Big Eyes, Small Mouth

The first edition of the core system underlying the Big Eyes, Small Mouth (BESM) games was a relatively small set of core rules that grew across a vast series of supplements (skills were in the Tank Police book, etc). The second edition added more than 100 pages of content by bringing all those rules together into a single core rulebook. The revised edition (v2.5 in this index) added another 80 pages of content.

While later editions never approached the complexity of either GURPS or HERO, only the first edition is truly rules-light. The system is generic, and despite the art and fluff text, the core rules are almost genre-agnostic and can easily be used to support games other than anime.

The basic system is a 2d6 roll under. Until the third edition, negative modifiers were good.

The parent system is: Tri-Stat.

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