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Roleplay / BZPRPG

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"Hindenburg as a train wreck."
—The BZPRPG in Five Words.

BZRPG is the definitive sandbox BIONICLE TBRPG. Hosted on BZPower, it is home to many, many, many players and over nine thousand characters. The plot so far goes like this:

In July 2003 the first "official" BZPRPG came into being and was called Mata-Nui, referred by the select few who know of its existence as the "Lost RPG". It was the cornerstone of future RPG's, setting the stage for future stories and introducing many of the famous to legendary characters that would come to dominate the BZPRPG. The only record of its existence outside of the memories of those who played it is the Kini-nui Region and the Old BZPRPG Profiles Topic; unfortunately, everything else has been deleted.

In September 2003 the second Official BZPRPG came into existence on the island of Mua Nui. This marks the beginning of the end of player-run RPGs and begins to move towards Staff-run Official BZPRPG.

January 1 of 2004 found the RPers on the canon island of Metru Nui. This was the first full year of the Official BZPRPG, ending Christmas Day 2004. The highlights of this RPing year was the legendary Lightbringer/Darkbringer War and the rise and fall of the Dark Lord Vahki. It also heralded the rise of Xa-Kuta, used by the mages of Xa-Koro, as a world power.

On December 25, 2004, we moved again to a massive planet/universe called Magna Iun. It hosted over 13 topics with two continents and a massive ocean between them. The highlight of this location was the plot of a Great Being named Dakura who tried to take over Magna Iun. The Darkbringers also resurfaced and gave the Lightbringers some payback after their defeat in Metru Nui, but the arc ended in the (most likely) destruction of the entire planet of Magna Iun. The players were moved from this location to Terros Nui on January 1, 2006.

Terros Nui is a rather blank spot in the history of the BZPRPG, as all of the veterans from this era have moved on and are no longer around to tell stories. What is known, however, is that Xa-Koro and the Lightbringers vanished into the ether during this time, leaving the island exposed to more avaricious forces. This time saw the rise and fall of the Brotherhood of Ak'Rei'An, led by Lyse Arcana. It also saw the release of a massive virus, prompting a race to find a vaccine, since it was instantly lethal.

Upon January 1st, 2007, however, the BZPRPG did not see a change in scenery, merely an addition. The Academy, a story about a band of rebels called the Kin fighting against Zyrul, an Evil Overlord of epic proportions, was merged into the BZPRPG, seeing the entry of an Alternate Universe Metru Nui. This was the beginning of the Santun War, a war against chaos-based interdimensional alien conquerors. it also saw the resurgence of the Lightbringers, but this time no Darkbringers remained to stand against them, and they exerted their considerable force against the Santun. It ended with The End of the World as We Know It, and the intervention of the Great Beings to save everyone. Despite this, however, the universe they inhabited was destroyed, and they were placed on a temporary home, known as Locus Abeo, in the summer of 2009.

Locus-Abeo is called the Blank Slate. This is an island on the planet Tabula Rasa, and is completely barren of life. Dangerous animals and fierce weather constantly plague the region. Xa-Koro is located in the southern desert area while New Metru Nui is on the largest archipelago islet. For the first time in history, players dealt so much damage to one of the locations (New Metru Nui) that it simply collapsed and the topic was locked. It was met with a mobilization of almost every neutral or good faction on the island to wipe out the people responsible. However, the Weavers showed up and expressed displeasure at the abuse the island was taking. The Society and their allies were attacked by the Weavers, and fought back. This resulted in a Season Finale Final Battle, with all attendant tropes. However, someone hit the island/dimension's self-destruct button, and the island fell apart. The survivors escaped by the skin of their teeth on three mysterious ships, which took them to...

Aensetr Derrum, World in the Sky. A Utopia, run by the benevolent Administrator, and opposed by the beloved Bellicus Kastus, philanthropist and multibillionaire, along with the mysterious Concilium—of course, no one can prove Bellicus' connection to the Concilium. As time when on, however, more problems strained the once utopic city. Aenstr Derrum suffered a near-cataclysm at the hands of Laryna, a civil war sparked by the Concilium, and finally, a near-cataclysm at the hands of the city itself, which was shaken so much by the war that it was now starting to fall from the heavens.

Naturally, there was only one solution to avoid the problem of certain death: a Reset Button of epic proportions!

