The Mask of Ice

Mental: Intelligence (Accuracy), Wisdom (Finesse), Will (Defense)

Interaction: Charisma (Accuracy), Comeliness (Finesse), Reputation (Defense)

Physical: Strength (Accuracy), Dexterity (Finesse), Toughness (Defense)

You have the values 5, 4 and 3, which you assign to stat categories and distribute within them. You then have a certain amount of skill points which you assign to skills, which are based on either a specific stat or a stat category.

Oh, I remembered the last category of stats: Interaction.

Remember, with this system we already have 9 stats. So no need to complicate it further. Those types of things are for skills anyway.

It's a horror system, but the stat system's nice and could fit into Bionicle. So basically, you have 3 categories of stats, Physical, Mental, and something else I forgot about which was similar to Will. These were in turn divided into three additional categories: Strength, Finesse and Defense. So your physical stats were: Strength (Strength), Dexterity (Finesse) and Toughness (Defense).

You mean having stats like World of Darkness? Nice idea.

Nope. Let's say we want to play a very absentminded character; we'll need a Wisdom stat so that he'll have low insight, perception, etc.

Edited it (I'm assuming we'll need 10 saving throws, checks or other usages of the Toughness stat to increase Vitality and Endurance): https://dl.dropbox.com/u/72428913/BIONICLE%20RPG/BIONICLE%20Races.docx

Here's the revised Matoran race stats (I removed Skilled/Warrior because I think characters' ranged/melee weapon and armor proficiencies should be determined by their ranks in the ranged weapon usage/melee weapon usage/armor usage skills): https://dl.dropbox.com/u/72428913/BIONICLE%20RPG/BIONICLE%20Races.docx

Let's add and ethical axis to the alignment system along with the moral axis: Lawful, Neutral and Chaotic. So you can be Lawful, Chaotic or Neutral Good, Lawful Chaotic or Neutral (True) Neutral and Lawful, Chaotic and Neutral Evil. Also, I think having a Destiny encourages player favoritism by the GM and railroads characters, thus defeating the purpose of the game.

There's standard arrays, we're not going to roll stats over the internet now are we? Having Perception as a stat makes no sense; it and Insight, Nature, Survival etc. are skills dependent on Wisdom.

d20 averages have always been 10. I say we have a standard array like this: 16, 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8 (assuming we'll add Wisdom as a 7th stat, and please, let's make elemental manipulation's ability change according to element, otherwise it'll encourage min-maxing alot, but let's have your Will determine your EE pool.) And include a 4d6 best 3 method for random ability generation.

The ability adjustments there are just absurd. A good rule of thumb would be to make all racial ability modifiers add up to 0. Also, penalties to crafting skills and a few roleplaying drawbacks won't stop munchkins from choosing to play a Toa. I say we give Matoran expertise dice, extra skill points and ability adjustments that add up to 0. Toa are like Matoran but don't have expertise dice or extra skill points, but have elemental manipulation.

I said that just to change the ability adjustments, the elemental features are fine. Also, if we don't give Matoran expertise dice as an exclusive feature, they'll get sidelined by Toa. What I meant by the elemental control issue is this: If you're a Toa of Fire, you use Charisma for elemental control, If you're a Toa of Earth, you use Toughness, etc. Simpler resistances/vulnerabilities speed up play. How about an EE pool like this: If your Toa has a will of 10 (the average for a d20 stat) he has 10 EE at the start of each day. This would work if EE costs for powers were like in the table I posted the link to in the main topic, coupled with the recharge ability.

Let's use the standard ability score system (please, let's add Wisdom, we need that for perception and other mental abilities that don't rely on Intelligence), and only have each subtype grant +2 to one and -2 to another. Other than that, we could just have resistances halve damage and vulnerability double it, and I'm still a supporter of Matoran having expertise dice. Are we using that idea? Toa should have an EE pool equal to their Will, but their skill at elemental manipulation (attack rolls, saving throw DCs, etc. Are we making elemental manipulation a skill along with weapon usage, dodge, etc.) should be based on an ability determined by their element.

Since widgets are mostly unpopular, they could act like an electrum piece in D&D: Half the value of the credit, which I assume is our main currency. My solution to a Nova Blast is this: Ordinary Toa can only do it by expending EE equal to their max EE to create a cloud area effect. This automatically deals 1d6 per the Toa's level damage of their element to all in the area. Doing the 335 cubic kio Nova Blast instantly kills you if you're not a Nuva.

It would be used. You need it for perception, insight, etc.

How about we have Will, and also have Wisdom? It would be like the Power stat in Call of Cthulhu. Of course that'll make figuring out a point-buy system harder, but every RPG system needs an ability score like that. Still, D&D uses Wisdom as a measure of mental strength.

About character level, how about this, when you gain a level in enough skills (let's say, 5) your character level goes up.

