I got it like 10 years before BESM hit. fun times!

I liked the BESM D20 point buy system. Especially when it was used in Everstone: Blood Legacy. Straight BESM isn't really my jam.