Brother is going to be running the first anima game(in our group) in a few weeks, but he is talking to one of the players about a certain secondary ability - "Memorize" - the description was a little vague for us.

We are trying to figure out... well the intricate details of the skill? Like when we would roll, if the player or the GM rolls, if we would even need to roll for it etc. etc. basically as much as you guys can tell us about the secondary ability.

Thanks in advanced

Stegalt said:

well since you want all my info lol. here goes.

I have always rolled this skill for my players.

any player should be able to use it even though it's in intellectual because anyone can try and memorize something, or try recalling something they wanted to remember.

The most times i have used this skill for my players is when they are gathering information and they want me to repeat information i have told them (basically i roll if they ask me for information they already know) and if the result is usually over moderate i give it to them, but if its under like 40 then i give them bad information or "you cannot remember." depending on what they were trying to recall.

it also makes a fun skill for identifying a NPC that i'm particularly vague about details with until they make a memorize or search check.

Example: i introduce a martial artist with specific tattoos. most PCs aren't interested but later when it seems someone has been making a whole bunch of barfights and killing people, they want to know if it's the guy with tattoos. i make them roll memorize to see if they remember how to describe the person or if they get his tattoos mixed up

ilovecheese1 said:

That is perfect, Actually that is exactly what I was hoping someone would describe, how they use it themselves. Alright I think my brother was mentioning useing it the same way you do i'll have to get him to take a look at this thread then. Thanks again man, and if anyone else reading this wants to put in there 2 cents of how they use this secondary ability then please do.

I agree with ilovecheese's interpretation. I generally call for that skill when the group is trying to remember something complex or obscure. It also works as a bit of a hint giver whenever they keep ignoring an important clue and hit a dead end.

Something that may also work, depending on your group, is to use it as a "training" skill. Basically have them use this skill to try and learn new tricks, such as weapon styles, ki techniques, spells or new summonings. Of course, it is only fair to do something like this if you give them warning about it before the game starts, and if it allows the player to speed the training time along if they get higher than required.

And you must always have the fighter roll memorize to remember the three magic words to prevent the evil army from rising up to destroy the world. (Klatuu Barada... Necktie?)

i agree, i usually use it in 3 ways.

player rolls to memorize something, player rolls to remember something i told them earlier, or i'll occasionally tell them to roll if i remember i told them something earlier that would help them out that they seem to have forgotten.

Lord_Jax said:

My only concern with this, though i agree on when to use it, is that the player shouldn't roll this or usually any other intellectual skill, as they shouldn't know how well they memorized or recalled the info. Same with other intellectual skills in that a person shouldn't really know how well he appraised an item, or how accurate his sciences check is to the current machine he is trying to mess with etc.

i understand what your saying cheese, there are sometimes i roll for them, but i find in my group at least they don't like gm fudge and so having them roll for themselves with me peering over their shoulder and telling them the results works well. i've had a few change their actions because they knew the roll but i just call them on it (no you can't try again, you already tried as hard as you could. your character has no reason to do that so no.) and it hasn't been an issue.

ilovecheese1 said:

I understand this point of view, but I think good roleplayers can handle playing the OOC knowledge of how well they did without necessarily worrying about them thinking they did poorly and so wanting an excuse to try again. If your players are trying hard to metagame over things like this they're probably doing it on things you can't control as easily.

Equally in Anima the gm sets the difficulty - so you can have the players roll for themselves not revealing the target number - then just give them an answer based on whether they passed or failed and not tell them which it was or how much by.

Edit: some spelling.