Used my powers over my own blog to combine your double post into one. - The Iron Toa

There, I made a Doc file for the Matoran (it's not really finished, there'll be a lot more elemental subtypes): https://dl.dropbox.com/u/72428913/BIONICLE%20RPG/BIONICLE%20Races.docx

And I think I will use -2 and +2 elemental modifiers for Matoran. Any other modifiers can be based on things like feats and traits. For example, instead of Onu-Matoran being able to put 2 additional points into Str or Int, they could just take the Miner or Engineer trait, which could do more than affect those two stats. And those traits would be easily available to Onu-Matoran, but not exclusive to them.

Trust me, the "4d6 best 3" method has been used for D&D since 1e.

So, are racial benefits like this?:

Matoran: +2/-2 to two ability scores based on an element, an elemental trait, and expertise dice. (We could make it so that "Miner" and "Engineer"-type feats are based on expertise dice, like: "Make a mining check and automatically succeed. Spend an expertise die and roll. You get ore based on the table")

Toa: As matoran, but no expertise dice, elemental manipulation, and medium size. (They can get elemental finesse feats, which work a bit like meta-magic feats)

Turaga: As matoran, but no expertise dice, but control over a faction, or two NPC Matoran helpers (structured like PCs)

Let's start designing the system starting from lower levels. I could make some racial PDFs. We should start with levels 1-3, and develop features from there.

EDIT: Let's replace Will with Wisdom. Wisdom encompasses will, and also includes common sense, physical senses, empathy, etc.

How about this, we make 10 the average, have a standard array like this: 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8. We could include rolling 4d6 and discarding the lowest die as an option.

Also, I think we should ditch ability adjustment for Toa; They'll be overpowered if we do that. How about this: Matoran get +2 to one score, and -2 to another along with their elemental benefit, based on their element.

For advantaged/disadvantaged situations, how about a mechanic that makes you roll 2 d20's and take the higher result on advantage, and the lower result on disadvantage.

I think it should stay a racial feature, with feats which allow you to use them for other effects. Matoran could take feats that let them use expertise for combat maneuvers if they're, let's say, a member of the Ta-Koro guard, or, if they want to be stronger in out of combat situations, they could take profession related expertise dice feats.

And your suggestion of a category of weapons that use Dexterity to hit... well, if your enemy attempts to dodge, shouldn't it matter how dextrous you are and not how strong you are, no matter what weapon you're using?

Maybe we should have a fixed Armor Class against weapon attacks, which you add your Dexterity moderator, and gain bonuses from shields and armor to against weapon attacks or elemental attacks, and then have attribute-based saving throws against effects such as spells, etc. (Dexterity saving throws gain a shield bonus too)

EDIT: Can I design the Toa Race?

For Matoran, how about we ditch the ability adjustment for races and just give them those features? Also, expertise dice aren't combat exclusive. They also grant bonuses to skill checks. About using your Dexterity to hit, we should stick to strength in melee by default. and have a category of weapons where you can substitute your Dexterity.

Ability scores are the numerical values of your attributes, and their modifiers are (Ability score - 10)/2 (rounded down) If we're doing this D&D style. Hit chances are determined by whether a target makes am attribute based saving throw at a DC (a bit like block, only it's dependent only on the ability), or an attack roll made by the attacker against a target's armor rating.

As for the expertise dice, that seems to be decent idea. Could I have an example to make sure I fully understand it?

Actually, it came from the D&D Next/5e Fighter. The difference is that the Fighter uses it solely for combat maneuvers. So, Matoran get a d6 at first level. They can spend and roll this any time they make an attack roll or skill check, and get an equal bonus. It recharges after 6 seconds, AKA a round. Feats exist which allow Matoran to use their dice for different effects, such as kicking a device to repair it. The size and number of the dice increase as a Matoran levels. They also get, not to mention, their elemental benefit. For Matoran with yet officially undisclosed elemental benefits. Maybe gravity matoran get to reverse the way gravity affects them, or maybe reduce it by an amount, while magnetic matoran have an internal monopole magnet which can reverse polarity.

Here's an Excel spreadsheet for EE costs: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/72428913/BIONICLE%20RPG/Elemental%20Effects%20EE%20Cost%20Sheet.xlsx

I don't think <i>those</i> FATE mechanics would clash with d20, but anyway.

How about making a spreadsheet like this: It lists (a sample) EE cost as "1 EE per the burst's radius, and all within must make a saving throw or take 1d6 + your elemental ability modifier per extra EE you spend on this power."

Matoran could have expertise dice, which they roll and add to any skill or attack roll, which refresh every round, in addition to their element-specific benefit (Ta-Matoran get resist fire, and by the way, instead of expressing resistances and vulnerabilities numerically, we could simply do it like this: resistance halved damage of a type, and vulnerability doubles it) and you would be able to take feats which allow you to use your expertise dice for different effects, and the dice gradually increase in size and number as you level.