fishers64

Spot 8

Because Pulse took my spot. And I wasn't paying attention to the numbers.

I want to build the SCIENCE building and one set of low-tech solar panels. Also I think GENERIC COMPANY B can build their vending machines, although I'm not sure what they are doing with vending machines on the moon.

I'm still wondering when the deal to buy Lego is going to go through.

Seems to be easy enough to find. But it's a video game - you have to pay for it. There are the usual pirates who claim to download it in exchange for viruses that will destroy your computer, of course, but I don't recommend those.

I am the Ko-Matoran Scholar.

The Bionicle story has an overarching theme, a theme that G2 has lost: The Toa can overcome adversity. And they made a darn good case for that - they made the Toa lose and learn from their mistakes, and then come back and beat the big bad guy. And the message in Bionicle was so simple: you can overcome your mistakes and come back to beat the villains in your life. I remember reading Time Trap and seeing Vakama come back after the Roodaka defeat and smash through that whole situation on his own - I loved reading that. As someone said "From cowardly wimp to legendary hero." That was Bionicle at its best. But that's what Bionicle does. The Toa Nuva go from squabbling to being a team, Mata Nui goes from not caring for the little people to risking his life to give them a better one, Matoro goes from being "just a translator" to savior of the universe. And G1 never compromised - it made the stakes and the opposition real and believable, not fake and contrived like Hero Factory. And when the Toa finally managed to beat their adversaries, the story steps back to let the payoff get home - you feel like that this is a victory, that you are invested in that outcome, and that you've won too. There are many other things I liked about G1 Bionicle, like the world building and the engaging mystery - each victory unlocked another piece of the mystery puzzle too, which was awesome. I can see G2 starting to embrace that as well, but it is still a shadow hollow of its former self.

GM NPC FORTIS "Yes, but why were you on the station in the first place?" Fortis said. "You said that the reason was because Hero Factory was wrapped in a planet at that time, but that doesn't make much sense. You had plenty of time to get back here before that happened. Vex got back. Even Mr. Makuro got back. Why didn't you?"

TOO MANY HOURS HAVE ELAPSED... Pahrak #0579 stalked off with his masks of Weaken and Freeze, and snatched Makuta Luroka's Mask of Iron by adapting to the toxic environment therein. Furious, the Makuta locked himself in his forge, finishing the Mask of Creation by sheer force of will. Meanwhile, Shadow FF tried to teleport a Saxarahkshi. He soon found that teleporting him transmuted the sound of the Rahkshi's horn to a high pitched scream. FF covered his ears. Elated, the Ice Saxarahkshi turned to attack Pahrak #0579, but the Bohrok blocked that attack with a massive boulder and stalked back to his forge. Meanwhile, Pulse and TwilightVezon looked up from their forges as Pahrak passed by, confused. Tekulo exclaimed with joy as he finished his masks multiple times, and everyone stared at him. Except for Ghidora. "I'm done staring." the crazytoran said. "What is the quickest way to get free ducks?" He forged the Masks of Weaken and Freeze, because everyone was weak and frozen. And indeed this was true. For the entire game, in a universe warping way that disturbed everyone, had become frozen in time. Except for Ghidora. And it seemed that Pahrak had installed time-warp resistant walls on his forge. Because him and Shadow FF kept working, working on masks that their Makuta overlord would appreciate. Soon, those two would forge the Mask of Time. Meanwhile, Nato became unfrozen do to pure outrage against the time-freezing crazytoran and forged a Mask of Iron. He then stomped around, trying to use magic to open Pahrak's time-frozen door, but it didn't work. Furious, he stalked back to his forge and made a mask of Strength, which he used to wake up Tekulo. Tekulo succeeded in opening the door, due to his wit and charm, and snatching the Masks of Teleport and Reconstitute, only for the Bohrok to turn around, snatch the Masks back, and slam the door in his face. Nato then tried to punch the Bohrok, only for Pahrak to smash his shield into him and laugh in his face. Tekulo went to get his own Mask of Strength to withstand the time-freeze on his own. He then bashed into the Saxarahkshi. The Ice Saxarahkshi used his ice powers to return everything to normal. He then used an ice-slide to zing past Pahrak and steal the Bohrok's mask of Adaptation. Tekulo tried to imprison Pahrak in an Iron cage, only for the Bohrok to shred the bars as if they were paper. He finally returned to his forge with Shadow FF. Pulse finished his Mask of Conjuring, shaking off the Ice. What had just happened? Gritting his teeth at Nato, the crazytoran lashed out with his disks, trying to freeze Nato again, but it didn't work, since the more sensible Matoran got out of the way. Tekulo tried to make a Mask of Strength again... ...only to be distracted by Luroka's departure. Taking his masks, the Makuta stomped off toward the battle of Makuta and Ekimu, ready to aid the winning side. His own. Shadow FF tried to stop his exit, but it didn't work. Finally with some peace, Nato examined his new Mask of Creation, and then he did something some might expect, but many might think was stupid, treating a priceless treasure in such a way. He put it on. And the results of that...are yet to be seen. TO BE CONTINUED. Team Generation #1: Ghidora - Round 3 Part 1 - Forge Shadow FF - Round 5 Part 1 - Forge Pahrak #0579 - Round 5 Part 2 - Attack or Skip Pulse - Round 2 Part 2 - Attack or Skip Player 1 Team Generation #2: Nato - 1 Mask of Creation - Round 6 Part 1 - Forge ToaTimeLord - Round 4 Part 1 - Forge Tekulo - Round 4 Part 2 - Attack or Skip Makuta Luroka - Round 6 Part 2 - Attack or Game's End Twilight Vezon - Round 2 Part 2 - Attack or Skip

