Summary

• Dive into the Cowboy Bebop world with the new RPG by playing as beloved characters through storylines from the original series and beyond.
• Music-themed d6 dice system adds a unique twist to this collaborative narrative role-playing game.
• Cowboy Bebop fans can immerse themselves in the series beyond the original story by creating their own characters and bounties.

Mana Project Studio has the perfect game for Cowboy Bebop fans with their new RPG, which allows players to step into the world of their favorite anime. Set in the year 2071, Cowboy Bebop follows bounty hunter Spike Spiegel and his partner Jet Black as they travel on their ship, the Bebop, through the solar system, hunting down bounties while trying to evade darkness in their own pasts. The Cowboy Bebop RPG brings this world to life through the players' imaginations as they immerse themselves in this expansive world.

Players are led through missions by Big Shot, the GM for the Cowboy Bebop RPG, with each session bringing the secrets of their past closer to the surface. Players can play as characters from Cowboy Bebop or create their own bounty hunters as they hunt down antagonists from the series and original bounties created by Big Shot. The Cowboy Bebop RPG is an original d6 dice-based system that uses music as a central theme with choices made by players to use Jazz, Rock, Tango, Blues, or Dance as their musical approach impacting the outcome of their story.

While at Gen Con, Screen Rant spoke with Silvia De Stefanis about Mana Project Studios' Cowboy Bebop RPG. She explained why this project was so close to her heart and shared the care that Mana Project Studio put into every step of development. De Stefanis also revealed how important the input from the community was and the fun that comes from not only playing beloved characters from the Cowboy Bebop anime series but creating one's own.

Cowboy Bebop Was A ion Project For Mana Project Studios

De Stefanis discussed how her childhood love of Cowboy Bebop proved to be the perfect marriage with her ion for role-playing games when Mana Projet Studio began working on the Cowboy Bebop RPG. She also shared the long process just to launch the Kickstarter.

Silvia De Stefanis: Well, Cowboy Bebop was a work from the heart for me. I worked on the graphic design and the illustration of the last cover and also illustration of the map, and playtesting, and development. I'm not the developer. I was a fan of the anime. I was very little when I saw it, and it gave me such a thrill.

And then I forgot about it, and then I started working on role-playing games because I like unity through gaming, through playing. I was in the company for like one or two months and my boss said to me, "We are going to do Cowboy Bebop." I was like, "Sorry, what?" Cowboy Bebop the Roleplaying Game!

It was five years of work for Cowboy Bebop in reality. The people have seen the Kickstarter. It was amazing, but before that, we had to do a lot of work with Bandai Namco Animation. We really needed to go through a long trial of approval. It was really difficult because we are the first people outside Japan, at least in Europe, to make tabletop RPGs about official Japanese licensing. So it was a huge responsibility, and it was quite hard also in the moment.

The Cowboy Bebop Community Was Instrumental In The Development Of The RPG

"When you work with some license you love and respect, you don't want to ruin it."

De Stefanis broke down the development process and the importance of from the Cowboy Bebop fans. Although it was a grueling process this and the dedication of the team led to a stronger game every step of the way.

Silvia De Stefanis: After that, we had a playtesting document, and one of the things I love most about Cowboy Bebop is that we worked a lot with the community. We have done an original system for Cowboy Bebop, a very narrative system based on music genre. We put out the playtesting document and we get a lot of mixed . Some people were excited, some people were a bit mad at us, some people were really mad at us. We read everything. It was hours and hours and hours of reading, talking to those people. A lot of hours of playtesting.

After work, we will all meet online and playtest the game for months every night. Every single night we were working on it, and after all the from the community and talking about it, we were ready to do the quick-start. And having the quick-start, we were ready for the Kickstarter. We were kind of scared because it was our first license, and when you work with some license you love and respect, you don't want to ruin it. You really want to do a good job.

And then the Kickstarter was explosive. It was a really great success for us. The community was really, really ive because they really saw our effort in talking to them, taking time, redoing things, rethink, explain, trying to offer the best quality of game and also an authentic Cowboy Bebop experience. What we wanted to do, why an original system, why not just slap the licensing on a system?

Silvia De Stefanis Reveals Why They Needed To Create A New System For The Cowboy Bebop RPG

"No system can fit Cowboy Bebop as well as the one we developed."

De Stefanis discussed why they wanted to create a new game system for the Cowboy Bebop RPG and shared insight into the types of sessions players can experience based on the story they and the Big Shot want to tell.

