World Famous Comics: Dragonball Z: The Anime Adventure Game
Dragonball Z: The Anime Adventure Game
By: Mike Pondsmith Publisher: ANimechaniX Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: ANimechaniX Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 141 Publication Date: 1999-12
Good, but has more potential. Introduction: Firstly let me begin by saying I only recently got the book, so I haven't really had time to read everything in extreme detail. Now for a review, not hard, overall its a good book with potential. But I'll explain in more detail ...
How does the book span out? The book like other anime based role-playing books starts by explaining parts of the anime bit by bit before moving on into actual game rules and mechanics. This will be quite helpful if your planning on using the base characters and locations from the series, otherwise it might just end up a base for creating you own. It could end up as a reference more than anything else.
The book only really gets into the main mechanics around half way through, it starts with combat and how that works and goes to other things like powers and training. After its done with the bulk of the rules (which you will need to read more than once) it then moves onto some nice pointer tactics for battle situation, and even a short demo battle to give you a taste of what it's like during combat. This part of the book is good, not many faults on first glance.
A good thing about this book is it ends with some help on creating your own sagas and making campaigns, as well as some rules you might want to use in your games to keep them going smoothly. It really does try and help you create your enemies and settings as much as possible. This is something other game systems might try selling that as a separate book (not going to name and names).
Good points with the book: The strongest part of the book is really how well its been done. The makers could have gotten this very wrong, dull rules or unneeded complicatations but it seems it hasn't. The rules are faithful to the series and allow you to have the right Dragonball Z feel to your game. All this on my first read, several reviews make the same point and I now understand why.
Also the obvious reason why the book is good; its Dragonball Z in proper role-playing form!
Problems with the book: The first is really the amount of actual game content, or rather the lack of content. The book itself seems rather short (around 144 pages) and considering about half are filled with information rather than rules this lets the book down slightly. Adding to this the book only covers the Saiyan Saga (which might put some people off if you like the higher powered Sagas). This is ultimately going to irritate you, and that leads you onto the next problem; once you get this book you WILL want the others. "That's not a bad thing ..." I hear you say? - It is when it means forking out even more money for the books, and the hardest part; finding them. Yes, the other books (two others right now) as I found are quite hard to find. I eventually found them, but not for a cheap price.
Apart from than that my only problem is the obvious; bugs in the system. Like every role-playing system this one has it's problems, not that I have noticed any yet, but from reviews of the book I have seen suggest this book has some teething issues that are later sorted in further editions of the game. Another reason why you will want and possibly need to get the further editions to the game.
Conclusion: I know it might look like I'm being pretty negative, the bad points are a lot bigger than the good in my review but despite that I stand by saying the book is a great role-playing game. Not without it's problems, and yes it had more potential and I'm sure it will reach this when I receive the other books and read through them all. Right now I'm happy with the book, It's got a lot of great features and interesting possibilities and it`s looking to be a lot of fun, keeping in mind it's bad point I strongly recommend this to any keen role-players that are interested in Dragonball Z looking for something new and fun.
A Great Game but... They lacked in a few areas. I understood everything in the first read. I have found that over all, this is a near-perfect game... therefore I gave it a near-perfect score.Thankfully they made some revisions in the Frieza Saga book. I can't wait for the Trunks book to be out (Supposedly last week of September).
Great game,but takes a while to learn The game is great,but you will have to read the instructions 3 or 4 times to fully memorize the rules the authors are geniouses and I cant wait for the freeza saga.DBZ fans will be amazed while RPG fans will have loads of fun.
Fun, but many errors The overall idea of a DBZ RPG is good, and the system posited here works pretty well. However, the rules listed in this book are full of contradictions and many things are left unexplained. Currently, the book is most useful as a reference to the English version of DBZ as it gives info on all the characters (major and minor) in the Saiyan Saga (which is before trip to Namek). The game itself needs some work, so don't buy this if you expect to learn it quickly. Your best bet is to wait for the Frieza Saga book coming out soon, which hopefully will have rules errata for the main game (or maybe rewrite the whole thing).
Dragon Ball Z:Anime Adventure Game I personaly like the book.It has the most oraginal and ostanding ideas i have ever seen.The book is good for all Dragon Ball Z/Gt fans.(I woulden't recommened it to new comers though)You have to get into the book and know at least part of the story line.When the book arrived i was over joyed and started reading it right away.If you have qusetions about the book contact me at THESUBLAW2@aol.com.The book is somewhat hard to get a hold of.You can get it here,Barens and noble or Comic Heven.I hope this helps you if not just e-mail me and i will try to help.
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