Making Dice Rolls
In Anima, there are two kind of dice rolls : Ability checks (most often used) and Characteristics checks.
- Ability checks use a d100. Simply roll the d100, add the applicable bonus (your ability bonus). If you beat the difficulty, you succeed. If you do not, you fail. Sometimes, for example with contested rolls, the amount in which you succeed is important.
- If you beat the target number (difficulty) by 40 or more, you achieve Great Success. If you beat it with 80 or more, you achieve an Absolute Success.
- Ability checks use Open Rolls. If you roll a natural 90 or higher, you roll again, adding the two results together before adding your bonus. Even better, if the second roll is a 91 or higher, you get to roll again. This continues until you stop rolling high numbers. The number you need to roll increases by 1 each time. Resistance checks, Fumble checks, and Critical level checks are the only rolls that do not use this system.
- Ability checks use Fumbles. If you roll a natural 1, 2, or 3, you fumble. You must roll a d100 to check for the Fumble Level, adding +15 if your fumble was a 1, adding nothing if it was a 2, and subtracting -15 if it was a 3. This Fumble score can have effect on next actions, depending on what you Fumbled on. Fumble checks do not use Open Rolls.
| Fumble Result | Effect |
|---|---|
| 1 to 50 | The attempt simply does not work. |
| 51 to 100 | The attempt has a negative effect on the character. |
| +101 | The attempt has a disastrous effect on the character. |
- Some Ability checks can be Mastered (see Primary Abilities and Secondary Abilities). You are a Master in an ability if you have 200 in it. Your fumble chance decreases by 1 with that Ability.
- Resistance checks of 100 always succeed, even if the total, after adding Resistance Score, is lower thatn the required difficulty number. If a character has a Reistance bonus 50 above the needed target number, he succeeds without needing to roll. Resistance checks do not use Open Rolls.
- Characteristics checks use a d10. With these checks, the lower you roll, the better. You need to roll below your Statistic, and the margin by which you succeed is your level of success.
- If the difference between the Characteristics of two opposing creatures is greater than 4, each point above 4 adds +1 to the Characteristic of the better creature.
- Rolls of 10 add a 3 to their roll, as if you had rolled a 13. Rolls of 1 lower your roll by 3, as if you had rolled a -2.
For Instance, two young men play a game of chess. They make an opposed Characteristic check using Intelligence. One has Intelligence 5, average for a human, but the other is a true prodigy, having an astounding 10 to his Intelligence score. Since that is a difference of 5, the second player treats his Intelligence as 11 (5 - 4 = 1, so 10 + 1 = 11). The first player rolls a 2, succeeding by 3 (5 minus 2) and the second player rolls a 6, succeeding by 5 (11 minus 6). The second player wins. If the first player had rolled a 6 or higher, he had automatically failed his check.