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[The Dread Polack]

Would people be horribly offended to see a conversion of the Anima setting into the Savage Worlds rules?

Would it be against board policies to post any of it here?

[tasuret]

Couldn't you just take the setting and run a Savage Worlds game with it? I mean, seriously... when you change the rules, that makes it "not Anima". Sure, you could add some things to Savage Worlds that you like from Anima, but it still would not be Anima; it would be a houseruled Savage Worlds. I've never understood the point of doing rules conversions when the setting is separate from the system.

[Zachilles]

Couldn't you just take the setting and run a Savage Worlds game with it? I mean, seriously... when you change the rules, that makes it "not Anima". Sure, you could add some things to Savage Worlds that you like from Anima, but it still would not be Anima; it would be a houseruled Savage Worlds. I've never understood the point of doing rules conversions when the setting is separate from the system.

I'm not sure if your familiar with Savage worlds or not but its kinda the purpose of the system to convert other complicated systems into a simpler format.


To the OP I've seen tons of things converted into savage worlds and it almost always turns out well, if you wanna do it go for it

[tasuret]

Why would you "convert" the rules to a simpler system, if you can just use the rules of the simpler system with a few modifications? Don't start with Anima and go to Savage Worlds, start with Savage Worlds and add some stuff from Anima!

If you can pull it off, more power to you. That's an achievement. What I'm saying is, why would you spend all that time messing with all the systems in Anima when you can just take the setting and use different rules?

[raene82]

I would actually be interested in seeing a savaged Anima. I will admit I've been thinking of trying to capture some of the Anima feel in Savage Worlds myself, mostly to reduce my prep times for the game.

So please do post your ideas here and over on the Savage Worlds forum.

[The Dread Polack]

Couldn't you just take the setting and run a Savage Worlds game with it?

Why would you "convert" the rules to a simpler system, if you can just use the rules of the simpler system with a few modifications? Don't start with Anima and go to Savage Worlds, start with Savage Worlds and add some stuff from Anima!

Actually, that's pretty much what I meant when I said "convert". Really, I’m creating a setting for Savage Worlds, and the setting is Gaia.

I've toyed around with it a bit already, and I'm not creating new rules, with the exception of some minor setting rules. For instance, Psionics uses the No Power Points rules, and they can take fatigue, instead of doing AoE damage centered on themselves. I'm trying to keep it as simple as possible. Zeon translates to Power Points easily enough, and basically you pick your school of magic and there's the trappings for your powers. Handling Ki abilities and techniques might be a bit trickier, and instead of backlash, I could just say that you have to accumulate your Ki/ Power Points before you can fire off your technique. I still need to play around with it.

I've got a rough draft of the races and a list of Advantages and Disadvantages, and which Savage Worlds Edges & Hindrances they translate to. Not much so far. Honestly, I don’t know how far I’m going to take this, especially if we decide not to actually use Savage Worlds rules instead of Anima rules. Sounds like there’s enough interest that I’ll post what I have for you guys to look at.

[The Dread Polack]

Okay. So here's some quick notes on my setting conversion and how it's all going:

Character Creation:

The Nephilim are built as races. They were fairly straightforward, although I might need to tweak their abilities still.

I whipped up templates for each of the Anima classes, as guidelines. I don't have any new professional edges yet, although I might create them for the Palladin and Dark Palladin, giving them their specific abilities without having to take a full-blown Arcane Background.

Edges and Hindrances:

Mentalists take AB: Psionics. It doesn't use Power Points, and if you roll a 1 on your psionics die, you take make a Vigor check or suffer fatigue.

Wizards take AB: Magic. Instead of backlash, they have to accumulate Power Points like Zeon.

Right now Summoning is its own Arcane Background. I wrote up half a page of rules for how it works, which is mostly expanded guidelines for using the Summon Ally, Puppet, and Banish powers. Also, some brief rules on binding.

Characters with Ki abilities take AB: Ki and so far I am tweaking the power trappings significantly to reflect how they work in anima.

I've created only a handful of edges and hindrances to convert advantages and disadvantages from Anima. Most of what you need already exists in SW.

Elan, I think, will be a small number (3, perhaps) of edges you take with specific shajads or beryls that give you specific abilities with them.

Magic Paths and Psychic Disciplines:

When you take your Arcane Background edge, you pick a single path or discipline, and any powers you take have to have appropriate trappings for that choice. Bolts and blasts will do fire, cold, or electricity damage, for instance. If you want to take a new path or discipline, you can take an edge for it which comes with a free power as well. This new path or discipline's trappings can be applied to all of your current and future powers, as appropriate, but a second path/discipline requires a Smarts (magic) or Spirit (psionics) of d8, and a third requires d10, and so on.

Character Advancement:

I’ve mapped each rank in SW to even-numbered levels in Anima. My players were 2nd level, so I converted them to Seasoned characters with 20 XP. They’re about to hit 30 xp, so that makes them 3rd level. This means that “Legendary” SW characters with 80 XP are 8th level in Anima.

I’ve created 2 new Legendary edges. One for “Inhuman” and one for “Zen”. In order to take them, you will need to fit similar criteria as you would in Anima, I think. Characters with enough Ki edges can do it. I’ll have a look through the Anima rules to see how many ways you can achieve this and try to create similar prerequisites for the edges.

Inhuman:

I’m still working on what the effects of being Inhuman should be, but I have some solid ideas:

•   You roll a d8 wild die instead of a d6.
•   Epic or impossible tasks become possible, as ruled by the GM.
•   You can roll up to 2d6 extra damage with 2+ raises on an attack roll.
•   Powers gain additional effects from 2+ raises or extra Power Point Expenditures. Like more damage and bigger area-effects.
•   I think characters will get either an additional wound (now 4) or additional automatic toughness, making them a bit harder to take out.

