Char-Gen Orgy '10 - Big Eyes, Small Mouth

The Game: Big Eyes, Small Mouth (Revised Second Edition)
The Publisher: Guardians of Order, Inc. (may they rest in peace)
Degree of Familiarity: Extensive, both as a player and a storyteller.
Books Used: BESM Revised Second Edition Core Rulebook


Big Eyes, Small Mouth is a game I have a lot of affection for; a fellwo gamign cousin introduced the game to me at a family reunion, and over the enxt three days, the kinfolk gaming group put it through its paces in extreme fashion, trying all manner of madcap concepts with the rules -- and always finding them to be equal to the task, handling whatever mad fancies were thrown at it with grace, dignity, and a subtle twist of humor. Horror, drama, comedy, Mythic Age prequels to Changeling: the Dreaming games that spread far beyond those roots and into a vaguely-inspired megaverse all our own? BESM did it all, and even though I have mostly moved on to other games (and looked at the new, sadly final, Third Edition), in part due to the lack of popularity of the rules system with my usual crowd, the Revised Second Edition of the poor, battered little paperback rulebook is still near and dear to my heart, a fondness made sadly poignant by the untimely death of the very talented publishing house -- Guardians of Order -- who produced the game.

But enough of bittersweet yesterdays... you folks came here for a character, right?

Fiorst step is, of course, figuring out what genre of anime our 'campaign' is going to be based on, as that will guide creative decisions, and also influence our skill costs. We'll be doing plenty of fantasy and modern horror, and there are better games to come for cheap laughs... so, these facts coupled with the Mass Effect bender I've been on of late, and I think we'll be making a character for a Space Opera!

With genre decided, we'll move on to a concept.. and although it may slightly be cheating, I am thinking I'll actually remake an old character I have played in numerous space opera games before, Captain Jack Vandal! (...yes, you must say it with an exclamation mark! After all, he is Captain Jack Vandal!), privateer Lothario of the stars, gentleman space pirate, and general pain in the ass to the authorities he (technically) works for but even worse a foe to those who offend his sense of honor and good. There's ourselves a concept -- now al lwe need is a power-level.. I see this as strictly an average-powered game, so we'll go with the high end of that, giving us 35 Points to build with.

For the uninitiated, BESM runs on GoO's "Tri-Stat" system, which, as one might guess, has three Stats -- Body, Mind and Soul. These three, broad categories cover a lot of ground, and run from 0 (complete and utter ineptitude) to 12 (best in the universe), with the human average being a 4. Jack's in good shape, despite getting on in his years, so we'll put a 5 in Body; Age and treachery win every time, so we'll add a 7 in Mind, and the old cuss is nothing if not iron-willed, so a firm 6 in Soul rounds us out there, and leaves us with 17 points unspent. Moving on.

STATS
Body 5
Mind 7
Soul 6

Now, the fun part -- Character Attributes! Attributes, essentially, are what knacks, skills, and gear a BESM character can rely on on hsi or her colorfully-aniamted adventures. There's is a staggering amount of choice, but we'll keep it simple -- Jack is a Badass Normal, and therefore has no flashy supernatural tricks to see him through.. just skill, guts, and guile. We'll add 2 ranks of Attractive off the bat -- he's a charming old rogue -- for 2 points, leaving 15 to spend (though we'll be exceeding that, if only because I adore Defects, as we all know, and BESM has some of the best ones ever). Next comes 2 ranks of Art of Distraction to best represent his fast-talking style and charisma, which leaves us at 13 points. We'll also take 2 ranks each of Damn Healthy! and Divine Relationship to make our old space pirate both tougher than the young turks might expect, and luckier to boot -- a scoundrel can never have too much good luck. We're down to 9 points, and still going. A single rank in Focused Damage (Sword) makes his fencing attacks have more bite and leaves us with 8 Points unspent; we'll put 2 of them to work on 2 ranks of Gun Bunny to buy a couple pistol-related special abilities -- in our case "Lightning Draw" (Jack does shoot first) and "One Bullet Left" (Don't even bother counting his shots, because when it counts he's always got one last round in the chamber), and another 2 points in 2 ranks Highly Skilled -- never underestimate the use of age, experience, and practice. That leaves us at 4 Points, and 2 of them will go into Kensai (the melee-weapon equivalent of Gun Bunny), purchasing the special abilities "Judge Opponent" (got to love the Warrior Therapist gimmick, and Jack's seen it all) and "Precise Stroke" (the better to do showy, swashbuckling stunts). With the last 2 Points to our name, we'll take 2 ranks in Personal Gear, and with that we're officially buying on credit from here on out. Going back a bit in the book we'll go ahead and buy 2 ranks of Organizational Ties (at the 3-point version) to represent his status as an ally of the "Federation" (all space sagas have one after all, and Jack tenuously works for them), putting us at -6 Points and counting; We'll also spend 4 points on a rank of Own Big Mecha (Or, if you prefer, "O.B.M.") to represent whatever ship Jack is possessed of these days. That puts at -10 Points, and leaves us with the following Attributes

