GURPS: Remnant: Fan-made rules for adventuring in the world of RWBY - Page 2

Kuroshima · 08-16-2015, 01:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GreatWyrmGold

Perhaps, but it's a system I understand. Besides, the cinematic optional rules are in there for a reason.

Oh, sorry, I forgot to mention that FAE is 48 comic book sized (not letter sized) pages long, with big illustrations, and available for download for "pay what you want (including nothing)" (download page here) so it's certainly worth what you pay for it to check it out, and I assure you that it's worth your time (Fate Core should be required reading for everyone, just for it's game building advice and GM advice that works with all systems. It is also available for download).

Again the problem is that you can painstakingly try to replicate all the crazy stunts, and gauge HPs and STs, but in the the end, the creators of the show did a lot of things "because they looked cool on the screen". For example, Yang's strength varies a lot from scene to scene, and the knock-back she inflicts on Junior during the trailer should have turned him to pink mist, unless he was a highly trained Aura user (and he might, he's certainly above mook level, and could possibly be a failed hunter student). They also display thematically linked abilities from episode to episode but seldom repeat the exact same thing.

GreatWyrmGold · 08-29-2015, 09:36 PM

Skills and Folding-Frame Weapons

Skills and Custom Weapons

Huntsmen using folding-frame weapons use the normal skill for using such weapons. A rifle that turns into a pike uses the Rifle skill to shoot and the Polearm skill to stab. If it is possible to shoot this weapon in a non-firearm form, it uses typically the same skill as when in its firearm form. Melee attacks in a firearm form use the same skill as a normal improvised firearm, unless the firearm form has built-in blades or the like.
A character is automatically familiar with his or her custom weapons. Anyone else using them takes unfamiliarity penalties, unless they are familiar with a similarly-modified weapon (GM’s discretion). If the weapon would qualify for unfamiliarity penalties without this rule, the character takes a -4 penalty rather than just -2! The character also takes the -2 penalty to default use of folding-frame weapons (unless he or she is familiar with very similarly-modified weapons of a different sort; the GM should use extreme discretion here). Use of abilities possessed by a similar weapon which are not possessed by any weapons a character is familiar with will always give penalties.
Example: Nora has hidden Crocea Mors, Jaune’s broadsword. He has an early sparring match with Cardin, and hence needs to borrow Gambol Shroud. He has never used a katana before in his life, let alone one that turns into a pistol, so he is at -4 to skill; since his Broadsword skill is only 11, he has to roll below seven to succeed. He could also borrow Weiss’s rapier for the same penalty; while defaulting from Broadsword to Rapier gives a -4 penalty, both are essentially standard weapons of their class. Jaune would get an additional -2 for unfamiliarity if he attempted to use any Dust-enhanced attacks with the rapier, which would reduce his effective skill to 5 and his chance of success to less than 5%.

Wildcard Skills for Custom Weapons

If the GM allows it, characters may take wildcard skills (B175) relating to their weapon. The skill applies to all uses of that weapon, including any attacks, parries (or blocks, for a shield) Acrobatics rolls for feats the weapon plays an integral part in (such as using the weapon’s recoil to propel oneself), applications of the weapon’s noncombat features, or Armory, Engineer, and other skills used to repair, upgrade, or replace the weapon. However, it can only be used for a specific weapon (or two identical weapons, or—if the GM allows it—two different weapons used together).
The GM may rule that a weapon is similar enough to the weapon one has a Wildcard Skill for that it may be used at no penalty, but should do so sparingly. A weapon in the same general form (or, more likely, forms) gives -1, a simple weapon of a skill used to wield the weapon would be at -2, and either an unfamiliar simple weapon or a folding-frame version of a familiar weapon would be at -3. An unfamiliar folding-frame weapon using the same skill would be at -5!
Ruby Rose has the Crescent Rose! skill, which she can use to shoot a Nevermore, cut a Beowolf in half, or propel herself with Crescent Rose’s recoil. If she found a similar scythe-rifle, she would roll against Crescent Rose!-1. A normal scythe or a sniper rifle would give her a roll at -2. Using a normal glaive—a weapon which, like a scythe, uses the Polearm skill—would give her -3; so would trying to shoot a folding-frame sniper rifle/pike. Using Neptune’s weapon—whether in trident, glaive, or rifle form—would give -5!
Techniques can be based off of the wildcard skill, if they require specialization by skill; they must specify one form of the weapon, or multiple forms which would use the same skill. The character can use them with any weapon using the same skill as said form; this is at default level or the penalties listed above, whichever is better.
Example: If Nora knows the Retain Weapon technique at Magnhild!+4, she can use it with any similar hammer (that is not also a gun) at Magnhild!+2. Attempting to use it with Neptune’s weapon in glaive form—assuming Magnhild uses the Polearm skill—would normally take a -5 penalty; however, the default level of Magnhild!+0 is more beneficial, so Nora rolls against Magnhild! With no penalty. This makes it slightly harder for Neptune to get his weapon back.

