Let's make a RWBY Tabletop RPG

[czieg]

I am a big fan of the online animated series RWBY and I think that I would like to take a stab at making one with all of you. I am by no means an expert at homebrew. My one other real homebrew attempt is in my sig.
For those that don't know what RWBY is, I recommend you go to here (http://roosterteeth.com/archive/?id=7872&v=more&s=1) to see the first episode of this awesome web series.
I love the world of RWBY and I am amazed with the variety of the world and it's strange mix of Dust and tech. The problems however in this strange system is how do we adapt it when we don't fully understand it? The answer is we improvise. With the new series explaining the world of Remanent, finer details will be partly done for us and things we have put in to fill holes will be replaced with actual canon from Roosterteeth. I hope we can make a truly awesome system together. If we ever finish this, I will copy and paste it into a google document and organize it.
Now down to nitty-gritty stuff, do we want to build from the ground up? Do we want to pull things from the many RPGS systems? This is up to you guys. I was hoping for a d20 based game.
Combat
Armor Rating/Class: How is it going to work?- Lots of people in the world of Remanent wear armor, we will need to set up a system on how this works.
Weapons: The mechanics of transforming weapons- The quality and types of weapons is HUGE in RWBY, I think this may be one of the two biggest hurdles to jump.
Dust: We are only now learning all the applications of Dust and so this is hard to do right now.
Semblance: Only speculation at this point. I have no idea of how to balance this. You are all welcome to give ideas.[/SPOILER]
EDIT: More stuff added

[czieg]

Classes
Again, I have no idea at this point. Here are some classes I can think of:
The Brawler- You are a powerhouse. Your weapons are strong and loud, you can break bones the way most people chop wood. You can wear light, medium and heavy armor. Examples: Nora, Yang, Cardin and Junior

The Assassin- You are silent on leaf-covered ground. No one can match you in stealth and the art of quiet killing. Your weapons are small and light, sometimes you don't even need weapons. You can wear light armor. Examples: Ren and Blake

The Acrobat- You flip around and jump off walls when you fight, or at least more than usual. You can move faster than any other without the use of Dust, with dust you go faster then can be seen. Your weapons vary but are usually lighter but some use larger weapons. You where light armor but even that can be a hindrance. Examples: Ruby and Sun

The Wall- You defend your team at all cost. You will jump in front of other team members and take the hit without problem. You usually have a shield and some other weapon. You can use light, medium and heavy armor. Examples: Juane and Pyhrra.

The Mage- You use your mastery of dust to create magical effects. Your abilities are the most varied of all the classes. You usually don't have a physical weapon, preferring to to rely on your Dust and Semblance. You can wear armored clothing. Examples: Glinda and Cinder

There are a few characters that don't have a class yet. Weiss, for example, doesn't quite fit any of these classes. I think that she is a Mage/Acrobat multiclass due to her reliance on her rapier and how she often uses her glyphs to jump around. Some characters (like Roman) I'm just not sure. This could be because of on-screen combat or I'm just not sure how to categorize them.

As before, please give ideas! I don't care how refined they are, it could be a couple paragraphs or a single sentence.

[czieg]

Races
Faunus- The Faunus are part animal people who usually show their animal side with either a tail or ears or horns of some sort. They can see in the dark. They are constantly subjugated.
Racial Bonus: Night vision
Human- Humans are humans, I don't know what to say about this.
Racial Bonus: I don't know. Help me here.

[PAE_The_Boss]

Races
Faunus- The Faunus are part animal people who usually show their animal side with either a tail or ears or horns of some sort. They can see in the dark. They are constantly subjugated.
Racial Bonus: Night vision
Human- Humans are humans, I don't know what to say about this.
Racial Bonus: I don't know. Help me here.

Humans have the racial bonus of having social and economical privilege. You could always give them a larger starting dowry to spend on their character while faunas get more exp or physical development.

[BRKNdevil]

I'd probably suggest something like the new IKRPG that was released a few years ago. http://privateerpress.com/iron-kingdoms
Then i'd make a few Races, Make a few Concepts that they use for careers, and then figure the Mechankal equipment for the weapons of the PC's

The reason i suggest this is because it covers a lot more concepts then using the standard d20 systems for any of the iterations and would allow mix and matching to fit a concept without being to overpowered.

[PAE_The_Boss]

I'd probably suggest something like the new IKRPG that was released a few years ago. http://privateerpress.com/iron-kingdoms
Then i'd make a few Races, Make a few Concepts that they use for careers, and then figure the Mechankal equipment for the weapons of the PC's

The reason i suggest this is because it covers a lot more concepts then using the standard d20 systems for any of the iterations and would allow mix and matching to fit a concept without being to overpowered.
I homebrew because I'm too poor for source books. If it's not shared freely out of love for the hobby, I don't give any money to the cause (but I occasionally donate to publicly available free rule-sets).

[Milo v3]

The RWBY games I've seen used Mutants and Masterminds to allow for weapon creation, semblances, faunus, anime physics, super-speed, etc. Could take some inspiration from that.

[Admiral Squish]

Only gonna poke in to say two things real quick:

One, I think that weapons should be custom, since they are so exceptionally varied in the show. Leave most of the description to the player, and allow them to build a weapon. I would suggest working out a system where going up in one category means going down in another. Possibly a standard point value kinda thing, so, like, if you want to make your weapon have longer range, that's extra, but you could compensate by saying you shoot slower.

