I bought BESM a few years ago, but have not really created a setting to run it in. I originially was going to use it instead of d20 for one of my on-going fantasy worlds I'm working on, but gave that up as to much work. There is so much d20 fantasy material out there, that it was easier to use d20 than convert it. I do plan to buy the BESM d20 books though. I wanted to create a setting that was more anime rather than the realistic fantasy worlds I have normally dreamed up. In that vein, this page is a collection of notes for an eventual BESM setting.
One problem I am having is that I have not read or watched that much anime. Most of my reading has been science fiction or fantasy, mostly of the hard SF or military SF sort. You can take a look at many of the books and limited amount of anime I"ve read or seen over the years on my book list.
Through a process of elimination, I decided to use a modern setting. Pet monsters are out at the moment, as are robot type mecha. Mecha don't fit the time period (modern) that I want to use. Magical powers will be availiable using the magic attribute, items of power and such. Until I'm really familiar with the system, I'm not going to allow dynamic sorcery. Depending upon the players, it could come out looking like either Sailor Moon, Buffy the Vampire Slayor, or Kiki's Delivery Service.
At the moment I'm thinking of using the cross time gate from "Family Trade" or "Conquistador" as the source of magical powers. It would also be a source of the weird monsters they'd have to fight. The gate will only go to one place, so there won't be a Sliders type plot of a new world each session. More than likely the characters won't know about the gate, and finding the gate will be one of the major plot goals. This idea of gates to alternate worlds has also shown up in BESM 3rd edition previews.
Characters can be either magical or mundane. If they have magical powers, they are from the other time line, or some object from the other side grants their powers. I am thinking that they won't get to spend all their character points when they create their characters. They'll get to spend one or two after every encounter. Magic is of the limited spells plus energy points model instead of lots of spells.
A couple of possible ideas for them finding the gate exist. One would be that their parents give them a trinket that is from the other world. Only they, or those others from the other world, can make the trinket open the gate. To most people it's just a neat item like jewelry or something. The trinket would also activate their powers somehow. Another could be that real estate developers or the local military activities have disturbed the gate, causing it to activate. Just the presence of the active gate in their region activates the characters powers. It would have to be in a swamp or something I'd think. I know that this other world won't be an alternate dimension, but an alternate time line. The gate will be more like Stargate or Family Trade, rather than Charmed's other planes, or Sailor Moon's Negaverse.
The bad guys will be mundane, magical and other world mundane. The party will have to fight off mundane gangs & gangsters, cool hot rodders and local martial arts types. They will have to deal with other groups of magical girls and guys, both evil and good. They will have to deal with magical creatures from the other world. They will also have to deal with non-magical creatures from the other world.
Basic plot lines might include being hunted by both our government agencies (see Jumper) and forces from the other world. Gangsters and drug dealers might like access to their powers, and try and co-opt them. Or there might be other similarly magically powered people who turn to crime that have to be fought.
Magic, and the magical monsters & creatures are effectivelly new to our world. The government has to learn to deal with creatures it doesn't understand, citizens who have magical powers and other issues. Magic hasn't been hidden from society, such as Charmed, or Buffy show. Instead magic hasn't been availiable for at least many generations and is now fairly visiable.
Since magic is new to the world, people have very different reactions to it. People who encounter magic will not normally forget the event (WotC's d20 Modern). Nor will any group of mages try and make them forget (ala Harry Potter series). Many will assume that a lot of the magical stuff they see is special tech at first instead of magic though.
There might be old magical societies that know the secrets of the magic made availiable by the gates. These secret and not so secret societies have been around for decades, but until the Gate opened, their magic didn't work. Not all members will be able to work magic, and not all magic workers learned from such societies.
Source ideas and books:
Questions to answer about a modern (urban) fantasy world: