Character: Dingbot Prime
Character Sheet (Dingbot Prime)
Combat Value: 3
Mistress:Door(Open)Blade:Whoosh-Slice!-Thwack!
Arm:Grab! You:Duck!+Grab!+Swing!+unscrew+Falling!+Caught!+Snuggle(Mistress-shoulder)
Heat-Blast:Zing! Mistress:Shift+Bang! Heat-Blast:Boom! Mistress:Door(Open+Creeeeeak!)
Mistress:Arm You:Runrunrunrun-machine+fiddle+twist-knob
Mirror:Hummmmmmmmmmmmmm
Mirror:Twizzizzizzizzizzit You:inside-out+dizzy+strange+oooooo+!!!
Mistress:Poof! Other-Mistress:Poof! Other-other-Mistress:Poof!
Hundred-eyes:Growrl! Mistress+Other+OtherOther:Aaaaaaa! You:Aaaaaa!
Okay, enough of that. Suffice it to say, you are Dingbot Prime, a six-inch-tall Clank, and you don't think quite like meat-based lifeforms do. The above is an example of how you perceived things two days ago. For a mechanical device, you are rather emotional and inquisitive.
You were built by Mistress, on board Castle Wulfenbach. That was three months, twelve days, four hours, seventeen minutes and thirty-seven seconds ago. (Modulo the occasions in between when you were wound down or under repairs, when it is harder to tell accurate time.) You were her first successful Dingbot, and have faithfully stayed near her ever since. You have assisted her in building other Dingbots from time to time -- you are very skilled at machinery yourself, and can even build Dingbots by yourself, but not as well as she can.
You have been with Mistress as she has been through much. She was with Gil, and then not with Gil, and then longing for Gil, and then angry at Gil. She got a cat. She had friends on Castle Wulfenbach, but then she ran away from them. The scary people tried to stop her, and they shot at her, and they ripped her parents apart, and she was unhappy about that, and she ran and ran and flew off on an airship and pushed Big White-Haired Man off the side and then crashed.
She joined the Circus, and then was cast out from the Circus, and then saved the Circus with a Really Big Gun, and then got accepted into the Circus, and then changed her hair to black and curly, sometimes, when she wants to do so. You don't entirely understand the black and curly bit, but she is the Mistress, and what she wants is what she gets.
She began getting taught by the Green-Haired Mistress Mistress, who kept hitting her, but she kept taking it, and you could sense that this was the way it was supposed to be. The cat explained to you that this was to make her better. Meat is strange, but you think of it as being sort of like annealing metal: you need to hit it a lot to make it strong enough. That makes sense.
The Toothy Things showed up, dangling from ropes, and joined with you. They are loyal to the Mistress, just as you are. The Toothy Things are friends, and are very strong, especially for meat, and they have very impressive tools attached to them. They are quiet-sneaky. Everyone who helps the Mistress is quiet-sneaky: you, the Cat, the Green-Haired Mistress Mistress, the toothy things. She is like a magnet to quiet-sneaky.
Now, there is much noise and bustle in the Circus. Many of the meaty people who are supposed to be pieces of the Circus are missing, and the Circus has been moving much. There is much fear all over, and the Mistress has been very concerned. They need to get back the missing pieces, which will be scrapped soon. Meaty people don't like to be scrapped; Dingbots are much calmer about this. But only if the Dingbots are scrapped by the Mistress, which means that they are fulfilling their function. Meaty people don't have a Mistress; this may be why they don't like to be scrapped.
They have come to a Leafy Clearing, near to the Big Castle. You have been looking around, and seen people come in and out of the Castle. Big White-Haired Man went in with Little Black Man, and loud noises came out, and then they came back out with a Big Crystal. You focused on the Crystal with your telescopic eye, and saw that it was full of little tiny gears and levers. Most Crystals are just rocks, but this was very elegant: the gears were as small and delicate as your own. That was six days, 22 hours, three minutes and 47 seconds ago.
