Blast from the Past: The Slayers [d20 System] - Guardians of Order game system

Alright so I am back with some more table top RPG goodness from the past.  Back in the day there once was a company called Guardians of Order and they had a plan, to produce RPG's based on various anime properties.  To this end they created the Tri-Stat system and a number of rule books centered around various anime's in addition to having an open "core rule" system called "Big Eyes, Small Mouth".

But eventually they got into producing a few books out side of their own game system making use of the d20 Open Game Licensing rules put out by Wizards of the Coast.  At this point they created a d20 rule set for BESM (Big Eyes Small Mouth), and 3 books for 3 different anime series.

But of course the company is now out of business and those who have their books now have some collectors items now.

And I happened to have gotten my hands on not only the original d20 BESM rules, but the mecha rule book, d20 Hellsing, d20 Trigun, and finally d20 The Slayers.

The book works well apart from the BESM rules offering up its own classes and races.


RACES
The game offers up the following core races to use.

• Beastmen:  These are beings who are part animal and part person.  And by that I mean they are essentially anthropomorphic animals.
• Dragon:  This is an actual player character race that was made available, but the cost to do this was a +6 level adjustment.
• Human:  Well what would an RPG be with out the default race that is found in every RPG.
• Chimera:  This allowed you to create any sort of hybrid race under the name of Chimera.  The idea is that each part of the Chimera uses up an equal share of the individuals essense, and thus if you are 3 parts of something then each part is 1/3rd of the whole being.
• Copy:  This is essentially a clone of the original character, and there are a few rules on this and how it works.

After these initial 5 races the book then goes over "half-breed" races like half-demons, and half-dragons.

CLASSES

The game offers classes that differ from those of the BESM core rule book.  Classes went from level 1 to level 20.

• Bandit
• Bounty Hunter
• Lore Master
• Noble
• Priest
• Rogue
• Warrior
• Witch/Wizard

PRESTIGE CLASSES

On top of the above basic classes there were also options for prestige classes.  All prestige classes are offered to go from level 1 to level 10.

• Cleric/Shrine Maiden
• Martial Artist
• Master-at-Arms
• Pistoleer
• Shaman
• Sorcerer
• Swordsman
• Warrior of Justice

SKILLS

The book offered what I think is the same array of skills as found in D&D 3.5 rules, but with a few excpetions in that detection skills are broken up into more individual sets of skills like Listen, Spot, Search, which is more in line with D&D 3.0 instead.

FEATS

Its noted that many feats in "The Slayers" function differently than in other d20 games, but there is a clear influence from other d20 game systems present in the feats presented.

MAGIC & RELIGION

The next section of the book outlines magic of the Slayers universe.  Different types of magic are given over to different aspects of what makes up magic.

• Black Magic = Sorcery
• Elemental Magic = Shamanism
• White Magic = Clerical

But the most outstanding feature of the magic system in the game is its rules in governing the use of magic.  Spells all deal something called "Spell Drain" on the user in addition to needing to make Spell Casting rolls and Spell Casting Fort saves to reduce spell drain.

From here the magic section moves on to explain magic items and then gives an actual magic spell section for the book, complete with the Dragon Slave spell.

COMBAT

While combat does work pretty much like any other d20 RPG game, the book does outline a few additional rules of note - such as Psychological Attacks.

The Slayer's Universe

Alignment is touched on in that the game sets the tone of "The Slayers" as being mostly a comedy and while it does not outright list alignments it does give suggestions on how PC's might interact with each other.  An example is given:  "Nothing says a lawful good fighter can't be rude and desperate when he encounters a village after days with out eating - or try to stick another party member with the bill afterwards.  It does mean, however, that both players and GM should feel free to mine those stereotypes for their comedic potential during play."

The section then moves on to weapons like firearms, But in general the basic fantasy weapons and armor in the d20 BESM book (or D&D books) are meant to be used here.

NPC's and Anachronism's are mentioned as well, followed by a brief GM section with notes on GMing in this game setting.

ADDITIONAL PAGES

Following up thing are several pages of poster art work from the series.  A credits section is present and then an episode guide.  Finally you get to the character section where the main characters of the show are presented.

• Amelia Wil Tesla Seyruun = Level 12 at the end of Slayers, Level 17 at the end of Slayers Next, Level 21 at the end of Slayers Try.

• Filia Vl Copt = Level 18 at the end of Slayers Try.

• Gourry Gabriev = Level 18 at the end of Slayers, Level 21 at the end of Slayers Next, Level 23 at the end of Slayers Try.

• Lina Inverse = Level 19 at the end of Slayers, Level 21 at the end of Slayers Next, Level 23 at the end of Slayers Try.

• Xellos = Level 35 at the end of Slayers Try.

• Zelgadis Greywords = Level 19 at the end of Slayers, Level 21 at the end of Slayers Next, Level 23 at the end of Slayers Try.

In addition to the main characters noted above, the game outlines a number of secondary characters as well as normal NPC's, and a Bestiary.

The final piece of the book is the all important character sheet (4 pages).

Now this game is just something fun.  It allows a a new way to play a fantasy game with its unique magic rules as well as the anime setting.  Of course the book is also just a good source book for information too and can serve as a creative means of enhancing other d20 games you may be wanting to run.

While you can still find copies of the book floating around online to buy I have found a place were you can pick up a black and white PDF copy of the book.  And don't worry too much on it being in black and white.  The actual book itself is primarily in black and white (grey scale) with the exception of the poster pages, cover, and back of the book.

The link for downloading this PDF is right here:  The Slayers - d20 System

That's all for now.  I'll be back again later with some more table top fun.