Bionicle

Does Veeky Forums still appreciate this absolutely beautiful setting? I heard some fatguys were working on a tabletop. Did anything come of that?

Other urls found in this thread:

youtube.com/watch?v=fkEr8Ra56ys
youtube.com/watch?v=K1CTPC02n0c
youtube.com/watch?v=fnNJfvBL4mw
mediafire.com/?2u9ubxkaajd42q4
imgur.com/gallery/9KWrH
twitter.com/SFWRedditImages

Patrician taste here user, Bionicle were a big part of my childhood. I remember being completely shocked when I discovered how developed their lore really was. Also I think it would translate pretty well to tabletop, although it would probably be hard to find dedicated players.

Bionicle had great atmosphere.

Posting Bionicles

...

...

...

...

It did get hammy towards the end, but man, that was my shit. Also Xevoz. We should totally brew something like that for Bionicles, using some kind of Tactical Mech Wargame rules for it.

this dude was by far the best of the original dudes.

I remember they all came with like comics and the one for him was also pretty rad

...

>Pohatu has bigger hips than Gali
Gyno as fuck

...

...

...

I was a child when I first picked up a Green Rahkshi from the shelves.

I want to go back.

...

That kind of artwork was the best non-toy thing to have come out of the failed reboot. So pretty and full of character. Was nice seeing those statues in the cartoon.

...

Matorans were the best part of Bionicle.
Macku was my waifu

...

...

Someone mind giving me the run down? Bionicle was a thing when I was a kid but I just never got in to it.

...

>Someone mind giving me the run down?
Polynesian bio-mechanical robots have techno-magical adventures.

Actual spoiler
as the lore progresses everything gets less magical and more biological, as it turns out that their entire "universe" is on/in the corpse of their creator god, which is actually a giant robot

>gets less magical and more biological
and more technological*

Robotic Tiki warriors on a tropical island. They have magic masks and elemental powers and battle an evil shadow god.

Basically Lego Battle-bots, except they were partially organic. Had a decent story, and the free monthly Lego Magazine came with an issue of the comic series, so it was easy to keep up. A lot of focus was put on the Masks, which basically gave their wearers extra power, plus, their weapons were sick most of the time.

...

...

...

Well, there's several way of going about it:

Amnesiac biomechanical color-coded warriors with attitude defending a beautiful island and its likewise biomechanical color-coded people with magic masks and control over the elements, hoping to wake up their god who was cast into sleep by an evil shadow entity.

Afterwards they learn that nothing is what it seems, and that the village elders have been keeping their history a secret. There's no magic, they weren't supposed to be living on a tropical island, the bad guy isn't an all-powerful god, and there's a bajillion other islands and all sorts of other advanced species they had no idea about. Mystical fantasy vibe gets replaced with more generic soft sci-fi and action and the lore is expanded a hundredfold. The genre shift (which was sorta planned) and some hasty rewrites (which were not) lead to inconsistencies out the ass. Especially when they decided to keep the story going and bring in whole new planets and civilizations instead of ending it as it was probably intended.

As a bonus, the entire thing is an allegory for biology represented through the juxtaposition and symbiosis of technology and nature, but it got stretched out to the point where this symbolism became barely relevant.


Basically a grand concept and original universe with tons of story content slowly brought down by being a toy-line that has to cater to the shifting tastes of kids and being really sloppy with its tie-in media.

Then it got a dumbed-down reboot last year that tried to fix its mistakes but instead of doing that, it made new ones, and it apparently performed so bad that Lego had to end it a little over halfway through.

But really? Not a single system for Bionicle?

Pic related was my fucking dude.

I used to have one of the Bionicle Boardgames and knew the Matoran alphabet.

i still know the matoran alphabet

matoro was my favorite toa, rip in peace

How could one fire spitter be so based?

>Bohrok-Kal
Holy fuck, those guys were hardcore.
Like, seriously, you do not fuck around when a Rahkshi or Bohrok-Kal shows up.

Fuckin loved these guys.

The Rahkshi were the absolute shit.

The Green one was my first Bionicle, and Lego, and that motherfucker was glorious.

I still remember getting a VHS of the movie for Christmas in like 2003/04 or something. It's easily been 10+ years since I last saw it but it was amazing when I was like 10 or 11

I bet it was actually really shit but I didn't know any better back then.

YO YO

It's not as amazing as we remember, but, surprisingly, it actually isn't all that bad.
It's actually one of the better kids VHS movies out there.

I liked him and Onua, but had a bit of a soft spot for Onua because he was the wisest and most soft-spoken of the original Toa, while Kopaka, while a damn good fighter (he canonically snuffed two of the Rahkshi himself), was also sort of a dick.

