Crab Major for president!
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So, Iāve been reading through this and I have a couple of questionsā¦
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is this still being actively worked on? because some sections (such as the vehicle section) seem incomplete.
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Can someone explain to me how exactly you get the number to test against? because Iām seeing a lot of plus this and minus that, and Iām not sure where everything goesā¦
Edit:
A few other thoughts:
Why are there constraints on the gender of toa? just because we have never seen a female toa of fire or a male toa of water doesnāt necessarily mean there canāt be one. I feel like these rules do nothing but constrict character creation options.
Another Edit:
More questions:
Will there be a later update that includes toa disks for the kanoka section?
Will Makuta be added as a playable race?
Have you considered adding feats that give you additional AP? Perhaps a feat called āMask Masterā that gives you an additional 1/2 AP that can only be used to activate mask powers?
What are you rounding the AP on Rapid reload to? the nearest full AP or 1/2 AP?
Will there be rules for Suva?
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My life is a bit topsy-turvey right now, so my focuses are elsewhere on essential-for-life matters.
Itās the characterās attribute value appropriate for the test. If their strength is 35 and they need to check for, say, swimming, you start with 35 and then apply all your modifiers.
RPG rules should be looked at as guidelines and not much more. I was strictly trying to stick with Bionicle canon. If you want to ignore specific aspects of the canon, thatās something to take up with your gaming group and see if you want to go that route.
At this point, itās hard to say if Iāll ever get around to working on anything again. I have some ducks to get in a row before I worry about little projects like this.
Oh man, I remember the hype I had for this
#then it died
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Yeah, I wish it was still activeā¦
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I was waiting for it to finish before playing with friends. And now its dead ;-;
I wouldāve loved to play this with some friendsā¦
But now I canātā¦
At least I now have some friends.
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Can you make a tutorial on this pls? 
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Why canāt you?
I second this! the way to play is explained rather badly.
Iāve read, or at least glanced over, most of the rules in trying to make a character, and I feel like combat stuff is explained quite in-depth. However, while damage-dealing is covered in excruciating detail more or less in one place, healing isā¦ not so much.
The healing mechanic seems a bit slow at first glance. Granted, having only played the two most recent versions of D&D, in which hitpoints are used quite differently, that may just be a result of me comparing apples and oranges, but still thereās no real guidelines on what forms healing can take besides just resting. Is there a āmedicine checkā equivalent for teammates to heal others that I missed? And what about getting mechanical components fixed up directly by someone with a crafting skill?
edit: there is a āmedicalā skill, which seems to accomplish exactly what I was looking for. It might help to mention the skill under the āhealingā section of the guide, though, since thatās where I would go if I wanted to quick-reference the ways in which to heal a character, and that skill is definitely among them.
Secondly, while pretty much all the information that one would need to play is in the guide in one way or another, the lack of a āquick referenceā or a glossary for important terms makes me fear that thereāll be an awful, awful lot of aimless pdf scrolling and/or page flipping involved early on. I think the guide would benefit from some formatting that would somehow highlight the rules concerning important or likely common occurrences, such as making a check, as opposed to having a lot of information buried in the paragraphs, even if those paragraphs headline a chapter concerning those rules. Basicallyā¦ it would help if the guide was more skimm-able, to allow games with even inexperienced players to go a little more smoothly and to make it easier to quickly reference rules when they come into play.
A, a sample, print-out character sheet, or at least something that describes what all you should determine and have at the ready for a character would be really helpful, too. Perhaps it could include some quick-reference formulas as well, to help streamline the process of calculating values.
Also, a few more specific, character-building questions: if a race states that a member of it starts with ābasic training in a skill,ā does that mean they automatically get one skill point in it? In my case, since Iām making a Toa of Shadow, she automatically gets basic training in concealment, but since thatās a basic skill to begin with I donāt see how that race feature would amount to anything other than a free skill point in concealment. If thatās wrong, thenā¦ well, what is it? And if itās right, it might be useful to describe what ābasic trainingā amounts to under the āskillsā sectionā¦ again, a glossary would really help to figure that out, too.
The āDual Wielderā feats seemā¦ a bit pointless, at first glance. If making a basic attack costs only 1 AP, canāt all characters make two melee attacks per turn with whatever weapon they desire? If soā¦ whatās the advantage of making two attacks for two AP with a -20 penalty to boot? Are those feats required for someone to wield two weapons at the same time, or to make two attacks with them, at all? 'cause if not, they seem to offer quite literally nothing.
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Some items, like the Mask of Healing, heals a certain amount of hit points. I assume that healing would otherwise be done by having the players purchase items of the GMās choice, or just saying that you rest for X amount of time. I agree that the rules regarding healing are a bit confusing as to what you can actually do.