And then the Mistress went inside the Castle, with you on her shoulder as always. (You spend most of your time on her shoulder, or in her pocket. That's why you are pocket-sized.) That was two days, one hour, 42 minutes and eight seconds ago. There were many nasty traps in the Castle, but she brushed past them, humming that comforting tune that she always hums when she is being Very Very Mistress. You helped her with a couple of the traps, of course -- that's what you are there for.
She came into a big laboratory in the middle of the Castle, with much machinery around and a big Mirror. The big Mirror was pretty, and hummed with machinery. In the middle of the laboratory was a pedestal with a hole in the middle; you calculate that the hole was precisely the size and shape of the Crystal that the Little Black Man had been carrying several days before. Mistress kept humming, and extended her arm for you to run down, and you ran down it and across the Squishy Green Lizard, and fiddled with the knobs on the devices as she wanted, to see how the Mirror would react. And everything twisted. It was like being extruded while being given a half-twist; you adjusted your gearing to compensate. And the Mistress briefly faded and changed, looking younger and having her hair turn brown, but she was still the Mistress. And another Mistress appeared, but that wasn't the Mistress, and she had a small animal-creature on her shoulder where you normally would ride on the real Mistress. And another Mistress appeared, but she didn't have anyone riding on her shoulder. Does it make a Mistress sad to not have anyone riding on her shoulder?
And then the hundred-eyed creature appeared, and the Mistresses were all very upset, which made you very upset. Besides, even a Dingbot doesn't much like large hundred-eyed creatures. You jumped back onto your Mistress' shoulder, and she began to run out of the Castle, and the Other Mistress and the Other Other Mistress also ran out from the Castle, and they were screaming, so that seemed the thing to do, so you made "eeeeeeee" noises to go along with them, since it seemed like the thing you were supposed to do. And as you ran out, you could see two men in white lab coats running out after you, also making "eeeeeeee" noises like the Mistresses were doing.
Mistress went back to the Circus then, but didn't go to her cabin; instead, she went to Blonde Loud Lady's cabin. You don't know why, but she is the Mistress, and must have a reason. Since then, she hasn't been working on machinery as she normally does, and she didn't spend yesterday morning being hit by Green-Haired Mistress Mistress, as she usually does in the mornings. Instead, she has been helping the Circus Mistress run things around the Circus. It is odd how she has changed her functions, but not the first time: she changed from her function on Castle Wulfenbach to her function at the Circus, after all. Being able to change her function (as well as her face) by herself is part of what makes her the Mistress, you suppose. A Dingbot like you can only change functions when the Mistress fiddles with you.
Last night, the Squishy Green Lizard taught you how to build a new Dingbot. You don't know why, but it was your function at the time, so you spent the night building it. It was a very complex Dingbot! You've never built one that sophisticated before. You are very proud of yourself. It was a strange Dingbot, though: when it was complete, it didn't seem to want to get programming of how to serve the Mistress as most Dingbots do -- it simply got up and walked off. And this morning, you saw two of it, walking perfectly side-by-side. You built a Dingbot that built another Dingbot that works well! You are precisely twice as proud of yourself as before.
Today, Mistress continues with her new function. You will follow and help her, as usual.
Summary
Mistress:Door(Open) Blade:Whoosh-Slice!-Thwack! Arm:Grab! You:Duck!+Grab!+Swing!+unscrew+Falling!+Caught!+Snuggle(Mistress-shoulder) Heat-Blast:Zing! Mistress:Shift+Bang! Heat-Blast:Boom! Mistress:Door(Open+Creeeeeak!) Mistress:Arm You:Runrunrunrun-machine+fiddle+twist-knob Mirror:Hummmmmmmmmmmmmm Mirror:Twizzizzizzizzizzit You:inside-out+dizzy+strange+oooooo+!!! Mistress:Poof! Other-Mistress:Poof! Other-other-Mistress:Poof! Hundred-eyes:Growrl! Mistress+Other+OtherOther:Aaaaaaa! You:Aaaaaa!Okay, enough of that. Suffice it to say, you are Dingbot Prime, a six-inch-tall Clank constructed by Agatha Heterodyne, and you don't think quite like meat-based lifeforms do. The above is an example of how you perceived things two days ago.