Zen:

•   You roll a d10 wild die instead of a d6.
•   Even more Epic or impossible tasks become possible, as ruled by the GM.
•   You can roll up to 3d6 extra damage with 3+ raises on an attack roll.
•   Powers gain additional effects from 3+ raises or extra Power Point Expenditures. Like more damage and bigger area-effects.
•   I think characters will get either an additional wound (now 5) or additional automatic toughness, making them a bit harder to take out.


Other thoughts:

SW seems to actually handle the feel of Anima fairly well so far. Despite how epic people say characters get at high level, the game is still very “swingy”. A high level character can still roll a critical fumble defense against a critical hit made by a low level character and die. The Inhuman and Zen edges above are meant to represent the higher-power level that characters eventually reach.

Most of the remaining subtleties of the system I am either going to wing as they come up, or simply ignore. I won’t miss most of the complexity. I do like to tinker with character builds and mechanics, but Anima was just too clunky for me. As GM, prepping for a game is so much easier with Savage Worlds, which means the campaign stands a chance of lasting a while.

[Spirit_Crusher]

It seems a solid start.
What about the low mortality of SW as compared to the relatively high one in Anima?
Is it possible to supernova-away enemy in your conversion?

[The Dread Polack]

A lot of SW players actually complain about the high mortality rate of SW SW has "exploding dice" which leads, often enough, to attacks that are 4+ wounds, and soak rolls are not guaranteed to work. I do thin SW is at least slightly less lethal than Anima, since players can at least save up their bennies to avoid death. I have chosen to implement a setting rule where characters can take on a hindrance to avoid dying, which they either have to buy off or live with. Starting over with a new character means they can start at "full power".

I don't fault a system for choosing high mortality, but it's not what I prefer, and I don't think the players mind.

[Spirit_Crusher]

Strange, I remember soak rolls making characters take hit after hit from lethal weapons and only be staggered, in the basic version.
Interface zero on the other hand had characters dying left and right.
Maybe I played to long ago.

[The Dread Polack]

Well, in the current rules (Savage Worlds Deluxe Edition), you can spend a bennie after a damage roll against you to roll your vigor, which cancels a wound for each success and raise. Tough characters will soak 1-2 wounds fairly regularly, but it't not a guarantee. Most characters need to save a benny or two for their survival rolls. Since most players aren't holding more than 3 or 4 bennies, you can usually survive a nasty attack, but need to think about retreating after that.

Anyway, I've got all the weapons mostly converted. I plan to give them one more look-over to decide if I like all the stats and if they seem balanced for their price.

You can see it here: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/47455822/Anima/SW%20Versions/Weapons.pdf

I'm going to get the armor done up tonight.

One of the players is a Mentalist. We briefly played Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay by FFG recently, and all liked the way spells were written out on cards, so I made cards for each of his psychic powers, and you can see that here:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/47455822/Anima/SW%20Versions/Axel%20Doth%20-%20SW%20Powers.pdf

[Spirit_Crusher]

you're doing one hell of a work. It could be worth posting it on rpg.net once you're finished. I've read quite a number of posts down there from people enamored with the setting but hatin' the system.

[The Dread Polack]

I have a few more updates and a small selection of creatures converted. Here's the links:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/47455822/Anima/Savage%20Worlds%20Files/Bestiary%20-%20PDF.pdf

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/47455822/Anima/Savage%20Worlds%20Files/Gear.pdf

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/47455822/Anima/Savage%20Worlds%20Files/Races.pub

Here's some character sheets:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/47455822/Anima/Savage%20Worlds%20Files/Characters/Axel%20Doth%20-%20PDF.pdf
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/47455822/Anima/Savage%20Worlds%20Files/Characters/Axel%20Doth%20Powers%20-%20PDF.pdf

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/47455822/Anima/Savage%20Worlds%20Files/Characters/Smooth%20Goodrich%20-%20PDF.pdf

[Pneumonica]

I'm coming a little late to the fold, but might I suggest that some powers use the Superpowers system from Necessary Evil.  In particular, since Dominion Techniques are supposed to be freely designed, you could replace Martial Knowledge with Power Points for Superpowers.  Obviously, some alterations would have to be involved, but I don't think it would be too difficult.  In particular, for Dominion Techniques, instead of straight up buying the Powers, you buy an individual Technique that has one or more Powers with Modifiers "slotted in."  To use it, you have to accumulate or spend Power Points or however you're doing it.

Also, Streets of Beldam has an excellent damage system to consider (they call it the "Ultraviolence" system, which is probably an appropriate descriptor for Anima combat).  Essentially, it assumes that all Wild Cards are Hardy, and any attack that does damage delivers only a single Wound.  (Extras are Incapacitated normally.)  A Soak roll has to roll as many successes as would've been required to soak the damage normally (in other words, the number of Raises on the Soak roll must be the number of Raises on the damage roll minus one), but it automatically removes Shaken conditions.  This lowers the lethality rate and makes combats between Wild Cards last.

If you want to make it emulate damage from Anima (which can inflict cripplers without Incapacitating the foe), then on a raise on the damage roll the attack inflicts a temporary injury.  If the Wound is Soaked, no Injury occurs.

The Ultraviolence damage rules don't quite work correctly (it is, in fact, possible to one-shot a PC, for instance), but it does degrade the lethality of Savage Worlds.  It might be an overcorrection.