I'm back! With some minor changes to start, but some big ones coming up.

Current Version: 0.7

Fillable Character Sheet- File>Make a copy will give you your own, editable copy of the sheet.

Current Version Notes

0.6.2>0.7

Character Creation

• Added Character Level. Every other change tied to this.
• Changed Recovery Rolls to only be allowed a number of times per day equal to Character Level

Weapons

• Big changes. Weapons now have special abilities that are much more powerful, but can only be used a number of times per day equal to Character Level

Semblances

• Lowered Action Point cost of Improvised Effects to 2
• Limited Improvised Effects to a number of times per day equal to Character Level

Updates on deck:

1. Change the way weapon bonuses work. This is my top priority, as I'm not a fan of the small flat bonuses. A weapon should define a character's fighting style, so I'm looking to implement impactful positives and negatives that naturally scale with character advancement and make fighting without a weapon an unappealing prospect. Donezo.
2. On that note, add rules for unarmed combat! It needs to be extremely ineffective, since I already have a path ability that lets you fight normally while unarmed but without weapon bonuses. Perhaps cutting all dice pools in half?
3. Minor: Add a Momentum Pool field to the character sheet Aaaand done. Also added Character Level while I was at it. But I should probably add a smart tracker for maximum Momentum Pool.

Updates for later:

1. Change enemies. Again. Enemy tiers need to be more concrete. Guidelines comparing relative power of an enemy to a player need to be established. Differences between enemy types need to exist in a meaningful fashion.
2. Change advancement. Maybe an EXP system would be better? I've grown to like the concept of experience points as part of a reward cycle that allows a player to watch their progress and know how close they are to a noticeable increase in power.
3. Big maybe: Revamp basic stats and how combat works as a result. Core mechanics would stay the same, but I've been considering the merits and flaws of separating Attack/Defense into Accuracy/Damage/Defense/Resistance.
4. Important, but not pressing: rewrite everything to have a consistent writing style. Currently, I switch a lot between referring to a character as "you" or as "they," so that should be fixed eventually.

Previous Version Notes

NOTE: Since the old thread got archived, here's a link for reading purposes. Further patches will be noted in this section.

0.6.1>0.6.2

Distance and Movement

• The first zone moved per turn is now free; any movement between zones after that cost Action Points
• Tweaked the third bullet of movement rules; any zone containing and enemy or a hazard now automatically costs 1 additional Action Point to leave

Critical Hits

• Exploding dice have been removed and replaced with the Momentum Pool, allowing party members to aid allies in their rolls - or themselves, for lesser effect
• Fumble mechanics not added, but placeholder text was written.

Okay, so I've been running a playtest adventure, and it's been teaching me a lot of things. Namely, Interaction stats suck and I also need some sort of resolution mechanic for chase scenes. I've also just been unsatisfied with a few things, like how I basically just lifted Milestone advancement straight from Fate. There are some mechanics I don't mind taking from other games (I love Magical Burst's initiative system and I don't feel any regret just taking it) but I do wanna keep those to a minimum. Thankfully I've been listening to a lot of RPG podcasts lately, and while doing so have been hit with some bolts of inspiration. So, the following is gonna be two different parts:

1. An idea for a new crit system I've been sitting on for a while, and figure I should finally put up on the sub
2. Rough brainstorm of how I might fix Interaction stats (or at least begin to) and how I might use a new method of advancement to back that idea up

We'll start with the first:

The Momentum System

We'll begin by just copy-pasting the short, scribbled notes I made a while ago and build from there.

Replace exploding dice with momentum dice; a roll of a 6 grants a player 1 momentum die. Momentum dice can only be spent on ally rolls, regardless of action economy, to aid with a crucial roll.

This has the bonus effect of making it so that even a poor roll (say 6+1) which doesn’t meet the TN can still be seen as a semi-successful endeavor when the player later spends momentum dice to help the squishy avoid damage or the defense-focused tank actually land a big hit or something. Would also hopefully keep players invested even when it wasn’t their turn, as they have to pay attention to other players’ actions.

