Hey guys, I've read through the book front to back about three times now. I'm going to be running my first game, hopefully next week, and while I've managed to make sense of many of the rules (I'm surprised I have considering how confused I was the first time I read it), I have come up with a few questions.

1. Because you can only do a counter attack if you have an attack action at the time of the attack, and it makes it pretty clear in the examples that Celia declared her attack actions after everyone roles initiative but before the turn really begins, it's pretty clear that that part of the combat round is pretty important. I don't have my book in front of me right now, so I'm unable to quote it, but I it is unclear how much you declare in this post initiative, pre fight phase. If I understand it right the actual order is something like this.

a) Roll initiative.

b) In initiative order, declare how many attack actions you will get (This is only for attack actions, correct? You don't need to decide your exact actions at this time, such as "I will take two attack actions, one of which I'll attack goon 1 and the other I'll used for a counter attack if I'm attacked. Also, there is a slight advantage here for those at the bottom of the initiative in that, they will know how many attacks the faster characters will do and can therefore guess at the penalties they will have for those attacks and figure out if they need to have extra attacks in case they want to counter, right?)

c) Each participant in the combat then goes through their turns in initiative order.

2. Gaining spells is a little confusing for me. Now there is an advantage that gives you a level of 40 in a particular path of magic (such as creation, light, etc...) which does not count towards the spending of your Magic Level (or whatever they are called, again don't have my book on me, sorry). And, as it says in the advantage, you get access to all the spells up to level 40 (including the free access), correct? Regardless of whether or not you bought the advantage, you get to spend your Magic Level and it is recommended that PCs only spend up to half of it. (If they bought the advantage, this is on top of the 40 free levels they gained from the advantage, right?) So far, I believe I understand. Now, there are two ways of gaining spells, as I understand it. You can either choose to buy spells individually (in which case you can buy according to the table given and you can buy them from any of the paths) or you can invest your levels in a chosen path, in which case you gain spells as you increase in the path (so, for example, if you have 50 Magic Level points to start, it is recommended you spend only 25 of those at first level. If you spent them all in the Light path, you would have every spell up to level 25 in the path, correct?). Once you get to level 25 in the path you have all those spells up to level 25, you do not have to spend points to "buy" them correct? Finally, every level, magic users get additional magic levels, right? So in the previous example, at level 2, you would have 25 magic level and any more that you can get for leveling up? When would you spend those points? Would it be a roleplay thing where, for example, you find a grimoire and you decide to study the spells in the grimoire, and as you study them, you could spend the Magic Level you haven't spent yet to buy spells from that path or increase your level in that path? Or, when you level, do you get to spend so many Magic Levels? If so, when does the PC "catch up" so to speak to their full potential of spells?

3. I'm afraid that I still don't understand Ki and Ki accumulation. I've read a number of forum posts on the subject, and I think I have a basic grasp, but I'm not sure. For each stat, you have a Ki value, which is the stored Ki for that stat equal to that stat, correct? On top of this, you have a Ki accumulation for that stat that is dependent on a table, correct? I believe that the base is fairly low, with any stat under 10 basically having only 1 Ki accumulation. However, one can spend creation points to buy an advantage to increase this Ki accumulation value, correct? Then the techniques you use (either from the book or one you create yourself) has an MK cost which you must spend your MK to buy. It has a "casting cost" which is usually a value of ki for various stats. For example, you might have a power requiring 2 str ki and 2 dex ki. To use this technique, you must spend however many rounds necessary to meet the value of the power using your ki accumulation for each stat. So in this abilities example, if you have a ki accumulation of 1 in str and 2 in dex, you must wait until the second turn (even if you have the 2 dex in your first term) in order to accumulate the str ki necessary to use the technique. In this example you would accumulate the first turn, and then, on the second turn, you would be able to use the technique, right? Also, do techniques that sustain, do you simply remove the ki from one of the stats every turn, effectively slowing down your ki accumulation? Or does it not effect ki accumulation and you just take it directly from the stored ki?

Well, this is all for now. I might have more questions as I continue to review the rules, so you might see my longwinded posts on here again. I think I have a pretty good grasp of the rules. I just need some details cleared up and to make sure I understand everything.

1. Roll Initiative. Declare attacks. Act.

2. There's no rules for when you get to use Magic Levels you didn't spend. I recommend ignoring that section of the book and just spending them all as soon as you get them.

3. Ki Accumulation is from DP, not creation points. Maintaining Dominion Techniques doesn't require any accumulation of Ki, it just comes straight from your pool(s).

Thank you for answering what questions you could, but could someone please answer my other questions as well.

1. I basically want to know what you declare between initiative and when you act. Do you simply declare the number of attacks you are going to do, or do you declare your actions in more details, saying you will attack, say, guard number 1 with your first attack and save your second for a counter attack, for example.

2. Thank you for mentioning the part about when you spend magic levels, but could you please answer the other questions I had about gaining spells and how you buy spells with the magic levels?

3. Thanks about the Ki answer. I don't really have any other questions about Ki.

Thanks everyone!

This is one of the worst areas of Anima's design.

As written you need to declare the number of attacks when you roll initiative. Also, you need tomanage both multiple attack and action penalties which differ. It gets worse when you factor in magic that has a different multiple attack penalty too!

FWIW I simply use the multiple action rules as written and limit the number of actions that can be used on attacks (physical or magic) by the usual Attack/100 or Zeon accumulated. That way people don't have to declare anything when they roll initiative. They simply take penalties when they act or attack. It seems to work just fine.

Also, I dovetailed multiple action penalties and multiple defence penalties so they both go 0, -25, -50, -75 etc as this is much easier to remember.

1. You declare number of attacks, that is all. Who you attack is determined when your turn actually comes up or when counter attack possibilities present themselves.

2. Buying spells with magic levels is on pg 113 under Choosing spells. If you got levels in paths, you gain those spells immediately. You gain magic levels when your intelligence goes up, that's the only way to gain new spells.