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littlebottom
2011-05-04, 07:02 PM
Hi! and welcome to the Anima thread!

this is a thread for ANYTHING Anima based. from help with rules, to character suggestions, to homebrews to anything you want really.

for those who dont know what Anima is, heres a description:

Anima is a game for those people who like big, flashy, fun and largely over the top fantasy based games. The characters in the act of being level 1 are already acomplished human (or... mostly human) beings. They are stronger than any average person already, in their own way of course.

for example, the rulebook states that Albert einstein may be considered anything up to a level 3 human, for literally just being exceedingly smart and being an accomplished human. but most people dont even register as a level 1.

The system allows for psychics, mages, Users of Ki, and your average warriors, although the last two have a lot of cross over.

it is a system that only requires 2 dice, which are 2 D10s, one designated tens, the other units, so you have a D100. a basic attack goes something like this: Roll D100, add your attack value, the opponent rolls a D100 and adds his block/dodge value, the numbers are directly compared to one another, and whom so ever gets higher succeeds, the attacker succeeding would result in a hit, the damage is determined by the weapon and by how much you succeeded your attack, so, if the attacker rolls a 68 and adds an attack of 50, he gets a total of 118, the defender rolls a 12, and adds a 45, and gets a total of 57, you find the difference, (which is 61) and this determines the %of weapon damage you deal.

thats some of the crunch, now some of the fluff:

The setting is based on a world in which long ago, magic and non human races/beings were common place, but humans were vastly populous, and after a long long series of wars and battles, the humans managed to unite, and conquour the land, forming the basis of the empire which included every single country on the planet. the Emporer (who was the first general of the messiah "Abel") decided that all the history of the empire should be protected, but at the same time, that evil should be destroyed. because of this, there is the church (founded by the followers of Abel) who hunt down anything mystical and destroy it, and then there is the "secret" service, called the tol rako, who find anything to do with the history of the empire, (magical or not) and protect it. these factions often clash. this empire has been prosporous over the past hundreds of years, but recently a slightly more corrupt man gained the throne, this led to upset across the empire, eventually the man was stopped, but the natural heir to the throne was not placed on the throne, another was instead, which caused more upset to those who still believed in the emporers bloodline. the events of the coming years only managed to highten the tension, until the first emporess was crowned, many countries used this as an opportunity to break free from the empire. and this is the time the game is set. a time of political tension. a time in which known users of magic(or psychic ability, or extreme Ki ability) will be hunted down by the church. a time in which the players have to rise up to become more than mere men, but almost gods in their own right, to vanquish their enemies and pull through to save the world from destroying itself.

enough of that now. First things i want to hear in this thread are from people who have played/ran/like the system, and i also want to hear if you havnt played the system, but want to know more, feel free to ask questions about anything and I (and hopefully other people) will answer them!

i have a couple things i want to ask of my own to people about the system, but ill wait till i see we get a few people in the thread first.

DONT forget to subscribe if you like the system!

Geddoe
2011-05-04, 10:35 PM
I love the system(setting can be hit or miss for me) and art. My character just hit level 4 a few sessions back in my brother's game. I also have a campaign that I DM for, but we are taking a break from mine because 3 campaigns when you meet once a week is too much for us.

Hardest part is definitely creating your first character. It goes a lot smoother after that.

Most of the special races are also gone because of the destruction caused to the planet by Rah's machine. It did so much damage that the world had to be split into three with almost no transport between them. One for humans, one for the elves, and one for the super-elves(who have a metal allergy).

The other races are still in the human world to an extent, they just lay low.

Mordokai
2011-05-04, 10:42 PM
I have the book and I like the system as far as the fluff goes, but crunch... damn, the character creation alone seems almost like you need a PhD to do it. That has set me and my group of from trying. Also, the mechanics seems too much into numbers and any games that has a calculator as suggested equipment is somewhat... odd to me.

littlebottom
2011-05-04, 10:42 PM
I GM the game, so ive never played in it beyond a couple PbPs on this forum, which usually die before we even get awarded exp:smallsigh:

But yes, the first character is the hardest. it doesnt help that the rules within the book are not presented in a 100% liner fashion, there are some useful bits of information you need from all over the book especially for character creation and such, so your only hope is if someone reads it from cover to cover (as i did) which made things smoother since i remembered most of the odd bits that were not where you needed them.

saying that, its not as bad as some rulebooks ive seen.


I have the book and I like the system as far as the fluff goes, but crunch... damn, the character creation alone seems almost like you need a PhD to do it. That has set me and my group of from trying. Also, the mechanics seems too much into numbers and any games that has a calculator as suggested equipment is somewhat... odd to me.

yeah, a calculator can help, basically it just saves you a touch of time, (hell higher levels of DnD need a calculator realistically :smalltongue:) but its just "197-169=...... 28" without a calculator, and with it its "197-169=*tap tap*28"

i advise you (or who ever would be GM) to read the book cover to cover, and test create a character or two, then sit down with the players individually and help them. once they have got into the game, things will be easier for everyone.

infact, what i did was i made a character to see if i got the rules right, once i picked up on all my errors, i made a sheet for each player to have a one off session to teach them the basic rules BEFORE they make their own characters, and you just guide them through the character creation, that way, they get to see how things work, theres no point in asking a player "so, do you want to put more points into a martial art?" when they dont even know how a martial art type may affect combat in game.

Shade Kerrin
2011-05-05, 12:24 AM
To follow up on Littlebottom's response, I'll just say this: The difficulty of the game is 80% character creation, 15% GMing, and 5% miscellaneous. I've found that it is extraordinarily simple from a player's perspective. That said, it's not really for rules-lite people.

A note to make is that the combat system is rather tactical, with most penalties being enough to bring you on even terms with someone about 5 levels higher than you.

The system does have some flaws. Mainly is the difficulty in getting non-combat skills to a relevant level(though I hear the 2nd Ed has taken measures to counter this), but also lacking is the occasional hole in the combat system. One example that has cropped up a couple of times in my games is that there is no official method of feinting. You either attack or you don't. I've thought of a couple of possible methods of doing this:

Simple method: Without rolling dice, you treat the opponent as having spent a deference. Still costs an attack
Attack method: Make an attack as normal. Instead of damage, a sucess treats the opponent has having had to defend against 2 attacks this round.
On failure, they can choose to counter as normal, or to simply not reduce their defense value from this attack.
Should find a way to include sleight of hand somehow, either as an alternative roll instead of attack, or as a potential bonus to the attack roll


As per my signature, I am currently running a game, which has somehow managed to last since the start of January. Since the longest game I've played in of any system on these forums only lasted 3 months, I'm starting to actually feel a bit of pride as a GM.

Jerthanis
2011-05-05, 02:06 AM
Anima is awesome and I find it a shame I haven't had the chance to play it in a while. I remember complaining about the system like crazy when we were diving in, did nothing but complain inwardly the first few sessions... and then it started growing on me. I finished the game astounded by how much I liked it.

Unfortunately, while I went in with zero expectations, and finding it good made me love it, most of the rest of my group went in with huge expectations, and finding it merely good soured them on it. Now it's likely to join the pile of systems we played once and then never again.

I had the idea to run a Slayers universe game with the Anima system, but as I understand the magic, you're kind of limited to one or two schools of magic if you want to be any good. As I understand it, you split your maximum spell level between the schools you can cast from... so if, to pull a number out of nowhere, you could get one school up to level 80, or you could have two schools at max level 40... or three at max level 26. This seems to go against the Slayers style magic where most people specialize, but that doesn't really restrict significant dabbling in others, even if you don't get to the most powerful spells in your nonspecialties. Am I reading the rules right?

littlebottom
2011-05-05, 09:28 AM
Anima is awesome and I find it a shame I haven't had the chance to play it in a while. I remember complaining about the system like crazy when we were diving in, did nothing but complain inwardly the first few sessions... and then it started growing on me. I finished the game astounded by how much I liked it.

Unfortunately, while I went in with zero expectations, and finding it good made me love it, most of the rest of my group went in with huge expectations, and finding it merely good soured them on it. Now it's likely to join the pile of systems we played once and then never again.

I had the idea to run a Slayers universe game with the Anima system, but as I understand the magic, you're kind of limited to one or two schools of magic if you want to be any good. As I understand it, you split your maximum spell level between the schools you can cast from... so if, to pull a number out of nowhere, you could get one school up to level 80, or you could have two schools at max level 40... or three at max level 26. This seems to go against the Slayers style magic where most people specialize, but that doesn't really restrict significant dabbling in others, even if you don't get to the most powerful spells in your nonspecialties. Am I reading the rules right?

Erm, i think so in a way. if you have 80 levels of magic you can invest, you can split it how you like, as long as you dont invest in oposite magic types, which then require 2 "levels" to actually gain 1 level of magic. but once you fill one, you can then fill another, then another, then another. it will just happen over time as you level up.

dont take my word on this one, im going to have to re-read the magic section first, since my group im running with are level 3 at the moment and its been a while since i have played with higher leveled casters(i get to run an adventure maybe once every 6 months to a year :smallsigh: because we take turns GMing different systems)

so that bit of knowledge seems to have slipped... ill go read it again and answer you fully in a bit, unless someone else can remember

SlyGuyMcFly
2011-05-05, 10:20 AM
I had the idea to run a Slayers universe game with the Anima system, but as I understand the magic, you're kind of limited to one or two schools of magic if you want to be any good. As I understand it, you split your maximum spell level between the schools you can cast from... so if, to pull a number out of nowhere, you could get one school up to level 80, or you could have two schools at max level 40... or three at max level 26. This seems to go against the Slayers style magic where most people specialize, but that doesn't really restrict significant dabbling in others, even if you don't get to the most powerful spells in your nonspecialties. Am I reading the rules right?

You missed the part about learning specific spells instead of whole schools: Basically, you spend an number of level points to get one spell from a given school, with no limit on level (outside of the usual no 80+ stuff for mortals). So in your example, you could have Destruction at 60, a level 50 Fire spell, a level 40 Light spell and a level 8 Necromancy spell.

The costs are in Table 57 (page 115 in my book).

Edit: Herp derp Necro is opposed to all schools, so no level 8 necro spell. Lessay Earth instead.

littlebottom
2011-05-05, 10:53 AM
that said, your also forgetting mages can power up older spells to make them more powerful anyway. so as they level up, even if they dont have level 80 spells, but they have, say, multiple at 20, they can charge the spells up quicker, for better effects in the same amount of time, or even charge up and use as many low spells as their MA will allow.

say a spell costs a flat 20 Zeon to cast, and does a damage 30 hit. at higher levels, when you can gather say 50 zeon in a turn, you can cast it for the flat cost of 20, and use the remaining 30 to boost it three times, and each boost may, say add 10 to the base damage. turning a 20 zeon, 30 damage spell, into a 50 zeon 60 damage spell.

EDIT: i know they are called wizards, ive been playing WoW too long:smallsigh:

Shade Kerrin
2011-05-05, 08:17 PM
Edit: Herp derp Necro is opposed to all schools, so no level 8 necro spell. Lessay Earth instead.

1pt advantage from the GM's Toolkit: Opposite magic. Do not double the cost for learning spells in opposition to the paths you already have.

But.....Slayers with Anima? The Zeonic magic system probably won't cover you there, since it is designed to be used with restraint. Re-fluffing psionics or ki, however, would probably serve you quite well, though.

littlebottom
2011-05-05, 08:41 PM
1pt advantage from the GM's Toolkit: Opposite magic. Do not double the cost for learning spells in opposition to the paths you already have.

But.....Slayers with Anima? The Zeonic magic system probably won't cover you there, since it is designed to be used with restraint. Re-fluffing psionics or ki, however, would probably serve you quite well, though.

well, zeon is quite possibly one of the more powerful things in the game, the problem being is its regeneration is really low, but again, you can pump this up with advantages during character creation.

Jerthanis
2011-05-06, 04:17 PM
But.....Slayers with Anima? The Zeonic magic system probably won't cover you there, since it is designed to be used with restraint. Re-fluffing psionics or ki, however, would probably serve you quite well, though.

I actually saw Zeon being ridiculously overpowered as a Feature for playing Slayers rather than a Bug.

The main characters in Slayers are just ludicrously powerful, and almost every single one is a mage. The only one who isn't only really contributes because he has one of only a handful of Unique Weapons Of Ultimate Power, and even then Lina does most of the heavy lifting.

Also... shenanigans occur when people act without restraint!? That sounds perfect for Slayers! :p

Shade Kerrin
2011-05-06, 07:47 PM
What I meant was that it lacks the maintainability to use with reckless abandon. If you houseruled a faster recovery mechanism, it would be a fair match.

Or maybe played high level. I've yet to do that with Anima

wizuriel
2011-05-06, 11:11 PM
I haven't experimented with it, but you might be able to make a character that uses a lot of innate magic to be more like a slayers character.

Shade Kerrin
2011-05-08, 07:01 PM
I...think I recall crunching some numbers on that method. Let's see...


Assuming 10 Power, and the 3pt advantage to improve innate magic, you need to spend 200pts to be able to spam a basic Fireball.
Without said advantage, it will require 550pts.
The best possible innate pool you can get at lev1 is worth 60pts, costing you 350DP and 3CP as a Wizard
To achieve Maximum possible Zeon without raising Power, you need to spend 1000DP and 3CP, giving you an innate pool of 120pts

Assuming you can get to 12 Power:
150DP+3CP for a basic Fireball
350DP without CP
Best lev1pool: 80pts. Same cost as above
Best Possible pool: 650DP and 3CP, for 120pts again

onthetown
2011-05-08, 07:45 PM
This is an actual game?! I've been following Wen-M (http://wen-m.deviantart.com/) on deviantArt for quite some time and I really liked the fluff, but I never was able to figure out if he was making the artwork for an upcoming online game or something else.

I'm going to the game store as soon as it opens again. This sounds awesome.

Dusk Eclipse
2011-05-08, 08:59 PM
Yep, it is an actual game, the art was what drew me to the game in first place.

I love this game; I've had loads of fun with my Kimimaro expy.

Bloodlines seals[ not sure of the name in english, my group uses the Spanish version] are awesome, I really like that I could pull of the bone weapons without really having to jump through a lot of hoops.

To clear the game I used to play in was plagued with popular characters (mostly from anime) expies, for example there was Kimimaro (me), a teen gohan (named Rize), an Ikki the phoenix saint (from Saint Seiya), an Evangeline (from Mahou Sensei Negima).

Edit: Question, how hard is to learn (and build) a magic using character? So far I have stayed with Ki; but for some reason I am becoming interested in trying a Warlock archetype.

Welknair
2011-05-08, 09:49 PM
Noooooo!

I'm making a system focused around rolling 2d10. I thought I was the only one. :smallfrown:

Admittedly, I use a different mechanic...


Though it does seem interesting.. I may take a look at this.

Shade Kerrin
2011-05-08, 10:17 PM
Magic? There's less freedom involved than with Ki, and you will probably need to make a copy of your spell list for ease of access.
Beyond that, though, it's really just the standard procedure of checking a few thousand tables during chargen, then just rolling d100s in actual play.

littlebottom
2011-05-08, 10:19 PM
This is an actual game?! I've been following Wen-M (http://wen-m.deviantart.com/) on deviantArt for quite some time and I really liked the fluff, but I never was able to figure out if he was making the artwork for an upcoming online game or something else.

