THE BOOK OF THE MACHINE: What Do *You* Want To See?

[Lord Liaden]

Re: THE BOOK OF THE MACHINE: What Do *You* Want To See?

 

Where are all of his henrobots built?

 

Okay, now we absolutely have to have henrobots.

 

Steelbeak, Leghorn of Doom!!

[CrosshairCollie]

Re: THE BOOK OF THE MACHINE: What Do *You* Want To See?

 

Okay, now we absolutely have to have henrobots.

 

Steelbeak, Leghorn of Doom!!

 

"Organics, prepare to, ah say, prepare to be terminated."

[Lord Liaden]

Re: THE BOOK OF THE MACHINE: What Do *You* Want To See?

 

Another possibility would be to have Mechanon's "children"' date=' detailing analogies like Ultron's relationship to the Vision and Jocasta (as well as other heroes and villains that he's created).[/quote']

 

I was just thinking that if Mechanon sees himself as creating a new "race" of sapient machines to replace mankind, it might be natural for him to create a femiform "mate." Even if we don't get one statted, his quest to create or find the perfect bride might make for a fun recurring plotline.

 

OTOH one of his creations might turn out benevolent rather than genocidal and turn against him, as Ultron's did. That might be a good alternative to the earlier suggestion of a heroic version of Mechanon.

[BNakagawa]

Re: THE BOOK OF THE MACHINE: What Do *You* Want To See?

 

There must be FemBots!

[Sketchpad]

Re: THE BOOK OF THE MACHINE: What Do *You* Want To See?

 

I was just thinking that if Mechanon sees himself as creating a new "race" of sapient machines to replace mankind, it might be natural for him to create a femiform "mate." Even if we don't get one statted, his quest to create or find the perfect bride might make for a fun recurring plotline.

 

OTOH one of his creations might turn out benevolent rather than genocidal and turn against him, as Ultron's did. That might be a good alternative to the earlier suggestion of a heroic version of Mechanon.

Exactly

[pinecone]

Re: THE BOOK OF THE MACHINE: What Do *You* Want To See?

 

OK' date=' it's time to (slowly but surely) get to work on our next book! And that's [i']The Book Of The Machine,[/i] which will do for Mechanon what The Book Of The Destroyer did for Dr. Destroyer. So that means it's time for another WDYWTS thread.

 

Here's what the book's slated to contain:

 

Chapter One: History: a complete history of Mechanon, including its never-before-revealed origin! Will run up through early 2009, naturally.

 

Chapter Two: Mechanon: A complete review of (and character sheets for) Mechanon's many forms, beginning with Mark I (which first appeared in 1985) up through Mark XXXVII (the 2009 version, the one that will appear in Champions Online). As with BotD, it will include character sheets for intermediary versions pegged to earlier editions/illustrations, variant forms (such as Mega-Mechanon, who's referred to in CU:NotW), and the like.

 

Chapter Three: Henchrobots: Mechanon's robotic legions! This includes several named "lieutenant" robots (think "supervillain flunkies"; this will include the return of an old favorite, mwah hah hah hah hah!), "generic" robots of various sorts, and so on.

 

Chapter Four: Installations: Mechanon's various secret bases. As in BotD, we'll present both "generic" sections that appear in many bases, and parts of each base that are unique to it.

 

Chapter Five: GMing: Using Mechanon in your game, etc.

 

And there you have it! So... what do you want to see in The Book Of The Machine?

 

Very happy with Chapter 2, I always thought Mechs is a better villian if he apears with differant versions and grows "organicly" within the campain...The one game I featured him in he only increased in power with Exp, I just rewrote him based on how he was defeated last time... "Anti-energy Mechanon", "Anti-Strength Mechanan" etc...and he was a very popular reoccuring menace...

 

 

If page count allows maybe some "won't lose like That again" modules to swap or add...

[Enforcer84]

Re: THE BOOK OF THE MACHINE: What Do *You* Want To See?

 

Shmeeee!

 

I'm looking forward to this.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: THE BOOK OF THE MACHINE: What Do *You* Want To See?

 

As long as we're looking at variant Mechanon forms, how about variations of Mechanon's detachable head? Many people using Mechanon treat his head just as a last-ditch escape device, but the way it's built as a Duplicate nothing's stopping it from detaching and reattaching at will. With its small size it could make a useful scout for times when Mechanon wants to be less obtrusive; so how about heads with enhanced stealth capacity (improved Stealth and Concealment, Invisibility, or Shape Shift), more movement capabilities to get into places (Swimming, Teleportation, Tunneling, or Desolidification), or more Enhanced Senses via instruments deployed when the head is unencumbered by the body?

[Hugh Neilson]

Re: THE BOOK OF THE MACHINE: What Do *You* Want To See?

 

Okay, now we absolutely have to have henrobots.

 

Steelbeak, Leghorn of Doom!!

 

MechaGobbler's on the Interstate!

[Legatus]

Re: THE BOOK OF THE MACHINE: What Do *You* Want To See?

 

Okay, now we absolutely have to have henrobots.

