I’ll never forget the time I hosted an RP sever for a RWBY zombie apocalypse. The zombies came in levels of power labeled D-A, weakest to strongest. Of course, there was one gender-bent Ruby who insisted he killed 40 A-class zombies
@@Rainart520 Haha, you always have to forget about the top tier characters and start by establishing an average. I think V1-V3 Ren might be a good example of what the average Beacon student **should** be capable of, he's somewhere between Cardin (D tier) and Blake (B- tier since she's a rogue).
You mean Larry "forgothislastname". The reason he has a lot of jobs is because of his rent payment dues, and each jobs barely pays him enough to pay for it cuz he haven't finished highschool. Man what a sad character. LMAO Edit: Finally, I remember.His name's Larry Needlemeyer.
Crack Theory: He actually just has a TON of brothers. Some animals give birth to huge litters, do we have confirmation that shopkeek is a single human, or is he multiple faunuses
I always write out a bio for myself where I make sure that for every strength I give a character, I add a weakness, just to keep things leveled out. One of my characters has a doctorate in Robotics and Engineering, but is very sickly and has seizures quite frequently. Her semblance allows her to see 5-15 seconds into the future, but she can't control when it happens. Her weapon works similarly to Velvet's in which it makes hard light dust constructs of weapons in the known huntsman database, but they can't replicate semblance effects or take many hits and she can only have a certain number of them out at once. Things like that.
@@DarkTiger83 everything good, but why seizures, that sounds like you just wanted to give him a weakness and weakness for weakness sake can also become a problem (unless it has something to do with his backstory of course)
@@DarkTiger83 Maybe having a mind grain is a good idea instead of seizures, perhaps they can be induced because of her power being used to look into the future and if it is forced too many times it can cause severe damage. Bleeding from the eyes or nose, that sort of thing.
I think I managed to do quite good with my Team. Team FIRE. Fenris' weapons are his two drones Halberd, and Aegis. He also has a Waraxe Shotgun. His semblance is a glyph that blocks others from using their own semblance while he can see them. Ivan's semblance allows him to bend and reshape metallic objects with ease. While he primarily utilizes these objects he does carry a Battle-Axe in case he doesn't have access to metal. Raiden is the most interesting. He heavily utilizes dust. Covering his body are dust channels which connect to an apparatus on his back. He does not have a semblance. And Erebos. His weapon is basically the ODM Gear from attack on titan, specifically the one seen in the final season. The main difference being the guns. The guns are based off of the Kriss Vector SMG, they use hardlight dust rounds so he doesn't need to reload while in combat. It can also produce a Hardlight blade if needed.
I've thought of an OC who's a faunus. Her semblance is "Chill", Which when her aura comes in contact with someone else it gives them a euphoric effect making them more relaxed. I thought of this yesterday. What do you think?
I like it. Having the user need to come in contact with someone to use the semblance makes sense. Not broken and stays within the limits of aura, I think it fits well 😊
Wait, what if someone was already chill and laid back? Does it just have no effect? Is there a chill limit overflow? Do they become so chill they become a human "This is fine" meme? Not making fun of it, it's a really unique idea, just making a joke
when i first read Chill i immediately thought "oh maybe a reverse of Cinder's semblance", then when i read the effect i went "oh so it's that type of Chill, like a stoner making semblance" lol. i'm joking about that last part
I came up with a character as well, kinda been writting his story for a while, hoping for some opinions. Albus T. Oshen (Albastru is Rumanian for Blue) Gave him a semblance that allows him to increase his power and speed for short periods of time before running out of aura, also breaking his aura shield, he can focus the power and transfer it into an object/weapon, the side effect is that both the object and the limb he used to transfer the power will break. Kind of re-thinking a lot of the story I wrote since I saw the video, also, even though the semblance may seem strong as heck at first, it gets worse and worse since the character tends to damage his body during fights as a last resort. Great video, thanks a lot.
A workaround for the time thing: just increase your character’s perception of time, so that for them everything else is in slow motion, but it doesn’t effect anyone else, and doesn’t break reality
Sadly, that doesn't mean the character can move "Faster".... But on the other hand.... That is one good way to use in a pinch....like an exam. More "time" to answer questions.
It’s like when Ruby used the relic to stop time, but instead of completely stopping its just significantly slowed down, and all they can really do in that state is think really fast/ analyze the situation
Or you know you could make it so that you can only stop/slowdown time within a certain radius, kinda like Geryon from DMC5 With it's ability to do "localized time manipulation".
I just made the most bullshit semblance with it that basically made my character Bullseye. I.e. he can and WILL use any object as a throwable to kill you. And with his perception being that fast he will be mostly hitting you and probably hurting you badly
One thing I always had trouble with for making teams in general, is trying to not make characters be able to do EVERYTHING. If you have an OC that can do EVERYTHING awesomely then you need to ask why they even need a team in the first place. There needs to be some sort of drawback, which can be something in terms of personality, lack of skill, etc.
Solution: Don't put them in a team. Make them occasionally interact with others or do things with other characters, but have them primarily operate solo. That way you don't have to waste your time trying to find ways to make other characters seem useful while the MC is solving the current problem all by themselves.
Honestly, I agree, I feel like the team should hold some kind of purpose to the character. You could have a villian who simply uses their 'team' as expendable objects (like sending them on super dangerous missions and not even seeming affected about them being harmed) or as borderline errand boys/girls. It helps to hate someone who is so condescending and cruel by showing how they treats their 'allies'. Whether they are open about thier manipulation or not just depends on the character.
I’m working on making an OC team based on figures from American Folklore, and this video has been a big help. The Allusions in play are Paul Bunyan, Annie Oakley, John Henry, and Johnny Appleseed.
Alex here, admin of the RWBY Fanon Wiki. Thanks for the shoutout to our wiki/guidelines! Glad to see someone appreciates the effort that went into our rules and what they entail. Most people just say they're too much and quit without ever taking the time to understand we're trying to have our OCs fit *within the universe* of the show. That or they purposefully want to make a god character that overpowers everything. Usually one of those two.
Quick question regarding Faunas traits, one of my OCs is from the harsh deserts of Menagerie, where they say it is too dangerous, I had the idea that Menagerie already had a Faunas population that lived in the desert in a similar way to many Native American tribes, most being hunter-gatherers, and a bunch of different tribes of different sizes, and due to the high concentration of faunas and increased danger they adapted and gained more animal traits. Would this setup work for a reason/excuse for multiple animal traits?
Fortunately there are people out there who like to do things as fitting as possible ^^ How do we suggest a character on your wiki ? Is that done by simply creating a new page, filling it and waiting for approval ? I'd eventually like to put one of my OC teams there.
Hey Phoenix I believe putting all the OC videos into one playlist would be very helpful for people sort of guiding the person while designing their oc. This video has given me some ideas for my characters thanks for the help!
I get where he's coming from, though. In Jojos people with crazy powers happen all the time, like you get characters that can age people until they die, fungi that rips your body apart if you go up, powers that turn your soul into collectible objects if you lose a game... yes. PowerS, as in more than one. Throwing something like Heaven's Door into RWBY would be really cool, but it also feels super unfitting? Most of RWBY's semblances are generally there just to enhance fight scenes and let characters do creative things for their specific fights. So if your powers change what a fight scene even is then that's not quite in the spirit of the show, right?
Making a OC is definitely a hard process, but for me I like to look at mythology and legends and try and fit them into the universe (Billy the Kid, Cu From the Ulster cycle, etc) I’ve made up some stories that would be considered fairy tales in universe, my main OC Eion Cu which is largely based off Cu, the story is about a lance wielded who fought off a horde of Grimm to protect a town only to die in the process, though he saved the town as a result of his actions
This screams so much "YES!" for me, since my channel avatar/OC was designed with this in mind. I sincerely hope Legends of Remnant piques your interest, as my OC comic series is gonna try and act as a sort of "Expanded Universe" take on the world of RWBY, without breaking the canon of the overall story.
my oc is a cowboy like character from the borders of vacuo with the semblance to make dust but can only do so on a small scale, so only the size of bullets for his revolver
@@Cobalt_Rain Well it's all a big work in progress, I'm questioning my balancing between combat and traditional academics, but that's whatever for right now. I have a handful of ideas for things like 'school projects' and what clubs you might find. But I've only really been serious in writting all this down for about a month even if they're ideas I've had for a while, so it's all still a jumbled. For the big picture I'm trying make Shade be the most 'street smart' of the academies in a sense. Beacon, Atlas and Haven are all ahead of Shade in terms of better teachers and staff, higher budget and higher standards for passing, but Shade is built to be the most practical in what one can expect from being a Huntsman, making the transition from student to adult the most seamless. There's an excessively heavy emphasis on combat, with this things like world history and sciences just being there just out of obligation. Electives would include supplemental strengths, like learning better aura or spec into Dust usage if a student wants to branch out and find their niche more, but they're not mandatory. All students at some point or another is learning survival in varied wild environments such as desert, forests, and tudras, as well as how to handle a crisis in multiple settings like on boats, planes, populated villages etc. Certain combat classes will help students develop skills specific to them, but will largely force them to be a little versed in every area, but not necessarily an expert. Like if your disarmed, you don't have to be a pro boxer, but you're expected to at least know enough hand to hand to beat the ghetto kid who likes to pick fights with strangers at the bus stop.
On the story I'm working on, most of the characters have semblances based on their fairytale. Although they may appear mundane, most of their abilities are simple, yet reliable.
This is really useful, thank you for this. I'm a beginner when it comes to OCs so I wanted to run my first one by you real quick. Tron Starzan, a 19-year-old, 3rd-year student, lived in the kingdom of Atlas with his sister Janus. Their mother, Tanya, was a high-ranking military soldier and was distant with her kids. Therefore, they would constantly try to compete for her attention. They both wanted to be huntsman, but each had different strengths. Tron was better at physical combat, but Janus was better at technology and strategy, and when it came time to make their weapons, they got so caught up in their competition that an accident occurred that led to both children getting injured. Tron got metal implants in his arms and a lot of scars while Janus was permanently paralyzed in her legs. Realizing that they had gone too far, the two of them decided to try talking things out and decided to collaborate on a weapon that Tron would use while Janus stayed behind and worked on becoming an engineer of sorts similar to Penny's dad, but focusing more on blacksmithing weapons and teaching other huntsmen in training the dangers of weapon creation. While their mother is still furious at both of them for what happened, she has worked to be more caring and less cold and has genuinely become proud of them both overtime. Tron's weapon is twofold: First is a sword called Metall Engel (German for metal angel) that has a slight electrical charge to it and his metal implants on his arms also work as a weapon of sorts which have retractable claws and cartridges to hold small dust viles. Tron's semblance is called upgrade. He can take out bits of his aura and temporarily upgrade the technology around him any way he wants. However, this is limited by a couple of factors: Firstly, the more complicated or longer the upgrade is, the more aura he needs to lose. Secondly, he will sometimes need to have extra parts handy to make upgrade work ( for example if he wanted his sword to have a grenade launcher feature, he'd need to have ammo on his person), Lastly, he has to have a solid idea of how the upgrade would work in his head, otherwise, it will malfunction. Tron is based on Ultron, specifically from the MCU. It's not perfect I know, but I wanted to get your opinion on the base idea so I can work on the rest of my team called JSTR.
I've been working on a character for a year and a half, the character is based off yin the dark side of yang, yin is often represented by a dragon so I made a red eyed crocodile skink fannus, but people say I should pick something else sense it's not very well known. I spent 2 hours talking with someone who ultimately said my idea sucked and I should try doing something else. I don't see anything wrong with my choice but now I've stopped working on my oc as I don't know if I should even share my idea's anymore.
