Just to let you know, FFG has just published a new web supplement for Anima Beyond Fantasy, which is a Dramatis Personae (a list of important characters with their characteristics).

It features the following dudes (in order of appearance):

XII

Kali

The Colonel

Anna Never

Romeo Exxet

Nerelas Ul Del Sylvanus

Griever

Yuri Olson

Ophiel

Kujaku Hime

Alastor

I had already "rolled" a few of them for my campaigns (XII, Yuri Olson, Griever), but decided to take into account what Edge had written and modified my own versions a bit to become closer to the originals, although Griever is a bit higher in level in MY version than original. Still, the complement is very interesting, also giving interesting pieces of story about these characters. I hope a few more will "appear" in the following months.

It's only in spanish.

E vabbeh.

My attempts to translate all of them: cipher-studios.com/AnimaBB/index.php

Thanks for the heads up Elric.

By the way, do you know what these mean in English? I'm almost done a translation, but the abbreviations for the stats are confusing, and I'm not sure I've been getting these right..

WAS - str?
DES - dex
POD - pow
VOL - will
WITH - ???

I can't find any WAS or WITH in my pdf, anyway, stats are translated like this:

Fue -> Str

Des -> Dex

Agi -> Agi

Con -> Con

Int -> Int

Pod -> Pow

Vol -> Wil

Per -> Per

RF -> PhR

RM -> MR

RP -> PsR

RV -> VR

RE -> DR

CM -> MK

The only thing I couldn't completely translate is the "Arma distina" (module?) from Griever's description. I couldn't find any translation for the word "distina" (probably a mistype error by Edge).

As I already said, I modified a bit things anyway, a few characters are (for me) higher in level and some powers (like The Process) work in a different manner on my characters.

Still this stuff (both Edge's and your efforts) is real customer service.

I assume most of those NPCs are from the Tactics side of the story, given that I only recognize, one, possibly two of them.

Of course, I'm the most interested in Anna, and that SUPER Elan she's got. I'm guessing that's what C'iel and Gaira went and secretly did for her, huh? I'm the most surprised at the fact that the supplement doesn't go into what gifts she's given (course, I'm going off of the cipher studios forum translation, so I don't know if it does or doesn't.)

No, it doesn't and it doesn't even give any description of the few techniques present in the description of a few characters. I doesn't matter me much, because I'm going to use this Dramatis Personae as "reference material" more than "absolute truth". After all, level and abilities are based on experience and quests and these elements may change with time. For example "Anna" as we like to call her, should be able to grow very fast...unless your party encounters her in the very first months of their journey, it's very probable that she will be way higher in level when they meet her (she likely gets 2 Levels per year, probably even more...).

By the way, you should notice that while Anna's Elan is superb but still LEGAL, Romeo's Elan is absolutely "illegal" although, considering his "peculiar" background, it's abundantly justified (I'd even give him Elan with Barakiel at similar level, considering his personality and the fact he's practically an object of veneration)!

I also believe a few more characters should have Elan among those that don't have it...

For example Alastor should have a very strong bond with Abaddon, all considered.

Nerelas is directly blessed by C'iel, meaning he should have at least a few high elan gifts taken from the Berils' list, although I'd also give him some strong Elan with Meseguis, considering he's so consumed with the desire for vengeance and is devoting his entire existence to it.

Griever is a hell of a dedicated fighter who CHOSE deliberately to devote his life to being a weapon...which calls for Noah's blessings, doesn't it?

Same goes with Yuri, although he should have less Elan, compared to Griever, being less "single minded".

Ophiel could quietly have Elan with a few Shajads: Eriol (he's spreading Chaos), Meseguis (he's seeking revenge) and perhaps even a bit of Abbaddon and Zemial wouldn't be out of question for him.

All of it, IMHO, of course.

BY THE WAY

If there exists a translated version of that Dramatis Personae, why not posting a link to its download here? That would be very nice. I'm very curious about how "Arma Distina" in Griever's abilities was translated...

Just because someone has a personality relating to the Beryl + Shajad doesn't necessarily mean they will have much, or any Elan at all.

I also already linked a thread with all the stuff translated (fixing stuff as I find errors).

Thanks Zeru, I just sow it. So "Arma distina" translates into the Improved Trapping Module? Good to know.

By the way, I believe that these characters are a bit more than Beril/Shajad related personalties.

Alastor is a direct link to the demon world. Evil should be so radicated into him that it's almost impossible he has no connection to Abaddon.

Same goes with Nerelas and Meseguis or Griever and Noah. Their lives are so full of the essence of these Shajads that it's highly unlikely they don't have any Elan.

To be honest, the first time I used the translator on that, it came out as something close to that, but now it comes out as "Distinctive Weapon" and I have no idea what they would actually be. So that is still up in the air.

As for Elan, by that logic, almost every character would have some amount of Elan. Also, just because they have Elan doesn't mean they have enough to utilize the advantages related to it, or they simply have it but don't utilize it.

Griever and Noah is a bit far-fetched to me as well, he was trained to be a soldier since he was young, but he doesn't actively battle for the sake of battle, or to challenge himself. He does it because its his duty and nothing more.

As for Nerelas, just because he is the Chosen of C'iel doesn't necessarily mean he is synchronized with any of the Beryl, C'iel herself is blessing him, which would explain his absurd talent and power, but lack of Elan gifts.

I'm not complaining to your way of seeing things, nor am I complaining about the Dramatis Personae. Right now I'm in the middle of "rolling" all characters described in Gaia Vol1, plus all characters from Tactics and a few of them (as is to be expected, unless I worked for Edge Entertainment) are different from the official design. I understand your point, of course, but as soon as my players meet any of the guys described there, I'll use my variant, for it suits better my gameplay and my storyboard...which is definitely unconsequential.

Anyway, might it be that the "Arma Distina" module for griever is a sort of "Weapon of Choice" module which hasn't been included in any rulebook so far up to now? That would be a pretty nice addition to Anima, on my opinion.

Think I figured out what Arma Distina is.

It is just a Weapon Module "Different Type" in English. It is likely Griever took Pakration as his natural (half cost) then picked up Different Type (Two-Handed Sword).

Yeah! That's probably it!

That's because it's "convenient", point wise.

If yuo had Two-Handed Sword as primary weaponyou should buy Unarmed (10DP) module and then the Pankration for 50DP. The total expense being 60DP

On the other hand if Unarmed is the primary weapon, you can buy Pankration for half the price (25DP) and then Two-Handed Sword as a module (10DP). For an expense of 35DP.

Besides if Griever wanted to use a trap maneuver on someone he'd rather drop the weapon and make it unarmed, than use the weapon module, considering he has Pankration.

Very good guess, Zeru!

You don't have to buy Unarmed at all, Pakration itself is enough. (Martial Arts basically supersede Unarmed).

That said, I already went over the math, and along with adjusting Griever's Wear Armor down to its natural level, fixes his Combat DP problem.

So, buying a martial art automatically buys the Unarmed Module? That's interesting, thanks for that...seems like I slipped there...

Still, buying Pankration as base and two-handed sword as module is still convenient, especially for a weapon master (35DP instead of 50).

My mistake, I missed that first paragraph in the martial arts section.

Ah, my bad, i missed that part in the martial arts section, Zeru had it right, ignore my illiterate response.