Space Fantasy: Big Eyes, Small Mouth RPG Supplement

Rating:
Summary: Broad, brief overview
Review: The current, second edition of the BESM rulebook has a very good mix of descriptive text and numeric factors, using its numerical systems to give tangible meaning to the descriptions in a balanced manner. I was expecting something similar in this supplement for those rules, but that's not to be found.

The first two chapters give a good overview of the history and conventions of the genre, and the later chapters do address technology, starships, and worlds, but those are done in *very* general terms, with almost no numerical factors as guides. The exception is the character chapter, where there are useful, numerical templates to serve as starting points; in all other areas, though, only vague suggestions are given to the GM.

The trouble is that it attempts to cover a very large field (all of anime space opera) in a very small book; an issue mentioned in the book itself ("this chapter contains no rules, since it would be impossible to cover every possible permutation of space opera technology"). True, but it should be possible to describe at least the most common aspects with some hard/numerical detail (as in the character chapter), to serve as a foundation for the GM's expansion into less-common areas.

For example, at least some attempt to provide a world generation procedure with die rolls that could be adjusted as needed would have been welcome. Instead, the two-page "checklist" is so sparse as to be essentially useless (e.g. the entirety of the Hydrographics section is: "Does the planet have any water, even in the form of polar icecaps? This is an important question, since worlds without water are unlikely to support life as science understands it. Now, this does not mean much in a space opera game, but it is another data point for GMs looking for clues as to the nature of a world and its life forms.").

If one had *no* knowledge of the basics of a space opera setting at all, this book would get them going. But those with at least a moderate familiarity with the genre will find little helpful here. Thus, 3 out of 5.

The chapters:
1. What is Space Fantasy? (4 pages)
2. Campaign Styles (29 pages)
3. Creating Characters (21 pages)
4. Technology (15 pages)
5. Starships (6 pages)
6. Exotic Worlds (11 pages)