BZPRPG - News and Discussion

[Keeper of Kraata]

2 hours ago, ARROW404 said:

I was thinking a Turaga (or the Dasaka equivalent), since I don't have one, but nothing beyond that. Honestly, Dasaka lore is kind of big and has a lot of invented terminology, which makes it hard for me to figure it out.

(Generally speaking, I think this is why so few players have made characters for Zakaz, Seprilli, and Kentoku. The lore is great, but the side of the lore that players will interact directly with is a bit too much to be new-character-friendly.

To make it simple, Dasaka have a caste-based society, which is mostly analogous to their Mata Nui equivalents, but doesn't always line up. Matoran are Dashi, Toa are Dasaka, and Turaga are Datsue, but the castes are more expansive.

Top of the heap are Menti, the warrior caste. Rulership positions, such as the Rora (empress) and Toroshu (clan leaders) are included in this, and all members are either Dasaka or rarely Datsue.

Below them are Dashi, who are the laborers. They are almost always Dashi (matoran) proper.

Ringti are crafters and scientists, generally Dashi but occasionally Dasaka, though I play a Datsue who still identifies as a Ringti.

Bottom of the pile are the Saihoko, who are the Archipelago's sailors and merchants. Tough lot in life, lot of discrimination from other people in Kentoku.

Datsue generally exist outside the caste system, usually being essentially retired. The biggest difference with Datsue from Turaga is that they retain their full abilities, but lose their mask power; no Noble masks.

I'd read over the first few posts of Kentoku for more stuff, including their Virtues and the disciplines. Currently, Kentoku society has been upended, with a huge portion of their population fleeing to Mata Nui as refugees or being left behind and facing an existential crisis.

[Visaru]

8 hours ago, ARROW404 said:

(Generally speaking, I think this is why so few players have made characters for Zakaz, Seprilli, and Kentoku. The lore is great, but the side of the lore that players will interact directly with is a bit too much to be new-character-friendly.

I think you are definitely right (the dense politics in Kentoku have always been intimidating for me too) but I will encourage you and everyone else to not be afraid to contradict lore and worldbuild --as long as you've read the (admittedly long but well written) intro posts of either topic, that's all you reasonably need to be expected to know to hop in and start rping, and any other discrepancies can be worked out as you play. It's better to get involved and make mistakes than not do something you want to for fear of stepping on someone's toes!

[ARROW404]

On 5/8/2022 at 8:47 PM, Keeper of Kraata said:

To make it simple, Dasaka have a caste-based society, which is mostly analogous to their Mata Nui equivalents, but doesn't always line up. Matoran are Dashi, Toa are Dasaka, and Turaga are Datsue, but the castes are more expansive.

Top of the heap are Menti, the warrior caste. Rulership positions, such as the Rora (empress) and Toroshu (clan leaders) are included in this, and all members are either Dasaka or rarely Datsue.

Below them are Dashi, who are the laborers. They are almost always Dashi (matoran) proper.

Ringti are crafters and scientists, generally Dashi but occasionally Dasaka, though I play a Datsue who still identifies as a Ringti.

Bottom of the pile are the Saihoko, who are the Archipelago's sailors and merchants. Tough lot in life, lot of discrimination from other people in Kentoku.

Datsue generally exist outside the caste system, usually being essentially retired. The biggest difference with Datsue from Turaga is that they retain their full abilities, but lose their mask power; no Noble masks.

I'd read over the first few posts of Kentoku for more stuff, including their Virtues and the disciplines. Currently, Kentoku society has been upended, with a huge portion of their population fleeing to Mata Nui as refugees or being left behind and facing an existential crisis.

Thanks a lot for the summary. Any recommendations? Spots where someone could use another character? Roles that haven't been filled yet that could be interesting?

 

Edit: Alright, I've got my concept for a Menti ready, but where to put her is the question?

Edited May 14, 2022 by ARROW404

[Perp]

It's not about the size of your Disk - it's how you use it.

 

Folks, it's that time again where we whip out the Native Tech 3D renders, and once more we're serving up diskettes - pistol(?) edition. Hope you like toggles!

 

The Diskette Pistol

Three Quarters

Profile

Front

Top

Toggles Open

Close-Up

Aiming

 

The "Hans Olo"

Three Quarters

Profile

Front

 

The "Wauser"

Three Quarters

Profile

Front

Bottom

 

The Artillery

Three Quarters

Profile

Front

Aiming

 

Once again, thanks to @Geardirector for coming up with the darn thing in the first place.

Edited May 15, 2022 by Perp

[Snelly]

Heck yeah that's raw.