I'm going to the game store as soon as it opens again. This sounds awesome.

The art is awesome. no two ways about it.


Yep, it is an actual game, the art was what drew me to the game in first place.

I love this game; I've had loads of fun with my Kimimaro expy.

Bloodlines seals[ not sure of the name in english, my group uses the Spanish version] are awesome, I really like that I could pull of the bone weapons without really having to jump through a lot of hoops.

To clear the game I used to play in was plagued with popular characters (mostly from anime) expies, for example there was Kimimaro (me), a teen gohan (named Rize), an Ikki the phoenix saint (from Saint Seiya), an Evangeline (from Mahou Sensei Negima).

Edit: Question, how hard is to learn (and build) a magic using character? So far I have stayed with Ki; but for some reason I am becoming interested in trying a Warlock archetype.

not too hard, its about as hard as learning how to use a Ki character, except you dont have to make your own techniques, since the spell books are laid out for you. Using a mage effectively can be tricky, but it will come to you pretty quickly as you realise its versitility.


Noooooo!

I'm making a system focused around rolling 2d10. I thought I was the only one. :smallfrown:

Admittedly, I use a different mechanic...


Though it does seem interesting.. I may take a look at this.

Anima isnt the only 2D10 system, there is Warhammer fantasy roleplay too, (as well as dark herasy) that use 2D10 and in those systems, you have a stat that starts around 30 and increases up to (on average) 60 to 70 and you roll your 2 d10, and try to get UNDER your apropriate stat. its based off of percentages. the higher the stat, the more likely you are to roll under it.

PinkMagus
2011-05-09, 08:22 PM
Oh jeez, I loved Anima, it is one of my favorite systems ever, though I do agree that first time character creation is terribly hard (especially since the translation was sometimes vague, especially with the Ki stuff).

littlebottom
2011-05-09, 09:00 PM
its true, for some reason, the english translation is the worst. and the slowest. the other translation teams seem to do the books pretty quick and as i hear, with minimal errors. the english translation team takes literally months upon months longer, and the book gets filled with vagueness and errors.

okay, when i say filled, its not THAT bad, but there is often a spelling mistake every now and then.

Shade Kerrin
2011-05-10, 04:46 PM
One thing I want to talk about is the example PCs thrown around, specifically Pazusu, Pazusu, Pazusu. Who named him?

As to them as a whole, between the details given in the RP books and the Tactics book, I have come to the conclusion that they were the creators' PCs during playtesting

Geddoe
2011-05-11, 11:18 PM
No idea who named Pazusu.

What I liked in the books is that Derrek's name was spelt differently in the AT book and the GM guide. My brother and I joked about there being two characters, one a Imperium Godkiller and the other a, kind of unlucky, low level warrior who happens to have a very similar name and runs into problems based on that.

On actual gaming topic, apparently our gm has some sort of gimmicky encounter as the last fight in the dungeon we are in. We lost one character last week with the gimmick of 3 different monsters in 3 different have to be killed in the sameish round to open the door to go further. After splitting the party our party's Jayan technician rolled like 6 botches in as many rolls and ended up dead. His monster had to be finished off with my Illusionists impromptu air-bending(Air Blow).

Apparently, from Wen-M's art, Celia has a tramp stamp we never see in official art. "Lucky" Lemures.

littlebottom
2011-05-12, 05:36 PM
On actual gaming topic, apparently our gm has some sort of gimmicky encounter as the last fight in the dungeon we are in. We lost one character last week with the gimmick of 3 different monsters in 3 different have to be killed in the sameish round to open the door to go further. After splitting the party our party's Jayan technician rolled like 6 botches in as many rolls and ended up dead. His monster had to be finished off with my Illusionists impromptu air-bending(Air Blow).

Apparently, from Wen-M's art, Celia has a tramp stamp we never see in official art. "Lucky" Lemures.

Ouch, unlucky. it happens though. Did he roll Style to see if it was a good death?:smallamused:

Shade Kerrin
2011-05-12, 05:59 PM
Ouch, unlucky. it happens though. Did he roll Style to see if it was a good death?:smallamused:

Yes, ALWAYS roll style.

Geddoe
2011-05-12, 09:32 PM
Ouch, unlucky. it happens though. Did he roll Style to see if it was a good death?:smallamused:

No, but those dice are cursed. He purchased them 4 time zones away, apparently they did not appreciate the move. He had also been critted the previous round and so had a -90 all action penalty so stylish death was unlikely.

littlebottom
2011-05-12, 09:50 PM
No, but those dice are cursed. He purchased them 4 time zones away, apparently they did not appreciate the move. He had also been critted the previous round and so had a -90 all action penalty so stylish death was unlikely.

i can see it now "rolling style.... crap a 1" "you scream like a girl as the attack comes towards you, it slashes your skull inhalf and you manage to empty your bowels and bladder all down your legs, you manage to die in your own pool of blood, P*ss and Sh*t" "... that was not a cool way to die."

littlebottom
2011-05-13, 11:28 PM
I want ideas and opinions from people as to a good bit of adventure for low level anima characters to do that has very predominent features of the wonderful setting included.

Here are the unchangable facts. The characters are all level 3, the characters are on a boat heading for Southeastern Abel/Archangels coastline from the inner sea (so they can start anywhere along the coastline) The characters include, one Tao, one Summoner, one shadow, one wizard, one hunter, and occasionally a psychic mentalist (this player occasionally drops in, so is in no way linked to any plot so that they can drop in and out as needed)

my ideas so far, When they come into port, they are approached by (what they dont know yet to be) an agent of the wissenchaft (i never remember the spellings without looking at the book, please forgive me) the agent, and by extension the Wissenchaft wants the party to do them a favour, to follow rumours of a powerful artifact that has changed hands several times in quick succession throughout the principality, the wissenchaft are currently tied up investigating the debris of the lady, and have been informed that the party were on the ship and the only known survivors, thus they must be capable of doing this job in return for not being publicly held responsible for the destruction of the lady, yes, blackmail.

simply put the powerful artifact is a sort of modern day super battery, that is reasonably small, and holds a large power source, that can be used as a light, power source to power increadible things, of course, the Wissenchaft want it to play with to make new technologies possible, problem is, the artifact is damaged, and leaking, the wissenchaft reacon they can fix it though, if they can just get a hold of it.

meanwhile it has changed hands several times, sometimes its somebody just wanting to turn a profit, occasionally its someone who wants to use it to make something, and they die before completing it due to (almost like radiation from the damaged battery). the players begin to follow the trial across several small towns, tracing the deaths and such to try and find it, as they do, several other factions occasionally approach the party and ask for the object. The church asks if it is found to bring it to them so that they can destroy it, as it is clearly supernatural. the tol rako ask them to return it to them to safeguard, black sun want it too... well for profit. but basically ill have them fighting some of the results of experiments of the people who owned the battery, like monsters brought to life via the batteries power and such. and after they find the current owner, (who has fasioned it into basically a laser gun) they have to fight him for it, once they get it, they have a choice... who do they give it to? or do they keep it themselves (hopefully not keeping it since by this point i hope that they know it is leaking and will kill them if they keep it for an extended period of time)

they can choose who they like, and once it is handed over to the faction of their choice, they will get their next adventure based off of a request from that faction IE: they will virtually side with one of the factions, since the others will not be happy that they chose someone else to hand it over to.

good? bad? your own ideas for an adventure?

if you give your own ideas for an adventure, please try to make it really interact with the setting, i want to get all my players to experience what the setting is actually like as opposed to just having it as names of places that they go to do dungeons, which could of been done in any world or setting.

Shade Kerrin
2011-05-14, 01:47 AM
Sounds interesting. Don't forget to have them caught in the crossfire of two orginizations at least once in their journey, though.

littlebottom
2011-05-14, 09:39 AM
well im hoping they will be in a way during this adventure, if only in a minor way.

anyway, im no good with names, i need a name for this mystical artifact battery.

SlyGuyMcFly
2011-05-14, 12:34 PM
Sounds fun. I'd play up the interactions between the interest groups and even try to give each faction a more-or-less likeable NPC 'face' who tries to get the PCs on their side: a slightly naive Inquisitor, a cynical Tol Rauko templar, a practical, respectable Black Sun merchant (maybe a Steiner agent who's trying to obtain the Source before the Delacroix get wind of the whole affair) and the Wissenschaft handler, who might be genuinely apologetic about resorting to blackmail. As a quick bunch of examples.

But that's just me. It sounds like you're not so interested in the potential political intrigue angle.

As for the McGuffin's name... make it a Hecatondies (http://th09.deviantart.net/fs40/PRE/f/2009/009/e/2/Anima__Hecatondies_Sigma_by_Wen_M.jpg) Core. Most of the people who own it have no idea of it's nature, being relatively minor players. But the big players all do: the church and Tol Rauko what that thing out of the picture ASAP and Black Sun and Wissenschaft are eager to get their grubby paws on such an advanced bit of Solomon tech. As part of the finale, you could have a (probably tweaked) Hecatondies show up as a surprise 5th side to the conflict. Naturally, it wants the Core for parts with which to fix critical damage it has sustained over the last couple of milennia, and really isn't in the mood to ask nicely. :smallamused:

littlebottom
2011-05-14, 06:23 PM
Sounds fun. I'd play up the interactions between the interest groups and even try to give each faction a more-or-less likeable NPC 'face' who tries to get the PCs on their side: a slightly naive Inquisitor, a cynical Tol Rauko templar, a practical, respectable Black Sun merchant (maybe a Steiner agent who's trying to obtain the Source before the Delacroix get wind of the whole affair) and the Wissenschaft handler, who might be genuinely apologetic about resorting to blackmail. As a quick bunch of examples.

But that's just me. It sounds like you're not so interested in the potential political intrigue angle.

As for the McGuffin's name... make it a Hecatondies (http://th09.deviantart.net/fs40/PRE/f/2009/009/e/2/Anima__Hecatondies_Sigma_by_Wen_M.jpg) Core. Most of the people who own it have no idea of it's nature, being relatively minor players. But the big players all do: the church and Tol Rauko what that thing out of the picture ASAP and Black Sun and Wissenschaft are eager to get their grubby paws on such an advanced bit of Solomon tech. As part of the finale, you could have a (probably tweaked) Hecatondies show up as a surprise 5th side to the conflict. Naturally, it wants the Core for parts with which to fix critical damage it has sustained over the last couple of milennia, and really isn't in the mood to ask nicely. :smallamused:

well, i felt that chucking them into a political intriuge didnt feel right at this moment myself. i was going to build them into after they had made a few enemies and a few allies..

most of the people who they meet with who will represent the factions will be a built NPC, personality and all, so that i can use them again later down the line if needs be.

the core could well work. and i like the idea of the Hecatondies showing up, that would work well if i wanted them to get on the bad side of the other factions, but i kind of wanted them to purposefully side (or purposefully choose not to side) with one faction. and of course, if they are clever, they can play the factions off of each other. which a couple of my players might do, although theres a few that i dont think would even think of that as an idea.

i think my reasoning behind this was to try and give the group a common enemy and a common ally, helping the group stay togeather, as currently when they hit port, they dont really have much reason to stay togeather.

your opinons on this?

Shade Kerrin
2011-05-15, 06:06 PM
Sounds quite viable, although knowing more about the party would help to get a better picture of the scene.

littlebottom
2011-05-17, 08:45 AM
The shadow is mute, he knows sign language and can indeed read and write though. not much else to say but he was modled on roberto from futurama "HAHA! HAHA!" while stabbing them in the back:smalltongue: although... mute, so he writes "HAHA!" on a bit of slate around his neck.:smallsigh::smallbiggrin:

the hunter is pretty generic "shoot" "shoot" "shoot" the player likes shooting things with bows.

the Tao was a rewrite, it used to be an acrobatic warrior, so i cant say much other than the player tries to twink and his philosiphy in every game is "CHARGE IN AND HIT IT! IF IT DOESNT DIE, HIT IT AGAIN HARDER!" so im going to assume that this character is no different.

the wizard is an interesting, although quiet character, as he does try to be subtle with his magic (Which might save him when he comes across the church) he is so far primarily an air wizard.

the summoner is pretty much the face of the group, the summoner has a link to the tol rako in that she is actually the daughter of a medium-high ranking tol rako, but she "ran away" or less ran away but told her father that this wasnt the life she wanted and left. so not exactly on bad terms. also the summoner has our parties meat shield as a binded summon, a big angelic humanoid spirit with a sword and shield and big wings. although thats mainly just colourful stuff.

the psychic may as well not exist to be honest, because the player plays so infrequently that they spend more time each time trying to relearn the rules than roleplaying.

SlyGuyMcFly
2011-05-17, 09:54 AM
A bit of a ramble on the matter:

Thinking things a bit, I'd suggest not using blackmail. I think you can do well enough without it:

Motivator one: Vengeance. Wissendude tells them that there's a lesser lead on the person responsible for sinking the ship and endangering the players lives (and more importantly, getting seawater over all their stuff). He'd be much obliged if they could follow up on it and help catch the [expletive], as he's rather short-handed.

Motivator two: Greed. Wissendude will pay them quite well for their trouble, of course.

Motivator three: Fear. Wissendude has heard that the church may be investigating the incident, so it's probably be a good idea to keep a low profile. If they could stay out of the way for a couple of weeks, say by following this minor lead three towns over, it would be much better for everyone.

None of this it necessarily true, particularly points one and three, but they can serve as foreshadowing and I'd reckon all characters will be motivated enough to follow the hook. Once they bite, it's just a matter of having a few fights and waiting for the 'we're all PCs here, we should try to get along' mentality to kick in. :smalltongue:

If Wissendude's story manages to sound a bit fishy, much better. Players tend to like investigating fishy stories.

Shade Kerrin
2011-05-17, 06:11 PM
Of course, you realize that Tol Ruako is just begging you to send someone the summoner knows personally. Even makes sense from an ingame perspective - If the heads have any idea who constitutes the party, they would prefer to send a familiar face, as it is more likely to achieve positive results.

At least two of the players seem to be the aggressive type, attempts at blackmail will probably backfire horribly.

littlebottom
2011-05-18, 08:46 AM
Of course, you realize that Tol Ruako is just begging you to send someone the summoner knows personally. Even makes sense from an ingame perspective - If the heads have any idea who constitutes the party, they would prefer to send a familiar face, as it is more likely to achieve positive results.

At least two of the players seem to be the aggressive type, attempts at blackmail will probably backfire horribly.

yeah. i had intended on sending someone she knew,:smallamused: not her father mind. or else that might make the summoner take the limelight and the plot away from the others too much.

and yeah. your proberbly right about the blackmail. it just seemed the most likely way to go about it, but even human has given me some food for thought.

Shade Kerrin
2011-05-29, 10:50 PM
Right, something I've been thinking on a while, just want to check people's opinions on the balance of:

In conjunction with the Vulnerability to Cold disadvantage, I'm developing the following version of the Damned disadvantage:

At any given time, your body temperature is X degrees lower than that of your environment, (where X is the value that would put you at the minimum non-penalizing temperature for an average region). The idea is that if the weather is even slightly colder than average, the character begins to suffer.

