Hey fa/tg/uys just finally wondering about anima, since I hear a few varying opinions on here about it. Ranging from really good to the absolute worst. Only thing I can garner is maximum weeb adventures, and I'm down for it. Honest objective opinions folks, party peeps. Does it play well, or is a strain to get through?
>>45317298
When I tried going through the rules I found the attack rolls, damage rolls and armor damage reduction rules to be a horrible mix. It takes too long to calculate all those- If this was a computer game those calculations would be done by computer in less than a second.
My suggestion is for you to take a look at another game system. If your group is only starting and they are new I would suggest Savage Worlds because it is fairly simple. It has less rules that for example D&D or GURPS. And it usually uses one or two die per roll unlike for example World of Darkness.
>>45317388
Not really new. Just getting curious cause whenever I look at books at my local shop this thing is just staring me in the face. Is the combat mechanics just executed terribly, or is the mathematics just exhausting. Cause I get a huge boner for complex but well worked mechanics, but if it's just bad in general I'll take a pass.
>>45317419
It's not bad, just very complex so most people avoid it.
I really enjoy it, but the combat is getting quite tiring. It's extremely taxing on the GM because he's the one who has to calculate every bonus and malus, and keep in mind the situational modifiers.
Thank god for phone apps, but rolling dice and calculating shit, to end up with 10% damage (wooow 9!) on a HP sponge, who can't even play this turn, is long.
A regular encounter lasts at least one hour, with 4 players.
The system is pretty good otherwise, allowing for lots of freedom and weeb techniques. Everything can be refluffed easily.
>>45317419
I think the battle resolution takes too long. Fast paced combat is almost impossible. After round of two the players will lose the adrenaline rush and the it becomes a chore. It takes too long and it sucks the life out of cool scenes. As I said in my previous post if this was done by computer those calculations would be near instant. But on table it takes too long
I love it, though as others have said the combat really turns into a slog, especially if people don't have their shit together (which they never will)
The only main issues I have with it are:
Speed > Everything, since you can just gaurantee to get high on initiative, get a high attack mod, and then if you do enough damage the thing you hit won't even get a turn
2. Ki/Magic is god. Just like most d20 systems they are just better, though it's less of an issue since most classes get access to either Ki or Magic. And honestly, its fucking Weeaboo: The Game, if you have a ki technician that spends an 4 rounds gathering energy and one shotting your bad guy witn a kamehameha thats pretty standard
After getting my group's teeth wet with d20 I brought up Anima and gave them a one-shot, and now they don't want to play anything else
>>45317508
>>45317460
Alright so it seems like it might be the worth a look see and something to tuck away on the shelf for a rainy day. I can see the appeal being a huge weeb and what not.
>>45317519
Also if you do decide to run a game definitely pick up the Exxet supplements, they really flesh out magic and psychics.
With just the base core book summoning, using the tarots etc. is pretty lackluster
Attack resolution is really not a problem, I don't know what these guys are talking about. Maybe they don't use the formula from Core Exxet? Because you really should use the formula from Core Exxet. I've ran a full game with Anima, and while it's far from a perfect system it can be lots of fun. If you keep a calculator out you can punch the formula in in seconds, tell the player how much damage they deal, and move on. Hell, I even have an IRC dicebot that can do it all at once for you (I don't need it but it's nice to have): plug in the attack bonus, defense bonus, damage and AT and it rolls attack and defense and spits the result out. I actually find attack resolution in Anima to be a fair bit faster than in many systems. There's no back and forth with reactions and damage rolls and shit, you just declare your attack, if you're using any techniques, then the defender does the same and you roll.
That said, it's best if your group is willing to houserule and work with the system a bit, since some parts of it aren't perfectly balanced and there are odd things here and there. While I don't find combat to be straining, character creation can be fairly in depth. Though that really depends on what kind of character you're making. Technicians in particular can be quite complex, due to Ki and the Ki technique creation system. But all in all, it can definitely be a fun game. There's a lot for people to play with, and the combat system leads itself to a more dynamic battle flow than the majority of games do. It's easily usable for stuff outside the default setting too - for example, I homebrewed up some basic gun rules and used it to run an urban fantasy campagin. Worked pretty good.
