Big Eyes, Small Mouth (Second Edition)

Overall score:

I like comparing things to rap music. Don't ask me why—I don't listen to much rap. Nevertheless, Japanese animation, or anime, is a lot like rap music. Some people know that rap suits their personality perfectly, and they can consume it in huge quantities in its sundry varieties. Many people think they know about rap well enough to judge it and dismiss it offhand, but most of these people could find some flavor (probably "mad flava") that would suit them nicely if they bothered to try. However, the most widely marketed rap is not really that good, so people get the wrong impression and dismiss the whole genre prematurely. Anime is the same way. Think about it: what anime is most familiar to the general public? Pokemon? Dragonball Z? I'm not criticizing these cartoons; I'm actually a fan of both. But a lot of people think they are terrible, and they dismiss the animation of an entire country based on the fact that Bulbasaur is lame.

Ever since I picked up the second edition of Big Eyes, Small Mouth (BESM), I have been bemoaning the fact that RPG gamers will avoid this game based on their Pikachu prejudice. This game is really good. It's not just a good anime RPG—it's a great game overall that could be interesting and entertaining for just about any gamer. The first edition of BESM was not a complete success, if only because many important rules came out later in expansions and sourcebooks. The second edition takes all the rules from the first edition's related releases and compiles them together with some minor revisions. To tell the truth, it didn't need much revision because the system is elegant and simple. There isn't much there to tweak.

The rules of BESM can be explained in a dozen pages or so, and as a result, 130 of the rulebook's 200 pages are dedicated to character generation. Personally, I think that half of every RPG rulebook should be dedicated to character generation. BESM's system for making a character isn't complicated—on the contrary, it's quite elementary. In BESM's Tri-Stat System, there are only three attributes (called stats), and players choose advantages (called attributes), defects, and skills to round out their characters. Because anime-style gaming can take place in just about any setting with any theme or tone, an impressive variety of options are given to the player to create a unique but distinctly anime character. The writers give two systems of magic, an assortment of combat specialties, and complete rules for owning your very own giant robot (or golem or ship or anything else vaguely mechanical in nature). The system gives you everything you need to play a sullen and confused robot pilot, a sexy android questioning her humanity, or a preteen schoolgirl who happens to be a kung-fu ghost hunter on weekends. The possibilities are endless—I was literally drooling (more than usual, even) as I read through the character generation options.

As I said, there's not much to say about the game's mechanics. Characters only have three stats (attributes) with a value between one and twelve. They roll two dice to resolve actions, trying to roll below their stat value. Conflict resolution falls on a simple, elegant bell curve. Beautiful! A variety of advanced rules can be incorporated to modify rolls, but the game encourages keeping things as simple and clean as possible. You can even leave out the entire skill system and make all rolls against the three stats.

This reveals the authors' approach for bringing the anime style to the surface in game play. The character generation system definitely leans toward cinematic characters, but the system doesn't use mechanical incentives to push the players toward an anime style. Instead, the fast-moving pace (a result of the Tri-Stat System) and the players' understanding of the genre establish the cinematic, over-the-top mood found in all anime (except Grave of the Fireflies, I guess). To help gamemasters, a nice section on running a BESM game is provided, including an extensive list of anime stereotypes and cliches. If I didn't have a passing familiarity with anime, this section might confuse more than help, but the authors know they are probably preaching to the choir on this. The gamemaster section also does a good job of conveying the incredible variety of settings available—a nice list of different genres are given, and a few specific campaign examples are provided to spark the gamemaster's imagination.

The layout of BESM is good, the illustrations represent a fine variety of anime styles, the organization is very clear, and the index is oh-so comprehensive. The game isn't perfect, but my complaints are mostly trivial—allow me to demonstrate. First, the rulebook is the size of an average manga (about a third smaller than an average RPG book), and I found that this size difference makes referring to rules a little more awkward. Also, the writers are very Canadian (not that there's anything wrong with that) and you get interesting alternate spellings like "manoeuvre" and "armour." This isn't a big problem, as long as our long-haired samurai heroes don't start guzzling Molson and saying, "Eh?" No example adventure is provided, but there is a good one that you can download from the website. Those are the only problems I can think of, and as you can see they don't amount to much.

Basically, Big Eyes, Small Mouth's strengths outweigh its weaknesses by about a metric ton. The rules allow you to play a fun, fast-moving, cinematic RPG campaign in any imaginable setting with any conceivable characters...as long as they have big eyes and small mouths.

Written by Kid_Kilowatt on November 13th, 2002