[ARROW404]

On 5/14/2022 at 9:43 AM, ARROW404 said:

Thanks a lot for the summary. Any recommendations? Spots where someone could use another character? Roles that haven't been filled yet that could be interesting?

 

Edit: Alright, I've got my concept for a Menti ready, but where to put her is the question?

Lemme phrase this differently- what are the current ongoing stories on the Archipelago?

[Rahisaurus]

Had to include this classic timak moment @~Xemnas~ @ARROW404

[Ghosthands]

11 hours ago, ARROW404 said:

Lemme phrase this differently- what are the current ongoing stories on the Archipelago?

I'll let those involved in other interactions answer for themselves, but for my part, Clan Ageru is the main force holding the line against Makuta's forces on Odaiba. They've been pushed back to a foothold near Sado, controlling barely enough land to feed the remaining Dasaka population in the Archipelago, and under constant threat of attack by Rahkshi and infected Rahi.

Kilanya, leader of the Ageru, is one of the few Toroshu who chose to remain behind during the evacuation. She currently commands the Dasaka forces on Odaiba from Fort Kizuno, an old fortress situated near the front line. The war has been brutal, and the Dasaka have sustained heavy losses, but Kilanya nonetheless stands and fights among her troops to bolster morale. Right now, Kilanya has just returned to Kizuno from the war council on Sado, and is overseeing a training session at the fort. For the moment, there is a lull in the fighting and reinforcements from Clan Dastana (now the ruling clan of Kentoku) are expected, but who knows how long things will stay quiet? 

If you'd like to have your character be one of the Menti defending Odaiba, they'd be most welcome. They wouldn't have to be an Ageru, by the way: the invasion has shaken up the usual order of things, and Kilanya's forces are made up of Menti of all stripes.

[Keeper of Kraata]

14 hours ago, ARROW404 said:

Lemme phrase this differently- what are the current ongoing stories on the Archipelago?

I got three things going on. The big one is Hanaloi; it’s an island off the coast of Odaiba that was the home of the secretive Mashtet clan before they all disappeared several years prior to narrative present, and not even the survivors know why. But, an expedition of some Mashtet survivors, Plangori, and Dastana have come to the island to assess its use for lumber. However, other have come as well; refugee Kuychar and independent actors have also come, and Zataka’s Rahkshi, led by a dark Menti, also have an agenda in the caves under the Mashtet’s fortress, which has led to some revelations about the Mashtet’s fate.

Completely unrelated, a Menti with partial amnesia named Mashtet Ahri washed up on Oki’s shore and has met up with two outcasts, Raika and Yuna, and are trying to help a refugee village.

The last thing I got going on is my last Dasaka character basically LARPing M*A*S*H in the Sado gardens.

[Mel]

20 hours ago, ARROW404 said:

Lemme phrase this differently- what are the current ongoing stories on the Archipelago?

For my own part, I'm involved with two clans on the island.   The first is the Plangori--a traditionalist clan of dyers who sponsored the Mashtet mission on the island.   Morie, their leader, is an elderly menti who fully expects not to survive the war to retake the islands.   She is actually Mashtet on her maternal grandfather's side, and sponsored the mission with the ostensible goal of restoring her heirloom Mashtet carvings.  However, she believes that there is something more to the clan's disappearance--and that the Fursics are probably involved somehow.  Right now though, she's run into a young daikura menti with absolutely no life skills whatsoever while patrolling.

Also involved on the island of Hanaloi, though a lot less intentionally, are the Kuychar.   The Kuychar are a fairly traditional but cautious Tajaar clan who had to flee the invasions of rakshi at the beginning of the arc.   They stopped on Hanaloi to resupply and noticed the strange happenings on the island, and some of their dashi warriors are examining the situation more closely.  And then there's Hatchi a (stealthed) non-binary former caravan leader who escaped to Sado with clan's horses and is involved with the M*A*S*H larp while they find out what in the world they should do next.  (It will probably involve that little group on Oki once they reach Sado.)

[The Drink]

soulfire exist, and are on pilgrimage to sado

a buff idiot is fighting a librarian its pretty good

[Cu Chulainn Caster]

On 5/16/2022 at 1:05 AM, ARROW404 said:

Lemme phrase this differently- what are the current ongoing stories on the Archipelago?

couple'a wanderer girls are looking for survivors of the dragons' awakening and trying to get them to safety.  been a minute since anything happened there, a new face might be a good shakeup

[ARROW404]

Looks like I've got quite a few choices.