What >>45319288 said.
It has it's flaws, namely the initial learning curve of the system, but it is fun.
Pic is a handy flowchart of combat resolution.
That being said, check here for a good portion of the books in digital format.
https://mega.nz/#F!pZhBUS7L!Dqg24lVzifA23q2qNan3nQ
As an aside, anybody know if the fan-made Nekomimi Exxet got translated? Or Gaia 2?
I liked what I read of it, but couldn't stand the world presented in the game.
>>45322445
>couldn't stand the world presented in the game.
What didn't you like about it?
>>45322445
There's really no need to use Gaia if you don't want to, at least.
>>45324438
Not that anon, but after reading Gaia I felt like the world had no consistency whatsoever. Just like a bunch of independent ideas thrown together haphazardly.
>>45326065
That's understandable. I like Gaia but honestly a lot of its themes seem to go against the themes of Anima as a system, like the player section of the core rulebook giving an impression of super over the top fantasy action but then the GM section basically details how mundane everything is because the single most powerful organization in the setting wants everything to be mundane for some reason and is mostly successful in doing so.
Bump for Anima discussion.
>>45319804
Sorry, but that's stupidly complex for a pen and paper game. Saying "It's fine if you have a calculator or something" really only makes your case worse.
>>45328176
Did you read the words or did you just look at the amount of boxes and arrows?
>>45328284
Yes. It is possible for someone to understand something and still think it is needlessly complex.
>>45319804
saved
really, it's not actually that complex? a lot of it is common sense, and stuff you would add automatically, or end up doing in your head without thinking. I generally only need a calculator for damage, and that's cause damage is presented by % dependent on how solidly you hit, and im bad enough at math that i cant do that in my head. I will admit though, I have access to a spreadsheet that does a lot of character sheet calculations for you. its a really REALLY nice sheet.
>>45328176
I hope you're not judging the system from that one image.
That image is obtuse because it has a lot of random rules and modifiers crammed into it. Blame the guy who made it for doing shit like cramming the magical shield, critical hit and fumble rules as well as random combat options like absorb hits and pure defense into what should have just been a chart showing the basic flow of combat. Hell, it isn't even selective about what random game mechanics it lists. Fumbles are there, but open rolls are not. Take almost any system out there and you can make an obtuse looking image like that from it.
>>45317298
Too crunchy and not intuitive at all
>>45334247
>I hope you're not judging the system from that one image.
Then, please, provide something better.
>>45337258
The PDFs were linked earlier in this thread. If you care to judge the system, pick them up and read them.
>>45337965
>Read the book
>These rules seem pretty complex
>"It's not that complex this will explain it"
>That still seems pretty complex
>"You shouldn't judge it by that"
>Provide something that explains it better
>"Read the book"
Ok.
No, unless you're buying the spanish version.
FFG won't translate core (ever) or properly do prometheus OR gaia 2.>tfw fucking gates is still not released
>>45317508
>Weeaboo: The Game,
You're playing anima. Like the game says it out of the gate "yeah, this is pretty anime" and this is a complain?
>>45328862
Some people enjoy crunch heavy anon, and that's okay.
Not all system should be rules light or medium.
>>45338575
Your post said nothing about you having read the book, smartass. And no one's claiming it's an ultra simple game you can pick up and go instantly with. It's a rules heavy system and it requires learning.
This book has caught my attwntion mylitple times at my FLGS, but when I finally opened it up and read the intro fluff it made me so angry how bad it was I dropped it and never looked back.
If you want silly, magical dungeon crawling DnD 5e is fun and extremely simple and easy
If you want in-depth, grounded roleplaying and combat, Riddle of Steel is the best TTRPG system ever.
