BESM vs Skies Above
Compare BESM and Skies Above side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, and more.
| BESM | Skies Above | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Universal | Fantasy |
| Tags | Character Building, Cinematic, Heroic, Pulp Action, Anime | JRPG, Cinematic, Tactical, High-Fantasy, Heroic, Character Building, Mana Points, Theater of the Mind, Lore-Heavy |
| Core Mechanic | Tri-Stat System: three Stats (Body, Mind, Soul) plus point-buy Attributes, Defects, and Skills built from a Character Point budget. Roll 2d6 + relevant Stat or Combat Value vs. a Target Number. Edges and Obstacles add or remove dice. Eight power levels scale from Sub-Human to Godlike. | Roll d8 + two Attributes + modifiers against a Target Number (typically 10, increasing in steps of 4 for harder tasks). Natural 8s explode, rolling and adding again; every additional 8 raises the Critical Level, scaling damage and effects. A natural 1 is an Epic Fail that halves the character's Defences until their next turn. Critical hits dealt and taken generate Overdrive: once eight stacks accumulate, characters spend them to take an additional action that round, modeling the limit-break payoff of classic JRPGs. |
| Dice | 2d6 | d8 |
| Complexity | Medium | Medium |
| Availability | Free quickstart | Free quickstart |
| Runnability | Book tools not listed | 4 of 5 book tools |
| License | Proprietary (Tri-Stat) | All Rights Reserved |
| Third-Party Publishing | Not yet researched | Not yet researched |
| Publisher | Dyskami Publishing | Lost Haven Studio |
| Year | 2019 | 2026 |
| Languages | English | English |
| Best For | Groups who want to play anime and manga-inspired adventures in any genre: from magical girls and mecha pilots to demon hunters and high school detectives. | Groups who want a JRPG-inspired tabletop adventure: picking from twelve jobs like Dragoon, Dark Mage, or Engineer, channeling elemental magic blessed by eight goddesses, and journeying by airship across floating sky-islands in the aftermath of a magical cataclysm. |
| Highlights | Highly flexible point-buy system can model any anime concept, free primer available, scalable power levels from slice-of-life to cosmic | Exploding d8 with stacking Critical Levels: multiple natural 8s in a row cascade into larger crits and bigger effects, so heroic moments scale rather than cap. Overdrive accumulates from critical hits dealt and received, and spending eight stacks grants an additional action that round, giving combat a JRPG limit-break rhythm. Twelve job roles span melee, magic, ranged, and support archetypes, and characters add a second job at level 12 to cross-pollinate abilities and weapon ranks. Eight elemental goddesses anchor both magic and the bestiary: every Skyfolk lineage is blessed with resistance to one element, and creatures carry specific elemental weaknesses that double incoming damage. |
| Considerations | Point-buy character creation can overwhelm newcomers, balance depends heavily on GM oversight, anime-focused tone may not suit all groups, dense attribute list requires bookkeeping | Combat is the most heavily detailed pillar of the rules, with conditions, elemental damage, front/back row positioning, and an optional battlefield grid: investigation, intrigue, and downtime get coverage but less mechanical depth. Light and Dark Mages cannot learn from the opposing path, locking each spellcaster out of half the elemental spell list and pushing magical variety into multi-job characters. The exploding-d8 swing is wide: consecutive 8s can demolish encounters while a natural 1 halves a character's Defences and opens them to brutal counters. Setting and mechanics are tightly woven: Skyfolk lineages, the eight Goddesses, and post-Breaking lore are baked into character options rather than presented as swappable flavor. |