 

Steelbeak, Leghorn of Doom!!

 

Henrobots? Ooooops!

[TheQuestionMan]

Re: THE BOOK OF THE MACHINE: What Do *You* Want To See?

 

Machine Player Characters of coarse gets my vote. TheQuestionMan's Wish List includes;

 

The various Sub Genres

Mecha - Gotta have Giant Robot Warriors

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Mecha

 

Golden Age Hero - G.I. Robot

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G.I._Robot

 

Pulp Hero - Robotman

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robotman_(Cliff_Steele)

 

Steampunk Hero - Classics cannot be beat.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steampunk

 

Clockwork Hero - Windup Heroes common, tell me you haven't played City of Heroes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clockpunk#Clockpunk

 

Fantasy Hero - Golems (Nice stuff from Lemuria & The Atlantean Age

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golem

 

Other (Post-Apocalypse) Hero - The Machines rebel & takeover. Rifts Sourcebook One, Terminator, Reign of Steel, Magnus, Robot Fighter, Annihilation: Conquest, etc...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Tech-noir_films

 

 

01110001110

 

 

QM

 

 

P.S.: Machine Characters and Robot Warriors for 2009 is a must.

[TheQuestionMan]

Re: THE BOOK OF THE MACHINE: What Do *You* Want To See?

 

Their creators... Inventors & Gadgeteers

 

 

"Steve, What are you doing Steve?"

 

 

QM

[Lord Liaden]

Re: THE BOOK OF THE MACHINE: What Do *You* Want To See?

 

I'm assuming there's a character-based reason (which I would expect to see in this book) why Mechanon hasn't just made copies of his core personality program, downloaded them into his stock of spare bodies, and fielded a small army of himself. If that's the case, it could make an interesting plot seed if for some reason, one of Mech's spare bodies was accidentally activated while its predecessor is still functional. Would the two battle over which is the "true" Mechanon, with PCs caught in the middle?

 

Now, if at least some of Mechanon's robotic servants are going to be Automatons, I suggest a feature which IMO would also make this book more broadly useful. A number of published 5E examples of robots have been built as Automatons without "computer brains," despite the fact that the descriptions of some of them attribute dynamic and sophisticated behaviors to them... something which by the rules, Automatons aren't capable of without a Computer or AI for a brain. Basic combat robots should generally do well enough with the simple commands defined by their Intelligence score, but not those which are supposed to be more adaptive to changing circumstances.

 

How about writing up a few examples of Computers that could be installed into Mechanon's various robot Automatons to give them broader functionality? Even just one character sheet for a standard brain module for Mechanon's servants, but with a variety of "packages" of Programs based on their functions: Tactical Combat, Infiltration, Transportation, Technical Assistance, and so on. Swapping and combining Packages would make the various robot models more flexible; and they could also be added to any other robot write-up where appropriate.

[bubba smith]

Re: THE BOOK OF THE MACHINE: What Do *You* Want To See?

 

I'm assuming there's a character-based reason (which I would expect to see in this book) why Mechanon hasn't just made copies of his core personality program, downloaded them into his stock of spare bodies, and fielded a small army of himself. If that's the case, it could make an interesting plot seed if for some reason, one of Mech's spare bodies was accidentally activated while its predecessor is still functional. Would the two battle over which is the "true" Mechanon, with PCs caught in the middle?

if thats the case run like hell

[Boll Weevil]

He still looks like a people!

 

I have always wondered why Mechanon's physiology always manifests as an organic analog. I can accept that each iteration is an incremental improvement on an original design which was bipedal but I would think his disdain for organics would lead him to adopt a more machine-like appearance.

[Cygnia]

Re: He still looks like a people!

 

I have always wondered why Mechanon's physiology always manifests as an organic analog. I can accept that each iteration is an incremental improvement on an original design which was bipedal but I would think his disdain for organics would lead him to adopt a more machine-like appearance.

 

Or why he hasn't tried to pull a Skynet and upload himself into everything.

[BobGreenwade]

Re: THE BOOK OF THE MACHINE: What Do *You* Want To See?

 

A couple more thoughts:

 

Someone mentioned the 4E character Peacekeeper. In that continuity I decided that, if Doctor Destroyer could reprogram a Mechanon robot, why not Merry Andrew? Thus was born Twerpitron, the most powerful, most irresponsible prankster in the world. I kind of doubt this could happen in the current continuity (not the least because Merry Andrew doesn't exist any more), unless good ol' Foxbat were to give it a go, but it's at least worth a Plot Seed in a Sidebar.

 

The "army of Mechanons" and "upload his personality into everything" ideas should also be worth Mechanon plots. (The "army of himself" idea is what I have him turning into in Space Wizards, if anyone cares about that.)

 

I also like the idea of Mechanon running weapons to warmongers so the organics can do the extermination job for him.

