BESM (Besm) Third Edition [Hardcover]

Mark C. MacKinnon (Author), David Pulver (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 239 pages
• Publisher: Arthaus; 3 edition (January 24, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1588464741
• ISBN-13: 978-1588464743
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 8.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #147,634 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Besm : The Third and Sadly Final Edition, March 26, 2007

By 

Ronald A. Noel "Raveworg" (Glen Burnie, MD) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: BESM (Besm) Third Edition (Hardcover)

BESM (Besm): How do I put this? This book is anything every GM, DM, Storyteller, or player could hope for. This book makes any storyline possible, any ability ever imagined can be done, this book is as limitless as the genre its about. Keep in mind this comes at a minor price. This is really not a beginners book into role-playing. Although it does give you a grasp of role playing if you are not used to complicated rolling procedures it shouldnt be used as a game book. If that is the case, it still makes a great resource book for comming up with stories. If you wish to put the time into it to make it your primary book it can be most worth it.

5.0 out of 5 stars A great system; I'm glad I got my copy when I did, January 9, 2012

By 

Mr. D - See all my reviews

This review is from: BESM (Besm) Third Edition (Hardcover)

B.E.S.M. 3rd edition....a system typically associated with anime role play, it can actually be used as a system for just about any style of game you want to run. At first, it can be a bit overwhelming to look at; but, throughout the book, the sidebars help break things down a bit more for you to help you understand everything a little better. If you have played 2nd. Edition B.E.S.M., the first thing you'll notice is the change in point costs; the average game now is about 300 points. The second thing you'll notice is that you now want to roll high on your 2d6 roll (for those of you that never played the first two editions, you always wanted to roll low). An average target number for a check that you should have minimal trouble succeeding at is a 12.

Many familiar rules are still there - Body, Mind, Soul; ACV and DCV (attack and defense combat value), Health, Energy, Shock; etc. as well as a lot of the powers are still there. However, a lot of the power have either been re-written, or eliminated all together. Dynamic Sorcery is now the only magic option, and it is even more broken than before. Magic itself is gone, as is psionics. However, all attributes now have a maximum amount of ranks you can put into them, as detailed on the attributes page.

Skills for the most part are the same; a lot of skills got merged with other areas and have been cleaned up. All the combat skills are gone now, and are instead powers, helping to increase those abilities directly. Getting extra specializations is easier now, costing only one extra point for TWO extra specializations. In the skills section, it also gives a list of what skills will cost in different genres. The default entry is the multi-genre, in case you're not sure what you want to run (or if you don't see your genre listed).

Defects are still there, and are really unchanged from 2nd Edition. One of the greatest additions to the game, however, is the template system. In the book, there is a section that tells you how many points it costs to apply a pre-generated template to your character, effectively turning them into one of those things. There's class templates, such as wizard, priest, samurai, detective and racial templates like woolen, spider-demons and vampires. All the templates tell you how many points they cost, what attributes they give you, what skills (if any) they give you and what defects they give you (if any).

I knew that when this book first came out, that it wouldn't last long, seeing as how Guardians of Order (the company that produced B.E.S.M.) went out of business. White Wolf got the rights to publish the material, but not do anything more than that. I immediately snagged my copy as soon as I could. If you ever do find yourself with an opportunity to get a hard copy of the B.E.S.M. book, do so. If you like a game that's light on rules and dice rolling, and more heavy on rp elements and story, then this is the system for you.