BZPRPG News and Discussion

[Aurora the cat]

 

 

 

....What makes a good villain? What makes the best villains?I remember asking, or questioning this, some time ago. I honestly still don't understand the full extent of how you guys think of this, so if a bit of light could be shed on how you think the best evil is, and why.....please?

 

I have found, when writing, that if you can create a villain who's reasoning seems perfectly reasonable, and truly believes that he is correct and has done nothing incorrect, then you have a good villain.

 

 

This, so much.

 

Because no one wants to believe that they've done something wrong. A good villain doesn't blow up half the world without cause. And no one said that villians necessarily have to have evil things to justify what they're doing. Cause blowing up half the world may end overpopulation and/or institute world peace.

 

I wholeheartedly agree with both of these and kughii's essay up there: a good villain is one who has justification for why he does things, and especially those with a sense of honour, who play by all the rules, and thus seem to have beaten most heroes in some moral sense by giving them a fair chance.

 

Yeah, you guys get the idea. I'm rambling after a single sentence XD

 

 

Compared to my rambling, your good!

[They]

What's the general height difference between a toa and vortixx? I've always played as a toa being 1.5 bio, and a vortixx being 2 bio (aka approx. 2 matoran in height). What are your thoughts, Staff and players?

[Nuju Metru]

What's the general height difference between a toa and vortixx? I've always played as a toa being 1.5 bio, and a vortixx being 2 bio (aka approx. 2 matoran in height). What are your thoughts, Staff and players?

Does it really matter?

[They]

To me, yes. I like to know my size ratios. When I play a toa, is the seat too big if for a vortixx, or too small if for a matoran? I like the details.

[Visaru]

I imagine Toa as around two to three times the height of a matoran, and a Vortixx as around 1.5 times the height of a Toa, if you really want to know.

 

Also, to those who don't know:

They went to confront Makuta and won, banishing him into a legend, or so I keep hearing

This is (accidental) metagaming.

 

The use of Stannis' mask is a closely kept secret. The entire island believes Makuta was vanquished totally, and even the other Maru are unaware of how exactly the mask works.

 

This may be an important plot point later on, and also I hate discontinuity.

Edited November 12, 2013 by Visaru

[Eyru]

Toa, Vortixx, and Skakdi are all pretty much the same size in my mind, and within each species you get bigger or smaller specimens. Onuzek, a Toa, is probably bigger than some Skakdi, for example. It's really not something that can be nailed down, or even should be nailed down. Everyone plays differently, which means there's got to be some "room for error," as it were.

[25K Now!]

I usually assume that the average Vortixx is slightly taller and leaner than your average Toa, which has been stated to be around 1.9 metres in height.

[otter]

You could always look at how big Roodaka was compared to Vakama.

[shadow pridak money gang]

-What's in a Name?-

Sinners

-Tyler

[Ghosthands]

To me, yes. I like to know my size ratios. When I play a toa, is the seat too big if for a vortixx, or too small if for a matoran? I like the details.

 

I also like to know if the porridge is too hot for a Vortixx, too cold for a Skakdi, or just right for a Lesterin :3

 

And then the Three Ash Bears come home and find Lohkar sleeping in their bed

[They]

C.C. Returns

[Vezok's Friend]

And another artwork done. Commodore Ayiwah is ready.Her profile can be found through my signature as usual.

[Constructelf]

Ayiwah... Is that Japanese for something?Epic picture by the way; gives a very naval feel. I think she looks too masculine though.Wait, where's the profile? I don't see it in your profile post.

Edited November 13, 2013 by Man of Miracles

[Krayzikk]

And another artwork done. Commodore Ayiwah is ready.Her profile can be found through my signature as usual.

I now have a canon excuse for a Dasaka to have a coat.

[Makuta of Time]

Ever since the dataclysm, I feel like I have no idea what to do at all. Should I restart ever character's actions inthis RPG, or go along with whoever I'm still with?

[Lara White]

I'd suggest going with who you're still with. Just because it's lost doesn't mean it didn't happen.

 

[Observedhalo]

Athiel' finally back in action. Inactivity and the Dataclysm really screwed me over and he's finally back.

[25K Now!]

The Dataclysm refers to an event from long ago.

 

This was really more of a speedbump.

[NorikSigma]

Let's call it the Second Lesser Dataclysm.

[Lara White]

It'd be the Third, at least.

 

And to steer us back on topic, I'd like to ask a general question of the players: When you're designing a character, what do you focus on the most? Appearance? Powers and combat? Character? Additionally, how much do you separate yourself from your character? Are they their own entity and you're just writing them, or are they your mouthpiece in the RPG?

