Transformers Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook
From MediaWiki
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| Publisher | Renegade Game Studios | ||||||||||||
| First published | August 22, 2022 | ||||||||||||
| Written by | Ryan Costello, Gabriel Hicks, JF Sambrano, Bryan C.P. Steele, Elisa Teague & Eddy Webb | ||||||||||||
| ISBN | ISBN 978-1-7368843-3-1 | ||||||||||||
| Page count | 288 | ||||||||||||
| Price | $55.00 USD | ||||||||||||
The Transformers Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook is a rulebook for the Transformers Roleplaying Game. It was released digitally on August 2 2022, with a physical release following later in the year.
The book contains rules for players and Game Masters, with a focus on creating fun stories and engaging combat, as well as tools for creating characters, an extensive library of weapons and equipment, and a dossier full of potential enemies. It also contains the introductory adventure "Troubled Waters".
Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction
- Prime's War Journal
- Autobots vs. Decepticons
- Earth Time Units and Their Interrelation with Cybertronian Perception by Perceptor
- Transcript of an interview with Jetfire
- The War for Energon
- Earth: Our New Home
- Autobot Lexicon
- Autobot Data Files
- The Transformers Roleplaying Game
- The Game Master
- Playing the Game
Chapter 2: Character Creation
- Creating Your Character
- Step 0: Discuss with your GM & Other Players
- Step 1: Character Concept
- Step 2: Essence Score Increases and Skill Point Investment
- Step 3: Select Influences
- Step 4: Select an Origin
- Step 5: Select a Role
- Step 6: Describe your Character
- Step 7: Form a Team
Chapter 3: Influences
- Hang-Ups
- Background Bonds
- Having Multiple Influences
- Customizing an Influence
- Bureaucrat
- Cube Player
- Experiment
- Former Senator
- Gladiator
- Hunter
- Inventor
- Machinist
- Racer
- Scavenger
- Security
- War Veteran
- Hang-Ups
Chapter 4: Origins
- Choosing Your Origin
- Converting Between modes
- Origin Traits
- Fitting In
- Bot Mode Statistics
- Alt Mode Statistics
- Filling in the Driver's Seat
- Defining Your Alt Mode
- What About Beast Modes?
- Chassis Selection
- Champion
- Cutter
- Lookout
- Monolith
- Outrider
- Rainmaker
- Seeker
- Cool Your Jets
- Support
Chapter 5: Roles
- Role Out
- Role Overview
- For the Allspark!
- Analyst
- Field Commander
- Gunner
- Modemaster
- Defining Your Mini-Con
- Scientist
- Scout
- Warrior
- Losing a Limb
Chapter 6: Essence Scores and Skills
- Essence Scores - The Four 'S's
- Skills and Specializations
- Skills Ranks and Skill Tests
- Unskilled Rolls
- Specializations
- Gaining Skills and Specializations
- Essences & Skills
- Strength
- Speed
- Smarts
- Social
- Using Skills
- Step One: Choose Skill
- Step Two: Skill Dice Shifts
- Step Three: Edge, Snag, or Both?
- Step Four: Determine Difficulty
- Edge and Snag versus Upshift and Downshift
- Step Five: Roll Skill Test
- Skill Tests are Meaningful
- Step Six: Determine Results
- Story Points - The Great Equalizer
- Energon Points
Chapter 7: General Perks
- Picking General Perks
- Who is your Companion to You?
- Mini-Con Perks
Chapter 8: Equipment
- Hardpoints
- Assignment and Requisition
- Equipment Properties
- Weapons
- Weapons List
- Upgrades
- Armor
- Kits
- Support Equipment
- Vehicles
- Non-Cybertronian Vehicles
Chapter 9: Combat
- The Flow of Combat
- A Combat in Steps
- Creatures in Disguise
- Types of Actions
- Decepticons, Attack! Group Initiative
- Free Actions
- Movement
- Combat Actions
- Types of Attacks
- Melee Attacks
- Ranged Attacks
- Blast Attacks
- Multiple Targets
- Multi-Weapon Attacks
- Making an Attack
- Character Size and Scale
- Scale and Size on the Table
- Damage and Repairing Damage
- Discuss Defeat with your Table
- Optional Rule: Human Engineers
- Vehicle and Alt Mode Combat
- Aerospace Combat
- Space Combat
- Operating Vehicles
- Other Forms of Combat
Chapter 10: Exploration
- Time
- Movement
- A Bulldozer As Fast As A Motorcycle?