OOC: Yeah, he was so lazy he ran off to the bridge to check the status of everything. I guess I could have had Zib make the announcement instead, but Stormer is more like it. GM IC FRAVI "YOU IDIOTS!" Fravi shouted at the wall, sitting up. "That is an entire PLANET OF VILLAINS and SLAVERS! They will break you down for spare parts and laugh while they are doing it!" "If you make me go back on that wretched planet, I swear, I don't care how much armor you have, I will kill you."

There was a Lego Chess video game? How do I get it?

GM IC THE BRAIN MASTER (THE BRAIN MASTER'S EVIL LAIR) The brain master skittered around his lab, working on three angles in light of his recent defeat: armoring the brain creatures to withstand Makuro's lasers, changing their composition, or...better yet...have the organic creatures control the robots from afar using a radio signal. The latter solution would be so much better - robots pledging their allegiance as he drove by... GM NPC MERRICK FORTIS Fortis glared at Striker. "Nobody's going anywhere until I get an answer to my question," he said. "Why didn't you come home when you heard we were under attack? Why were you still on Antropolis?" GM NPC FURNO (IN SPACE, TRAVELING ALONGSIDE THE ASTRAL) "If it's okay with you, I'd rather not stop on Mechna," said Furno. "I want to see what's beyond this portal - why those idiots opened it in the first place." ------------------------------------------- GM IC THE ASTRAL The Astral passed through the portal. GM NPC STORMER (BRIDGE) "Alright, everyone, we are approaching the planet Mechna. This planet, according to our records, has always cooperated with us, but I've always had a feeling that something shifty is going on underneath the surface. Tread carefully and trust no one." "Our mission is to reverse the effects of the portal and shut it down." GM IC FRAVI In response to the ship-wide announcement, Fravi lay down on the bottom of her cell, pressed her face to the floor, and put her hands behind her head. She forced herself not to scream. Part of her wanted to yell at the Heroes for being idiots, that Mechna was a robotic slave planet, but she was too filled with dread to even move. GM IC 78 EAST "Mechna is a robotic slave planet, you idiots!" GM IC ??? & ??? & ??? (MECHNA) A fleet of five dark ships took off from Mechna, heading deeper into the heart of...where ever they were. This would in full view of the Astral's cockpit and sensors. GM NPC BULK "Or maybe we should pursue those ships," Bulk suggested. GM NPC STRINGER "But if we close the portal while we are out pursuing those ships, we will be stuck here," Stringer said. "And so will the people flying those ships, captives or not." GM NPC STORMER "If that happens, we'll find another way out," Stormer said. "Because we're heroes, and heroes don't give up."