 

[Toatapio Nuva]

When I design my characters, I concentrate on the personality of that character and what purpose he or she will serve in any of my plots. I love creating connections between all of my characters so that they are not only individuals all with their own stories, but also that they will come together at some point and be part of a bigger whole.

 

Another thing I tend to do is creating characters with no or few powers. Most of my chars are Matoran, not Toa, for example. That forces me to be creative in combat, because there can be no reliance on powers. I believe brains should be used to solve problems more than brawn (though sometimes it's fun just to smash things )

 

Off-topic: Has anyone else noticed that the quoting system doesn't work?

[Constructelf]

I tend to focus on the appearance, back story, and the personality of my characters most (despite the fact that I almost always fail to adequately develop them). As for separation between me and my characters, I tend to put pieces of my personality inside my characters, but usually (in the Bionicle RPGs at least) they are mostly their own entities; I really only do author insertions in the OTC RPGs.

[Geardirector]

I want to say that my primary focus is character. At least that's always been my intention. If I usually have a pretty good idea about how my character reacts in a certain situation, then I'll consider my attempt a success. For example, Melna has always been a pretty solid character, whom I know well enough to usually have a response up pretty quickly.

 

As for how I play them? Well, the vast majority if my characters I treat as seperate entitites, except for one: Helios.

 

Helios is partially based on myself, so I suppose you could say he's my voice in the RPG. When I play him, I ask myself how I feel like playing. Helios isn't exactly a direct representation of me, but rather an amalgamation of my whims and moods.

 

Basically he's a release.

 

Which is why he's probably my favorite character of mine, next to Ferron.

[Toatapio Nuva]

What Dr. O says at the end brings a question to my mind: Do you guys have a specific "favourite character" among all your characters? Or do you usually like everyone equally?

[Voxumo]

It'd be the Third, at least.

 

And to steer us back on topic, I'd like to ask a general question of the players: When you're designing a character, what do you focus on the most? Appearance? Powers and combat? Character? Additionally, how much do you separate yourself from your character? Are they their own entity and you're just writing them, or are they your mouthpiece in the RPG?

 

To be honest i focus on the personality combined with abilities.. I feel the personality and abilities are two definiing factors in a character.. And i use the term abilities because they are more than just elemental... they can be things like if that character has skill in stealth or information gathering.

 

Also i have to say it depends on the character.. For me Syvra is the closest thing to my inner self people will see... he is so closely based off of me it is kind of scary. But Tivanu himself is vaguely based off me as well.. So yeah while all my characters have parts of me in them Syvra is the closest thing to me.

 

And yeah i have noticed about the quoting thing.. i no longer receive notifications about people quoting me.

 

And yes Syvra is my favorite character.. though voulge is coming in close

Edited November 13, 2013 by Voxumo

[25K Now!]

I think of what shenanigans my characters will be able to pull off and their backstory.

 

Off-topic: Has anyone else noticed that the quoting system doesn't work?

No.

[The Dark Chronicler]

When I'm designing a character, the first thing I focus on is personality. How they act and think is probably the most important part of a character, powers and weapons are nice, but you can't do a single post without including a character's personality. Once I know how a character will act, I can start working on the other sections based on how the character would likely choose them, such as mask power and armor color.

 

I tend to be almost nothing like my characters, each one is very far from my actual personality. It really helps me think for a character when I can only loosely base it upon my own thoughts, I have to get into an entirely new mindset for each individual. If they're too close to my own, I tend not to split off from my normal thoughts enough to really make them enjoyable to write for.

[Eyru]

And to steer us back on topic, I'd like to ask a general question of the players: When you're designing a character, what do you focus on the most? Appearance? Powers and combat? Character? Additionally, how much do you separate yourself from your character? Are they their own entity and you're just writing them, or are they your mouthpiece in the RPG?

 

 

A character's personality is always what comes to me first. Before name, gender, appearance, race, and especially before their history (the 'biography' section is always the last one I fill out). Through the process of discovering who a character is, I'll usually decide upon their race and gender, and then I'll create a name that fits. Appearance is next, followed by history, which is usually the least detailed portion of my profiles.

 

And if a character of mine isn't their own entity, I consider myself to have failed in writing them properly, really. Every character has their own motives and personality, and all are different from my own.

[pokemonlover360]

I don't design characters too often, but the first thing that I usually think of when designing them is their personality and what kind of role I want them to play, though primarily personality. I usually end up thinking to myself at one time or another of an idea for a character and how they act and what they're like and go from there. After that I come up with an idea of what kind of role they play in society, along with the species and gender and then appearance and powers. Also jobs. I always give my characters actual jobs in every rpg I ever play, even if it's only in the backstory, though what counts as a job is stretched at times.

