BZPRPG

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Describe BZPRPG here.

Oh boy.

The BZPRPG 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 it's 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 Battle Royale With Cheese, 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.

A complete list of tropes used here would probably break the skeleton of the internet, but here's a partial list:

Tropes used in BZPRPG include:


The BZPRPG Itself:

  • 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 has decided to give the continuity a reboot.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Face Palm: Often, mostly due to new players (and even some, not so much) intentionally ignoring the rules or the mods, leading to...
    • Fanon Discontinuity: ...some posts being written, and then later retconned out of continuity because said posts violated the rules in some way.
  • Loads and Loads and Loads and Loads and Loads and Loads and Loads and Loads of Characters
  • The Protagonist: Many people would LIKE to think they are 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.
  • Small Name, Big Ego: Several players
  • 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.
  • Unreliable Narrator: Or, in this case, Unreliable Players.
  • Talking Is a Free Action: Almost always played straight and averted far less than it's subverted.
  • Troperiffic: Six years and a lot of players, it should be.
  • The Wiki Rule: The Encyclopaedia of the BZPRPG.

Old BZPRPG

  • Action Girl: Several. Mars is, however, master of them all.
  • Ambition Is Evil: Almost always played straight. This troper, in all his four-and-a-half years, can't remember an instance where it was subverted.
  • Ancient Artifact: The Kanohi Elementa from the 2006/2007 Academy storyline.
  • Animorphism: Exlaas may turn into a shark.
  • Badass: Too many over the years to list. Grokk and Mars are undisputed ones, however.
  • Badass Bookworm: Pohaka from the 06-08 years. More Badass than Bookworm, though occasionally shows off his tech-savvy side in non-combat situations.
  • Badass Grandpa: Mahkaal. Old even by Bionicle's standards, but can still fight on par with one of Zyrul's Elites. Keep in mind, the Elites are the best of the best out of the few hundred Academy-trained Toa.
  • Badass Normal: Most player Matoran.
  • Badass Preacher: Saeras is this in battle (and sometimes even when not), mixed with Good Shepherd.
  • Badass Teacher: Lazok has become this, joining the Towers of the Scholars in Aensetr Derrum.
    • Zyrul exemplifies this trope as an evil version.
  • 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.
    • Barrakhii is another good example.
  • 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.
  • Big Bad Wannabe: Nalsk
  • 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 (see below), 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 (or alternatively, Dork Age).
    • 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 geurilla 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 (though that may change soon). The Children of Perdition are either a well-meaning charity organization that fell to infighting and bad leadership, or an overzealous vigilante group who bullies independent villains. Finally, you have the recently-formed 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.
  • Blood Knight: Korruhn
  • 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.
  • Card-Carrying Villain: The Cabal of Cruelty, natch.
  • 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.
  • The Chessmaster: Several.
  • Combat Pragmatist: Mars is ready to cheat if it means victory.
    • Unsurprising considering she killed ten makuta.
  • Corrupt Corporate Executive: Several, most notably Vismund Cygnus, CEO of Sonata Consortium.
    • Also, Left Shoe "Lefty", of Protobot Industries fame.
  • Crap Saccharine 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. See Black and Gray Morality for the details.
  • Crapsack World: 2009 setting, Locus Abeo. It didn't start off that way, though.
  • Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: As with Badass, too many to list. You're welcome to try though.
  • Death From Above: The Lightbringer Cruisers.
  • 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.
  • Everything's Even Worse with Sharks: Exlaas subverts this.
  • Evil Overlord: Uhuraz from 2009/2010, and Zyrul from 2006.
  • Five-Man Band: First thirty pages or so of The Academy. Afterwards, once the various groups started coming together, it became Loads and Loads of Characters.
  • Gambit Roulette: The Santun Arc.
  • A God Am I: Several characters' motivations, especially Sha'i'tan.
  • Gondor Calls for Aid: The assault on the Cabal Base.
  • Good Shepherd: Saeras, leader of the original Kin. Anyone who goes far enough in the Kin tends to move toward this archetype, as well.
  • Gentle Giant: Exlaas
  • 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".
  • 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.
  • Impoverished Patrician: Phogu's state.
  • Kaiju: A few player characters.
  • Large Ham: Daximos, natch. And his heterosexual life partner Ragnarok.
  • 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.
  • Last of His Kind: A few, but Exlaas and Phogu are the resident poster boys for it.
  • Legacy Character: Toa Smeagol. Yes, that's a shout out.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • The Magocracy: Xa-Koro
  • 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.
  • The Nicknamer: With Mars, it's both Played for Laughs and played straight.
  • 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.
  • Omnicidal Maniac: Laryna fits this trope like a glove.
  • Our Zombies Are Different: The Brotherhood of Ak'Rei'an.
  • Out-Gambitted: Many.
  • 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 jumps? Heck yes. It even has an Ammunition Backpack for 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.
  • Reasonable Authority Figure: The Society of Xa-Kuta, the most powerful people on Locus Abeo.
  • Reality Warper: Several. The Santun fit this trope. Ahadica the Valkyr, however takes the cake. She is, after all, a demigoddess of her own right.
  • Shout-Out: Millions. Most notable are the Lightbringers' "Smart" and "Dumb" AIs.
  • Smug Snake: A good few
  • Spanner in the Works: ...Except for Echo, Evil Twin of Saeras, a rare Good Shepherd.
  • The Starscream: Kyshim, to Zyrul.
  • Stockholm Syndrome: An interesting inversion in the 2007 Terros-Nui/Metru-Nui saga, with Takrah (the captor) becoming attracted to Alta (the victim) rather than the other way around, whereas 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.
  • 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.
  • Two Guys and a Girl: Viveloc, Mif', and Fraashion fit this trope perfectly.
  • Unwitting Pawn: Everyone, to Sha'i'tan.
  • Wide-Eyed Idealist: Gadeli
  • Winged Humanoid: Phogu
  • The Worf Effect: Poor Kraal. Originally introduced as a Badass Automaton/Battle Butler blend, 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.
  • Xanatos Speed Chess: Almost every GM-controlled character has ended up playing it, especially in recent years.