Cinematic Skills and Remnant

Cinematic skills can be divided into two categories: Those which rely on qi, and those which do not. The latter are usually appropriate for games set in Remnant; optionally, the GM can remove any Trained by a Master requirement. The former may be.
Some skills drawing on qi are also always appropriate. Power Blow, for instance, may be a feat of strength rather than control of inner energy. Others, like kiai, are harder to separate from their Eastern origins. However, the GM may allow players to take these skills, powered by Aura instead of qi! If he does so, any Trained by a Master requirements should probably be kept. In addition, Fatigue Point costs should be replaced by Aura costs; a conversion rate should be chosen, probably not more than 10 points of Aura per Fatigue Point of cost.

Custom Techniques

Arguably, you can’t have an authentic RWBY experience without every Huntsman using special techniques to take advantage of and express his or her weapon, Semblance, and personality. The rules for designing techniques from GURPS Martial Arts will be extremely helpful here, but are not required.

Maneuver or Technique?

Sometimes, simply finding a proper maneuver in the rulebook is all one needs to do. Why create a special Lunging Slam technique when All-Out Attack (Long) will do fine? Who needs to bother with a Slow Strike technique when you can use a Telegraphic Attack, or an Evaluate maneuver followed by an Attack? Access to GURPS Basic Set 2, GURPS Martial Arts, and other books with many maneuvers in it will naturally make this a more plausible path.
You may wish to focus more on the rules of the maneuver than the first thing you think of when imagining one. After all, there are many possibilities for each maneuver, especially in a cinematic game. This point is covered repeatedly in GURPS Martial Arts. For instance, a Deceptive Attack could involve changing the angle of the attack at the last minute, attacking from an unusual angle, or striking quickly…or jumping away from a shadowy duplicate too quickly for you or your opponent to fully adjust to, partially transforming your weapon to slip past the opponent’s guard, or releasing a flurry of ice Dust a moment before you strike.

Adjusting Existing Techniques

The rules for one technique could be adapted to a completely different technique. Some adjustments may need to be made, of course.
The simplest is keeping the technique but changing the name, and perhaps allowing it for a weapon which would not otherwise be permissible. This should hardly need explanation—it follows logic described in the previous section. You may also apply modifiers to the default found in the Creating New Techniques section of GURPS Martial Arts (pg 89). In addition, the following modifiers may apply, if the GM allows it.
A technique which is made easier by some special characteristic of the weapon used, or by a character’s Semblance, may have the default level improved by +1. The technique is unusable if the character is forced to make do with a different weapon or unable to use her Semblance. This modifier does not apply if the technique is only possible because of such factors! (It is intended to encourage players to find creative ways to use their weapons; abuse of it should be punished as typical munchkinry.)
If a technique involves the use of the character’s Aura, an Aura cost may be included. This gives a bonus to default equal to +1 per five points of Aura spent. The GM should apply limits to this, and may adjust the ratio (especially if characters have significantly more or less Aura than typical Huntsman students).
Finally, the GM may apply a -1 or greater penalty to default for techniques which would be especially difficult with the character’s weapons—or potentially overpowered!
All such changes should be recorded. A name change may also be in order.

New Techniques

If your group has access to GURPS Martial Arts, your players may—and should!—design custom techniques for their characters. They may use the above modifiers as well as the ones in the book.

Styles and Remnant

GURPS Martial Arts introduces the concept of a combat style—a group of skills, techniques, and tactics associated with a particular school of thought and training. These apply well to many games, but Huntsmen and their human adversaries are too varied for styles to be plausible. No two major characters even use the same weapon!
That said, certain NPCs could plausibly possess fighting styles. In particular, the Atlesian military practices a rigid discipline, with all soldiers being given roughly the same training.
Style Familiarity perks are permissible, but they must apply to one of the following:
1. The fighting style of one person, and anyone who taught or was taught by that person and uses the same weapon and techniques. For instance, Ruby’s use of the scythe-rifle was learned from her Uncle Qrow; a Style Perk applying to one of them would apply to the other.
2. The techniques used by one species of Grimm.
3. The fighting style taught by one disciplined, well-organized, combat-focused group. This would generally not apply to officers, special forces, and the like, who would have their own personal fighting styles.
Needless to say, Style Familiarity is not a common Perk on Remnant.

GreatWyrmGold · 09-01-2015, 08:43 AM

Training and Schooling

RWBY is a series about students learning to become the next Huntsmen; naturally, rules about training will be important.

The default rules are that 200 hours of study equals one character point. A typical week at Beacon probably involves five eight-hour school days (based on nothing but its similarities to American high schools and the fact that this leads to nice round numbers); this means one character point every five weeks. This character point may be spent in any combat skill or any other skill taught at Beacon, including most academic subjects.
Remedial classes instead count as intensive training (B293), for ten hours per day; this provides one character point every other week! This is only used when absolutely necessary to help a student catch up to his peers.
Combat and missions typically count as on-the-job learning. Each four hours on missions counts as one hour of training, as per the default rules. (Students in remedial classes do not get twice as much out of missions, and instead need eight hours on missions to equal one hour of their accelerated training schedules.) Missions with teachers may be used primarily as teaching opportunities; if the GM decides this applies, instead count every two hours as an hour of training. The GM may rule that particularly difficult combats may count as one or more hours of training in addition to the above.
Occasionally, students may be taught outside of class (e.g, Uncle Qrow tutoring Ruby, or Pyrrha tutoring Jaune). These may qualify as Training Sequences (see GURPS Martial Arts, page 147), at the GM's discretion.