It would also make crazy teamwork feats (quite common in RWBY) a much easier prospect to set up. Rather than having to worry about asking the GM if you can set up some team attack, you just spend your momentum dice when you wanna aid a teammate’s roll. Then you just narrate the crazy-cool shit you did in order to add to the roll. I’m not entirely sure if I actually will go through with this change or not, but I like it for multiple reasons and I really wanna do something to let players engage the fight even when their turn has passed.

(By the way, I'm also using a separate blog to chronicle my brainstorming for posterity and also to help me get my own thoughts in line. I talk more in-depth about why I wanted to make this change in the first place there, among other things.)

So the gist of this system would be that when you do well in combat, you're able to use that momentum to aid your allies. There would certainly be an upper limit on the number of momentum dice you could hold onto at a time (highest dice pool x2, maybe? or a flat number?) and they would go away if the combat ended, meaning players would be very encouraged to spend them rather than hold on to them.

I think, rather than the person spending them rolling, the person being aided would roll. Then, if they rolled any 6es on a momentum dice, it would also grant them a momentum die as if it were their own. This way, momentum can build both off of individual performance, or be passed around via teamwork and cooperative play.

As far as solo fights, which we do see in RWBY, momentum dice would certainly need to have some potential use there, since you have no allies to aid. Wouldn't want it to ever overpower the teamwork mechanic, though. Maybe spending a momentum die in a solo fight grants a small, stackable, static bonus to the roll? Idk.

I'm almost 100% certain I'm going to implement this change in some form or another, but if anyone has any thoughts on the matter be sure to let me know.

Now, moving on to the second point

INTERACTION STATS:

Each Interaction Stat acts as its own stat pool. Players attempt (during Interaction Phase? which implies a distinction between combat and interaction? Combat Phase?) to do a thing. The GM arbitrates whether or not there is a chance of failure. IF there is, players get to choose whether to succeed or fail.

If they succeed, they mark off one of their points (to be regained at a later juncture). If they fail, they don't spend their point, and they gain a mark of Interaction XP. IXP can be spent to increase Interaction Stats - an amount equal to the next rank must be spent (4>5 would require 5 IXP, for example.)

ALTERNATIVELY, to more properly reflect the nature of XP as "experience" points, each failed test would grant one IXP for that SPECIFIC stat, and only once you had failed a number of attempts equal to the relevant stat it would increase.

PROBLEMS WITH THIS:

• No element of random chance.
• Removes a certain type of narrative tension in favor of a more mechanical, meta tension
• Forcing a player to CHOOSE to fail might not be a very fun mechanic in a high-stakes game
• If one player chooses to fail, what's to stop another party member from attempting and succeeding at the same thing?
• Requires bookkeeping - even moreso if we track each stat's XP individually
• Players could fish for chances to use their stats just to fail them and gain XP

COMBAT STATS:

Combat stats remain as normal, but change the way they're increased.

Each player tracks the number of extra dice rolled (via spending stat points), and each time the number equals the current maximum value for that stat it increases by 1. This makes it take longer to increase higher stats, and gives incentive to spend points on lower stats even if it would lower your dice pool in combat.

PROBLEMS WITH THIS:

• How would you count exploding dice? (Not as much of a problem as I am planning on changing them, but still)
• As above, requires bookkeeping.
• How would you track Aura expenditure? As the odd one out for Combat Stats, you have no dice pool to spend from. (Maybe just track each point of Aura spent on Semblance effects - once it equals your total max HP, you gain a point? That feels kinda weak.)
• No way to really keep the party from farming weaker enemies? (Only a problem if the GM throws weaker enemies at them. Perhaps include a clause to counter it somehow? Create some sort of encounter classification - Cinematic encounters where the party will easily win and gain little to no XP, and real encounters where they fight an actual enemy?)
• Might increase very slowly depending on how conservatively the party likes to play things.

OTHER FORMS OF ADVANCEMENT:

Other aspects of a character sheet, such as Dust Allowance, optional sub-path abilities, and anything extra would need to have a chance for advancement as well. Dust Allowance could potentially just be the same as anything else, and spending Dust grants XP at a 1:1 ratio? Of course, that actually kinda feels like it gimps Dust Experts, who only pay half the cost for Dust effects and thus would gain half the XP.

That ALSO kinda gimps people who make use of passive Dust effects, as they don't ever spend those points and thus gain less XP.