First off, the faunas idea is AWESOME. Second, fairy/myth/history/etc inspiration isn't required. Also, it is OK if people don't know about it, I guarantee that when most people heard that JNPR was based off of historic/myth characters who cross-dressed were very confused because while nearly everyone knows Mulan, lots of people know about Joan of Arc, hardly anyone knew stuff when it came to Achilles besides the fact that he can't be hurt except on his ankle, and lots of people know about Thor, Marvel Thor, Original Thor? Few people know his myths. Also, The Ace Ops, few know their inspiration. Aesop's Fables maybe sound familiar to some, and the tortoise and the hare is an easy deduction once you know that, the rest, well those are very difficult, even Phoenix isn't sure with Vine and Elm. Don't stop sharing your ideas, it allows you to receive feedback on the good, the bad, and the ugly. Learn from the constructive criticism, ditch the destructive. DON'T STOP WRITING!!! In fact, tell me about your character, I'm studying to be an editor for novels/writing my own. I also love to help/hear about other's OCs.
Don't let anyone steal your vision. There are cannon characters who are from obscure references, yet once you learn what they are, they're all the more cool because of the obscurity. Please keep writing.
Red eyed crocodile sounds Awesome! I would love to see a character like that! It fits very well being based on a dragon. As long as the faunus trait is based on an animal that exists, then there is no problem at all. Regardless of what others may say I love your idea! And it seems a few others do too 😊
I had an OC whose semblance basically forced her to be on a team even though she wanted to be independent (it was part of her character development). It was called Spotlight (for one minute every single enemy within a certain radius would immediately and completely focus all of their attention on attacking her, ignoring any other stimulus e.g. environmental hazards, other opponents, a giant pit in front of them etc)
While designing my oc team, i've decided to use a cohesive theme for all of them. That theme being, nightmares and dreams. Right now i'm taking a break from designing them. Not because i gave up, but because i want to re-examine my approach for them.
This is helpful for not just RWBY OCs but characters im general, in an existing universe or original. I gonna use your advice for my own original universe when creating characters, I especially liked the consequences of abilities advice.
Got a few characters effected by this, their abilities basically have a timer and they become exhausted and need to recover when that timer runs out. This limits how powerful they are as it's temporary.
You acctually helped me a lot, i like theese ideas and im really happy that my 3 OCs fit on them. And i kinda didnt know about the color name thing, i didnt even knew monty was the creator of rwby i made some search and... he died? Man it feels bad, i love this show and i really feel bad, but again thank you very much.
I'm glad my video helped! Yes Monty did pass on far too soon, back before Volume 3 was released. By expanding on the amazing world he created I hope we can always carry him with us as we keep moving forward 😊
This video actually helps a lot. I’ve never truly made a pure OC (a character that wasn’t inspired by a different character) and I think this helps a ton with that and what I should do. Thanks a bunch for this!
I made my team years ago and although my team leader is absolutely broken the only other thing that I pushed boundaries with is I gave a character with split personalities 2 semblances that have the same activation root and both take the same toll on the character.
As someone whose been on the Fanon wiki for 6 years (and has more WIP OCs than she knows what to do with), I love this video. Thank you, and I am totally gonna pay attention to your OCs. A handy tool for the CNR that I use is the Behind the Name website. Works great for searching up names that mean stuff like "stream" or "deer" or "ash".
The “No timestop semblances” thing is something that I’ve actually been considering for ages. There’s no easy way to make them actually useful and balanced at the same time. My idea for a tenuous solution to this is essentially just The Mindscape from Gravity falls. You’re not stopping time, but you are dipping into higher dimensional space, it’s easier to power balance than time-travel for the same reason that it’s more difficult to write: the entire concept of 4th-dimensional space is an absolute fustercluck to comprehend from our perspective without a very long-winded lead up.
The simplest way to balance "timestop" is to restrict both the scope of targeting and the nature of the ability: Rather than time itself, what they stop is the perception of time of the targets. The targets need to be within your limited range, there's likely little control around preventing friendly fire, and there's probably a few more nerfs necessary around things already in motion(flight, etc.) Quickening one's personal time is also possible with several downsides built-in, but you'll never really reach timeSTOP that way.
Time is relative, not absolute, things like speed and gravity can severly affect your perception and actual sense of time, take as an example someone inside a car vs someone sit down in the street, from the perspective of the person that is in the street the person inside the car is moving but from the perspective of the person inside the car he is sit down, he is in rest Now, if time is relative and everyone has a personal perception of time, what would happen is someone has their own perception of time separated from the rest of the universe, an analogy (a very bad one btw but is the only one that occurred to me) is, lets imaginé that time is like a train, always on track, never stopping, now, what would happen if someone got outside of the train, suddenly they exist outside everyone elses time, not stopping the entire time of the universe, just, existing outside of it Now this has certain very interesting concequences, but thats a way you can create a time stopping character without breaking every rule about the conservation of energy
Hey Phoenix it’s Eternal it’s been a while been busy with things but I have been keeping watch over your content. I am glad you are growing into your own and doing well for yourself and being safe.
Honestly I kinda grew out of making an oc overpowered and not having them have weaknesses especially in recent years all my favorite stories have the main characters problems just thrown at them all at the same time. That struggle and to see them go through that pulls on my heart strings. Ive fallen for that type of thing. Low key sadistic I want to make my ocs go through that
I do enjoy that you emphasize a canon OC character. As I’m currently making my second for a story I’m planning to write, they will be having a mythical Faunus trait. The story containing this character is an AU and by that not meant to exist in a world of other OCs. Still though even beyond that this video certainly has several good points to help people when making characters.
My OC’s semblance is called aura reactor,being that he is able to manipulate his electron aura. For his weapons I gave him nanobots since they work well with his semblance. Think of him as a much weaker magneto.
Big tip I always use when thinking of characters: how could they be defeated? What are their flaws? What are they bad at? Are they bad at long range or close range fighting? Do their semblence help them in their fighting style? Are they better at fighting or better at aura manipulation, or maybe better at using their semblence? Is their semblence a support offense or defense semblence? Is it a passive or active semblence? Is it activation based or emotional based? What are their character flaws? Are they too prideful to back away from a fight? Maybe they dont want to fight with a group because they feel like they are better alone, or maybe their semblence is better for one on one fighting but is worse in team fights? How do they fight without their semblences? Think of how they are the worst at stuff, instead of what they are the best at. The best points will come along in the process of thinking of their worst points
@@Ss15996 alright. My guy is a Bat-Hawk Faunus (his trait being his taloned feet) named Red, he was trained to be an assassin but ended up becoming a Bounty Hunter, his semblance is Tactile Telekinesis (Telekinesis that only works when a person has touched an object) (it doesn’t work on anything alive, he can only affect things with 100 meters and he can only use it on one thing at a time), he’s based primarily off Jonah Hex (can be extremely brutal, uses whatever he can to win, is saved more often then not by people he helped in the past, however unlike Jonah he’s extremely approachable and fun loving). His fighting style is a combination of Drunken Boxing and Drunken Sword and his weapon a sword that transforms into a bow and arrow with various dust infused arrows, and finally he’s from Mistral (I’ve thought about having him be from Vacuo keeping with the Jonah Hex theme and where (I believe) such level of brutality would be accepted in a modern setting). I even gave him the “became a Huntsmen to learn how to kill Huntsmen” thing that Qrow and Raven had as it would make jobs easier if he has to go up against one. So what do you think?
@@thomasraines1396 so hes good at upclose fighting as a bounty hunter/assasin but also has a bow and arrow, how accurate is he with it? Maybe his sword should be a dagger that transforms into a sword, fitting more with the assasin upbringing, perhaps a throwing dagger he can manipulate with his semblence as a good far away option, maybe he hides in trees using his taloned feet to spy on others allowing him better grip on branches
@@Ss15996 I’ve brought up to my friends about him using his talons to hang upside from stuff to give him a good advantage. As for how good he is with his bow, I would say he’s an expert and whatever shots he thinks (or realistically can’t make) he’ll use his semblance to move the arrow into the right position, he also mixes and matches the dust to get better combinations which makes it easier to screw with people. How’s that?
Great video Phoenix/night. As someone who recently got into character designs and starting to work on my own ocs for RWBY, and I mostly agree with the things you were saying, like the weapons thing where it can’t be excessive and that the characters can’t be busted or insanely op depending on their skill and age. For one of my OCS named iron prime, he’s powerful and skilled, being good with blades and hand to hand combat and being a good shot, but he isn’t invincible as he doesn’t have a semblance or even an aura due to his physical condition, and if went up against people as skilled or more skilled than he is, he has a high chance of losing due to him being a sort of glass cannon, but even with that problem he can get back up and fight. The only thing I don’t bother with is the naming thing since I really don’t often like the names that are often restrictive. but one thing I think you could’ve included in the video would be their personality traits based on design, semblance, the tale that the creator got inspired from, or what they went through, like being in the Great War. other than that great video man, and due to my new fond of creativity for some modifications to the weapons of my OCS
@@visualbliss9993 The way I did that with Obito is I gave him the Phasing portion only and limited the amount of time he could use it. His Aura isn't amazingly incredible, so he can only phase like that for about 30seconds before getting tired, so he turns it on and off frequently.
Yes I can definitely cover that! Keeping aura in mind as well as proper limitations is difficult when designing semblances and I'll try to address as much as I can 😊
My personal rule for making semblances not feel like quirks is to balance them with the power of the users aura instead of giving them some thematic drawback. The general result of this is semblances seem more powerful than quirks when you just describe the ability. Take one of my girl’s, Blanche, for example she has a dust based semblance that gives her the ability to reshape any metal that has been infused with any kind of dust as if it were liquid using her mind. In my own head canon a semblance that relies on dust also conveys to its user the ability to use glyphs, so Blanche also has this ability. To balance these abilities in my story I have given her the smallest aura out of anyone in the story, she is a literal glass cannon, and must be protected by her allies. To this end, I gave her sister Noir the ability to create walls out of her aura this allows her to reach out and block shots anywhere on the battlefield, but at a cost to her aura. Noir can also infuse these walls with different types of dust to create other types of walls which can be used, for example to minimize the damage to her aura by using earth dust or hard-light dust. These are just a few of my semblance ideas and how I try to give them that unique RWBY flavor?
This is wonderful. As someone who has been moderating community rules on RWBY original characters (back when Google+ was a thing) and designing (/constantly redesigning) my own for circa five years now, I found that you covered everything in a clear, informative, engaging manner. I cannot wait to hear you go into specifics on different aspects of design and character building - it'll be an awesome resource for people.
A resource is exactly what I hope these videos can become for people. As someone who also moderates OC designs, I'm really glad you think my video is clear and informative. I really look forward to the amazing characters that can be brought to life and how they will bring so much more color to the World of RWBY. 😊
Mary Sues are so common in RWBT fanfictions; I've read all sorts from a Silver-Eyed Warrior with amazing Semblance and Ren-like Aura abilities who could match Adam and basically outclass Team RWBY at everything they do, to a character with the Semblance to copy other semblances, who eventually went on to absorb Qrow's transformation magic and Amber's Maiden powers, and discover Ozpin's secret war all on his own. But these powers are cool in moderation, so when writing these types of characters I always have a caveat to their power level and weapons. For example, two of my OCs: The first has the Semblance _Envy;_ the ability to copy other Semblances, however he cannot copy magic and if his Aura breaks he 'forgets' every Semblance he has previously copied, and must rebuild his stock of powers. Additionally, his weapon is a spear that separates into a staff and dagger, with no Dust powers; he's a member of the White Fang in Mantle, and has very limited access to Dust. He is based on the poem 'Envy' by Mary Lamb. The second is a Silver-Eyed Warrior. Though he is more experienced in using his eyes than Ruby, due to being taught by his father and older sister, he lost his family as well as one of his eyes to an agent of Salem (not Cinder), making his eyes simply less powerful. Furthermore, his Semblance is _Soothing Tone_ which allows him to calm people with his voice. It isn't as effective as Ren's Tranquility when hiding Grimm, but it has a persuasive effect. Either way, it isn't very useful in a direct fight. He is based on Orpheus. And I _never_ give a main character Telekinesis, not in RWBY or any other media. No protagonist should have too much power. Anyway, I can't wait to see more of these videos!
