Downtown Khazan: Ice Cold Utopia

[master of read]

turns out the actor who plays sanji not only took up kickboxing to prep for the role, to the point where it became a hobby for him, but he actually trained as a chef. so much so, he actually cooked for the cast and crew when they weren't shooting.

[Sharpandpointies]

Goddamn, another Anima game. O_o

I keep hoping they'll produce more BOOKS for the TTRPG.

[Jcogginsa]

Read the new Birds of Prey book. Mixed bag for Cass fans

The Good: spoilers:

Cass is introduced with Black Canary basically saying she's the best fighter on the planet, complete with Cass beating up a large crowd of Mooks. Then later on She takes a hit from Big Barda, who thought she was a Vampire. Barda's impressed but comments that Cass "dodged most of the force" which Cass comfirms. I assume that means that the blow connected but Cass was fast enough to roll with the punch.

end of spoilers

The bad: spoilers:

Harley Quinn is able to escape from Cass in a Flashback, with the implication being that she's too crazy for Body reading to work. Which is seemingly based on the Joker's body language being gibberish in another book

end of spoilers

[Beadle]

Goddamn, another Anima game. O_o

I keep hoping they'll produce more BOOKS for the TTRPG.

Nah, Carlos is focused on this until it’s done. THEN he’s getting Gaia II and Core Exxet released in English, and doing Core Exxet 2.0 (which may or may not move to a d10 system instead of d100, and will supposedly de-nerf Mentalists, but almost certainly won’t fix any of the other many errors and omissions from previous books).

Only then will we possibly start to see any new material. So probably never, at Carlos speed. Except for the Dravenor stuff that Blues and someone else already did without Carlos really being involved except for approving and releasing.

[Sharpandpointies]

Read the new Birds of Prey book. Mixed bag for Cass fans

The Good: spoilers:

Cass is introduced with Black Canary basically saying she's the best fighter on the planet, complete with Cass beating up a large crowd of Mooks. Then later on She takes a hit from Big Barda, who thought she was a Vampire. Barda's impressed but comments that Cass "dodged most of the force" which Cass comfirms. I assume that means that the blow connected but Cass was fast enough to roll with the punch.

end of spoilers

The bad: spoilers:

Harley Quinn is able to escape from Cass in a Flashback, with the implication being that she's too crazy for Body reading to work. Which is seemingly based on the Joker's body language being gibberish in another book

end of spoilers

Yeah, I felt almost identically about it. It was up and down for me. The Harley stuff was just...bleah. This again?

But it's a whole load better than Batman 137. Which was just garbage, and potentially misogynistic as well.

spoilers:

The writer has essentially ignored Cass and Steph through much of this storyline, and when Bruce reminisces about his family, he's all 'my sons, my sons'. Then we get the Bat-family moving in to take him down because he's gone nutso. He notes that he needs to take out Cass first because 'she's not afraid to draw blood' or somesuch, which means...what? Exactly? He then easily dodges all three of her batarangs before one-shotting her...with his grapnel gun. That's right - Body-reading, bullet-dodging Cass who also eats bullets and keeps trucking and fights through multiple hits from Shiva gets one-shot from a hit in the gut by a grapnel gun. He then takes Steph out by using flashbangs. That's all. He then gets into an EXTENDED fight with his 'sons', where they take multiple hits from him (well, not so much Tim). After Bruce leaves, all of his 'sons' get to talk and comment about this and are fine to do so. After they get inexplicably KO'ed, you never, ever see Cass or (if I recall) Steph again.

end of spoilers

It's awful and baffling.

Nah, Carlos is focused on this until it’s done. THEN he’s getting Gaia II and Core Exxet released in English, and doing Core Exxet 2.0 (which may or may not move to a d10 system instead of d100, and will supposedly de-nerf Mentalists, but almost certainly won’t fix any of the other many errors and omissions from previous books).

Only then will we possibly start to see any new material. So probably never, at Carlos speed. Except for the Dravenor stuff that Blues and someone else already did without Carlos really being involved except for approving and releasing.

I'm cool getting Gaia II released in English, that would be nice. I mean, the French one is useable for me, but I'm more comfortable reading it in English, so long as the translation isn't garbage.

But...yeah. Am sad that we likely won't ever see "The Powers in the Shadows" or whatever. That would have been nice.

Say, did Blues every finish Dravenor? I have the first two or three supplements (can remember how many I have).

On mentalists...my opinion follows, based on my own experiences and GMing. Other people might have different experiences!

Mentalists do fine. They can hork out decently powerful stuff at will starting at low levels, and at high levels can just chuck out attack power after attack power while playing keepaway or hiding behind shields. They have any number of 'save or lose' powers, many of which can be enhanced OR (this part is the worst) the enemies can have their Resistances nerfed before using a Save or Lose power on them (Mental Assault, which has a high save and can be repeated until the enemy's PsyR is effectively 0 - you don't need to buff your Save or Lose, you just need to massively buff the initial Mental Assault, watch the enemy's PsyR melt, hit them again, and then...Destroy Senses - Sight, Hearing, Touch, and watch the GM try to argue that they can still fight with Ki Sensing despite being incapable of feeling their own feet. Or just Mind Death).

