Katuko's unofficial changes, additions, and expansions

Community Bionicle RPG by Takuma
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This topic will be a collection of the changes and additions I have made to TakumaNuva’s Lost Chronicles tabletop RPG ruleset. The stuff I post here should fit right into the existing set. You are free to use anything I post here in your own RPG campaigns, unless otherwise noted.

Background for this topic: After some discussion with TakumaNuva in the main topic for this RPG ruleset, and after many sessions of play in my campaign “The Powers of Old”, me and my players have ended up using a bunch of rules not found in the original document.

The reasons for this have been to

  • adjust existing rules and stat blocks to be more balanced (at least in our eyes)
  • expand upon existing character-building possibilities by adding new feats and powers
  • add missing Rahi and other things to the system
  • add custom things that serve my campaign well; they may or may not be useful to others

Without further delay, here’s my current list of homebrew rules, feats, items, and beings:

Items marked “coming soon” are either not finished, or they are finished but untested, or they are finished but I simply haven’t put them into a nice document on Google Drive yet.

Notes:

  • Make a copy of any document and you will be able to edit it as you like. You may suggest changes and revisions either in this topic, or as comments in the documents.
  • In my character sheets, you may adjust any blue cell. The others should automatically update based on formulas.
  • The character sheet for a tamed Burnak includes my modified Burnak base attributes. They can be replaced by another similar Rahi if needed.
  • I’ll be adding more to some of these documents, such as clarifications I have received from Q&A with Takuma about how dual-wielding and a few other things work.
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What is this, and why is it a separate topic?

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It’s what it says it is in the title and first paragraph. :slight_smile:

It’s in a separate topic because

  • it’s a lot of things at once,
  • it will get updated and I don’t want to spread the links or edits across several posts/pages of another topic,
  • I don’t wish to clutter the main topic with my own unofficial additions and discussions about them,
  • character sheets and other things appear to be getting their own topics,
  • we have an entire sub-forum dedicated to this RPG, so I figured this is what it was supposed to be used for.
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Cool, I’ll be waiting for stuff.

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Thank you for posting this, looking forward to using some of this for my campaign. Awesome work!

Howdy, I know it’s been a while, but how has your campaign been going? Any chance of more homebrew rules being uploaded? Thanks a ton!

Do not double post, thank you. - Eljay

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Yes, actually, I do have some more documents to share. I just forgot about this topic fora while due to work and other stuff taking up my time. :slight_smile:

The following document my biggest one; it contains the plans for a big battle that took place in my campaign. On one side: 5 Skakdi camps, each with its own warlord and choice of tactics. On the other side: A large amount of Fe-Matoran in their desert fortress, plus their allies… and of course the player characters.

  • Skakdi Army
    The Tahtorak is also in this document. Befitting such a massive creature, it is incredibly dangerous.

Please note that I haven’t cleaned it up that much, so a bunch of my campaign notes are still present at the bottom. As the battle is long over, I decided to leave them there. They could be useful in planning a similar battle.

  • Magnetism powers
    Fair warning: These haven’t really been tested in practice.

  • Rules for Kaita
    Also untested in practice, but the gist of it is that the Kaita trades number of actions for stat bonuses and larger size. It is resistant to a lot of mental effects, though they drain its willpower instead. Once the Kaita runs out of willpower the fusion ends.

  • Personal robot
    Works kind of like a pet you can buy or craft parts for. Also, it has weapons.

Other things I have lying around but haven’t put online yet: Steltian character, some Dark Hunters, stats for Makuta, and all the other stuff mentioned in the first post.

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rule for the katia is linked to the magnetism powers

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Woah, this is great. Thank you for uploading this! The Skakdi Army list is especially helpful, since I’m new to GMing and running a campaign that takes place during a hypothetical Second Matoran Civil War, and your notes on placing camps and character interactions have helped me to create my own “action map” for my players. Again, thanks a ton, and please keep uploading things, you rock! :+1:

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I have fixed the Kaita link.

@Spacebutterman: A few things to note about the battle I ran is that even after dividing the Skakdi into troops, the amount of time spent per round of combat was rather high. This made the battle a bit long-winded, so about half-way through I started to eyeball stats and powers for the Skakdi rather than referring directly to my notes every time.

The most interesting situations were the ones were players had to improvise tactics rather than fighting the Skakdi head-on, as they both led to some roleplaying and also removed the need to read too many rules and stats all the time.

The missions that were done before the battle were also rather interesting, since they most definitely affected the outcome a lot. For example, the Skakdi gunner vehicle was mostly disabled, preventing them from going all Mad Max on the poor Matoran. This - in addition to blowing up a lot of the same camp’s spare ammo - crippled the camp to such an extent that they barely contributed to the Skakdi’s side of the battle.

In the end they decided to withdraw instead of wasting their remaining resources. This also kept the battle from dragging on too long vs already-defeated enemies.

Not all camps had been visited before the battle started - I gave the characters a few in-game days to prepare and then let them choose what to spend their time on. Some people forged new weapons or did other crafting, some went out during the night to spy and do sabotage, etc.

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How many players were in your session? Mine has about 3, and currently I’m trying to brainstorm a way for them to get involved with the Civil War that doesn’t involve forcing them to take a certain moral path. My players tend to choose morally neutral or even evil characters in other RPG’s, and as they are all playing Matoran, I don’t want them to have to take the stereotypical, “innocent workers trying to avoid violence and not get involved” route.

Currently my combat sessions usually consist of 3-5 opponents each, often each one being a “unique character” and not all of them having the same base statline. I was thinking that I could follow your example with the Skakdi leaders.