This'll take some thinking and I need to take a break and unwind. I'll work on these brainstorms more later.

TL;DR I talk a bit about the evolution of Fodder enemies in RWBY D6 and how I'm pulling inspiration from another game to change them again. Skip to the line break if you wanna get to the actual brainstorming.

I've done a LOT of work on how to run enemies. In the beginning, when a single Target Number applied equally to Attack, Defense, and HP, even enemies meant to be cannon fodder (like the beowolves that Ruby slaughters by the dozens in the Red Trailer) were either way too durable or made of paper and not a threat at all. I wanted fodder enemies to be dangerous and not something the players just ignore in combat, but not so tough that they would bog down play in large numbers.

To counter that problem, I eventually decided to assign two different Target Numbers, and only the Defense of the enemy would affect HP. That helped a bit - I could now have deadly beowolves attacking with claws and teeth and being actually threatening while still dying fairly quickly - but each point of Defense added WAY too much survivability when it added 10 more HP.

My current system just has fodder targets use Wounds, as if they were PCs with no remaining Aura. This is, without a doubt, the best system to date, but it still comes with some issues. A somewhat unlucky character can have a 1v1 with a fodder enemy and not land a single hit, which can drag out a character's fight way too much in a bad way.

Fodder targets should be dangerous or impactful enough to draw focus, but dealing with them should be expedient and absolutely should not require half of the combat session to take care of. Thankfully, I've spent some time reading more games and surprise surprise, a system by Ewen Cluney (my personal favorite game designer who I've already taken the Initiative system from, along with inspiration for much more) yielded what I believe to be the best method to do so - though I'll have to use it as a base to create something that fits with my system, rather than steal it wholesale from the book.

In Tokyo Heroes, a game designed to emulate Super Sentai/Power Rangers or magical girl anime, fodder enemies (called Mooks in the rules) are groups of enemies who attack en masse and, if ignored in large numbers, could easily do a lot of damage, but not only are they easy to defend against you can attack them to neutralize their successful attacks while defeating one Mook per successful attack die rolled. Now, RWBY D6 doesn't use a success system like Tokyo Heroes where you have to roll dice and count only the ones that surpass a certain number, so I can't quite do the same.

So, keeping the mechanics I already have in place in mind, and considering a different method for fodder presented by Tokyo Heroes, what follows is a brainstorm of different methods I can attempt to make fodder easier to plow through while still retaining the impact they should have.

• Fodder in a combat scenario act as a single entity with their health represented by the number of fodder present.

Thus, if an army of thugs numbering 30 dudes attacks, they would have 30 HP and each point of damage would drop 1 of them. Perhaps as well they don't have any way to defend against attacks - a roll of 5 on an attack would deal 5 damage, and drop 5 dudes.

If I go this way, I can have their attacks also be proportional to the number of enemies present. 30 guys would attack at TN 30, meaning going the entire combat round ignoring them would be dangerous as hell to most starting players. But, if all of the players spend their turns attacking the fodder first, they can reduce their numbers or eliminate them entirely, depending on how much damage the party can push out.

This method would indeed make large numbers of fodder enemies dangerous and worth paying attention to, but once the players get them down to 5 or so enemies they again become something to ignore. This might not be a bad thing. Heavily damaged fodder could flee - the remaining thugs decide they aren't being paid enough and bail, or the beowolves learn and become more fearsome creatures in the future (not that the players would be able to identify specific, recurring Grimm in most cases). Not every fight has to be a fight to the death on both sides, after all.

Another downside to this is that as the players increase in power and become capable of rolling buttloads of dice, you would have to make each fodder group bigger and bigger. While a group of 30 fodder would be deadly to a single starting character if ignored, someone rolling 4d6 for each Defense roll would see them as a minor nuisance. A truly powerful character might need an army of a hundred or more to actually offer any real threat, which might not always even be possible.

• Fodder aren't even treated as enemies, but rather as a feature of the environment

Rather than splitting enemies into Fodder, Mid-bosses, and Bosses, perhaps there are just "Enemies" and I can recreate Fodder as environmental hazards. Now, this would honestly require more than just fodder - I would need to build an entire section on Environmental Hazards (which I might do anyway, honestly) and have Fodder be one of the listed hazards.

