Pyramid Pick: Dragon Ball Z

Pyramid Pick

Dragon Ball Z Anime Adventure Game

Published by R. Talsorian Games

Written by Mike Pondsmith

145 pages, $20.00

I've been a long time fan of the Dragon Ball series, much to the dismay of my gaming group, but then there's no accounting for taste (mine or theirs). While Dragon Ball may seem like a kiddie anime, it definitely has a lot of potential as a roleplaying game, potential that R. Talsorian has done a wonderful job harnessing. The book is a solid 145 pages, with the majority of its bulk devoted to describing the characters, the world, and the combat system in that order, with a final chapter for gamemasters. As that's the way the book is formatted, let's examine it in that order.

The first chapter begins by presenting a synopsis of the Saiyan saga of Dragon Ball Z, which is essentially the first season of 35 episodes. Then comes the character profiles complete with stats for the 12 major characters of the Dragon Ball Z series. All before presenting rule one of the game system; heck, even the mandatory what is an adventure game section doesn't appear until page 64. Pretty strange for an RPG, but very fitting for this one in my opinion. More on that later. The synopsis is presented well, and unless your players are actually involved in the events, should be required reading by the gaming group. Second to watching Dragon Ball Z itself, there is no better way to get the feel for the game world and how the world works. The list of NPCs is succinct, and gives . . .

This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.



Article publication date: December 17, 1999

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