The plan is for a character who is a nephilim of an ice spirit - only due to the extreme mental and biological differences between them and humans, the reincarnation is flawed, and therefore only really generates problems.

Geddoe
2011-06-19, 02:50 AM
New book, Dominus Exxet, is out in English. It is really nice for warrior types. With stuff like using ki to create a pocket dimension which can be used to ambush people in the real world. Or rule's for Ivy's whip sword or Walter from Hellsing's battle wires for Anima. New martial arts, and new technique options with a large number of sample techniques.

FFG also announced the creature book for the end of the year.

Halae
2011-06-19, 07:32 AM
Question for Ya'll that I'm not terribly clear on.

Summoned creatures. Do you effectively let the players control them? Does the GM control them?

wizuriel
2011-06-19, 11:00 AM
Question for Ya'll that I'm not terribly clear on.

Summoned creatures. Do you effectively let the players control them? Does the GM control them?

I would say that depends on the situation. If the creature is just bound and not controlled than the GM should control the creature. If the creature is bound and controlled I would let the player control it. Also unless the player did a ton of research/studying I probably wouldn't just hand my players the monster sheet but instead force them to slowly build it up based on how much they know of the creature.

edit: Heck even a creature that is bound and controlled could possible find someway to try and spite its master if it hates the summoner.

"Dragon, kill these men with your fire"
*dragon turns and breathes fire on the male members of the party.

littlebottom
2011-06-19, 05:11 PM
New book, Dominus Exxet, is out in English. It is really nice for warrior types. With stuff like using ki to create a pocket dimension which can be used to ambush people in the real world. Or rule's for Ivy's whip sword or Walter from Hellsing's battle wires for Anima. New martial arts, and new technique options with a large number of sample techniques.

FFG also announced the creature book for the end of the year.

yeah, been reading it myself. i would of commented much sooner, but ive been without internet for 2 weeks.

from what ive read so far (ive read up to chapter 8 in full, the rest skimmed through) it looks very nice, and has a lot of nice things in it. although one thing has annoyed me a little.

the bonus bits of rules and such, i know they are not nessisary, but some of them are quite nice, but the system is complicated enough as it is :smalltongue: although i wont really argue, since i like most of the new bits, like the shooting multiple arrows rules etc.

Shade Kerrin
2011-06-19, 07:13 PM
Guess I'll pick it up as soon as it arrives in Australia, then.

littlebottom
2011-06-19, 07:57 PM
listen to this for example, a new basic Ki ability it has 3 stages, a lesser, a greater and an arcane, the lesser allows you to make up to 1/3rd of your power stat in identical copies of yourself. only difference is they cant use you special abilities as it were, and they have -4 to every stat, and -60 all action penalty. next stage, the greater, lets you make your power stat in copies and makes the copies cheaper to make in Ki cost, the the arcane lets you make 5 times your power stat in copies, and reduces the cost to a measly 1 Ki per clone.

a further ability allows you to pay more for any or all of the clones to give them a reduced penalty of stats and all action penalty...

you could fight off an army with those things if you have the Ki to sustain it.:smalleek:

Halae
2011-06-19, 10:43 PM
Alright, I've got another question here.

If you were to throw a creature with regeneration 14 or higher at the part, would you have it heal damage every turn, or only when resting? It seems unclear with the rules as they stand, as the rules only regard things on the table over 14 health as "Resting"

Shade Kerrin
2011-06-19, 10:56 PM
I believe that by intent the value is intended to heal every turn; essentially at that stage your body heals so fast that there is no longer anything you can actively(inactively?) do to speed the process any further.

Halae
2011-06-19, 11:01 PM
Eeeeexcellent.

I happen to have found a way to jack my Regen, as a player, up to insane levels. 16 to be precise, which would give me 10 HP back per turn, Effectively making the easiest way to kill me with one single, massive attack. :smallcool:

Shade Kerrin
2011-06-19, 11:44 PM
Right, since I've been through these calculations before:

Greatest natural Regen char:

11 Con - 4 base Regen. Level 2 or 1CP
Greater Regen - +6 Regen for 3CP
Daimah Race - +3 circumstantial Regen

Without magic/psi etc, you can achieve Regen 13.

A Ki-based char can take Characteristic Augmentation to raise their Con to 14, temporarily bringing the total to 16, which is the best you can pull off from a single supernatural field at low levels

Edit: You changed it from a question to an answer while I was writing this. Ah well....

Halae
2011-06-19, 11:56 PM
Edit: You changed it from a question to an answer while I was writing this. Ah well....

Sorry *Sweatdrop*

I realized I miscalculated once I was finished. What I've got is actually this:

Con 8 - Regen 2
Blood of the Great Beasts Advantage - Part of the extra DP went into Regen, getting me another +8
Greater Regen - +6

That puts me at 16, unless I'm mistaken somehow

Shade Kerrin
2011-06-20, 12:40 AM
Ah, see I'm still limited to the corebook and the GM toolkit.

littlebottom
2011-06-20, 08:33 AM
Sorry *Sweatdrop*

I realized I miscalculated once I was finished. What I've got is actually this:

Con 8 - Regen 2
Blood of the Great Beasts Advantage - Part of the extra DP went into Regen, getting me another +8
Greater Regen - +6

That puts me at 16, unless I'm mistaken somehow

no, your right, and you can eeeeeeasily jack that up higher.

start with con of 10 +1 to con through advantage to 11, = regen base 4. the blood of the great beasts as youve said is +8 if you want it to be. making 12, then greater regen, making 18 then you just need to play a race that gives you a +1 to regen and perhaps if you have enough disadvantages to allow, level up to level 2 through the bonus exp advantage, taking con as your boosted stat putting it to 12, base regen is then 5, thus 20 over all. but there is no point in doing that if you cant boost your gnosis. and of course if your GM lets you play one of the actual other races instead of the nephillim, then you get +3 instead of +1

either way, my advise is stop at 18, even if your GM is mad enough to let you do this as a starting character, i doubt he will allow you to boost your gnosis to 45 to allow you to use the highest regen.

by the methods that shade mentioned and use of the new book, i can see... *does calculations for 5 minutes to check* you can go above 20 technically, but you would not be able to get to regeneration 19 or 20 untill your gnosis is higher.

although im going off the + 8 from the legacy of blood that Harnel mentioned, ive not calculated if thats right or not..:smallwink:

personally if i really wanted to do it, i would play a race with + 1 to regen, get con of 10, and just buy the legacy of blood and the greater regen, there you go, regen of 18, minimum mess made. most cost effective way to do it anyway.

although in absolute reality, i wouldnt do this with a character... because i know as i level up i can boost my con anyway, upping my regen, since that will allow me to buy lp multiples for greater effect with a higher con, so my health would be much higher too. it seems a waste to start at 20 regen then up your con, but it would mean your health total would suffer, meaning no matter how high your regen is, a hit of half your remaining LP = crit, the lower the life, the more likely that is. so to avoid that too you need more LP as you level up and the enemies hit harder.

Halae
2011-06-20, 08:43 AM
I can't see any issues with it, and from the looks of it you have to stop at 18 anyways, since any higher requires a god-like gnosis rating. but, yeah, the regen you can get from Blood of the Great Beasts is crazy, even if it's limited to +8

currently, my character is a level 1 technician, and is pretty crazy. His claws deal 90 damage, not including strength and aura extension :smalltongue:. He also has inhumanity, damage barrier 100, heals at a rate of 25 per turn (regen 17, lol), which means he regrows limbs in a matter of hours, can walk on walls and water thanks to weight... something. Can't remember the name. And then, on top of that, he's got natural armor 4, not including his actual armor. Physically? He's a monster. If you don't kill him in a single hit, he gets back up and rips your head off with claws the size of his torso. The only thing he's weak against is mental domination and illusions - which means if the enemy sets him against the team, he will royally screw them up.

That last bit, of course, was a concession to the DM, for allowing me to play such an ungodly beast. and you know what the best part is? he's more a whiner than anything, and I'll be sure to insert plenty of angst :smallbiggrin:

littlebottom
2011-06-20, 08:49 AM
I can't see any issues with it, and from the looks of it you have to stop at 18 anyways, since any higher requires a god-like gnosis rating. but, yeah, the regen you can get from Blood of the Great Beasts is crazy, even if it's limited to +8

currently, my character is a level 1 technician, and is pretty crazy. His claws deal 90 damage, not including strength and aura extension :smalltongue:. He also has inhumanity, damage barrier 100, heals at a rate of 25 per turn (regen 17, lol), which means he regrows limbs in a matter of hours, can walk on walls and water thanks to weight... something. Can't remember the name. And then, on top of that, he's got natural armor 4, not including his actual armor. Physically? He's a monster. If you don't kill him in a single hit, he gets back up and rips your head off with claws the size of his torso. The only thing he's weak against is mental domination and illusions - which means if the enemy sets him against the team, he will royally screw them up.

That last bit, of course, was a concession to the DM, for allowing me to play such an ungodly beast. and you know what the best part is? he's more a whiner than anything, and I'll be sure to insert plenty of angst :smallbiggrin:

personally i wouldnt allow this, for 1 reason only, that it makes the other players feel uncomfortable.

ive seen it a great many times, one player is so good (or one players character) that he steals the limelight, he kills everything, does 3 times the damage that every one else does, he is faster stronger, etc.

when this happens the other players feel useless "why can he do 45 damage when he hits 50% damage and i only get that at 100%?" so be careful of that.

Halae
2011-06-20, 08:54 AM
easily averted, actually - we're in a political intrigue campaign, wit little combat. on top of that, my character isn't comfortable with revealing his absolutely huge arms or chitinous body plates for fear of getting lynched, so he isn't even taking part in most battles. I'm more of the party's "Oh Crap" button than anything else.

wizuriel
2011-06-20, 01:58 PM
How are you level 1? Blood of the great beast alone is at least a +1 level modifier

littlebottom
2011-06-20, 04:59 PM
How are you level 1? Blood of the great beast alone is at least a +1 level modifier

i think it says something about changing its cost instead of that to try and keep things balenced.

Shade Kerrin
2011-06-20, 06:37 PM
meaning no matter how high your regen is, a hit of half your remaining LP = crit, the lower the life, the more likely that is. so to avoid that too you need more LP as you level up and the enemies hit harder.

Correction: At regen 20 all physical criticals are annulled. Exact words.

littlebottom
2011-06-20, 06:49 PM
Correction: At regen 20 all physical criticals are annulled. Exact words.

correct, i was aware of this, i meant normally until you manage a Gnosis of 45, i suppose i wasnt very clear.

before you get a Gnosis of 40 you cant have a regen of 19 either. so until that goes up, your stuck with suffering the risk of criticals, so, i still advise not overboosting it at level 1, since you will get your regen up as you put your Con up.

of course, if its like our anima game on these forums, then i fully expect us never to reach that point, in that case, its possibly well worth it. but if you do expect to have the character for a long while and get through a fair number of adventures, still dont think its worth it.

Halae
2011-06-20, 07:05 PM
The character designed to be a party wall is actually a backup character. The character I'm using currently? A Fire and Creation wizard, so he can blow things up and then heal who he chooses to (Among other things). The monstrous character I'm just mostly keeping on the backburner so that he's ready in case I fumble a defense roll and die. It's happened five times now, but I'm sure now that I'm prepared for it it won't happen:smallannoyed:

One of the coolest deaths that happened in my campaign. This was a fight we were supposed to run away from since despite the big-bad being injured in battle, she still had a hecatondies guard. The idiot weaponmaster in the party charges her, and actually gets a stab in. The rest of us don't even get close, since we knew he was dead anyways, but when the hecatondies attacked, he got multiple open rolls until he capped, saving his life. This happened seven times. Lucky bastard hadn't lost a single LP against a thing five times his level, even if he wasn't doing damage. So the BBEG gets tired of this, walks up, and blows him to chunks with a spell. The rest of the party was already long gone.

littlebottom
2011-06-20, 08:30 PM
The character designed to be a party wall is actually a backup character. The character I'm using currently? A Fire and Creation wizard, so he can blow things up and then heal who he chooses to (Among other things). The monstrous character I'm just mostly keeping on the backburner so that he's ready in case I fumble a defense roll and die. It's happened five times now, but I'm sure now that I'm prepared for it it won't happen:smallannoyed:

One of the coolest deaths that happened in my campaign. This was a fight we were supposed to run away from since despite the big-bad being injured in battle, she still had a hecatondies guard. The idiot weaponmaster in the party charges her, and actually gets a stab in. The rest of us don't even get close, since we knew he was dead anyways, but when the hecatondies attacked, he got multiple open rolls until he capped, saving his life. This happened seven times. Lucky bastard hadn't lost a single LP against a thing five times his level, even if he wasn't doing damage. So the BBEG gets tired of this, walks up, and blows him to chunks with a spell. The rest of the party was already long gone.

yummy:smallamused:

ill admit i like a good PC death :smalltongue:

Shade Kerrin
2011-06-21, 07:03 PM
of course, if its like our anima game on these forums, then i fully expect us never to reach that point, in that case, its possibly well worth it. but if you do expect to have the character for a long while and get through a fair number of adventures, still dont think its worth it.

Speaking of which, my renewed efforts to get a second game running on these forums seems to have failed due to a lack of willing GMs. If any of us is willing to take control, here's the link (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=11155449#post11155449)

littlebottom
2011-06-21, 09:29 PM
looks like its a job for... QUINTESSENTIALLY ENGLISH MAN!:smallamused:

or not.

anyway, ill run it, i was about to open up another game anyway, i may as well comendeer this one instead.:smallsmile:

Geddoe
2011-06-23, 01:37 PM
Sorry *Sweatdrop*

I realized I miscalculated once I was finished. What I've got is actually this:

Con 8 - Regen 2
Blood of the Great Beasts Advantage - Part of the extra DP went into Regen, getting me another +8
Greater Regen - +6

That puts me at 16, unless I'm mistaken somehow

Regeneration monster power replaces base regeneration, it doesn't add to it. So it is 8+6 =14 assuming you think it can stack with the greater regen advantage and only 8 if you don't.

littlebottom
2011-06-23, 04:53 PM
Regeneration monster power replaces base regeneration, it doesn't add to it. So it is 8+6 =14 assuming you think it can stack with the greater regen advantage and only 8 if you don't.

nice spot, i didnt bother to check when it was said, wheres it say that?

Halae
2011-06-23, 04:55 PM
I see it - It lists it right above the table where it tells you how much you have to spend to get a certain level of regen.

I don't see why they wouldn't stack, and regen 14 is still 1 per round, which is pretty damn good still.

littlebottom
2011-07-02, 06:36 PM
right, so you take 1 CP in the blood of the giant beasts, and take regeneration base of 8, cost 40 and gnosis of 5, which coinsides with what the blood will allow you to take, then spend 3 CP for Elan then take it with the one that allows you to drop points into creature powers again, up to a gnosis of 25, and 100 points, use all 100 ontop of the 40 for the grand total of 140 giving you regeneration 14, then with enough disadvantages, you take improved regeneration 3, thats a total of 7 CP 20 Regen. any character, regardless of race regardless of con or anything else. of course, you have to use it as if it were regen 18, but ive heard some GMs allow CP to be used to up your Gnosis... if someone allowed that:smalleek:

but it would require some heavy disadvantages.

correct me if i am incorrect in my above statement, and remind me which demi-god you need the Elan with, i am currently without my book.

i think that is the most constructive regen build, because it allows for 1 2 point disadvantage and 2 1 point disadvantages, which isnt outlandish, and anyone can do it.

where as normally if you have regen 8 from the back of the book, i would just reccomend con 11 regen +6 thats 4 points of CP puts you at 10, and you can go up every even level by another point for a conservative build since if you take the one out of the back of the book from the monster powers, that replaces your base regen, and thus never goes up.

