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[Raybras]

Elric from the ffg forums found this morning that a new anima book is on its way. Here is what he posted:

Hi everyone, this morning the new Anima Expansion, Prometheum Exxet, was announced on Edge Entertainment home page. It will include more than 100 artifacts, along with rules for creating and forging artifacts, more history of Gaia (artifact related) and "hints for quests", rules for analysis of Artifacts (neessary to unleash their true power), new combat rules with Artifacts, including special Combat Modules for artifact use, price on Black Sun market for most artifacts, new advantages.

I don't know what everyone else things about it, but for me it's really great news! I'm not sure I'm going to use it "exactly as it is written" as in my campaigns Artifact are already "balanced in a certain way" so applying completely different "power level" at some point would be...sad. But sure thing it is still a great compendium of ideas and stuff!

Oh...and wonderful images as always!

Here are the links towards this information
French
Spanish

Enjoy!

[Seizui]

Finally! Now, we can try to get some streamlined, cohesiveness on artifact creation.

[vytzka]

This sounds really awesome - I think with the creature book and an artifacts book Anima is pretty much nearing a "complete game line" status. Especially exciting to me is the bit about "analysis of Artifacts, unleashing their full power" - it makes me thing of the Earthdawn system where artifacts would grow with the user which I have always adored but never managed to port into another system with nearly satisfactory results.

I can't wait to get this book in English in 2017

(I kid because I love)

[planeswalker]

Mandatory translation of the

DESIGN DIARY, part I

Edge Entertainment presents Prometheum Exxet,a book dedicated to the world of supernatural artifacts, made to create a new range of possibilities for both player characters and their opponents. Within its pages are hundreds of supernatural artifacts, wild ideas for adventures, systems to make your own mystic artifacts and much more. Get ready, the door to a universe of power never before explored now lies open before you. Today Carlos Garcia, author of Anima, presents the first part of the Prometheum Exxet design diary.

By Carlos García
 
Welcome to the first development diary of Prometheum Exxet, the Secrets of Creation.


The truth is that I enjoyed writing Prometheum Exxet indescribably. It has allowed me to elaborate on the rules as well as in the history of Gaia, entering elements I never had been able to develop before. So if anyone enjoys reading it even a fraction of what I have writing it, I'll consider it a success.

From the moment I considered writing "Prometheum Exxet", it was clear that the two sections to fill at least ninety percent of its pages would be rules to create objects, and an extensive list of artifacts. This pair would be the core of the book, the true content of the volume. After all, those were the elements that would open more possibilities to both players and GMs.
 
Creation of an item
 
The creation of an artifact is very laborious, as the Game Master always has to carefully weigh the powers and abilities given to the artifacts they create, trying to adapt to the game context the gifts he has bestowed on his work.

As far as rules are concerned, there are four main steps to take:

Step 1: Choose the container
First you choose or create the object's container, whose Base Presence will determine how much power can be introduced into the device.

Step 2: Determine the object's powers
Simply choose which power is being put into the item and at what level, provided they do not exceed the amount indicated by the artifact's presence.

Step 3: Get the Power Points (PP) from the Raw Material
You must then use the Raw Material, to obtain the PP needed to pay for the powers you have chosen. You can use any type or combine several different ones.

Step 4: Perform the creation ritual
Finally, you must consolidate the powers of the artifact, making check rolls on the secondary skill that will be used in the ritual. To this end we introduce new skills, such as Alchemy, Runes or Animism, although it can be done simply by an Occultism ritual.

Raw Material
 
Possibly the most complex aspect of Prometheum Exxet was to decide the power base necessary to make the objects. While developing the creation system itself was quite simple, determining what should be used to provide an artifact with its mystical abilities was a real challenge, because to me this was the real "core" of artifacts.

Years ago, during the development of the creature system, I had planned for artifact creation to require the investment of Power attribute points in order to provide them with mystical abilities. However, with some more perspective that solution seemed quite limited, because player's wouldn't be able to create artifacts without losing many of their capabilities. Seeing as I was about to write this book, I had to start from scratch and find a new, much more rewarding and "playable method.