Are they superstrong? No, not at all. But I feel they can manage to hold their own in a group, while having powers that have use outside of combat. But they are not, admittedly, the most powerful of the Psychic classes.

Warrior Mentalists can be ridiculous. Their mental powers are usually on par with those of Mentalists due to not bothering to buy Projection, and if their Projection isn't quite as good (due to not using Projection, but Attack/Defend without the Class bonus), they can still 'hit with sword'. PK armor just adds onto whatever light armor they can wear, and continues to rise in power (like, at level 10 I have tabletop people who 'lock in' PK armor 8, and that's on top of whatever armor they have). Someone tried a character who had the 'Wear Armor' gift, and the stacked Armor (PK plus whatever they're wearing at whatever level) is absolutely silly. Not so much against ENE attacks, but otherwise....yeesh.

Granted, the 'worst' Warrior Mentalist I've seen for OP is Blood of Dragon WM, because Accumulation? I don't care. The moderate, all-around buff from the Dragon Seals + various Psychic buffs is more than enough, so no need for Dominion Techs or Accumulations; now I'm a lightning-throwing, area-blasting, heavily armor, Dragon Seals/Psychic Power boosted warrior who shuts down people's senses or Mind Death's them after a couple of Mental Assaults.

It's not unbeatable, but whoo, there is a reason why my tabletop group feels the WM and Tasha are the two strongest characters in the one tabletop game amidst about 12 PCs and 'regular' NPCs, and the Save or Lose stuff means that Tasha loses against the WM.

Technicians over-blast Warrior Mentalists and mages out-power/versatile them (mages do that to everyone), but Warrior Mentalists - at low levels - are likely the most consistently dangerous people due to 'powers at will' and zero resource management, and at high levels hold their own due to being somewhat competitive and not needing to worry about resource management or 'casting time'.

They're not Prowlers (esp Rangers), is what I'm saying. ^_^ I have three in the aforementioned group (one mentalist, two warrior mentalists), and they do okay. There's the Dragon Blooded one. The other Warrior Mentalist has 'free boost to anchored powers' and as such, enjoys some ridiculous buffs at zero cost (which is mostly what he uses his Psychic power for, buffing, though he's perfectly capable of some other stuff). The Mentalist is a Pure mentalist who is focused on social skills, so he's less-impressive in a fight, but he does okay as 'bombardment support' when needed, while still shielding himself and playing keep-away as much as possible.

But mileage may vary. Other groups will have different experiences, of course. ^_^

Your thoughts? I'm curious to hear why you feel the mentalist is nerfed.

[Beadle]

There’s a general consensus on the Discord that mentalists (and psychic powers in general) are nerfed because there are only a very few powers that can actually affect energy (confirmed by Carlos). So you’re psychically flinging around lightning? Can’t damage energy. A simple, cheap Damage Barrier Ki ability is your worst enemy.

They have their strengths, definitely (“Unlimited flight, you say? Don’t mind if I do!”), but there’s a reason almost every mentalist either uses their powers to boost their physical characteristics (at least for warrior mentalists) or just spams Psychic Assault / Psychic Death. Which gets old fast.

The general view is that Carlos doesn’t like psychic powers and only included them begrudgingly because he was persuaded to.

But in all of Anima lore there is like one major mentalist / warrior mentalist NPC. Compare that with the eleventy-bazillion warlocks.

[Sharpandpointies]

There’s a general consensus on the Discord that mentalists (and psychic powers in general) are nerfed because there are only a very few powers that can actually affect energy (confirmed by Carlos). So you’re psychically flinging around lightning? Can’t damage energy. A simple, cheap Damage Barrier Ki ability is your worst enemy.

I can totally agree with this. Granted, at higher levels Lightning is perfectly capable of damaging energy, and a Damage Barrier Ki Ability is kind of weak - it's not high enough to stop stuff like a 120 damage lightning bolt unless you're like...level 15+, and by that point the Psychic is horking out stuff doing a lot more damage than 120 - but the general gist of 'Damage Barriers can stop a big chunk of DAMAGING Psychic abilities' is a perfectly valid complaint.

I can see that. Completely understand, and it's a gap in my thinking because NOBODY in my game looks at Damage Barriers because they're...like...20 Martial Knowledge away from being more or less useless. ^_^

They have their strengths, definitely (“Unlimited flight, you say? Don’t mind if I do!”), but there’s a reason almost every mentalist either uses their powers to boost their physical characteristics (at least for warrior mentalists) or just spams Psychic Assault / Psychic Death. Which gets old fast.