Before the Grimm Campaign stuff got released, I worked on a modified DND 5E version for RWBY. Even now, I still use that when making new characters, purely because it helps to make sure they're somewhat balanced. This also included a system for making weapons & semblances with a points cost so that no weapon/character could do everything
I have a few questions regarding my OCs: Do the characters have to be inspired in a legend or myth? And would these semblances work or do you think it breaks reality: Stonewall, basically creates a wall, like an extension of the shield provided by aura. The character can’t make very large shields or keep them up for a very long time, the longer he keeps it up or the more damage it has to absorb, the more aura it costs. Blink, the ability to teleport (I got the idea from Overwatch). The character can only teleport to somewhere she has a line of sight to and can’t teleport indefinitely due to Aura. Overcharge, the ability to increase the strength of a particular limb for short release of energy. It would drain more aura the more energy is built up for a strike (this is the one I’m most unsure about). Premonition, the ability to see into the future. It would be used mostly in combat to see a few seconds into the future in order to predict an opponent’s move. The main drawback would be of course aura drain, and the reliability of each prediction: the further into the future he tries to see, the less reliable and clear the vision becomes. This would be because the distance into the future would increase the number of variables that need to be accounted for and because the future isn’t set in stone. The ability is also weaker in fights with many people because the number of people also increases the number of variables. What do you think? Would this work?
My brother and I made ocs with purposely broken semblances because we want to joke around with the ttrpg. We used schrodinger's cat, pavlovs dog, Neo from The Matrix, and my obsession with shadow magic in the Masquerade ttrpg: Schrodinger is a gunslinger (guns are revolvers that flip out into swords) who uses his semblance (called Schrodinger) to be everywhere at once and avoid death Kuro Ravencroft is my OC who can create portals to a "void" space that has no light, no air, and no end. He has a sword and shield where the shield doubles as a drum magazine for his single edged sword/machine gun Pavlov (still working out the first name) is a black lab faunus with his semblance requiring sound to activate having two parts: 1) "Condition" where he can make someone believe something and act a certain way in response. 2) "Acceptance" basically makes his target freeze in fear and not react to even being attacked. His weapons are two maces with one shaped like a dog bone and is a rocket launcher while the other has a bell on it and is a shotgun. Lucy is a rich city slicker with 2 cossack sabers that are also buffalo rifles. Her semblance absorbs all kinetic energy and she is able to either use it to augment her physical abilities or to redirect the momentum of an object (i.e., firing bullets back at the enemy)
I think the main problem I had is inspiration. While have made my OC's (which I don't think are all that good yet that I'm currently working brushing up that I feel like I went a little to fast upon making) I had trouble incorporating bits and elements of my inspiration without making them too similar or the same character. I'm still working on in but I hope in Improve. I'm gonna be honest I can't draw and seeing the millions of OC makes me jealous but while I did write their character I still feel like mine are underwhelming to others but I'm happy I tried as I'm big as fan of RWBY as everyone else so I want to make my own and put in the world of RWBY.
This video has already been pretty helpful in some ways im writing my own version of RWBY called Tales of Grimm and i have at least my OC team in mind Team PLDN (paladin) but currently im still working out some small stuff even if i mostly have an idea of what i want to do
Well idk how I found this video probably YT recommendations, but I quite enjoyed this video. And it helps with a character I was planning on making with the Kirin in Japanese mythology and this greatly helped with coming up with a semblance. Thanks for the video.
I love this video! Also there is something I would like to add and maybe you could touch on this in a future vid. The different types of semblances. I’ve noticed that there are a lot of different type of semblances that remind me of Pokemon in a way. In Pokemon there are lightning type, fire type, etc. in RWBY there are summoning semblances, speed semblances, different types of clone semblances, reality semblances and so much more. Wiess has a summoning type semblance. Ruby has a speed type semblance. Blake and Sun have clone type semblances, Qrow, Emerald and Clover have reality type semblances. Cinder, Neo and Glinda have creation type semblances. I think you guys get the point. There are plenty of other types but I don’t want to list them all. I think when creating an original semblance you should follow those types of semblances. The semblance I came up with is similar to Wiess’s summoning however he can only summon it when he is super angry (just like Yang). Semblance types is definitely something to keep in mind when creating an original character.
Things that bother me about OC's: Elemental and Transforming Semblances Ones that don't have Allusions Backstories that don't sound like it would fit into the RWBY Universe... (I mean I'm on a RWBY Amino and some OC's have great designs, weapons, semblances and stuff. But the amount of people who allude themselves into their OC is kinda annoying.) For Semblances some people use Grimm as an excuse for an OC getting it's semblance...
Hey, I'm new to the channel and I loved this video. I was trying to create an OC and this video helped me a lot and reinforced my idea of semblance: I got the idea of an anime character that I love that is Vector Manipulation. Basically semblance allows you to change the strength and direction of things that come into contact with the body. But each change drains from your aura and the greater the force of change, the greater the drain. I also thought about focusing on medium distance combat with pistols, the idea of the weapon is that direct combat can drain your aura faster by trying to reflect the damage received by reflex, and reflecting your own shots using the aura allows for more accurate shooting. Thanks for the video
Random comment: If you look at Mercury v Yang, there is no actual evidence that Mercury threw that match other than the fact that it worked out for Cinder's plan. If you look at the fight itself, there is no indication that Merc was holding back, in fact he came very close to knocking her out. My best guess is that he was either trying to win, but had the plan for if he did lose and that he was going to lose on purpose to another contestant down the line if he did beat Yang, or that he was going to try to pull the trick even if he won (where he would win, but still Em would make Yang think he was attacking her as he walked by her). The fact that Yang was as close to an aura break as she was is a good indication that he didn't throw the match on purpose.
Name: jack (last name unknown) Race: human Fairytale: Jack and the beanstalk Age: 19 Weapon: dual hatchet pistols Semblance: titan His parents sold him to a gang leader at the age of 12 to settle their debt, afterwards jack abandoned his last name, no longer considering them family. The leader soon discovered his talent in theft and trained him in theft, escape, combat and aura use. His ability the clean out a house and evade atlas security, earned him the moniker (nimble jack). One night he snuck onto an atlas supply ship with the intention to rob the schnee household but he was caught and pursued by winter schnee on a manticores. He attempts to escape were less than successful, though he did manage to the edge of the city. Before winter could arrest him, jack awaken his semblance that let him create, a mammoth sized Humanoid aura avatar. The shock to winter, allowed him land a good gigant Punch. He jumped off of the city with his semblance allowing him to survive the fall, he but passed out shortly after.
Question, Jack attempted to break into the Schnee house hold only to be spotted by Winter mid attempt, I'm going to assume that Jack was well into the city when Winter pursued him given it was mention that the chase was brought to an end at the edge of Atlas. How was Jack not immediately chased and captured given he was able to sneak into Atlas, evade capture and assaulted one of Atlas finest when his training is minimal in a location where Winter has advantage of terrain and superior training?
ShadowBlade972 while sneaking through city was thanks to his talent and skill, the gang weren’t just ordinary thieves and were actually quite infamous. Evading winter was series of events of pure luck though and even that was just. I wanted my character to have one claim to fame. And rather than it being that he could fight someone of the that level, it was that he could escape someone of the level.
Thats... Actually pretty good, the story is solid at first i through you were going a more edgy way but not at all, it makes a lot of sence, his semblance is powerful but not over powered, and the character is actually interesting, i actually want to hear more about him Good job kid, good job
A character in a world must be of the world, a character in a story must be of the story. If the character appears exempt from the world or story, then they're of no relevance to anyone except the character's creator, no matter how interesting they are. This is true for any character, your's and their's.
I really appreciate the vid! I've watched RWBY for 6 years and I never thought to make a team of my own. For now, my best idea is basing them all of the four Chinese beasts (Black Tortoise, Azure Dragon, Vermillion Bird, and White Tiger). P.S. When is the next character going to be revealed? You got me on the edge of my seat, man :)
Yeah like mine shiranami Silvia her weapon is a sythe and bow and arrow and her semblance is kinda similar to Ruby but instead of rose petals she turns into a stream of water I have started to make a backstory for her like her weapons name is Scylla because I based her off of charybdis from the Greek myths she is from Vale and she went to beacon four years before team RWBY does haven't quite gotten to her teammates or their team name yet
While I haven't really been looking too hard lately, it's nice to see/hear people still talking about ways to make a better OC for this fandom. As for an OC of my own I've toyed with since the beginning, the most finalized details I have for him would be that he's from a blacksmithing family with a semblance to mold and solidify his aura into armor that he or others can use. The thicker the armor, the smaller the covered area due to aura limitations.
For the faunus thing i kind of have a character idea like that difference is that he originally only had one but because of a mad scientist he now has 2
Hey dude, great video. You got pretty much everything covered when it comes to balancing an OC in RWBY :) When I started designing my first RWBY OC back in 2017 (Oh god its been 3 years already), one of my main focus points was balance. Having a characters that has their strengths and weaknesses, not only in combat, but also in their personality is important when creating a character that's interesting. I have created an entire RWBY OC team, because as I was working on my first one, various story ideas kept coming to me. Certain event that would happen, certain character interactions and dialog ,heck, I have even specific ideas for the finale in each volume, spanning over a three volume story line. But not only that, I have created antagonists (Currently being reworked) for them to fight, similar to team RWBY dealing with Torchwich and co. Right now, I'm working on reworking all of my RWBY OC's updating their looks and such. Iv half way there, currently working on the updated design of the final character, before moving on to the antagonists. If I could give a tip for designing an OC, its to take 2-3 characters from other media that fit the theme of the character you wish to make, then take inspiration from their looks, personality and weapons. Then, put your own spin on it. For example, my OC Scarlett is inspired by Jinx(League of Legends), Poharan (Blade and soul), and Gaige(Borderlands 2), sharing the theme of (Little girl, big gun). You can check her, and the rest of the team on my account, out here: www.deviantart.com/xsanaty/art/RWBY-OC-Team-SWET-Scarlett-Dahlia-profile-821935891 (Not to advertise my deviantart page, I just want to show my OC) Sorry for the long ramble. Hope you have a great day :)
I enjoy making RWBY characters based around a combat style. My current favorite is a guy with Gravity Knuckle Dusters whose Semblance is called Double Tap. His semblance lets him double the damage to an area he hits twice while his Knuckle Dusters apply Gravity Dust strips to his opponents so he can throw them off balance or just hit them a second time in that spot. He also has a similar Gravity function on a set of Metal Shin Guards. No long ranged combat, though he isn’t gonna try to start a fight that with an enemy before he’s in proximity
A few things on my oc. She is a Komodo Dragon faunus (the trait being the bite/teeth being poisonous) and her Semblance is, to keep this short, Yang's but elemental. She gets hit by a specific element and it allows her to like, use that element. For example, she gets burned, she can then produce fire. Limit is 1 element and the most recent element overrides the previous one.
I have two original characters that are twenty year old twins named Phita and Nami Burgundy Nami uses a small shield that fits on her left forearm and a double barrel shot gun that can be used as a mace. Nami's semblance allows her to phase but only as long as she can hold her breath.Phita uses her limbs as weapons as she is a very highly skilled close combat specialist.
Very good video, glad I cam across your channel. A lot of people like to hate on RWBY, my brother included, but I still adore the show. I know it has a lot of problems and inconsistencies but I still love it. RWBY seems to be well suited to people creating their own thing in fanfics or rewrites, there's a bunch out there. CelticPhoenix does a great job with fixing a lot of it's problems. I really like seeing what people can make using RWBY's building blocks.