Points gained by any of these methods should be added to a character's point total; that is, they stack with bonus points earned other ways, such as those awarded for completing missions. Beacon training makes everyone stronger and more skilled, even if they don't go on adventures after school.

Aura

Some characters have an order of magnitude more Aura than others. Why is this? The obvious answer is "they're mooks," but this author has never been content to leave it at that.
The answer that seems to best explain why Aura varies so much is simple. Aura grows with training. Huntsmen and the elites of criminal or military organizations have the time and resources to pour into such training, but common thugs and basic infantry simply don't.

If the GM agrees with this interpretation, he may track Aura training, separately from the above. Typical Beacon schooling gives one character point to spend on Aura or Aura-related abilities[sup]1[/sup] per two points you earn in other ways. Intensive training gives two per three; the same is true of most missions. Training sequences may give Aura at this rate as well.
The GM may rule that specialized Aura-training exercises are present. If this is so, these would be incorporated into the standard Beacon curriculum; increase the rate to the two-per-three ratio. Characters may also be able to use the Training Sequence rules without a teacher or exceptional attributes, if they have access to these exercises and do not engage in activity such as classes or jobs during this time. (It is possible to perform a training sequence at -7 to fit it into a typical weekend.)

You may wish to track Aura gain by hour, rather than by point. If so, add one hour to Aura training per two hours of Beacon courses or 1.5 hours of anything which earns Aura points at a 2:3 ratio.

Any of the above options that the GM allows should allow the characters to gain points, rather than merely spending earned points.

Training and Bonus Points

At various points, the GM may decide to award the players with bonus points for good roleplaying, completing challenges, et cetera. By default, these should not require the above rules to spend.
If the GM wishes to slow advancement with the progression of school, he should allow these bonus points to be spent on a 1:1 ratio with those earned in other ways. For instance, a student with 5 bonus points who earned three from lessons and one from a mission could spend four of them (and spend the fifth on Aura, if using the Aura-training rules).

Footnote

Wait, only one? Geez, this must be a short one.

1: The ability to spend these Aura points on Aura-related abilities relates to the paradox that the characters whose fighting styles rely most on Aura are the most-easily incapacitated. They could spend more points on Aura capacity, or on more Aura powers. Other characters simply put it in Aura. The GM may rule that this is silly, and force his players to put these points in raw Aura.

GreatWyrmGold · 09-24-2015, 09:36 PM

I think another post of miscellaneous rules appropriate to making a Huntsman would be appropriate. I'll add more if I think of them.

Useful Supplements

(Many of the following books are technically titled GURPS: X, but the title has been shortened to X for simplicity.)

Powers is almost always a good book to have. While powers themselves play little role in Remnant, the various additional advantage options and rules for using superhuman abilities are useful.
Martial Arts is, surprisingly, useful. It offers a number of expanded combat mechanics, but perhaps the most useful tool it offers is custom techniques. These allow the more unique combat styles of various characters to be reflected more accurately by the rules. Some custom maneuvers cost Dust or Aura; default bonuses of +1 per point of Dust or ten points of Aura expended are recommended. That said, the fighting style rules are generally inapplicable; each Remnan fights in a different way, with a few exceptions.
Gun Fu provides cinematic rules for gunfights. While it overlaps to an extent with Martial Arts, the overlap is (unsurprisingly) minor; it would be useful to have both.
The three Action supplements offer surprisingly little to a RWBY game. Action 1—Heroes is tailored almost exclusively for mimicking the protagonists of many action films. Action 2—Exploits includes some useful rules (notable the Basic Abstract Difficulty system), but is—again—specialized for action-movie-type plots. Action 3—Furious Fists provides some combat rules, but most of it is specialized for martial-arts movies, without the flexibility of Martial Arts.
While Pyramid 3/44's "The Last Gasp" rules do not fit RWBY-style combat, "Abstract Wealth" suits the non-loot-focused nature of most campaigns set in Remnant, and "From Skills to Advantages" slightly increases the range of Semblances, weapon abilities, and such which can be built.

Advantages

Modifiers

Accessibility: For the following modifiers, a campaign's opponents are assumed to be about 35% Grimm, 50% humans with awakened Auras, 10% robots, and no more than 5% animals or humans without awakened Auras. A campaign where the characters never fight humans should not allow a significant limitation for offensive abilities which only affect Grimm, while one focusing on White Fang grunts wouldn't allow a major price drop for abilities which can't affect them.