As a hazard, fodder would just be a natural occurrence in certain environments. A fight in the Emerald Forest with an Alpha Beowolf would have the added hazard of "Juvenile Beowolves" with its own effects and counterplay. Perhaps the pack of beos swarm across the field at the end of each round dealing a set amount of damage, and the players can counter that by devoting some of their Action Points to fighting back the pack? Maybe some Boarbatusks lurk in the treeline while the main enemies stay in a clearing, and each round the Boarbatusks zoom across the battlefield in a straight line dealing damage to all in their paths, while players can spend some Action Points in an attempt to interrupt their roll and kill them?

The main benefit of this method would be the introduction of Hazards as a mechanic, period, as I think that would make for an interesting way to add depth to fights and encourage players to think dynamically about the fight as it progresses. If I were to make this a game mechanic (which I'm getting more and more sure I should as I write) then it would mean I don't have to make Fodder a standalone mechanic either - I just write examples/guidelines for how to make Fodder into an Environmental Hazard to be used if appropriate.

• Keep things as they are

Though I obviously don't agree with this option, it is entirely possible that the system I have works just fine and only requires tweaking to make work. Perhaps I just need to lower the target numbers to hit fodder and give them one single hit before croaking, while bumping up their numbers/attack stats to make them more threatening.

Obviously, the main benefit of this method would be "I don't have to make anything new, and just have to perfect what I've already got." I don't think I'll do so, but it's worth mentioning just as a reminder to myself that I may be seeing problems where there are none.

And that's all I've got from this little brainstorming session. Overall, I personally like the Environmental Hazards idea, but lemme know if you particularly like one of the listed ones (or if you have a completely different suggestion I didn't come up with! I love getting other peoples' ideas).

Heyo! My first session of playtesting involved 2 people, was a lot of fun, and got me a lot of good info. So, after making my most recent changes, I'm looking for more this weekend. I definitely need to run at least one test with a group of 4, to get a better idea of how a full team works.

I've already got two folks chomping at the bit for more sessions, but I also wanna get more people so I have a wider audience sample. That means ideally, I'd have two groups of 4 and run one test each day with a different group.

So, here's how it's gonna go: If you're interested in playtesting RWBY D6, drop a comment here with which day you'd prefer (March 5th or March 6th), your timezone, and what times would work best with you. If I don't get enough for two full groups of four, then I'll still run the tests as fully as I can. If I get too many to put into two days, then I'll manage something or some people can choose to get together and run their own test sessions independently.

The sessions themselves will be entirely combat-based; I'm not going to put together any real scenario or out of combat interactions. The purpose here is to test combat mechanics so I can have a better time of balancing them. I'd have 3 or 4 maps prepared, each with a simple combat encounter, and we'd just run through each one in sequence (or as many as we can before people have to go). That doesn't mean you're not allowed to develop an actual character with a personality and whatnot, if that's what you'd like to do - just be aware that I won't be using any of it for this session.

We'll be running via Roll20. If everyone involved is on Discord, then we can use that for voice, but if you don't then Roll20 has built-in voice chat that works as an acceptable substitute. I'll have actual games set up for people to join later, but for now just make sure you have an account on Roll20.

And if you have any questions I didn't address, then lemme know in your comment as well!

Hey Xortberg, I promised you feedback so I'll give ya feedback! (This is Fallen King Ezron from Discord btw)

So going by your description of the game, how it's meant for anyone to basically start up within minutes and such, as well as looking over the rules and guidelines you've set up this game is definitely not meant to go on for month long runs like you might find in a regular D&D session. That's not a bad thing at all, I just wanted to state that as fact as going into this I'm expecting pretty short sessions before a new one needs to be made other wise it'd become a bit stale due to the rather low cap on stats. This will be feedback on the system itself, I'll try to run some play-tests with friends hopefully later this week. As such nothing here is conclusive, just my general thoughts going in.

