BZPRPG News and Discussion

Thanks, it's been a long time in coming. Glad it was so good when it finally arrived.

well i'll be, you stop checking bzprpg for two years and come back and the show's over

i might pop in for that next arc if ya'll don't mind me bein' around again

More people are always welcome.

brilliant

still getting used to the new forums a bit

"I did not mean to interrupt."

Wrap-up post for the Kalta, CW for dysphoria and self-harm. I want to thank everybody I've played with during the arc for making Mata Nui and Kentoku interesting places to write in.

bahhh i might as well make a short and sweet post in the wrap-up topic just to get things oriented for my returning characters (or at least for datrox and kaen), i've been giving it some thought and feel like it would be awkward to just have them blip back into existence without regarding loose ends

Hello everyone,

I'm sure some of you at least recognize my name from posts on here.  When the forums came back online I was active again, but had to take a vacation in late September.  Coming back from that, I just became too busy with my personal life to commit to posting, along with some other stuff.  I realized my characters were all in decent enough of "closing" posts that I could just drop out without hampering how the stories wrapped up, so I quietly ducked out of posting.

I'm trying to catch up on the season finale arcs now, and will hopefully be active again once the new season starts.  I'm sure there's no rush to the new stories getting started and all that, so no worries.  I'm still trying to figure out if I'll even be able to seriously commit to posting again, myself.  I wanted to take the time to write out a post just to let everyone know I still think of this place, and really enjoyed the part I've gotten to play in BZPRPG.  Next season I'll most likely try and stay a little more solo-oriented, but anything can happen I guess.  For now, my plan is to just do a classic cut-to intro post when the new season starts, with plenty of exposition to fill in the gaps between what happened after my last posts and why my characters are starting where they are now, pretty normal stuff, I'd say.  I'm sorry this isn't really too long of a post; I just wanted to get some kind of feelings out and say thanks again to everyone who participated this season.  I enjoy writing, and being a part of a group thing like BZPRPG seems to motivate me more than just working on some short story or epic in another of the forums.  We'll see what the future holds for me I guess.  I hope you all have enjoyed reading my posts.  I've enjoyed yours!

Whoops, forgot this was a thing again.
I'd write a wrap-up post but I don't really know who or what to write. Arankhe presumably fled Ko, and from there doesn't really know what to do with herself, and everyone else of mine was kinda inactive.
Might bring back Elaadis and Cyramar once the next arc gets going.

since datrox is back in the game for next arc we could always reunite him and cyramar  

...I thought wrap-up meant wrap-up, like cut it right now so we can keep moving, so I made my one post months ago pretty conclusive and now it'd be awkward to pick it back up.

 I might pick it back up if it's utterly certain we're not wrapping up just yet.

[btw any help explaining my boss? should I make them a new character or sth?]

1 hour ago, Lipuret McKaukau said:

...I thought wrap-up meant wrap-up, like cut it right now so we can keep moving, so I made my one post months ago pretty conclusive and now it'd be awkward to pick it back up.

 I might pick it back up if it's utterly certain we're not wrapping up just yet.

[btw any help explaining my boss? should I make them a new character or sth?]

The wrap up topic should be closing very soon. Tyler has been dealing with final projects and such but he should be about finished with them I believe. He's gonna make a final post before closing the wrap up topic. So I'd just wait till the next arc starts. 

2 hours ago, Snelly said:

The wrap up topic should be closing very soon. Tyler has been dealing with final projects and such but he should be about finished with them I believe. He's gonna make a final post before closing the wrap up topic. So I'd just wait till the next arc starts. 

Thanks. I'll do that then.

On 11/26/2019 at 6:22 AM, SnowyAegis said:

Whoops, forgot this was a thing again.
I'd write a wrap-up post but I don't really know who or what to write. Arankhe presumably fled Ko, and from there doesn't really know what to do with herself, and everyone else of mine was kinda inactive.
Might bring back Elaadis and Cyramar once the next arc gets going.

Feel free to send her along with the Aggressors to Po-Ostia. That's the port town where they are going to spend the timeskip.