Abilities which only affect Grimm are not uncommon, and have a -25% Accessibility limitation. Conversely, abilities which only affect living creatures (things with Aura) have a -20% limitation. Ones which specifically do not affect Grimm have -15%.
Abilities which do not affect anything without an Aura (including both machines and Grimm) have a -20% limitation. (The GM may allow one which only affects things with awakened Auras at -25%, but creatures with unawakened Auras are rarely fought and even rarer challenging.) Abilities which affect only beings with unawakened Auras—mainly civilians and animals—would have a -40% limitation, but are unheard of.
Most Remnan robots do not run on electricity and do not have the Electrical disadvantage. However, abilities which only affect robots and other Dust-based machines and devices still have a -20% limitation. They will rarely if ever work on advanced machines from other realities—their operating principles are sufficiently different as to make attacks which work on both, but not other material objects or beings, a logical impossibility.

As always, these limitations are halved if the ability is weakened against those not meeting the requirement, rather than impotent.

Costs Aura, Minimum Aura: See here. Aura paid for such an ability causes shock and knockdown.

Costs Dust: Requires expenditure of a Dust Energy Reserve. -5% per point of Dust—doubled if each expenditure keeps the ability active for only one second!

Abilities/Meta-Traits

The following abilities are (unless otherwise noted) Aura based; any of the Aura-based limitations may be added (they have not been included in the prices).

Enhanced Physique: One of the simplest "advanced" Aura abilities. Provides most of the benefits of increased Strength and Health, including melee damage, but does not improve Hit Points, Fatigue Points, or Basic Move. Per level: ST, HT +1; HP, FP -1, Basic Speed -0.25. 10 points/level. (This has probably appeared somewhere, with a better name, but I haven't seen it.)

Grimm Sense: Aura, even unawakened, gives its users a greater awareness of their surroundings. Once awakened, one's Aura-based senses can be honed to detect Aura; this is generally useless, as every living thing possesses Aura, obscuring the details for all but the most skilled users. However, Grimm—the antithesis of life—stand out to the trained eye. Detect (Grimm), 10 points.

Longevity: There are, and likely have always been, rumors of those who harness their Aura to extend their lifespans. The following are designed for use in Remnant-based campaign, with Unusual Background costs to match. Lesser Longevity: Extended Lifespan 1, Longevity, Perk (Does not visibly age), Unusual Background (Longevity); 10 points. Greater Longevity: Unaging, Unusual Background (Longevity); 40 points. This is usually a trait restricted to NPCs, if it is allowed at all.

New Techniques

The following are fairly generic techniques which could be learned by most any warrior in Remnant.

Aura Strike (Hard): Defaults: Prerequisite skill-5. Prerequisites: Aura; Any unarmed combat skill (cannot exceed prerequisite skill); Trained by a Master. This technique lets you deliver more powerful strikes to creatures of Grimm by imparting your blows with Aura, an energy anathema to the every essence of Grimm; it requires the expenditure of 20 Aura, and obviously does not work on humans. You perform a normal unarmed attack as part of using this skill; if you hit, regardless of if any damage penetrates the Grimm's Damage Resistance, you deal additional damage—one die per die of damage you would have dealt.

Destructive Aura Strike (Hard): Defaults: Aura Strike-5. Prerequisites: Aura Strike (cannot exceed prerequisite skill). This technique works like Aura Strike, except as noted. It costs 50 Aura rather than 20, and deals two additional dice of Aura-based, Damage-Resistance-penetrating damage per die of normal damage. The Grimm must make a Health roll to avoid being reduced to zero Hit Points. If the Grimm is reduced to zero or fewer Hit Points by this strike, whether by failing a Health roll or by simple damage, the body part struck explodes, killing it instantly.

Explosive Aura Strike (Hard): Default: Destructive Aura Strike-5. Prerequisites: Destructive Aura Strike (cannot exceed prerequisite skill). This technique works like Destructive Aura Strike, except as noted. It costs 70 Aura. If the Grimm is reduced to zero or fewer Hit Points, its entire body explodes, with fragments of the Grimm's armor spreading through the immediate area, harming nearby Grimm but not creatures with Aura. The explosion itself deals damage equal to the extra damage dealt by the technique, divided by thrice the distance (in yards) from the exploding Grimm. It also deals [2d] fragmentation damage to all Grimm and inanimate objects within range. See the rules for fragmentation and explosions on B414.

Impaled Shot (Hard): Defaults: Prerequisite skills -3. Prerequisites: Any melee weapon skill, any firearm skill, familiarity with a weapon which incorporates both classes of weapon, Trained by a Master or Weapon Master. This technique involves embedding a weapon into an enemy and then firing the firearm component at point-blank range. The weapon attack is made as normal; however, the firearm attack takes no penalty to hit due to location. Success with the firearm attack is not automatic, as the enemy can move itself or the weapon away from itself.

Recoil-Enhanced Strike (Hard): Defaults: Prerequisite skill-6. Prerequisites: Any melee weapon skill (cannot exceed prerequisite skill); familiarity with a weapon in said class which incorporates a firearm or similar weapon; Trained by a Master or Weapon Master. A recoil-enhanced strike is an attack which uses the firearm component of a weapon to strike harder with the melee weapon component. It requires sufficient precision and care that it can only be taken as an All-Out Attack. A recoil-enhanced strike deals +2 damage per die, and the enemy is at a -1 to block or parry it.

Vivamort · 03-23-2017, 01:47 PM

Thanks for this post, I have found it helpful in wrapping my mind around ways to replicate the various powers we see in the show (Aura and Dust in particular). I am wondering how anything may have been revised or added since we now have four volumes of content that has further fleshed out the world and powers.