Now going over the stat system:

Interaction stats

As is, I think I like it. You cover the basic needs, charming your way into/out of situations, being able to detect traps, and being able to keep yourself from easily being manipulated. IF you were to add another category the only one I could think of would be intelligence: Knowing an area beforehand, handling dust better (if/when dust is added in), and some other various uses. Eg. A guy with low intelligence will know only about where they've lived their whole life and probably wont be able to use dust particularly well versus High intelligence; Knowing about places outside of their homes (forests, and the other countries), and being able to use dust much more effectively.

Combat stats

Again, because of the stat cap of 20 this will probably limit games to short sessions compared to something like D&D, so I'd imagine a single session taking about 1 in game year, give or take. Attack is fine as it is, defense you may want to think about separating it between Blocking and dodging simply so there is no confusion but otherwise is still fine.

Aura, depending if you want to stick to canon or if you want to keep things simple, may need an overhaul. It is canon that a person can still use their semblance regardless of how much aura they have, so if you wish to keep in-line with that you would need to create a another stat/entirely separate energy pool for it. But as you said yourself, it's meant to be simple so I don't see much of an issue keeping it combined with aura.

Paths & Weapons

Felt it'd be a bit easier to bring these two sections together for my next topic.

You cover pretty much all the necessities for melee combat, however I'm not sure I see anything that allows someone to go for ranged combat.

An inclusion of a "Marksman" path to give users reason to lean towards a ranged weapons as well as making sure someone with both a ranged and melee weapon doesn't become too powerful too quick would definitely help.

For ranged weapons, it does become a bit more complex as to how damage dealt since a bullet will always do the same amount of damage no matter how strong you get, and going into different calibers, dust enhancements, and what not would overly complicate the end goal of your game. As of right now, the only ideas I have in terms of differentiation would be parallel to your melee weapon set up.

Snipers/Bows = Two handed weapon class

Shotguns/Rifles = sword and shield weapon class

Revolvers/Pistols = One handed weapons

Throwing Knifes = Light weapons

Hit Points

Here, I honestly think you hit the mark. It makes sense, easy to follow, and pretty fair.

Semblances

Again, you hit the mark. There is only so much you can do to limit people when allowing them to create superpowers without actually limiting their creativity, what you have right now pretty much covers the bases that common sense doesn't.

Enemies

Again, with keeping short sessions in mind, this current system does a pretty good job, and I don't see any issues yet, but I'll need to play test to make sure.

Damage, Action Economy, Movement & Range, Initiative

Until I actually play-test, I'll be holding onto my thoughts for these.

Afterwords

So looking back at it overall, You definitely have a good system so far that keeps your goal of jump in and play immediately in mind. Aside from ranged combat, the only section I didn't see that definitely should be included would be experience gains/leveling up, unless you wanted to leave that in the hands of the GM. Let me know if you have any questions for me, I'll do my best to answer!

Sincerely, Fallen King

Current Version: 0.6.1

Fillable Character Sheet - File>Make a copy will give you your own, editable copy of the sheet.

Notice: Dust rules are still not quite where I want them, but crit rules work wonderfully. In addition, rough advancement rules are in place, so playing more than just single sessions is a possibility now!

Current Version Notes

0.5.2>0.6.1

Advancement

Added tentative advancement rules! With this, the game is in a fully playable state, even if it does need significant amounts of testing and balancing before it's complete.

Priorities for future updates:

1. Rules defining distance and movement in combat Complete! But subject to change.
2. Further balance the current mechanics. Weapon damage is getting to be where I want it to be, but I want further customization options and to fine-tune the numbers I'm working towards. Semblances are at least functional now, but I fear they will require nightmarish amounts of tweaking to keep them from being broken.
3. Perhaps make One-handed Weapons more appealing by giving them something special. Light and SnS weapons have mechanics in place to make up for their subpar offensive numbers, and Two-handed weapons just do more damage, but One-handed weapons seem to consistently do low damage even at lower target numbers. Weapons have been completely revamped, so One-handed is no longer a thing
4. Add examples for Semblances. I removed the previous section entirely in the interest of keeping the document clean, but I definitely want to offer some suggestions for new players and to give GMs guidelines to balance player-made Semblances with.
5. Give Paths some minor powers to further set them apart from each other. Currently, the stats don't do quite enough of a job setting characters apart. Powers will be considerably weaker than Semblances and will mainly serve to define a Path's role in the party. Sub-paths are a thing now, and are... mostly done, though they do need balancing.
6. Dust... man, that's gonna be another nightmare. This... is... HAPPENING!
7. Differences between Humans and Faunus
8. Add rules for unarmed combat, in case someone ever finds themselves disarmed
9. Further codify the GM FIAT sections. At the very least, adding some concrete examples to reference is a must.