I think this option would be Ikyazu's ultimate goal, and she'd be making her way there:

On 5/16/2022 at 7:30 PM, Ghosthands said:

I'll let those involved in other interactions answer for themselves, but for my part, Clan Ageru is the main force holding the line against Makuta's forces on Odaiba. They've been pushed back to a foothold near Sado, controlling barely enough land to feed the remaining Dasaka population in the Archipelago, and under constant threat of attack by Rahkshi and infected Rahi.

...but currently she's in the vicinity of either:

21 hours ago, Keeper of Kraata said:

Completely unrelated, a Menti with partial amnesia named Mashtet Ahri washed up on Oki’s shore and has met up with two outcasts, Raika and Yuna, and are trying to help a refugee village.

or:

49 minutes ago, capMARVELOUS said:

couple'a wanderer girls are looking for survivors of the dragons' awakening and trying to get them to safety.  been a minute since anything happened there, a new face might be a good shakeup

Shaking things up sounds good, if the players involved are still active and ready to go. Otherwise I'll take the Oki shore way.

[BULiK]

The game is afoot...

Big moves happening in Po, grab the popcorn

[BULiK]

As a heads up, folks, I'm gonna be unavailable for posting starting roughly this Wednesday, with some limited availability through thursday night, but will be completely offline from Friday until next Friday or so.

Given the pace of posting these days that's not a big deal, but just a heads up given some of my characters are in an activity streak. The only places this might slow things down is Vrill (but @Goose can bunny him acting sigma if necessary, because I trust a goose such as yourself to know how to handle a Gosling) and Quoribay, depending on how much action the train heist gets through in that week's time (luckily him and Skrol are basically waiting for stuff to happen up at the front of the train and ideally the pace of the things in the passenger and cargo sections won't need to be so tightly synced in terms of combat, so this shouldn't hold up things much).

[The Drink]

Tamahagane

Edited May 27, 2022 by Razgriz
Messed up the Link for Soulsword Weirdness

[a goose]

"Mm."

god, I've been waiting so long for this

[Emzee]

Time to amuse/aggravate a whole new generation of RPers.  

[EmperorWhenua]

Hey guys, sorry if my drop-off for the last month and a half left people hanging. I'm feeling better and am reading/writing again now.  

[Daniel the Finlander]

okay time to try and get back into this

its been half a year, is the dark walk quest dead and buried?

@Geardirectorferron and mar posts when

 

 

Edited May 31, 2022 by Daniel the Finlander

[a goose]

5 hours ago, Daniel the Finlander said:

okay time to try and get back into this

its been half a year, is the dark walk quest dead and buried?

@Geardirectorferron and mar posts when

dark walk quest theoretically still exists

[Krayzikk]

More than theoretically, I know the post for it is getting written. Albeit, perhaps, under the threat that I know where the author lives.

[Endless Sea (Alaki Nuva)]

6 hours ago, Daniel the Finlander said:

 

@Geardirectorferron and mar posts when

 

 

I actually gave him a poke about Mar not too long ago!  He advised me to have Joskander move on without him, since he's busy IRL for now.  (I'm currently having trouble drafting a post I'm happy with, though, so feel free to have Dahkapa meet him at the Ko-Koro gates if you want.)

[ARROW404]

  

20 hours ago, Krayzikk said:

More than theoretically, I know the post for it is getting written. Albeit, perhaps, under the threat that I know where the author lives.

Keep up the good work, mate.

  

19 hours ago, Endless Sea (Alaki Nuva) said:

I actually gave him a poke about Mar not too long ago!  He advised me to have Joskander move on without him, since he's busy IRL for now.  (I'm currently having trouble drafting a post I'm happy with, though, so feel free to have Dahkapa meet him at the Ko-Koro gates if you want.)

Dang, too busy just to post? Hope he frees up soon, I'm interacting with two of his characters at the moment!

Edited June 1, 2022 by ARROW404

[Endless Sea (Alaki Nuva)]

3 hours ago, ARROW404 said:

Dang, too busy just to post? Hope he frees up soon, I'm interacting with two of his characters at the moment!

So am I!  He told me he's still hoping to eventually pick up where he left off with Mako in Ga-Koro, for the record.

[ARROW404]

Got myself a dragon now. But where to put him is the question. What parts of Mata-nui could stand to be livened up with a sudden dragon?

[BULiK]

it would be kinda funny if atamai/kreigero/savrehn saw ANOTHER dragon in Ko, even from a distance. Or hey, maybe @Lady Takanuva's dragon in the same wahi could get some interaction. Or both!

[ARROW404]

2 hours ago, BULiK said:

it would be kinda funny if atamai/kreigero/savrehn saw ANOTHER dragon in Ko, even from a distance. Or hey, maybe @Lady Takanuva's dragon in the same wahi could get some interaction. Or both!