Or if anyone has run across a resource that works so well for a RWBY based campaign that it is the obvious choice unless one is a masochist.

My sons and I are RWBY fans and tabletop RPGs fans, and I would like to combine the two at some point. But would find it easier to deal with disagreements on mechanics if I could point to some system that someone else made as the source.

08-29-2015, 09:36 PM	#2
GreatWyrmGold Join Date: Oct 2011	Re: GURPS: Remnant: Fan-made rules for adventuring in the world of RWBY Skills and Folding-Frame Weapons Skills and Custom Weapons Huntsmen using folding-frame weapons use the normal skill for using such weapons. A rifle that turns into a pike uses the Rifle skill to shoot and the Polearm skill to stab. If it is possible to shoot this weapon in a non-firearm form, it uses typically the same skill as when in its firearm form. Melee attacks in a firearm form use the same skill as a normal improvised firearm, unless the firearm form has built-in blades or the like. A character is automatically familiar with his or her custom weapons. Anyone else using them takes unfamiliarity penalties, unless they are familiar with a similarly-modified weapon (GM’s discretion). If the weapon would qualify for unfamiliarity penalties without this rule, the character takes a -4 penalty rather than just -2! The character also takes the -2 penalty to default use of folding-frame weapons (unless he or she is familiar with very similarly-modified weapons of a different sort; the GM should use extreme discretion here). Use of abilities possessed by a similar weapon which are not possessed by any weapons a character is familiar with will always give penalties. Example: Nora has hidden Crocea Mors, Jaune’s broadsword. He has an early sparring match with Cardin, and hence needs to borrow Gambol Shroud. He has never used a katana before in his life, let alone one that turns into a pistol, so he is at -4 to skill; since his Broadsword skill is only 11, he has to roll below seven to succeed. He could also borrow Weiss’s rapier for the same penalty; while defaulting from Broadsword to Rapier gives a -4 penalty, both are essentially standard weapons of their class. Jaune would get an additional -2 for unfamiliarity if he attempted to use any Dust-enhanced attacks with the rapier, which would reduce his effective skill to 5 and his chance of success to less than 5%. Wildcard Skills for Custom Weapons If the GM allows it, characters may take wildcard skills (B175) relating to their weapon. The skill applies to all uses of that weapon, including any attacks, parries (or blocks, for a shield) Acrobatics rolls for feats the weapon plays an integral part in (such as using the weapon’s recoil to propel oneself), applications of the weapon’s noncombat features, or Armory, Engineer, and other skills used to repair, upgrade, or replace the weapon. However, it can only be used for a specific weapon (or two identical weapons, or—if the GM allows it—two different weapons used together). The GM may rule that a weapon is similar enough to the weapon one has a Wildcard Skill for that it may be used at no penalty, but should do so sparingly. A weapon in the same general form (or, more likely, forms) gives -1, a simple weapon of a skill used to wield the weapon would be at -2, and either an unfamiliar simple weapon or a folding-frame version of a familiar weapon would be at -3. An unfamiliar folding-frame weapon using the same skill would be at -5! Ruby Rose has the Crescent Rose! skill, which she can use to shoot a Nevermore, cut a Beowolf in half, or propel herself with Crescent Rose’s recoil. If she found a similar scythe-rifle, she would roll against Crescent Rose!-1. A normal scythe or a sniper rifle would give her a roll at -2. Using a normal glaive—a weapon which, like a scythe, uses the Polearm skill—would give her -3; so would trying to shoot a folding-frame sniper rifle/pike. Using Neptune’s weapon—whether in trident, glaive, or rifle form—would give -5! Techniques can be based off of the wildcard skill, if they require specialization by skill; they must specify one form of the weapon, or multiple forms which would use the same skill. The character can use them with any weapon using the same skill as said form; this is at default level or the penalties listed above, whichever is better. Example: If Nora knows the Retain Weapon technique at Magnhild!+4, she can use it with any similar hammer (that is not also a gun) at Magnhild!+2. Attempting to use it with Neptune’s weapon in glaive form—assuming Magnhild uses the Polearm skill—would normally take a -5 penalty; however, the default level of Magnhild!