I've heard of Ghidora, and apparently he got T1S involved in something, which doesn't make any sense because T1S seems to be a sensible sort of fellow while Ghidora is permanently stuck in wackadoodle lands and can't escape. And apparently it's a comedy, which IMO is one of the most boring comedies ever written which is beneath my refined taste. Therefore, it is both obnoxious and not applicable to my general existence.

I don't have a miiwhatever, but I'm following you anyway because I am a horrible person.

I will judge it based on what you have completed, whether 2 chapters or 10.

I will build a black brick tree.

I shall now be ice queen.

Not Approved. No, we're not allowing April Fool's joke characters in my RPG. What were you thinking?

It looks like I'm starting XXIX next week? ? Don't give me that. It is extraordinarily painful - every time I want to host a game it is like pulling teeth. The Meaning of Death, I ended up tripping over some poor soul, and now... and now...

*pulls out shotgun and aims at Pulse* Spot 8

Spot 8

And to all a good chir... Happy Birthday!

I agree with this - I would like the fans of Bionicle to take an innovative approach instead of flaming. To be clear, though, Bionicle suffers from things that Train Tech does not, namely: 1) a viable innovative path forward that isn't spearheaded by new parts and molds. Now there are notable exceptions to this, but for the most part Bionicle fans are consumers that are watching the company for innovations year after year. The vast majority of all Bionicle MoCs are variations on sets Lego has already produced. You can build a tower out of System and a cat out of System, but the only thing you can build out of CCBS is what comes out of the box...or some variation on it. At least, that's what the majority of Bionicle fans seem to believe. Further, Lego's approach to the system so far has been somewhat formulaic and myopic, cranking out the same humanoid builds year after year. The name CCBS is the problem. It's the Character and Creature Building system, not the "system made up of ball joints connectors that can build a humanoid, an ant, or a bridge." And yes, you can build ants and bridges out of that system. I've done it. Heck you can even build ants and bridges and towers out of G1 parts and people don't do it. Given that Lego's mission statement is to "inspire and develop the builders of tommorrow" this is a blind spot. CCBS inspires me just looking at it, but most people don't seem to get it. 2) Which leaves the story to carry all of Bionicle's attractive weight. But the story...is produced by the Lego group. We don't have a say in it any more, if we ever did. Indeed, the main reason to buy Bionicle sets for a lot of people was (and probably still is) keep them together and roleplay. But those roleplaying opportunities are built in large part by the story, which is from Lego. It's the attraction of the characters from the story...not the attraction of holding CCBS pieces in your hand and clipping and unclipping as you watch something take shape. That's what attracts me to the sets, but for most people...nah. And if the story sucks, as it has ever since 2010 at least, there's nothing left. Witness BZPower 2011-14, I can tell you that most of the activity and most of the fights were about dragging the most mileage we could out of the old story. ------------------------ Therefore, Lego has created a culture of customers with their Bionicle line, not a culture of innovators like in the realms of Train Tech, Technic or System. And those customers snap at each other when their demands aren't met, as a displacement of anger against Lego. We believe that only Lego can innovate Bionicle and CCBS. We believe that only Lego can produce the story we want. And apart from Lego's good graces, we are helpless to change anything, that Lego has slighted us, that what they have given us will never be enough, and that they are going to take whatever little we have away. And we are wrong. Someone mentioned that we are growing up. Nothing could be further from the truth. We are still sitting around as crying two-year-olds waiting for the big Lego parent to give us candy. If somone wants a different flavor of candy than us, we attack them to protect our own stash. And until we realize that CCBS and Bionicle story as it stands now are not liabilities, but opportunities, until we realize that as the people who appreciate what Bionicle has to offer only we are going to be able to do something about it, until we stop believing that we are powerless, we will continue to act like selfish brats who complain about Lego's every move and snap at each other over our mutual lack of satisfaction. Thanks for reading. I hope I have answered your question. Dude, that topic on TTV is from August of 2014 when we were having that "intolerance rule = trolling license" movement. It's hardly represenative of recent negativety or of BZP as a whole.

I'm wondering if we should table Quisoves' game at this point and move on to XXIX as well. I won't be able to start it until later this week, but best to get that discussion ball rolling.