One of my favourite OC’s is the guy can manipule water, and his weapon is trident, which heavily uses lightning dust. Basically he uses water to launch jets of water, or flinging his hand and sending very fast shots of water, or his trident uses lightning from the trident to shock people in close combat, he isn’t very fast as the trident is large, so he fights by swinging it around himself allowing him to seem fast up close but is not so much in travelling. This character can’t handle ranged opponents that well, and he can be overwhelmed if the opponent is fast enough around them.
What about transformation semblances for example the oc i mentioned earlier his semblance is to transform into a biomechanicly enhance version of himself with a minor second ability to charge his remaining aura into his arms and legs to increase the power of his attacks also he can absorb (eat) dust to infuse that types effects into his close range attacks.
Thank you SO MUCH for this video!! I've been struggling a little when making my rwby oc's and this is just what I needed! It can be really hard coming up with a design that fits in the canon world :( I personally came up with a really good OC, not too OP for her age ahaha but the hardest part was coming up with a name that resembled her color..... And now I need to come up with 3 more OC's to finish the team, it's gonna take a while and I was kinda ready to give up, so this video showed up at the rght time for me, it gave me motivation! I'm gonna follow every step you mentioned, thank you so much!
This is put together really well, thanks for the advice on writing OC's Ah, what the heck, since everyone is doing it, here's an OC of my own. Avarice, a greedy, glutenous Grimm Mimic. Named for the cardinal sin, Greed. Based off a Mimic from D&D. Yes, I know you're gonna scream non-canon, but hear me out. So... there seem to be a lot of Grimm out there that Salem seems to have made or altered in some way, like the bug used to sap the Maiden powers for Cinder, of the creepy tentacle orb thing she uses as a crystal ball/ viewing glass. What if those were only the successful experiments? Meet Avarice, Salem's attempt at creating the perfect spy gone wrong. Backstory: Salem wanted a spy she could trust completely. Humans and Faunus were... unreliable, so she had a great idea: Make a Grimm that can turn into mundane objects. No one would suspect the lamp in the corner of listening in to your conversation, or planning to brutally murder you, right? Only, problem is, after many failed attempts, she resorted to using her own blood in the creation process. The result? A near-sentient Grimm that can hide anywhere, and has a hunger for both flesh and shiny things. These impulses eventually led it to abandon Salem's orders in favor of growing to realize it's full potential, and eat to its hearts content. Starts out kinda dumb and has to take orders from mommy to survive, but lives for years, growing into its own being capable of being self sustaining. Combat abilities: As a Grimm, no Aura and no Semblance, but can shape-shift and copy stuff really well. Kinda small and weak to start out, but as it eats, it gets more biomass to work with. Balanced by having the shape-shifting power need biomass for fuel, and an actual need to eat or else it will starve. Imagine the bed you are resting on suddenly opening into a toothy maw, and you get the idea. Hit and run tactics are it's best friend, and it is perfectly willing to cannibalize other nearby Grimm to heal itself and gain their abilities. Basically, Alex Mercer, but with even less empathy. Base form looks a bit like a headcrab, or the Mimics from Prey.
Ice manifestation, can create ice in various shapes, similar to Weiss's ice glyphs. Because tripping people and causing them to slide into a solid object is fun.
My character's semblance is psychokinesis. he uses his mind to move objects and his weapon. focusing hard enough can also give him some limited levitation. extensive use of his semblance can cause migraines/headaches, and can even cause him to pass out if he pushes himself over his limits. I'm still working on other applications that don't sound too OP
I wish people would make videos like this for all fandoms. Having one of these for Dragon Ball would be super amazing. You, sir, have earned a like and a subscription from me.
9:47 the only time I've ever made an oc with a time related semblance is to have a passive semblance(like qrow, clover, and yang-ish?) in which she perceives time slower, about 4 times as slower in fact, which plays a part in her character of being easily bored and needing constant entertainment. Her weapon compliments her semblance as well with it having a small hard light shield, being a shotgun, that can transform into small batons. Being versatile for defense and quick close combat only if you have good enough reflexes, and oh wow she has a semblance that helps her with this, it's almost as if she made this weapon for herself. She can also expend her aura quicker in order to slow down time even further if she somehow needed to, but she rarely does it in fear of being stuck in time, even if she knows it's completely impossible due to the fact she's tested it before and pushed her semblance to its limits but even with 99% of her aura used she only slowed it enough that a couple minutes passed for her while someone else experienced a second, which of course isn't very helpful when you're on the verge of aura breaking and can't move any quicker than before. Also she lost an eye when she discovered her semblance, I love irony. She acts as if she's Nora, but she's really a combination of Cinder and Ren that thinks of herself as a wannabe Neo. Skill level is about in the middle of yang right before her hand was cut off, and emerald without her semblance. I have no idea why I suddenly started ranting off about all this when I just wanted to mention "time perceiving semblance. #adhd yayyyyyy
I have an OC named Felix fluorite who is the combination of Felix the cat and puss in Boots with his someone's being that he can store basically anyting within his bag by converting matter into energy essentially and he can call upon that whenever he needs but there is a limit to how much he can store the bigger and more complex the object he's stores the more it takes to convert and the more energy it takes up
I just came up with the most simple of semblances. Dust Consumption - the ability to consume dust to restore aura... aka like a mana potion XD. In the course of development can be able to use the ability of the type of dust consumed (Get lightning effect from lightning dust, fire from fire dust etc) for a short time, in the amount equal to the dust consumed.
13:00 weapon concept (gun functions) for Tactical Recoil Action Dual function: Boost/Shoot Example: Vita from Lyrical Nanoha Basically the gun side has two load functions: to power up weapon attacks or load bullets to shoot enemies. How quick or complicated it works depends on the weapon and the character Also read: Weaponized Exhaust
I had a friend that was wanting to do a RWBY Pathfinder campaign (fell through) but got the base for an OC. The idea is a family of vampires so the semblance is hereditary and called "bloodline." While powerful and very versatile (with some becoming "lords"), it drains both blood and aura so they can tire very fast. They also have such a unique power they developed specific gauntlets to be a base for all their weapons. They can cut the hand and mix it with dust (1 at a time for stability) but again, you are not going to last long using blood as a fuel source.
I'm working on a new fic and this came in handy. Especially since I made 16 OCs for the story. The fanfic will mostly focus on 4 of them with the rest being secondary background characters, one of them is going to be the kind of character that is proclaimed/hinted to be the strongest but never fights, until they do for one deus ex Machina moment
Fun oc idea Semblance aura strings :think Chakra strings from naruto + hermit purple from jojo. Pushing aura into an object can create strings that can stick to anything and cannot be torn by strength alone however can be cut or attacked to detach them. Weapon: handcannon high caliber dust rounds small trench knife if opponents get to close. Background: after town in mistral was attacked by grimm, he was saved by Qrow and because of Qrow's tracking abilities brought him back to his family , wanted to be like him so he joined beacon to emulate his hero and possibly learn how to track like him
I have a character named Lucinia Calla with the semblance "Aura Nullification". Essentially, it works in a similar manner to Tyrian's "Aura Disruption" and Gillian's "Aura Siphon" in that it messes around with another combatants aura in some way. However, Calla is able to completely remove a person's aura if they are in the immediate vicinity of her (and I mean incredibly close). Here's the catch, by activating her semblance, she loses her own aura temporarily for however long she is disabling the aura of her opponent, effectively turning the fight into a deathmatch. Her weapon compliments her semblance, being a dust-infused whip/lasso that she can use either from a distance, or to pull opponents closer and bind so that she can activate her semblance (she is definitely a close-quarters fighter considering her semblance essentially demands a near-mastery of martial arts and hand to hand combat). I honestly am excited for when I finally make my teams (yes, plural) and share them with others via a series of 3D Animations (I'm a first year student who _just_ finished my first semester, fun times), as fight choreography and character design is my interest, and Monty Oum (by extent RWBY and RvB) are massive inspirations.. NOTE: Calla's aura is inherently lower due to the nature of her semblance, as I felt if she had a regular amount of aura that it'd be too powerful in tandem with her semblance.
i agree with a lot of this video! my one tiny tiny critique is that it should also be said that making an op/alternate universe oc is okay in its own right!! an au isnt exactly a bad thing.
I would love to learn more. Turquoise is a fanus from the unknown region, north of Vacuo and west of Atlas. I’m wanting fanus to have dragon wings, tail and facial scales. Tail is meant for balance and sleeping upside down only. Facial scales are just for looks. Turquoise (Turq) for short is untrained and loves to sing. At age ten semblance was explosive unlocked by a bandit&Grimm attack named the Frozen Voice. Weapons are a six shot revolver and a harp.
This is the nicest way you could have said “Don’t be OP”
I’ll never forget the time I hosted an RP sever for a RWBY zombie apocalypse. The zombies came in levels of power labeled D-A, weakest to strongest. Of course, there was one gender-bent Ruby who insisted he killed 40 A-class zombies
I have tried many times with many franchises and it is damn hard
More like the longest but hey whatever
@@Rainart520 Haha, you always have to forget about the top tier characters and start by establishing an average. I think V1-V3 Ren might be a good example of what the average Beacon student **should** be capable of, he's somewhere between Cardin (D tier) and Blake (B- tier since she's a rogue).
Eh, op characters can be pretty fucking awesome, they just have to be done right.
tbh, this video should just be titled, “How to Not Make a Mary Sue” because that’s the vibe I’m getting
Yeah I think that's pretty much what it is...but in a nice way XD
@@dennissutton2014 you read my mind
He mainly talks about not having them interacting with the canon characters
@@shelbybayer200 plus how to make character development
Tbh I don't really like using the term "Mary Sue" a lot anymore because that well got poisoned years ago.
tldr, “And if everyone’s super....NO ONE will be.”
You forgot to laugh
15:01 "there is no perfect RWBY character" what about shopkeep? he can run multiple businesses across Remnant
Reminds me off that guy with the paper bag for a head in the amazing world of gumball who had almost every job
You mean Larry "forgothislastname". The reason he has a lot of jobs is because of his rent payment dues, and each jobs barely pays him enough to pay for it cuz he haven't finished highschool. Man what a sad character. LMAO
Edit: Finally, I remember.His name's Larry Needlemeyer.
The shopkeep might be the only canon character that even OCs can interact with
So kind of like the merchant from resident evil 4
Crack Theory: He actually just has a TON of brothers. Some animals give birth to huge litters, do we have confirmation that shopkeek is a single human, or is he multiple faunuses
Power balancing was the first thing that I think of. The show already has enough power balancing issues, don’t add more with an OC
I always write out a bio for myself where I make sure that for every strength I give a character, I add a weakness, just to keep things leveled out. One of my characters has a doctorate in Robotics and Engineering, but is very sickly and has seizures quite frequently. Her semblance allows her to see 5-15 seconds into the future, but she can't control when it happens. Her weapon works similarly to Velvet's in which it makes hard light dust constructs of weapons in the known huntsman database, but they can't replicate semblance effects or take many hits and she can only have a certain number of them out at once. Things like that.
@@DarkTiger83 everything good, but why seizures, that sounds like you just wanted to give him a weakness and weakness for weakness sake can also become a problem (unless it has something to do with his backstory of course)
@@DarkTiger83 Maybe having a mind grain is a good idea instead of seizures, perhaps they can be induced because of her power being used to look into the future and if it is forced too many times it can cause severe damage. Bleeding from the eyes or nose, that sort of thing.
James Brennan like when a Uchiha uses their Sharingan too long
I think I managed to do quite good with my Team. Team FIRE.
Fenris' weapons are his two drones Halberd, and Aegis. He also has a Waraxe Shotgun. His semblance is a glyph that blocks others from using their own semblance while he can see them.
