Doc Halloween wrote: I am looking for a core rules that is fast play, does not get in the way of the story, and does not have lots of rules to siphon through, and can handle "homebrews" being added to the rules reeeaal easy.
I’ve certainly found OVA a good system for spur of the moment one-shots.
Doc Halloween wrote: Questions now:
Lots of questions – I’ll do my best to answer, but you should keep in mind that I’m just a customer who rather likes the game, and not in any way official.
Doc Halloween wrote: 1 - Is this a product that can be played with universal genres (horror, sci-fi, fantasy, pulp, wild-west, etc.) and not just anime? Also can it handle multi-genre settings & adventures at the same time?
Sci-fi, fantasy and pulp are sort of native genres for the game. Horror might require some additional rules, like a sanity or fear system. Wild West might be possible, but would take extreme restraint in character creation and gun fights would be a little on the abstract side.
Doc Halloween wrote: 2 - Does OVA use an abstract range, time, & speed system? I hate games that say my Uzi has a short range of 1-7m; it takes 3 seconds of time to play a round of combat; & the car goes 86 mph with a handling of 6 plus attribute plus skill + dice roll etc.
Abstract, definitely abstract. Really, weapons and attacks are either ranged or they are not, and that’s it. Instead of speeds, you have difficulties: so, if a character wants to run through a doorway before another, instead of measuring distances and comparing them to speed, it’d be an opposed roll, modified by such advantages and disadvantages as quick, super-speed, slow, etc. If they wanted to through the door before an explosion, it would be a check against a fixed difficulty.
Doc Halloween wrote: 3 - Are there "how to use and design vehicles" discussed in OVA?
Not very much. There’s a couple of notes on mecha design (you design them pretty much like characters), but that it. There’s some on this board, and a hopefully a mecha expansion coming early next year.
Doc Halloween wrote: 4 - Is there a sample "Bestiary" list? Or is there discussions on how to design NPCs and beasts. I want a very fast NPC building system, possibly a stat or two at most and "out the door she goes".
There are no sample monsters, but there are rules for building character type opponents that come in three strengths, and some examples. I’ve found it pretty easy to throw together opposition so far.
Doc Halloween wrote: 5 - Is there an official OVA setting or setting suggestions in the product?
Not really (I mean, it’s an anime system, but given that anime is a medium that covers multiple genres, that’s not very specific).
Doc Halloween wrote: 6 - Can OVA be used to play super-heroes and average citizens at the same time?
Yes, if you mean they both can be spec’ed in the system. It doesn’t have the support that, say the
Buffy the Vampire Slayer RPG has for playing both in the same party.
Doc Halloween wrote: 7 - I do not want a system that has to play with minitures to work out combat. I hope OVA does not make use of minitures in any fashion as I can just save my money and use my "Savage Worlds".
It would take significant modification to use OVA with minatures -- so no fears there!
Doc Halloween wrote: 8 - Is the pdf printer friendly?
I can’t help you there -- I have the standard and the color print editions, but never bothered with the PDFs (I have bunches, but really prefer print when possible).
Doc Halloween wrote: 9 - If I purchase OVA now there is not going to be released a revised or 2nd edition in six months and the original I bought is outdated?
Based on the revision history, I’d say you’re safe. So far, all that’s happened is occasional errata and eventually Clay is supposed to release some supplements (Mecha and Fantasy), but I’d say the core rules look finished.
Doc Halloween wrote: 10 - Is there anything else you can tell me that will sale me on purchasing "Open Versatile Anime Role-Playing Game"?
It’s a lot of fun? Oh, and the default character is actually
compedent. You get two dice in an attempt to so something even without an appropriate advantage.
I also like the fact that skills, abilities and feats/edges/etc. are all treated the same.
Doc Halloween wrote: EDIT: I forgot to ask about the magic, Psionic, and Psychic powers? I hope they are fast, loose and not complicated. Are they included in the core OVA?
There are three types of magic, and all of them are dead simple: Arcane magic allows you to burn endurance to reproduce advantages and attacks, Witchcraft allows you to burn endurance to place curses (disadvantages), and Occult Knowledge allows you to summon things. There are also a handful of psychic power advantages. They’re all pretty simple, and mostly leverage the character creation rules.
Now, to balance these answers, a couple of drawbacks:
- Character creation requires careful GM oversight. It is fairly easy to create a broken character in this system, which is (in my opinion), an inevitable consequence of its completeness for covering all of the primary anime genres.
- Some players find the arithmetic in combat (addition and multiplication) annoying.
Hope this helps!