Well, if it's one single issue - Damage Barrier - then Psychics have a whole lot of good stuff they can use normally, until they come up against a Damage Barrier that is actually HIGHER than their damage, and then yeah, sure, we're into Save or Lose. ^_^

My point is that they're not weak. Granted, the rules could be BETTER for them because of these issues, but they are not weak. Spam Mental Assault and Save or Lose (of whatever kind), you can win a lot.

Or Psychic warriors not just boosting Physical Characteristics, but Armor, and using Mind Reading for that nice free +30 on Attack Defend, or spitting out a PK impact every round on top of their normal physical attacks (Impacts ignoring damage barriers and wheee, have a nice trip, my enemy), or simply wiping out all of the lesser enemies with a variety of effects whilst simultaneously fighting against the bigger enemy, or shutting down people's senses so they can whale on them, etc.

It seems a somewhat...focused complaint. Valid, but it's ignoring a whole lot, as well as the idea that Damage Barriers aren't everywhere. ^_^

But again, it's also I haven't considered because (blind spot!) in my game we don't see a lot of Damage Barriers!

The general view is that Carlos doesn’t like psychic powers and only included them begrudgingly because he was persuaded to.

But in all of Anima lore there is like one major mentalist / warrior mentalist NPC. Compare that with the eleventy-bazillion warlocks.

I can totally see that, yeah. I mean, the lore states that the vast majority of Duk'zarist males are Psychic. How many name-level Duk'zarist males are actually Psychic?

NONE. :P

...in my game, Keenan (from the city with the Dark Sultan) is a Warrior Mentalist. Enough of that Warlock shit. ^_^

[Postmania]

Anima’s a pretty cool game from the little I remember from that one game feel like I’d better be able to appreciate its crunchiness now if I were to play it then than

[Sharpandpointies]

Anima’s a pretty cool game from the little I remember from that one game feel like I’d better be able to appreciate its crunchiness now if I were to play it then than

It has the kind of crunch I really like.

Character creation is incredibly crunchy and detailed. To a ridiculous level. Like, multi-book-spanning level. This gives options atop options hidden inside options, like a gross of russian dolls of options. ^_^

But actual game-play is a lot more smooth, without considerations like 'break out the hex-paper, we need to work out every last detail, Attacks of Opportunity (there is something similar to this, but it's a lot more fast and loose) and umpteen different rule-changing/breaking feats and abilities'.

After close to four decades of 'I will buy and try every possible ruleset I encounter that I feel I have any interest in', I'm now down to a grand total of three. Anima is my go-to for any fantasy game, both the rules and the setting (which is the most gorgeous, detailed, and complex setting I've EVER encountered).

[Postmania]

It has the kind of crunch I really like.

Character creation is incredibly crunchy and detailed. To a ridiculous level. Like, multi-book-spanning level. This gives options atop options hidden inside options, like a gross of russian dolls of options. ^_^

But actual game-play is a lot more smooth, without considerations like 'break out the hex-paper, we need to work out every last detail, Attacks of Opportunity (there is something similar to this, but it's a lot more fast and loose) and umpteen different rule-changing/breaking feats and abilities'.

After close to four decades of 'I will buy and try every possible ruleset I encounter that I feel I have any interest in', I'm now down to a grand total of three. Anima is my go-to for any fantasy game, both the rules and the setting (which is the most gorgeous, detailed, and complex setting I've EVER encountered).

I do remember creation taking some time hehe. But I usually liked it, and obvs Jane in Ruins took a lot of revising and I didn't mind that

On a side note, Larian are thinking on crossplay for BG3, so that may actually be in the cards at some unspecified future date

[Cthulhu_of_R'lyeh]

All I saw was Sharp can read French and I don't think I'll recover. Got that Quebec in 'em.

[Sharpandpointies]

I do remember creation taking some time hehe. But I usually liked it, and obvs Jane in Ruins took a lot of revising and I didn't mind that

On a side note, Larian are thinking on crossplay for BG3, so that may actually be in the cards at some unspecified future date

Ooo, nice!

Yeah, it helps to have read the rules (more than once) and made a few characters with some assistance. After that, it's go crazy time.

All I saw was Sharp can read French and I don't think I'll recover. Got that Quebec in 'em.

Hah. No, sadly; no Québec in my line, though my cousins are both in that region. But I was late-immersion bilingual, and fluent at one point. I'm very rusty now in French, but it's enough that I can manage with the rulebooks and casual conversation.

My first Anima rules....I had the main rules in English, and...like three supplement books in French, because they hadn't yet been translated. I had the main rulebook, but one day ran off to Montréal, met Siriel, and bought some French stuff.

Ended up sending them all to Siriel when I got the English versions. ^_^

[Sharpandpointies]

Now I have to back this because if I do, I can get a PDF of character stats for a number of characters from the TTRPG (as well the ones solely in the video game).

Arrgh.

[Cthulhu_of_R'lyeh]

Who keeps making these. Why do they keep making these? I keep accumulating Anima games

[Postmania]

I kind of assume all Canadians have some latent French ability truthfully