Loophole: Communications

[Light]

Approved on extreme probation Hubert.

[25K Now!]

Could you lower that to: "Probation" if I were to take away another two Nynrah Ghost Blasters?

[Light]

Extreme was added for emphasis. I may take the 2 away and/or take you off probation later, but for now, go.

[sunflower]

But... he doesn't have any powers of any kind. Anyone with metal or electrical or fire or magnetism or gravity or water or shadow or light or plasma or fire powers could match it easily.-Toa Levacius Zehvor

----Which should be properly stated in the profile as weaknesses.

[Havelock Vetinari]

Unless every inch of the thing was lit with LED lights, shadow could really screw it up. I mean, in a few seconds.

[25K Now!]

Weaknesses: (your character must have at least one; doesn't need to be extreme; no common sense weaknesses like average elemental weaknesses, susceptibility to stab wounds, etc.)

Hi guys. Common sense here.

[Havelock Vetinari]

Be quiet. We all know common sense died a long time ago. I visit the grave on occasion.

[sunflower]

Being a mech, its vulnerability to Magnetism/Iron should be stated in the profile, as it is above average and thus a unique weakness. Anything else elementally-related isn't as severe, and so common sense should dictate that.

[25K Now!]

Gravy my bro, it's made of metal. Obviously will be affected by Magnetism or Iron. Like a guy with armour will be affected by it. It's just big armour. With weapons.

 

It's like ...

 

A Thornatus. With legs.

[Havelock Vetinari]

So in theory, someone who could control metal could mash it and it's pilot into a large ball and there is nothing you could do to stop it.

 

.....

 

.....

 

I begin to see why tanks are not common in the bionicle universe.

[25K Now!]

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why the Makuta decided to force all Toa of Iron and Magnetism into near-extinction.

[sunflower]

Gravy my bro, it's made of metal. Obviously will be affected by Magnetism or Iron. Like a guy with armour will be affected by it. It's just big armour. With weapons.

 

It's like ...

 

A Thornatus. With legs.

---

 

I'm going on the fact that its entirely made of metal, unlike most of the characters in this RPG, which are either cyborgs or robots with a bit of squishy in them.

 

Iron = Bigger problem

 

But meh.

 

Is the profile already posted?

[Havelock Vetinari]

And that's not even taking in account what a Toa of water could do to it. Or air. Bloody heck, if it has an air conditioning system or even has air in it, he could suck all the air out of the cockpit and leave the pilot to suffocate...

[25K Now!]

The profile's already been posted man. Check the previous page.

[Light]

The biggest reason to list metal under weaknesses is because last time an RP had mechs, they were made of admantium plastic. Obvious arguments there. However, that material is not allowed.

 

Everything else aside, argument is kind of useless. Honestly, this is precisely the thing that happened last time with mechs that I'm trying to avoid. The arguing. If Hubert wants to be in a giant weakness machine, let him.

 

And while weaknesses are important, most people know how to use them. I HOPE.

[Havelock Vetinari]

I just like coming up with....creative....usages for elements is all. Really, if you think about it Toa of Air are the most bloody dangerous ones. Drain all the air out of the room and watch em drop. Only robots like the Vahki would be safe.

 

Then there's shadow-there are no lights in our bodies! And I'm assuming that goes for Toa and such as well. Tear them apart from the inside or stop them from moving...and look at water. All living things drink water, it's always inside them....you can see where I'm going with this.

[sunflower]

All elements can be used in quite dangerous ways, the problem is character knowladge and skill. Sure, they probably could tear another person's body to sheds, but generally that other person isn't going to give them a chance to.

 

And then there's also just being considerate while RPing.

[Havelock Vetinari]

Competence is competence. OOC feelings don't really factor into my IC's. If I'm playing a pragmatic son of a gun who plays to win, that's what my IC's will reflect. Part of the reason I generally avoid playing Toa is because, thanks to my ability to get.....very creative.....with the powers and still technically not violate the rules, there is no real challenge in it. There is no real defense against a chap sitting down on the other side of the bar, reaching out with the power of shadow and...

 

Perfect assassination tactic. And now everyone who reads this will know it!

 

.....I think I'm becoming Nyarlathotep.

Edited January 5, 2013 by Basilisk

[Light]

Judging by the fact that no one has done that in the BZPRPG, and no one did in the actual Bionicle story, it may be out of their power range to do it.

 

Like, maybe you have to see the shadow.

[Havelock Vetinari]

Or no one has thought of it before/it wasn't child friendly. Even then, there is the matter of using someone's shadow to strangle them while they sleep. Even if it is based on sight, just camp across from them in the next building over and watch them through a window with a telescope.