Which takes us to what is now known as the New BZPRPG, or NBZP. Everything described above was placed into an alternate timeline, called the Old BZPRPG, and was effectively retconned from the current story.

However, the NBZP didn't last that long. After a period of downtime, the New BZPRPG taking place on the tropical Mata Nui overrun by Xa-Koroan forces of the Makuta was rebooted as well, leading to the...

BZPRPG III, or BZIII. The game now takes places on the SAME island of Mata Nui, where its protectors have been slain and the good player characters are the island's only hope of avoiding enslavement by the Big Bad Makuta.

It is still ongoing as of 2019. Its various threads can be found here. A comprehensive archive is hosted on BZPRPG.com, and it is also documented by the BZPower Roleplaying Wiki.

BZRPG provides examples of:

    open/close all folders 
    General 
  • Aborted Arc:
    • Many; most noticeably aborted was user Der Blitz' arc that would begin the Ta titled 'Ignition', wherein Odin and The Ta's forces would duel aboard their ship and others and Mangai-Hau would die to leave Phogu as leader.
    • Another aborted arc included the reveal of the Harbinger's, a being that resided in Arkrak's head, true nature. This never came to fruition due to the reboot.
  • All There in the Manual: With eight years of history, no wonder. One of the main problems new users cite when joining is the rich, albeit convoluted, history of the BZPRPG. The Wiki is making a valiant attempt to document past events for the ease of access of new players, but even so, staff eventually decided to give the continuity a reboot.
  • Author Avatar: Come on, we're talking about a text-based RPG where almost everyone has an ego with a BMI over 30. Of course there are going to be author avatars.
  • Character Development: Surprisingly, not uncommon. In the rare cases where a player lasts longer than a couple of months, characters that might have initially been flat become three-dimensional due to player experience. Examples where the character development is planned in advance are less common, mostly due to players taking too long or real life intervening, and unable to achieve said CD.
  • Canon Discontinuity: Some posts are later retconned out of continuity because they violate the rules in some way.
  • The Protagonist: Many people would like to think that their character is this. Being essentially a group epic, however, there is almost never a defined protagonist of a story.
  • Reference Overdosed: With so many players, of course there will be lots of references.
  • Spell My Name With An S: It's rarely consistent as to whether the islands have hyphens in their names, but usually they don't.

