Review of Anima: Beyond Fantasy

Anima: Beyond Fantasy is a steam punk fantasy anime-style RPG published in Spain and translated into English. I had a chance to try it this weekend. Let me first say that I am not an anime fan. In fact, I barely consider anime to be an art form. Thankfully, Anima's only obvious nod to anime in-game is the look and feel of the characters and the world, and perhaps some of the pre-generated character back story as well. So even if you're an anti-anime fan, the game is still accessible.

Mechanics: 7/10: Anima operates under a non-percentile d-100 system, which is certainly not the simplest of base systems. But if you're familiar with Dungeons and Dragons, then the character classes and their abilities are all more specialized forms of the hero classes you already know. There were two particular elements I liked about the mechanics. The first was the fact that, in combat, if an enemy attacks you and misses, you immediately get a counter attack. Also, if at any time a target takes combat damage, they cannot declare any "active" actions on their next turn (active actions include pretty much moving, fighting, most skills and most spells). This makes combat much more fluid and interesting, less predictable.

The second element I liked had to do with spellcasting. Anima uses a form of spell points, with each spell in your repertoire costing a certain amount. The twist is that each spellcaster can only spend a certain amount of points per turn. So, if the cost for a spell is higher than what you can spend per turn, or if you want to "beef up" a spell with more power, you'll have to take the time to gather the necessary power. This mechanic worked out seamlessly once I got used to it, and it means that spellcasters have to spend more time strategizing their next moves rather than relying on fireball after fireball.

Game Story and Logic: 5/10: I was not impressed with the game's internal story or logic. Part of this may have to do with the fact that it's heavily influenced by anime, and I don't get most things about anime, especially the plot and the logic. In the first place, the basic premise of the game was rather vague, and since we launched into the game without much preamble as to who we were or what we were supposed to be doing, I can only conclude that the game's storyline is just rather vague and not very relevant.

Ease of Play: 6/10: Mainly because I find a d-100 system not the most intuitive system to try and play in, and also because Anima uses a special combat chart to determine damage dealt in combat. The chart, in combination with the d-100 system, makes doing combat math a real headache and tends to bog everything down.

Overall Rating: 6/10: Anima gets kudos for trying its hand at making a few unique mechanics, and translating a role-playing game from Spanish and yet preserving its playability can't have been easy. But overall, it's a fairly standard and generic fantasy RPG, all the elements of which you could get with an easier game system elsewhere.

Advice When Running an Intrigue RPG

If you've ever considered running an RPG based on intrigue rather than combat, here are some points to keep in mind.

What is an intrigue game? "Intrigue" refers to any genre of game you plan to run where the dangers, challenges and plots are all socially-based rather than action-based. Certainly, there will still be some fighting or at least backstabbing in the dark of night. But intrigue RPGs are all about politics and the lure of power mixed with the danger of murder and the scent of a good old-fashioned mystery.

To run a good intrigue game, I suggest these five pieces of advice:

1. Chart Your Tangled Web: As the one running the game, you know all the plot twists and dirty secrets. For myself, I find that having an actual map that details the relationships between PCs and NPCs helps me to keep the whole political landscape clear and consistant from session to session.

2. Focus on Character Desires: Goals may shift from session to session the way strategies in a chess game shift. But what each character - player or non-player - wants should ideally remain the same. As long as you stay clear and focused on what NPCs want overall, you can generally do a good job of adapting their goals to changing situations.

3. Use Memorable Characters: Intrigue games are character-focused morso than action games. Distinctive NPCs with distinctive names will help players remember and tell them apart, and will help you do the same.

4. Give Clues Socially: Most clues to any given mystery, situation, or NPC's true motives should be given through social game play, with a scattering of investigative work. But intrigue games are really about that fatal slip of the tongue that tips off an enemy moreso than about hunting down fingerprints. Weave hints and clues into NPC-to-PC conversations or into overheard NPC-to-NPC conversations that you've scripted out. If you do it right, you give your PCs that proverbial trail of breadcrumbs they can follow deeper into the game's plot.

5. No Red Herrings: Intrigue games are hard enough to keep track of without PCs constantly worrying about their clues checking out. I don't mean you can't have your NPCs lie. Far from it. But giving the PCs what seem to be important information only to have them find out they really didn't need to know it can get very frustrating. So be nice, and have any major clues you slip in be the truth of the matter.

6. Pay Attention During Player-to-Player Discussions: Chances are, they'll come up with some sort of theory about what's really going on, and it's not uncommon for some plot twist or hypothesis they come up with being better than what you'd planned. So why not run with their suggestions? They'll never know they're actually the ones creating the plot of their own game.

If you want more detailed advice on running this type of game, I recommend the World of Darkness - Vampire: The Requiem supplement Damnation City. Specifically, pgs. 208-225. Their advice is largely plot-based, not systems based, so you can modify it to fit any game system you're using.

Mixing It Up: Use Any Creature from a Role-Playing Game in Any Other Role-Playing Game

Here's a cool way you can come up with some quick and original material for your game. I call it "mix and match." You take material from one RPG and translate it across into another. Most gaming systems have very similar statistics for characters and creatures, for instance. So with a little mathematical calculation and a good understanding of two different systems, you can translate the stats for a creature from one game into something you can use for another.

