Character Creation: BESM

Since we watched Spirited Away last night, this feels kinda appropriate. 

The Game: Big Eyes, Small Mouth
The Publisher: Guardians of Order, now long-defunct
Degree of Familiarity: I'm actually more familiar with Tri-Stat than I am with anime
Books Required: Just the one

Big Eyes, Small Mouth, hereafter referred to as BESM, is just the Tri-Stat implementation of anime, just as Silver Age Sentinels is for four-color superheroes and Ex Machina is for cyberpunk. And as with those games, the BESM book gives a good description and history of anime along with a breakdown of a lot of the sub-genres, along with a lot of examples. If you wanted to play an anime-inspired RPG, you could do worse.

Now, does BESM actually capture the spirit of anime at the table? I suspect that it does not, and I say that not because I have any deep insight into anime (I don't, and I don't care for most of it particularly) but because the other two games I mentioned don't capture the feel and spirit of their respective genres or styles, either. Tri-Stat is a perfectly functional trad point-buy RPG system, but it doesn't have much in the way of identity beyond that. The RPGs it powers tend to be well-written inasmuch as they identify the key points of their genres well, but at the end of the day it's a "roll to pick the lock" sort of game. Nothing wrong with that, particularly, just means that at the table, making a game of BESM feel like what you want it to feel would require the players and GM take on the bulk of the work. 

WITH THAT SAID, in order to make a character, I need a more detailed jumping-off point than "anime." Fortunately there are a bunch of story starters, and this one looks fun:

Now, the genre is magical girls, but I'd prefer to play a boy, so let's assume a little wiggle room there. My character's name is Bumble (yes, like Bumblebee). He's big and cuddly and lovable, highly motivated by tasty food and sweets in particular, not so much by feminine (or masculine, for that matter) wiles. I think if I were playing this game, Bumble might be the big brother of one of the magical girls, which would explain why he was with them when they discovered the Book of the Honey Kingdom. 

As far as magic goes, I think Bumble isn't going to be one for twinkly magic spells; he's likely to be more of a powerhouse. So I might keep his "magic" to super-strength, maybe a growth power (in the Honey Kingdom, he could maybe become the size of a rat! GASP).

No mechanical info given here, so just in the interest of keeping this manageable let's assume this is a normal-powered game and the characters get built on 35 points. 

Starting out, we do stats (Body, Mind, Soul). These are one-for-one with Character Points, and 4 is human average (well, "adult" average, but I think in context we should look at it in terms of what the dice are likely to mean, so we'll call 4 average). Obviously Body is going to be high for Bumble, so I'll put it at 8. I'll put Soul at 6 (he's a good guy), and I'll put Mind at 3 (but not the brightest bee in the hive). That's 17 of my 35 points spent.

And now we do Attributes, Normal and Special. Let's see what Normal Attributes are appropriate for ol' Bumble. Damn Healthy seems appropriate, so I'll buy 3 levels. I have learned over time that Divine Relationship is a must, particularly for those of us who do not have good dice luck, so I'll put 2 levels there. I'll take two levels of Massive Damage (Bumble hits hard), which costs me 4 (9 so far, 26 total). 

That's pretty much all the Normal Attributes I want, how about Special ones? 

Well, it's not stated in the blurb, but I think it'd be cool if all of the "magical girls" grew bug wings when they shrink down, so maybe Bumble can have Flight. I think it should be very slow, though. That's fine, I'll spent 4 points and buy it at Level 1. 

And then what about Size Change? Ooh, this is easy. If I wanted to be able to shrink and grow, it'd be two points per level, but I only want growth. Level 4 means I can increase my size 200%, which if Bumble is the size of a bumblebee (about .6 inches), he grows to a massive 1.2 inches! (I mean, it's big for a bee.) That means he gets a +8 bonus to combat damage (from muscles) and 2 levels of Awkward Size, when he's fully grown. That costs me 4 points, so I'm at 34 of my 35 points. Noice. 

Wait, let's look at Super-Strength. Yeah, sounds good. I'll just take one level of Super-Strength, which costs me 3 points and puts me to 37. That puts me two over, but I can two take points of the Not So Fast Defect (which gives me a penalty to being agile or quick), and that puts me back at 35. There aren't really any other Defects I love (there are a few that I could see applying, but eh), so that puts me over to...

Skills! I get 20 points, since I didn't take Highly Skilled. Let's assume we're using the Teenage Romance set of Skill costs. I shall therefore take: 

Unarmed Attack 1
Unarmed Defense 1
Sports 2

Yes, that doesn't put Bumble as being especially well-rounded, but I think his role in the series is to lift heavy objects, drool over honey and other foodstuffs, and punch Wasp Riders when they menace his sister ("I can take care of myself, Bumble!"). 

Derived Traits: Attack Combat Value is the average of my three Stats, or 5. Defense Combat Value is that value - 2, or 3. Health is (Body + Soul) x 5, or 70, plus 30 from Damn Healthy is 100. Energy is (Mind + Soul) x 5, or 45. Shock is Health/5, or 20.