Silvia De Stefanis: Because there is, in our opinion, no system can fit Cowboy Bebop as well as the one we developed. It's based on musical genre, you will have keywords representing your character and then you play with six-sided dices. The game is really, really fast. When playing your character drive it like a stolen car. It's crazy. It's all about jamming, it's all about taking the rhythm. It doesn't matter what happens, crazy things, everything, you cannot really die unless you decide to, as in the original anime. It's really difficult for the characters die at the moment.

But the nice thing also in my opinion was working on memory mechanics. The fact that it's Cowboy Bebop, so your past will come and haunt you. You can have a personal session, which is like when Faye finds the videotape and discovers secrets about her past.

You can have the classic session, classic episode, get your bounty, do your things, decide at the end. You can have the personal session about the conflict between Vicious and Spike for the love story, for example. You can also have a film session, have a lot of fun, like in the series. At the end, you have season break points and also you have, obviously, the end, the final session for your character.

Players Can Play Characters Directly From Cowboy Bebop Or Create Their Own

De Stefanis revealed that players can embody their favorite characters from the series, including Ein. This includes every detail from their ship to the storylines that they are involved in. She also teased how the game is more collaborative, with players needing to rely and react on each other in the moment instead of relying on mechanics like initiative.

Silvia De Stefanis: In the Cowboy Bebop RPG you can play your beloved bounty hunters from the anime. It's totally cool. At the end of the book, you have all the materials to play them, ready to go. You compile your character sheet, you go and play. You also have the original episodes as an example of play, so you can use them as an inspiration. You can have the Bebop, you can have the Swordfish, everything for the series.

But the most amazing thing, in my opinion, you can make your own bounty hunters, your own sheep, your own mothership like the Bebop.We have entire chapters about making your character, making your original bounty hunter after the rules. You can be also an animal, like Ein. I play in a live campaign in Italy on a Discord channel, I play as a cat. Real intelligent and crazy cat, and I had a lot of fun. It's really the Ein experience for all the players.

The rules are all based on musical genre and also cooperation with player. There is a sense of jamming with players. You have to go all together. It's not like [initiative with], "Oh, it's his turn. The Big Shot is talking with them. I'm not paying attention." No, no, you have to be all together, being like, "Okay, do that. Okay, I do that. I take my gun, I do this." You have the riff, which are like your superpowers in the game, the amazing strong things you can do. You have to do that at the right moment, but after the rules, and after the rules, you get in the session obviously.

Cowboy Bebop Fans Can Playout The Story Beyond The Original Series

However, De Stefanis explained why creating your own characters and storylines is even more exciting as a player. It allows fans to put their own mark on the story while still fully immersing themselves in the world that they love.

Silvia De Stefanis: You can do a preexisting episode, but you can also make up your own. You make your character, you have everything you need with traits, examples, everything you can do, explained with the examples, your memory mechanic, which is about bullets and weight, your groove, and everything. fter that you have also the creation of your mothership, the creation of your models. You have a lot of tables for fast creation, and then you have the most important things, your bounties.

We have a lot of pre-made bounties that you can combine in different ways, but you can also make your own. In the book, you will find everything to make your own bounty and also your own scenarios. You have everything that explains all the planets from the solar system, and you have also tables if you want to make something fast, but you can also take your time and make your own following the examples.

You can really use your imagination. If you are a big fan of the series, it can be nice because you start from what you know and love and you can really make it your own. So for me it was amazing because in the beginning, we were playing character from the series durign the playtesting. When we started to make our own, I was so happy because it was like when I was a child looking at the TV, but now it's me doing it. It was so fun for me. The nice thing is for people that love the series is to put their personal touch on it.

More About The Cowboy Bebop RPG

Discover the captivating world of Cowboy Bebop, a critically acclaimed Japanese animated television series crafted by the visionary Shinichiro Watanabe. Set in the year 2071, this enthralling narrative orbits around a gang of bounty hunters in space, delving deep into unresolved issues from the past, and exploring concepts such as existentialism, boredom, and loneliness. Embark on an extraordinary journey into the Cowboy Bebop universe, where unforgettable characters and enthralling narratives await your discovery. The Cowboy Bebop Roleplaying Game - Corebook provides an expansive toolkit to fully immerse yourself in this iconic world, forging your own path in the Solar System.

Check out more of our Gen Con interviews here:

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• Jess Lanzillo on Dungeons & Dragons
• Jeremy Crawford on D&D Core Rulebooks
• Rowan Hall & Spenser Starke on Daggerheart

The Cowboy Bebop RPG is available now.