Yes, there is a huge amount of information in the above. You are not allowed to talk with anyone else about it. You do not speak in conventional English, so be prepared for some interesting communication challenges during the game.
Note that you are six inches tall, so "costuming" is a pretty subjective idea. Previous runs have done things like hand puppets or marionettes. Feel free to do whatever works for you that seems like you can pull it off in-game.
Public Info
Personality
Mistress has given you devotion to her, as well as determination to serve and protect. You think of yourself as a fun Clank, and you pride yourself on your creativity in building other Dingbots. You are very emotional, though, and prone to sudden panic when things go wrong, and enormous excitement when they go right.
Some People You Know (Dingbot Prime)
The Mistress: She built you, fixes you when you are broken, and winds you up every day. You love your Mistress.
The Green-Haired Mistress Mistress: She directs the functions of the Mistress in the mornings, so she must be the Mistress' Mistress. Each morning, she hits the Mistress with sticks, to adjust her form, much the way the Mistress hits you with little hammers to smooth out your dents. And she chases her for many miles, to wind her up properly for the day. Clearly, the Mistress and the Green-Haired Mistress Mistress love each other, to work so hard to perfect the Mistress.
The Cat: Large and white, but not as large as the people, and much whiter. And furry, even by the standards of meat-people. He is very smart: he has been learning how to speak intelligently with you.
Gil: The Mistress always talks about Gil. Always. He commands many Clanks, but they are almost entirely relatively stupid, and very large. You like to believe that intelligence is inversely proportional to size. You last saw Gil when he came to the Circus when Mistress had black hair; that was 81 days, 12 hours, 54 minutes and 22 seconds ago.
The Other Mistress: She appeared when you twisted the knobs on the devices near the Mirror. Did you manage to create a Mistress? Can you replicate Mistresses? That would make many little Clanks happy. She had the animal-creature, which you know know was a "gerbil", on her shoulder, thus showing that Mistresses should always have small beings on her shoulder.
The Gerbil: The animal-creature that appeared on the shoulder of the Other Mistress. Does he have functions like your own?
The Big White-Haired Man: He is very loud, but he likes swinging from things. You also like swinging from things, and aren't used to seeing big people doing so as well. He tells the Mistress that she is a hero. You know this.
The Other Other Mistress: Another Mistress that you created with the knobs on the Mirror. This one doesn't have anyone on her shoulder, however. This may be part of why she seemed less happy than the other Mistresses. Maybe she needs someone riding on her shoulder? If you see her again, you should help her find someone to ride on her shoulder. Maybe the cat? He is large for a shoulder-rider, but he might enjoy it.
The Toothy Things: There are three of them. One is purple, and has been following the Mistress for the past two days. Why is he doing that? Does he want to ride on the Mistress' shoulder? He seems rather too large for that. You need to find out what he needs.
The Green Squishy Lizard: He was sitting in the laboratory in the Castle. When you walked across him to get to the knobs, you felt a connection there. He is not like a Dingbot, though, nor like a Mistress -- after all, he is a Squishy Lizard. He is a sad Squishy Lizard, though, and wants to go home, so that he may fulfill his function.
Little Black Man: Actually, he is a Little Brown Man, with a color saturation of only 80%. But Mistress has been trying to tell you to worry less about precision. He is able to create cascades of objects in the air, in ways that you must admire -- no Dingbot is capable of quite such rapid dexterity. He has the Clockwork Crystal, which is one of the prettiest things you have ever seen. You need to see whether it likes to chat: its gearing is positively beautiful.
The Hundred-Eyed Creature: It is a Big Toothy Thing, but bigger and toothier than the Toothy Things are. You admire its hundred eyes, having only one eye yourself. You have sometimes wondered what it is like for meaty people who have two eyes. How differently do they see the world? What things do they see with the second eye? What is the function of the second eye, anyway?
The Big Colorful Man: He is the one who winds the Circus each day.
The Circus Mistress: She is combined with the Big Colorful Man. The Mistress is currently helping her, as you help the Mistress. She is providing the Circus with food currently. Food is sort of like oil -- meaty people use it instead of winding. You don't know how the meaty people deal with not being wound. Can there be anything better than being wound?