+0 is more beneficial, so Nora rolls against Magnhild! With no penalty. This makes it slightly harder for Neptune to get his weapon back. Cinematic Skills and Remnant Cinematic skills can be divided into two categories: Those which rely on qi, and those which do not. The latter are usually appropriate for games set in Remnant; optionally, the GM can remove any Trained by a Master requirement. The former may be. Some skills drawing on qi are also always appropriate. Power Blow, for instance, may be a feat of strength rather than control of inner energy. Others, like kiai, are harder to separate from their Eastern origins. However, the GM may allow players to take these skills, powered by Aura instead of qi! If he does so, any Trained by a Master requirements should probably be kept. In addition, Fatigue Point costs should be replaced by Aura costs; a conversion rate should be chosen, probably not more than 10 points of Aura per Fatigue Point of cost. Custom Techniques Arguably, you can’t have an authentic RWBY experience without every Huntsman using special techniques to take advantage of and express his or her weapon, Semblance, and personality. The rules for designing techniques from GURPS Martial Arts will be extremely helpful here, but are not required. Maneuver or Technique? Sometimes, simply finding a proper maneuver in the rulebook is all one needs to do. Why create a special Lunging Slam technique when All-Out Attack (Long) will do fine? Who needs to bother with a Slow Strike technique when you can use a Telegraphic Attack, or an Evaluate maneuver followed by an Attack? Access to GURPS Basic Set 2, GURPS Martial Arts, and other books with many maneuvers in it will naturally make this a more plausible path. You may wish to focus more on the rules of the maneuver than the first thing you think of when imagining one. After all, there are many possibilities for each maneuver, especially in a cinematic game. This point is covered repeatedly in GURPS Martial Arts. For instance, a Deceptive Attack could involve changing the angle of the attack at the last minute, attacking from an unusual angle, or striking quickly…or jumping away from a shadowy duplicate too quickly for you or your opponent to fully adjust to, partially transforming your weapon to slip past the opponent’s guard, or releasing a flurry of ice Dust a moment before you strike. Adjusting Existing Techniques The rules for one technique could be adapted to a completely different technique. Some adjustments may need to be made, of course. The simplest is keeping the technique but changing the name, and perhaps allowing it for a weapon which would not otherwise be permissible. This should hardly need explanation—it follows logic described in the previous section. You may also apply modifiers to the default found in the Creating New Techniques section of GURPS Martial Arts (pg 89). In addition, the following modifiers may apply, if the GM allows it. A technique which is made easier by some special characteristic of the weapon used, or by a character’s Semblance, may have the default level improved by +1. The technique is unusable if the character is forced to make do with a different weapon or unable to use her Semblance. This modifier does not apply if the technique is only possible because of such factors! (It is intended to encourage players to find creative ways to use their weapons; abuse of it should be punished as typical munchkinry.) If a technique involves the use of the character’s Aura, an Aura cost may be included. This gives a bonus to default equal to +1 per five points of Aura spent. The GM should apply limits to this, and may adjust the ratio (especially if characters have significantly more or less Aura than typical Huntsman students). Finally, the GM may apply a -1 or greater penalty to default for techniques which would be especially difficult with the character’s weapons—or potentially overpowered! All such changes should be recorded. A name change may also be in order. New Techniques If your group has access to GURPS Martial Arts, your players may—and should!—design custom techniques for their characters. They may use the above modifiers as well as the ones in the book. Styles and Remnant GURPS Martial Arts introduces the concept of a combat style—a group of skills, techniques, and tactics associated with a particular school of thought and training. These apply well to many games, but Huntsmen and their human adversaries are too varied for styles to be plausible. No two major characters even use the same weapon! That said, certain NPCs could plausibly possess fighting styles. In particular, the Atlesian military practices a rigid discipline, with all soldiers being given roughly the same training. Style Familiarity perks are permissible, but they must apply to one of the following: 1. The fighting style of one person, and anyone who taught or was taught by that person and uses the same weapon and techniques. For instance, Ruby’s use of the scythe-rifle was learned from her Uncle Qrow; a Style Perk applying to one of them would apply to the other. 2. The techniques used by one species of Grimm. 3. The fighting style taught by one disciplined, well-organized, combat-focused group. This would generally not apply to officers, special forces, and the like, who would have their own personal fighting styles. Needless to say, Style Familiarity is not a common Perk on Remnant.