Previous Version Notes

0.5.1>0.5.2

RECOVERING POINTS

• Changed the wording to make recovering points less of a hassle to keep track of. Now, spent points only fully recover over a night of sleep

PATHS

• Changed the Commander's Inspire ability to allow it after a roll is made, rather than having to be declared beforehand.

• Changed the Commander's optional abilities. Now instead of a +2 bonus on Attack or Defense that can be increased by spending points, it offers a bonus equal to the Commander's current relevant dice pool. This lets the ability scale more naturally than making it rely on spent points.

• Renamed Dust Master to Dust Expert

• Changed the effect of the Aura Fighter's Soul Burn skill slightly. Now, they can spend up to twice their dice pool for the relevant roll (and can now do so for Defense rolls as well) and add that amount to their roll. This, like the Commander change, allows it to scale more readily as the character increases in power.

HIT POINTS

• Changed Aura contribution to HP to 10+(2xAura Score) and consequently, increased the threshold for Wounds to every 10 points of damage instead of every 5.

SEMBLANCES

• Further clarified the wording on how to judge the effectiveness of a Semblance effect.

DUST

(Side note, I'm super fucking excited to finally be making changes to Dust rules, since it means I finally have a semi-functioning system! WOO!)

• Added a bit of context to scavenging for Dust after a fight. Humans/faunus and robots will have a fair amount, Grimm will have little or none.

ENEMIES

• Changed the wording on enemy HP calculations. Previously, it was Defense TNx5, but it was meant to be Attack TN (the Attack TN acts as the enemy's Defense. I got confused.)

COMBAT

• Changed Exploding Dice rules to allow for any dice rolls made in combat, rather than just Attack and Defense rolls.

0.4.2>0.5.1

STATS

• Increased low stat to 11, rather than 10. Now, your dump stat is still useful without spending points, but spending any reduces it so it still lacks the impact of your main and secondary stats.

SUB-PATHS

• Added Aura Specialist sub-paths. Still need a second optional ability for Dust Masters.

WEAPONS

• Added range rules and rules for single-mode weapons

DAMAGE

• Cleaned up wording on Damage calculations and made them jive with the new rules and terminology

DUST

• Actually fucking added Dust rules hallelujah

COMBAT

• Added Offensive and Defensive stances:

Once per combat round, a player can spend 1 Action Point to take an offensive or defensive stance, granting a +1 bonus to the relevant stat and -1 penalty to the opposite. This stance lasts until the player's next turn.

• Added Critical Hits in the form of exploding dice on Attack and Defense rolls. This allows for exceptional successes and makes gaining higher dice pools more rewarding, as dice rolled by spending points can also explode allowing for crazy overkill if you're lucky.

0.4.1>0.4.2

Stats

• Added Recovery rolls to further encourage players to spend points in combat

Paths

• Added optional abilities to Striker and Defender Sub-paths. Still ain't got shit for Aura Specialist, though.

0.3.3>0.4.1

Paths

• Added Sub-paths for each path. Sub-paths allow for further specialization and give the players extra abilities unrelated to Aura and Semblances. As an example, the Tank Sub-path allows a player to take damage for someone in the same zone once per round, allowing them to cover for their less defensive teammates.
• Didn't get any Sub-paths for Aura Specialist yet, because anything that potentially alters Semblance use has the potential to really fuck shit up if I'm not careful about balance.

Weapons

• Did away with the old base+points system, which was far too complicated. Instead, weapon types are now more generically named (Offensive, Defensive, Balanced, Light) and offer small, flat bonuses and penalties, which allows for more creative freedom in designing the weapon you want without locking it into a size category.

Enemies

• Added a lot of guidelines for types and tiers of enemies. I like the basic idea, but holy shit am I gonna be reworking them a lot in the future because I hate what I have right now.