Ivan's semblance allows him to bend and reshape metallic objects with ease. While he primarily utilizes these objects he does carry a Battle-Axe in case he doesn't have access to metal.
Raiden is the most interesting. He heavily utilizes dust. Covering his body are dust channels which connect to an apparatus on his back. He does not have a semblance.
And Erebos. His weapon is basically the ODM Gear from attack on titan, specifically the one seen in the final season. The main difference being the guns. The guns are based off of the Kriss Vector SMG, they use hardlight dust rounds so he doesn't need to reload while in combat. It can also produce a Hardlight blade if needed.
I've thought of an OC who's a faunus.
Her semblance is "Chill", Which when her aura comes in contact with someone else it gives them a euphoric effect making them more relaxed.
I thought of this yesterday. What do you think?
I like it. Having the user need to come in contact with someone to use the semblance makes sense. Not broken and stays within the limits of aura, I think it fits well 😊
Wait, what if someone was already chill and laid back? Does it just have no effect? Is there a chill limit overflow? Do they become so chill they become a human "This is fine" meme?
Not making fun of it, it's a really unique idea, just making a joke
when i first read Chill i immediately thought "oh maybe a reverse of Cinder's semblance", then when i read the effect i went "oh so it's that type of Chill, like a stoner making semblance" lol. i'm joking about that last part
Robert Clark
You’ll become so chill it somehow goes all the way around to putting you into a blood rage.
I came up with a character as well, kinda been writting his story for a while, hoping for some opinions.
Albus T. Oshen (Albastru is Rumanian for Blue)
Gave him a semblance that allows him to increase his power and speed for short periods of time before running out of aura, also breaking his aura shield, he can focus the power and transfer it into an object/weapon, the side effect is that both the object and the limb he used to transfer the power will break.
Kind of re-thinking a lot of the story I wrote since I saw the video, also, even though the semblance may seem strong as heck at first, it gets worse and worse since the character tends to damage his body during fights as a last resort.
Great video, thanks a lot.
A workaround for the time thing: just increase your character’s perception of time, so that for them everything else is in slow motion, but it doesn’t effect anyone else, and doesn’t break reality
Sadly, that doesn't mean the character can move "Faster"....
But on the other hand.... That is one good way to use in a pinch....like an exam. More "time" to answer questions.
It’s like when Ruby used the relic to stop time, but instead of completely stopping its just significantly slowed down, and all they can really do in that state is think really fast/ analyze the situation
Or you know you could make it so that you can only stop/slowdown time within a certain radius, kinda like Geryon from DMC5
With it's ability to do "localized time manipulation".
I just made the most bullshit semblance with it that basically made my character Bullseye. I.e. he can and WILL use any object as a throwable to kill you. And with his perception being that fast he will be mostly hitting you and probably hurting you badly
@@eugene12310mobile so basically diego from the umbrella academy
One thing I always had trouble with for making teams in general, is trying to not make characters be able to do EVERYTHING. If you have an OC that can do EVERYTHING awesomely then you need to ask why they even need a team in the first place. There needs to be some sort of drawback, which can be something in terms of personality, lack of skill, etc.
Solution: Don't put them in a team. Make them occasionally interact with others or do things with other characters, but have them primarily operate solo. That way you don't have to waste your time trying to find ways to make other characters seem useful while the MC is solving the current problem all by themselves.
Honestly, I agree, I feel like the team should hold some kind of purpose to the character. You could have a villian who simply uses their 'team' as expendable objects (like sending them on super dangerous missions and not even seeming affected about them being harmed) or as borderline errand boys/girls. It helps to hate someone who is so condescending and cruel by showing how they treats their 'allies'. Whether they are open about thier manipulation or not just depends on the character.
I’m working on making an OC team based on figures from American Folklore, and this video has been a big help.
The Allusions in play are Paul Bunyan, Annie Oakley, John Henry, and Johnny Appleseed.
Alex here, admin of the RWBY Fanon Wiki. Thanks for the shoutout to our wiki/guidelines! Glad to see someone appreciates the effort that went into our rules and what they entail. Most people just say they're too much and quit without ever taking the time to understand we're trying to have our OCs fit *within the universe* of the show. That or they purposefully want to make a god character that overpowers everything. Usually one of those two.
Quick question regarding Faunas traits, one of my OCs is from the harsh deserts of Menagerie, where they say it is too dangerous, I had the idea that Menagerie already had a Faunas population that lived in the desert in a similar way to many Native American tribes, most being hunter-gatherers, and a bunch of different tribes of different sizes, and due to the high concentration of faunas and increased danger they adapted and gained more animal traits. Would this setup work for a reason/excuse for multiple animal traits?
Fortunately there are people out there who like to do things as fitting as possible ^^ How do we suggest a character on your wiki ? Is that done by simply creating a new page, filling it and waiting for approval ? I'd eventually like to put one of my OC teams there.
I have a question
Will you be making short stories about your OC going on adventures on this channel?
Keep up the good work!
I would like that
Yes I will be making stories for Team SRPH! Once the next character is revealed (hopefully within 2 weeks) stories will begin!
For next year's vital festival. Are you going to make videos on OC characters that will be attending the arena?
@@PhoenixNight That's the type of shit I like to see, good luck man.
Awww man ... you beat me to this question. I wanted to ask the same question after we get the full team reveal
Hey Phoenix I believe putting all the OC videos into one playlist would be very helpful for people sort of guiding the person while designing their oc.
This video has given me some ideas for my characters thanks for the help!
Glad I was able to help! And I definitely will have them all in one playlist for easy access 😊
Me, someone who writes OCS in an already established world for three years: Interesting.
9:45
The World, Star Platinum, Killer Queen, King Crimson, Made in Heaven: "Allow us to introduce ourselves."
Those don’t use energy or aura so they’re fine
Yeah almost everyone creating an OC goes through the Time Manipulation route
I get where he's coming from, though. In Jojos people with crazy powers happen all the time, like you get characters that can age people until they die, fungi that rips your body apart if you go up, powers that turn your soul into collectible objects if you lose a game... yes. PowerS, as in more than one.
Throwing something like Heaven's Door into RWBY would be really cool, but it also feels super unfitting? Most of RWBY's semblances are generally there just to enhance fight scenes and let characters do creative things for their specific fights. So if your powers change what a fight scene even is then that's not quite in the spirit of the show, right?
@@dethhollow
Brah, the comment is like a year old and a JoJoke.
@@Gargoyle9000 Yeah, but fuck it, it's still worth mentioning because some people honestly don't actually know this crap.
Making a OC is definitely a hard process, but for me I like to look at mythology and legends and try and fit them into the universe (Billy the Kid, Cu From the Ulster cycle, etc) I’ve made up some stories that would be considered fairy tales in universe, my main OC Eion Cu which is largely based off Cu, the story is about a lance wielded who fought off a horde of Grimm to protect a town only to die in the process, though he saved the town as a result of his actions
Mine is named after a Hindu fire god
Ooh I am very intrigued to hear your take on how to properly do this 😁.
This screams so much "YES!" for me, since my channel avatar/OC was designed with this in mind.
I sincerely hope Legends of Remnant piques your interest, as my OC comic series is gonna try and act as a sort of "Expanded Universe" take on the world of RWBY, without breaking the canon of the overall story.
I have a team, Team GODS. Try beating that 😀.
God of light
Ozma
Darkness god of darkness.
Salem
Hahaha strongest team ever!
Wow I never knew thank you
let the games begin
The real question is, is this the strongest team, or is it the weakest?
You have some people who REEEAALLLY don't like each other on that team.
What color would that be? Lol
*Stops time*
*instantly dies*
*TIme resumes*
my oc is a cowboy like character from the borders of vacuo with the semblance to make dust but can only do so on a small scale, so only the size of bullets for his revolver
yeehaw
I love it yeehaw🤠🤠🤠🤠🤠🤠🤠🤠🤠🤠🤠🤠
Fremy Speedraw the gunpowder saint.
Thanks dude, was writing my OC's just as you uploaded. Trying to work out what the curriculum of Shade would be like.
Dude, let me know your thoughts, I have multiple OCs who either came from Vacuo or the super dangerous deserts of Menagerie.
Same, I'm trying to fit my oc perfectly into the RWBY world.
@@Cobalt_Rain Well it's all a big work in progress, I'm questioning my balancing between combat and traditional academics, but that's whatever for right now. I have a handful of ideas for things like 'school projects' and what clubs you might find. But I've only really been serious in writting all this down for about a month even if they're ideas I've had for a while, so it's all still a jumbled.
For the big picture I'm trying make Shade be the most 'street smart' of the academies in a sense. Beacon, Atlas and Haven are all ahead of Shade in terms of better teachers and staff, higher budget and higher standards for passing, but Shade is built to be the most practical in what one can expect from being a Huntsman, making the transition from student to adult the most seamless.
There's an excessively heavy emphasis on combat, with this things like world history and sciences just being there just out of obligation. Electives would include supplemental strengths, like learning better aura or spec into Dust usage if a student wants to branch out and find their niche more, but they're not mandatory.
All students at some point or another is learning survival in varied wild environments such as desert, forests, and tudras, as well as how to handle a crisis in multiple settings like on boats, planes, populated villages etc. Certain combat classes will help students develop skills specific to them, but will largely force them to be a little versed in every area, but not necessarily an expert. Like if your disarmed, you don't have to be a pro boxer, but you're expected to at least know enough hand to hand to beat the ghetto kid who likes to pick fights with strangers at the bus stop.
@@bluesphere4860 Nice! I like how you are also trying to set it up more like an actual school, whether it be the jr. high down the street or Hogwarts.
On the story I'm working on, most of the characters have semblances based on their fairytale. Although they may appear mundane, most of their abilities are simple, yet reliable.
This is really useful, thank you for this. I'm a beginner when it comes to OCs so I wanted to run my first one by you real quick. Tron Starzan, a 19-year-old, 3rd-year student, lived in the kingdom of Atlas with his sister Janus. Their mother, Tanya, was a high-ranking military soldier and was distant with her kids. Therefore, they would constantly try to compete for her attention. They both wanted to be huntsman, but each had different strengths. Tron was better at physical combat, but Janus was better at technology and strategy, and when it came time to make their weapons, they got so caught up in their competition that an accident occurred that led to both children getting injured. Tron got metal implants in his arms and a lot of scars while Janus was permanently paralyzed in her legs. Realizing that they had gone too far, the two of them decided to try talking things out and decided to collaborate on a weapon that Tron would use while Janus stayed behind and worked on becoming an engineer of sorts similar to Penny's dad, but focusing more on blacksmithing weapons and teaching other huntsmen in training the dangers of weapon creation. While their mother is still furious at both of them for what happened, she has worked to be more caring and less cold and has genuinely become proud of them both overtime. Tron's weapon is twofold: First is a sword called Metall Engel (German for metal angel) that has a slight electrical charge to it and his metal implants on his arms also work as a weapon of sorts which have retractable claws and cartridges to hold small dust viles. Tron's semblance is called upgrade. He can take out bits of his aura and temporarily upgrade the technology around him any way he wants. However, this is limited by a couple of factors: Firstly, the more complicated or longer the upgrade is, the more aura he needs to lose. Secondly, he will sometimes need to have extra parts handy to make upgrade work ( for example if he wanted his sword to have a grenade launcher feature, he'd need to have ammo on his person), Lastly, he has to have a solid idea of how the upgrade would work in his head, otherwise, it will malfunction. Tron is based on Ultron, specifically from the MCU. It's not perfect I know, but I wanted to get your opinion on the base idea so I can work on the rest of my team called JSTR.
This vid is the definition of perfect timing
I've been working on a character for a year and a half, the character is based off yin the dark side of yang, yin is often represented by a dragon so I made a red eyed crocodile skink fannus, but people say I should pick something else sense it's not very well known. I spent 2 hours talking with someone who ultimately said my idea sucked and I should try doing something else.
