Need Info for RPG Rahi Character Sheets

[Toa Tahnok-Kal]

Hello everyone,

 

I am trying to prepare character sheets for a custom Bionicle RPG campaign that I will be running with some friends in the future. I am going to go through the first year of the Bionicle story, have my players complete the Quest for the Masks, and have them confront Makuta at the end of the campaign. During the story, the players will encounter many infected Rahi and have to defeat them to find the masks they seek. I'm using a D20 system that is similar to Dungeons and Dragons. The main stats are: intelligence, willpower, charisma, agility, strength, endurance, and speed.

 

The main issue I'm having is finding exact information on Rahi stats to be able to build their sheets. I have been getting some general information from some Bionicle wikis, but nothing specific. For example, I was able to find information stating that Kopaka fought a Muaka on a mountain and was able to defeat it by making it fall off the mountain side. However, this event does not tell me what the Muaka's strength, dexterity, endurance, etc. values are.

 

Basically, I'm trying to compare how strong a Rahi is to a Toa and create the stat value off of that. I have decided that 45 will be the average value for a Toa's stats. So, when creating a Rahi stat, I will ask the question, "Where does this stat fall above or below 45?" For example, a Manas (which seems to be three times stronger than a Toa since even a Toa Kaita had trouble defeating one) could have a strength of 135 (3 * 45). The Manas could have a similar endurance as well, but it may have a different speed value if there is information indicating otherwise.

 

Here is the list of Rahi I'm looking to create stats for:

 

Nui-Rama

Nui-Jaga

Manas

Muaka

Kane-Ra

Tarakava

Takea

Gukko

Nui-Koppan

Kofo-Jaga

Ussal

Ash Bear

Fikou

 

 

This is a big list and a bigger undertaking that I was initially expecting, but that is why I need your help. If you have a reference from a Bionicle source that has specific information about a Rahi attribute, please list it because that would be most helpful. However, if you can construct an argument for a certain stat strength based on events that happened in the story, I am open to that as well.

 

Thank you in advance. I will appreciate any feedback.

 

EDIT:

 

Sheets in Progress

 

Average Generic Matoran: (Changed Intelligence, Willpower and Charisma from 15 to 40) (I don't think the mental ability of a Matoran changes too much once the Matoran becomes a Toa)

Intelligence - 40

Willpower - 40

Charisma - 40

Agility - 15

Strength - 15

Endurance - 15

Speed - 15

 

 

Average Generic Toa:

Intelligence - 45

Willpower - 45

Charisma - 45

Agility - 45

Strength - 45

Endurance - 45

Speed - 45

 

Manas:

Intelligence - 33

Willpower - 30

Charisma - 18

Agility - 10

Strength - 140

Endurance - 150

Speed - 25

 

Tarakava:

Intelligence - 20

Willpower - 15

Charisma - 12

Agility - 20

Strength - 65

Endurance - 25

Speed - 50

Edited October 24, 2014 by Kooltone

[Akavakaku]

Well, the Manas are fresh in my mind right now, so I'll give you my thoughts on them.

 

It seemed like the Toa Mata were capable of outrunning them, so I would say their speed is about 25.

 

They didn't tire even in an extended fight against the Toa and Kaita, so their endurance must be more than a Toa's. Then again, they also took fewer blows, so that could account for some of their staying fresh. Maybe 55?

 

I don't think they're agile at all. They never so much as tried to dodge an attack. Probably 10.

 

They're very hostile and territorial, so their charisma must be low, though not too low to prevent the Manas in Karzahni from cooperating. 18 maybe.

 

Their willpower must be fairly good, since they stayed focused even under direct attack by the Toa Mata. I would guess it's around 30.

 

They are more intelligent than most Rahi, but not sapient. If minimum sapience is 40, the Manas are perhaps 33.

 

By the way, could you share the system you've devised for your RPG?

Edited October 19, 2014 by Akavakaku

[Toa Tahnok-Kal]

Well, the Manas are fresh in my mind right now, so I'll give you my thoughts on them.

 

It seemed like the Toa Mata were capable of outrunning them, so I would say their speed is about 25.

 

They didn't tire even in an extended fight against the Toa and Kaita, so their endurance must be more than a Toa's. Then again, they also took fewer blows, so that could account for some of their staying fresh. Maybe 55?

 

I don't think they're agile at all. They never so much as tried to dodge an attack. Probably 10.

 

They're very hostile and territorial, so their charisma must be low, though not too low to prevent the Manas in Karzahni from cooperating. 18 maybe.

 

Their willpower must be fairly good, since they stayed focused even under direct attack by the Toa Mata. I would guess it's around 30.

 

They are more intelligent than most Rahi, but not sapient. If minimum sapience is 40, the Manas are perhaps 33.