0.3.2.1>0.3.3

Combat Stats

• Changed stat bases/maximums and the windows for each Dice Pool increment. Core concept remains the same, but the greater pool of resources allows for players to more freely spend points in battle, even in stats they aren't specialized in

Paths

• Increased the stat increases from each path, to keep them more in line with the new stat numbers

Weapons

• Added (rough) rules differentiating between melee, ranged, and dual-mode weapons
• Adjusted customization points to make for a total of 10 points on all weapons, rather than 8 (5 on light)
• Slightly raised 1-handed weapons' base Accuracy and Damage

Semblances

• Changed all Active Effects to require 2 Action Points/3 Aura. This was done to balance out Semblances at a fundamental level, and also to prepare for future changes to Paths allowing Aura Specialists to use them more easily

Enemies

• Changed enemy rules to allow for multiple classifications of enemies. Will rename classes later.

0.3.2>0.3.2.1

This was an extremely minor fix, but I want to document it anyway because it's a perfect example of why having other people read your shit is helpful:

• Fixed an embarrassing typo in the enemy damage calculations that would actually result in you taking more damage the higher your weapon's Defense Rating was. Whoops.

0.3.1>0.3.2

"Weapons"

• Added ranged information to each weapon type, determining how far away they can be used to attack with.

"Semblances"

• Added Super Speed as an example Semblance

"Combat"

• Added rules for distance and ranged combat

"Action Economy"

• Did away with Minor and Major actions, in favor of simply describing how many action points it costs to perform an action

0.2.3>0.3.1

"Stats"

• Changed the wording on Attack and Defense stats to clarify for a change in the Combat rules

"Weapons"

• Added Defense Rating to the list of purchasable weapon properties, rather than tying it to Sword and Shield
• Gave each weapon type fixed base stats and fewer points to spend customizing

"Combat"

• Vastly changed damage calculations, removing the fixed damage dealt/taken based on current Attack/defense stat and instead changing it to include the total Attack/Defense roll and weapon Damage/Defense Rating. This is to allow for a character to spend points more freely and make doing so more rewarding without crippling them in a longer fight.

"Semblances"

Heavily revamped previous placeholder mechanics:

• Semblance use is now given a place in the action economy, along with more concrete (and consistent) Aura costs
• Guidelines have been listed for GMs to consider when balancing
• Removed previous examples as they're entirely obsolete now. Further examples within the new mechanics to come later

0.2.2>0.2.3

"Stats"

• Changed "Non-combat stats" to "Interaction stats"
• Cleaned up some poor wording on stat maximums

"Weapons"

• Added Sword and Shield's Defense Rating to damage reduction calculations
• Changed the wording on Light Weapons to make an attack with them a Minor Action, rather than getting two attacks per Major Action

"Combat"

• Added title to the damage section
• Changed "player armor" to "player defense"
• Added weapon Defense Rating to the enemy damage formula
• Capitalized Minor Action and Major Action
• Added further examples of Minor or Major Actions

0.2.1>0.2.2

• Added Credits List page to credit the biggest inspirations for the systems I'm creating

0.1.1>0.2.1

• Added Action Economy to the Combat section
• Added Initiative rules to the Combat section

Hey, everyone! Xortberg here. If you've found your way here to this sub, then presumably it's either because you went looking for a RWBY tabletop system, or someone directed you here. In either case, have a seat and let me tell you all about this project.

What is RWBY D6?

Well before anything else, here's a link to the current iteration of RWBY D6

RWBY D6 is an attempt at creating a tabletop system that captures the setting and tone of Rooster Teeth's RWBY. My primary goal is for this to be a rules-lite system that even someone new to tabletop gaming can sit down with and start playing in an hour or less. I hope to create a system that can be learned and even memorized fairly easily, and played without having to ever take time out of the game to go digging through a book to see how something works.

However, I also want that game to be dynamic, allow for player creativity to be explored without restraint, and to allow all the crazy, acrobatic, high-octane fights that RWBY is perhaps most famous for. Allowing for all of that while walking the line between "having too many rules and bogging things down" and "not having enough rules and creating an imbalanced mess" makes for a daunting task, but it's what I hope to achieve.