 

And here's a point to consider on machine cognition: in the past several years scientists have developed "fuzzy logic" by the realization that the only way to make computers simulate intelligence as we know it is to give them "something akin to emotions." To give a very simple example, your "smart thermostat" learns what temperature range you like, and dedicates itself to keeping you in that range. It's simply not possible to do some of the really sophisticated stuff we're starting to see these days, like speech recognition and synthesis, without that. (I can search for references for this if you want.) But while the core of our emotions consists of survival and procreation, the core of machine emotions would consist of doing a good job. What that says about Mechanon, I leave for you to determine.

 

One more thing: with the "2001" references already in play, the remark, "I'm sorry, Steve, I'm afraid I can't do that," simply has to show up somewhere. Maybe in an illo, in which case it doesn't really matter whether the Steve depicted is Mr. Long or Mr. Peterson (assuming the latter gives consent).

[Steve Long]

Re: THE BOOK OF THE MACHINE: What Do *You* Want To See?

 

I have always wondered why Mechanon's physiology always manifests as an organic analog. I can accept that each iteration is an incremental improvement on an original design which was bipedal but I would think his disdain for organics would lead him to adopt a more machine-like appearance.

 

Have no fear; there's a good* explanation, one that's actually central, in many ways, to Mechanon's character.

 

 

 

 

*: Well, I think it's a good explanation, anyways. You may just think it's an explanation. But it's in there.

[Boll Weevil]

Re: THE BOOK OF THE MACHINE: What Do *You* Want To See?

 

Cool. I'm glad to hear it. It only has to make sense to Mechanon and really can be logically unsound. His reasons may be that the human form (upright, biped) is the most efficient. OK by me. I wonder what he would say if questioned about it. His hatred, his human form (heck, he is even "male": a very organic idea) are all features of the organic beings he so strongly opposes.

 

I have always, from Mechanon's first appearance, wondered what his "voice" sounds like. James Earl Jones? Stephen Hawking? Peter Frampton?

[zen_hydra]

Re: THE BOOK OF THE MACHINE: What Do *You* Want To See?

 

Can we get an explanation why Mechanon doesn't just constantly crank out multiple, active copies of himself?

 

Since it is clear that he has the ability to rebuild himself after being destroyed, why does he favor only one active "self"?

 

I would also like to see a modular version of Mechanon with a series of modules to connect to various hard-points on his basic chassis.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: THE BOOK OF THE MACHINE: What Do *You* Want To See?

 

And here's a point to consider on machine cognition: in the past several years scientists have developed "fuzzy logic" by the realization that the only way to make computers simulate intelligence as we know it is to give them "something akin to emotions." To give a very simple example' date=' your "smart thermostat" learns what temperature range you like, and dedicates itself to keeping you in that range. It's simply not possible to do some of the really sophisticated stuff we're starting to see these days, like speech recognition and synthesis, without that. (I can search for references for this if you want.) But while the core of our emotions consists of survival and procreation, the core of machine emotions would consist of doing a good job. What that says about Mechanon, I leave for you to determine.[/quote']

 

For my own most recent iteration of Mechanon's background, I decided that something like that was the initial prime motivation for Mechanon's campaign. The illogical, inefficient, chaotic organisms were disrupting the flawless operation of Mechanon's machines, and if it were to create a "perfect" world it would have to purge all organics from the environment.

 

Mind you, as with all wars begun on "principle," after all this time and trouble Mechanon now takes the organics' refusal to expire as a personal affront.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: THE BOOK OF THE MACHINE: What Do *You* Want To See?

 

Can we get an explanation why Mechanon doesn't just constantly crank out multiple, active copies of himself?

 

Since it is clear that he has the ability to rebuild himself after being destroyed, why does he favor only one active "self"?

 

I don't want to speak for Steve Long, but given that The Book Of The Destroyer asserts that Dr. Destroyer doesn't clone himself because his strong concept of "self" as a unique, perfect entity can't abide the thought of a copy, I wouldn't be surprised if Mechanon has a similar attitude.

 

 

I would also like to see a modular version of Mechanon with a series of modules to connect to various hard-points on his basic chassis.

 

Agreed, that would be cool. Very appropriate and useful for when Mechanon anticipates going up against known foes, and wants to configure himself for maximum effectiveness against them.

[Certified]

Re: THE BOOK OF THE MACHINE: What Do *You* Want To See?

 

I don't want to speak for Steve Long' date=' but given that [i']The Book Of The Destroyer[/i] asserts that Dr. Destroyer doesn't clone himself because his strong concept of "self" as a unique, perfect entity can't abide the thought of a copy, I wouldn't be surprised if Mechanon has a similar attitude.

 

Do you really feel that Mechanon would be so diminished by such flawed meat logic?

[Supreme Serpent]

Re: THE BOOK OF THE MACHINE: What Do *You* Want To See?

 

I would think a section on using robots/androids/AIs in general in a campaign could be useful. What sort of issues might a robot PC run into in the CU? Are different countries more AI friendly than others? etc.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: THE BOOK OF THE MACHINE: What Do *You* Want To See?

 

Do you really feel that Mechanon would be so diminished by such flawed meat logic?

 

Ah, but since Mechanon is perfect compared to meat, it follows that his logic cannot share their flaws. (As if megalomaniacs need any more barriers to self-examination.)