 

Thanks for the reply, I do have one question though.  Weren't the Manas pretty much unstoppable until the Toa Kaita destroyed the heat cones?  I was thinking because of this, the Manas were even stronger than three Toa combined.  So, do you think a strength above 135 is realistic for a Manas?  If so, wouldn't the endurance value be similar to the strength value?

 

 

By the way, could you share the system you've devised for your RPG?

 

 

I'm going to be using a custom system (which is still in the works), but it is going to be heavily based off of another system I have used for a while.  The system I have been using is called The Basic System (TBS).  It's a subset of the Fuzion system (a system designed to let you run a multitude of genres).  The link to TBS is below.  TBS uses the standard d20 system of taking your skill modifier and rolling against the difficulty value of whatever your trying to accomplish.  

 

http://dillygreenbeangames.com/TBSDownloads.html

 

 

TBS has many things that I will reuse, but I didn't like the way that TBS does powers, so I'm borrowing some stuff from another system.  Toa didn't use their powers all the time, and they would mix their elemental attacks with kicks, punches, and slashes.  I wanted to find a way to make my players strategically decide when to use their elemental powers, so I'm going to be borrowing from Star Wars RPG.  In that system, each character has two health bars (HP and Vitality).  When taking hits, a character's vitality is depleted before receiving killing damage (this is supposed to represent characters expending energy to dodge, block, etc.).  The twist for Jedi is that they have to spend vitality points to use the force.  I'm going to do the same thing in my game.  A Toa will have to tap into his or her vitality points to be able to use elemental attacks.  Elemental attacks will be really strong, but they will also cost vitality.  This cost will force players to think strategically and also prevent certain attacks from being spammed.  Vitality will be recovered by resting while killing damage will require healing.

[Akavakaku]

Having the strength of three Toa makes sense for the Manas. But I don't see why their endurance would have to be that high. They outlasted Toa, but we don't know whether a Manas would outlast a Kaita. I don't believe the Kaita noticeably tired in the fight.

EDIT: Took a look at the system itself, and it seems I've misjudged the meaning of endurance. Let's see, so if each Manas takes hits from a total of about 135 strength and doesn't tire, their endurance must be above that. 150 maybe.

 

That system sounds very interesting, but what about attacks that can't be dodged or blocked? What I would suggest is that when characters are targeted with avoidable attacks, like melee or small missiles, they have a choice of expending Vitality and attempting to dodge/block, or just taking the hit and not risking a loss of both Vitality AND Health.

Non-avoidable attacks, then, might automatically reduce Health, Vitality or some combination. Fire, for example, would probably deplete Health mainly, while Water would mostly deal damage to Vitality.

So then, if you run out of Vitality before Health, you're unconscious, while if you run out of Health you're dead.

Edited October 21, 2014 by Akavakaku

[Toa Tahnok-Kal]

Thanks for the suggestions on the system.  I had ideas about water and air doing indirect damage, but I wasn't sure how I was going to pull this off.  However, air and water attacks can decrease vitality like you said.  Direct damage, like fire and rock blasts, can decrease HP.  As far as getting knocked out when your vitality hits zero, I think I'm not going to have it automatically happen.  I'll have the player perform an Endurance save to see if the character gets knocked out.

 

All right, I have some Manas stats and now I'm going to move to some other Rahi.  I have been reading about Tarakava, and here is what I'm thinking about them.  In one of the first comics while Gali is underwater, she says, "That creature can match my speed, but not - Thank the Great Beings - My agility!"  She then makes a tight turn and the Tarakava crashes into a sea cave.  So, Tarakava have an underwater speed equal to or exceeding Gali.  I think I will make Tarakava have a speed of 50.  I still have to decide whether a Tarakava has the same level land speed or not.  Since the Tarakava couldn't turn in time, I guess I'll give them an agility of 20 (they seem pretty bulky to me).  For endurance, I think a Tarakava's level is less than a Toa (since Gali defeated a Tarakava fairly easily in the battle at Ga-Koro).  Maybe it should be 25?  The Tarakava seem to be fairly strong.  In one instance, a Tarakava knocked Gali off her feat into the water unconscious.  I'd say that this could be around 50.  What do you think?

 

Edit: I forgot to add Charisma, Willpower and Intelligence.  Going with a minimum sapience of 40, and seeing that Manas are in the 30's, I'd say that leaves Tarakava intelligence in the 20's (since Nui-Jaga and Kane-Ra are pretty stupid and seem to be in the 10's).  I read that Tarakava are not naturally hostile and avoid Matoran.  I guess I'd give them a charisma around 30 (Ussal Crabs would probably be at 40 since they could easily be tamed).  I'm not sure about Willpower yet.  I'll have to do more research.