I don't see anything wrong with my choice but now I've stopped working on my oc as I don't know if I should even share my idea's anymore.
First off, the faunas idea is AWESOME. Second, fairy/myth/history/etc inspiration isn't required. Also, it is OK if people don't know about it, I guarantee that when most people heard that JNPR was based off of historic/myth characters who cross-dressed were very confused because while nearly everyone knows Mulan, lots of people know about Joan of Arc, hardly anyone knew stuff when it came to Achilles besides the fact that he can't be hurt except on his ankle, and lots of people know about Thor, Marvel Thor, Original Thor? Few people know his myths.
Also, The Ace Ops, few know their inspiration. Aesop's Fables maybe sound familiar to some, and the tortoise and the hare is an easy deduction once you know that, the rest, well those are very difficult, even Phoenix isn't sure with Vine and Elm.
Don't stop sharing your ideas, it allows you to receive feedback on the good, the bad, and the ugly. Learn from the constructive criticism, ditch the destructive. DON'T STOP WRITING!!!
In fact, tell me about your character, I'm studying to be an editor for novels/writing my own. I also love to help/hear about other's OCs.
Don't let anyone steal your vision. There are cannon characters who are from obscure references, yet once you learn what they are, they're all the more cool because of the obscurity.
Please keep writing.
16:25
I’d like to hear about it, especially the semblance
Red eyed crocodile sounds Awesome! I would love to see a character like that! It fits very well being based on a dragon. As long as the faunus trait is based on an animal that exists, then there is no problem at all. Regardless of what others may say I love your idea! And it seems a few others do too 😊
I had an OC whose semblance basically forced her to be on a team even though she wanted to be independent (it was part of her character development). It was called Spotlight (for one minute every single enemy within a certain radius would immediately and completely focus all of their attention on attacking her, ignoring any other stimulus e.g. environmental hazards, other opponents, a giant pit in front of them etc)
While designing my oc team, i've decided to use a cohesive theme for all of them. That theme being, nightmares and dreams. Right now i'm taking a break from designing them. Not because i gave up, but because i want to re-examine my approach for them.
This is helpful for not just RWBY OCs but characters im general, in an existing universe or original. I gonna use your advice for my own original universe when creating characters, I especially liked the consequences of abilities advice.
Got a few characters effected by this, their abilities basically have a timer and they become exhausted and need to recover when that timer runs out. This limits how powerful they are as it's temporary.
You acctually helped me a lot, i like theese ideas and im really happy that my 3 OCs fit on them. And i kinda didnt know about the color name thing, i didnt even knew monty was the creator of rwby i made some search and... he died? Man it feels bad, i love this show and i really feel bad, but again thank you very much.
I'm glad my video helped! Yes Monty did pass on far too soon, back before Volume 3 was released. By expanding on the amazing world he created I hope we can always carry him with us as we keep moving forward 😊
*Psst!* Add colored middle names. It's cheap but it works XD
This video actually helps a lot. I’ve never truly made a pure OC (a character that wasn’t inspired by a different character) and I think this helps a ton with that and what I should do. Thanks a bunch for this!
I made my team years ago and although my team leader is absolutely broken the only other thing that I pushed boundaries with is I gave a character with split personalities 2 semblances that have the same activation root and both take the same toll on the character.
Diavlo?
As someone whose been on the Fanon wiki for 6 years (and has more WIP OCs than she knows what to do with), I love this video. Thank you, and I am totally gonna pay attention to your OCs.
A handy tool for the CNR that I use is the Behind the Name website. Works great for searching up names that mean stuff like "stream" or "deer" or "ash".
The “No timestop semblances” thing is something that I’ve actually been considering for ages. There’s no easy way to make them actually useful and balanced at the same time. My idea for a tenuous solution to this is essentially just The Mindscape from Gravity falls.
You’re not stopping time, but you are dipping into higher dimensional space, it’s easier to power balance than time-travel for the same reason that it’s more difficult to write: the entire concept of 4th-dimensional space is an absolute fustercluck to comprehend from our perspective without a very long-winded lead up.
The simplest way to balance "timestop" is to restrict both the scope of targeting and the nature of the ability: Rather than time itself, what they stop is the perception of time of the targets. The targets need to be within your limited range, there's likely little control around preventing friendly fire, and there's probably a few more nerfs necessary around things already in motion(flight, etc.)
Quickening one's personal time is also possible with several downsides built-in, but you'll never really reach timeSTOP that way.
Time is relative, not absolute, things like speed and gravity can severly affect your perception and actual sense of time, take as an example someone inside a car vs someone sit down in the street, from the perspective of the person that is in the street the person inside the car is moving but from the perspective of the person inside the car he is sit down, he is in rest
Now, if time is relative and everyone has a personal perception of time, what would happen is someone has their own perception of time separated from the rest of the universe, an analogy (a very bad one btw but is the only one that occurred to me) is, lets imaginé that time is like a train, always on track, never stopping, now, what would happen if someone got outside of the train, suddenly they exist outside everyone elses time, not stopping the entire time of the universe, just, existing outside of it
Now this has certain very interesting concequences, but thats a way you can create a time stopping character without breaking every rule about the conservation of energy
Hey Phoenix it’s Eternal it’s been a while been busy with things but I have been keeping watch over your content. I am glad you are growing into your own and doing well for yourself and being safe.
Thank you! Glad to see you commenting again 😊
Phoenix/Night it’s good to be back and I am glad too I’ll be posting more on my channel also now that everything is in order.
Honestly I kinda grew out of making an oc overpowered and not having them have weaknesses especially in recent years all my favorite stories have the main characters problems just thrown at them all at the same time. That struggle and to see them go through that pulls on my heart strings. Ive fallen for that type of thing. Low key sadistic I want to make my ocs go through that
I do enjoy that you emphasize a canon OC character. As I’m currently making my second for a story I’m planning to write, they will be having a mythical Faunus trait. The story containing this character is an AU and by that not meant to exist in a world of other OCs. Still though even beyond that this video certainly has several good points to help people when making characters.
My OC’s semblance is called aura reactor,being that he is able to manipulate his electron aura. For his weapons I gave him nanobots since they work well with his semblance.
Think of him as a much weaker magneto.
Weaker or Stronger than Pyrrha?
Significantly weaker, he tops out at a max size of about microwave. This limit is also the reason for the nanobots weapon of choice.
Dude I love the Phoenix as well. I finally found someone who enjoys them as well. Subscribed
Big tip I always use when thinking of characters: how could they be defeated? What are their flaws? What are they bad at? Are they bad at long range or close range fighting? Do their semblence help them in their fighting style? Are they better at fighting or better at aura manipulation, or maybe better at using their semblence? Is their semblence a support offense or defense semblence? Is it a passive or active semblence? Is it activation based or emotional based? What are their character flaws? Are they too prideful to back away from a fight? Maybe they dont want to fight with a group because they feel like they are better alone, or maybe their semblence is better for one on one fighting but is worse in team fights? How do they fight without their semblences?
Think of how they are the worst at stuff, instead of what they are the best at. The best points will come along in the process of thinking of their worst points
Can I tell you about the guy I came up with?
@@thomasraines1396 sure id love to hear it!!!
@@Ss15996 alright.
My guy is a Bat-Hawk Faunus (his trait being his taloned feet) named Red, he was trained to be an assassin but ended up becoming a Bounty Hunter, his semblance is Tactile Telekinesis (Telekinesis that only works when a person has touched an object) (it doesn’t work on anything alive, he can only affect things with 100 meters and he can only use it on one thing at a time), he’s based primarily off Jonah Hex (can be extremely brutal, uses whatever he can to win, is saved more often then not by people he helped in the past, however unlike Jonah he’s extremely approachable and fun loving).
His fighting style is a combination of Drunken Boxing and Drunken Sword and his weapon a sword that transforms into a bow and arrow with various dust infused arrows, and finally he’s from Mistral (I’ve thought about having him be from Vacuo keeping with the Jonah Hex theme and where (I believe) such level of brutality would be accepted in a modern setting). I even gave him the “became a Huntsmen to learn how to kill Huntsmen” thing that Qrow and Raven had as it would make jobs easier if he has to go up against one.
So what do you think?
@@thomasraines1396 so hes good at upclose fighting as a bounty hunter/assasin but also has a bow and arrow, how accurate is he with it? Maybe his sword should be a dagger that transforms into a sword, fitting more with the assasin upbringing, perhaps a throwing dagger he can manipulate with his semblence as a good far away option, maybe he hides in trees using his taloned feet to spy on others allowing him better grip on branches
@@Ss15996 I’ve brought up to my friends about him using his talons to hang upside from stuff to give him a good advantage.
As for how good he is with his bow, I would say he’s an expert and whatever shots he thinks (or realistically can’t make) he’ll use his semblance to move the arrow into the right position, he also mixes and matches the dust to get better combinations which makes it easier to screw with people.
How’s that?
Thanks for the shoutout to the Fanon Wiki, Phoenix! I'm one of the reviewers there, and it seems you brought some people our way. Much love
I was happy to! You all do so much work behind the scenes, I really appreciate it!
9:29 - 11:14 The fairy tales my oc is base off of is Urashima Tarō and the the King of Kusasthali. What am I supposed to do?
I want the semblance matching with the fairy tales.
Skipping time change the rules of the universe in to ways one just change the universe it self the other just win every fight ever.
Great video Phoenix/night. As someone who recently got into character designs and starting to work on my own ocs for RWBY, and I mostly agree with the things you were saying, like the weapons thing where it can’t be excessive and that the characters can’t be busted or insanely op depending on their skill and age. For one of my OCS named iron prime, he’s powerful and skilled, being good with blades and hand to hand combat and being a good shot, but he isn’t invincible as he doesn’t have a semblance or even an aura due to his physical condition, and if went up against people as skilled or more skilled than he is, he has a high chance of losing due to him being a sort of glass cannon, but even with that problem he can get back up and fight. The only thing I don’t bother with is the naming thing since I really don’t often like the names that are often restrictive. but one thing I think you could’ve included in the video would be their personality traits based on design, semblance, the tale that the creator got inspired from, or what they went through, like being in the Great War. other than that great video man, and due to my new fond of creativity for some modifications to the weapons of my OCS
When you cover semblances can you cover ways to avoid basically making them quirks from mha? I definitely struggle making them aura based
I have the same problem with sharingan abilities... I keep trying to make either Kamui or Susanoo into a semblance it's a struggle sometimes lol
@@visualbliss9993 The way I did that with Obito is I gave him the Phasing portion only and limited the amount of time he could use it. His Aura isn't amazingly incredible, so he can only phase like that for about 30seconds before getting tired, so he turns it on and off frequently.
Yes I can definitely cover that! Keeping aura in mind as well as proper limitations is difficult when designing semblances and I'll try to address as much as I can 😊
My personal rule for making semblances not feel like quirks is to balance them with the power of the users aura instead of giving them some thematic drawback. The general result of this is semblances seem more powerful than quirks when you just describe the ability.
Take one of my girl’s, Blanche, for example she has a dust based semblance that gives her the ability to reshape any metal that has been infused with any kind of dust as if it were liquid using her mind. In my own head canon a semblance that relies on dust also conveys to its user the ability to use glyphs, so Blanche also has this ability. To balance these abilities in my story I have given her the smallest aura out of anyone in the story, she is a literal glass cannon, and must be protected by her allies. To this end, I gave her sister Noir the ability to create walls out of her aura this allows her to reach out and block shots anywhere on the battlefield, but at a cost to her aura. Noir can also infuse these walls with different types of dust to create other types of walls which can be used, for example to minimize the damage to her aura by using earth dust or hard-light dust.