 

Really, most rooms are made of metal on this world I think. A Toa of Iron could make the whole thing look like an accident....

Edited January 5, 2013 by Basilisk

[25K Now!]

.....I think I'm becoming Nyarlathotep.

So you'll destroy the world by giving the power to make rumours real to all the inhabitants of a random city, smuggle anime and manga to aliens, and be a hot chick who defeats multiverse-defying giant robots?

 

...

 

Last one sorta fits. On a smaller scale.

[sunflower]

Doesn't make for good story when one can just drop people left and right. But then again, playing characters against their personality doesn't either.

[Havelock Vetinari]

Not the wimpy Japanese Nyarlathotep! We're talking the manly all-american Lovecraft original recipe Nyarlathotep!

 

 

EDIT: Like I said, I avoid playing Toa because of that. I'm considering a Visorak character right now actually.

Edited January 5, 2013 by Basilisk

[Relapse]

I think we can assume manipulating the body of a PC falls under "auto-hitting" and is thus strictly prohibited.On a side-note, I think I'll let the next person who starts a ridiculous argument watch their most powerful character lose the right to not be auto-hit and watch everyone swarm in and kill them.

[Havelock Vetinari]

What argument? All I saw was the staff discussing something with the occasional someone else chiming in. No one was really debating anything. Seemed like a friendly conversation.

 

[Relapse]

I meant arguments in general, because there's a lot of that too.

[Havelock Vetinari]

Good to know..

Edited January 5, 2013 by Basilisk

[25K Now!]

I accidentally read the title of this thread as Loophole: Communists, but that's beside the point. Now, is there anyone in Olford that needs interaction?

[Toa Levacius Zehvor]

Forward: To clear this up for Relapse (@KNI), this is not an argument, and I'm not going to argue with anybody about it (if they think I'm wrong on any points, they can tell me in PM - no reason for public embarrassment). This is a statement that needs to be said. Now then, let's begin.

 

Let's think of all the ways to OHK people, boys and girls!

 

Fire: Melt their brains!

Water: Overload their organic cells and cause them to violently explode!

Air: Cause a massive burst of air in their lungs, killing them instantly!

Earth: ... well, I guess you can make soil in their stomachs?

Rock: Queen appears and plays 'We Will Rock You', causing brains to explode from sheer awesome!

Ice: Freeze their brains!

Iron: Cause their entire metallic body to splinter apart, viciously killing them in an R-Rated mess!

Lightning: Send a powerful surge through their nervous system, killing them!a

Shadow: Cause shadows within their body to animate and rip them apart from inside!

Light: Laser, impossible to dodge because it's at the speed of light, to the face!

Plasma: Melt their brains! (didn't we already do this one?)

Magnetism: Magnetize certain areas of their head so it collapses and squishes their brain!

Plant Life: Sue them so they can't have any meat products, forcing them into a bacon-deprived depression and suicide!

Sonics: Torture them to death by mimicking a One Direction song!

Psionics: BRAINZ EXPLODEZ!

Gravity: Okay, do I need to explain this?

 

I substituted rock with stone for a reason.

 

Any ability or power that reaches elemental power, has the capability to become well overpowered; however, as others have said, such as @KNI just now, have said, it's autohitting. It's cheap to use on NPCs, and it's bad to use on PCs (and against the rules in this case) as well. Since the RPG is a story, killing people off cheaply serves only two purposes - either to make it suck, or to sell more toys (see: Transformers the Movie, 1986).

 

There is a reason that they canonically made the Toa Code. It's not that it's out of their abilities, @Kaithas, it's because the Toa weren't willing to.

Makuta waited a moment, then gestured toward Voporak and growled, "What are you waiting for? Destroy him."

"Toa aren't killers," Vakama replied. "If we were, we would have started with you."

- Makuta and Vakama (p.80 of Time Trap)

 

I'm sure it started off like this -

 

Toa: *Chasing after Matoran thief* Stop, thief!

Matoran: *Keeps running*

Toa: *Uses magnetism powers to magnetize Matoran against far well, and then catches up, panting* Stop... you violated the law! Pay the court a fine or...

Matoran: ... *hangs against the wall, head smashed against it*

Toa: That's the third one this week. Today. Within the last four hours. Wow...

 

And @Basilisk, you wondered why the Toa Council existed in the Waves universe, and why things would be as strict as they were? So that doesn't happen constantly.