>>45338853
>read the into fluff
So you don't actually know anything about the system?
>>45338887
Anon, it's /tg/'s famous anima hater boner.
How dares a game be COMPLEX and require 5 minutes of study/How dares a game not be D&D?
>>45317298
There is gonna be another spanish weaabo game more streamlined are balanced. Its name its akuma, and is weabo in moder times.
There are 4 class of characters:
Omionji , akuma (possesed human) , ronin (weaabo swordman/demon hunter) and Esper.
Akumas and ronins also have arquetypes based on the demon who possesed the character: oni ,bakemono , yoma... Or the clan in which the ronin trained:Yokohana (female elemental warriors attuned to the phoenyx) Ogami (the dandy swordman clan) Shiroboshi (explorers, they use bows).
I dont know when is gonna be published in USA ,but i know that the autor was talking with American publishers.
>>45338935
>Much less freedom than anima
>Pretty much l5r with the clans and all that
Manolo pls...
>>45338905
>5 minutes of study
>anima
I ran a 1,5 year long Anima campaign and all throug the game kept finding new rules or learned how some things work because it's not only absurdly rules-heavy, the first edition's layout is shit.
If you like rules-heavy games that's okay, but don't try to imply that it's just a matter of a bit of reading because it's not.
>>45338979
Source on dat pic?
>>45338969
Its has more freedom that anime cos the class only tells you with what abilities you start.
After that you can have anything you want. Except Esper, that is hereditary.
The clans are not l5r style ,the clans are were you trained until you became a ronin.
At the start the entire party works with a secret society.
>>45338979
>English core
That's a good point. English core is awful.
But you can learn the (basics) of combat and whatever fancy magic you want to do in 5 minutes if you have any previous experience.
Also that's no different from other heavy systems, it's just that there is near 0 info on anima online.
>>45339077
Anon, I don't think you understand anima freedom being mechanical and many options being around it and it's high level of customization.
>>45339102
Oh wow, that came out awfully.
In short, Akuma seems to be more 'restrictive' on the crunch part, that's what makes anima fun, namely the heavy crunch allowing you do to many things. Although I'd look into it (if you have a download link it'd be pretty nice).
>>45339102
>>45339154
I played both games , the autors new each other and the later (akuma) colaborated with the author of anima.
Ronin have similar things to ki powers
Everyone can do kidou (magic) if they invest in it
Every class an arquetype can select for a ton of diferent powers making two character of the same arquetype totaly diferent.
For example, yoma (the vampire arquetipe)
The party face
An swordman that uses blood weapons
An agile gunman
One thing in between depending in wich powers you invest.
And these are the "optimized builds".
I have a physical copy, and its in spanish only by now. But i can tell you more things of the game.
https://petako.wordpress.com/2015/10/30/hoy-hemos-leido-akuma-rpg/ translate this with google, this explain things better.
The thing that i like about this system is that is ass freeform as anime without balanced issues.
I would say that kidou loses to anima magic in cuantity of spells. But Akuma wins in general powers and combat over anima:
For example the combat style tables are much deep and comples in akuma.
You have lots of mundane combat manouvers that can link in an attack doind a combo.
For example with a Rapier i can do a precisse flurry of attacks to the head so i cause my oponen the pain+ debuff. Also i link a riposte to my parry so i kill him before the next turn.
And then ronins have the ki shit like in anima.
Every clan has supernatural powers that you wrap up in a technique that cost ki poins to do animu shit.
Is more or less very similar games.
>>45338887
Why would I invest my time into a book with a Bible fan-fiction abortion of a story at the front?
>>45339968
Same reason why you're in 4chan instead of doing something with your pathetic excuse for a life.
>>45339350
Sounds interesting, might give it a look if they have it on the lgs (when I go, if ever).
Althought I feel it's gonna be really rules light.
>>45340075
Because I hate myself?