New BZPRPG


BZPRPG III

  • An Axe to Grind: Decaia; his primary weapons are a pair of tomahawks.
    • Zand has one that he doesn't let anyone even touch. Probably becuase it has his Dead Little Sister in it.
  • Ass Shove: The Captain does a version with explosive.

The Captain: SUPER SECRET ULTIMATE TECHNIQUE: ONE THOUSAND YEARS (rams explosive twixt the buttocks of Snelly) OF DEATH! (Explosive explodes)

"I'm no toa, I'm a soldier," Keinju remarked casually. "You have shown wholly ludicrous capability in mixing the two up. The difference is that a toa," his eye glinted again, "Will put Honor Before Reason. A true soldier will throw honor to karzhani and save reason at any cost. And honor," the De-Toa stated coolly, "Looks like it deserves precisely that here. If we show we are better than Makuta, then we will be indubitably superior in morality to him. We'll also be in karz," added Sarusuma nonchalantly. "It is the soldier who will ultimately win here in that he will save the island."

  • Life or Limb Decision: Sulov Koskium is forced to make one when the Great Mine explodes as he looks for a squadmate in it. A plinth lands on his left hand and pins it. While the plinth itself is not a problem, the fact that moving it would cause a cave-in of the rubble pocket he ends up in is. Sulov contacts his squadmates, waits for them to find him, has them tell him why his left hand is hurting (all sources of light were put out as the rubble fell), and then calmly orders one of them to sever his arm at the wrist.
    • To extrapolate: While Sulov wouldn't have been without help, the pinning plinth had slammed down onto his left hand and opened several arteries. He would've bled out if it wasn't stopped. As such, it was necessary for his body to be moved.
  • Lighter and Softer: The Stronin of BZPRPG III is much nicer and morally just than the Stronin of the Old BZPRPG.
  • Indy Ploy: Invoked after The Captain attacks a foe with a grenade aboard The Infernavika and Lohkar reappears in time to see the end result:

Lohkar: ...Would you mind telling my why my ship is on fire?
The Captain: OH, DON'T WORRY! (Continues to blast away at foes) THAT'S ALL PART OF THE PLAN!
Lohkar: (Skeptical glance to toa in question) What plan?
The Captain: THE ONE I'M MAKING UP AS I GO ALONG!

The Captain: (Doffs cap in self-pleased manner) I should think this most awesome loot came from a downed toa in the approximate area of a tailor's (points with piandao scabbard in direction of tailor's where Yasurek reverse mugged a toa).
Yasurek: (Shifts around a bit uneasily) Um, yeah, those knocked out toa have all the good loot, especially since I had absolutely nothing to do with any of the unfortunate events that led to his knocked out state.

"At the Darkest Hour,
In unrivaled power,
The greatest foe will stand.
His servants grim,
They flock to him,
Shadows grip the land.
Yet hope has remained,
As goodness ordained,
A light must spread anon.
New heroes unite,
The darkness will bite,
Still the truth will awake at dawn.
Tests they must face,
Dark foes give chase,
All places the heroes shall look.
Enduring their strife,
Mortality’s knife,
The heroes will find what he took.
The Wanderer’s tread,
Leads to what lies ahead,
A place of shades and deceptions.
To seek hidden lines,
And follow the signs,
Will make them the only exceptions.
At the darkest hour,
In unrivaled power,
The greatest foe has stood.
United as one,
The foe is undone,
His malice defeated by good."

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