Geddoe
2011-07-02, 11:59 PM
snip

Then as you are a gnosis 25 and between worlds a level 2 summoner comes along and binds you to eternal servitude inside his pokeball.

And you don't need blood of the great beasts at all. Just take the 3 elan one. Go for demonic transformation, it gives you 120dp for monster powers as a 25 gnosis being. Since 19+ regen is only for gnosis 40 or higher beings(aka Gods), you don't need to pump it that much. No level adjustment that way

littlebottom
2011-07-03, 08:24 AM
Then as you are a gnosis 25 and between worlds a level 2 summoner comes along and binds you to eternal servitude inside his pokeball.

And you don't need blood of the great beasts at all. Just take the 3 elan one. Go for demonic transformation, it gives you 120dp for monster powers as a 25 gnosis being. Since 19+ regen is only for gnosis 40 or higher beings(aka Gods), you don't need to pump it that much. No level adjustment that way

haha, yeah, its just i saw it happened to fit nicely to 20, but your right, you only need 18 really.

littlebottom
2011-07-15, 09:00 PM
ive just wrote something for my Face to face group for anima, basically that plot i mentioned a little while back, about the damaged object, well the object leaks radiation or as good as, and i had a vision of "ghouls from fallout" as i made this, but basically they are on the trail of the object, and have to fight some ghoulified dogs (7 infact) and one ghoulified human, who is supposed to be the guy who found the object first, it will lead them onto their next step in the adventure for the next session, keep in mind they have just had to fight their way into this poor woodsmans cabin through those ghouls, searching the cabin finds the mans journal. this is it.

The font is entirely in a fancy handwriteing sort of font, the entry before last is in a rather less fancy font, then the last entry is in large blocky characters on the sheet, but that doesnt translate into Giantitp forums...

also the journal is only showing relavent entries, although there are more, hence the ....... lines to show "skipping some entries to the next of interest" yet i tried to keep as much non important information in there as important information, its a mans life in his journal. anyway, tell me what you think.
Private Journal of Marcus Reid
Year: 989
………
May 13th Friday: Today I took Rover, Vince, Sarah and Reno into the woods as normal, hunting game checking the traps, when I noticed a light coming from deeper in the woods.
I followed the light, Vince went ahead of me, clearly interested in the light too. He got there before I did, he was holding the source of the light in his mouth, some gently glowing cylindrical thing. Brought it back with me don’t know what it is, but it makes for a nice night light.
………
May 19th Thursday: I told some people about the thing I found last week, no one has any idea what it is, but Linda is going to Eytan tomorrow, she said she would ask some people there. I’m looking forward to hearing what it could be.
On a side note, Vince looks ill, some of his fur has come off around his neck, I’ll let him rest for now and see if it gets any better, if not, it’s a trip to Eytan myself with Vince I think.
………
May 23rd Monday: Linda came back today; she told me that no one knew what it was from the description. Ah well, it still serves as gentle illumination at night.
I got a good haul of game today, the dogs and I are going to eat well, and there’s enough for everyone in town! Hopefully we can all enjoy it and celebrate my birthday tomorrow!
………
May 24th Tuesday: Wow! They threw me a surprise party! I didn’t even realise most of them remembered when my birthday was! It was a great surprise, and I got to spend all day eating, drinking and partying!
On the matter of Vince, he hasn’t got any better, but he hasn’t got any worse either, so that’s good news in itself, Vince will be sleeping in the pen from now on, and I won’t be taking him with me into the woods, hopefully he can get some rest and get better.
………
May 29th Sunday: I tripped over a tree root today, you would think with the fact I go into the woods almost every day that I wouldn’t be daft enough to trip over a root. Cut my knee up pretty bad, that one’s going to take a while to heal, AND it’s going to mean I can’t venture to my further out traps. Food is going to be tight until it heals. Ending this entry now to re-bandage my knee again.
………
June 4th Saturday: My knee has healed over on the skin, but it’s still painful to walk. Also, Vince looks worse, and I can’t travel to Eytan as I am to get him looked at. In fact, I am starting to feel a little ill too. Just my luck, I catch an illness, I can’t walk far, and to top it off, the other dogs look like they are starting to get hungry too, they are beginning to thin and their fur is looking mangy, I feel really bad for Vince.
………
June 8th Wednesday: Good news! A man has come to town and been asking for me, apparently he is interested in the object I found, I had almost completely forgotten about it. Apparently word got around after Linda asked people about it, and this man is interested, he looks rich too. He says that he will buy it from me, but he has to go back to his hometown to collect the money to pay me with since he only came to check if the story was true. Apparently he will be back in a week to buy it from me! I can use that money to get out of here. It is my home here, but my knee doesn’t seem to be getting better, And if a doctor can’t fix it, then I will have to stop this way of life, I can’t hunt with a dodgy knee, and I can’t feed the dogs like this too. That money might be enough to get me out of this town for good, life a better life, an easier life.
………
June 15th Friday: He returned! Maris Anderson was his name, he comes from a small village outside Bethar and lives in a big mansion. And on top of that, do you know how much he gave me for that glowing cylinder? FIVE THOUSAND GOLD COINS! IM RICH! IM SO RICH! I can go buy myself a place in the country side! Take the dogs with me; never have to lift a finger again, just to think how this little object has brought me so much luck in my time of despair.
But I won’t get ahead of myself. I will say goodbye to this my friends soon, till then I will buy some food for me and the dogs. Actually, I will ask Linda to go to Eyten for me and ask a doctor and a vet to come look at me and Vince… and the other dogs.
Come to think of it, I will stay here till I get better, so I can walk easier. *there is a blood splatter on the page*
Urgh, I don’t feel too good, Just coughed blood on my journal, I hope the doc has some medicine for that.
.........
June 17th Sunday: the doctor came yesterday, said that my knee will heal fine, but he said that it’s not my knee I should worry about… he… he said I’m going to die. He says my health is deteriorating fast. The vet said the same about the dogs, all of them, not just Vince. *there are blobs of tears smudging some of the writing*
I’ve written and sent a letter to my Cousin who lives in Kanon, I’ve sent him the money too, money has no use to a dead man.
To make matters worse, today, Vince had… a lump of flesh fall off. It was rancid and almost as if it was rotten, I hope that if I have what he has, it isn’t as painful as it looks.
………
June 23rd Thursday: Vince hasn’t died yet, but… he doesn’t even remember me. He attacked me the other day when I went to feed him, the other dogs looked frightened of him. I can’t say I blame them.
On my own health, all my own hair has fell out, and some of my skin is flaking off. It hurts. It hurts a lot. If I knew It was going to hurt this much, I would of hung myself as soon as I found out. And killed my dogs, no human or animal should ever have to go through this. But now I feel too weak to lift much more than a pen, let alone lift a weapon.
………
June 27th Monday: Vince. Sarah. Reno. Rover. Buster. King. Redrum. All violent. Violent thoughts. Almost all that remain. I can’t help but think to KILL. My mind. Grows weak. Only animalistic instincts unharmed. Friends must not see me. not like this. I’ve locked my door. I’m not going out. No one comes in. I fear what I could manage to write, after a few more hours. Let alone days. This is my last entry. Sorry Linda. My heart is with you. Even if you don’t know it.


EDIT: also, the time frame of the journal is supposed to be long enough so that the players are not too afraid to pick up the object when they find it, and cary it with them to the drop off point. i dont want my players getting scared and refusing to take it:smallannoyed:

littlebottom
2011-07-16, 05:30 PM
Just ran the first game, they spent 3 hours doing what i had set up to be at most 30 minuites if that. we had to end after that because a combat was coming up and with people getting used to the rules again after a break it would take a little longer than most combats...

well as unproductive a night it was, it was funny.

they got off the boat that they ended their last adventure on, got talked to by a member of the wisennchaft about the object, they went to the pub to hire mercenaries (IE the new players of which there were 4. ive now got a group of 9 :smalleek:) and spent all night in the pub annoying one another

Shade Kerrin
2011-07-28, 06:00 PM
Right, so one thing I've found I'm uncertain on:
For Ki Techniques, does the Combinable trait make them combinable with all such techniques, or only ones that are declared at creation?

littlebottom
2011-07-28, 06:06 PM
i believe that a combineable technique is only combinable with other techniques that have been declared combinable at the time of creation that the character also knows.

so if you know 5 combineable techniques you can combine them all in one, or any 4 or and 3 or any 2, with each other, but obviously you have to pay to make them combineable.

so if you had (making these up so likely wont reflect actual ones)

a +100 attack combineable
a +30 foot combineable
a x2 damage combineable
an added pain effect combineable

you could do any of them alone, or +100 attack and +30 foot
+100 attack x2 damage
+100 attack, added effect pain.
+100 attack, +30 foot, x2 damage
+100 attack, +30 foot, x2 damage, added effect pain.
+30 foot, x2 damage
+30 foot, added effect pain.

and so on and so fourth, for all possibilities of the abilities.

wizuriel
2011-07-30, 12:22 AM
Would be cool to have a few ki users in a group with Combinable techs. Make some chrono trigger techs :D

Sedall
2011-07-30, 12:54 AM
Anima is a system that I've come to really love. Yes, creating the first character is a bit of a pain. Quite a bit of a pain actually, but once you get it down, you're set. It's the opposite of DnD in that kind of way, where starting a character is easy but deciding how it will grow and mastering the system takes time. Anima is difficult up until your first fight. By then, you know how your character levels and how combat for him will essentially work.

My personal experience with Anima was as a Ebudan (I think they're the race with the destiny thing) Nephilim, with Elan as an advantage (Which we've since banned.) and the summoner class. The character had no combat ability outside of his familiars, but the trouble he could cause with Elan of Eriol, the Shajad of Chaos. While I never achieved my destiny before the game ended(That really overpowered monster in the back of the book, Filisnogos or something? I was supposed to free it, and either let it loose or bind it depending on chance), I did raise my Elan value all the way to 90, so I was nailing alot of checks for summon pacts I shouldn't have been able to at level 6. Course, I had to flip a coin each time to see if I went for the normal pact or reversed, cause it's always up to chance when you're channelling Eriol.

I only found the game because of the artwork standing out on the book in a game store. I couldn't afford it, but another player got the book, read it, and described it as a world "Dragonball Z and Final Fantasy versus the Pope and his medieval Warhammer Inquisitors while crazed mad science goes on behind the eyes of the world. And Jesus carried twin plasma cannons to go to town on some heathens." I couldn't not read the book with a review like that.

Halae
2011-07-30, 01:11 AM
I only found the game because of the artwork standing out on the book in a game store. I couldn't afford it, but another player got the book, read it, and described it as a world "Dragonball Z and Final Fantasy versus the Pope and his medieval Warhammer Inquisitors while crazed mad science goes on behind the eyes of the world. And Jesus carried twin plasma cannons to go to town on some heathens." I couldn't not read the book with a review like that.

... That sounds remarkably like the explanation I got, too

CN the Logos
2011-07-30, 02:41 AM
So how is this system power level and balance wise? I just finished playing Bayonetta and am in the mood to play a tabletop game that does over-the-top action really well without the equivalent of Batman wizards pressing a win button for every situation.

I'm not looking to be omnipotent, just strong enough to be awesome while still allowing the GM to challenge me a bit. I'd get into Exalted, but I've heard that Exalted has many, many mechanics issues, and I don't like Exalted's setting (blasphemy, I know).

I'd also like to know a bit more about the system. Reading here it seems that it's level based, but does it divide characters into classes, how specific are the classes if they exist, what kinds of magic are there, and does melee get nice things?

In short, is Anima the awesomesauce that I've been looking for? Grant me your wisdom, Playgrounders!

Halae
2011-07-30, 02:55 AM
if you're playing correctly, it can be anything from low fantasy to high tech shenanigans, to high fantasy. It also always the overriding feel of an anime in practice because of how the different mechanics work and because of the artwork (I mean, a bloodline legacy in Dominus Exxet is totally ripping off Kara no kyoukai :smalltongue:) but if you can get over how difficult the main book is to navigate (which gets easier as time goes, of course) hen it's a system worth your time and effort.

For example, in my latest game, we're hunting a summoner who wants to launch an orbital satellite cannon at Tol Rauko to set everything trapped there free, found a magical power source for a group of flying machines, one of which looks like a horse, and then started the trek to her flying home base. of course, the summoner had set up guards - specifically demons of every different element the summoner could get, and getting so many different colors and such of them, as well as the undead dragon in her employ. How it went down was pretty simple, believe it or not.We charge, they charge, and the weaponmaster, who is riding the horse machine, engages them with a battleaxe. The technician creates a bloody cannon that floats over his shoulders which lay waste to the beasts within range of him, and I (the mage of the group) am just tossing out lightning bolts at them left, right, and center.

In another session, it was a lot more mundane - none of us had chosen supernatural abilities, though one of us was an ebudan. It effectively came down to gritty low fantasy mystery stories.

