I don't like Champions, too much maths for me, too cold and calculated; add a complication, buy a power. But I was very interested in the ideas behind Fuzion.

I bought Bubblegum Crisis because I like anime and manga, although I'm not familiar with BGC. I wanted to see how they handled it; very nicely. If you want to check out Fuzion, buy the Bubblegum Crisis game. The Champions book is half a new campaign, half the Fuzion rules, and hardly the Super Power plug-in. You'll still need the 4th edition of Champions to get the full list of powers.

One idea the BGC rpg has that is worth nicking is the idea of Goals and Beats. It shows you how to plot your game and keep the players on the plot by using Goals and Beats (scenes). It is trying to follow the styles of the anime/videos. Bubblegum Crisis is split into Series, then Episodes (programmes), then Beats (scenes) in the Episode. So you work out your Series Goals, Episode Goals and then Beat Goals. A Beat Goal would be 'find the missing bike', 'stop the fire', 'meet the doctor' etc. Episode Goals would be an adventure. A Series could be the whole campaign e.g. a border war, an exploration, a revolution.

Where it really gets clever is in the Beats. The idea of Beats is to help you plot the Episode. There are 5 types of Beats: Hook; Cliffhanger; Development; Climax; Resolution.

HOOK: A Hook is what gets the PCs into the episode e.g. discovery, crisis, kidnapping, revelation etc.

CLIFF-HANGER: This is some action that affects the players e.g. ambush, verbal confrontation, obstacle, pursuit etc.

DEVELOPMENT: This is something that moves the plot along e.g. clue, sabotage, retreat, warning etc.

CLIMAX: The big finale, e.g. a big battle or revelation.

RESOLUTION: The final scene e.g. a happy ending, the villain escapes, the PCs are captured etc. This can set up the sequel to the episode or next Hook.

The idea is that you have a Hook, various Cliff-hangers and Developments as needed, then the Climax and finally the Resolution. Each Beat should take around 15 minutes, so you can roughly plan out the Episode quite well.

I really like this. As you know, I am always looking for tools to help the GM design a module or adventure. This is a great tool. The examples I list above are just a few of theirs; the examples given in the BGC rpg though are a little limited, but I think this is because they are following the style of anime. You can think up a list of your own hooks and cliff-hangers to suit your game.