I have a few ideas for some simple quests that they can perform (help contain a few Rahi that have escaped from the Archives, search for a missing Matoran, retrieve a Turaga’s lost staff from the Ga-Metru bay, etc.), but I don’t know how I’ll link that to the primary quest. I’ll follow your example, however, and try to give them more options for dealing with combat situations beyond just fighting.

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My sessions vary between 2 and 5 players, usually. The fewer I have the more smoothly the session goes, but more people leads to more potential fun and ways of doing things. My players all started out with the premise that they were on the same island to locate some Matoran researchers. Then they got caught up in Skakdi and Dark Hunter plots, which led them to stay and fix things (most of them are Toa) even after finding the Matoran.

I have just let things evolve based on how the characters act, really. For the first session I had planned to introduce a villain and a mini-dungeon, but because the players never went in that direction I just quietly ignored the potential dungeon and had the villain encounter them on the road instead.

Players usually follow whatever plot tracks that appear to be useful or relevant to their interests. If containing Rahi seems like busy work with no real benefit, characters who mostly look after themselves will not do it.

If it seems like something they would not do, you need to either provide a real incentive (such as offering them a large payment, hinting at something more important than Rahi in the same area, having a villain force them to flee to that area, and so on) or you should offer more alternatives. It helps to plan out two or three potential things that could be done that are plot-relevant, and then plan out three or more leads to each of those things.

Example: Let’s say the main plot involves discovering Karzahni and what’s going on there. However, the main characters don’t know this yet. Potential ways of getting on track towards Karzahni: Following a map, being told to go there by an Order of Mata Nui agent, tracking it down manually, and so on. Potential leads for each of these are finding the map carved on a wall, meeting a being from Karzahni or an Order agent, getting involved with other beings who have ties to either of them, and so on.

You can put relevant NPCs anywhere. They could be traveling, they could hire the main characters to do another job and then letting a secret slip, they could steal from the players or cause other things to happen that makes the player dead set on tracking them down regardless of any greater plot. Items - like mysterious maps - can also be placed in locations where they would appear significant. Someone could have had a vision of a place and drawn a sketch of it. Someone could be carrying orders and a map on their person. Someone could be discovered dead or locked in combat with evil minions that point to something big happening.

In your particular case, the Rahi in the Archives could have escaped because they were released as a distraction by villains, or they could be incidental but have now destroyed a wall leading to a previously closed-off tunnel. The missing Matoran could have been carrying something important that the players will need. He or she could also be in hiding thanks to villains, or maybe they are found already captured. The Turaga’s staff may not be important per se, but completing the quest could earn him/her as a trusting ally and plot exposition machine. The staff could also be found next to a sunken vessel that contains more secrets and plot-relevant stuff.

If you want to be extra sneaky as a DM (never tell your players exactly what you are doing, though, it kills the magic) you can plan a single item/villain/plot hook and then place it wherever the players choose to go - no matter if that is in the Archives, on a rescue mission, or at the bottom of the bay. Just don’t do obvious cheats like forcing a fight with a lava monster even after the players expresses their intent to avoid the lava area completely; that also kills the magic by being too obvious.

If you feel like it, you can even tie them all together in the end: You find the Matoran besieged by Rahi in the archives, or perhaps some Rahi have escaped into the bay and gathered around the glowing Turaga staff…

Also, don’t be afraid to take your game in an entirely new direction. My Dark Hunters were meant to be a band of dangerous villains that could not be fought head-on. The players took them down with a few lucky roll of the dice, fast-forwarding the plot immensely and removing that group of Dark Hunters as a threat. The players then stole their ship and everything on it. :stuck_out_tongue:

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Howdy! Not quite sure if this belongs here, but after a while, I finally stopped procrastinating and did a little thing! Playable Rahkshi, complete with the ability to leave your armored shell and play as a Kraata! It’s completely untested, of course, and unfortunately, I still have not been able to just run a real session with my group (everyone is conveniently busy whenever I ask…) but anyway, please tell me what you think! How can I improve, change it, etc. Again, thanks for all the awesome homebrew stuff you’ve been doing, and thanks to TakumaNuva for creating this whole thing! Please keep it up!
Playable Rahkshi

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Erm, the link’s private.

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Oh geeze, thanks for letting me know! Sorry, the link should work now!

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I’ve been wanting a game like this for years and this is the first one I’ve found that wasn’t abandoned mid-production. I don’t have any friends who really care about Bionicle and I don’t have the confidence to try GMing just yet. Could you guys let me know if anyone starts a game online?

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Actually Takuma totally abandoned it mid-production

I would totally love to be part of one of the games, although, I have a hard time wrapping my head around the d100 system.

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I’m still working on getting my group set up for our first session, but unfortunately it isn’t online. I hope you guys find a session though, please post your experience here if you do!:+1:

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I’ve decided to try running a game with a few friends of mine, all of whom are also new to the tabletop genre. I’m still working on the plot of our first game, but I’ll definitely post our experience here once that test game is over. It’s going to be kind of a short game, mostly geared towards familiarizing myself and the players with the game.

Does anyone here have any advice for GMing that hasn’t already been stated?

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Alrighty, not sure how much of this stuff is still being worked on, but for my first camaign I’ve decided to come up with Backround’s for PC’s. They’re super simple, so let me know if there’s anything that could be done to improve them. They’re also editable if anyone else wants to type suggestions or something directly on the Google Doc. Enjoy!

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Looks good! :slight_smile:

I forget exactly how we did it when my own campaign started, but I believe people tweaked their skills with the starting point loadout. Due to how the stats worked I can’t say skills had too high of a success rate, and skill points weren’t all that plentiful despite them leveling a fair bit overall, so we didn’t see that much of an effect in play. Having more to start with shouldn’t unbalance much.

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