 

As far as I'm concerned, brute strength and firepower isn't really a valid way of describing overpowered. What is, on the other hand, is anything that makes a character invulnerable (because even if death isn't going to occur, it should still be a threat - nobody likes an invulnerable character, which is why any time Wolverine pops up in X-Men, nobody worries about him). Stuff like that is what you need to worry about. Also, anything which has a potential to build up over time into being worse, or to make another character do something without any kind of save against it. Which is why Levacius always has either a strong will or full mental shields noted, just in case somebody pulls that on me.

 

Now, just another small pointed for @Kaithas - that wouldn't work. It's impossible to create some kind of mech without using some metal. There isn't any kind of adamantium plastic you can make into an electrical conductor to make things work or to make the computers and stuff work... so yeah, you can still wipe it out.

 

Finally, my final topic - the 'arguments'. Why are there arguments? Because I think everyone here is on a high enough echelon of intelligence to have their own strong opinions on things, and want to make them known. This is not a bad thing. It's when open insults begin that things get out of hand. But this is a dictatorship, and only LL's word is law. Everyone else is a bill. And until it's on Capital Hill, singing, that's all it's going to be. It's the job of the staff and players to make the thing that's the best possible thing for the story, the players, the characters, and the continued survival of the human race in preparation for our war against the Goa'uld. And then the staff, of course, have to punish anyone who breaks the rules and take care of character approval. This is the only statement that I believe I could be wrong on here. It all depends on whether people would rather just do what they're told or if they'd rather do what they think is right.

 

-Toa Levacius Zehvor

 

P.S. I don't care how cheap it is, putting an @ symbol in front of a name and bolding the whole thing is the most efficient tool I can use in long posts.

P.P.S. Nobody expects a spanish inquisition.

P.P.P.S. Still waiting on somebody to actually review that character, and not make a comment about the fact I'm snarky. Hello pot, I'm kettle. You're black. We're all at least somewhat snarky, and I am the snarkiest of all.

[Light]

Lev, argument = over. Before you say ANYTHING about how that wasn't arguing, most of the tones you took were very argumentative, and they debate older points. LL can override any of the other staffer's objections, but while he isn't here we have to keep law and order. In other words, stop. Also, there really isn't a point to the part of your post about OHKO, as it's off topic and long. It's better suited for a blog post than a game discussion topic. Thank you.

 

This is an unofficial warning.

Edited January 5, 2013 by Toa Kaithas

[Havelock Vetinari]

Personally I found it well-thought out and worth reading. It was just someone giving their opinion after all.

[Light]

Giving an opinion in an argument that has gotten increasingly off-topic. It is interesting and well-written, but not in the proper place.

[Wyrd Bid Ful Araed]

I just like coming up with....creative....usages for elements is all. Really, if you think about it Toa of Air are the most bloody dangerous ones. Drain all the air out of the room and watch em drop. Only robots like the Vahki would be safe.

 

Then there's shadow-there are no lights in our bodies! And I'm assuming that goes for Toa and such as well. Tear them apart from the inside or stop them from moving...and look at water. All living things drink water, it's always inside them....you can see where I'm going with this.

 

Get creative and there are ways to kill anyone with anything. Theres an episode of a British drama called Misfits where a guy gets lactokinesis. At first everyone thinks the power to move dairy-based items alone is kind of wimpy...then he starts choking people by bringing up that yoghurt they just ate. Using the milk in their stomach to drag acid all around their insides. Wrapping the cheddar from that sandwich around their spinal cord to turn them into a vegetable. In the end they have to pull out a deus ex machina of sorts to stop him.

Shows what happens when you can think about powers and don't have the usual RPG restraints against auto-hitting and godmodding.

 

On a less sociopathic note if any character is on the run and needs somewhere to stay, the Kamokoa home for the inform takes pretty much anyone

Edited January 5, 2013 by Lord of Adders Black

[Constructelf]

For the inform? Inform?Also, anybody want to interact with a workaholic physicist in Central City?

[Relapse]

Levacius, your character is approved.I honestly don't know what Kaithas got angry at; your post was rather reasonable in my opinion. Remember that the warning is unofficial and holds no bearing beyond Kaithas telling you to stop being snarky. I was snarky and a bit rude, and I horribly offended one of the members of this RPG on the first day. I wouldn't recommend acting like that to any of the other staff.

[Havelock Vetinari]

Since I feel like I've been bothering LL a bit too much about this sort of thing (The Hound etc), I figured I'd put this question to the staff as a whole.

 

What modifications would have to be made to this before it was an acceptable species for play?

Edited January 5, 2013 by Basilisk

[a goose]

Since I feel like I've been bothering LL a bit too much about this sort of thing (The Hound etc), I figured I'd put this question to the staff as a whole.

