Please sell me on BESM 4E

[Lucas Yew]

After all that stress from the supposed jock hate in 3.X, I decided to fish for some more lenient (in the LFQW manner) yet crunchy systems (regardless of legal availability of rule texts), and is verge of ordering BESM 4E (and its naughtily named lite version) in DTRPG. By the way, it's my first read on the Tri Stat System, too.

Now, I do own the very similar game, OVA, which debuted while BESM was on hiatus, and is quite satisfied with its quality (both the art and the author's knowledge on Japanese culture in general were more than adequate). Plus the fact that some blog reviews also said despite being more lite, OVA sometimes does concepts better than the newest BESM now and then (like a flight power that costs a handful only at activation, then sustained very easily).

Even then, would spending some 50 bucks at the two BESM 4E PDFs be worth it?

[Powerdork]

I'm told (this is hearsay, mind) that buying BESM supports terrible practices.

[Friv]

I'm told (this is hearsay, mind) that buying BESM supports terrible practices.

I have also heard this from several of the freelancers that were cheated.

There's also the fact that BESM 4E is reusing artwork from earlier BESM games, and there's no indication that they've actually retained the rights, so there's a chance someone will actually sue and the game will vanish.

With all of that in mind, I don't know enough about the rules to say anything, aside from 'probably let this one pass.'

OP, have you tried out Strike! as an option? It's a lower-crunch tactical system that's pretty easy-going. Might be up your alley.

[dreamking]

I'm told (this is hearsay, mind) that buying BESM supports terrible practices.

Wow, wish I knew that before I kickstarted 4E.

[malloc]

BESM is mechanically poor. They have pretty hilarious multipliers as options that, if not taken, completely ruin party balance. We played a one shot where two players were doing about 80 damage every round and the rest were doing about ten.

We only played the once, but if we did another anime game, we'd use a different system. The crunch is poor, the complexity fairly high, especially for a one shot, and the system doesn't lend itself to a specific enough topic to warrant using it for fluff or scope.