 

Sometimes though I just make a character for one reason and then they develop or don't. I originally made Yasurek during the first reboot, though in that case he was just made because I thought that having a character that was an actual everyday koro guard was somehow subversive and interesting. In this reboot I took the character and shifted him into having retired from his job because there were openings for the Infernavika crew and I had spent a lot of the last reboot reading Lohkar and Kalama's adventures together, meaning that I kind of rushed through transferring him over.

 

As for how connected my characters are to me, it's a grey area. When I make a character, I try to keep them separate from me but still having some aspect of myself inside them so I can at least connect with what I'm writing personally on some level. Unfortunately, they often seem to drift into becoming more like me as I write them.

 

In hindsight, Yasurek was always like me on some level. Early on, he was my insecurities with the rpg and lack of confidence, trying to fit in within a crew of people that he had never hung out with before, trying to find acceptance. Then he developed a severe depression and lack of self worth about the same time I did in regards to the rpg due to having one of the worst impressionable lurking rpg phases ever in terms of what parts of the rpg I was reading. This carried over to all of my characters and even the impossibly happy character became a somewhat comical voice of my inability to accomplish anything. I eventually managed to develop him out of this with the help of Ghosthands, and now he's become a snarky individual always looking out for his friends and guiding them towards the more moral path, which is now a bit too much like me, which is probably why his dialogue is so easy to write.

 

In terms of all my characters, in spite of their developments and differences, they'll will probably continue to inherit my aversion to rpg combat. When I make my character's power sets and abilities, about one half is on the cool ideas side of the spectrum (teleporting le-toa archer) and the other half is more to create an interesting contrast (The impossibly happy earth toa has a mask of stealth, the plasma toa fisherman with a kaukau). My characters will always be at least competent (in their profiles anyway) so that I will have the ability to force them out of combat situations if they get caught in them (unless both characters are controlled by me, in which case they will actively not be near other player's characters and nothing ends up happening that affects anything in the long run).

 

As for my favorite, it's probably Yasurek. Not first reboot Yasurek, he didn't do anything except chase a toa who escaped with ease, but new reboot Yasurek. To me, he represents in some ways how I've developed as a writer, in that he has become a somewhat 3-dimensional character who has accomplished something in the rpg (i.e. developed at all). He's also my favorite because he's the only one that managed to keep having a plot to be in due to being a part of the Infernavika, despite being the inactivity-sinkhole that it is. In that way, as long as the other crew members keep having things to do (Lohkar in particular), Yasurek has stuff to do, and I have an rpg character to write and participate with. Without Yasurek, I'm just a newbie lurker, despite having been on this site for several years and in this rpg for a few years. With him, I'm a newbie rpg player despite having been on this site for several years and in this rpg for a few years.

 

In summary, my characters don't really develop unless I develop psychological issues and work through, my characters almost always go nowhere because I come up with roles and personalities with no plots for them to actually follow, and they always end up being somewhat snarky heroic characters that are nice despite the darker and edgier nature of the rpg who don't do anything of importance, except the one who went through the most severe bout of depression and went around asking other characters what his role in the story was. Note how I never said my character designing process was an actual good one.

[NorikSigma]

I always start off at appearance and back story first. They are intertwined, so i usually start a little on one and then link it to the other. Weapons and powers are... rather arbitrary in a Text-based RPG. Usually, I fill them in when I get writer's block filling out the personalty and back-story of a character.

 

My first two guys were connected,m but they now have different tales of theirs to live.

 

My original three characters were based off different parts of my self, then expanded into their own. My two new upcoming Dasaka will be their own selves. At least, that's what I'm planning.

 

And therein is the challenge of role-playing. The test of trying to be a different character from yourself. It's difficult, as you are controlling these supposed mouthpieces. But it is challenge of trying to put yourself into another person's shoes that is the fun of role-playing. It's tempting to just react the way you would, but the best role players become someone else, and can keep it up. That's why it's so great to read the best characters in the game. They are so... real.

 

Obviously, I still have some ways to go.

 

Also, I realised many of us just love to make Mary Sues.

[- JL -]

Bibbles.

 

And to steer us back on topic, I'd like to ask a general question of the players: When you're designing a character, what do you focus on the most? Appearance? Powers and combat? Character? Additionally, how much do you separate yourself from your character? Are they their own entity and you're just writing them, or are they your mouthpiece in the RPG?