 

What modifications would have to be made to this before it was an acceptable species for play?

I would suggest making it the size of a normal Visorak and taking away the Rhotuka power. Also, if you feel you're bothering one staff member too much just take it to another, the Discussion topic isn't really the place for it.

 

- Vorex

[Simulacrum]

Name: Risio Vesania

Gender: Female

Species: Vortixx

Kanohi:

Appearance: Standing at 2.5 meters tall, Risio Vesania is a tall, gangling being, with a lanky, almost malnourished physique, that is, in reality, the result of intense training required for her fighting style. A prominent ribcage, an incredibly thin waist, limbs whose thickest point are the joints; These are some of the features of her awkward frame. She has a generally disturbing and strange body, which she can twisting and deform with the skill of a natural contortionist. Sickly green-yellow organics cover most of her body, reptilian and pebble-scaled. Copper-colored mechanical components cover her joints and the middle of her limbs, as well as her ribs, cheekbones, and brows, decidedly steampunk in appearance and detail. Her eyes are of the shiniest brass, a golden-yellow that is unmistakably metallic. Risio has two outfits; An elegant and graceful pin-stripe suit of charcoal grey and light grey stripes, and a red tie and handkerchief. This outfit is normally used when she has residence, not when traveling. The other is a long, tan overcoat, a brown leather vest and patched and raggedy trousers, fingerless gloves of leather the same color of the vest, a large stovepipe hat of the same, large yellow mirrored goggles, over a featureless Bauta Venetian mask, pure white, with a ghastly, triangle-toothed grin painted on it. This outfit is her traveling one, used most of the time.

Powers:

Weapons:

-Dragonbreath "Flintlock"; A firearm designed and created by Risio Vesania, resembling an 18th century flintlock pistol in size and design. However, the actual firing capabilites of the weapon resemble a blunderbuss mixed with a semi-automatic pistol, with a powerful, and short-range, blast, while capable of firing several (5, to be exact) shots before reloading. A weakened, pistol version of a shotgun, capable of damaging (if not outright destroying) anything less endurable than military-grade metal. (Wood, flesh, etcetera...)

-Grappling Apparatus; attatched to the underside of Risio's left arm is her most technological device. Reaching from her elbow to her wrist, the device resembles a steel rectangle, attatched by two straps. On the end (The wrist section) of the device is a two finger trigger, in the shape of a push dagger's grip, but with a section missing in the middle of the trigger. When the trigger is squeezed, a protosteel dart (around thirteen centimeters from tip to base) is expelled from inside the device with incredible force, attatched to a cord of the same material, around 35 meters in length. Another squeeze of the trigger activates the dart's secondary feature, spliting it into four sections (in + shape), all of which are tipped with part of the spike of the dart, creating an effective grappling hook that enters through the target. This secondary trigger squeeze causes the wielded to be lifted forward/upwards/downwards, or whatever the direction the dart is fired. (tl;dr version: A grappling device that punches through the target, and hooks into it, before pulling the user towards the target.)

-Trench Knife; Risio's melee weapon of choice is her Trench Knife, constructed out of damascus steel, with a leather-wrapped handle.

Abilities: Incredible physical prowess, required for the martial art Risio practices (Zui Quan). As well as this, Risio is extremely good at thinking and reacting quickly, using her local enviroment in bizarre fashions, to create advantages that dumbfound her opponents.

Weaknesses: Besides the obvious lack of powers, Risio has an intense dislike of heat, prefering the cold.

Occupations: Detective (Department of Security)

Personality: Eccentric and droll at best, cruel and bizarre at worst, Risio is a strange being, to say the least, showing signs of extreme extroversion for a moment, and then psychopathic apathy. Described as "a fun-loving individual that enjoys humor and wit" on her annual psychriatic report, and "a merciless, vicious beast of a being, enjoying every bit of pain she inflicted on me" by one of the criminals she captured during her investiagtions.

History: Risio Vesania appeared in Central City, carrying a suitcase and her weaponary with her, and, a few moments later, she had a position as a detective in Department of Security. Every since, she has devoted her time to solving the most challenging cases that arise, refusing to give up, even if it takes her the better part of a year to solve a seemingly perfect crime. Currently, she is enjoying the space between cases, socializing with her co-workers, an act that may not be quite as healthy to the co-workers as it seems.

Edited January 6, 2013 by Giant of Lannister

[Relapse]

I dunno about that gun. It seems a bit OP. Maybe you could tone it down just a bit?

[Simulacrum]

Modified, and added secondary "tech" weapon.