As with all other tabletop RPG’s Anima is a system based on characteristics and increase as the character levels up. Unlike in other RPG’s where an increase of 1 in a stat is nothing significant, in Anima it represents the growth of a characters abilities in an exponential way as we’ll see below.
The eight main characteristics are divided in 4 physical and 4 intellectual:
Phisical stats:
Agility (Agi): This represents a characters physical ability, balance, and movement speed. It measures a characters acrobatic ability and his ability to dodge enemy attacks. Along with Dexterity it is the ability that measure a characters ability to react.
Dexterity (Dex): This measures a characters manual ability, the speed of his movements, and his aim. Along with Agility, it represents a characters reaction time in response to a dangerous situation, threat, or necessity.
Strength (Str): Strength determines a characters fiscal prowess, his musculature, and his vigor. It is the characteristic that determines how much a character can lift, break objects, and deal greater damage with attacks.
Constitution (Con): Constitution measures a characters vitality, his stamina, and his ability to take damage. A person with high constitution will have great physical resistance and will heal faster from wounds and sickness. It is the characteristic that dictates how much damage a character can take before dying
intellectual stats:
Intellect (Int): Intelligence determines the fields of reason, learning, and a characters memory. It’s the characteristic that intellectual and logical knowledge depend on, as well his ability to comprehend and develop spells.
Power (Pow): Represents the animic or spiritual power of a character. The higher it is the more able he will be to affect or resist the supernatural as well as stand out above other individuals.
Will (Wil): Will measures a characters mental fortitude, his frailty, and tenacity. It is also used to employ or defend against psychic abilities.
Perception (per): Encompasses a characters sensorial acuity and his capacity to notice the events around him. It represents all 5 basic senses as well as his instinct.
Now that we know the stats and what they do it’s time to roll the dice and see what number we get. In anima there are many ways to “roll” for characteristics but the most common way is the following:
Roll 1D10 eight times, re-rolling any 3 or bellow, afterwards replace the lowest number with a nine.
This will usually leave you with at least one 9 and several 8’s and 7’s, but what do they mean? Look below for a description of what each number represents in a person as well as the bonus or penalty it gives to abilities.
The chart bellow shows the characteristic number and the modifier it gives to skills and actions related to it. While it may seem that getting 10 in everything would be what we want, having 10’s has its own implications, particularly when determining the size your character can have.
1) Represents the lowest possible ability. It is a sub-human value and should generally not be taken into account
2-3) The character has an extremely limited ability in the field. For example, a 2 in intelligence would pose a great drawback that would prevent the character from even being able to talk, a 2 in strength represents what a 2-year old would have. A 3 in intellect would allow a person to communicate in a very limited way and would prevent him from understanding complex sentences while 3 in strength would represent what a 4-year old would have.
4) A 4 represents a slight deficit, a small inferiority with respect to the rest of the normal people. A clumsy person would have a 4 in Dexterity, while a 4 in constitution represents someone with a frail body.
5) This is the value that most people posses in fields that they do not specialise in. It is what most people in the world posses.
6) This is the high average of a human, what people would have in the fields that they excel at. A very healthy person would have a 6 in constitution.
7-8) These numbers represent an exceptional capacity. Those with numbers like these are that, without being considered geniuses, surpass their peers in outstanding ways. Characters with numbers in physical characteristics would be olympic athletes.
9) Individuals with these numbers are those that become olympic champions or nobel price winners.
10) This represents the maximum value of a human being. These numbers have only been reached by few people in history and have stood out in a legendary way. Einstein would have had a 10 in intelligence
Character Size
Character size is determined by the sum of your Str and Con. So having 10 in both, while mechanically advantageous, would also mean that our character would stand well over 2m tall as per the size table bellow. Also, as a general rule, the difference between your Str and Con can not be greater than 5, as it stands to reason that someone with the constitution of a child would not be able to lift hundreds of kilograms.
Now that we know what they represent we can assign them in order of what we want to accomplish. In our example we will be creating Misaka Mikoto, a powerful psychic with human physique, which warrants human physical stats while maximizing her willpower so, after rolling the dice, her numbers will end up looking like this:
Aqi: 6 Con: 8 Dex: 7 Str: 9
Int: 7 Per: 7 Pow: 4 Will: 9
Now, it may seem weird that we give Misaka a 9 in STR and 8 in Con, however in our next step we’ll look at an important part of Anima called Advantages and Disadvantages that, amongst other things, allow us to modify our characters characteristics
Bringing anime to the RPG table 