    Old BZPRPG 
  • Animorphism: Exlaas may turn into a shark.
  • Badass Bookworm: Pohaka from the 06-08 years. More Badass than Bookworm, though occasionally shows off his tech-savvy side in non-combat situations.
  • Beware the Nice Ones: Alta. Sweet? Check. Gentle? Check. Polite? Check. Nice? Check. Goes toe to toe with Zyrul and forces him to go all out to beat her? Check.
  • BFS: Lazok's. It's as long as an average Toa is tall, and as wide as one's waist. Lazok's larger size and great strength (combined with tactile telekinesis) is what allows him to wield a weapon that would otherwise be reserved only for some Titan species.
  • Big Bad: There has been a Big Bad for each year, usually defeated at the end of the year and having a major role in the island's destruction.
    • 2003: Makuta for the Mata Nui phase, and Aera for Mua Nui phase.
    • 2004: The Dark Lord Vahki.
    • 2005: Dakura.
    • 2006: Lyse Arcana.
    • 2007/2008: The Big Bad of the Santun Saga overally was Shai'i'tan.
    • 2009: the Cabal of Cruelty or the Weavers, who hijacked the main villain spot from the Cabal during the end of the war.
    • 2010: Complicated. It first appeared to be Laryna who was destroying the island, but she was killed off. Although the effects of her actions were still felt, she wasn't the last enemy. Then it appeared to be the Adminstrator who was actually a Makuta program named the KRAAHKAN. However, the Adminstrator was destroyed by Uhuraz who became the last boss of the year.
  • Black-and-Gray Morality:
    • The 2009 location, Locus Abeo, to a small extent. There were very few good organizations, with the villainous ones dominating almost the entire storyline. Unlike the 2010 saga, however, this was mostly unintentional — whether due to the preference of the new wave of 2009 RPers, or the large-army type gameplay that the 2009 rules favored, the LA RPG ended up with such a morality. Considered to be the Dark Age of BZPRPG history.
    • The 2010 location, Aensetr Derrum. On the one hand, you have a Big Brother-type government, the Administration, which strictly enforces the law with robotic Vyres. On the other, you have Bellicus Kastus, an outwardly charismatic and outspoken critic of the Administration, and has huge support among the civilians, but who has ulterior motives and is not above secretly blackmailing others or making deals with guerrilla groups. Meanwhile, there are the Corporations, who are guided solely by greed and a desire to monopolize the economy, with the underdog Protobot Industries, a rising business, pitting itself against the long-running megacorp Sonata. And then there are people like the Judge who seek to benefit from all the discord, and then the common criminals and mercenaries, who find a lawless home in the Forbidden Realms. Even the 'best' groups have flaws: the Towers of the Scholars, though a haven of knowledge, takes a mostly isolationist stance, refusing to get mixed up in the conflict. The Children of Perdition are either a well-meaning charity organization that fell to infighting and bad leadership, or an overzealous vigilante group that bullies independent villains. Finally, you have the racist/nationalist group, ironically renaming themselves the Kin (Evil Counterparts to the original), who seek to purge the world of all non-Toa and Matoran.
  • Bulletproof Human Shield: When Mars and Zarayna duel for the first time, they respectively wield magnetism and Extra-ore-dinary power to protect themselves against the other's projectiles with the bodies from Zarayna's massacre of refugees. Justified as Mars' cordak bullets and Zarayna's arrows would not be able to go through dead bodies and into the person behind them.
  • Casanova Wannabe: Takrah. After the death of his first lover, he's flirted unsuccessfully with every single female PC that he's met...Even trying to interrupt a girl's wedding ceremony for one last attempt to hook up with her.
  • Combat Pragmatist: Mars is ready to cheat if it means victory. Unsurprising considering she killed ten makuta.
  • Crapsaccharine World: The 2010 setting, Aensetr Derrum. Seemingly a relatively peaceful world, which despite its fair share of troubles, has a content population. That is, until you look under the surface.
  • Easily Conquered World: Subverted: The Cabal thinks Locus Abeo, aside from Xa-Koro, is this. It's not.
  • Enigmatic Minion: The Operative. Not only is he not exactly evil, per say, but he actually doesn't mind losing and has any number of taunts that hint to... Well, nothing, actually.
  • Heel–Face Turn: Many, many, many, most notably Xa-Koro, after being conquered by the Lightbringers. No, they weren't always synonymous with "the good guys".
  • Heroic BSoD: Viveloc goes through this after the affair at the black market, even going so far as to commit suicide because he thinks that he's worthless and ugly and his love interest likes his best friend. He grows out of it when he receives a What the Hell, Hero? from the girl in question, however, and is soon back to just being badass.
  • High-Heel–Face Turn: Interestingly, an inversion. Takrah, a male, falls for and switches over to the side of Alta, the female.
  • I Am Legion:
    • Letus, a rare heroic one. He is a literal anthropomorphization of the Mask of Memory, and as such has memories of all his past wearers. These come with the persona as well, which has led to two hostile takeovers when he isn't focused on keeping the memories at bay.
