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I have been reading forum about the game and found on that has "David Pulver" contributing. He is the author and on the front cover of the book.
His opinion on the 3rd edition was that after being fired (company went under) they made some changes. Below is a list of rules that e felt should of existed in the new edition: Source: Forum
If I had total control:
(1). Generally follow BESM 2nd edition revised in all respects, except:
(2). Without the full-scale point inflation of 3e, carefully consider an increase (perhaps doubling) of stat costs and a +10-15 increase in base point, or just using the optional Staged Stat Costs of the 2e revised as the standard rule.
(3) Add a few more social attributes, skills, and defects; Mark was rather stingy with them due to his design philosophy, but I prefer that non-combat characters get some extra things to spend points on.
(4). Possibly consider adding a 7th level to the six-level attributes running with six levels to allow for some more cosmic effects.
(5) Fix a few specific attributes. In particular, I prefer BESM 3e's Mind Control and believe it also had slightly better Companion rules (Servant was not that useful in2e).
(6). Deal with the combat issue. BESM 2e combat was somewhat unbalanced because the 2d6 roll-low system was not originally intended to have skills added onto it, resulting in excessive fight durations. Various options exist to mitigate this, all of them reasonable:
- make critical attack (which beats a normal defense) on any roll of half or less
- go to a roll high system, basically reversing the modifiers
- keep the system as is but cap skills at 3 levels
Etc. Playtesting to determine which would work best; I've tried all three with various degrees of success.
(7). As 3e did, drop the "positive numbers are bad, negative are good" values
(
. Clean up a lot of the cruft (which 3e did) like the bad variable damage optoinal rule (replace with a simple "roll 1d6 per 5 points" or something like that.
(9). From BESM 3e, include a few of the additional custom weapon abilities/disabilities. Add the Dimensional Travel/Walk attribute, some of
(10). One radical change: consider replacing the three stats with four, splitting Body into Body (now as strength/toughness) and Reflexes. That way: Mind and Reflexes are mental and physical quickness and Body and Soul and physical and mental strength. And you can dump a whole bunch of clumsy rules that exist to add dubious sub-stats.
(11). Consider actually restoring some of the container attributes (Cybernetic Body) from the original version, albeit with some better play balance.
(12) Rewrite the Game Mechanics to start with a section on skills outside of combat, and then follow through with combat.
(13) Add a few extra options for realistic higher-lethality combat for those who want it.
(14). Properly cover normal animals, something BESM 2e left out (like, horses and stuff).
(15). Boost the level of anime genre emulation rules and discussion of particular anime sub-genres in general. I was quite happy with that in 3e (e.g, the extra shojo section) though it didn't got quite far enough and wasn't really integrated with the attributes or mechanics as well as it could have been.
(16). Drop the idea of an incorporated multi-verse. I was quite happy with the worlds themselves as individual campaign settings (and enjoyed creating them) but never keen on the idea of an "anime multi-verse" is both a bit clumsy and something that seems to have leaked in from Mark's love of Amber and their general emphasis on superhero multiverses from SAS.
Anyway, that's mostly off-the-cuff. My general feeling is that 2e has rough edges in some game balance areas, but I found it was fun, Moreover, as many people know, as well as anime I enjoy hard sf, and 2e could do that without offending me. On the other hand, 3e had all kinds of clumsy bits that blew my suspension of disbelief (Mark's "armor table" on p. 20 is a particular example... uh, yeah, the doors of a family car are as tough as modern heavy body armor which is equal to chainmail and a breast plate...special GM permission needed for armor equal to a tank or mecha (Hello, isn't this anime where these things can be common?!). Etc.
Grumble, grumble. Oh well, pretty looking book, anyway!
His opinion on the 3rd edition was that after being fired (company went under) they made some changes. Below is a list of rules that e felt should of existed in the new edition: Source: Forum
If I had total control:
(1). Generally follow BESM 2nd edition revised in all respects, except:
(2). Without the full-scale point inflation of 3e, carefully consider an increase (perhaps doubling) of stat costs and a +10-15 increase in base point, or just using the optional Staged Stat Costs of the 2e revised as the standard rule.
(3) Add a few more social attributes, skills, and defects; Mark was rather stingy with them due to his design philosophy, but I prefer that non-combat characters get some extra things to spend points on.
(4). Possibly consider adding a 7th level to the six-level attributes running with six levels to allow for some more cosmic effects.
(5) Fix a few specific attributes. In particular, I prefer BESM 3e's Mind Control and believe it also had slightly better Companion rules (Servant was not that useful in2e).
(6). Deal with the combat issue. BESM 2e combat was somewhat unbalanced because the 2d6 roll-low system was not originally intended to have skills added onto it, resulting in excessive fight durations. Various options exist to mitigate this, all of them reasonable:
- make critical attack (which beats a normal defense) on any roll of half or less
- go to a roll high system, basically reversing the modifiers
- keep the system as is but cap skills at 3 levels
Etc. Playtesting to determine which would work best; I've tried all three with various degrees of success.
(7). As 3e did, drop the "positive numbers are bad, negative are good" values
(
. Clean up a lot of the cruft (which 3e did) like the bad variable damage optoinal rule (replace with a simple "roll 1d6 per 5 points" or something like that.(9). From BESM 3e, include a few of the additional custom weapon abilities/disabilities. Add the Dimensional Travel/Walk attribute, some of
(10). One radical change: consider replacing the three stats with four, splitting Body into Body (now as strength/toughness) and Reflexes. That way: Mind and Reflexes are mental and physical quickness and Body and Soul and physical and mental strength. And you can dump a whole bunch of clumsy rules that exist to add dubious sub-stats.
(11). Consider actually restoring some of the container attributes (Cybernetic Body) from the original version, albeit with some better play balance.
(12) Rewrite the Game Mechanics to start with a section on skills outside of combat, and then follow through with combat.
(13) Add a few extra options for realistic higher-lethality combat for those who want it.
(14). Properly cover normal animals, something BESM 2e left out (like, horses and stuff).
(15). Boost the level of anime genre emulation rules and discussion of particular anime sub-genres in general. I was quite happy with that in 3e (e.g, the extra shojo section) though it didn't got quite far enough and wasn't really integrated with the attributes or mechanics as well as it could have been.
(16). Drop the idea of an incorporated multi-verse. I was quite happy with the worlds themselves as individual campaign settings (and enjoyed creating them) but never keen on the idea of an "anime multi-verse" is both a bit clumsy and something that seems to have leaked in from Mark's love of Amber and their general emphasis on superhero multiverses from SAS.
Anyway, that's mostly off-the-cuff. My general feeling is that 2e has rough edges in some game balance areas, but I found it was fun, Moreover, as many people know, as well as anime I enjoy hard sf, and 2e could do that without offending me. On the other hand, 3e had all kinds of clumsy bits that blew my suspension of disbelief (Mark's "armor table" on p. 20 is a particular example... uh, yeah, the doors of a family car are as tough as modern heavy body armor which is equal to chainmail and a breast plate...special GM permission needed for armor equal to a tank or mecha (Hello, isn't this anime where these things can be common?!). Etc.
Grumble, grumble. Oh well, pretty looking book, anyway!