On 11/26/2019 at 10:57 AM, Lipuret McKaukau said:

...I thought wrap-up meant wrap-up, like cut it right now so we can keep moving, so I made my one post months ago pretty conclusive and now it'd be awkward to pick it back up.

 I might pick it back up if it's utterly certain we're not wrapping up just yet.

[btw any help explaining my boss? should I make them a new character or sth?]

Be glad it doesn't drag well into the next season. Like one wrap-up, in particular, in the past...

Hey guys!

So I've been locked out of my account for a few months now, (make sure to update your email address more frequently than once every 15 years), and so I'm not quite sure where things are at. I see the current arc is ending, is a new one starting soon?

Unknown. We had a big spurt of activity before the holidays but things have quieted down again.

Soon™

Basically, there's still a decent chunk of stuff that still need to be resolved in the wrapup topic (Mainly all the stuff that's happening on Kentoku since the rahkshi attack and all, and also what those in the warehouse fight in Ko are doing) but staff has been super busy with school/life, especially since everyone in school's free time ran out as the fall semester wrapped up.

So there's only a couple pieces that need to fall into place, but those are some fairly large pieces, which is why things have been delayed.

It'd be best if people just ended their stuff and we forcibly moved on, honestly.  The entire game itself can't move forward because of posts people have been waiting on for months if not years.  People need to just force some sort of post out then cut off this season.  It negatively affects the game when things drag on like they currently are.

i'd practice a little more patience considering even if that was done, life still comes first for the staff, not the rpg. cutting this season off before people can finish their things won't magically free everyone up. we'll get to next season, just gotta hold a little longer.

EDIT: and i'm not disagreeing that these long pauses affect the game negatively, but this is a bionicle rpg on a website with a considerably smaller and far less active userbase than during said rpg's prime so in the end it doesn't bother me 

As much as anyone else, I understand the desire for a swift resolution. I am eager to get to show off what we have for the next arc not to mention begin my own plans. We haven't forgotten, and we are working. I'm not going to put a solid date on it in case I'm wrong (I have been before), but we're getting there.

The arc was six years old when it ended, and thorny until the day those topics locked. I for one am not surprised the wrapup has been just as uncooperative.

Woah.

Today, for some reason, I drug a ton of old BZPRPG files out from my computer from middle school and looked through this huge document I had compiling the old BZPRPG main plot arc. With a lot of memories, I decided to check out the forum again and I CAN'T FREAKING BELIEVE IT THE FORUM ISN'T DEAD! It's probably gonna take me a few days to catch up on all these new plot posts, and it looks like the next arc isn't here yet, but count me in for it whenever it happens. I haven't made a post on here in probably over five years but college is behind me, life is changing for me again and I think it would be fun to come back to this place that was kind of all I thought about for a few years. 

Anyway, for those who remember me, I miss y'all, good to see you! Hope to RP with y'all again soon 

<3

Visaru

Ayyyy! Glad to have another RPer come out of the woodwork! The impending arrival of arc 3 (When It's Done™) has brought so many out of the woodwork, it's always good to see the another familiar face come check in after all these years.

Especially given the retake of Ko-Koro, I'm very excited to see what role Korzaa will play in the new government, and what potential political conflicts will result during the reconstruction of Ko.

5 hours ago, Visaru said:

Woah.

Today, for some reason, I drug a ton of old BZPRPG files out from my computer from middle school and looked through this huge document I had compiling the old BZPRPG main plot arc. With a lot of memories, I decided to check out the forum again and I CAN'T FREAKING BELIEVE IT THE FORUM ISN'T DEAD! It's probably gonna take me a few days to catch up on all these new plot posts, and it looks like the next arc isn't here yet, but count me in for it whenever it happens. I haven't made a post on here in probably over five years but college is behind me, life is changing for me again and I think it would be fun to come back to this place that was kind of all I thought about for a few years. 

Anyway, for those who remember me, I miss y'all, good to see you! Hope to RP with y'all again soon 

<3

Visaru

 

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

aaaaaaaaaaa

this is all so crazy lol hey wassup

Glad to have you back man. The more the merrier.

