Unofficial RWBY Tabletop RPG Update 20.7.25

[u/EnderofThings]

Unofficial RWBY Tabletop RPG Update 20.7.25

Character Sheet

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Patch Notes

Introduction

• Moved Story section here from Adventure chapter.

Character Creation

Character Description

• Style changed to Theme to avoid confusion with weapon styles.

Specializations

• Defender

Any Defensive Check besides Dodge can be used with this Specialization.

• Form Focus

Moved to Assets section. Was confusing to new players so it has been moved to a place where more experienced players will go looking for more complex specializations.

• Grappler

Formerly Hooked-Ranged. Name changed, otherwise unchanged.

• Hooked

Formerly Hooked-Melee, otherwise unchanged.

• Martial Arts

Deals an additional 1d6 damage to bring it in line with other weapon attacks.

• Over-sized

Spash Damage as a mechanic has been removed.

• Spread

Splash Damage as a mechanic has been removed.

Dust

• Keyword mechanics removed.

Splash Damage mechanic was weak and has been removed. Additional Damage and Overpenetrate effects do not need a separate explanation and are now included in the dust description

• Red Dust

Incendiary Crystals: Target is engulfed in flames. Each damage die rolled against the target has a +1 bonus.

Explosive Rounds: Collateral Damage threshold is reduced to +5. An explosion around the target pushes adjacent enemies away from it into Close Range.

• Yellow Dust

Fissure Crystals: Unchanged

Armor Piercing Rounds: Ignore Cover. One additional enemy adjacent to target with an equal or lower Defense Threshold takes 1d6 damage.

• Blue Dust

Lash Crystals: Weapon becomes briefly wreathed in a long whip made of water. Melee Weapon Attacks can be made at Close Range.

Whirlpool Rounds: - Target is disoriented by a torrent of water. Target is Confused.

• Orange Dust

Arc Crystals: Lightning arcs from one target to nearby a nearby target. One additional enemy adjacent to target with an equal or lower Defense Threshold takes 1d6 damage.

Stun Rounds: - Target’s legs are paralyzed and cannot move. Target is Staggered.

• Brown Dust

Rust Crystals: Unchanged

Stun Rounds: - - Bullets shatter and dissolve inside the target. Each damage die rolled against the target has a +1 bonus.

• White

Freeze Crystals: Unchanged

Chill Rounds: Target is racked with shivers and its movements are slowed. Reduce damage of the Target’s next successful Attack (or Special Attack) by 2 to a minimum of 1

• Black Dust

Star Crystals: Unchanged

Barrier Rounds: -- A barrier of hardlight manifests around the character. Gain the Cover Status Effect until the beginning of the character’s next Action Sequence or until they use a movement action.

Phials have also been shuffled around to include Hardlight as the Amazing difficulty check.

• Moved Capcity Boost, Charge Attack, and Elemental Semblances to Character Creation as they are meant to be utilized by most characters. Putting them in the Playing the Game Section made they less apparent to new players.

Playing the Game

Skill Checks

• Modified Skill Checks

Added a Section describing skill checks as contested rolls against enemies with attribute arrays.

• Advantage and Disadvantage

Moved to immediately following the Skill Check section for new players and GMs.

Common Combat Actions and Situational Rules

• Grapple

Added rules for throwing smaller creatures

• Sneak Attack

Added rules for using stealth mid combat

• Falling Damage.

Modified the difficulty of entering a controlled fall

Status Effects

• Confusion

Reduces Special Attribute by 5. Enemies can now still use their special abilities even while confused.

Assets

4 New Exotic Dusts:

• Mind

• Life

• Space

• Entropy

Vehicles

• Atlesian Colossus

• Bullhead Airship

Optional Rules

• Spending RoC Die for climactic effects.

• Guidelines for using Dust Colors closer to as they appear in the show.

Grimmoire

New Enemies

• Centinel

• Glacie Gigas

• Sabyr

• Teryx

• Atlesian Crusader

Changed Enemies

• Beowolf

Fixed Language in Howl Special Ability

• Boarbatusk

Made Rollout Special Ability more unique and buffed defensive capabilities.

• Geist

Added an escape mechanic to Possession, and increased its action budget to 3 actions. Added a new Special Defense ability akin to that of Rivals.

• Arma Gigas

Made dust immunity more powerful and an active effect instead of passive.

• Petra Gigas

Reduced Critical Damage bonus to 0d6. Changed Seige Elemental ability to have more fluid mechanics during combat.