This game can do whatever you want.

littlebottom
2011-07-30, 06:27 PM
anima is the awesomesauce everyone is looking for, they just dont know it yet.

the system depending largely on how the GM guides it, and what he allows and dissallows at character creation (i advise the GM does put in some lines which cannot be crossed even if the rules say its fine, for example, i dont allow the Elan advantage as it often can ruin a game if left unchecked.)

easily, so easily, you can make it like dragon ball z, 15 attacks every 3 seconds (1 round) exchanging blows back and forth and dodgeing and blocking as you go, throwing in balls of energy, or standing still to gather a motherload of energy to drop some bombs on your opponents heads.

or, final fantasy, run around with oversized swords with magic and airships and other steampunk-esk technology, chopping up great big deamons and dragons from low levels.

or, name an anime, im sure i can fit it into anima somehow with only slight editing of rules (like a modern day based game might need rules for guns beyond flintlock pistols. which dont exist in the game, but i cant imagine too hard to put in.)

admittedly, how much its based around fighting, and how much its based around character interaction within a (rather rich) setting, is up to the GM and of course the players.

mages can stand back and throw big explosive spells or time/world altering spells or defensive shield like spells with the added bonus of "if you invest more zeon (mana) then you can add bonus damage/range etc. onto the spell" so you can edit your spells as it were, make them more powerful than the base spell. As your intellect rises, you can invest more zeon into a single spell for even greater effects, even if its just the same old fireball youve used since level one.

fighters can stand there and smack things, fighters can be agile and be doing backflips in combat, fighters can be DBZ style "stand still gathering energy" types, they can be martial art monks, they can be the type to unleash amazing spell like abilities, they can be the types that go "ill run forward, jump into the air and bring the sword down cleaving the opponent in half" types with massive bonuses to attack and damage.

damn, fighters can be monsters, intune with dragons, hell, they can be old people with a walking stick that kill you with an accupuncture needle, or throw roses that rip your face off, or have several swords that float around them following their every command.

this game is diverse, its all where YOU want to take it, its why i love it.

to answer a couple direct questions, A: yes there are classes, 20 infact, but it even says "make your own" although most character ideas will fall into one of them. classes are not nessisarily what you think, all they dictate is how much buying certain abilities cost you, and what special bonuses you might get when you level up, ultimately, you can have a warrior who spends points to learn magic or psychic abilities, although to a warrior thats more expensive than it would be to a mage or a mentalist for example. Also, you can change between classes for a small fee.

some direct, down to basics basics,

you get 600 "development points" = DP, to spend on a level 1 character, and 3 CP which are spent on advantages, for example "light sleeper" is a 1 point advantage, you can take up to three disadvantages to gain more points of advantage, these advantages and disadvantages are a key point to character creation, they will usually help dictate where you are heading with the character. a "warrior" class needs 2 DP to give him +1 attack, so 50 points gives you +25 attack, you also get 2DP for +1 block/dodge too, where as a "acrobatic warrior" gets 2DP for +1 attack, same as the warrior, but 2DP for +1 dodge, and 3DP for +1 block, meaning an acrobatic warrior is better (or atleast cheaper to invest into) at dodging than blocking. but the acrobatic warrior will get an advantage in its speed, making it usually act quicker in a combat.

there are 20 of those classes to choose from broken into these archtypes:
fighter
stealth
mage
psychic

there are technically more, but i wont bore you.

each class falls under one of those types, possibly 2, for example a "warlock" is decent at his fighting abilities aswell as his magical abilities, making him fall under "fighter" and "mage" although compared to a straight up fighter, he likely isnt as good, compared to a straight up mage, he likely isnt as good, but added together gives better diversity.


im now rambling on, i will shut up, and answer any questions you have directly.

CN the Logos
2011-07-30, 09:53 PM
So leveling up means getting a number of new points to put into things, the cost of which depend on class, sort of like a cross between a point-buy and level-based system?

What are the tiers in this game, and how severe are the differences between them? Are there any options that stand out as incredibly game-breaking or incredibly useless? And if so, why? (Remember, I don't have the game yet; I'm still trying to decide whether to get it or not and want to know what I'd be getting.)

How connected are the fluff and mechanics? I really like world building, so being able to refluff things is important to me. Of course, it's possible to refluff anything, regardless of system, but some games make it harder than others.

*coughanythingbyWhiteWolfcoughhack*

Halae
2011-07-30, 09:59 PM
Fluff and mechanics are pretty separate. even the bloodline legacies, in Dominus Exxet, tell you how to work them into another world

Geddoe
2011-07-30, 10:50 PM
So leveling up means getting a number of new points to put into things, the cost of which depend on class, sort of like a cross between a point-buy and level-based system?
Yeah.


What are the tiers in this game, and how severe are the differences between them? Are there any options that stand out as incredibly game-breaking or incredibly useless? And if so, why?
It kind of depends. If you want to seriously invest in Martial Arts, you basically need to be a Tao for the discount on buying martial art styles. Also, while most warrior types can do okay stuff with ki, if you want to play a character that is all about building ki techniques, technician gets such juicy discounts and so much mk, it is a good idea to start in it or class transfer to it.

On the other hand, while I don't really see a problem, my brother sees no real reason for there to be both the Shadow and Ranger class. He feels that Shadow is a hands down better class. He basically feels that the bonuses a Shadow gets on ki stuff overshadows the minor perks a Ranger gets with Secondary skills.


How connected are the fluff and mechanics? I really like world building, so being able to refluff things is important to me. Of course, it's possible to refluff anything, regardless of system, but some games make it harder than others


Refluffing is pretty easy. There are those who feel that the point of the setting outlined in the book is to basically balance the power of magic/psychic/ki abilities with fluff restrictions, but my group doesn't play in the presented setting and hasn't encountered any real problems in balance.

littlebottom
2011-07-31, 08:11 AM
teirs in this game are fuzzy. for the most part if you put a character up against an enemy 1v1, of the same class, it usually will be the one thats higher leveled wins, but you roll D100s and if you roll a 90 or above you can roll again and add it ontop, so with a small amount of luck someone can beat another of a much higher level.

the classes if built stereotypically will have some that are generally weak against another or stong against another, for example, a basic shadow (your main stealth fighter) could rip appart a lot of the other normal fighters since he will get massive bonuses for sneaking up and attacking someone from behind, but a paladin (usually a more defensive fighter in this) has more chance of beating a shadow than most for the pure sake of being able to soak the damage a bit better with armour and high defences and often high life points, LPs (Hit points).

still, if you want to know roughly "Teirs" it goes from what i know so far from "level 1-5ish" you are the top of the top when it comes to the normal human race, someone with strength ten is as strong as the strongest normal person to have ever lived. the stats go from 1 to 20, but using the usual character creation rules (roll 8 D10, reroll 1/2/3s and then take lowest roll and make it a nine) you usually get rather "high" statted characters with maybe one or two lower stats.

every even level allows the character to up a stat of his choice by 1.

"level 5-10ish" i would say most characters start hitting the point of "beyond" human. faster than the worlds fastest human or stronger or whatever they pump the stat of, their abilities have by this point multiplied (you start at level 1 with 600 DP, and every level rewards 100DP more, so at level 7 you have doubled the points you began with)

then you have levels "10-20" where even the most basic character concept "ill up my attack, defence and strength" all the time with nothing fancy at all in the way of Ki or martial arts etc, basically becomes nearer and nearer "godlike" since typically a stat of 10 (which is the normal maximum, it can be made higher on a level 1 for several reasons, but typically speaking) 10 is the normal maximum, but by level 20 can be put up to the actual maximum of 20 itself, and from memory what 20 strength gives you is "The ability to lift anything as long as you have stable enough ground to stand on" yes, if the moon crashed towards the earth this character could stop it and throw it back into space without trouble.

a character with 20 in agility is so fast he can "travel to any point in the world in 1 round (3 seconds)" admittedly, there are a couple of provisos that tell you you are not allowed stats of 19 or 20 without certain prerequisits, but if im honest, its so easy to get these prerequisits by level 20 that its a none issue anyway usually.

then you have level 20+ where most characters will have simply upped 1 or maybe 2 stats, where from then on most characters can do such crazy things, that even a system where you can break a level 1, does indeed itself become relatively broken, unless the GM can really think of some inventive ways to keep things going. obviously fighting harder creatures is obvious, but then you have someone whos so quick he can virtually teleport, someone so strong he could pick up the enemy even if its a mountain sized giant and use him as a weapon.

personally i think above level 20 is reserved for a party where you say something like "no your not allowed to go above 18 in a stat" and other such things to attempt to keep the game fairer.




aaaas for refluffing, the book itself attempts to leave itself as open as possible when it comes to mechanics, if it gives something that is essentially tied into something to do with the setting it often says something like "but you could fit it into another setting like this perhaps" and gives an example, so it is very much encouraging you to use other settings if you want.

Shade Kerrin
2011-07-31, 06:57 PM
In terms of D&D tiers:

Most things fall in the range of T3~4, with Elan at T2

Defensive characters seem to have a slight advantage over offensive characters.
In play, however, I have found that an entirely defensive party will cause combat to drag on for a long while, whilst everything will be over within a couple of rounds for an offensive party, for better or for worse.
On that note, I'll say that if you are building an offensive character, pump up initiative, while with a defensive, you should actually look for things to reduce it.

Halae
2011-07-31, 07:02 PM
A good example is my character in Littlebottom's game. Despite the fact that I could have gone for crazy amounts of armor if I so chose, I felt my defensive abilities were already good enough, and so I've been focusing solely on offensive. Last combat, I was killing enemies in only one hit - something I'd never have been able to do without my initiative as high as it is, especially since armor bogs down your initiative.

Shade Kerrin
2011-07-31, 07:11 PM
Similarly, an unarmed fighter from the test-run of my IRL Anima game got the nickname of the 'Kneecapper.' This was because:

With only one exception, he always went first.
He always hit, and always rolled a critical
These criticals, which were usually fatal right off the bat, always wound up striking the foe's kneecaps.
So he went around killing his foes by punching them in the kneecap.
Twas fun watching him beat up ghosts, 'Let me check if anything say's they're incorporeal....no, nothing, you're kneecapping ghosts to death.'(Actually they were, but the module was so poorly organized that it wasn't clear until after I had spent a week rereading it.)

It says something for Anima that I got 100% player satisfaction out of a bad module.

Shade Kerrin
2011-08-02, 05:41 PM
You know, the one thing I've noticed is that ki can pretty much do everything....except applying positive traits to other people.

For example, in my upcoming IRL game, a player has asked if he can have a technique that will, when a Specific NPC is hurt, teleport her to his character.
We can achieve this in a legal, if convoluted, way:
Long-distance Impact attack, Attract trait applied, Intangibility trait applied to target, with disadvantages of No Damage, Specific Individual and a slight interperetation of Takes Damage.
Would be much easier to just apply a 'Reversal' advantage to the technique. How much do you think this would cost?

littlebottom
2011-09-18, 05:25 PM
Hey, posting for multiple reasons, so here goes.

one. it saddens me that this thread is dying,

two. the new book is out (coming out depending where you live)

three. i just completed a F2F adventure with my players, they are all now level 4 almost 5.

they have chosen an option a laid before them and have gained allies with the wissenchaft, now, essentially im going to give them an option to officially join the wissenchaft as field agents, but thats a little later. for now, i want to see what ideas people have for a new adventure for the (large) group.

i have... about 9 players... yes 9. usually we get around 7 per night. some nights more some nights less.

we have, in order of reliableness to be there

virtually Garenteed:
Shadow
Paladin
Tao
Wizard

Usually there:
Ranger
acrobatic warrior
technician

50/50:
mentalist
a... weapons master priest from the church:smalleek:

anyway, my point is, is im having difficulty thinking of an adventure that will engage all these people and make them feel useful.

The current standings are:

The party have just tracked down and claimed a powerful and dangerous item that is essentially an oversized super battery. it can essentially be used as an extremely high, nearly limitless power supply. they recovered it and gave it to the wissenchaft for a reward. they are at this very moment in a port town of Abel. and ive told them that if they travel to Du'lucart that the wissenchaft will welcome them as allies.

ive come up with a few ideas, but most of them have fallen appart pretty quick. so ideas?

Geddoe
2011-09-19, 09:29 PM
I have been waiting for this new book to restart my campaign. Need to pick it up.

littlebottom
2011-09-19, 09:32 PM
my god yes, it will make GMing soooooooo much easier.

i hear it has proper rules for fighting on a larger scale, like your party vs a hundred people sort of thing.:smallamused: *drools*

Shade Kerrin
2011-09-19, 10:53 PM
Ach...And here I've already spent my budget for the month, thinking it would be out at around December. Well, guess I'll see if I can make some room, then.

wizuriel
2011-09-20, 01:26 PM
I am really looking forward to the book. Hopefully will be in Canada soon

Geddoe
2011-09-24, 04:12 PM
On another note, a couple weeks ago we had our second PC death in our Anima campaign. A lightning trap one-shotted our Dark Paladin with a 150 damage lightning strike which critted his heart(he really botched his defense roll). We couldn't even recover the body, or his magic ring that stall spells invisibility.

Down to 2 PC's left from the original group of 4, my Illusionist and a Tao. Dark Paladin's player rolled up a Warrior Summoner for his new character.

littlebottom
2011-09-24, 05:54 PM
ouch. my current party has technically had no PC deaths. although i have to admit, ive come close to several characters several times, luck i guess that they survived so far.

oh also our tank got critted in the back of the head by an arrow the ranger fired and fumbled REAALLY badly on :smallbiggrin: that almost killed him too:smalltongue:

Dusk Eclipse
2011-09-24, 07:52 PM
Quick question, what 1pt advantage would you suggest to a level 7 melee focused technician? I tend to be on the front lines all the time.

I have Ambidexterity, Martial Knowledge (3), Complete acumulation (lit. translation, is the advantege from the Dominus Exxet which allows you to acumulute your full ki as a passive action) and Advanced Ki regeneration 1 as my advantages. I also have the Bloodline Legacy (Blood of the Great beast Natural weapons)

And if it matters I also have the Libra Ars Magnum.

littlebottom
2011-09-24, 08:01 PM
Quick question, what 1pt advantage would you suggest to a level 7 melee focused technician? I tend to be on the front lines all the time.

I have Ambidexterity, Martial Knowledge (3), Complete acumulation (lit. translation, is the advantege from the Dominus Exxet which allows you to acumulute your full ki as a passive action) and Advanced Ki regeneration 1 as my advantages. I also have the Bloodline Legacy (Blood of the Great beast Natural weapons)

And if it matters I also have the Libra Ars Magnum.

the complete acumulation is virtually that, it is that it allows you to use your full accumulation instead of half when you take an action during the turn, so yeah, it just means you dont take half, and can act gaining full accumulation, which is awesome.

i would say, if you can, an extra point in ki regeneration. that or one of many many other advantages for varying reasons, for example theres one that lets you reroll a dice roll once per session, that can be useful, perhaps natural armour if you feel your taking a bit of pain during fights.

theres so many it boggles the mind, the last one worthy of actual note though i would say is trying to wing an artifact from your GM for 1 point and obviously building it to help you in someway with your KI stuff.

Dusk Eclipse
2011-09-24, 08:06 PM
the complete acumulation is virtually that, it is that it allows you to use your full accumulation instead of half when you take an action during the turn, so yeah, it just means you dont take half, and can act gaining full accumulation, which is awesome.

i would say, if you can, an extra point in ki regeneration. that or one of many many other advantages for varying reasons, for example theres one that lets you reroll a dice roll once per session, that can be useful, perhaps natural armour if you feel your taking a bit of pain during fights.

theres so many it boggles the mind, the last one worthy of actual note though i would say is trying to wing an artifact from your GM for 1 point and obviously building it to help you in someone with your KI stuff.

Now that you mention, upgrading Ki Regeneration is not a bad idea, it will help greatly as I tend to use too much ki keeping my armour on (a sustained technique which gives me 4 tables of armour) in combination with the Agon the limit of war (the one which allows you to recover 1 ki point per round in combat ,up to 80 point per day) will keep me up with a good amount of Ki in my pool. :smallcool:

littlebottom
2011-09-24, 08:11 PM
Now that you mention, upgrading Ki Regeneration is not a bad idea, it will help greatly as I tend to use too much ki keeping my armour on (a sustained technique which gives me 4 tables of armour) in combination with the Agon the limit of war (the one which allows you to recover 1 ki point per round in combat ,up to 80 point per day) will keep me up with a good amount of Ki in my pool. :smallcool:

glad i could help :smallwink:

i have seen someone make a level 1 character with fly (using 3 points in martial mastery) and had 3 points in ki regeneration, so that they use the ki to initially fly, and then they recover ki points at the same rate that they need to sustain it, thus flying forever.:smalleek:

Dusk Eclipse
2011-09-24, 08:14 PM
Wish I had thought about that, sounds useful.

littlebottom
2011-09-24, 08:19 PM
haha unfortunately its too easy to break this system if you actually sit down and look at it, there is sooooo many ways to break it, its funny. sometimes breaking it becomes part of the fun :smallbiggrin:

i once had a level 2 (using the advantage to get enough exp to level up) with enough strength to wield 2 giant 2 handed axes, one in each hand:smallbiggrin: took the axes as artifacts

it was a weapons master, and i took 3, 2 point disadvantages to give me 9 advantage points to play with, i pushed his strength as far as you can at level 1, leveled up to 2 (since that allows a stat increase) and increased it further via Elan advantage to take creature advantages out the back of the book allowing him to push his strength further, it was enough to wield the giant 2 handed axe in one hand so i took 2 :smallbiggrin:

his damage was rediculous.