It's just straight not fair.  I'm sorry but there's no way for these opinions to get voiced and not sound mean.  I've been checking this place off and on for months now and the game itself has completely stopped.  Some of the GM's need to force this season to end so that we can all move forward.  It's hard not to just forget about BZPRPG and move on.  Any major events can be told in remembering/flashback exposition scenes.  People are waiting to write these epic, grand posts to "finish it the right way" when that doesn't need to happen at all.  The last post was in mid December, before that mid November.  In the past 30 or 60 days the people holding this game up couldn't force any kind of post out that would help everyone.  If you're going to be too busy to play when the entire game itself is on hold until you post, then next season you need to not have so much hinge on your posts.  This is getting ridiculous, just open the new season and tell any events in opening exposition.  We're all tired of waiting.

Nobody's happy about it but saltposting in N&D isn't gonna change anything

Sure does make it feel like it's 2012 again though

just let me dust off the "i'm gonna kill this game" bit

i'm just here for the oysters and tuna* at this point, the rpg moves when it will

*okay and the friends too

On 1/11/2020 at 6:45 PM, Visaru said:

Woah.

Today, for some reason, I drug a ton of old BZPRPG files out from my computer from middle school and looked through this huge document I had compiling the old BZPRPG main plot arc. With a lot of memories, I decided to check out the forum again and I CAN'T FREAKING BELIEVE IT THE FORUM ISN'T DEAD! It's probably gonna take me a few days to catch up on all these new plot posts, and it looks like the next arc isn't here yet, but count me in for it whenever it happens. I haven't made a post on here in probably over five years but college is behind me, life is changing for me again and I think it would be fun to come back to this place that was kind of all I thought about for a few years. 

Anyway, for those who remember me, I miss y'all, good to see you! Hope to RP with y'all again soon 

<3

Visaru

 

Hey! Despite Raz's best efforts, we're all still here. Pretty sure the Arc was a soul trap for a bunch of you guys. Old faces have been turning up at a record clip ever since it wrapped. Everyone's always welcome back, we should have something fresh and exciting for you all to look at soon.

20 hours ago, Azibo said:

It's just straight not fair.  I'm sorry but there's no way for these opinions to get voiced and not sound mean.  I've been checking this place off and on for months now and the game itself has completely stopped.  Some of the GM's need to force this season to end so that we can all move forward.  It's hard not to just forget about BZPRPG and move on.  Any major events can be told in remembering/flashback exposition scenes.  People are waiting to write these epic, grand posts to "finish it the right way" when that doesn't need to happen at all.  The last post was in mid December, before that mid November.  In the past 30 or 60 days the people holding this game up couldn't force any kind of post out that would help everyone.  If you're going to be too busy to play when the entire game itself is on hold until you post, then next season you need to not have so much hinge on your posts.  This is getting ridiculous, just open the new season and tell any events in opening exposition.  We're all tired of waiting.

You're entitled to your opinion, and I understand. Whether you see it voiced or not you're far from the only person frustrated with the delay, and I count myself among that number. And I can actually see what's going on so I understand that it's more frustrating when you can't see the sausage getting made, too. If you could you might understand the delay or you might not and that's fine.

You weren't here the last time there was an arc transition but there's ordinarily more connective tissue. Staff posts are the skeleton, yes, but there's usually all sorts of other parts at play. Ironically all of these other parts take longer. The need to organize more players to accomplish an arc resolution held up Arc 1 for quite a long time, just positioned before the wrapup topic and not after. In expediting the end to the plot of Arc 2 we excised most of this connective tissue. Which made the plot 'easier' to resolve more quickly... But left us without much in the way of connective tissue. There just wasn't a lot to go between structural pieces the way there usually is, and that makes the length of time seem even more obvious. 

If this afternoon we forced through a barebones, cliff notes version of what content still has to happen we still wouldn't be able to get the ball rolling tomorrow. Because in addition to the last bit of transitional material needed between arc to set the stage for the next one we have to prepare the next one. The big document we have, all of the hours of staff meetings, and all of the notes have to be organized and condensed for cohesion, the new topics have to be prepared, and even the topics that will return mostly unchanged have to be updated. There's a lot of moving parts to manage.