These are just a few of my semblance ideas and how I try to give them that unique RWBY flavor?
This is wonderful. As someone who has been moderating community rules on RWBY original characters (back when Google+ was a thing) and designing (/constantly redesigning) my own for circa five years now, I found that you covered everything in a clear, informative, engaging manner. I cannot wait to hear you go into specifics on different aspects of design and character building - it'll be an awesome resource for people.
A resource is exactly what I hope these videos can become for people. As someone who also moderates OC designs, I'm really glad you think my video is clear and informative. I really look forward to the amazing characters that can be brought to life and how they will bring so much more color to the World of RWBY. 😊
Neo is so beloved because everyone wants a lick of that neopolitan ice cream--
Stuff like this should be much more common istg
Mary Sues are so common in RWBT fanfictions; I've read all sorts from a Silver-Eyed Warrior with amazing Semblance and Ren-like Aura abilities who could match Adam and basically outclass Team RWBY at everything they do, to a character with the Semblance to copy other semblances, who eventually went on to absorb Qrow's transformation magic and Amber's Maiden powers, and discover Ozpin's secret war all on his own.
But these powers are cool in moderation, so when writing these types of characters I always have a caveat to their power level and weapons. For example, two of my OCs:
The first has the Semblance _Envy;_ the ability to copy other Semblances, however he cannot copy magic and if his Aura breaks he 'forgets' every Semblance he has previously copied, and must rebuild his stock of powers. Additionally, his weapon is a spear that separates into a staff and dagger, with no Dust powers; he's a member of the White Fang in Mantle, and has very limited access to Dust. He is based on the poem 'Envy' by Mary Lamb.
The second is a Silver-Eyed Warrior. Though he is more experienced in using his eyes than Ruby, due to being taught by his father and older sister, he lost his family as well as one of his eyes to an agent of Salem (not Cinder), making his eyes simply less powerful. Furthermore, his Semblance is _Soothing Tone_ which allows him to calm people with his voice. It isn't as effective as Ren's Tranquility when hiding Grimm, but it has a persuasive effect. Either way, it isn't very useful in a direct fight. He is based on Orpheus.
And I _never_ give a main character Telekinesis, not in RWBY or any other media. No protagonist should have too much power.
Anyway, I can't wait to see more of these videos!
Before the Grimm Campaign stuff got released, I worked on a modified DND 5E version for RWBY. Even now, I still use that when making new characters, purely because it helps to make sure they're somewhat balanced. This also included a system for making weapons & semblances with a points cost so that no weapon/character could do everything
I have a few questions regarding my OCs:
Do the characters have to be inspired in a legend or myth?
And would these semblances work or do you think it breaks reality:
Stonewall, basically creates a wall, like an extension of the shield provided by aura. The character can’t make very large shields or keep them up for a very long time, the longer he keeps it up or the more damage it has to absorb, the more aura it costs.
Blink, the ability to teleport (I got the idea from Overwatch). The character can only teleport to somewhere she has a line of sight to and can’t teleport indefinitely due to Aura.
Overcharge, the ability to increase the strength of a particular limb for short release of energy. It would drain more aura the more energy is built up for a strike (this is the one I’m most unsure about).
Premonition, the ability to see into the future. It would be used mostly in combat to see a few seconds into the future in order to predict an opponent’s move. The main drawback would be of course aura drain, and the reliability of each prediction: the further into the future he tries to see, the less reliable and clear the vision becomes. This would be because the distance into the future would increase the number of variables that need to be accounted for and because the future isn’t set in stone. The ability is also weaker in fights with many people because the number of people also increases the number of variables.
What do you think? Would this work?
My brother and I made ocs with purposely broken semblances because we want to joke around with the ttrpg. We used schrodinger's cat, pavlovs dog, Neo from The Matrix, and my obsession with shadow magic in the Masquerade ttrpg:
Schrodinger is a gunslinger (guns are revolvers that flip out into swords) who uses his semblance (called Schrodinger) to be everywhere at once and avoid death
Kuro Ravencroft is my OC who can create portals to a "void" space that has no light, no air, and no end. He has a sword and shield where the shield doubles as a drum magazine for his single edged sword/machine gun
Pavlov (still working out the first name) is a black lab faunus with his semblance requiring sound to activate having two parts: 1) "Condition" where he can make someone believe something and act a certain way in response. 2) "Acceptance" basically makes his target freeze in fear and not react to even being attacked. His weapons are two maces with one shaped like a dog bone and is a rocket launcher while the other has a bell on it and is a shotgun.
Lucy is a rich city slicker with 2 cossack sabers that are also buffalo rifles. Her semblance absorbs all kinetic energy and she is able to either use it to augment her physical abilities or to redirect the momentum of an object (i.e., firing bullets back at the enemy)
This is the 1st video I watched on your channel and Im already hooked
I think the main problem I had is inspiration. While have made my OC's (which I don't think are all that good yet that I'm currently working brushing up that I feel like I went a little to fast upon making) I had trouble incorporating bits and elements of my inspiration without making them too similar or the same character. I'm still working on in but I hope in Improve. I'm gonna be honest I can't draw and seeing the millions of OC makes me jealous but while I did write their character I still feel like mine are underwhelming to others but I'm happy I tried as I'm big as fan of RWBY as everyone else so I want to make my own and put in the world of RWBY.
This video has already been pretty helpful in some ways im writing my own version of RWBY called Tales of Grimm and i have at least my OC team in mind Team PLDN (paladin) but currently im still working out some small stuff even if i mostly have an idea of what i want to do
Hi everyone! I wish u all a great weekend!❤️
Same to you!
Well idk how I found this video probably YT recommendations, but I quite enjoyed this video. And it helps with a character I was planning on making with the Kirin in Japanese mythology and this greatly helped with coming up with a semblance. Thanks for the video.
Thank you for this
Also I like your OC she looks cool and I love the design you came up with it too.
Cool, now I can use these as help to create a character.
I love this video! Also there is something I would like to add and maybe you could touch on this in a future vid. The different types of semblances. I’ve noticed that there are a lot of different type of semblances that remind me of Pokemon in a way. In Pokemon there are lightning type, fire type, etc. in RWBY there are summoning semblances, speed semblances, different types of clone semblances, reality semblances and so much more. Wiess has a summoning type semblance. Ruby has a speed type semblance. Blake and Sun have clone type semblances, Qrow, Emerald and Clover have reality type semblances. Cinder, Neo and Glinda have creation type semblances. I think you guys get the point. There are plenty of other types but I don’t want to list them all. I think when creating an original semblance you should follow those types of semblances. The semblance I came up with is similar to Wiess’s summoning however he can only summon it when he is super angry (just like Yang). Semblance types is definitely something to keep in mind when creating an original character.
Things that bother me about OC's:
Elemental and Transforming Semblances
Ones that don't have Allusions
Backstories that don't sound like it would fit into the RWBY Universe...
(I mean I'm on a RWBY Amino and some OC's have great designs, weapons, semblances and stuff. But the amount of people who allude themselves into their OC is kinda annoying.)
For Semblances some people use Grimm as an excuse for an OC getting it's semblance...
Hey, I'm new to the channel and I loved this video. I was trying to create an OC and this video helped me a lot and reinforced my idea of semblance: I got the idea of an anime character that I love that is Vector Manipulation. Basically semblance allows you to change the strength and direction of things that come into contact with the body. But each change drains from your aura and the greater the force of change, the greater the drain. I also thought about focusing on medium distance combat with pistols, the idea of the weapon is that direct combat can drain your aura faster by trying to reflect the damage received by reflex, and reflecting your own shots using the aura allows for more accurate shooting. Thanks for the video
Random comment: If you look at Mercury v Yang, there is no actual evidence that Mercury threw that match other than the fact that it worked out for Cinder's plan. If you look at the fight itself, there is no indication that Merc was holding back, in fact he came very close to knocking her out. My best guess is that he was either trying to win, but had the plan for if he did lose and that he was going to lose on purpose to another contestant down the line if he did beat Yang, or that he was going to try to pull the trick even if he won (where he would win, but still Em would make Yang think he was attacking her as he walked by her). The fact that Yang was as close to an aura break as she was is a good indication that he didn't throw the match on purpose.
This was a fun guide to creating your own RWBY OC, I'm hoping to create one someday ^^ Awesome video ^^
Name: jack (last name unknown)
Race: human
Fairytale: Jack and the beanstalk
Age: 19
Weapon: dual hatchet pistols
Semblance: titan
His parents sold him to a gang leader at the age of 12 to settle their debt, afterwards jack abandoned his last name, no longer considering them family. The leader soon discovered his talent in theft and trained him in theft, escape, combat and aura use. His ability the clean out a house and evade atlas security, earned him the moniker (nimble jack). One night he snuck onto an atlas supply ship with the intention to rob the schnee household but he was caught and pursued by winter schnee on a manticores. He attempts to escape were less than successful, though he did manage to the edge of the city. Before winter could arrest him, jack awaken his semblance that let him create, a mammoth sized Humanoid aura avatar. The shock to winter, allowed him land a good gigant Punch. He jumped off of the city with his semblance allowing him to survive the fall, he but passed out shortly after.
NICEEEE
Question, Jack attempted to break into the Schnee house hold only to be spotted by Winter mid attempt, I'm going to assume that Jack was well into the city when Winter pursued him given it was mention that the chase was brought to an end at the edge of Atlas. How was Jack not immediately chased and captured given he was able to sneak into Atlas, evade capture and assaulted one of Atlas finest when his training is minimal in a location where Winter has advantage of terrain and superior training?
ShadowBlade972 while sneaking through city was thanks to his talent and skill, the gang weren’t just ordinary thieves and were actually quite infamous. Evading winter was series of events of pure luck though and even that was just. I wanted my character to have one claim to fame. And rather than it being that he could fight someone of the that level, it was that he could escape someone of the level.
*AOT op 1 intensifies*
Thats... Actually pretty good, the story is solid at first i through you were going a more edgy way but not at all, it makes a lot of sence, his semblance is powerful but not over powered, and the character is actually interesting, i actually want to hear more about him
Good job kid, good job
A character in a world must be of the world, a character in a story must be of the story. If the character appears exempt from the world or story, then they're of no relevance to anyone except the character's creator, no matter how interesting they are. This is true for any character, your's and their's.
Well said!
I really appreciate the vid! I've watched RWBY for 6 years and I never thought to make a team of my own. For now, my best idea is basing them all of the four Chinese beasts (Black Tortoise, Azure Dragon, Vermillion Bird, and White Tiger).
P.S. When is the next character going to be revealed? You got me on the edge of my seat, man :)
Yeah like mine shiranami Silvia her weapon is a sythe and bow and arrow and her semblance is kinda similar to Ruby but instead of rose petals she turns into a stream of water I have started to make a backstory for her like her weapons name is Scylla because I based her off of charybdis from the Greek myths she is from Vale and she went to beacon four years before team RWBY does haven't quite gotten to her teammates or their team name yet
While I haven't really been looking too hard lately, it's nice to see/hear people still talking about ways to make a better OC for this fandom.
As for an OC of my own I've toyed with since the beginning, the most finalized details I have for him would be that he's from a blacksmithing family with a semblance to mold and solidify his aura into armor that he or others can use. The thicker the armor, the smaller the covered area due to aura limitations.
There is only one OC character for me in the RWBY universe, and that character is.......
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....."Abused and Neglected Male Reader".
For the faunus thing i kind of have a character idea like that difference is that he originally only had one but because of a mad scientist he now has 2
My OC's team is team MLDY pronounced melody is that ok?
That sounds fine to me (pun intended).