Example: Mind Flayer into Vampire: The Requiem

Step 1: Abilities to Attributes

We know that a rating of "10" in a D+D Ability is considered the average for an average person on the street, and that a rating of "2" means the same thing in the World of Darkness system. Therefore, all you need to do is divide the mind flayer's ability scores by 5 to get their World of Darkness equivalents (round down).

Strength 12 = Strength 2
Dexterity 14 = Dexterity 2
Constitution 12 = Stamina 2
Intelligence 19 = Intelligence 3
Wisdom 17 = Wits 3
Charisma 17 = Charisma/Manipulation 3


To get the mind flayer's Resolve and Composure scores, look at it's Will save, since that is the primary equivalent function of Resolve and Composure. The mind flayer's Will save is +9. To get a +9, it would normally need a Wisdom score of 28. Divide that by 5, round down, and you get a Resolve and Composure both at 5.

Step 2: Skills

When it comes to Skills, you can translate them across in the same fashion, using the same division forumla. Skill Dots in World of Darkness = Skill Ranks in D+D/5, round down.
So a mind flayer's skill dots would look like this:
Bluff +11 = Subterfuge 2
Diplomacy +7 = Persuasion or Socialize 1
Disguise +3 (+5 acting) = Expression (Acting) 1
Hide +10 = Stealth 2
Intimidate +9 = Intimidation 1
Knowledge (Any) +12 = Academics, Computer, Occult, Politics, Science all at 2.
Move Silently +10 = Another 2 in Stealth, for a total of 4.
Sense Motive +7 = Empathy 1

As for Concentration, Listen, and Spot, in World of Darkness those are all resolved by a Perception roll. So give the mind flayer a racial Perception roll bonus of +6 for it's ranks in those skills (It would have translated to 2 dots for each). If that seems too high - after all, even werewolves only have a +4 to their Perception in full wolf form - them halve that down to a +3. Just be sure you're consistant with other creatures you mix and match over so the stats are accurately reflected.

Step 3: Combat
Attack Bonuses: The mind flayer has a +8 to attack with its tentacles. But it only deals a d4 in damage. Since the World of Darkness doesn't seperate the attack roll from the damage roll, let's focus on how much damage the mind flayer would do with it's tentacles in the World of Darkness. A d4 is pretty much the lowest damage die in D+D, so let's translate that to a +1 attack in World of Darkness. That means that a d6 would equal a +2, a d8 would equal a +3, and so on.

Natural Armor Bonus: The mind flayer has a natural armor bonus of +3. That means it's equal to the protection provided by leather or hide armor. In the World of Darkness, leather armor provides a 1/0 armor rating. So we give our World of Darkness mind flayer an armor rating of 1/0.

Step 4: Powers and Advantages
Special Attacks, Qualities and Feats: This gets the most tricky, since these items are often the most unique to their various systems and usually require you to really break down each of these into their specific in-game effects in order to do a good job.

The mind flayer has the following items:
Combat Casting
Improved Grab
Improved Initiative
Spell Resistance 25
Telepathy 100 ft
Weapon Finesse

Since we're translating into Vampire: The Requiem, there is some precident for mental powers we can work with. Since mind flayers are supposed to be potent with their mental powers, let's give our average mind flayer the following Disciplines:
Animalism 2
Auspex 3
Dominate 5
Majesty 4
Nightmare 3

That takes care of the mental powers. Improved Initiative translates well into Fast Reflexes. The mind flayer looses Combat Casting and Improved Grab because there's no inherent penalties to using Disciplines in combat, and all the World of Darkness Merits that might cover Improved Grab require more Strength than the mind flayer would have.

Spell Resistance is an example of something unique to D+D, with little or no equivalent in the World of Darkness, or certainly not in Vampire. You might be tempted to throw it out, but you could also translate it using our handy "divide by 5" rule into a Blood Potency rating of 5. Vampires with higher Blood Potency are harder to influence with Disciplines, since most Disciplines that require a contested roll include Blood Potency in the dice pools.

So we are done. The mind flayer's new stats will give you what you need for things like its Health and Initiative.

Our final, translated mind flayer looks something like this:
Mind Flayer Creature
Attributes: (Mental): Intelligence 3, Wits 3, Resolve 5 (Physical) Strength 2, Dexterity 2, Stamina 2 (Social) Charisma 3, Manipulation 3, Composure 5
Skills: (Mental) Academics 2, Computer 2, Occult 2, Politics 2, Science 2 (Physical) Stealth 4, (Social) Empathy 1, Expression (Acting) 1, Intimidation 1, Persuasion 1, Subterfuge 2
Merits: Fast Reflexes 1
+3 to Percpetion rolls
Tentacles: +1 Brawl (L)
Blood Potency: 5
Humanity: 3 (Mind Flayers are incredibly evil)
Virtue: Possibly Faith (Mind flayers have an inherent faith in their own eventual world domination) or Prudence (Mind flayers are notorious for fleeing from battles at the slightest hint of defeat).
Vice: Pride (For lawful evil D+D creatures. Greed also works. Try Wrath/Lust/Gluttony for chaotic evil and Envy/Sloth for neutral evil).
Health 7, Initiative 8, Speed 9, Size 5 (Translated from Medium sized creature), Willpower 10, Defense 2
Armor Rating: 1/0
Disciplines: Animalism 2, Auspex 3, Dominate 5, Majesty 4, Nightmare 3

This creature might work as a hideously deformed Nosferatu (such as a member of the Rakshasa Bloodline) or some grotesque creature created through vampiric experimentation.