Pyramid Pick: Big Robots, Cool Starships

Pyramid Pick

Big Robots, Cool Starships

Published by Guardians of Order

Written by David Pulver

$15.95 US ($21.95 CAN)

When David Pulver joined the Guardians of Order team, people were expecting big things from him. He's proved this faith to be well founded with the first supplement to the Origins Award nominated Big Eyes, Small Mouth. His experience with GURPS Mecha, GURPS Vehicles, and on Bubblegum Crisis: Before and After served him well for this new product, Big Robots, Cool Starships.

The releases for the Tri-Stat System (the house system for Guardians of Order) currently fall into two categories: licensed stand-alone products and generic core supplements that can be used for any campaign. The problem with expansions to a core system, especially for one like BESM, is that the added complexity will detract from the simplicity which was the big selling point of the original game. Fortunately, David seems to have hit that narrow zone between providing enough new rules to simulate the mecha genre without introducing too many new mechanics.

The back cover claims that the system can handle, "nearly any robot, vehicle, structure, or giant monster from any genre," and, for once, it's not just hype. In fact, the system is flexible enough to cover the usual mecha things (big robots, starships, cyborgs), and also some things you wouldn't expect (buildings, space suits, transforming magical armor, living planets, cyberwear, and so on).

Mecha creation works a lot like . . .

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



Article publication date: August 6, 1999

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