An Indie RPG has recently caught my eyes that is called Over Arms. I backed it on Kickstarter, and want to see it succeed even more. It is completely independent, and a very good success story! They had minimal marketing and blew through their goals, letting the strength of the preview they released speak for itself. It has issues, but I am enjoying it as a nice refresher at a time when my current D&D campaign is on break.
Over Arms
The Over Arms system uses all of your dice except a D20, which I don’t like. It’s my biggest complaint about the system, but it makes up for it with its versatility. Each player and Anima feels unique, as the personal touches truly shine. In my own world, it is more inspired by Jojo’s Bizzare Adventure. They are called stands, as Anima doesn’t roll off the tongue as easily.
It can be daunting to start a campaign, as there aren’t that many story idea’s to go off of in the book. And the players can run through what’s provided in a session or two. So it requires more work on the DM’s side. Since it’s a brand new small system, I am tempted to write up all my own personal work and put it up for free. Maybe after the campaign is over.
Character Creation
Creating a character is surprisingly easy, but it seems to favor Assassins. Since your version of AC is tied to the initiative, Assassins are supposed to have low defense, but with a high initiative, they can’t really get hit. My one complaint aside, it’s a game of choosing dice. Everyone has to choose a dump stat, and that can be the weakness of each character. Even using all of their upgrades, one stat will always be weak, or not all of them will be that strong.
The Anima’s are very fun to create. Do you have a player who wants to use an ability that just wouldn’t work in D&D? They can make it an Anima power. Do you have someone who tries making homebrew spells all the time? Anima abilities are hard to balance, but let your players enjoy it. You can make crazy abilities for them to fight against as well, so let them go wild!
The Strengths
The Mirage
Now, this is my favorite part of the system. I personally don’t like the video game feel off it, I know it’s inspired by Mementos in Persona 5, but I like making it more real. The Mirages in my world all exist because of a strong desire, either from humans or the monsters within. The first one my players encountered was driven by gluttonous creatures who wanted to eat humans, and the doorway appeared to those who wanted to run away or were hiding. That way, the bodies wouldn’t be missed.
The Second Mirage had three sections, and each one was a mystery from a different Era. A modern murder, Noir Thriller, and Sherlock Holmes Era. I would put more details about it but my players are still in it at the time of posting so I will refrain from it. The creative freedom of the system is amazing, and can challenge the players creativity.
Over Arms and Creative Problem Solving
When your players have abilities, they are able to be more creative than in D&D. Especially when you consider that they made the ability they are using, so they have a deeper understanding of it than a spell they’ve never used before.
When in the Noir setting, one of the players was suspicious someone was an Anima user. His ability allows him to manifest basic weapons, so he waved a knife in front of her to see if she noticed. It was genius, as in my world only Anima users can see Animas. By doing that they caught the killer, and were able to complete that section of the mystery.
Compelling Villains
It’s always hard to make compelling villains, but the real world is messed up. You can always pull inspiration from real-life serial killers, or murderers, or cult leaders. Of course, do not overstep the bounds of comfort your players have. But it can help you craft a deeper more relatable villain as well. You can do this with D&D, but I really like the more modern setting. It’s a nice break after running D&D exclusively for two and a half years.
The Weaknesses
Video Game Influence
The Influence of Persona is very apparent. I do not like this at all. Like I briefly mentioned, the video game nature of the Mirage. I like a more structured and realistic setting. The Mirage isn’t to my taste because of this. I included it in my strengths becuase It’s freeform enough where I can just change it. But by default I think it needs some work.
Stats
The player can very easily make an overpowered stand power right away, and leave no room for improvement. Imagine if in D&D you could start with 20’s in your two most important stats? True, others can be weaker but it seems a little broken for me. It may be an attempt to balance a ten level system, but I find it a bit lacking.
Anima
The name just doesn’t roll off the tongue, or sound right. I know I am nitpicking, but with a group of people who like making dirty jokes this name was changed immediately. It’s a nitpick, but that show’s how much I like this system.
Over Arms, It’s Free to Start!
You can run Over Arms for free, with the basic rules. If you buy the book, you are paying for all the Anima abilities and a few character ideas. So you have no excuse not to try this system. Its weaknesses are apparent and upfront, but its strengths far out way them. You are doing yourself a disservice by not trying it out, even once. This is a system I could see being ported to other Anime, like One Piece or My Hero. Just replace Anima with Devil Fruits or Quirks. So go try a new game, have fun and continue getting sucked down the rabbit hole of Indie RPG’s
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