BESM

[kingandy]

Oh, last night I ran my first BESM session! (Not ever - I did another game a few years back. I don't like to guess when, I think icklejo and arwel were living in Didsbury at the time.)

I think it went quite well - people were having fun, decapitating guards and breaking vaults - though I need to have more of a look at the rules. This week was mostly intended as an introduction, so was very fast and loose, but I'm not completely comfortable yet and things did grind to a halt once or twice.

I also think I'm not great at pacing - I'll decide where things are going, and rather than prevaricate and throw obstacles or complications into the mix, it'll just happen. Which makes for speedier plot progression but also makes things seem simplistic. I tried to pad things a little early on, but I think it just came off as a bit 'yeah sure whatever' because I'm rubbish.

Also was vaguely concerned about party balance. Sean, the hacker with a Mind as high as it goes with skill points on top, was basically able to do anything to any electronic object without trying. Meanwhile Nev, as the medic, didn't really have much to do. Also she was very breakable (though I am going to allow some rejigging of stats to reflect the new understanding of the rules).

Still, Russ's neatly typed background dovetails neatly into my plot, and I may think about rewarding backgrounds with character points or something. Once I've worked out what my advancement process is going to be...

Comments

[cuthrose.livejournal.com]

Well, if you want i can knock my mind stat down, if you want to cap stats at 10...

[kingandy]

Nah, I'll just take away your toys or something.

[masati.livejournal.com]

After chatting about roleplaying and stuff at batelf's a few weeks back I picked up a copy of BESM for my own nefarious purposes. The attribute system immediately looked like it might be a bit too open to min-maxing once you've read how attribute/skill checks take place, but then I got to figuring that while someone with a Mind 12 might be able to do just about anything with respect to thinking they'll either not have any resources to use it with (resources require a well kitted attribute IIRC), being stuck in a MacGyver-like "what's around" situation all the time, or be completely screwed in body and soul, making them unable to use their vast intellect without helpers (too weak to pick up heavy bits of engine etc) and wide open to magical/quasi-magical effects (like mind control).

Of course that depends on how many attribute points they started with (isn't the default about 30?).

As to healers not having much to do that's a bit difficult; I can't think of any roleplaying (LARP or tabletop) where healers have a lot to do outside of "cleanup" or the odd "crap, plauge!" type of thing based on their medical skills (of course if the campaign involves a biohazard element they might need to be in the thick of things a little more to check things are safe).

If you come up with good answers to either I'd be very interested in hearing 'em.

[kingandy]

It's a medium-high power game, using 40 character points.

This does mean we have at least one character with 12 in each attribute (not the same character, I mean, because that's not allowed - three characters with one of each).

On the flip side this does mean that Nev can do plenty that isn't medicine (medicine being a skill and all). She has four arms and can spit poison. So, you know, swings and roundabouts.

[mrssshhh.livejournal.com]

Now, I did tell Sean that having a stat at 12 was "akin to God", essentially silly, and kinda ruins the game for the people without a stat at 12.

But I was ill, and therefore unable to intercede.

Ah well.

[jfs.livejournal.com]

I think one of the things that any good GM can (and in a lot of cases should) do is point out to people that while some aspect of character generation is possible, it's not necessarily a good thing _for_the_game_as_a_whole_.

And sometimes to say "I'm sorry - your character distorts the game. Generate another one or lower the skill."

You end up with the ground zero effect otherwise. The encounter that you have to throw to challenge the uber-character is at such a level that it would wipe out the rest of the party. That's usually much more of an issue if you get a combat-monster, but it can happen with any skillset really. Mainly because if you've got the God of Hacking on your team, what's the point in anyone else putting points into that skill? So when he isn't there / is unconsious / is opening another lock somewhere else, the rest of the team are screwed.

[kingandy]

Oh, I did make a conscious decision to allow such high attributes, partly because I was interested in how the game would hold together, partly to see if I could successfully counterbalance the game, but also because I thought it was funny. I'm going for ridiculously-over-the-top anime space opera here. Planets may explode. From punching.

Also, in fact, because of the second point - when the party inevitably splits I will throw combat encounters at the hacker and present the combat squad with a logic puzzle.

[mrssshhh.livejournal.com]

I think it's possibly that I just loathe min-maxing, in all of it's forms.

As I said previously, I feel it ruins a game for the people who choose not to min-max. A GM is forced to increase difficulties of skill situations, so that the min-maxed people won't automatically succeed, but in doing so, they also ensure that the people who didn't min-max are essentially doomed to fail.

[elektrobard.livejournal.com]

I thought the pacing was fine. Having a directing NPC around the party at all times (mostly) is very helpful and can keep things moving in places that if was just the players on the case, they may not.

On stats at 12, I doubt anybody even noticed in my case. And there are always double sixes to be had. I got one, though was nothing to do with the stat...

But also glad the background was useful. Though it mentioned absolutely nothing on 'space' like I said, that was pretty much the point. Auberon will have quite literally moved from a known 'comfort zone' of sorts straight into the big, wide world. It's been less than a year.

[kingandy]

"Having a directing NPC around the party at all times (mostly) is very helpful"

yes it's a good thing he'll be sticking around