And the next arc will require a different management style than they have in the past. The new material has been designed from the ground up to reflect the changes in the community, but there will still be some things we have to play by ear. The game's climate always changes, and that means that what worked in a previous arc won't necessarily work in the next one. And as has been chronicled ad nauseam this past arc had a lot more problems than they usually do on top of the usual changes.

None of this probably does anything to ease your frustration or your impatience, but nothing I can say would. 

the simple solution for the impatient is clearly to sequester yourself inside a diner and eat waffles for a year

I don't have much as much to say as last time.

Except yeah, I had a long semester full of projects, papers, and presentations that I put on pause to finish as much of the arc as I did. Some of them required sleepless nights in order to maintain my normal grades. One I kept putting off to work on arc posts until I outright failed it. I understand your frustration. I feel it, too. But when that frustration begins to manifest through me prioritizing writing another thousand words of the Kentoku wrapup post (my current project) over writing 1200 words of my nuclear deterrence paper, and accomplishing only half of both, then it's become unhealthy.

So no, it's not fair that you guys have to keep waiting. And I'm sorry that you do. But I literally prioritized putting this game's future over mine once, and it almost bit me in the ##### irreparably. Making the reverse of that decision is not something I'm going to apologize for; all I'm going to do is repeat that I feel your frustration at having to wait even longer for a arc, and tell you that it's going up as soon as I can concentrate on writing a few more posts.

This semester, although obviously in full swing now, is basically the first reprieve I've gotten in two years from a heavy, post-grad preparation workload. I'm going to take the chance to enjoy it, as well as getting to do the things I enjoy outside of the classroom again. Which, yes, means getting to describe Kanohi Dragons and eldritch LEGO gods instead of game theory about North Korea.

Trust me, I enjoy writing one way more than the other. But you're not going to pay my bills in five years. Unless you are. In that case PM me.

-Tyler

See you as GLORY champ in 3 years baby

So, from what I'm gathering, there's two major issues holding this back right now: low player activity, and staff unavailability.

Now, I may be on a bit of a tangent here, but this seems like a fairly simple fix for me. In my past experience working as a staff member on the BZPRPG, as well as hosting many of my own, I found that staff availability has a direct effect on player activity. I mean, holidays and starting new school semesters definitely play their role, but I feel as if this RPG could have more life in it than it currently does.

Now, before I progress: please don't misconstrue my message (staffers, I'm looking at you). Life gets in the way, priorities change, and what have you. Those are the joys of adulthood and responsibility. But, on the other hand, I see all of these player names that are very active in the forum, and especially so the discussion topic, which tells me that there are definitely people who don't lack the time that others may.

That being said: we have staff with no time, and many players with arguably more time, who are ready to progress the story and keep this RPG active. So why can't/haven't our staff hired someone who can be around to keep this moving? I don't want to be the bad guy here, but to me it just makes no sense. In capable hands, with a rough guideline, this problem could be drastically reduced, without hurting player activity or straying too far from the vision of the current staff.

Anyway. That's my two cents. Feel free to discuss what you agree with, or don't.

EDIT: I just want to clarify: I think the staff here do a wonderful job, and have great knowledge on the subject of roleplaying, and the BZPRPG. I don't want anyone to think I'm bashing or anything; it just looks, from my perspective, as though the staff around here needs help, especially someone who can be around more frequently.

2 hours ago, Tyler Durden said:

Trust me, I enjoy writing one way more than the other. But you're not going to pay my bills in five years. Unless you are. In that case PM me.

-Tyler

I’ll be your sugar daddy in 5 years. 

4 hours ago, Crimson Jester said:

So, from what I'm gathering, there's two major issues holding this back right now: low player activity, and staff unavailability.

Now, I may be on a bit of a tangent here, but this seems like a fairly simple fix for me. In my past experience working as a staff member on the BZPRPG, as well as hosting many of my own, I found that staff availability has a direct effect on player activity. I mean, holidays and starting new school semesters definitely play their role, but I feel as if this RPG could have more life in it than it currently does.