 

 

 

Hard to say. It wholly depends on my inspirations. Sometimes I start with powers. Sometimes I start with appearance. Sometimes I start with weapon. Sometimes I start with character. Sometimes I start with what they do. After all, it's just a starting point. But in the end I focus more on simply just playing them, because that ends up being them.

 

To your second question, that depends on the characters. Some of them, I can easily place myself into their shoes. Sometimes. Others, I do find a bit challenging to write. But in the end each of my characters reflect at least some part of myself, and I think that applies to every character ever made. Even if this reflection is tiny, it's there. After all, our characters are formed in our minds, right? And our minds are always a part of us. However, I would say what what they do, why they do it, and everything are usually directly different from myself and each other. Each of them have to be unique; if not, down the brain-trash can they go.

 

 

 

 

 

I confused myself writing this.

[Dapper-Sama]

And to steer us back on topic, I'd like to ask a general question of the players: When you're designing a character, what do you focus on the most? Appearance? Powers and combat? Character? Additionally, how much do you separate yourself from your character? Are they their own entity and you're just writing them, or are they your mouthpiece in the RPG?

 

Personality, methinks. My faves among my tiny roster are the ones I can RP easily, so they're kinda like their own entity and an in-game personification of me, at the same time. Weird, isn't it?

[Onaku]

Say, I have my character Ardoku mining in Onu-koro mines, what can I do with minerals I find there? What's the system in the mines?

[Toatapio Nuva]

@Onaku: I suppose you could sell them to make your character richer. Or take some of them as trophies like Maa did. Or even possibly use them to build things.

[Onaku]

But are there any rules regarding the mines? Like regulation on who comes in and what who can take from there?

[AuRon the champion]

 

And to steer us back on topic, I'd like to ask a general question of the players: When you're designing a character, what do you focus on the most? Appearance? Powers and combat? Character? Additionally, how much do you separate yourself from your character? Are they their own entity and you're just writing them, or are they your mouthpiece in the RPG?

 

 

 

I like to do a good deal of things. Each of my characters are created in a new way. In example, #61 and Noira were written characters who I've built up (if only so slightly) in reply to a prompt from another player. #61 in reply to the DARK storyline flex wanted to do, and Noira from a question that Hubert asked me. Dalia was written because I though the MB plot was fun, and I wanted to do something fun, especially considering after what happened with Auron...

 

Laqriel. Laqriel, on the other hand, is a case of where I've enjoyed playing as a character who I developed based off another character. In Laq's case, several characters. I originally built her in reply to a request from a friend, who wanted me to build a constantly-angry Angel who had an unhealthy obsession with swords. After this, I made a few improvements before deciding that the MOC was too awesome to take apart, and it's still in my room today. Several weeks back, I felt like RPing some more, and decided to put Laqriel in for kicks. When writing her profile (and most of my characters profiles) I focused more on the personality, trying to establish quirks that would make the character interesting. This then goes on to be the 'focal point' of the character, the thing I want to describe the most. Although, this 'focal point' can change, depending on how I wish to portray the character...

 

For example...

 

#61, she's broken, not working like other beings. She wants to be normal, yet due to her past and lack of understanding for the world, is stuck doing the thing she was raised to be.

Noira just wants a hug.

Dalia doesn't know what to do with her life, surviving all the stuff she's been through for no reason, and is now trying to find purpose.

Beynii wants better earmuffs.

Nei wants to know what happened to her father.

Laqriel wants everyone to follow the lawn.

Kaipaoe needs to get his house in order.

Velan's a jerk.

Karkhalm's also a jerk.

Kualo is confused.

Nasang wants to be the best.

 

... Did that make sense?

[Toatapio Nuva]

@Onaku: As far as I know there are no official rules for that, but I would assume you're expected to have mining equipment and even some kind of training or experience on mining before doing so. And you cannot take anything OP from the mines, of course.

 

(I just realized you're Oko the Matoran! You were a PGS in the Legends of Bionicle! I thought you were dead.)

 

Why did the "off-topic" siren just go off?

[Onaku]

@Toatapio nuva: Thanks for answering (Wait, you remember me from that time?(answer me in pm))

[Ghosthands]

But are there any rules regarding the mines? Like regulation on who comes in and what who can take from there?

 

I have no authority in Onu-Koro, but I expect you would need to be a) a citizen of Onu-Koro and/or b) a member of its Miners' Guild to be allowed to mine there.

[Onaku]

So can I just pretend(just from the get go be one without any approval) I'm a member of the Miner's Guild, or do I have to join them in the RP manually?