EDIT: come to think of it, i made him because we had a tournament of level 1 characters 1v1 winner moves forward to the next round. all and any rules allowed for character creation. he did quite well infact:smallamused:

Dusk Eclipse
2011-09-24, 08:24 PM
We have broken the game so much, that our DM has is now using a kind of nerf/houserule :smallbiggrin:

All Ki pool is halved and accumulations also are halved (minimum 1); but you can use ..."ambient" Ki to fuel half you acumulations so not too bad, in the end you just can't spam special techniques every round of combat as we used to :smallredface:

There is also a similar nerf to magic users and psychics, but as I don't use them I don't really pay attention to them, on the upside the monsters also are subjected to the same nerf, so it isn't that much of problam PvE-wise.

littlebottom
2011-09-24, 08:27 PM
seems like an unnessisary nerf to me, ive not had that problem so far, but that said, thats proberbly because as they level up yeah, they can spam their cheaper low level techniques, but they are no longer useful really since they dont become stronger as you do for the most part. there are a few ill admit that do, but they are normally more expensive anyway.

ahhh well, it sounds like there were several of you doing it, so i cant say i blame him.

i used to have a summoner, ive since banned it just cus i cant be bothered to write a new creature everytime the summoner attempts to summon a new one, hopefully this new book will make things so much easier on that front.

Dusk Eclipse
2011-09-24, 08:31 PM
It kinda comes with the group, we all like to power game a bit and the GM likes to use strong monsters so it kinda became an arms race; but in the end I think we might have crossed the line :smallredface:.

But we are now used to it and there hasn't been any problem on the table so far so we are good.

littlebottom
2011-09-24, 08:35 PM
cool, good to hear. my current party (I GM) is only level 4, they are not far from level 5 though, so ill get them to 6 hopefully with my next adventure.

which wont start for months im afraid since we take turns GMing different systems at my RP group, or else they would all be like level 15 by now :smallbiggrin:

Dusk Eclipse
2011-09-24, 08:43 PM
Our group is now between level 7 and 8, myself just reaching level 7.

Halae
2011-09-26, 04:36 PM
A little bit ago, I made an interesting character that pretty much broke the damage record we have going here in the thread

What happens when you combine Blood of the great Beasts with the Natural Weapon bloodline? Crazy amounts of damage. Let's look at this for a moment

Natural weapon Base Damage: 40
+2 increases from Natural weapon Abilities: 90
Blood of the Great Beasts Development points used to advance Natural weapon damage: 140
Ki ability that increases Damage: 150
Using my creation point-amped strength: 170

170 damage, and with several Ki abilities, it could damage energy as well. And Attack twice in a round. And had a +10 on criticals, and +20 on initiative.

This is the kind of weapon that boss monsters fear

littlebottom
2011-09-26, 05:52 PM
170 damage final? not bad, not bad at all, but look up strength 14 along side 2 giant 2 handed axes, and you will see, with the free attack you essentially get with 2 weapons, it beats it out on damage since it gave him 3 attacks :smallwink:

but only in the sense that you get an extra free attack.:smallannoyed:

either way, very very nasty, harnel.

ive been told that the shop should recieve the new anima book tomorrow *SQUEEEEEEEE*

so im sure you will look forward to hearing my opinions if you cant pick it up yet:smallwink:

and if you already have it, why you no share?:smallfrown::smalltongue:

Halae
2011-09-26, 05:55 PM
oh, sorry, I forgot to mention, that's just at level 1. pick up the extra attack module for another attack, and every even level increase your strength :smalltongue:

littlebottom
2011-09-26, 06:32 PM
well technically the character i mentioned was level 2, but he was made level 1 and took 2 advantage points to gain enough exp to level, so its still a starting character :smalltongue:

Dusk Eclipse
2011-09-26, 08:49 PM
Damn it, I am still a long way off from having the system mastery I want/need...

littlebottom
2011-09-27, 09:22 AM
i have just returned with the new book, tis shiney, 95% of it is pure new creature stats, which is both really good and mildly disapointing, i was hoping for a little more extra stuff, but that said, all of the new monsters are not just "str:x dex:x" etc they have several paragraphs talking about them from generally, to how they behave in combat, and special rules. some even have things like "possible mutations" so that they can be edited slightly depending on what you want to do with the combat. not to mention most of them have a portrait picture as well as a size comparison in the back of the book.

of course ive not read much at all, ive only flicked through. but still first impression is that, yes, its an awesome art filled anima book of quality and usefulness, and even if you dont use it, it will certainly teach you a bit more about the feel of the setting.

more as i read it :smallwink:

EDIT:

Ive read only a little really, but i can confirm that it goes into a nice amount of depth about each monster, it also gives little plot hooks for them too, especially the bigger ones.

it claims that all the monsters have pictures, i cant varify they all do yet, but so far, yes they do, and there are a lot of pictures, so i can only imagine they do, which is awesome.

oh and the scale thing in the back of the book has been good for a laugh, so far ive shown one of my players the size of some of the bigger monsters. there are plenty around human height, but when you get to some of the bigger ones, they are like 10 times taller than a human. and THEN there are ones more than 10 times bigger than them. litterally i can only imagine a shadow of the collossus style climbing up the beast to attack it.:smallbiggrin:

after i read a few more monsters i will proberbly jump to "chapter 2" on page166 out of 187.

littlebottom
2011-09-27, 08:11 PM
loving the new playable races, one is "closely related to jayan" in that it has a third eye that can see supernatural, but yeah they have bonuses to int and WP and Pow while negatives to most of their physical attributes, they also get bonuses to summon and banish etc, but they MUST take either the gift or access to psychic diciplines advantage.

the second is actually not a "nephilim" as it were, it is just direct decendants of a set of humans who could transform into animals, so they basically get claws and teeth attacks from their chosen animal they transform into and bonus perception etc

my personal favorite is... well... vampires. in the book they are specifically said to not be vampires, but to have been the reason stories about vampires originated. basically they need nutrients from blood, and get damaged in direct sunlight, although they also get bonuses at night time. they look like fun to play if im honest. they seem to have an interesting story about them too, but it didnt give enough information on it, it just dangled a lovely juicy hook of bait, and then denied the goods. but it would be fun explaining to your party "erm, i wear the cloak over my head because im scared someone might recognise me...?" and then at night "AHAHAHHAHHAAAAAA *slurp* ... its not what it looks like!"

Dusk Eclipse
2011-09-27, 08:57 PM
The not-nephilim race sounds interesting, I know a few players in my group (myself included to a degree) that would jump to the opportunity to play that ASAP

The "not vampire" seems to be somewhat problematic if they are constantly taking damage in sunlight unless you convince the party to either play an all not-vampire game or to adventure in the night.

littlebottom
2011-09-28, 07:02 AM
ill quote the bit about the damage in sunlight. they are called vetala

Pure breeds:
"Vulnerable to light: the vetalas greatest vulnerability is the harm that light causes them. although they can endure weak or indirect light without excesive problems, when they are exposed to a light source of high power or extreme purity (such as sunlight or a bright supernatural light.) their skin begins to burn. the vetala must pass a physical resistance check of between 80 and 160 (depending on the degree of exposure and intensity of the light) each turn or suffer damage equivilent to the level of the failure, if they fail by more than 50 points they immidiately gain the in flames condition."

Nephilim:
"Photosensitive skin: stong light is detrimental to the nephilim, although to a lesser degree than the pure breeds. if they are struck by light from a powerful source (such as sunlight) they must pass a physical resistance check of between 40 and 140, depending on the intensity and exposure to the light. if they fail by less than 30 points they take 10 damage and a -20 all action penalty because of the pain. if they fail by more than 30 points the damage is 20 points and the all action penalty is at -40. the penalty will last for 3 turns after the nephilim is no longer in the light source."

so its not tooooo bad for a nephilim, but that said, it doesnt happen every turn, and it doesnt do much damage, its the all action penalty thats nasty. it also says "photosenstive skin" on nephilim as opposed to vulnerablity to light, so it sounds to me, you just cover your skin. yes, it would mean wearing gloves and a mask, but still, its doable. i just found that race more interesting from a roleplay point of view.

oh and also, the biggest creature nears 2 miles in hight...:smalleek:

Dusk Eclipse
2011-09-28, 10:03 AM
What is the name of the book? I must know so I can make sure my GM doesn't get it (and the 2 miles tall creature)... I am sure he would love to use that creature :smalleek:

littlebottom
2011-09-28, 11:03 AM
its called "those who walked amongst us".

also, just read the expanded creature creation section, a few nice abilities in there, especially ones i wouldnt allow a player to take even if he is allowed to spend points on the creature creation section:smalleek:

after that, is the new rules for "dramatic" and "mass" combat

dramatic combat is essentially normal combat where you make the turns last longer in game turns, so a single turn can be 12 seconds per turn or 30 seconds or a minute etc, to make combats last longer than 15 seconds in game for dramatic reasons, or if its meant to be a big epic boss battle.

mass combat... I WANT TO TEST IT NOOOOOW! infact ive got ideas for using my parties characters, and get them to bring some of their warhammer models and actually make a mass scale combat moving the units and their characters and stuff across the table, so that the party can split up and take on seperate platoons and have rows of archers on a hill at the back vollying over and all that stuff. also leaders and special units are still individuals although the normal soldiers and or monsters are lugged into one massive health pooled group with certain special rules for being a big group, such as taking more damage from area attacks and not being able to be flanked but getting bonuses to attack as they always are considered to be able to surround the character and things like that, it would be awesome seeing it done... i would proberbly either make it an army attacking the empire or something and they are the generals of the empires army, so there is an army on both sides and leaders on both, that or have a tower or "castle gates" they must defend or something like that just to give them purpose to tactically fight.

i have officially read all the book except the creature entries, ill read them over the next week or so depending on how busy i am, but yes, loving the new rules/races/creature creation no matter how brief they are at the last 20 pages of the book :smalltongue:

Dusk Eclipse
2011-09-28, 11:08 AM
Question, is the book just a translation? Because I think my GM might already have that book as we have used Dramatic combat rules already and if it is just a translation (as I said, being Spanish speaker we use the Spanish books) it is possible he might have got it sooner.

littlebottom
2011-09-28, 11:14 AM
yeah, im afriad so, i only speak English, so i have had to wait for it to be translated.:smallfrown:

he likely does already own it then.

heres a list of what is out in English.

anima beyond fantasy: core book
Gm tool kit
Gaia world book 1
Dominus exxet (a book that looks at KI in more depth mainly)
and now, Those who walked amongst us.

i own them all so far. Translation has been frustratingly slow, it is my understanding there are a lot more books released already, just not translated into English yet.

so your lucky :smallfrown:

EDIT: also the anima tactics book, i dont count it though, but it does have some stuff in the back about the important characters of anima world in the RPG which isnt included in any other book.

Dusk Eclipse
2011-09-28, 11:30 AM
Then yeah, I am sure he already has it

I don't know all the book he owns but the ones I have seen in use are

Core Exxet
Dominus Exxet
The Game Master screen (it came with a nice little book with some awesome advantages)
Arcana Exxet
and the Gaia Worldbook 1

littlebottom
2011-09-28, 06:25 PM
i just lost my detailed post due to the server being busy, now im sad.

effectively i will just summerize it.

homebrew rules for magic users and psychics shields.

casters and psychics can defend normally using magic/psychic projection to deflect or redirect an attack so that it misses as it were, even without a shield up.

with a shield up, should they fail their block, the shield soaks the damage, that they would of took instead (at AT of 0) instead of just base damage.

unlike the actual rules, they must take a penalty for defending multiple times in a turn, which will mean the failed blocks will mean higher damage% which will mean more LP will be lost on the shield, breaking it quicker.

shields once broken or damaged cannot be instantly recast, they must be allowed to recharge themselves over time (proberbly an hour or a day or something depending on the amount of LP) a different shield may be cast instead though.

if the shield specifys it cant block spells though, it still cant, and the LP loss will be from the character not the shield.

that mostly sums it up, there was a bit about weapons with high breakage being able to break a shield early too, but its not nessisary.

this method gives more survivability to casters and psychics who would otherwise die instantly the moment they dont have a shield up and must defend themselves, for example they dont get initiative, and first turn of combat they dont have a shield up, get supprised by a shadow BLAM they are dead with their null defences and no armour and often little LP amounts. atleast this way gives them a chance to defend naturally and reduce the LP lost, and allows shields to not take 50 turns to break because they have 5000 LP and the shadow only hits for 40 damage and 2 or 3 attacks a turn, and because they dont suffer penalties for multiple defences, so with a high projection can really reliably block every onslaught chucked at them for turns and turns and turns.

summery, not stupidly fragile without shield, not stupidly overpowered with.

Geddoe
2011-09-28, 11:10 PM
this method gives more survivability to casters and psychics who would otherwise die instantly the moment they dont have a shield up and must defend themselves, for example they dont get initiative, and first turn of combat they dont have a shield up, get supprised by a shadow BLAM they are dead with their null defences and no armour and often little LP amounts. atleast this way gives them a chance to defend naturally and reduce the LP lost, and allows shields to not take 50 turns to break because they have 5000 LP and the shadow only hits for 40 damage and 2 or 3 attacks a turn, and because they dont suffer penalties for multiple defences, so with a high projection can really reliably block every onslaught chucked at them for turns and turns and turns.

summery, not stupidly fragile without shield, not stupidly overpowered with.

Most shields are passive actions, that means you can accumulate and cast them even if you are beaten on initiative. Only issue is having enough accumulation to get the shield out in one turn.

Your house rule also renders level 10 summoners with Star immune to all damage for 110 turns.

With the most powerful mage school, Creation, and Arcana Exxet metamagic you can have a Perfect Shield cast at Arcane level with 3000 life points maintained with 25 daily zeon. They regenerate all damage each turn and for 200 extra zeon at the cast time you can just automatically have a magic projection result of 440(no rolling).

littlebottom
2011-09-29, 05:25 PM
Most shields are passive actions, that means you can accumulate and cast them even if you are beaten on initiative. Only issue is having enough accumulation to get the shield out in one turn.

Your house rule also renders level 10 summoners with Star immune to all damage for 110 turns.

With the most powerful mage school, Creation, and Arcana Exxet metamagic you can have a Perfect Shield cast at Arcane level with 3000 life points maintained with 25 daily zeon. They regenerate all damage each turn and for 200 extra zeon at the cast time you can just automatically have a magic projection result of 440(no rolling).

i do not own the arcana exxet, since its not been released in english yet... so i didnt know about this. also, all the player has to do is pump their magic projection really high and its invunerable in the old rules since they dont take minuses for multiple defences, so they can never be beaten to a point where you can reliably get through their defences anyway, you would just have to cast spells (assuming it doesnt block them too)

Dusk Eclipse
2011-09-29, 06:07 PM
I haven't played a magic user character in anima; but wouldn't energy attacks bypass the shields?