For the game we are about to play, I will build a spreadsheet where some stats and points get auto-calculated, so we wonāt have to scroll too much. Iāll add some notes to the sheets to denote the basic rules. While the first session or two may entail a bit of scrolling, I think it will be easy to play after that.
I would assume that yes, you get 1 free point in Concealment, as everyone starts with that skill. Possibly it could have been a Trained skill at some point in development, but if it is Basic now it sounds like it should be a free point.
From what I have been able to find, carrying two weapons allows you to choose which one to attack with as a regular attack. If you attack with both at the same time, you do so at a penalty unless you have the Dual Wielding trait.
It was noted somewhere (I think in the weapons section) that you have a penalty on your off-hand weapon unless you have the feat. That is, if you dedicate your round to attacking, you may either attack twice with one weapon, once with each weapon (with off-hand penalty), or with both at the same time (penalty both from off-hand and from not being a dual-wielder).
At least, thatās what Iām reading so far.
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If Iām reading it correctly, that means dual-wielding anything is actively discouraged; making two attacks with one weapon is automatically better than making the attacks with different weapons, one of which has an off-hand penalty. So, unless youāre really banking on the trigger effect of different weaponsā¦ also, that means that the standard loadouts of, say, the Toa Nuva are completely worthless, since having two copies of the same weapon offers you absolutely nothing. Grouping it into the standard āsword-and-board,ā dual wielding, or two-handed weapon playstyles, these become the options:
Sword-and-board: shield gives armor points (strong defense) while two attacks with a one-handed weapon (or with the shield, apparently) give a damage potential of 2d10+2*strength factor. Can parry as well. Generally sacrifices damage output for resilience.
Two-handed Weapon: two attacks with a two-handed weapon gives a total damage potential of 4d10+2*strength factor. Cannot parry. All-out offensive builds that focus on hitting hard to ensure the target canāt hit back.
Dual Wielding: two one-handed attacks, one with significant off-hand penalty (before feat). 2d10+2*strength factor damage potential is same as sword-and-board, but the shield guy can make attacks without the penalty, and has +4 armor points from his shield to boot. Duel wield offers small advantage in trigger possibilitiesā¦ but do you really want to be banking on a crit on a d20?
This, of course, is without any feat investment, but even after getting Ambidextrous, dual wielding characters still sacrifice a massive armor bonus for two different, rare trigger effects, and for no additional damage. The Dual Wielder feats do absolutely nothing to help, still offering two attacks for two AP, but for one roll, thereby allowing the user to put all their eggs in one basket. Thatās not a buff unless youāre getting some kind of massive stealth bonus on the first attack only, or you can do it retroactively after seeing you beat the crap out of your first rollā¦ which still seems underwhelming.
Personally, Iād set it up to where the dual wielding feats either give you some kind of bonus to the two-weapon attack, reflecting that it is more difficult to block two attacks coming at the same time than to block two consecutive ones, or to set the featās cost to 1 AP but limiting its use to once per round. The former would basically give dual-wielders an increased chance of making it past a parry or dodge attempt over a sword-and-board fighter, reflecting the more offensive mindset of the build, while the latter would effectively allow dual-wielders three attacks per round, one of them still at penalty unless they have Ambidextrous, placing their damage potential pretty squarely between sword-and-board and two-handed styles, and allowing them to retain parrying abilities over two-handed fighters while still losing the armor bonus of the shield guys. That sets up dual-wielding as a kind of āintermediate routeā between defensively or offensively focused builds, and makes it so that doing, say, a Lewa Nuva-style twin-sword build wouldnāt be absolute crap. It would still require feats to really make it useful (non-feated dual wielding would still be like the current āvanillaā version, which is to say bad), but I think that would reflect the training time investment needed to properly dual-wield weapons quite nicely.
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The damage for weapons does not say anything about doubling the Strength factor, just so thatās mentioned. You roll either 1 or 2 d10, and then you add the Strength Factor to the result.
I agree with your thoughts on dual wielding. If anyone does it in-game, Iāll reduce the AP cost to 1.
Intentionally so. Itās supposed to be a little more ārealisticā. I donāt know about you, but I donāt fully recover from most wounds in a matter of hours like it never happened.
I completely agree. Some form of GM screen would be incredibly helpful.[quote=āScorpion_Strike, post:122, topic:8765ā]
Also, a few more specific, character-building questions: if a race states that a member of it starts with ābasic training in a skill,ā does that mean they automatically get one skill point in it? In my case, since Iām making a Toa of Shadow, she automatically gets basic training in concealment, but since thatās a basic skill to begin with I donāt see how that race feature would amount to anything other than a free skill point in concealment.