- Special Types of Movement
- The Environment
- Recharging
- Diseases
- Conditions
- Interactions with Humans
- Between Missions and Downtime
Chapter 11: Locations
- Cybertronian Bases
- Decepticon Headquarters
- Other Bases
- Interesting Places
- Potential Attack Sites
- Common Earth Biomes
Chapter 12: Threats
- Playing Threats
- Non Combat Adversaries
- Loot
- Combining Threats
- Specific Decepticons
| Specific Decepticons | Decepticon Drones | General Decepticon Threats | |||||
Unaligned Cybertronians
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Human Threats and NPCs
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Vehicle Threats
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Chapter 13: Running an Adventure
- Adventure Balance
- Adventure Breakdown
- Gaming Terms: Campaign vs. Session vs. Part vs. Scene
- Troubled Waters
- Preparing the Game
- Beginning the Adventure
- Part 1: The Abandoned Energon Facility
- Part 2: The Bridge is Falling Down!
- Part 3: YOU ARE NOT TO BE TRUSTED, STARSCREAM!
Notes
- This book was originally slated for release in early 2022, but several delays saw it waylaid for months until the digital edition finally released in August. As per Renegade Game Studios' online storefront, physical copies are estimated to drop later in the year. Players who pre-ordered the physical version also received the digital PDF for free.
- Aside from art produced specifically for this book and the art from Hasbro's various Evergreen design documents, the artwork provided within borrows a lot of material from IDW Publishing's two runs as hosts for the Transformers comic book license. As such, a number of prolific Transformers artists have their work featured within the book, including Brendan Cahill, Casey Coller, Andrew Griffith, Guido Guidi, Marcelo Matere, Alex Milne, Sara Pitre-Durocher, Livio Ramondelli, E. J. Su, Priscilla Tramontano, and many more.
- One artist who gets no mention in the book's credits, despite his covers to both The Transformers: Stormbringer #1 and Spotlight: Cliffjumper being found inside, is Don Figueroa. This isn't the first time Don's work has gone unrecognized by Hasbro or its affiliates. Poor guy can't catch a break.
- Much of the Hasbro-produced art from this book sees character sporting their Evergreen designs, a standard for Hasbro-licensed products and auxiliary media since 2016.
- The "Autobot Data Files" found in the first chapter, as well as the Decepticons found in the chapter "Threats", present a who's who of famous and infamous characters, including the ever-present Bumblebee, Optimus Prime, Megatron, and Starscream, but also a whole slew of B- and C-list characters, some of whom we rarely see represented in any type of media, including:
- Veritable newcomers such as Anode, Rubble, and Gauge.
- Nobodies like Armorhide and Mega-Octane from Robots in Disguise/Car Robots.
- The G1 incarnations of Demolisher of Transformers: Armada fame, and Airachnid and Knock Out who both originally appeared in Transformers: Prime.
- A few random combiner team members; Breakdown, Dead End, and Tantrum.
- Strangest of all, however, might be the inclusion of Erector, who hasn't had a toy out since 1989, and whose appearances are so rare that his "Notes" section on this very wiki is about as long as the rest of his page combined. His most recent appearance, and one of his most prominent at that, was in issues 10 and 11 of Transformers: Galaxies in 2020.
- The "Threats" chapter contain an collection of other randomly assorted tidbits such as:
- Blitzwing speaks German, a likely nod to his Transformers: Animated counterpart.
- Slipstream's bio mentions that she may be "an advanced clone of Stascream", a clear reference to her status as just that in Animated.
- Breakdown's profile, while just as limited as the rest of the Cons', hints at a partnership with Knock Out, and Knock Out's cheekily refers to Breakdown as his "assistant". This seemingly springs from the popular fan theory that Breakdown's Transformers: Prime namesake and Knock Out were more than just allies, something that IDW Publishing built upon once the duo had been introduced in first the 2005 continuity, and then again in 2021.
- As a further nod to Prime Breakdown, this Breakdown is shown with his hand transformed into a large hammer, a weapon favored by the former.