    • The Evaporous, major 2008 villain, former leader of The United Shadow, and Bunny-Ears Lawyer, qualifies as this as well, containing the personalities of his two brothers within him.
  • Invincible Villain: Probably one of the few rare examples of it being done right. Zyrul has never lost a battle since his introduction. But he's a badass, so it's okay. Plus he has shades of Evil Overlord and The Chessmaster, so he's hardly a flat character.
  • Laser-Guided Amnesia: Zyrul's traitorous right hand, Kyshim, is caught red-handed by a loyal Kohm, K-1, who attempts to kill him for treachery. Kyshim eventually wins, using a sonic blast directly to K-1's skull...which doesn't kill him, but only knocks the memory of the battle out of his mind.
  • Lightning Bruiser: Played with in Mars' case; while she does have her Charles Atlas Superpower and Made of Iron quality plus above-average reflexes and speed, she is only perhaps half as strong as a Toa using a Great Pakari at the most, who also has more leverage on her, and half as fast as a Toa using a Kakama at the most as well (see Mars V. Zarayna for a good example). So while she is stronger, faster, and tougher than the average matoran, the average PC is another case, as both the masks are fairly popular among them. She definitely isn't the Jack of All Stats, however, as the level of strength, speed, and toughness implied would be her without the Super Serum.
  • Lima Syndrome: In the 2007 Terros-Nui/Metru-Nui saga, Takrah (the captor) becomes attracted to Alta (the victim). Alta, despite coming to treat him with less suspicion, couldn't really be said to feel 'sympathy' for Takrah until his eventual Heel–Face Turn.
  • Look What I Can Do Now!: Mars experiences this twice:
  • Love Dodecahedron: Almost literally, with the Vyshanakan Toa. Jural and Kyera initially formed an Official Couple, but Velox created a love triangle with them, with Kyera wavering between the two. The Aensetr Derrum saga introduced two more players, Amellus and Ceyala, with Amellus flirting with both Kyera and Ceyala and Ceyala trying to hook up with Jural, further straining his romance with Kyera. With the introduction of Yuki's crew, and Hua's warming up to her, this may become even more convoluted. It's still unresolved after almost a year.
  • Meaningful Name: Mangai-Hau's name translated from matoran is 'Protector-Shield'.
  • Mecha Expansion Pack: Najin's Battlesuit. It has the normal mode with a chest laser and a large sword, the stealth mode, the aquatic mode and the war mode, which has twin machine guns.
  • Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Quite a few, but the location "Forbidden Realms" is the most notable.
  • New Powers as the Plot Demands: For those who aren't creative enough to turn their original powers to a new use, a little dab of EP will solve everything.
  • Official Couple: Tommi and Alta. They even got married, which has only happened twice in the history of the BZPRPG.
  • Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Mars' From Nobody to Nightmare sequence: She kills ten Makuta without ever coming close to them in power level-all she really had to do that with was her brains, above-average stats, skill, and Walking Armory status.
  • Powered Armor: A good few, but Viveloc exemplifies the trope best. Swiss-Army Weapon? Check. Shoulder cannons, arm cannons, and leg cannons? Check. Immune to Bullets? Check. And even rocket-assisted jumps? Heck yes. It even has an Ammunition Backpack for incredible dakka, one of his most-used tactics. For a full list of exactly what the suit has, see his wiki page. Unsurprising considering Viveloc's creator based his concept off that of War Machine.
  • The Protagonist: Joske Nimil is shaping up to be this in the 2010 storyline, though just like Aensetr Derrum overall has a bit of a grayer morality than the usual.
  • Psychic Powers: Makuta Uhuraz, who focused only on developing his mental powers to their peak. Alien V'chth'alla also counts, as does Malika Sunrose.
  • Psycho for Hire: Korruhn. While many of the Kin didn't personally believe in Saeras's teachings, Korruhn was the only one who often outright went against them. The only reason he sided with the Kin at all was more out of his sadism than any genuine desire to do good.
  • Punctuation Shaker: Ak'Rei'An and Sha'i'tan, plus a lot of other characters.
  • Shout-Out: Millions. Most notable are the Lightbringers' "Smart" and "Dumb" AIs.
  • Story Arc: So many that it's almost impossible to keep track. Besides the one-main-storyline-a-year overarching arc, most members have their personal story arcs, sometimes multiple for multiple characters. When these storylines intersect, it can cause headaches.
  • Stuff Blowing Up: What Viveloc falls back upon to make happen when performing an Indy Ploy. Also a Running Gag to an extent with him.
  • Talking Weapon: Barrakhii. As well, The Suit is later revealed to be able to talk.
  • Training from Hell: Mars goes through the Bionicle equivalent of literal Training from Hell in conjunction with Super Serum in order to gain her Charles Atlas Superpower and Made of Iron quality.
  • The Worf Effect: Poor Kraal. Originally introduced as a badass Battle Butler, the last Kralhi spent almost every single battle being completely destroyed. Most likely because, being a robot rather than a normal person, it was okay because he could just be rebuilt from the scraps. The rebuilding sessions also gave Pohaka plenty of opportunity to boost his Smart Guy creds.
  • World in the Sky: Aensetr Derrum, the 2010 island is this, complete with floating domes.