Hey dude, great video. You got pretty much everything covered when it comes to balancing an OC in RWBY :)
When I started designing my first RWBY OC back in 2017 (Oh god its been 3 years already), one of my main focus points was balance. Having a characters that has their strengths and weaknesses, not only in combat, but also in their personality is important when creating a character that's interesting. I have created an entire RWBY OC team, because as I was working on my first one, various story ideas kept coming to me. Certain event that would happen, certain character interactions and dialog ,heck, I have even specific ideas for the finale in each volume, spanning over a three volume story line. But not only that, I have created antagonists (Currently being reworked) for them to fight, similar to team RWBY dealing with Torchwich and co. Right now, I'm working on reworking all of my RWBY OC's updating their looks and such. Iv half way there, currently working on the updated design of the final character, before moving on to the antagonists.
If I could give a tip for designing an OC, its to take 2-3 characters from other media that fit the theme of the character you wish to make, then take inspiration from their looks, personality and weapons. Then, put your own spin on it. For example, my OC Scarlett is inspired by Jinx(League of Legends), Poharan (Blade and soul), and Gaige(Borderlands 2), sharing the theme of (Little girl, big gun). You can check her, and the rest of the team on my account, out here: www.deviantart.com/xsanaty/art/RWBY-OC-Team-SWET-Scarlett-Dahlia-profile-821935891 (Not to advertise my deviantart page, I just want to show my OC)
Sorry for the long ramble. Hope you have a great day :)
Me & my friend's OC's team is CAKE
I enjoy making RWBY characters based around a combat style. My current favorite is a guy with Gravity Knuckle Dusters whose Semblance is called Double Tap. His semblance lets him double the damage to an area he hits twice while his Knuckle Dusters apply Gravity Dust strips to his opponents so he can throw them off balance or just hit them a second time in that spot. He also has a similar Gravity function on a set of Metal Shin Guards. No long ranged combat, though he isn’t gonna try to start a fight that with an enemy before he’s in proximity
Nah, I’ll keep my semblance:
Za warudo!
A few things on my oc. She is a Komodo Dragon faunus (the trait being the bite/teeth being poisonous) and her Semblance is, to keep this short, Yang's but elemental. She gets hit by a specific element and it allows her to like, use that element. For example, she gets burned, she can then produce fire. Limit is 1 element and the most recent element overrides the previous one.
Cool
First?
You are indeed first!
I have two original characters that are twenty year old twins named Phita and Nami Burgundy Nami uses a small shield that fits on her left forearm and a double barrel shot gun that can be used as a mace. Nami's semblance allows her to phase but only as long as she can hold her breath.Phita uses her limbs as weapons as she is a very highly skilled close combat specialist.
Very good video, glad I cam across your channel. A lot of people like to hate on RWBY, my brother included, but I still adore the show. I know it has a lot of problems and inconsistencies but I still love it. RWBY seems to be well suited to people creating their own thing in fanfics or rewrites, there's a bunch out there. CelticPhoenix does a great job with fixing a lot of it's problems. I really like seeing what people can make using RWBY's building blocks.
One of my favourite OC’s is the guy can manipule water, and his weapon is trident, which heavily uses lightning dust.
Basically he uses water to launch jets of water, or flinging his hand and sending very fast shots of water, or his trident uses lightning from the trident to shock people in close combat, he isn’t very fast as the trident is large, so he fights by swinging it around himself allowing him to seem fast up close but is not so much in travelling. This character can’t handle ranged opponents that well, and he can be overwhelmed if the opponent is fast enough around them.
What about transformation semblances for example the oc i mentioned earlier his semblance is to transform into a biomechanicly enhance version of himself with a minor second ability to charge his remaining aura into his arms and legs to increase the power of his attacks also he can absorb (eat) dust to infuse that types effects into his close range attacks.
Thank you SO MUCH for this video!! I've been struggling a little when making my rwby oc's and this is just what I needed! It can be really hard coming up with a design that fits in the canon world :(
I personally came up with a really good OC, not too OP for her age ahaha but the hardest part was coming up with a name that resembled her color..... And now I need to come up with 3 more OC's to finish the team, it's gonna take a while and I was kinda ready to give up, so this video showed up at the rght time for me, it gave me motivation! I'm gonna follow every step you mentioned, thank you so much!
This is put together really well, thanks for the advice on writing OC's
Ah, what the heck, since everyone is doing it, here's an OC of my own.
Avarice, a greedy, glutenous Grimm Mimic. Named for the cardinal sin, Greed. Based off a Mimic from D&D.
Yes, I know you're gonna scream non-canon, but hear me out. So... there seem to be a lot of Grimm out there that Salem seems to have made or altered in some way, like the bug used to sap the Maiden powers for Cinder, of the creepy tentacle orb thing she uses as a crystal ball/ viewing glass. What if those were only the successful experiments?
Meet Avarice, Salem's attempt at creating the perfect spy gone wrong.
Backstory: Salem wanted a spy she could trust completely. Humans and Faunus were... unreliable, so she had a great idea: Make a Grimm that can turn into mundane objects. No one would suspect the lamp in the corner of listening in to your conversation, or planning to brutally murder you, right? Only, problem is, after many failed attempts, she resorted to using her own blood in the creation process. The result? A near-sentient Grimm that can hide anywhere, and has a hunger for both flesh and shiny things. These impulses eventually led it to abandon Salem's orders in favor of growing to realize it's full potential, and eat to its hearts content. Starts out kinda dumb and has to take orders from mommy to survive, but lives for years, growing into its own being capable of being self sustaining.
Combat abilities: As a Grimm, no Aura and no Semblance, but can shape-shift and copy stuff really well. Kinda small and weak to start out, but as it eats, it gets more biomass to work with. Balanced by having the shape-shifting power need biomass for fuel, and an actual need to eat or else it will starve. Imagine the bed you are resting on suddenly opening into a toothy maw, and you get the idea. Hit and run tactics are it's best friend, and it is perfectly willing to cannibalize other nearby Grimm to heal itself and gain their abilities.
Basically, Alex Mercer, but with even less empathy.
Base form looks a bit like a headcrab, or the Mimics from Prey.
This is a really helpful video! Definitely gave me some ideas/things to think about for some of my own OCs
Ice manifestation, can create ice in various shapes, similar to Weiss's ice glyphs.
Because tripping people and causing them to slide into a solid object is fun.
My character's semblance is psychokinesis. he uses his mind to move objects and his weapon. focusing hard enough can also give him some limited levitation. extensive use of his semblance can cause migraines/headaches, and can even cause him to pass out if he pushes himself over his limits. I'm still working on other applications that don't sound too OP
love ur vids, keep these up! cant wait for Vol 8
I love videos like this especially when the fandom is meant to create character and has guidelines set by the show, this was great
I wish people would make videos like this for all fandoms. Having one of these for Dragon Ball would be super amazing. You, sir, have earned a like and a subscription from me.
9:47 the only time I've ever made an oc with a time related semblance is to have a passive semblance(like qrow, clover, and yang-ish?) in which she perceives time slower, about 4 times as slower in fact, which plays a part in her character of being easily bored and needing constant entertainment. Her weapon compliments her semblance as well with it having a small hard light shield, being a shotgun, that can transform into small batons. Being versatile for defense and quick close combat only if you have good enough reflexes, and oh wow she has a semblance that helps her with this, it's almost as if she made this weapon for herself. She can also expend her aura quicker in order to slow down time even further if she somehow needed to, but she rarely does it in fear of being stuck in time, even if she knows it's completely impossible due to the fact she's tested it before and pushed her semblance to its limits but even with 99% of her aura used she only slowed it enough that a couple minutes passed for her while someone else experienced a second, which of course isn't very helpful when you're on the verge of aura breaking and can't move any quicker than before.
Also she lost an eye when she discovered her semblance, I love irony. She acts as if she's Nora, but she's really a combination of Cinder and Ren that thinks of herself as a wannabe Neo.
Skill level is about in the middle of yang right before her hand was cut off, and emerald without her semblance.
I have no idea why I suddenly started ranting off about all this when I just wanted to mention "time perceiving semblance.
#adhd yayyyyyy
I have an OC named Felix fluorite who is the combination of Felix the cat and puss in Boots with his someone's being that he can store basically anyting within his bag by converting matter into energy essentially and he can call upon that whenever he needs but there is a limit to how much he can store the bigger and more complex the object he's stores the more it takes to convert and the more energy it takes up
I just came up with the most simple of semblances.
Dust Consumption - the ability to consume dust to restore aura... aka like a mana potion XD. In the course of development can be able to use the ability of the type of dust consumed (Get lightning effect from lightning dust, fire from fire dust etc) for a short time, in the amount equal to the dust consumed.
13:00 weapon concept (gun functions) for Tactical Recoil Action
Dual function: Boost/Shoot
Example: Vita from Lyrical Nanoha
Basically the gun side has two load functions: to power up weapon attacks or load bullets to shoot enemies.
How quick or complicated it works depends on the weapon and the character
Also read:
Weaponized Exhaust
I had a friend that was wanting to do a RWBY Pathfinder campaign (fell through) but got the base for an OC. The idea is a family of vampires so the semblance is hereditary and called "bloodline." While powerful and very versatile (with some becoming "lords"), it drains both blood and aura so they can tire very fast. They also have such a unique power they developed specific gauntlets to be a base for all their weapons. They can cut the hand and mix it with dust (1 at a time for stability) but again, you are not going to last long using blood as a fuel source.
I'm working on a new fic and this came in handy. Especially since I made 16 OCs for the story. The fanfic will mostly focus on 4 of them with the rest being secondary background characters, one of them is going to be the kind of character that is proclaimed/hinted to be the strongest but never fights, until they do for one deus ex Machina moment
Phoenix/Night: There can't be time stopping semblances.
*Angry Relic noises*
This is such a great video! Thank you ❤️
Fun oc idea
Semblance aura strings :think Chakra strings from naruto + hermit purple from jojo. Pushing aura into an object can create strings that can stick to anything and cannot be torn by strength alone however can be cut or attacked to detach them.
Weapon: handcannon high caliber dust rounds small trench knife if opponents get to close.
Background: after town in mistral was attacked by grimm, he was saved by Qrow and because of Qrow's tracking abilities brought him back to his family , wanted to be like him so he joined beacon to emulate his hero and possibly learn how to track like him
I have a character named Lucinia Calla with the semblance "Aura Nullification". Essentially, it works in a similar manner to Tyrian's "Aura Disruption" and Gillian's "Aura Siphon" in that it messes around with another combatants aura in some way. However, Calla is able to completely remove a person's aura if they are in the immediate vicinity of her (and I mean incredibly close). Here's the catch, by activating her semblance, she loses her own aura temporarily for however long she is disabling the aura of her opponent, effectively turning the fight into a deathmatch. Her weapon compliments her semblance, being a dust-infused whip/lasso that she can use either from a distance, or to pull opponents closer and bind so that she can activate her semblance (she is definitely a close-quarters fighter considering her semblance essentially demands a near-mastery of martial arts and hand to hand combat). I honestly am excited for when I finally make my teams (yes, plural) and share them with others via a series of 3D Animations (I'm a first year student who _just_ finished my first semester, fun times), as fight choreography and character design is my interest, and Monty Oum (by extent RWBY and RvB) are massive inspirations..
NOTE: Calla's aura is inherently lower due to the nature of her semblance, as I felt if she had a regular amount of aura that it'd be too powerful in tandem with her semblance.
i agree with a lot of this video! my one tiny tiny critique is that it should also be said that making an op/alternate universe oc is okay in its own right!! an au isnt exactly a bad thing.
I would love to learn more. Turquoise is a fanus from the unknown region, north of Vacuo and west of Atlas. I’m wanting fanus to have dragon wings, tail and facial scales. Tail is meant for balance and sleeping upside down only. Facial scales are just for looks. Turquoise (Turq) for short is untrained and loves to sing. At age ten semblance was explosive unlocked by a bandit&Grimm attack named the Frozen Voice. Weapons are a six shot revolver and a harp.
Cool