Now, before I progress: please don't misconstrue my message (staffers, I'm looking at you). Life gets in the way, priorities change, and what have you. Those are the joys of adulthood and responsibility. But, on the other hand, I see all of these player names that are very active in the forum, and especially so the discussion topic, which tells me that there are definitely people who don't lack the time that others may.

That being said: we have staff with no time, and many players with arguably more time, who are ready to progress the story and keep this RPG active. So why can't/haven't our staff hired someone who can be around to keep this moving? I don't want to be the bad guy here, but to me it just makes no sense. In capable hands, with a rough guideline, this problem could be drastically reduced, without hurting player activity or straying too far from the vision of the current staff.

Anyway. That's my two cents. Feel free to discuss what you agree with, or don't.

EDIT: I just want to clarify: I think the staff here do a wonderful job, and have great knowledge on the subject of roleplaying, and the BZPRPG. I don't want anyone to think I'm bashing or anything; it just looks, from my perspective, as though the staff around here needs help, especially someone who can be around more frequently.

This isn't a bad idea, and it's one of a few I've been considering for a while. There are reasons I lean against it personally, but if it comes to it, it comes to it. I'm not shutting the door on anything that keeps the game chugging at the moment, if Ghosthands' and my schedules don't sort themselves out in short order.

kray-kun is, obviously, eternal.

-Tyler

Gosh, I haven’t been here in years, I think I was last here regularly when BZPRPG III had just started. Looking at the startup topic shows just how long it’s been, Stannis became a toa? Makuta was defeated? Industry? Rival city-states? A whole other set of islands were discovered? Exo-Matoran? And that timeline was last updated in late-mid 2015, who knows what changed in the last four years? I missed a lot. 
 

Kind of interested in getting involved again once the next arc starts, though I have no idea what has happened in the last few years. Also if I do rejoin, I would probably need to cut back on my number of characters, I was not able to balance them even At the start when I was active. I think if I can resume, I will go to one new character, maybe two if I keep Dece, and just retcon that the others died offscreen. 

i'm sure someone here can give you a recap (i'm a bit out of the loop still myself, although i only missed a couple years) but it's good to see another player return! 

and you can have characters go inactive without havin' them bite it off-screen, lol. although i can think of one of my own characters i should've done that with...

I gotta admit - this is a shocker to me, probably only topped by Franco's return given he was presumed dead for years. I'm glad more people are coming back but I never expected we'd be getting visits from those who started RPing when the forums came back in 2011 and stopped less than a year later.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining by any means - I love it when people come back, I'm just extremely surprised. You've missed quite a lot in the past almost 8 years. I can probably help recap some, since I went inactive in the RPG around 2014-15 and had to catch up to finally rejoin in 2018.

Dece was the only character of yours that I remember interacting with - it'd be interesting to see what happened to him ever since Stannis's Companions disbanded (Which I don't think you were around for. The companions traveled a bit longer after you became inactive, until Stannis, Aurax, and Lepridan got drafted by Takua for big league plot stuff). Stannis (EW), Nichou (Me), and Lekua (Baltarc) are the only other former members of the companions that are still being RPed currently.

Good to see you. Gosh it’s been ages. What’s been going on with Nichou?

I have some rough ideas already for explaining what Dece did in the interim, and what he is doing now. I am thinking the main explanation would be that he was kidnapped by villains hoping to study the glitch that gave him his visions. I think it’s simple enough not to be inherently complicated. And it might also lead to him feeling like the companions abandoned him, which might set up conflict down the line. I should refresh my memory of what he actually did back then first. Try not to contradict anything.

Yeah when things go that far back it's hard to remember everything that has happened.

Well, Nichou didn't do all too much immediately after the companions disbanded - at least, I think (I still need to do some review of those days). After Makuta was defeated and Arc 2 began, Nichou went to Po-Koro and befriended a kohlii player along the way, who unbeknownst to Nichou was actually a spy. After a bit of time in Po-Koro he went to Ko-Wahi to see the Massif and has been there ever since, building housing for refugees of Ko-Koro after it was captured by the makuta-worshipping types. When I put it like that it doesn't sound as long and as much as I thought it was but then again there's that 3-4 year time gap in the middle where I wasn't active on BZP.