ATTRIBUTES
Attractive 2
Art of Distraction 2
Damn Healthy! 2
Divine Relationship 2
Focused Damage (Sword) 1
Gun Bunny (Lightning Draw, One Bullet Left) 2
Highly Skilled 2
Kensai (Judge Opponent, Precise Stroke) 2
Organizational Ties ("The Federation") 2
Own Big Mecha 1
Personal Gear 2

So far, so good; time to pay back our bill and take a few Defects! We need 10 points worth in all, and in BESM, the majority of Defects are scaled to give back either 1 or 2 Points. Right off that bat we'll take a 1 point Attack Restriction Defect to represent Jack's scruples and the Federation's orders to not attack noncombatant civilians, and Jack's own moral high-horse about harming the innocent and those less competent than himself. In the anime tradition, Jack is a bit of a lech, and so he has a 1 point Easily Distracted Defect, triggered by attractive women -- he's a sucker for a pretty face -- and in another tradition, it's mutual, and since this is one of the most comical and greatest Defects ever put in a game, we'll take the full 2 point extreme version of the Girl Magnet Defect -- and if anyone's ever seen a harem anime, they know just what sort of special Hell poor Jack's being set up for, here. A one-two punch of a point each in Owned by a Megacorp and Red Tape represent the unpleasant controls put on the old renegade by the Federation to keep him (*mostly*) in line, and going back we'll round our requirements out with a 2 point Nemesis (an old enemy from his pirating days) and 2 points of Wanted (Federation-licensed agent or not, several governments and a large number of criminal interests want the old troublemaker brought down). That's got our scales balanced again, and our Defects list looks like this:

DEFECTS
Attack Restriction 1
Easily Distracted (Attractive Women) 1
Girl Magnet 2
Nemesis 2 (Shady Rival from the Past) 2
Owed by the Federation 1
Red Tape 1
Wanted 2

All that we have left besides derived values is Skills, and with our basic allotment of 20 points and the 20 more bestowed by our ranks in Highly Skilled we have 40 to spend; Skills are ranked 1-6, with 3 being hgihly competent, and each skill has a varying cost per rank based on setting utility, and each one must select a Speciality to indicate the main focus of the character's competency. We ourselves are using the Space Opera skill costs, and with that said.. off we go.Combat first; we'll take a level of Gun Combat (Heavy Pistol) for 5 Skill Points ("SP" henceforth), and 16 more SP for 2 ranks each in Melee Attack (Sword) and Melee Defense (Sword), leaving us at 19 SP unspent. Moving into our Non-Combat Skills, we'll spend 10 SP on 2 ranks of Piloting (Spacecraft), and to aid in the conquests of green-skinned space babes, the last 9 SP wil lbuy us 3 ranks in Seduction (Female). That was blessedly brief...

SKILLS
Gun Combat (Heavy Pistol) 1
Melee Attack (Sword) 2
Melee Defense (Sword) 2
Pilot (Spacecraft) 2
Seduction (Female) 3

All that's left now is to determine our Derived Stats; Our Attack Combat Value (ACV) is equal to (Body + Mind + Soul / 3) and thus equals 6, and our Defense Combat Value (DCV) equals (ACV -2), for a total of 4. Health Points (HP) are equal to (Body + Soul) x5 with any modifers for Damn Healthy!, and so for us equal 75, and our Energy Points (EP) are equal to (Mind + Soul) x5 with any mods -- none in our case -- so a flat 65.

ACV: 6
DCV: 4
HP: 75
EP: 65

And there we have it! Jack's final sheet looks like this:

* * * * * * *

Captain Jack Vandal!

STATS
Body 5
Mind 7
Soul 6

ATTRIBUTES
Attractive 2
Art of Distraction 2
Damn Healthy! 2
Divine Relationship 2
Focused Damage (Sword) 1
Gun Bunny (Lightning Draw, One Bullet Left) 2
Highly SKklled 2
Kensai (Judge Opponent, Precise Stroke) 2
Organizational Ties ("The Federation") 2
Own Big Mecha 1
Personal Gear 2

DEFECTS
Attack Restriction 1
Easily Distracted (Attractive Women) 1
Girl Magnet 2
Nemesis 2 (Shady Rival from the Past) 2
Owed by the Federation 1
Red Tape 1
Wanted 2

SKILLS
Gun Combat (Heavy Pistol) 1
Melee Attack (Sword) 2
Melee Defense (Sword) 2
Pilot (Spacecraft) 2
Seduction (Female) 3

ACV: 6
DCV: 4
HP: 75
EP: 65

* * * * * * *

Seeya next time, space cowboys!