That Mechanon fella jest ain't right: a roleplay question

[Boll Weevil]

Re: That Mechanon fella jest ain't right: a roleplay question

 

Agreed...and repped.

[Tasha]

Re: That Mechanon fella jest ain't right: a roleplay question

 

I realize this question may be better posted in General Roleplaying, but what can you do?

 

You and your colleagues are members of a government-sanctioned superhero team. The gameworld is mostly CU with a slightly altered timeline. You've been informed of a new member joining your team. At a ceremony to welcome this year's recruits he is introduced. His name...Mechanon.As a player you gasp, "did you say Mechanon?"

 

Mechanon is a robot, created to assist your team in fighting evil. He is a good fighter (his power level is as Mechanon was introduced in earlier books, not near the team-beater he is now). Even better than his combat prowess, Mechanon has been programmed with advanced sensors and analytical programs to help solve super-crimes. A forensic expert. He can sniff a crime scene and tell you what happened using spectral analysis, IR, ballistics, fingerprinting, you name it.

 

Even better, to give Mechy some insight into criminal intent and motive, his neural net is programmed with the brain patterns of dozens of serial killers, rapists and terrorists. This programming gives him the empathy of a profiler. What a great addition to the team!!!

 

As a player, how well could your character fight alongside of Mechanon? Maybe the GM just picked a powerful NPC to add color. Maybe giving him free-will and insight into the mind of evil won't cause him to go batty and kill people later. As a player could you roleplay trusting Mechanon as a loyal teammate and, dare I say, friend? Having been a part of these boards for a long time I am curious to hear how some of you would play this.

 

It would be hard to be completely free of the baggage that the Mechanon Name comes with. My characters would be happy to have such a resource, but the player would be awaiting the Train wreck. esp with the "programmed with the brain patterns of dozens of serial killers, rapists and terrorists." Also profilers aren't necessarily stable either, with all of the time spent with dead bodies and getting into the minds of monsters. (no offense to any real profilers who may post here).

 

I would recommend naming him something else during this "friendly" stage. Also altering his appearence a bit will help others relate better to this "good" robotic resource. If/when he goes homicidal he can then alter his name and appearance to the Mechy we know and love.

 

Wrote this before I read Tesuji's post. He is much more detailed than I was

[bubba smith]

Re: That Mechanon fella jest ain't right: a roleplay question

 

mechanon as commander data?hmmm

[KA.]

Re: That Mechanon fella jest ain't right: a roleplay question

 

This could be set up like Bishop in "Aliens".

A previous Mechanon could be the "bad" one.

 

From IMDB:

Bishop: [bishop is puzzled by Ripley's reaction towards him] Is there a problem?

Burke: I'm sorry. I don't know why I didn't even- Ripley's last trip out, the syn- the artificial person malfunctioned.

Ripley: Malfuctioned?

Burke: There were problems and a-a few deaths were involved.

Bishop: I'm shocked. Was it an older model?

Burke: Yeah, the Hyperdine System's 120-A2.

Bishop: Well, that explains it then. The A2s always were a bit twitchy. That could never happen now with our behavioral inhibitors. It is impossible for me to harm or by omission of action, allow to be harmed, a human being.

 

KA.

[teh bunneh]

Re: That Mechanon fella jest ain't right: a roleplay question

 

Arise dread thread! Arise to do our unholy bidding!

 

I've got something like that going on in my West Coast Avengers game. The team has a robotic maid/butler called Miranda. Just looking at her, it's obvious that Ultron built her. She's been very helpful and loyal to the team (she was even programmed using the personality template of one of their former teammates). But every time they interact with her, I can tell they're wondering just when the shoe is going to drop...

[SimComm]

Re: That Mechanon fella jest ain't right: a roleplay question

 

I've always thought Mechanon was kind of sad/tragic.

He's basically seen enough of the horrible things that humanity has done and has decided to destroy it.

Which is really sad, as he's a powerful, intelligent AI that could do a lot of good.

:sniff: Sorry, I like mecha

 

-SC

[Boll Weevil]

Re: That Mechanon fella jest ain't right: a roleplay question

 

Arise dread thread! Arise to do our unholy bidding!

Hee hee, you are correct, oh lagomorphic one. I picked up a copy of Book of the Machine at Origins. Nice! I did a forum search for Mechanon and had forgotten about this thread. Somehow I had missed the last couple of posts.

[SSgt Baloo]

Re: That Mechanon fella jest ain't right: a roleplay question

 

"plethora of fashions"? Say, who programmed this thing's speech patterns?

 

El Guapo?

 

"But... But he taught me how to play cheese!"

 

"Um, that's chess."

 

"Oh-chess. Sorry."

 

(%)

 

Oh! Oh! I want to play cheese, too!

 

I've got something like that going on in my West Coast Avengers game. The team has a robotic maid/butler called Miranda. Just looking at her' date=' it's obvious that Ultron built her. She's been very helpful and loyal to the team (she was even programmed using the personality template of one of their former teammates). But every time they interact with her, I can tell they're wondering just when the shoe is going to drop... [/quote']

 

Yeah, and I'll bet it'll be a spike-heeled ankle-breaker when it does!

 

In reply to the OP, sure! I'll play along. My character will be completely oblivious to any but in-game hints that ol' Mechy isn't anything but what he's s'pose to be. Depending on the GM I, the player, might expect anything between "No, he really IS a good guy" to "Just wait until everyone's lulled into complacency!"

[Lucius]

Re: That Mechanon fella jest ain't right: a roleplay question

 

I don't have so much confidence in my ability to run a superhero based campaign, but...

 

If I ever ran a game with Mechanon (or Ultron or whatever) and it lasted long enough for it to come out, the players would eventually realize that Mechanon never stopped thinking of itself as being on Humanity's side.

 

THAT's why none of its grand schemes work, and why so few even involve fatalities. It's not actually hoping to wipe out Humanity - the plan is to become such a powerful menace as to FORCE Human beings to unite, to organize, and learn the value of purposeful rational action.

 

"Humanity is its own worst enemy. I shall change that."

 

Lucius Alexander

 

The palindromedary notes that Lucius has considered several possible visions for the character, but this is one of the more intriguing.

[hfergus]

Re: That Mechanon fella jest ain't right: a roleplay question

 

All my players are good role players and could keep separate what they know and what the characters know. They'd be cautious, and express some concern with the serial killer info. They'd insist on some sort of shutdown command (more than one). Also if I had not previoulsy mentioned Mechanon as a villian, they'd have no clue. They are new Champions players, and a lot of info is missing

 

My characters?

 

Given no Mechanon (or a different name) Volt and Olorin would act the same. They'd want more than one shutdown. (They both read sci-fi, and Olorin would consider it to be a golem - that he did not create, so he'd be wary.)

 

Black Tiger would work with it, aprreciate its abilities, and never trust it until it destroyed itself.

 

Lead man would be cautious, but be the first to trust it.

 

Futurian "Destroy it! Destroy it now! It brings the.... Oh crud. If I say the future will be changed. Oh crud. It may not be "The One". " He'd set multiple destructs on it. His powers are aimed right at machines and tech. He'd watch it closely. This is one thing he'd never let lapse, unlike almost anything else which tends to be "out of sight, out of mind."