Edited October 23, 2014 by Kooltone

[Akavakaku]

I think those are good ideas regarding Tarakava, but why the high charisma? They seem like solitary ambush predators, so I'd say probably 12 charisma would be sufficient. As for willpower, their lifestyle probably doesn't require it to be high. I'd assume that like the stomatopod, they knock out small prey with a single punch, allowing them to do without much willpower. 15 maybe? 20 is probably sufficient for intelligence.

 

Strength is probably more than one Toa, but not more than 2. Maybe around 65. That low endurance makes sense. As for water speed, I think it should be a trait of most creatures to either suffer a movement penalty on land or in the water, in addition to drowning. As an inherent trait, water-element characters should have reduced water movement penalties and increased duration of holding their breath, while Toa of Water have no water movement penalty, and truly amphibious Rahi like Tarakava probably wouldn't either. I could see them matching a Toa's running speed in short bursts.

 

http://www.bzpower.com/board/topic/13933-the-bionicle-trpg-an-open-project/

Guess I might as well leave this here, a Bionicle RPG I tried making. Maybe there's something in there you'll find useful.

[Toa Tahnok-Kal]

Good comments about the Tarakava Akavakaku!  I see where you are coming from on the charisma value, and I think I need to more clearly define how charisma works in the game.  This is the definition from the TBS ruleset: "Charisma: How charming you are and how well you can interact with people".  With Rahi, I am mainly looking at charisma from a perspective of how hostile the creature is to Matoran.  According to Bionicle Reviews Wiki, after Gali knocked a Tarakava's infected mask off, the Tarakava was no threat to the Matoran.  In fact, the Matoran nursed the Tarakava back to health.  From this, I deduce that Tarakava are at least tolerable of Matoran and simply avoid them naturally.   Therefore, I think they have a fairly high charisma value compared to other Rahi.  In contrast, the Kane-Ra seems to be incredibly aggressive, and will attack basically anything that moves.  For this reason, I would give the Kane-Ra a really low charisma.  I think the Rahi with the highest charisma would probably be the Gukko and Ussal Crabs.  I think I'd put their charisma values at 40 since they were domesticated creatures that could have emotional attachments to their keepers.  I think Tarakava should fall somewhere between the Kane-Ra and the Ussal Crab in terms of charismatic value.  Does that make sense?

 

By the way, I commented on your RPG topic.  Thanks for the link!  I also added a list of work in progress stats on the first post.

Edited October 24, 2014 by Kooltone

[Akavakaku]

Hmm... I interpreted Charisma more like social ability, rather than friendliness. A person could be too awkward to make friends easily, but still very kind to everyone, or very charming but full of hatred for most people: low and high Charisma respectively.

 

For Rahi Charisma would be more like how social their species tends to be, and how well they can bond with their own and other species. I agree that Gukko and Ussals should be Charismatic, but so should Kikanalo and Visorak, since both species get along in big groups and form complex, peaceful bonds with each other. Nui-Rama might not qualify for high Charisma, since their association in the Hive was probably forced by Makuta.

[Toa Tahnok-Kal]

Ahh, gotcha. I guess I didn't think that the normal definition applied to animal creatures, so I came up with my own interpretation. What you're saying makes sense. 12 Charisma it is.

 

Speaking of Charisma, two Rahi that I think have incredibly low charismas are the Muaka and the Kane-Ra. Both of these are solitary Rahi. I tend to think that the Muaka would be lowest (I think of it like a solitary Jaguar) I guess I'd give Muaka a charisma of 5. I read that Kane-Ra "prefer" to live alone, which must mean that they sometime travel together. If this is the case, I think I'd give Kane-Ra a Charisma of 10.

 

EDIT: That might not be the right value for the Kane-Ra. I'll have to read about how solitary a Tarakava is and compare it to the Kane-Ra.

Edited October 24, 2014 by Kooltone

[-Windrider-]

I'm going to move this to Fan-Created Media, home of member-driven game projects.

[Akavakaku]

Regarding Matoran, I could see their Willpower being less than a Toa's, but Intelligence and Charisma? It's pretty clear that the Toa Metru didn't get any smarter or socially graceful when they transformed. Turaga, though, might have improvements in those stats compared to Matoran.

 

Actually, though, this brings me to an issue that was on my mind when writing my own RPG system. Personally I feel that stats like Intelligence, Charisma, and so on could detract a little from the game experience, especially for the Bionicle world. I'd say that, as a general rule, games should only have hard rules and calculations for things that couldn't more easily be decided by the GM, or Storyteller as I called it in my RPG concept. In a fight, it definitely makes sense to calculate the results using statistics. But in negotiation, for example, I think just having the players roll for how convincing an argument their character makes is a bit dull. As either a player or a Storyteller I'd prefer to have these sorts of situations solved by the wits of the players. This also gives the Storyteller the option of simply saying, "No, the gang of Skakdi are not impressed by your singing, you have to fight them," rather than, "Well, you rolled a 20 so I guess they make you their new leader!" I admit that's an extreme case, but I really don't see the point of putting calculations and stats into the diplomatic side of gameplay.