    New BZPRPG 
  • Bare-Fisted Monk: Jolek and Tarex subvert this, as they use other weapons than their fists, yet retain incredible martial arts skill.
  • Being Tortured Makes You Evil: In the case of Dreenan, an unfortunate Toa who was enslaved because she wasn't a good enough fighter, and then sold to Joske Nimil.
  • Big Eater: Describes Gluttony to a T. The guy can eat anything due to a mutation in his saliva and stomach acids. He's also a humanitarian
  • Broken Bird: Aexias was so cute when she was younger... then stuff happened and she became a hardened, cynical, and icily cool assassin.
  • The Chosen One: Ariga, Mirr, and Zand are apparently destined to become a group known as the Chosen Three. May be averted, due to the fact that the one who prophesied this revealed to be insane.
  • Combat Pragmatist: A popular form of combat used by numerous characters in the RPG; surprisingly lampshaded by Sloth, of all people, during the Daedra/Arete conflict in Ta-Koro.
  • Dulcinea Effect: Angelus was nearly killed when he took a sword hit that was meant for his girlfriend (whom he had known for a period of 24 hours) and fell into the ocean.
  • Expy:
    • Both Damaka and Salamander to an extent, Kamina and Natsu being their counterparts, respectively.
    • Knife and Edge are actually not Der Blitz' characters, merely those of one of his friends not on the net who wished to RP, but couldn't due to lack of anything more than sporadic internet. So he put them in the RPG for the friend.
    • Seeing that some players have created new versions of their characters from the pre-reboot BZPRPG, they would count as well.
    • There's an entire team based off of the Lantern Corps. Apparently, Agent Orange's counterpart dies. A LOT.
  • Gory Discretion Shot: When it was discovered that the original Wrath had betrayed the Toa Daedra, he and Lust engaged in a short scuffle, during which he was dragged out of the room. Seconds later, Lust returned from the hallway - almost completely covered in blood and with little to say aside from, "The mole's taken care of."
  • I'm a Humanitarian: Gluttony seems to consider cooked Matoran/Toa a very delicious meal.
  • Informed Loner: Merror is one. Despite his apparent will to not put others in danger, he teamed up at length with both Mirr and Mir at the same time. Justified to an extent in that role-playing requires player interaction.
  • Intelligence Equals Isolation: Stralix' experience on Zakaz subverts this, as despite his intelligence and relative docility when compared to most other Skakdi, others held a grudging respect for him due to said smartness even then.
  • Lazy Bum: Sloth of the Toa Daedra plays this trope straight... mostly. Granted, it is justified.
  • Meaningful Name:
    • Vice and Virtue are pretty fitting. Vice refers to the addiction to sadism and schadenfreude of Knife, which can be taken as a vice; whilst Virtue refers to the 'virtue' of self-sacrificing masochism in defense of others.
    • The Arete and Daedra's titles also count-though they may not necessarily reflect on their bearer's powers and fighting style, their personalities are based off their titles.
  • My Greatest Failure: Jasik and Nighting feel this way about Dreenan's capture.
  • No Sense of Direction: Cipher. The guy has managed to spend HOURS swimming towards the shore after jumping off of a boat, which was probably about 350 or so feet from the coastline.
  • Religion of Evil: Xa-Koro worships Makuta Teridax and is spreading their religion across the island. It doesn't help that they have the powers to make people comply.
  • Sacrificed Basic Skill for Awesome Training: Only Toa who give up their elemental power can use Xa-kuta .
  • Screw Destiny: The Scarred Paladins refuse to wait for The Chosen One to lead them in rebellion against Xa-Koro.
  • Seven Deadly Sins: The Toa Daedra, a group of six Toa and one Valkyr, all of them Inquisitors and each of whom is based off of one of the Sins, fittingly operating under their respective Sin's title. Aside from Sloth, who possesses a Mask of Sloth, each Daedra's relation to their sin is exemplified through their personalities and certain other tendencies only, as the majority do not have Sin-based powers.
  • Seven Heavenly Virtues: The Toa Arete-the total opposite of the Toa Daedra in terms of ideals. Their team structure is essentially the same, however.
  • Talk to the Fist: Played for Laughs when Hau, aroused from his angsting by Damaka's speech to 'believe in the me who believes in YOU' leaps up and proceeds to nearly curbstomp his self-proclaimed brother into the ground. Made even funnier when Damaka first reacts positively to the attack.
  • Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: What anyone who knows anything about Knife and Edge can expect from them on a regular basis.
  • Tsundere: Aexias originally was this to Romulus. Then she realized he was stalking her and responded by going back to being The Stoic.
  • The Unchosen One: There's a prophecy that a hero will come forth and lead the rebellion against Xa-Koro, and that any rebellion without him is doomed. "Screw that," say the Scarred Paladins. "We don't need any special hero, we can do this ourselves."

    BZPRPG III 

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