# Big Eyes, Small Mouth *Created:* 2026-06-23, *Modified:* 2026-10-09 ![[Big Eyes Small Mouth - 1st Edition (cover).jpg|400]] ![[Big Eyes Small Mouth - 2nd Edition (cover).jpg|400]] *Big Eyes, Small Mouth* (*BESM*) is the tabletop RPG that lets you live out every anime and manga fantasy without bothering to learn Japanese — a heavily point-bought framework by Mark C. Mackinnon for building practically anything, from an angsty teenage mecha pilot to a magical girl with a suspiciously elaborate attack-name. It requires significant Game Master oversight, mostly because players will inevitably try to exploit the system to demolish cities at level one. The game hands you the tools for immense power, and leaves the heavy lifting of actual game balance to the poor soul running the campaign. ## Setting There's no fixed world to speak of — the point of **BESM** is that you can bolt any anime premise onto it, from high-school romcom to galaxy-spanning mecha war. Character power is bought with points rather than earned by class level, which is wonderfully flexible and a standing invitation to cheese. The tone is deliberately, gloriously over-the-top: dramatic poses, improbable hair, and the unshakable certainty that your character could take the whole city block in a fight. ## Mechanics The chassis is the **Tri-Stat System**, built on three core attributes: **Body, Mind, and Soul**. The first and second editions used a **2d6 roll-under** resolution — roll two dice and try to land below your relevant stat, with skills and situational difficulty adjusting the target. Those early editions are the fan favorites, enough so that Dyskami Publishing later released the slightly expanded *BESM Retro Second Edition*. Later editions reached for more crunch. The third and fourth editions overhauled the rules into a **roll-over** mechanic — roll 2d6, add your stat and modifiers, and try to beat a Target Number. The fourth edition keeps the roll-over approach but adds an **edges and obstacles** system: instead of flat modifiers, advantageous situations let you roll 3d6 or 4d6 and keep the highest two, while obstacles force you to keep the lowest. The third edition also consolidated character-creation points into a single pool, which had the amusing side effect of turning the game into an anime-flavored variant of **[[GURPS]]**. ## Editions - **Big Eyes, Small Mouth** (1st edition, 1997) — Guardians of Order, the Tri-Stat original. *In the library.* - **Big Eyes, Small Mouth** (2nd edition, 1999) — the refined Tri-Stat edition, still the fan favorite. *In the library.* - **BESM Retro Second Edition** — Dyskami Publishing's expanded rerelease of 2e. - **Big Eyes, Small Mouth** (3rd edition) — the roll-over overhaul, single-point-pool and GURPS-adjacent. - **Big Eyes, Small Mouth** (4th edition) — Dyskami's current edition, with the edges-and-obstacles system. ## References - [BESM 4th Edition Publisher Page — Dyskami Publishing Company](https://www.dyskami.ca/besm.html) - [Review of Big Eyes, Small Mouth Third Edition — RPGnet](https://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/12/12712.phtml) - [Review of Big Eyes, Small Mouth Revised Second Edition — RPGnet](https://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/9/9457.phtml) - [Big Eyes, Small Mouth First Edition (Digital PDF) — DriveThruRPG](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/625/big-eyes-small-mouth-first-edition-besm-goo-02-001) - [BESM Retro Second Edition — DriveThruRPG](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/474851/besm-retro-second-edition-big-eyes-small-mouth-dys570) > [!note] Editor's Note > > Honestly, I don't consider anything after the first edition legitimate. Seriously, it tried very hard to become *GURPS*. If I wanted GURPS, there are plenty of GURPS books out there. First edition without skills is the best edition of *Big Eyes, Small Mouth*, bar none.