Edited October 26, 2014 by Akavakaku

[Toa Tahnok-Kal]

I understand where you are coming from about the intelligence and charisma stats Akavakaku.  I think how important stats are in a game depends on the GM.  Personally, I prefer creating a cool story, and I ignore the stats at certain times if it will detract from the story.  But anyway, I do think the intelligence and charisma stats (even if they are not used very much) can help players role play.  If a player creates a character with a low intelligence, that can remind the player to make a weak argument when role playing a negotiation scene.  You don't necessarily have to roll the dice to determine the outcome of the argument.  It's all up to the GM.  But, I do think those stats can still be useful (especially for a GM trying to keep track of things).

 

By the way, what do you think about what I said about the Muaka and Kane-Ra above?

[Danska: Shadow Master]

I recommended this in another topic, but I'd strongly suggest investigating the Savage Worlds system. It's fairly simple, though different from D&D. It still uses all dice types, but they're implemented differently. I'll try to give a brief rundown of how it works and why I think it would be good for this.

 

It has five stats, which are:

Agility (speed, nimbleness)

Smarts (how well the character knows the world, quick thinking etc)

Spirit (wisdom, willpower)

Strength (how hard you hit things)

Vigor (endurance, damage resistance and the like)

 

Rather than assigning a number to each stat, you assign one dice. They all start at d4, which means you roll a d4 when using that stat. Given that the base chance of success on any given check is 4, higher dice means higher chance of success.

 

You then have 20 points to spend on skills (various examples are given in the books, but you can make them whatever you want. Make your own list, works fine). For the Super Powers book (which is awesome. I'll explain why more in a minute), you start with one Edge and up to two Major and two Minor Hindrances. Edges give you something useful and unique to your character (think Feats), while Hindrances give your character a flaw of some kind (in exchange for more skill points, stats or powers). An example hindrance might be Ruthless. The character will do anything and everything to get their way or succeed in a goal.

 

Now the real reason I like Savage Worlds, and think it's almost a ready-made system for this, are the Super Powers. This contains things like Matter Control (all elemental powers), Super Strength, Speed, Armour (can be adapted for shielding), Invisibility, see where I'm going with this? You can also have Super attributes, meaning you can spend power points to give characters greater than normal Strength, Vigor etc.

 

Characters start with 5 points to spend on attributes. Each point raises it one dice. Eg. Spending two points in Strength would raise it from d4 to d8. One point, d6.

 

You could build Matoran with the standard 5 attributes, 20 skill points and either 2 major, or 1 major and 2 minor hindrances.

 

For Toa and more powerful beings, you can give them the Super Power rules. This gives them an Edge, and a certain number of points to spend on Powers (require Toa to take Matter Control for their respective element and choose from a pre-selected list of powers for masks), then they can spend the rest on maybe extra masks, weapon powers or increased stats.

 

The way combat and such works is, you say what you want to do (I use my power over fire to melt the roof above the Rahi and crush it), If you succeed on the roll (Agility roll for ranged attack, but I may be mistaken) the damage is calculated against the Rahi's toughness. Unlike D&D, you are not limited to specific magic spells, but can specify any action you like provided it is within the abilities of your powers.

 

The Savage Worlds system is a universal system, so can work in virtually any setting. It has a minimal emphasis on stats and remembering boosts or lots of numbers, making it quick and simple to learn/play and comes with a large selection of Powers, which can easily be adapted to a Bionicle setting. The 'dice as stats' mechanic makes stats easy to remember and gives them a definite meaning. I would highly recommend checking it out.

 

Sorry if it sounds like I'm trying to hijack your system and shove my own ideas on you in its place. I've just been thinking about a Bionicle Tabletop system myself lately, and noticed Savage Worlds has a lot of what a Bionicle system might need already in place. Have a look or ignore it at your leisure!

 

 

As for your current system, I think the problem with statting anything is that, well, those stats don't exist. You have to make your best guess, based on any available sources (and there are very few for the Manas, say), then see what works through playtesting. If you want to check if something feels right, scribble down the stats you think seem appropriate, try a few combat rounds and see if it feels right. In the end, that's what it's about - what feels right to you and what you enjoy. I don't think you'll find any definitive canonical answers to "what are the stats of so-and-so", in which case make it up, try it out and see what sticks! I'd say playtesting really is key.

 

Hopefully I've helped in some regard rather than just waffling on for ages!