TTRPG Roll 24-9 ~ See you (again) Space Cowboy -or- hard commentary on Cowboy Bebop Roleplaying Game (Mana Project Studios, 2023)

Back in June of 2023 I wrote my initial reactions to the Cowboy Bebop Roleplaying Game (see TTRPG Roll 23-26 – Rocking Tango or Jazzy Blues? Looking for the bebop in Cowboy Bebop: The Roleplaying Game (Mana Project Studio, 2023)). Those impressions were formed after the Kickstarter campaign fulfilled on delivering the softcopy version of the game. Now, just over six months later, I have the hardcover dead-tree version in hand. Though much of my roleplaying game hobby has gone digital over the years some acquisitions, like my 2023 Roleplaying Game of the year, The One Ring: Roleplaying in the World of the Lord of the Rings (Free League Press, 2022), impress upon me the lesson that I learn games better when I have a dead-tree version in hand. With that thought in mind I opened the hardcover Cowboy Bebop Roleplaying Game and took another look inside. What I discovered is that while many of my initial impressions remain from a game systems engineering perspective the game mechanisms in the Cowboy Bebop Roleplaying Game offer much to consider.

Approaching Cowboy Bebop

The hardcover core rule book for the Cowboy Bebop Roleplaying Game is a beautifully illustrated 272 pages. The core game mechanisms take up a mere 15 pages or just under 6% of the total book. Within those few short pages of the core game rules lies the most important narrative aspect of the game wherein players must choose one of five different Approaches when taking a test. As the rules state on page 16:

“If you want to show your character…

• …withstanding something overwhelming, that’s a Rock Approach.
• …being an unstoppable force, that’s a Dance Approach.
• …facing inner feelings, that’s a Blues Approach.
• …influencing other people, that’s a Tango Approach.
• ...understanding the environment, that’s a Jazz Approach.“

The five Approaches are used repeatedly throughout the rules for the Cowboy Bebop Roleplaying Game. When I was forming my first impressions of the Cowboy Bebop Roleplaying Game those Approaches didn’t really resonate with me. This time through I decided to try and look at the game using the different Approaches. In doing so, I quickly realized that I bounced off hard the first time because I kept to a Rock Approach—the game was so different from what I usually play I was overwhelmed. This time through I decided to use a Dance Approach (unstoppable force) to reading and understanding the rules with an eye towards controlling any rising Blues Approach (inner feelings) that might get in the way of reaching a Jazz Approach (understand the environment, i.e. the game).

Cowboy Bebop the Arthur Murray way

In some ways I describe myself as a “game system engineer” when it comes to learning RPGs. I like to not only learn how to play a RPG, but also understand the design approach upon which the game is built. Dance teaching pioneer and legend Arthur Murray taught dance using foot steps, so in my Dance Approach to learning Cowboy Bebop I decided to methodically—step by step—look at the core rules.

The core game mechanism of the Cowboy Bebop Roleplaying Game is built around three basic elements: Sessions, Tests, and Riffs:

1. Sessions are divided into three tabs using a three-act structure for adventure.
   • The tabs are G.E.S.T. (short for Get Everyone and Stuff Together); 3, 2, 1… (main goal is to reveal the Bounty’s Secret); and Let’s Jam! (final confrontation and consequences).
   • Each tab has an escalating Difficulty, a main objective, and main threat.
   • Each tab has objectives which are tracked using Clocks.
     • Player characters (aka Bounty Hunters or BH) try to close Objective Clocks using hits from Tests.
     • Threat Clocks—those with negative consequences—are run by the Big Shot and closed using shocks from Tests.
2. Tests are taken when there is a meaningful goal to achieve that has interesting consequences.
   • When making a Test the BH chooses an Approach which determines what traits are used.
   • A dice pool is built with a number of d6 added for the session tab, traits used, and if appropriate another d6 is added if the Approach matches the Session Genre.
     • Some rules award Advantage or Disadvantage: a d6 is added to the pool with either the lowest (Advantage) or highest (Disadvantage) rolling die removed from the final roll.
   • The Test roll will result in hits or shocks.
     • A hit is scored if the sum total of the dice are equal to or greater than the Difficulty of the Session tab; a second hit is possible if at two 6s are rolled.
     • A shock is produced for every 1 rolled.
     • Hits (or shocks) are used to close Clocks, Alter the Difficulty of the tab, or gain Risk (meta currency for the Big Shot).
3. Riffs are resources a BH can call upon to to remove shock, gain hits, help others, use a second Approach, or otherwise alter the odds or results of a Test.

