Are there overpowered attacks? Ridiculous combos? Living swords that will bind with you?

Are there overpowered attacks? Huuu!!! Yes ! you can do some Dragonball like attacks with the Ki (or limitbreaks, or whatever you like) for example.

Ridiculous combos? Only if you want them to be ridiculous Get points in the Style skill

Living swords that will bind with you? You can have a familiar bound in any item if you're at least a little good in summoning. Maybe I can tease you a little bit with Dragon Pacts (coming in Gaia, the world book) ?

Are there overpowered attacks? Most powerful samples(only available for top-levels, but possible):
-With Magic: Awaken the deads all over the continent under your control/Destroy areas counted in kilometers...
-With Psi: Crush anyone's minds in the area/Make the temperature come to Absolute Zero around/ Move mountains or castles.
-With Ki: It's possible to provoke instant death to everybody in a very huge area, even it's very far from you...
-With Summoning: Carry armies of demi-gods or the like whith you, each one powerful enough to slaughter armies.

Ridiculous combos? What do you mean by ridiculous ? If you think about having a character blind, mute, with no legs nor arms in order to cast incredible magic or psi... it's possible, and ridiculous. ^^

Living swords that will bind with you? Yes, and the great thing in Anima is that you can do it with your body(Ki and alike), your soul(magic/summoning) or your mind(Psi) using different ways to do it, but with similar effect in the end.

That *DOES* sound intriguing. Hm. I'll have to somehow get a closer look at the system.

Great, another game to look in to.

Hello Everyone,

First login and first post to FFG's forums. Good to be talking with you all.

So when I see the first three questions that were asked: Is there balance? Or does this feel like an RPG that will just spiral out of control?

As we said, all these exemples are top-level capabilities.

This game has a very very very good balance, and that's probably what made the need of this (just a little bit) complicated, or at least, very complete system. Of course, just following the creations rules blindly will cause imbalancement, as the GM has to moderate certain kind of munchkinness the system alone allows to do.... But if you don't want to abuse optimizing your character, the balance is perfect.

Thanks for the answer. Totally agree, the GM in any game system must maintain a certain amount of leverage with the players during the CG process in order to stop any munchkin activity from coming in to play. The character sheet reminds me of "Kindred of the East" with so many factors that come together in the same book. Granted, I'm basing that off of just looking at the four-page character sheet. </tangent>

I'm happy with what I see on the website and my Grad School work comes to an end for the semester in a few weeks. Then I should be able to scrounge some coin to go and purchase a copy. Looks fun.

Don't be scared because of the 4 pages character sheet, everything will not be useful for everyone. I think each character uses 1/3 or 1/4 of the second page.

Don't be intimidated by the large character sheet. It is a bit overwhelming when you first look at it, but as the previous poster said most people will only use a portion of it. The system has a lot of chrome, polish, and extra fiddly bits for characters and with that level of customization and variability comes a large character sheet. =)

I have noticed that this level of customization and flexibility can easily lead to unbalanced situations in the game in regards to character balance. In preparations for my own new campaign, this became very apparent during npc and initial pc generation. A good GM will adjust and control this situation in order to maintain good game flow as well as ensuring all the players are happy and can have fun.

In any event, munchkinism, balance, and the amount of anime flavor is always in the complete control of the GM. The game system is flexible enough to be very over the top if that's what the players and GM want, and it also works for a more contained, classic fantasy RPG setting if that's what's wanted. In this system, the GM needs to be attentive and on top of things to ensure a good and fun gaming experience for everyone.

Oh yeah, I'm not worrying about the character sheet at all. I'm a seasoned Rolemaster player so large character sheets are pretty common. My Seventh Sea sheets are never all that tiny either. If I can get it worked out, I might have a treat worked out for the holiday season if I can crack the game book open and understand the mechanics in short-order.

I can only hope that my understanding of RPG's wasn't lost from going to grad school. Did I mention it was Seminary? The religion part of this is drawing me in like it did with Seventh Sea .

The anime aspect is slick though I've been a Robotech player in my previous life. I can't wait to have a copy of this stuck in my hands.

A-S

If you're used to play Rolemaster, Anima will be easy for you ^^

It uses the open roll, d100, and a combat table. Some people say that it looks like RM.