The Blonde Loud Lady: One of the meaty people who is a missing piece of the Circus, who might be scrapped. Previously, she has been combined with the Short Curly-Haired Man. The Mistress is staying in her cabin, which means you are doing so as well.
The Short Curly-Haired Man: He is the assistant of the Big Colorful Man. He is now incomplete. How does he deal with being incomplete? You should watch him, and learn how meaty people deal with being incomplete.
Neuter Clank (from Comic) (Status: In Game)
Plots:
Agatha Transformed (Agatha Transformed)
Plague of Dingbots (Replicators)
Dingbot Studies (Dingbot Studies)
Items
Little Tools (Little Tools) -- This is really a placeholder for Dingbot Prime's ability to pull all sort of tiny tools out of itself. It contains wrenches, screwdrivers, pins and other useful devices. None are large and powerful, but they are well-suited for precision work.
Abilities and Disabilities
Skilled Lab Assistant (Skilled Lab Assistant) -- You are not a Spark yourself, so you can't just casually invent things. But you have a good deal of experience helping Sparks do their work, so you make a valuable lab assistant. Your presence on a project will tend to improve the results. You may contribute Points to the project on a one-for-one basis.
Build Dingbots (Build Dingbots) -- Mistress built you with the ability to build more of your kind! Given five minutes, one Point, and reasonable parts, you can construct other Dingbots. They aren't as smart as you are, but you can send them off to do specialized tasks -- fetching, repairing, and things like that. You may do this once every half hour.
Flashlight (Flashlight) -- Mistress gave you a powerful light beam some time back, which you can shine out of your eye. This allows you to help Mistress see when it is dark out. Mistress thinks of everything.
Dingbot Communication (Dingbot Communication) -- You don't talk like meaty people -- after all, you don't have a mouth like they do. Instead, you communicate through a combination of gesture and internal noises that you make with your gears. So most people can't fully understand you.
The only person you can talk with normally is Mistress: she built you, and the two of you understand each other well. You still don't talk like a meaty person, but you can converse at a low voice. You can somewhat talk with the Cat, who has been trying to learn how to talk to you, but you can't speak in ordinary sentences with him -- you should only use sentence fragments. (Both of them have relevant Special Abilities, and you should check that you are talking to the player with the Special Ability before doing so.)
With everyone else, you are limited to communicating emotionally. You have a set of icon cards, representing particular emotional states: to express an emotion, hold the appropriate card above your head and make whatever noises seem appropriate. See a GM if you would like to make additional cards. And obviously, you can gesture in simple ways, but you shouldn't try to play full Charades, which is a little too close to meaty-people speech.
Small (Small) -- You are much smaller than a normal human. This means that you can get into tight spaces where ordinary people can't.
Can't Carry Much (Cant Carry) -- Being a small creature, you can't carry anything bulky or heavy. The definitions here are obviously subjective, but please roleplay accordingly, based on your size. You struggle with even medium-sized objects, and simply can't move anything large.
Stealthy (Stealth) -- You are practiced in sneaking around and listening in on people.
To be stealthy, spend one Point, hold this card up on your forehead, and roleplay it to the hilt -- going under tables, hiding around corners, and things like that are appropriate. You may be stealthy for up to five minutes, listening in on conversations. This isn't quite invisibility: if someone has specific reason to be looking for someone listening in, they can see you. But otherwise, they should roleplay not noticing you there, and continue with their conversations accordingly. (Targets: please be honest, and roleplay accordingly -- don't suddenly start looking around just because someone is using this on you.)
You are strongly encouraged to roleplay giving away your position when you have heard enough, just to tweak the people you were listening in on, and perhaps ask further questions.
If someone uses Stealth on you, you may notice them after only two minutes -- you are more attuned to people sneaking around, since you do it yourself.
Compact Mirror (Compact Mirror) -- Your back can be popped open, to display a roughly three-inch round makeup mirror. You may show this card to another player if you want to offer them the opportunity to use you this way. Roleplay pointing to the tiny button that pops open your back.
Next Time
- Write the hint sheets that Dingbot Prime will gradually get about the Replicator plot. They should gradually make it rather worried, but it still finds itself to be following its programming, so it isn't very worried.