09-01-2015, 08:43 AM	#3
GreatWyrmGold Join Date: Oct 2011	Re: GURPS: Remnant: Fan-made rules for adventuring in the world of RWBY Training and Schooling RWBY is a series about students learning to become the next Huntsmen; naturally, rules about training will be important. The default rules are that 200 hours of study equals one character point. A typical week at Beacon probably involves five eight-hour school days (based on nothing but its similarities to American high schools and the fact that this leads to nice round numbers); this means one character point every five weeks. This character point may be spent in any combat skill or any other skill taught at Beacon, including most academic subjects. Remedial classes instead count as intensive training (B293), for ten hours per day; this provides one character point every other week! This is only used when absolutely necessary to help a student catch up to his peers. Combat and missions typically count as on-the-job learning. Each four hours on missions counts as one hour of training, as per the default rules. (Students in remedial classes do not get twice as much out of missions, and instead need eight hours on missions to equal one hour of their accelerated training schedules.) Missions with teachers may be used primarily as teaching opportunities; if the GM decides this applies, instead count every two hours as an hour of training. The GM may rule that particularly difficult combats may count as one or more hours of training in addition to the above. Occasionally, students may be taught outside of class (e.g, Uncle Qrow tutoring Ruby, or Pyrrha tutoring Jaune). These may qualify as Training Sequences (see GURPS Martial Arts, page 147), at the GM's discretion. Points gained by any of these methods should be added to a character's point total; that is, they stack with bonus points earned other ways, such as those awarded for completing missions. Beacon training makes everyone stronger and more skilled, even if they don't go on adventures after school. Aura Some characters have an order of magnitude more Aura than others. Why is this? The obvious answer is "they're mooks," but this author has never been content to leave it at that. The answer that seems to best explain why Aura varies so much is simple. Aura grows with training. Huntsmen and the elites of criminal or military organizations have the time and resources to pour into such training, but common thugs and basic infantry simply don't. If the GM agrees with this interpretation, he may track Aura training, separately from the above. Typical Beacon schooling gives one character point to spend on Aura or Aura-related abilities[sup]1[/sup] per two points you earn in other ways. Intensive training gives two per three; the same is true of most missions. Training sequences may give Aura at this rate as well. The GM may rule that specialized Aura-training exercises are present. If this is so, these would be incorporated into the standard Beacon curriculum; increase the rate to the two-per-three ratio. Characters may also be able to use the Training Sequence rules without a teacher or exceptional attributes, if they have access to these exercises and do not engage in activity such as classes or jobs during this time. (It is possible to perform a training sequence at -7 to fit it into a typical weekend.) You may wish to track Aura gain by hour, rather than by point. If so, add one hour to Aura training per two hours of Beacon courses or 1.5 hours of anything which earns Aura points at a 2:3 ratio. Any of the above options that the GM allows should allow the characters to gain points, rather than merely spending earned points. Training and Bonus Points At various points, the GM may decide to award the players with bonus points for good roleplaying, completing challenges, et cetera. By default, these should not require the above rules to spend. If the GM wishes to slow advancement with the progression of school, he should allow these bonus points to be spent on a 1:1 ratio with those earned in other ways. For instance, a student with 5 bonus points who earned three from lessons and one from a mission could spend four of them (and spend the fifth on Aura, if using the Aura-training rules). Footnote Wait, only one? Geez, this must be a short one. 1: The ability to spend these Aura points on Aura-related abilities relates to the paradox that the characters whose fighting styles rely most on Aura are the most-easily incapacitated. They could spend more points on Aura capacity, or on more Aura powers. Other characters simply put it in Aura. The GM may rule that this is silly, and force his players to put these points in raw Aura.