It would be interesting, but both threads are really active, so I was hoping to maybe spice up another Wahi. Any of you guys have characters that aren't getting anything done at the moment?

[Daniel the Finlander]

On 6/1/2022 at 2:42 AM, Endless Sea (Alaki Nuva) said:

I actually gave him a poke about Mar not too long ago!  He advised me to have Joskander move on without him, since he's busy IRL for now.  (I'm currently having trouble drafting a post I'm happy with, though, so feel free to have Dahkapa meet him at the Ko-Koro gates if you want.)

ok thanks for the info

the last joskander post is explicitly talking to mar... but i guess i can have dahkapa arrive and the two can basically pretend mar is there without directly interacting with them

[Endless Sea (Alaki Nuva)]

 

4 hours ago, Daniel the Finlander said:

ok thanks for the info

the last joskander post is explicitly talking to mar... but i guess i can have dahkapa arrive and the two can basically pretend mar is there without directly interacting with them

I was actually thinking Mar would've already gone off on his own by that point.

[otter]

On 6/3/2022 at 3:32 AM, ARROW404 said:

Got myself a dragon now. But where to put him is the question. What parts of Mata-nui could stand to be livened up with a sudden dragon?

i am so glad to see that my random "hey @Goosecan i do this instead of a bat" from arc 1 is getting such love

[a goose]

2 minutes ago, otter said:

i am so glad to see that my random "hey @Goosecan i do this instead of a bat" from arc 1 is getting such love

yeah that moc is absurdly sick, I'm glad I bent to peer pressure and brought back the Mystix

[Mel]

It was not the face of child.

(Thank you for your patience, everyone.   Follow up posts shouldn't take as long, I promise.)

Edited June 5, 2022 by Mel

[Palm]

Sorry to all waiting on posts from me. I'm currently living in a tent and working remote in forestry. I've screenshotted some posts I'm supposed to respond to so I can write my responses and post what I'm able to complete next time I have service. Love y'all.

[a goose]

Her First and Most Loyal Servant

: )

[Ghosthands]

Promises

[Ghosthands]

@Lady Takanuva asked off-site about Karoru's recent use of her psionics to share her focus with the group attempting to heal Leah. As a Soulsword, this is not part of her established power-set, but it's also a nice post that works well within the situation, so I don't want to force an edit. It also raises a fairly important point about psionics, so I thought I'd share my ruling here.

Because I like the post, I'm going to allow it — but as an exception, rather than a rule.

In this moment of crisis, Karoru is desperate to help and so has instinctively tapped into her psionics at a deeper level than her training has encompassed. She has managed to briefly use something similar to Willhammer without knowing what she's doing (similarly to how young Dasaka are pushed to manifest their power instinctively for the first time before being assigned their Discipline). It's only this specific situation that has enabled her to do so: a moment of crisis, yet also a peaceful and meditative environment. She wouldn't be able to replicate it, nor can other Dasaka necessarily achieve the same thing, even if they are themselves in exceptional circumstances. It's basically a fluke.

Just to be clear about why I'm flagging this up: Psionics is a very broad and potent element. This is why Dasaka were given the Disciplines: to preserve the variety of interesting applications psionics offers, while placing limits on the abilities available to each individual PC. In the lore, the Disciplines are defined rigidly among the Imperials, and are drilled into Menti from the very start of their training. It's very difficult for them to break outside of those boundaries; this is why learning three Disciplines (i.e. becoming a Battlemaster) is exceedingly rare, and four is the stuff of legend.

In this case it's not a big deal, but generally, if you want to have a character do something that's outside their established power-set, it's best to run it by staff first. We may allow it on the grounds of storytelling (or, indeed, rule of cool) but we do need to ensure good balancing of PC capabilities and consistency with established lore. And if you have any questions about what characters can and can't do, you're always welcome to ask!

[Geardirector]

Alright, hey folks. I've gotten a bunch of stuff of my plate. Give me a poke if you need me for something. I'm getting caught up and we'll se what I can get into

[Daniel the Finlander]

10 hours ago, Geardirector said:

Alright, hey folks. I've gotten a bunch of stuff of my plate. Give me a poke if you need me for something. I'm getting caught up and we'll se what I can get into

oliphko for one

with mar, me and endless sea just sorta did a skip so you can do whatever you want with that character now

[Endless Sea (Alaki Nuva)]

Sorry to keep you waiting on a post btw, Daniel.  I've been having trouble deciding what I want Joskander to do xD