If you are a diehard anime fan, and have never played standard D20 RPG's, and never experienced OD&D/OSR/OSE, and you are not over 50 years old, then, this complex movie action visual-themed rule-styled game is for you to figure out with new players excited to try a table top game for the first time ever. Possibly, this is a game for players who have experienced Murder Mystery parties and Dinner Theatre shows, and most likely with Larping experience from White Wolf, such as Vampire the Masquerade. Or an anime fan.

I rated 3 stars because I am not a Larper fan and a game based upon the Cowboy Bebop setting, where your character is a Bounty Hunter (BH), is 3 stars minimum. Cool and Respect.

Honestly, I stopped trying to figure out the rules, so I can not rate higher because I lost interest. The player who runs the game is called the Big Shot. (In other RPG's, this role is the Dungeon Master, game master, story teller, judge, etc.) If I could experience a play test I would figure this all out, and running this game as a Big Shot (BS) I would need several sessions to practice with players to figure out when to when and what to what. The game is setup with a Bebop theme, I suppose, so all terms kind of relate to the theme you are to roleplay.

The game system will be hard to explain because the rules are not about types of different dice to be used for character skills and abilities, and no specific dice are needed to succeed or fail versus challenge ratings because Cowboy Bebop uses only d6's. There is no initiative because your turn is based upon the Test you discussed with the BS to achieve success or failure in three Tabs, using your Traits for action results where your BH rolls d6's for Hits to succeed and the BS counters with Shocks. Forget about me explaining where or how the Clock comes into all of this, where your BH adds Hits and your BS adds Shocks to challenge you achieving your Test. And if you fail you can Push to add a die to try again but if you fail you cross two slashes off your Bullet and then you go into a Phase. That's all I got, so far.

If you don't have a character strength, or a personality, or a querk, your BH will not achieve their Tab to achieve their Test goal. This is where roleplaying appears. If you can not include your character background story and Traits into your turn you fail and receive a Shock. Example: If you do not, imitate Bruce Lee's fist knuckle clench everytime you fight an opponent, one Shock against you. If you do not include your signature backflip landing cat-like the way Spider-Man and Black Widow do, fail, and you recieve a Shock.

Sounds fun if you have energy and hyperness to keep this up every encounter, or Test.

To help you create your story background using Cowboys themes to help visualize your BH actions, you need to sellect an Approach. The description examples used sound like an Alignment that decides your BH moral decisions to explain their actions: Rock, Dance, Blues, Tango, Jazz. No, you do not dance around to a music type, but your action is a feeling of the music type, I presume, like an anime chase scene with music in the background, or the Cowboy Bebop opening them song. So an Approach is just an action without no morality involved. (Example with using an alignment to explain the reason for the Approach: Rock = Chaos, Dance = Evil, Blues = Law, Tango = Chaos or Evil, Jazz = Law.) So your Traits help influence or decide on your Approach, by how your BH looks and acts.

For extra challenges, the Big Shot can add Risk to a die roll on top of Shocks.

I feel the style of the gameplay is based off the original anime series and not from the streamed adaption. Judging from the game art using clipped art from the original series, I bank my opinion this game is influenced from the original anime though game mechanics tend to not have any kind of agenda in mind, and if you have not viewed the original anime, or never cared to view the remake adaption, then this game is for anyone who is a fan of Cowboy Bebop. Young and old. Well, maybe not the old.

One thing I like about the Cowboy Bebop universe is the fact there are Astral Gates which could bridge this setting to any other RPG world you know or would like to involve, like any sci-fi settings, such as: Spell Jammer, Blade Runner, Traveller, Star Frontiers, or Star Wars, etc. I feel this game is more a roleplaying interactive game creating a story with the Big Shot. No maps. No Dungeons. More a Larping and Theatre of the Mind gameplay. And if you are a fan enthusiast, Cowboy Bebop will have you creating many Traits to imitate your favorite character.