09-24-2015, 09:36 PM	#4
GreatWyrmGold Join Date: Oct 2011	Re: GURPS: Remnant: Fan-made rules for adventuring in the world of RWBY I think another post of miscellaneous rules appropriate to making a Huntsman would be appropriate. I'll add more if I think of them. Useful Supplements (Many of the following books are technically titled GURPS: X, but the title has been shortened to X for simplicity.) Powers is almost always a good book to have. While powers themselves play little role in Remnant, the various additional advantage options and rules for using superhuman abilities are useful. Martial Arts is, surprisingly, useful. It offers a number of expanded combat mechanics, but perhaps the most useful tool it offers is custom techniques. These allow the more unique combat styles of various characters to be reflected more accurately by the rules. Some custom maneuvers cost Dust or Aura; default bonuses of +1 per point of Dust or ten points of Aura expended are recommended. That said, the fighting style rules are generally inapplicable; each Remnan fights in a different way, with a few exceptions. Gun Fu provides cinematic rules for gunfights. While it overlaps to an extent with Martial Arts, the overlap is (unsurprisingly) minor; it would be useful to have both. The three Action supplements offer surprisingly little to a RWBY game. Action 1—Heroes is tailored almost exclusively for mimicking the protagonists of many action films. Action 2—Exploits includes some useful rules (notable the Basic Abstract Difficulty system), but is—again—specialized for action-movie-type plots. Action 3—Furious Fists provides some combat rules, but most of it is specialized for martial-arts movies, without the flexibility of Martial Arts. While Pyramid 3/44's "The Last Gasp" rules do not fit RWBY-style combat, "Abstract Wealth" suits the non-loot-focused nature of most campaigns set in Remnant, and "From Skills to Advantages" slightly increases the range of Semblances, weapon abilities, and such which can be built. Advantages Modifiers Accessibility: For the following modifiers, a campaign's opponents are assumed to be about 35% Grimm, 50% humans with awakened Auras, 10% robots, and no more than 5% animals or humans without awakened Auras. A campaign where the characters never fight humans should not allow a significant limitation for offensive abilities which only affect Grimm, while one focusing on White Fang grunts wouldn't allow a major price drop for abilities which can't affect them. Abilities which only affect Grimm are not uncommon, and have a -25% Accessibility limitation. Conversely, abilities which only affect living creatures (things with Aura) have a -20% limitation. Ones which specifically do not affect Grimm have -15%. Abilities which do not affect anything without an Aura (including both machines and Grimm) have a -20% limitation. (The GM may allow one which only affects things with awakened Auras at -25%, but creatures with unawakened Auras are rarely fought and even rarer challenging.) Abilities which affect only beings with unawakened Auras—mainly civilians and animals—would have a -40% limitation, but are unheard of. Most Remnan robots do not run on electricity and do not have the Electrical disadvantage. However, abilities which only affect robots and other Dust-based machines and devices still have a -20% limitation. They will rarely if ever work on advanced machines from other realities—their operating principles are sufficiently different as to make attacks which work on both, but not other material objects or beings, a logical impossibility. As always, these limitations are halved if the ability is weakened against those not meeting the requirement, rather than impotent. Costs Aura, Minimum Aura: See here. Aura paid for such an ability causes shock and knockdown. Costs Dust: Requires expenditure of a Dust Energy Reserve. -5% per point of Dust—doubled if each expenditure keeps the ability active for only one second! Abilities/Meta-Traits The following abilities are (unless otherwise noted) Aura based; any of the Aura-based limitations may be added (they have not been included in the prices). Enhanced Physique: One of the simplest "advanced" Aura abilities. Provides most of the benefits of increased Strength and Health, including melee damage, but does not improve Hit Points, Fatigue Points, or Basic Move. Per level: ST, HT +1; HP, FP -1, Basic Speed -0.25. 10 points/level. (This has probably appeared somewhere, with a better name, but I haven't seen it.) Grimm Sense: Aura, even unawakened, gives its users a greater awareness of their surroundings. Once awakened, one's Aura-based senses can be honed to detect Aura; this is generally useless, as every living thing possesses Aura, obscuring the details for all but the most skilled users. However, Grimm—the antithesis of life—stand out to the trained eye. Detect (Grimm), 10 points. Longevity: There are, and likely have always been, rumors of those who harness their Aura to extend their lifespans. The following are designed for use in Remnant-based campaign, with Unusual Background costs to match. Lesser Longevity: Extended Lifespan 1, Longevity, Perk (Does not visibly age), Unusual Background (Longevity); 10 points. Greater Longevity: Unaging, Unusual Background (Longevity); 40 points. This is usually a trait restricted to NPCs, if it is allowed at all. New Techniques The following are fairly generic techniques which could be learned by most any warrior in Remnant. Aura Strike (Hard): Defaults: Prerequisite skill-5. Prerequisites: Aura; Any unarmed combat skill (cannot exceed prerequisite skill); Trained by a Master. This technique lets you deliver more powerful strikes to creatures of Grimm by imparting your blows with Aura, an energy anathema to the every essence of Grimm; it requires the expenditure of 20 Aura, and obviously does not work on humans. You perform a normal unarmed attack as part of using this skill; if you hit, regardless of if any damage penetrates the Grimm's Damage Resistance, you deal additional damage—one die per die of damage you would have dealt. Destructive Aura Strike (Hard): Defaults: Aura Strike-5. Prerequisites: Aura Strike (cannot exceed prerequisite skill). This technique works like Aura Strike, except as noted. It costs 50 Aura rather than 20, and deals two additional dice of Aura-based, Damage-Resistance-penetrating damage per die of normal damage. The Grimm must make a Health roll to avoid being reduced to zero Hit Points. If the Grimm is reduced to zero or fewer Hit Points by this strike, whether by failing a Health roll or by simple damage, the body part struck explodes, killing it instantly. Explosive Aura Strike (Hard): Default: Destructive Aura Strike-5. Prerequisites: Destructive Aura Strike (cannot exceed prerequisite skill). This technique works like Destructive Aura Strike, except as noted. It costs 70 Aura. If the Grimm is reduced to zero or fewer Hit Points, its entire body explodes, with fragments of the Grimm's armor spreading through the immediate area, harming nearby Grimm but not creatures with Aura. The explosion itself deals damage equal to the extra damage dealt by the technique, divided by thrice the distance (in yards) from the exploding Grimm. It also deals [2d] fragmentation damage to all Grimm and inanimate objects within range. See the rules for fragmentation and explosions on B414. Impaled Shot (Hard): Defaults: Prerequisite skills -3. Prerequisites: Any melee weapon skill, any firearm skill, familiarity with a weapon which incorporates both classes of weapon, Trained by a Master or Weapon Master. This technique involves embedding a weapon into an enemy and then firing the firearm component at point-blank range. The weapon attack is made as normal; however, the firearm attack takes no penalty to hit due to location. Success with the firearm attack is not automatic, as the enemy can move itself or the weapon away from itself. Recoil-Enhanced Strike (Hard): Defaults: Prerequisite skill-6. Prerequisites: Any melee weapon skill (cannot exceed prerequisite skill); familiarity with a weapon in said class which incorporates a firearm or similar weapon; Trained by a Master or Weapon Master. A recoil-enhanced strike is an attack which uses the firearm component of a weapon to strike harder with the melee weapon component. It requires sufficient precision and care that it can only be taken as an All-Out Attack. A recoil-enhanced strike deals +2 damage per die, and the enemy is at a -1 to block or parry it.

03-23-2017, 01:47 PM	#5
Vivamort Join Date: Mar 2017	Re: GURPS: Remnant: Fan-made rules for adventuring in the world of RWBY Thanks for this post, I have found it helpful in wrapping my mind around ways to replicate the various powers we see in the show (Aura and Dust in particular). I am wondering how anything may have been revised or added since we now have four volumes of content that has further fleshed out the world and powers. Or if anyone has run across a resource that works so well for a RWBY based campaign that it is the obvious choice unless one is a masochist. My sons and I are RWBY fans and tabletop RPGs fans, and I would like to combine the two at some point. But would find it easier to deal with disagreements on mechanics if I could point to some system that someone else made as the source.