Geddoe
2011-09-29, 10:34 PM
i do not own the arcana exxet, since its not been released in english yet... so i didnt know about this. also, all the player has to do is pump their magic projection really high and its invunerable in the old rules since they dont take minuses for multiple defences, so they can never be beaten to a point where you can reliably get through their defences anyway, you would just have to cast spells (assuming it doesnt block them too)

They don't take penalties for multiple defenses, but adding to attack can be done with ki and quality weapons. The roll can be a lot easier with +100 attack to your attack roll.


I haven't played a magic user character in anima; but wouldn't energy attacks bypass the shields?

Only the bad ones. The light, dark, water, creation and free-access shields can all block energy off the top of my head.

Dusk Eclipse
2011-10-10, 11:48 PM
Hey guys, my group might start (another) anima game which apparently will be based on the Anime/Manga Fairy tail, and I don't really have a good idea on what would be a good option to play.

So far the GM has banned that advantage that gives you extra XP at character creation (hardened would be a lit. translation) And powerful Enemy (Empire) and due the inspiration for the game the party should be heavy on the magic side and we are starting at level 3.

So does anyone has suggestions on what would be easy to play and build with those requirements?

littlebottom
2011-10-12, 06:14 AM
well, easy to play would proberbly be a shadow or a warrior/weapons master but any melee fighter class is pretty easy until you get to Ki but even then i wouldnt say low level ki stuff is all that hard either.

if i was you in that situation, i would build something more comic relief like. be a doddering old blind man, who the moment a fight starts, does all sorts of flips and jumps.:smallwink: (obviously you would have to overcome being blind, but theres a couple of spells or psychic abilities you could use for that. just take the right advantage so you only learn that one psychic ability then just hold it in a maintain slot.)

A friend of mine wants to make a character based off of the needles weapons from the dominus exxet. taking the needles as soon as possible, awell as a bunch of stuff that ups his chance to crit/ ups the effects of the crit.

Geddoe
2011-10-13, 03:57 AM
if i was you in that situation, i would build something more comic relief like. be a doddering old blind man, who the moment a fight starts, does all sorts of flips and jumps.:smallwink: (obviously you would have to overcome being blind, but theres a couple of spells or psychic abilities you could use for that. just take the right advantage so you only learn that one psychic ability then just hold it in a maintain slot.)


According to Dominus Exxet, if you detect the enemy with Ki Detection, while blind, they count as only partially obscured instead of totally obscured for the purposes of penalties. Further, if you have Erudition and beat their Ki Concealment roll by 40(most people will have ki concealment 0, except shadows and assassins or the like), you don't take any penalties as they are considered completely located.

I was considering Blind for my next character, based on Hobyrim from Tactics Ogre.

Shade Kerrin
2011-10-13, 04:38 AM
Well, my local store seems to be faster at getting goods, since they got the new book in yesterday.
Coincidentally, the roleplaying club I am in happened to have an arranged sale with said store on the same day....

I'm really liking what I am seeing in it. I've already spotted a perfect plothook for both of my RL groups. Oh, it is going to be so much fun!

Halae
2011-10-13, 02:02 PM
Those Who Walked Among Us is going to be here soon. I'm looking forward to it, since that's when my GM is starting the game up again; once the book arrives at the house, he's calling everybody up to tell them Anima is back on. That'll give him about a week to digest the contents of the book.

Littlebottom, is there new Creation stuff? I ask because I like beast blooded characters.

littlebottom
2011-10-13, 04:57 PM
Those Who Walked Among Us is going to be here soon. I'm looking forward to it, since that's when my GM is starting the game up again; once the book arrives at the house, he's calling everybody up to tell them Anima is back on. That'll give him about a week to digest the contents of the book.

Littlebottom, is there new Creation stuff? I ask because I like beast blooded characters.

yes, there is infact expanded monster creation rules, if i was your GM though, i wouldnt allow some of them through beast blooded, but most are fine. you will see what i mean when you get a look, some also i dont think would work well for a player, but im sure with a little inventiveness and tweaking it can be done. but yes, theres a new chapter on it, its not all that long though.

Halae
2011-10-13, 06:04 PM
Good enough for me, and I can go a long way with a little inventiveness. Thanks, LB

littlebottom
2011-10-13, 06:23 PM
no problem, also i do intend on eventually picking our anima game back up, im currently trying to gauge how much spare time im going to have on a regular basis to see if and or when its worth me running it.

katarl
2011-10-17, 02:21 PM
Shameless self-advertisement for Anima Sci-Fi project.

Sci Fi Anima Project: Beyond Science (http://www.scribd.com/doc/64012881/Anima-Beyond-Science-v5-0)

Shade Kerrin
2011-10-17, 02:48 PM
Not too bad, could be a little better orginized, but it's Anima we're talking about, here.
Will talk more when I have a chance to properly read it

littlebottom
2011-10-22, 06:12 PM
its okay from what ive read so far, which isnt much, but youve changed ( i guess deliberately) the opens and fumbles to 0-5 and 96-100, any particular reason?

Halae
2011-10-24, 08:36 AM
Ok, so, I have a new and wacky Tale from the Table

So, My wizard died. Fumbled his defense against an arrow and got shot straight through the eye. Well, that means it's new character time!

I decided to make use of a Ki based character, since we just got Dominus Exxet and Those Who Walked Among Us. Thus, Beast Blooded character was an obvious choice. Here's my Creation point build

Advantages:
Blood of the Great Beasts 3
Martial Mastery 1
Natural Weapons 2 (I was allowed to use another creation point to get rid of the level adjustment)
Ki Recovery 3

Disadvantages:
Powerful Enemy (Inquisition) 2
Powerful Enemy (Tol Rauko) 2
Powerful Enemy (Yehuda) 2

As you can see, this character isn't exactly on the down low, as far as supernatural entities go. Tol Rauko wants him captured, the Inquisition wants him burned, and the Order of Yehuda wants him for experiments. That's fine, since he's remarkably tough to take down.

Using the Blood of the Great beasts ability for 120 DP, I have a damage barrier of 100, my natural weapon counts as a full shield, defending me even more, and Natural armor of 4 that stacks with the chain mail I'm wearing. All in all, a good set of defense abilities. He shines in offense though.

Using Ki and the natural weapon he got, he has a base damage of 105 on a pair of absolutely massive claws. I set his secondary damage type to impact, so that he could punch enemies too. But Here's where it starts to get silly.

See, with Martial Mastery and the fact that we're level 4, My character has 230 Development points. It was easy enough to get Zen and Superior Characteristic Augmentation. Because we're using the unification of Ki variant and I have Ki Recovery, I recover Ki points at a rate of 5 per minute. Considering SCA only costs one for each physical stat buffed Every Ten turns, It costs me 4 out of that 5. I'm still recovering 1 Ki every minute.

What this means? I literally have a constant buff of 4 to every physical stat I have, pushing all of them to a minimum of 11, and peaking with strength at 15. But wait, it gets better. Within the next couple of levels, I'm taking Transformation: Eliodon, which will let me use the bonus development points it gives me to increase my strength even further. This is on top of the stat boost I get next level. Altogether, this puts my strength at an ridiculous 19! And because my natural weapons can deal impact damage... well.

If I punch someone, they'll have to make an opposed strength check against my insane, godly strength. If they fail by a single point, they will fly 150-300 feet, and take an extra 50-100 damage from either slamming into something or getting one hell of a case of road rash, if they even survive my attack. Gods help them if they fail by 5 or more, as they will fly more than a mile, and take between 100 and 250 extra damage. At the limit, it just says "25+ Miles."

On top of this, when I get a single point more strength, I will be able to punch the ground and cause an earthquake that levels cities for miles around.

To summarize, I'm so insanely strong, that I can punch things so hard their mangled and broken bodies fly for miles before leaving a long, bloody smear along the dirt about 7 miles away, or leave a swath of destruction in a 12 mile radius. The best part? I didn't intend this. The combo just sort of jumped out at me, working synergistically with things I'd chosen for completely different reasons.

I love Anima. So much.

littlebottom
2011-10-24, 01:14 PM
hahaha, yeah, my characters are starting to get to that point of sending people flying backwards and stuff from impact, so now im going to have to start sending different enimies at them since a human who is knocked 7 miles, even if he survives, would take him a while to get back to the fight, and the players could just walk off :smallamused:

Geddoe
2011-10-24, 03:12 PM
Ok, so, I have a new and wacky Tale from the Table

So, My wizard died. Fumbled his defense against an arrow and got shot straight through the eye. Well, that means it's new character time!

I decided to make use of a Ki based character, since we just got Dominus Exxet and Those Who Walked Among Us. Thus, Beast Blooded character was an obvious choice. Here's my Creation point build

Advantages:
Blood of the Great Beasts 3
Martial Mastery 1
Natural Weapons 2 (I was allowed to use another creation point to get rid of the level adjustment)
Ki Recovery 3

Disadvantages:
Powerful Enemy (Inquisition) 2
Powerful Enemy (Tol Rauko) 2
Powerful Enemy (Yehuda) 2

As you can see, this character isn't exactly on the down low, as far as supernatural entities go. Tol Rauko wants him captured, the Inquisition wants him burned, and the Order of Yehuda wants him for experiments. That's fine, since he's remarkably tough to take down.

Using the Blood of the Great beasts ability for 120 DP, I have a damage barrier of 100, my natural weapon counts as a full shield, defending me even more, and Natural armor of 4 that stacks with the chain mail I'm wearing. All in all, a good set of defense abilities. He shines in offense though.

Using Ki and the natural weapon he got, he has a base damage of 105 on a pair of absolutely massive claws. I set his secondary damage type to impact, so that he could punch enemies too. But Here's where it starts to get silly.

See, with Martial Mastery and the fact that we're level 4, My character has 230 Development points. It was easy enough to get Zen and Superior Characteristic Augmentation. Because we're using the unification of Ki variant and I have Ki Recovery, I recover Ki points at a rate of 5 per minute. Considering SCA only costs one for each physical stat buffed Every Ten turns, It costs me 4 out of that 5. I'm still recovering 1 Ki every minute.

What this means? I literally have a constant buff of 4 to every physical stat I have, pushing all of them to a minimum of 11, and peaking with strength at 15. But wait, it gets better. Within the next couple of levels, I'm taking Transformation: Eliodon, which will let me use the bonus development points it gives me to increase my strength even further. This is on top of the stat boost I get next level. Altogether, this puts my strength at an ridiculous 19! And because my natural weapons can deal impact damage... well.

If I punch someone, they'll have to make an opposed strength check against my insane, godly strength. If they fail by a single point, they will fly 150-300 feet, and take an extra 50-100 damage from either slamming into something or getting one hell of a case of road rash, if they even survive my attack. Gods help them if they fail by 5 or more, as they will fly more than a mile, and take between 100 and 250 extra damage. At the limit, it just says "25+ Miles."

On top of this, when I get a single point more strength, I will be able to punch the ground and cause an earthquake that levels cities for miles around.

To summarize, I'm so insanely strong, that I can punch things so hard their mangled and broken bodies fly for miles before leaving a long, bloody smear along the dirt about 7 miles away, or leave a swath of destruction in a 12 mile radius. The best part? I didn't intend this. The combo just sort of jumped out at me, working synergistically with things I'd chosen for completely different reasons.

I love Anima. So much.

Social Disadvantages can only be used to purchase Social Advantages.

Also, Impact damage type does not use the Impact Table in Dominus Exxet by default. The impact table in DE is for stuff like Psychokinetic Impact or Ki techniques that have it as an added affect. The impact weapon type is just blunt trauma that happens to have the same English word used.

Krazzman
2011-10-24, 04:17 PM
Hmmm looks interesting, maybe an alternative to DnD if the WCS comes around.

But something I haven't gotten yet: how far balanced is it?

Or in other terms: with a halfway optimization, can you still compete with a wizard as a warrior in "late-game" or is a "hybrid" now even better off?

I seem to be completely lost with how the magic now works...since every bit of magic seems to be expensive.

So, how would you set it in comparasion with dnd/Pathfinder for balancing terms and for work to put into to get to know the mechanics? (Creation seems a good chunk beyond good and evil...)

Halae
2011-10-24, 11:05 PM
Social Disadvantages can only be used to purchase Social Advantages.

Also, Impact damage type does not use the Impact Table in Dominus Exxet by default. The impact table in DE is for stuff like Psychokinetic Impact or Ki techniques that have it as an added affect. The impact weapon type is just blunt trauma that happens to have the same English word used.If the first part is true, which is something my DM doesn't seem to be running with, then the disadvantages can easily be changed to Unlucky Destiny, Slow Reactions, and another 2 pointer.

As far as the impact type goes, I've seen nothing to indicate that a punch can't send someone over these distances. Literally nothing. Though I'm away from my books at the moment and can't confirm it, I believe the earthquake part even states that it can be done with a punch.

Geddoe
2011-10-24, 11:25 PM
As far as the impact type goes, I've seen nothing to indicate that a punch can't send someone over these distances. Literally nothing. Though I'm away from my books at the moment and can't confirm it, I believe the earthquake part even states that it can be done with a punch.

Well, there is the fact that one of the ki technique abilities(pg 67 of Dominus Exxet) is the ability to use the Impact table at various levels of Strength. Starting at an impact str of 4. There is a difference between attacking for impact damage type and an Impact that knocks you back.

It does state that as an optional rule, the GM can determine that particularly powerful attacks can have a secondary effect of tremors. But it isn't the same as using the impact table or just something that automatically happens for you.

Shade Kerrin
2011-10-24, 11:56 PM
Problem seems to be that the term 'Impact' is used for two things: A damage type equivalent to D&D's Bludgeoning, and an effect capable of sending the target/s flying. I wonder if the original language used the same terminology for them too....

Geddoe
2011-10-25, 07:27 AM
It doesn't. The Impact damage type is referred to as contundentes. The impact from psycho kinetic impact is just impacto or empujar.

Halae
2011-10-25, 07:36 AM
Ah, fair enough. They really should have used Blunt instead of Impact for that sort of thing then. Still, the massive strength comes with a lot of benefits.

littlebottom
2011-10-25, 07:53 AM
Hmmm looks interesting, maybe an alternative to DnD if the WCS comes around.

But something I haven't gotten yet: how far balanced is it?

Or in other terms: with a halfway optimization, can you still compete with a wizard as a warrior in "late-game" or is a "hybrid" now even better off?

I seem to be completely lost with how the magic now works...since every bit of magic seems to be expensive.

So, how would you set it in comparasion with dnd/Pathfinder for balancing terms and for work to put into to get to know the mechanics? (Creation seems a good chunk beyond good and evil...)