And that's it, kids. Bumble is big n' wide. He's got a thick brown and a broad smile. When he shrinks down, he grows tiny buzzy wings that by rights should not hold him up, and his hair gets black and yellow streaks. Bzz.

Awesome Games, and Also Character Creation and Game Prep

Hey, people who like games! Do you like games? You know you do.

So, in addition to my own Kickstarter for Undead, the third supplement to Chill 3rd Edition, which sports one hell of a writing team and is made of candy, there are a whole bunch of other awesome game products being funded on Kickstarter right now. It's like a bunch of us just independently decided "hey, October sounds good" and launched the Kick-starts!

(That is, in fact, exactly what happened.)

With that said, I know there's enough money in the world for us all to get funded. So I'm gonna use this character creation project to pimp some of them, including my own. First up is Heavy Metal Thunder Mouse, which I'm going to pimp by making a character for Big Eyes, Small Mouse because HMTM isn't actually available yet, since it's still Kickstartering.

Anyway, HMTM is a Fate-based RPG in which you play mice in motorcycle clubs. I have no idea what more you'd need to convince you, but here's the Kickstarter. It's presently sitting at about $600 below goal, so it's pretty darned close. Back it, and then go back Undead in gratitude for showing you these wonderful things.

The Game: Big Eyes, Small Mouse
The Publisher: Guardians of Order
Degree of Familiarity: None with this game in particular, but I've played and run the underlying system some.
Books Required: I need Big Eyes, Small Mouth, but I have it handy.

 

 

So! Looking through this book, in the spirit of most Tri-Stat games (such as Silver Age Sentinels and Dreaming Cities), Big Eyes, Small Mouse presents a genre and some basics for setting up the game, but really the idea is that you develop your own talking-animal setting. There's a city called Mousetropolis that's pretty fleshed out, there, so I'm gonna assume my character is a citizen thereof, and that the game is going to be some kind of rollicking adventure that involves a rag-tag group of folks who have to come together to do great things.

That in mind, I think I want to play a mouse who's down on his luck and feeling like the world owes him something. I don't have much more in the way of concept yet; it'll come to me as I go. Figure on his Archetype as Mimic (that is, a mirror of human custom), Background is Urban (he lives in a city), and his Motivation as Hero (superficially he's out for number one, but he's really a good-hearted mouse).

Next step is to determine species, but I know I'm a mouse already. I start with Body, Mind, and Soul all at 3, the Diminutive (3BP) and Easily Distracted - Cheese (1BP) Defects, and Stealth and Urban Survival at 1. I have spent 5 Character Points and 7 Skill Points (figure I start with 30 and 20, respectively).

Now I assign stats, which means I can raise them if I wish. I think I do; I'm below average across the board. In keeping with my idea of making my mouse with a lot of potential, I'll set his stats high and worry about Skills later or not at all. According to the BESM book, 8 is "highly capable," and if I wanted 8s across the board that'd cost me 15 points of my remaining 25. Screw it, let's see what happens.

And now, character attributes. I don't have any of these from my template, so.

I want Divine Relationship, because a) it's in concept and b) you're dumb if you don't. I'll put 5 into it. I'll take Attractive at 3 (I'm a real cute mousie), and I'll take Aura of Command at 3 (I can stand up and lead other mice, I just don't know it yet). I'll take Heightened Awareness at 1, too, which takes me to 12 points spent, which puts me 2 over, which is fine, 'cause I like Defects.

I just need two, so I'll take Marked at one (I'm mostly grey, but I have a black birthmark on my tummy; makes me look mysterious) and Phobia (birds. An owl got my mom. I don't want to talk about it).

Skills, then! I have to be thrifty; I've only got 13 points left and I don't feel like taking more Defects. Assuming the "modern military" Skill costs, I'll take Burglary at 2 (6 points), Urban Tracking at 1 (3 points), and Unarmed Attack at 1 (4 points). That's my 13.

Finally, Derived Traits. Now, this is weird. This version of the game uses Pep and Scratch instead of Health and Damage, to account for the scale, but then there are sections that talk about figuring out Pep taking into account the Diminutive Defect. So far, so good. Except as a mouse, I have Diminutive 3, as does the example character, but he's figured Pep under the Diminutive 1 header. WTF?

Well, I'll just do the same thing. That's Body + Soul (16) x 5 (80). My Energy Points, though I don't necessarily use them, are also 80. Shock is 16, Attack Value is 8, Defense Value is 6.

That just leaves a number and a background. My mouse's name is Montgomery. He lost his mother to an owl when he was young, and grew up in Mousetropolis Orphanage. Turned out when he became an adult, he does odd jobs for a living, but has never really managed to catch a break. Of late, he's turned to light burglary, but the outfit he's with (run by a spider named Desmond "Daddy" Longlegs) is getting more greedy and volatile by the day. Montgomery isn't in this to hurt anyone, and he's just decided that the last job was his last one. Daddy isn't after him, at least not now, but if Montgomery tries to go to the Swiss Cheese Guard singing any songs, well, he'll have an Itsy Bitsy Spider all up on him.