Why make a whole new system instead of using an existing one?

Good question. There are certainly plenty of published systems out there that could easily run a RWBY game in the hands of someone who knows what they're doing. Fate, GURPS, and other setting-agnostic games designed for easy retooling could handle just about anything necessary to run a game in the world of Remnant.

There's even another RWBY tabletop project already underway - and much further along than mine is - over on /r/rwbytabletop that someone could use instead.

However, none of those systems really accomplish what I want in a good RWBY game. GURPS is very rules-heavy, and Fate is considerably simpler but still a bit too complicated, and even the RoC (Rule of Cool) system from /r/rwbytabletop, as cool as it is, just has too many rules for me.

As I said above, I wanted to make a very simple game. I wanted to make a game I could sit down and play with anyone, where familiarity with the rules was almost unnecessary. Also, I've just kind of wanted to make my own game for a little while now, so I'm partially just doing this because I can.

About me

I feel a bit conceited writing about myself when you're probably just here to learn about my game, but I feel like it's important to make it known just what sort of gaming background I'm coming from.

I got started on tabletop RPGs in high school, sometime 6 or 7 years ago. At the time, all I knew was D&D 3.5, and even that I hardly knew since I never got a chance to play it. It wasn't until I had been out of school for a while that I finally managed to get a group of friends online together.

From that point up until now, I've literally only ever played in the D20 system. A bit of D&D 3.5, a bit of Pathfinder, a LOT of a 3.5 classless variant that my group loves, and a bit of D&D 5e. However, I've done lots of collecting in other types of systems.

Between officially published games, self-published systems, and amateur projects, I've probably gathered in the area of 200 different TRPGs and by far, my favorites were the simpler ones.

In Numenera, all an enemy is is a single target number, which the players have to meet or beat. In Magical Burst, I only ever have to roll xd6, and battle maps are just rectangles split into 5 equal parts with optional hazards to make things interesting. In Gumshoe, as long as you have the proper investigative skill you always find the clue you're looking for, if it's on the scene.

All of these things work to keep a game moving forward, which is absolutely vital for a good time. Games where the GM has to thumb through pages of rules or monster statistics; games where a newer (or even sometimes veteran) player spends time looking for varying amounts of unfamiliar dice to roll; games where avenues of progression can be stopped cold just because of poor luck on the roll of a dice.

Every one of these incidents are problems that, in my opinion, suck all of the enjoyment out of a game. So, I spent some time looking at all of the systems I've acquired over the few years I've been actively gaming, and started taking bits of inspiration from them to decide what exactly would make for the best RWBY experience at a tabletop.

This is my first time designing a game, or even modifying one beyond simple house rules, so it's bound to be rough. Perhaps even bad, at first. But with each iteration of the game being released and playtested by myself and (hopefully) RWBY fans, it can get incrementally better and better. Hell, maybe even by the end of it, it'll be a competent product.

About the system itself

RWBY D6 is something of an amalgamation of several different aspects from several different games, all designed to make play fast, simple, and easy to enjoy. That's not to say I'm ripping off systems wholesale, though. I like dice pools, since they reduce the randomness and make things easier to balance and predict, so RWBY D6 has a dice pool system. I like D6 systems, so RWBY D6 (obviously) uses 6-sided dice exclusively. I like games where things always move forward, so RWBY D6 never calls for you to roll a skill check - if you have the requisite stat high enough (which someone in the group probably will), you succeed at the task.

Currently (Feb 21, 2016), I only have 8 pages written and no playtesting or balancing beyond rough number estimates done. I don't have rules for Dust, I only have barebones rules for Semblances, and have basic rules for weapons, stats, "classes", and monster stats and combat. I don't have any rules for advancement. I don't have any of it organized in anything but the most basic fashion. But, as barebones and unbalanced as it is, it is a playable game, which is infinitely more than I had when I started. With time, playtesting and feedback, and lots of effort on my part, it'll continue to be updated.

I hope I can deliver, and I hope I one day acquire enough of an audience to deliver to.

If you have any questions, ask them here! I would have called this post the FAQ, but I'd need people to ask questions before I can compile a list of frequently asked ones. So ask away, and I'll answer any one that I have an answer for.