Designer(s) Dave Z | System(s) Mayhem Engine | |
Publication date 1998 (animania edition)
2000 Zen and the Art of Mayhem edition) Genre(s) universal anime tokusatsu martial arts shonen | ||
Zen and the Art of Mayhem is a generic role-playing game system designed to simulate anime, tokusatsu, and action genre worlds. The core rules systems could be considered a balance between detail and ease of use. The character creation system is fairly detailed allowing for construction of many different and detailed character types. Yet the rest of the rules remain easy and simple to use making it a merger between simple and fast game play, with a characters being well developed and detailed.
History
Early versions of the game were called Animenia, surfacing in the early 1990s, and was a very rules-light system meant for quick and fast games. As the system evolved through play testing the characters became more detailed, although the core system remained fairly simple to use. A PDF version of the rules was placed on the Hexawizards.com, and now defunct website under the banner Panic Studios, in the late 90's. Since then the rules have been placed on the current site.
The system itself is still under development as additional rules sets, called More Power More Damage, are created to allow for more detailed Combat, Magic, Psi, and even Mecha and Super Robots.