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Seeking advice for a Bionicle one shot.


Toa Jaxus

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So my local college (+alma mater) is running a gaming convention soon enough and I'm thinking of making a one shot for it - specifically a Bionicle one where the party would be a group of Matoran who died and wake up in the Red Star as Toa and now have to get out (would be set around the same time as Kopaka and Pohatu would be there); and I'm looking for some advice on how I should proceed:

 

1) Is this really really a suitable game for people unfamiliar with Bionicle? Bionicle has a weird concept as it let alone been resurrected on an unknown space ship that brings back the dead.

 

2) What's a good set of masks for the party? I'm think Pakari, Matatu, Elda, Kualsi, Kiril; not sure what to do for the sixth mask.

 

3) Should I go with the standard array of elements, or should I switch out Stone for something like Iron, Lightning or Gravity to have more variety and accessability? Or just go with a completely random set of elements?

 

Edit:

 

I understand if this topic gets moved to a different board, I just placed it here as I didn't know where else to do so.

 

Also I'm thinking of using either the Doronai Nui or a modified version of the RWBY fan rpg.

Edited by Toa Jaxus
Clarifications.
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1) For a non-Bionicle audience you should make it in a way that you have to explain minimal amounts of lore.

2) It would look best if all the masks all had roughly the same style.

3) Use standard elements. Systems of elements are supposed to be based on the classical elements or Chinese elements. Following this will make it accessible. Bionicle added alternative element types to keep the franchise from getting stale. Pokemon had elements like "electric" and "bug" so they could have more variety in their 150 species.

GENERATION 4: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation. Social experiment.

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19 hours ago, Toa Jaxus said:

1) Is this really really a suitable game for people unfamiliar with Bionicle?

No. The Red Star is one of the most unknown environments in the story, and its Space Zombie thing wasn't even ran by the story team (since it no longer existed, of course.) There's nothing to work with beyond your own imagination. Also, most ex-Bionicle fans have no idea what the Red Star even is. You'd have a long time explaining everything to your players who will probably just get confused and bored before you begin. Why not set your campaign on the iconic island of Mata Nui? Appeal to that nostalgia.

 

19 hours ago, Toa Jaxus said:

2) What's a good set of masks for the party? I'm think Pakari, Matatu, Elda, Kualsi, Kiril; not sure what to do for the sixth mask.

If you're not going to let them choose for themselves from a list, go with the Hau, Kaukau, Miru, Akaku, Pakari, and Kakama. I bet you can tell where I'm going with this...

 

19 hours ago, Toa Jaxus said:

3) Should I go with the standard array of elements, or should I switch out Stone for something like Iron, Lightning or Gravity to have more variety and accessability? Or just go with a completely random set of elements?

Your player characters should be the Toa Mata on the island of Mata Nui, on their way to fight Makuta in Mangaia. Forget about the Golden Masks, forget about Kaita. Let them know that they're playing something based on the finale of the first year's storyline. Keep it shrimple, keep it iconic. 

Edited by Lorentz

#makeBionicleG1andHeroFactorysharethesameuniverse and #giveBionicleansHeroFactorytheirownliveactioncinematicuniverse 
GENERATION 5: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation. Social experiment.

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On 4/14/2022 at 1:06 PM, Lorentz said:

Your player characters should be the Toa Mata on the island of Mata Nui, on their way to fight Makuta in Mangaia. Forget about the Golden Masks, forget about Kaita. Let them know that they're playing something based on the finale of the first year's storyline. Keep it shrimple, keep it iconic. 

What exactly are they doing on Mata Nui if there are no Golden Masks or Kaita? That would rule out searching for the masks and entering Makuta's lair, and the actual fight against Makuta was never an option to begin with. We're left with randomly fighting Rahi, I guess, but an RPG needs to have a narrative with a direction. It also helps if the narrative gets resolved satisfactorily in the end.

What OP actually goes with would depend on how extensive they want the game to be. They shouldn't be limited to year one. There are storylines from years two or four that might be able to fit. Three and five probably wouldn't work, and I'm not sure about the rest of the years.

GENERATION 4: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation. Social experiment.

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On 4/16/2022 at 10:44 AM, Fyndegil said:

What exactly are they doing on Mata Nui if there are no Golden Masks or Kaita?

Going down to fight Makuta. Facing threats and traps along the way. It's a dungeon with a big boss at the end. For a One-Shot aimed at non-Bionicle fans, you gotta simplify things. 

Edited by Lorentz

#makeBionicleG1andHeroFactorysharethesameuniverse and #giveBionicleansHeroFactorytheirownliveactioncinematicuniverse 
GENERATION 5: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation. Social experiment.

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Don't they have the golden masks at that point, and doesn't that involve turning into Kaita?

Edited by Fyndegil

GENERATION 4: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation. Social experiment.

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1 hour ago, Fyndegil said:

Don't they have the golden masks at that point, and doesn't that involve turning into Kaita?

Canonically, yes, but in your original idea you weren't going to be following canon anyway, so just simplify things to make it more accessible to players unfamiliar with Bionicle. You can get really creative with all the potential enemies and traps along the way to Makuta. 

Edited by Lorentz

#makeBionicleG1andHeroFactorysharethesameuniverse and #giveBionicleansHeroFactorytheirownliveactioncinematicuniverse 
GENERATION 5: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation. Social experiment.

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To make it accessible to newbies, I’d say give the characters amnesia. As in, Toa Mata arriving on Mata Nui, “what’s a Toa?” level amnesia. So the players discover the setting and unwrap the mystery at the same pace as their characters do, rather than the characters supposedly having all this prior knowledge that the player doesn’t.  So they won’t even know what elemental powers they have until they use them for the first time.

If you want, you can drop exposition in small chunks by the characters getting flashbacks to their old lives at plot convenient moments. 

The challenge for you as the game master is to really, really strip down Bionicle lore into what is really essential for the story you are trying to tell. The advantage of the Red Star is that it gives you limitations to work within, but they don’t have to meet, say, every single dead character from canon just because you would find it cool. You need to put yourself in your players’ shoes and tell a coherent story for them, not an indulgent fanfic for people already invested in the franchise.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 4/18/2022 at 12:48 PM, Lorentz said:

in your original idea you weren't going to be following canon anyway

I didn't have an original idea. If you were talking about the guidance I posted, all I meant was that you'd lose your players if you had to give them a lot of external information in order to understand your game. Then, as long as you've selected your premise well, you're free to follow canon within your game.

 

GENERATION 4: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation. Social experiment.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I would highly recommend to keep it as mysterious as possible and to not really explain anything too much. If they are unfamiliar with Bionicle this could work really good, especially if you have the one shot set inside the MU and reveal the MUs true nature at the end. 

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