For a few years straight when Bionicle had just come out my grandparents would by the entire set of the main heroes of each of the different generations.
The first gen were obviously the best, but what I enjoyed most was mixing sets together and creating new characters.
Bionicles were great for my bro and I especially since they interested both my little brother's love of action/wrestling figures and my love of Lego blocks.
I wish we still had them all, but during one of the many California wildfires one of my step-dad's coworkers lost their home and their kids lost all their toys. Since my bro and I were then teenagers we gave them most of our old toys including all our Bionicles.
I'd love to be able to build shit like the pic I included but the price to make such a piece is quite expensive.

I cannot fathom what fighting them would be like on tabletop.

...

This user has the right idea. Let's make this shit a thing. We basically steal from Xevoz with the Point Buy/Body part mechanics system, throw in some Tactical wargaming aspects, and have it play out like Voltron: the Tabletop Experience.

Imagine someone who can, at will, control gravity within his zone of awareness. Now make that person an incredibly intelligent and malicious leader of mechanical bugs each with an insane burrowing speed and destructive power, any of whom can possess someone separated from their Kanohi.
Oh, and he's also a mechanical bug that can spindash and is an expert fighter as well.
That's what you're up against.

Posting the comfiest location and the best Bionicle related song.
youtube.com/watch?v=fkEr8Ra56ys

What's your favourite part of Bionicle lore? I always loved how Toa were basically Universe's/Great Spirit's antivirus system.

Posting Rakshi

Meh, let's make it a trpg. Character Creation comes in three parts: Mask Power, Elemental Power, and Martial combat/weapons. Character goals come in the form of defining Unity, Duty, and Destiny, and from there it's just a matter of figuring out mechanics. How does Cypher System sound to you guys?

Slizers was here

Bionicle is... good, but not as good

>tfw had a system already built in for rules and game play

Willing to help with it, Do you guys want to ma Toas and similar powerful characters the only playable option, or Matorans as well? I would vote for the latter, the movies and games shown that Matorans van have pretty sweet adventures too, and more down to ground scenarios are fun to have from time to time.

I had Sub I wanted to get Judge, but they had already replaced them with these guys.

What the fug, this story is complex.

After awhile they got pretty fucking crazy.

>tfw this bad boy would curb stomp any Bioncle

Bionicle really sets some standards for lore, at least because the story started off with magic robotic tribal warriors fighting off a shadowy evil being and ended with two planet sized dead god-robots having a fist fight.

That depends, does Matanui's original body as a Bionicle?

>started off with magic robotic tribal warriors fighting off a shadowy evil being and ended with two planet sized dead god-robots having a fist fight.
I mean, that's kinda already the plot to TTGL.

I forgot that the Matoran had abs in that movie

It wasn't terrible for the time, considering where 3D animation was during its production. I was mostly disappointed that the masks of power didn't really get to show off as much as I would've liked.

42 different types of Rahkshi with a different power. You had shit like Heat Vision Rahkshi or Disintegrator Rahkshi. And their creators the Makuta had all 42 powers in one body.

THE GANG IS ON THE LOOSE

Jesus, fighting a Makuta on tabletop would be hell

but which toa is/are the best genderswapped???

Takanuva was definately my all-time fave, shame he got relatively little to no action. From what I've heard, he was supposed to play a key role in a great-beings civil war that would have happened if Bionicle didn't get canceled

>And their creators the Makuta had all 42 powers in one body.
I'm pretty sure Makuta was just one entity. Mata Nui's jealous brother, I think.

The Piraka rap was 10 times better than the linkin park shit the toa got

youtube.com/watch?v=K1CTPC02n0c

Nah the Mukuta they fought was actually part of a race full of them.

THE Makuta the one in the lore was the most cunning one and killed off his entire race just because if I recall

His full name was Makuta Teridax. He was a part of a race called the Makuta that were basically responsible for making all the animals in the universe

>tfw the moatoran in the movies became toa later

Pretty sure he got like six or seven to join him. But they got killed off eventually

Jeez. I must be really out of the loop.

I stopped keeping track of Bionicle some time in middle school when Metru Nui was a thing. though I only ever had the paperback books and not the comics.

Cant we just add bioincles as like mega units for brikwars?

...

>Toy commericals will never have this DEEPEST LORE ever again

youtube.com/watch?v=fnNJfvBL4mw

Definitely Matoran adventures. Toa are nice, but it's a Dark Heresy-Deathwatch relationship. What system base are you recommending?

I'd say that Toa are the main PC option, but we have Matoran as a viable option. So, are we going to use Cypher? Something else? Something we build from the ground up?