- Make the emotion signs for Dingbot Prime.
- Needs an "I'm six inches tall" button. (We need to create buttons as a field in the schema, I think.)
Historical Background
The following were notes while the character was evolving. They do not necessarily represent the way it came out.
Agatha's first entirely successful creation, the first of the small Clanks that she builds habitually. Even very early in the story, she is trying to build it, but she finally succeeds [here].
Dingbot Prime is a fairly thin character, but a player has already asked to play it. Cool. I was hoping for at least one Clank; they're a strong part of the world's flavor. See also Erratic Clank. --Darker
Dingbot Prime cannot speak in-character, and really shouldn't be able to write or do charades in the conventional manner. He mostly works by building additional Dingbots, and by showing things to people. He probably can speak to Agatha, after a fashion. Just for giggles, he should probably have a bunch of small signs saying "!", "?" and the like, to express emotion. I love that. --Darker He should also have an "I'm six inches tall" button, and some stealth ability.
He should probably be the only one who really knows what happened to Agatha, and more or less understands what's going on. However, he is sentient at a relatively simple level. He knows that Maria is actually Agatha, and is doing his best to protect her -- he is hanging around her at the beginning of the game. Would he be confused by the other Agathas? --Darker Justin: possibly, but perhaps less so because he actually saw the transformation and the appearance of the other two.
Agatha first meets Dingbot Prime on [this page]. It is clear from the beginning that it acts as her lab assistant, insofar as it can given its size.
The Dingbots are explicitly [self-replicating]. While Dingbot Prime has some influence over them, it's far from complete, I suspect. The Cast page says specifically that each generation of Dingbot is less perfect than those before -- after a few generations, they stop working. (Which is good, because they might otherwise turn into Stargate-style Replicators. Which, now that I think of it, might make a fine plot for Dingbot Prime -- stopping a Sorcerer's Apprentice style apocalypse of Dingbots.)
The [Dingbot Army] cares very deeply for Agatha. Note that they are all equipped with various little tools, and while no individual Dingbot can do much, they are collectively very powerful. They tend to take hints from Agatha, and run with them. For instance, on (v4, p96), we see that they have apparently taken her random notes and begun fixing up the Baba Yaga based on them. They seem to follow her subconscious hints, without requiring any explicit orders from her.
It can be used as a flashlight (v5, p46).
Dingbot Prime "should" be incapable of feeling pain (v5, p50), but has no fondness for testing that theory.
As we see on (v5, p77), Dingbot Prime is capable of hiding quite effectively: it hides on Agatha for an extended period of time without anyone noticing.
Dingbot Prime takes orders from Agatha, but is both literal and creative in how it interprets those orders sometimes (v5, p81). It is utterly faithful to her, and [willing to have her rework it] when necessary.
Dingbot is capable (more or less) of [talking to Agatha]. No one else can understand it, though.
Darker: There is reference somewhere in the comics to Dingbot Prime's needing to be wound once a day. (Don't have time to look it up right now; I think it's shortly after Agatha joins the circus.) Justin: correct -- it's at (v4, p82). This is actually an interesting complication, since I believe Agatha went away more than a day ago. The most obvious out here is that it has been following Maria around, and she has been winding it. That goes a ways towards making the Agatha Transformed plot a bit transparent, but that's okay -- the plot is intended to come out within the first hour or so anyway.
An alternate potential plot for Dingbot Prime would be a World Conquest variation of the Replicators plot -- it could be trying to lead the Dingbots for some nefarious purpose. But this seems a bit out of character. Darker: Although this could be an interesting consequence if Dingbot Prime chooses to go poking at whatever caused some of the other Dingbots to go rogue...
Dingbot needs more connections all around. The various Circus folk should be written to know and trust it be now, as a sort of sentient pet. It and the other Dingbots have been helping make life easier, in ways that have endeared it to everyone. At least one other character should have developed enough machine empathy with it to be able to talk quietly with it. (Payne would be the obvious candidate for this.)
Amount of Character Potential: Good (Still not going to be easy, but starting to look like a reasonable character.)