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Unless I somehow completely missed pointing it out (which Iām positive I didnāt) the difference between basic and trained/advanced/whateverIcalled them skills is this: you can still use a basic skill without putting points into it, but only at half effectiveness. The advanced skills canāt be used at all with no points.[quote=āScorpion_Strike, post:122, topic:8765ā]
The āDual Wielderā feats seemā¦ a bit pointless, at first glance. If making a basic attack costs only 1 AP, canāt all characters make two melee attacks per turn with whatever weapon they desire? If soā¦ whatās the advantage of making two attacks for two AP with a -20 penalty to boot? Are those feats required for someone to wield two weapons at the same time, or to make two attacks with them, at all? 'cause if not, they seem to offer quite literally nothing.
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Note that āa character cannot use the same 1AP action twice in a single turnā. Dual wielding is ultimately something you build into with the different feats and such that will have a lower chance to hit at times, but greater damage when it hits.
Perhaps this will help. Made it forever ago but, obviously, never really got a chance to use it.
If you read the Dual Strike (?) feat, youāll note that hitting with both attacks at the same time means the targetās toughness is only accounted for once instead of twice (one for each weapon strike).
Overall, yes, this thing may not be the best thing put together and kind of messy to navigate. To that I can only say that it was my first attempt, I donāt have a lot of tabletop RPG experience, and out of the great number of people who said they were going to make a system like this, I seem to be the only one who actually got somewhere with it. d=
But, yeah, it kinda sucks. Next time I develop an RPG system, itāll be much better.
Truth be told, I started making a Steel Scales one with a much simpler and more straight-forward system that could conceivably be adapted for Bionicle relatively easily, but I havenāt worked on it in forever because I donāt see much point right now.
Iāll keep the healing in mind when GMing. I can tell that most characters will be able to take a bunch of hits before going down anyways.
I see that we may have understood dual-wielding. The way you describe it here seems more viable.
Thank you for the tool, I believe it will be very helpful. 
You certainly did point that out, but it doesnāt really answer the question. Concealment is listed as a basic skill, so what does it mean when ābasic trainingā in it is specifically listed in a racial description? It canāt mean you justā¦ get to use it, since everyone can, by definition, use basic concealment skill to at least some degree. Does it mean the character gets free skill point in concealment? Either way, since the idea of ābasic trainingā isnāt mentioned anywhere else in the guide from what I could tell, it seems to be some kind of holdover that, on first inspection, renders the racial bonus rather meaningless without some re-interpretation.
Ohā¦ well, that makes the whole ādual wieldingā question make sense.
Youāve certainly produced a much more cohesive and complete system for Bionicle than anyone else ever has, and Iād definitely like to be a part of it if you do go back to developing this system further or start work on another one for Bionicle. My experience is entirely with recent editions of D&D, but Iāve done a fair amount of homebrewing for that and Wizards has actually published some pretty useful guidelines on how to make sure additions/modifications to a system that donāt clog up or complicate the game too much. I mean, even though that tool youāve made for taking all the modifiers into account would certainly help a lot, it seems to me that the fact that itās like two pages long might indicate some work is in order.
Still, Iām really looking forward to trying out what youāve got so far, and I hope that events will allow you to come back to it at some point. By then, weāll definitely have some more playtesting feedback for you as well. 
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You get the first point in it free.[quote=āScorpion_Strike, post:128, topic:8765ā]
it seems to me that the fact that itās like two pages long might indicate some work is in order.
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Full transparency here, those are pretty much all copied from a different system I was using as a foundation, so ā¦ d=
But, yeah. Way too many modifiers. I much prefer the advantage/disadvantage system used in 5th(?) edition D&D.
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After talking a bunch about character creation last night, @DragonBorn_Ben and I started trying to work on a simple, d6-based āLegends of Okotoā system that borrows a lot from 5e D&D, including the advantage mechanic. G2ās comparative lack of depth means that weāre probably not biting off more than we can chew this way, plus if we get a good system working, people will be able to make their own stories on Okoto where the official canon is rather sparse. The first version will probably just allow people to play as villagers/protectors, with masters being introduced laterā¦ Eventually, we might even try to apply it to G1, but thatās getting way ahead of ourselves for now. Still, weāre actually rather excited about it, but thereās still quite a bit of work (and a boatload of writing) to be done before we actually put up an āalphaā version for people to test.
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That sounds great! I wouldnāt mind having a look at it sometime. Iād even be willing to help contribute if you want (and I can find the bloody time of day to do it).