Well, i would say anima is pretty balenced until high levels, of course, by balenced i mean after level 3 theres proberbly no point in sending normal humans against the players unless they are in groups of 30:smallamused: but between the different classes its very balenced except for one thing, the system can (and has many times) been broken, but that said, such is the same with DnD you just have to know where to look. and of course, if your GM has much common sense he will proberbly disallow broken characters without some form of repercussion.

the balence between the classes wether hybrid or not, are balenced for the most part, since fighters start to touch into Ki, which gives them special attacks and abilities, one such thing may be to allow them to make an attack with bonus damage on an energy type, meaning if a caster has a magical shield that cant block energy, the attacker can get through the magical barrier. if you think that your highest level wizards can cast spells over the areas of miles is too much for a fighter to contend with, since they would never get into melee you would be wrong, as melees can also get up to running speed of several miles in a turn or two. admittedly, it means the moment your characters get high in level, all combats will be performed over wide open areas instead of in buildings or streets and such :smalltongue:


Well, there is the fact that one of the ki technique abilities(pg 67 of Dominus Exxet) is the ability to use the Impact table at various levels of Strength. Starting at an impact str of 4. There is a difference between attacking for impact damage type and an Impact that knocks you back.

It does state that as an optional rule, the GM can determine that particularly powerful attacks can have a secondary effect of tremors. But it isn't the same as using the impact table or just something that automatically happens for you.

yeah, that is indeed correct, one character in my party i allowed to have an artifact warhammer that is a normal warhammer except it has the impact effects from the dominus exxet :smalltongue: i like the artifact advantage and a few others that are more open, so that you can strike a deal to do certain special things since the interpretation is left to the player and GM when the advantage is taken, same for the 2 point disadvantage damned. they make for interesting characters.

Halae
2011-10-25, 08:00 AM
Yeah, I agree. For example, my DM outright told everybody that if we're willing to dump the five creation point into it to take Ancient blood and Artifact, we'd be getting an Emeth Battle Golem right off the bat. None of us took it, because those points can be better spent, but damn, that's pretty awesome.

littlebottom
2011-10-25, 04:39 PM
A thought occurs, would anybody like to play a high(ish?) level anima game on the forums. yeah, its going to get silly really quick and the game will die im pretty sure before too long, but it should be fun while it lasts.

SlyGuyMcFly
2011-10-25, 06:20 PM
Or in other terms: with a halfway optimization, can you still compete with a wizard as a warrior in "late-game" or is a "hybrid" now even better off?


Pretty much what littlebottom said. It's balanced in the sense that melee types and casters are more or less equally breakable and both can get exceedingly outrageous.

The wizard can create small black holes, but the fighter spots the wizard from 2 miles away, closes the distance andKOs the wizard in a single round. Only to be shot by the archer who was chillin' somewhere over the horizon, who in turn is stabbed by the ninja who can hide from omniscient beings... and so on.

Halae
2011-10-26, 06:41 AM
A thought occurs, would anybody like to play a high(ish?) level anima game on the forums. yeah, its going to get silly really quick and the game will die im pretty sure before too long, but it should be fun while it lasts.

I would be totally willing to do that. I have a character design in mind, in fact >.>

Krazzman
2011-10-26, 04:18 PM
Does someone know the German Name for the system?

After reading a comment about the book where there was written that it is chaotic and i think it was mentioned here that the rules are vague in english and that the transscriptions would be better... so I would like to find the german version. Amazon just brings the english version up so, does it run under another name? Or why can't I find it in another language than english?

Hope you can help me.

Geddoe
2011-10-26, 04:39 PM
Think the game is just Spanish, French and English.

Shade Kerrin
2011-10-26, 05:03 PM
It doesn't. The Impact damage type is referred to as contundentes. The impact from psycho kinetic impact is just impacto or empujar.

Was expecting as such. There's one issue we can pin on the translators


A thought occurs, would anybody like to play a high(ish?) level anima game on the forums. yeah, its going to get silly really quick and the game will die im pretty sure before too long, but it should be fun while it lasts.

I'd be happy to play in this. Not GM, though, got other plans lined up for that already.

littlebottom
2011-10-26, 06:03 PM
I would be totally willing to do that. I have a character design in mind, in fact >.>

cool, sounds like we should give it a try.


Does someone know the German Name for the system?

After reading a comment about the book where there was written that it is chaotic and i think it was mentioned here that the rules are vague in english and that the transscriptions would be better... so I would like to find the german version. Amazon just brings the english version up so, does it run under another name? Or why can't I find it in another language than english?

Hope you can help me.

I dont think they made a german version (yet?)

I'd be happy to play in this. Not GM, though, got other plans lined up for that already.

okay thats 2 people, guess ill make an OOC thread then so people can set to work, i dont think ill go into much plot really, it will be more action and messing about, if we keep it going though i might knock it up a notch (BAM) and turn it into a proper game with some world changing plot:smallamused:

Here is an ooc, dont forget to subscribe! (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=12105039#post12105039)

littlebottom
2011-10-27, 05:30 PM
I am doing a computer science course atm, ive only just started really, but one part of the course is basic programming, thus i think im going to give myself a project (a long reaching project to do over a while) of making a character builder for Anima. Just thought you guys would like to know.

but i wouldnt expect to see it finished until a year from now, ive got a lot to learn yet so ill do it in steps, and ill keep you guys updated with it and how im doing if you like?:smallconfused:

Shade Kerrin
2011-10-28, 12:10 AM
Sounds like a good idea.
As a hobby, I started to write a GM assistance tool for Anima, but I haven't had time to do anything with it in a while. Perhaps I should start on that again.

littlebottom
2011-10-31, 09:38 AM
Hey, been reading through all the mosters in the new book from start to finish over the past few days, not quite finished yet though, but i found one that made me laugh, well i found a few but thats not the point.

essentially, the one im on about is an ancient golem from the solomon empire, thier last model before the empire fell. baaaaaaasically it has 4 nukes strapped to its back:smalleek: it says "short range missle with a range of approximately 2 miles, the explosion is in a 1 mile radius, hitting everything with in 300 feet from the centre suffers a zen attack (440) with base damage 300. those within 1500 feet suffer an inhuman attack at 200 base damage, and anyone within 5000 feet suffers an impossible attack at base 100." it does say, that it only has 4 and is incapable of making any more since the technology was lost with the solomon empire, but still...

Shade Kerrin
2011-10-31, 07:14 PM
I'm personally partial to the Giant Giant worm...

People have theorized it is about 10 miles long, they are wrong. That's only the part that's come above surface.
It's main method of attack is the earthquakes it causes just by moving...
And those nukes would probably do at worst 1320 damage to it, just over a tenth of its HP, so...

littlebottom
2011-10-31, 07:26 PM
yeah, that worm is funny too.

i think it says "some say is a mile long, they are wrong, as that is only the part that can be seen above ground, some theorize it to be 10 times this length" so 10miles length is more like its length although, if its "10 times the amount above ground" that would make it nearer 15 to 20 miles in length because it in the scale at the back of the book reaches almost a mile high and is bent over.:smallbiggrin:

Halae
2011-10-31, 07:35 PM
pretty damn scary, really

Personally, I like the fluff they put in for demons, especially the demonic bargains

Shade Kerrin
2011-10-31, 07:38 PM
I loved the reactions when I told my RL group about it.
"What the hell does a thing like that eat!?"
"Oasis's"

Halae
2011-10-31, 07:45 PM
I liked watching my DM go wide-eyed at Rudraskha. I mean, damn! that thing is crazy in all sorts of ways! Not lucifer crazy, mind you, but still.

Dusk Eclipse
2011-11-03, 08:45 PM
I just started a Campaign Journal titled "Waking Up" and I would be grateful if you guys could give it a shot... Link in my sig:smallsmile:

littlebottom
2011-11-04, 05:34 PM
Also, my level 10 game is still recruiting if anyone is still interested.:smallconfused:

Shade Kerrin
2011-11-13, 09:22 PM
Quick query to make, since I don't have my TTWAU on me, and will need a particular statistic from it before I can get to it.

When using the Mass combat rules, does the mass get any bonus to opposed ability checks? If so, how much would a 5-mass get?(I do like that they gave figures for small groups too, found it really useful when I just didn't feel like rolling a lot of attacks)

littlebottom
2011-11-17, 05:33 PM
i cant remember.... sorry shade :smallredface:

just come to post something, basically the anima tactics game with the minis, we have just descovered one of my players almost exactly in mini form, so i might buy it for him for christmas :smalltongue:

This one (http://www.frpgames.com/cart.php?m=product_detail&p=61545) His character is a female paladin with heavy armour and a massive 2 handed hammer and the mini has a nice bit of character to it too.:smallsmile:

Shade Kerrin
2011-11-17, 05:59 PM
Well I got to my book(the answer is no, though I suppose getting halfway to the next +3 might be representative of the extra weight 5 people can throw around)
Also spotted the first real weakness of a DR creature. Sure, the investment you can make in HP greatly outweighs the cost of having poor, but it leaves them vulnerable to most tactical attack options(Mind you, they tend to have high enough stats to resist anyway, but...). Cannot believe I didn't make that connection til now.

That is a nice mini there, makes me wish I had a hammer-wielding character.
Actually, I got into Anima because I wanted to find out more about the mini I had bought for one of my chars in a D&D game, and have since seen several others that were likewise great matches for other characters. Pity I'm not any good at painting, though...

littlebottom
2011-11-17, 06:19 PM
DR is only for use in a couple of reasons in my opinion.

one: if it suits the enemy (an animal for example may not be one to dodge, but to just be aggressive and soak damage)

two: bosses, so that the players can rip into it and progress with every attack while the enemy still gets his attack back, rather than going "he blocks everything and kills us all" or "we hit him every round so he never got an action"

as for the minis what got me into anima was the roleplay itself, a friend of mine had picked up the book for its pretty pictures and i took a look and saw great potential in the system for hijinks and fun on a high fantasy scale that most other systems dont quite deliver (or if they do, the players tend to be too powerful)

Dusk Eclipse
2011-11-27, 12:54 PM
So guys... my character bit the dust last session and obviously I need a new character to return next session. At first I intended to just level up a lower level character (a Warlock); but I have been thinking and I still don't get how to build a Magic using character so I would prefer to keep to the Ki which is what I know best.

Anyway the character I want to build is somewhat based on Nomad the most difficult boss monster in Runescape (:braces for mocking:); for those who don't know here is a video of the battle. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_6Ioin7oj8) (just in case he is the bald guy with the spear).

Here are my rolled numbers for stats (already accounting the "turn lowest stat into a 9")
9, 8, 10, 9, 7, 6, 10, 8

This character is going to enter at level 7 and I was intending to go 7 levels of technician; but I also considered using shadow to give it a more stealth which has been proved to be useful in the campaign.

So any suggestions or comments?

littlebottom
2011-11-27, 06:28 PM
a good suggestion for a higher leveled character being built is to look for the end result and work towards it, a certain special weapon or ability that has X requirements, so that you know you can fulfill them as you go through the lower levels till he is the right level for the game.

i tend to find if you start from the bottom and build up you can lose direction, if you start from the top and figure out the best way from the bottom to the top, you tend to get better and more interesting results.

in more specific terms, i wouldnt bother taking shadow for a few levels if you have someone else filling the place of stealth, just take enough DP in stealth or something so you can sneak a little, and stick to the much better bonuses per level of the technician.

Dusk Eclipse
2011-11-28, 04:01 PM
I had thought a bit more about it and going only Technician is definitely a better idea (the MK gained more than offsets the bonus to subterfuge which with only two levels would be negligible).

I was thinking on arranging my stats like this.

Agility:9
Constitution:8
Dexterity: 10
Intelligence:7
Perception: 6
Power: 10
Strength: 9
Willpower: 8
I will probably spend two Advantages in bringing Agility and Strength to 10 but I am not sure yet.

What do you think about that.

Shade Kerrin
2011-11-28, 05:08 PM
Looks reasonable, from what I saw of that clip he seemed to throw around a lot of fancy techniques, so you definately will need power to properly fuel them.
So where are you putting your 3 points from levelling? Maybe into saving the cost of advantages?
And if you have that much MK, investing in Char Augmentation would probably fare you better than spending on the base.

littlebottom
2011-11-28, 07:03 PM
you have access to the dominus exxet? that will allow you to create even more indepth abilities, and give you access to some other special things.

My advice would be to take the advantage that lets you generate ki at normal accumulation rate even if you do something else in the turn, soo good for high end ki users.

Dusk Eclipse
2011-11-28, 07:16 PM
Yep I have access to the Dominus Exxet and that Advantage is almost mandatory in our group due a houserule, which halves the Ki pool and acumulation; but allows to gather Senjutsu.

Senjutsu can be used to pay for Ki techniques but you gather it at half rate of Ki and you receive it at the start of the next turn after you declared you are starting to gather and it doesn't use ki points from the pool. You can still gather Ki at your normal accumulations but doing that does use your normal Ki pool. You can also gather Senjutsu while moving but that halves the accumulation again (so 1/4 of your normal ones) unless you have that advantage which also applies to senjutsu.

It is actually pretty nice as I had some pretty costly techniques and using Senjutsu I could use them far more often than with Ki points. :smallcool:

littlebottom
2011-11-28, 07:51 PM
well thats the point isnt it, your supposed to run out eventually:smalltongue:

but yeah, for a fast paced game, that works quite well.

Dusk Eclipse
2011-11-28, 08:15 PM
True it works really well for our group :smallcool:

littlebottom
2011-11-29, 05:29 PM
would you like any other suggestions?:smallconfused:

i mean i can throw a bunch of character ideas at you if your still stuck.

Dusk Eclipse
2012-01-09, 01:32 PM
Hey guys, I want to ask your opinion on something, my DM is going to rune a one or two shot next week and we are supposed to use new characters.

I was browsing the Arcana Exxet to see if I got some inspiration for said character, in the end I was intrigued by the incarnations, specifically Anassilish, the Faceless. I was thinking on going Warrior Summoner and just focusing on him, getting my affinity as high as I can and constantly binding him; but I am worried if that would be just wasting DP and levels.

I was also thinking on using magic to buff myself in addition to the incarnation; but since this would be my first actual foray into Anima Magic I don't know which schools would be useful other than one particular spell from the War sub-school.

Any comments on this idea?

DogbertLinc
2012-01-14, 09:21 AM
Ok, I know this thread doesn't get many looks, but I'll try it:

What does the Throwing module, from the phb, do? I assumed it lets you throw any weapon without penalty, but honestly have no idea.

Also, how would y'all suggest I introduce Anima to an everchanging group? I've done it twice already, with mixed results and am not very satisfied with my methods.

littlebottom
2012-01-14, 07:15 PM
the throwing module i believe just allows you to throw "throwable" weapons without penalty i guess. like using a sword without a module for swords.

everchanging group? whats that?:smallconfused:

DogbertLinc
2012-01-14, 09:23 PM
the Anima games in my group are the backup plans, in which I am teaching everyone the system.

In both sessions, the party changed a lot. And it'll probably change a lot if we have a 3rd session, too. So everchanging.

And it seems I did understand what it did. That's good, I'm learning.

littlebottom
2012-01-15, 01:14 AM
oh i see. i guess if its like that rather than trying to put much depth on the world (which is a shame, its a really nice world) just make it super fun, silly and hyperactive, encourage people to do backflips in combat for laughs, just make it entertaining if the group isnt regular, that way they might want to play more if they enjoy it so much!:smallbiggrin:

well, thats the hope, eh?