Second, I think combat should definitely be very free-form, since, again, that's a huge part of the series. I would strive for something that works in something approaching real time.
You know, I had some notes on a semi-real-time combat system, if this is still around when I find 'em I'll pass 'em on.

[braveheart]

For semblances, I'd suggest a use per day limit, and different forms of use for each semblance

the few I can remember of the top of my head are
speed
glyphs
shadow dodge? (blake)
pain buff? (yang)
and polarity

I'd suggest figuring out a point system where you can use semblances to varying degrees at different point costs which are either reset after sleep, or refill at [N] points per [T] hours

a few examples come to mind,
1 point to create 1 glyph
1 per (time unit) to run at full speed
1 point to convert an attack against you into a buff for [N](unit of time)
1 point per dodge
Balancing will be needed through play-testing, but this is just a general suggestion, I would say maybe 10 points per hour with a cap of 50-100, or 100 points reset each day.

[Grinner]

Second, I think combat should definitely be very free-form, since, again, that's a huge part of the series. I would strive for something that works in something approaching real time.

Yeah, a lot of the ideas introduced so far seem heavily derivative of the d20 system, which thrives on minutia and bonus-stacking. This stands in stark contrast to the source material, which is about as breezy as it gets. The one exception I'd make is the previously mentioned Mutants & Masterminds. Even then, while it makes balanced weapon and Semblance creation easy, it really doesn't capture the essence of the series.

Then again, I don't have any stake in this project at the moment, so take my word with a grain of salt.

[Admiral Squish]

I'm a bit ahead of schedule, so I think I can take a little time to talk about this real-time fighting idea. Names are all subject to change.

The general idea measures time in 'ticks'.A tick is basically like a round, but not everyone acts in every tick.
There are quick actions, which can be done in one tick, like moving one square, or drawing a weapon.
There are two kinds of longer actions, delaying actions and preparing actions.
A delaying action takes place in the same tick, but comes with a delay afterward, a number of ticks you have to wait before you can act again. Most attacks would be delaying actions. A very light, low-damage weapon might have one delay or even no delay, but a bigger, more damaging weapon might require a several ticks to recover from.
A preparing action work like that, but in reverse. You start a preparing action, and when the number of ticks required to prepare it is up, the effect happens. Most spells would be preparing actions. A simple spell might only need one tick, but a more powerful one may take a number of ticks before it goes off.
Some really crazy-powerful effects might need both prep and delay.
Whether recovering or preparing, the character would be vulnerable to counterattacks.

The whole idea may be too complicated for a tabletop game, though, you'd definitely need a way to keep track of everyone's ticks of delay/prep.



Also, I would tentatively recommend something like you find in exalted, where players who are particularly descriptive or creative receive special benefits from the DM on their actions.

[Hollowpoint]

I actually have the beginnings of a system for RWBY for the past week but my direction contrasts quite heavily with what you have here (I'm going diceless, for one.)

I can share if anyone is interested, I plan on posting it for play-testing either during the weekend or next week, anyway.

[PAE_The_Boss]

Dude, if you have content, post it. You don't need validation from us.

[Hollowpoint]

Remember this is hugely WIP, and a lot of it is waiting to be written, but I'd appreciate any comments/suggestions.

Hollopoint's RWBY Diceless (https://docs.google.com/document/d/15_1QKWRKQbxK4dnqZKHX32u9KCLzTGEDvUCdipEdOEc/edit?usp=sharing)

Edit: forgot the character sheet (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1UDivjvO_vZt99BfFqrX9Ssa422Nl_Aq4OqiifOxr_LI/edit?usp=sharing).

[Amechra]

I homebrew because I'm too poor for source books. If it's not shared freely out of love for the hobby, I don't give any money to the cause (but I occasionally donate to publicly available free rule-sets).

For some people, it's a hobby AND a paycheck. Writers need money to buy food to shove down their pie-hole.

But anyway:

If you want an RPG with dice (because heck, someone's already getting on with the diceless), how about Wushu (http://danielbayn.com/wushu/)? The engine is free and it is as light as they come.

Because, I mean, Risus is too death-spirally, and Cthulhu Dark works best if you're building something that requires a race against the clock.

If you want something middling, check out Fate; the core engine is free to license. An Apocalypse World hack might be interesting, but since the PbtA system is kinda naff in terms of combat, I would suggest against it.

Ammo: The RPG might be hilariously awesome to crib from, though. I mean, so awesome your face would melt. (If anyone's curious as to why, I will give an explanation. Suffice to say that it has one of the... more original dice mechanics.)

[GorinichSerpant]

Ammo: The RPG might be hilariously awesome to crib from, though. I mean, so awesome your face would melt. (If anyone's curious as to why, I will give an explanation. Suffice to say that it has one of the... more original dice mechanics.)

I'm curious about this, but Google isn't giving me whatever this is.

[Amechra]

Here's a link to the one place it exists on the internet. (https://www.scribd.com/doc/92758569/Ammo-war)

Basically, you all play gunslingers... and you fight by "shooting" Fudge dice. You roll your dice pool individually, with a + being a hit, a 0 being a miss, and a - being a shot that got blocked. If you get a sequence of +++ or ---, something extra cool happens; if you roll 000, then welcome to sucksville - population YOU.