>>45340163
Mostly.
>>45317298
I don't find combat to be that complicated. Better adjectives would be "complete" and "fucking long" (to give a good one and a bad one). In the end it's throwing two dices and comparing the results, of course it's less simple than other systems but it's a reasonable degree of complexity.
Character creation, on the other hand, is really long and complicated without an excel table or something to help you. Specially for newbies. The DM (or an experienced player) has to help them to make the character one by one and this will take a long time.
I played it quite a bit.
System wise, it is rules heavy, even with tons of experience in the more major systems, Anima is a good example of "rules heavy". It is simply not casual friendly
That said, the sytem is open enough to allow plenty of customization options, the art is incredible (eoris level, maybe?), with plenty of source and supplementary material, for the diehard group of grognards it will prove to be a very powerful system.
Overally, I'd rate it a 8/10 as a gaming experience IF you bear through the initiate reading/bullshit/understanding the game, the worse part of playing the game is learning it, for sure.
>>45340321
>the worse part of playing the game is learning it, for sure
I've been playing this game since 2009 or so and yeah, this sentence is anima in a nutshell.
>>45340376
Anima is basically a very nice meal.
However the restaurant it's in the other side of the city and your car broke. It's also 42ºc.
>>45340269
>Character creation, on the other hand, is really long and complicated without an excel table or something to help you. Specially for newbies. The DM (or an experienced player) has to help them to make the character one by one and this will take a long time.
Eh, I think you overstate it a little. Now that I've been playing/running it for a little while I could walk people through character creation without it being too arduous. Newbies will definitely make some mistakes if left to build a character on their own though, it's not a walk in the park.
>>45340471
You can walk someone through it comfortably if you know exactly what you're doing, but it will still take a relatively long amount of time and it's easy to forget some of the less used/relevant rules unless you've completely memorized the whole process for every class.
>>45317298
I've been running an off-and-on Anima game for almost seven years next month, as well as a near constant Hub game on Roll20 for the past two and a half years. So yes, I'm clearly biased, but I fucking love this game. The system is fairly adept at handling homebrew settings as it is the in-system Setting of Gaia, so if the fluff isn't your style, give some homebrewed stuff a shot.
The system itself is in my opinion, EXTREMELY, simple, but I've been doing this for so long I remember almost every book page by page and I know exactly where to find each and every rule. The core mechanic of 1d100 +/- Modifers opposed against a Foe or a Target Number is fairly easy to process, it's just all in knowing your modifiers and when to apply them. Generally, the books are well laid out, if written obtusely at times, a fact exacerbated by FFG's translation... mishaps. If you're really keen on delving into the system, I suggest checking out the actual forums here, because loads of helpful people have answered a huge amount of questions over the years.
http://cipher-studios.com/AnimaBB/index.php#5
If you have questions or curiosities, I can answer a few of them if need be.
wew Anima thread that I didnt create
I'm hosting a game where a serial killer is trying to climb back up to the 13th cardinal in Archangel, in order to kill him. Who should the killer harm to get to the 13th?
>>45342903
>"Back up to"
>Implying he was once already there.
I'd say a Saint or a high ranking Inquisitor in general, maybe a personal friend of the Cardinal's if that happens to be known.
>>45342942
already got an inquisitor in its list, but I need more stuff. its a serial killer after all, not only 1 person dies.
The problem with the game is that it is really bad.
Srsly, i can't understand how Anima is the only game in my country that made it big.
>>45343602
define bad
>>45343602
Cos before in Spain always was 1d100 like aquelarre
later always was world of darkness and you couldnt play anything that wasnt that
Then anima broke the trend a created another.
And now we are full of fucking retroclones (marca del este).
We dont have crunch diversity we think more about the fluff.
Is for that, that the only game that was diferent with current trend (anima) is the only one that went out of our frontiers.
Well Anima and Ragnarok.
>>45344432
>>45343602
Also other shitty things like barrio xino.