Naturally, I knew I could not let it be enough just to reach a certain level in an ability. Doing that would mean that the world would flood with countless artifacts, and that would dilute the concept of "magical object" . Instead, the cost had to be something remarkable, but giving the character a wide range to choose from.

Therefore, I started to calibrate various possibilities by analyzing the methods followed in other RPG systems, comics and fantasy books, as well as classical theories from the middle ages, but none of them satisfied me completely. Of course, using a method too tied to the world of Gaia was not something I could afford, since I have a rule that all of Anima Beyond Fantasy 's systems must be open to any setting or world. I was looking for something that would allow me to collect many different things to create an artifact, but I wanted to avoid having from a simple component list or one single creation method. I made a long list, and although I liked all the ideas, none of them covered what I wanted to express. In the end, I found it best to mix each and every one of the things I had considered and to create what I ended up calling Raw Materials.

Maybe it's the novelty of it, but I must say that the Raw Materials system ended up being my favorite detail from Prometheum Exxet.

It represents the concept that every magical item requires a source of supernatural power to exist, but this power doesn't necessarily have to come from a single type of energy. Therefore, like a machine can feed on many different fuels, there are countless items that can be used as a basis for a mystical artifact, like magical energy, souls, or even other magic items.

Thus, the possibilities available for both the player and the DJ to create artifacts are multiplied, not only because it introduces a mechanism available to the characters, but also because of the countless possibilities of play and game ideas the search for raw materials gives rise to.

We say goodbye for today, but stay tuned to this website as we will soon publish the second part of this Prometheum Exxet design diary design.

[llaletin]

Excellent news - thanks for the above translation, look forward to seeing how the artifact creation will work in-game; sounds like a fine line between making it a worthy challenge for characters to make an item, and becoming a chore for the players to get involved in - hopefully one that can be achieved successfully without altering the flow of gameplay.

[Lia Valenth]

As awesome as this is, I can not read the languages it is going to be released in, at least for a while. So it is more of an annoyance than anything.

[planeswalker]

Lately the translation pipeline is shorter, perhaps it won't take too long to come out in English. I think in Spain it's bound to come out near Christmas, give it a few more months.

[Raybras]

im still waiting for french or english translation of Core Exxet :/

[planeswalker]

Perhaps they are translating that one from scratch, seeing as how the first one was a catastrophic thing...

[Snowycragrat]

I thought Arcana Excett was next in English?

Also any word on when Gaia pt2 or Those Who Walked Amoungst Us pt2 will be relesed? Obviously they will be after Promethium Excett.

Just a rough schedule will do.

[planeswalker]

Arcana Exxet should be next up, yes. Next, although IIRC there's been no official announcement yet, would be Core Exxet.

It's currently being debated in the Spanish forum how close or far Gaia 2 can be, but it's all speculation thus far. I can say that work on that book has at least started already.

[alphawhelp]

I am a little disappointed to be honest that Gaia vol 2 is not coming after Core Exxet.

[planeswalker]

It was going to. But then something happened. AS had long claimed that the long-awaited rules on artifact creation would be included in Arcana Exxet. However, upon writing the book they felt that those rules fell kinda out of place. So, they decided to take them away. They didn't expect the Spani... the tremendous fan outrage -fans never forget a promise- so they thought of giving those rules away for free in another Web Complement. But this didn't please the fans, and by that time the project had grown so much that it 'wanted' its own book. Given that work on that subject was already well under way, AND that those rules had already been promised to come out before, Anima Studio decided to publish Prometheum Exxet first. This of course angered in turn the legion of fans who were expecting to receive Gaia II next, but some compromise was needed. So in the end it was kind of a lose-lose situation.

Then again, if we end up having both, it's a win-win to me!

[Raybras]

 

They didn't expect the Spani...

NOBODY EXPECTS THE SPANISH INQUISITION!!

[Snowycragrat]

They didn't expect the Spani...

NOBODY EXPECTS THE SPANISH INQUISITION!!

Until they get their thirty day notice.