Clocking in with Cowboy Bebop

To me, the most interesting game mechanism in the Cowboy Bebop Roleplaying Game are the clocks. Clocks have different sizes to denote their difficulty; a larger clock is more difficult as it will take more hits/shocks to fill. Clocks also have Approaches; the last tick of a clock must be filled by a Test that uses that clocks Approach. The different objective clock Approaches are described on page 24 of the core rule book:

• “A Rock clock is usually about overcoming something powerful and threatening, putting a lot of pressure on the characters.”
• “A Dance clock is usually about showing the energy, fury, or enthusiasm of the characters: a time for them to take the spotlight.”
• “A Blues clock should be about overcoming doubt and regret, or finding enlightenment. It can be about a single character or many, relating to the BHs’ characters or the Bounty.”
• “A Tango clock should be about persuading someone to do something: seducing someone, convincing someone to release a hostage, or getting what you want through manipulation.”
• “A Jazz clock should be about understanding something: solving an enigma, cracking a code, understanding a technology, or getting a plan to come together.”

Threat clocks not only lead to negative consequences, they also usually have a negative consequence for that tab or the next. Threat clocks are described on page 25 of the core rule book:

• “A Rock clock is about impending doom…When It’s closed, each BH’s character wounds a trait…”
• “A Dance clock is about running out of fuel, literally or figuratively. Until the end of the current tab or during the next tab, each Test must deal a minimum of two shocks by default instead of one.”
• “A Blues clock is about regret that makes it hard to recover. Until the end of the current tab or during the next tab, BH’s characters can only heal one wound instead of two by showing their wounds.“
• “A Tango clock is about betrayal: an allied character changes sides and acts against the BH’s characters.”
• “A Jazz clock is about unexpected complications. Difficulty increases by 3 and can’t be lowered until the ed of the current tab.“

Every tab in a Session of the Cowboy Bebop Roleplaying Game needs at least one objective clock representing the characters’ successful completion of the main objective and a second threat clock showing failure. When either clock closes the tab ends. This is an excellent way to pace a tab within a Session.

One part of clocks in the Cowboy Bebop Roleplaying Game I really like is found in the first of three Golden Rules for clocks: “If the players want to prevent something from happening, they should open and fill a different clock before the event is triggered. For instance, this could meant that you have two clocks, one called “The Bomb Goes Off!” and another called “Defuse the Bomb!”” (23).

Jazz o’clock gaming

For a roleplaying game that is supposedly so narrative heavy, the actual game engine in the Cowboy Bebop Roleplaying Game is rather structured. The most narrative part of the game is understanding the language of the five different Approaches. Once that language is understood the rest of the game is easy to learn. The Session-Tab construct of scenes and campaigns, coupled with the different clocks that are ticked off with tests, is relatively straight forward. The hardest part of the game, frankly, is not the game engine but being able to take what you want to do as a Bounty Hunter player or the Big Shot and describe it in the language of the Cowboy Bebop Roleplaying Game. I now see that the first time I took on learning the Cowboy Bebop Roleplaying Game I didn’t grasp the importance of the game language as defined in the Approaches. If one can’t grasp the differences in the Approaches then the game mechanisms—no matter how simple or straight-forward—will be indiscernible.

The clock mechanisms in the Cowboy Bebop Roleplaying Game deserve to be in more of my RPGs. The simple, graphical way a clock shows a count-down to success—or failure—is powerful imagery especially in a game that is all about “what you see.”

While I understand—even appreciate—the game engine behind the Cowboy Bebop Roleplaying Game I still am hesitant to fully embrace the game. The part of the core rule book that brings that feeling home for me is “About Character Growth” inset box in the Sessions chapter:

About Character Growth

Capturing the bounty isn’t the real measure of the characters’ success or failure. The Bounty is really just a plot device to help the players to reveal their characters through play.

Sessions, 39

Like I said the first time I tried the Cowboy Bebop Roleplaying Game, revealing characters through play is not really my cup of tea. This exploration of the game mechanisms has shown me I have much to learn about how to play a roleplaying game, but I don’t expect to see the Cowboy Bebop Roleplaying Game be my go-to title for adventure.

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Feature image courtesy br.pinterest.com

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