>No one can decide how to run the system

This is easy user

1) Savage Worlds. Homebrew the elemental powers but don't give players access to the book--if they play as Toa, the powers they unlock are random, representing them learning their abilities. The masks give access to a certain spell, without having to spend Power Points, as long as the mask is worn. Toa without their masks are automatically Shaken. Same goes for Matoran.

2) In order to play the game, players must build their own Toa from leftover Bionicle parts, using the biggest Lego collection the players can find on hand. I shit you not. How fun would this be? How amazingly fucking attached would you be to a character you LITERALLY built with your own two hands, designed a background and a name for, all while waving him around like a badass and playfully whacking the masks off other player's figures?

I tell you Veeky Forums, it's like you don't know how to into Lego. The bricks and parts are the best element (pun intended) for holding player interest. You should exploit that.

Also,

>the entire adventure happens on a new island chain, which they must explore/learn about the inhabitants of
>spoiler, it's Mata Nui's knuckles/hand which is raised above the surface of the water

...

Quick google search brought up the pdf from a thread 2 years ago. Here ya go!

The masks of power just weren't a plot point in 2003 like they were in 2001.

There's an official serial about him visiting alternate dimensions. Shattered Glass, I think? Civil War? I forget the name.

Toa seems too snowflakey. If we start with the buildingblocks of the universe and the average joe, I think we'll have a better experience. Numberwise, its best to start at the small things first, anyway. Don't want to have to be dealing with half an armor point.

What if I'm a scrub who doesn't like to mix and max muh canon characters.

And the bestiary

>It's a d100 system
Thank you, God. And thank you, user

>Playing as existing characters instead of building off DEEPEST LORE

It's like you want your players not to feel special. I get it would be fun to play Matoran on Mata Nui but come on, there's only so long you can do that without having to whip out Greg Farshtey's 1000 page timeline of Matoran history so as not to intersect with muh lore

Spinoff/OC robots a best

I'm not saying I want to play as a canon character, I'm saying I don't want to mix and match my canon sets. I like keeping everything nice in its respective container. Anytime I mix and match it ends up getting lost.

>It's not a d10 dicepool system
Thank you, God. And thank you, user

I showed this system to my friends and they asked if I could convert it to a D20 system similar to 3.5e

>mfw

...

Use someone else's sets then. If you have a room full of LEGO nerds and no one else has a collection of any kind, y'all done goofed.

also

>not mix and matching sets

I respect what you're trying to do but it defs goes against the creativity principles of LEGO. Having an entire universe of parts to build and saying "no, they can only look like THIS" is kinda futile. THen again, I had a little bro who would pull my Toa apart and graft other shit onto them, so I never got that chance.

Now anons, riddle me this, who would be the villain in your Bionicle tabletop RPG? Makuta got stomped by the Toa, Bohrok-Kal are too OP, and I dunno what the fuck is even going on with the Piraka.

>The masks of power just weren't a plot point in 2003 like they were in 2001.
I mean that they didn't really get used much at all. Tahu uses his shield mask a grand total of once or twice in the movie and Pohatu was really fast.

It just would've been neat seeing them leverage those abilities instead of firing a friendship beam and winning.

I'm not going to complain too much, it was just a kids movie, it was just something that bothered me a little when I first saw it.

On the flip side, watching Tahu lava surf was awesome.

>D20 system
See, I like d20s. They have just about the right amount of granularity. Even d100 systems usually use 5% increments, which works out the same as a d20 but more fiddly.

>similar to 3.5e
Oh. Yeah, never mind.

Eh, the Cypher System is pretty nice. I won't brag about it, but it at least avoids most of the issues with 3.5, and even a few in 5e. It's a generic system though, so getting it to do what you want takes some extra work.

Well who's to say that Mata Nui was the only God Robot in the universe? There could be hundreds of them and whole new universes inside them

>It's just robots all the way down.

You know what? I spent enough time on sup/tg/ trying to find these, and once I did no one had a media fire link. So, here ya go Veeky Forums and possibly people looking at the archived thread, pdfs in a zip folder

mediafire.com/?2u9ubxkaajd42q4

This Obviously refers to

>Robots all the way down.
imgur.com/gallery/9KWrH

derp i meant

not

>Matoran of Light, Plasma, Psionics, Shadow and shit

Holy shit, they really went all the way with this huh? My mind is going, Dave. So many rules.

I'm impressed, but it also seems clunky and hard to get into. I still say Savage Worlds with light mods would be easier. Hell, you could GURPs this at less effort than it would take me to read 10 pages of this monstrosity.

the piraka actually beat the toa nuva

Idk, frankly I like that it is it's own system. Is that not what bionicle deserves?