Maybe I can give you an advice to prevent munchkinisation ? In the booklet from the GM's screen, they are limitation advices to handle your supernatural level in the game. It says (I'll simplify, because I can't give you a complet spoiler of this upcoming release) that you can limit the magic level at 1/2 at the beginning, and same for Martial Knowledge. For summoners, beware of the number of known creatures you allow, and a summoner should only know 1 Arcana Invocation. A summoner shouldn't have a familiar at the beginning, as it's more interesting to get it during play. There's no official advices for psionics, but I'll advice to limit them to level 1 powers, maybe one or 2 level 2 powers (up to the GM), but not level 3 (as a smart player can easily make combos with level 3 powers). Give the remaining levels of MK and Magic paths during play, when you think your PC deserves it (training, finding a master, etc.). This is for an average supernatural level, you can decrease it or increase it if you want more or less epic in your game.

What is really great about this game is that you can do everything you want. Obviously, such a versatile system lets a lot of thing "up to the GM". So, you'll need to decide yourself some things, for example the exact effects of some spells. No spell says really exactly what you can or can't do with it, as in DD3 for example. There's enough to decide without thinking too much ^^

Suh-weet! I'll have to dig through it more when the semester is over and I can settle in with the book. Oh yeah, I gotta buy it first. Once I can do that then I'll start learning some of the ropes. I can't do anything else until I grab it. I'll keep reading the forums and check back when I can.

I'm still thinking this is anime after I see the card game a little, the miniatures and more of the graphics from the book. Nothing like "Ranger" in what looks to be a pair of cut-off, rolled-up blue jeans. The art seems a little haphazard like you see in Kingdom Hearts or maybe Phantasy Star Online which I played with the Dreamcast was a competitive machine. Wow, that dates me.

A-S

I am intrigued by the extent to which the game incorporates martial arts. I would like to know, however, does the dedicated martial artist really compare to the more traditional fantasy fighters in Anima, or is the martial artist player handicapping himself by not making use of weapons and armor?

Bad Dog said:

Tao (the Martial Artist class/archetype) are beasts.

Beasts.

I cannot stress this enough. Well built Tao are incredibly potent fighters, and IMO one of the strongest starting classes. They often have multiple attacks, and excellent access to Ki powers and techniques. They can easily match the damage level of some weapons if the right martial art is taken.

They also can still wear armor if you decide to invest the points.

They are not handicapped -at all-.

Maybe I can give you an advice to prevent munchkinisation ? In the booklet from the GM's screen' date=' they are limitation advices to handle your supernatural level in the game. It says (I'll simplify, because I can't give you a complet spoiler of this upcoming release) that you can limit the magic level at 1/2 at the beginning, and same for Martial Knowledge [/quote']

Lies!

Half MK at the beginning severely weakens quite a few classes and devalues the Martial Mastery Advantage. Mages with half their potential Magic Level in spell knowledge are still incredibly effective.

The best way to prevent munchkins? GM veto power.

Swordwraith said:

Studying the Character Sheet (specifically the Armor Section) has me thinking of the different kinds of armor in the Final Fantasy series or maybe even Guild Wars where armor can have many little attributes. The weapons look like they've got all sorts of litle stats too. Would games like those (GW where characters are referred to as "toons") be considered anime? This is starting to feel a little more of it just by looking at the surface.

I'm just hoping that I'm not setting myself up for disappointment.

A-S

Ysalaine said:

Yes, Psychic rules .... ^^

But I did a full-psi character for a test-game, and he... fell down when he used his power for the third time, because of a single fumble... on a level 1 power ^^ So yes, you can munchkinize such a character, but the lurking shadow of the fumble means so much more for a psychic than for other people(well, i don't speak about summoners..... uhuhuh)

Yes, and it's worst with Psychic consumption as my PC...

Oh yep I forgot, the one I told about had Psychic consumption too It's kinda bizarre... Why does this disadvantage seem to be so fun to us ? Because it grants 2PCs, AND is funny/risky to have ^^ Yeah, so dangerous, so good !

Moklo said:

Well the trick is to get them into a position where you can't fumble (via your Base Potential) . Or where you can stuff in an Innate slot and not have to worry about it.

And yeah, Summoning is go big or go home.... And by go home I mean, teleport yourself to the extradimensional home of a very powerful being who is not happy with your decision to rip creatures from the nether and bring them into the waking world.

This game seems interesting... I'll look into it more!

Looking at the Ki abilities, my first thought. Fist of the North Star . So i would have to say it is anime.