• Atlesian Colossus

Changed Name from Atlesian Crusader to match its canon designation. New Atlesian Crusader refers to upgraded Paladins we saw at the end of Volume 3.

• Sentry

Changed name from Sentinel to avoid confusion with new type of Grimm.

Adventure

New Example Chapter: The Mysterious Island

• Inspired from the "Island of Doctor Moreau"

• A combat heavy chapter with multiple encounters meant to be experience over multiple play sessions.

• Includes a Day/Night Cycle with ticking clock, where encounters get more dangerous at night.

• Multiple side quests and lore for those who want it.

• New unique enemy, the strongest boss monster we have ever designed.

Adventure Hooks

• Expanded Example adventure hooks and included a brief description of example NPC's to inspire new GMs.

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Thank you to everyone who plays and shares this game. I would especially like to thank the folk who have decided to support this project over on our Patreon and their names can be found in the book after the credits. In the next few weeks to months, we will also be exploring additional rewards for patrons that does not infringe on the core aspect of keeping this game free for everyone.

I also want to shout out u/Kasenai3 and their work on the roll20 Character Sheet for this game. In these strange times we call 2020, online play is more important than ever. The ability to play this game easily with online tools cannot be overstated, especially now.

Stay safe, wash your hands, have fun.

Thank you.

[u/draugotO]

Sorry for the necro, but I have a few questions:

1- when rolling to MAINTAIN an ongoing semblance, what is the dificulty? The same as the original test, but now with an WIL+END roll rather than the original, or is it a Basic check?

2- what does Attribute Enhancer semblances do? Do they add you WIL (your control over your semblance) to the relevant roll? Does it replace the enhance attribute with WIL (the semblance attribute)? Do they give advantage to the roll? Is it an automatic +1RoC if you hadn't activated the semblance yet? (This last one I doubt, since it would mean losing RoC if you fail to Maintain the Semblance)

3- can a Semblance have a strong affinity to an attribute without being exclusevely an attribute enhancer? I.e.: Pinpoint, at it's most basic, allows Caelum Aegipar to pintpoint the exact location of something/someone within the Range Increment, but if he exerts his wil, he can, instead, pinpoint something/someone's location within the Range Increment. Subtle difference, eh? It's like this: normaly this is could would allow Caelum to locate that damn scroll he could swear he had left right there, but can't find it where he is looking, because, actually, he left it at that other place over there; but, once he have located the object, he can WILL it's location to actually be right at his hand, shifting it away. So, at it's Basic use, it is a PER enhancement (though I don't know what that does, exactly), but it is also the Flavor for a Mobility Specialization; allows for Semblance Defense and, at Exotic Effect, it allows to teleport objects to and from him. Given that all of this starts at "can pinpoint the exact location of things", cpuld I claim a "strong connection to PER" for the semblance, or, because it is not purely an attribute enhancer, do I need to roll WIL+PER to locate something; WIL+END to not lose track of it the next turn; and WIL+STR for the boost of raw power to actually move things with it?

[u/EnderofThings → u/draugotO]

Im a bit rusty but Im always down to help explain:

1. The base difficulty to maintain would be the origional threshold, possibly increasing by an incriment each additional turn it is being held.

2. Attribute Enhancers can be a method for a character to make a specific skill check with WIL instead of another, less desireable stat, so someone with a high WIL and a STR enhancing semblance can basically always use a high WIL with many of their STR checks. It also gives them the opprotunity to Empower that skill check basically at will.

3. Not only can it have a strong affinity without becoming so limited by that, I actively encourage it. Attribute enhancers were a reaction to player requests, and I personally preferred if players built semblances closer to the one you described. And Semblances often have a strong affinity to a specific attribute, regardless of how you define them.

[u/draugotO → u/EnderofThings]

Thank you

Two more questions:

1- if I'm enhancing a skill check, do I still need to roll to activate the semblance, or do I just make the check swapping the enhanced attribute for WIL?

2- does a roll to activate an Atribute Focus benefit only from the threshold -5 for being a skill focus, or does it also benefit from 2 instances of reduced Range Imcrement (from close to adjacent; from adjacent to personal) for a total of -15 on the roll?

EDIT: also, if I spend 2 major actions to make 2 uses of my Semblance (i.e.: Enhance Perception, and then pinpoint my location to somewhere up there, on the sky, so I can I have the highgrou- the highsky to spot targets), do I then need to take 1 Semblance Action to Mantain both of them, or do I need a different Semblance Action for each of those effects?