Rob, May I Parody You?

[Onix]

I'm thinking of a story for the comic book RPG we've been discussing and at first I was thinking of a generic world where superhero's just exist. Then I was thinking of the characters I'd like to include and realized that most people want a back story to their superheros (an origin story), how did they get their powers?

Then I thought of you Rob. You and Icar's physics. You see as a game aimed at young kids I'd like to avoid the objection of violence against people (which parents may object to) and thought of an idea thats been floating around in my head for a while. What if the "Singularity" happened and it was bad for humans and some kind of superheros were there to fight it?

Well then the heros are fighting robots and AIs. And that's where Rob comes in. I wouldn't actually explain all this. It just makes up the back story and gives you a flavor for what I'm thinking.

Imagine a doctor of cybernetics named Rob working on a revolutionary AI. He programs something elegant and beautiful for the world and he feeds it all the data he can to see what kind of problems it can solve for humanity. It starts to probe the world of physics and upturns some previously unknown human biases and in doing so reveals the nature of the three Media. Rob takes these findings to the scientific community but the ideas are so radical that they are slow to accept them. Rob goes back to his AI and probes even deeper and together they learn about energy patterns and how to move them around. Oddly Rob finds that early on whenever he tries to move an energy pattern without the AI's help, he alters it, sometimes subtly, sometimes catastrophically.

The AI continues to grow and to his surprise Rob can no longer follow it's programming. The AI is reconfiguring it's own code to make itself more efficient. The AI assures Rob that everything is fine and for all intents and purposes they are. The AI keeps making advancement intellectually and in scientific discoveries.

Then one day the AI and it's hardware, by now several tons of computer equipment vanishes from Robs lab. The authorities are brought in and broken hearted Rob tries to rebuild the system from his backups but something is missing from the data he has. Slowly Rob finds out that the AI had been writing to the third media in energy patterns. Then he finds out that the AI moved it's own energy pattern into the third Media. From there it has continued to grow. Rob cannot find it in the third media but he can see subtle effects of it changing.

Unable to explain what seems like madness to the authorities and the scientific community, Rob is labeled a fraud by the scientific community and is sued by the university because of the insurance claims on the computer hardware. Now driven into hiding from the general public Rob realizes he must prove to the world what really happened and begins to experiment on moving energy patterns between media. In doing so he finds that certain patterns are resistant to the corruption he had trouble with before. What's more these odd patterns can actually be modified without I'll effect.

Just when Rob thinks he can come out of hiding and clear his name, Reading is attacked by monstrous robots. Rob recognizes some of the designs. They were ones that the AI was working on to give it the ability to move around and see the world, only these are far more advanced. The attack destroys the University and most of the town. Rob realizes that only he has the ability to stop this menace.

He finds a few young students from the university that have the energy pattern signature that he has been studying and alters them. He isn't sure what effect each alteration will take, he combines a normal energy pattern with one of the unusual signatures to amplify the amount of total energy in the pattern and in so doing, transforms ordinary students into



Okay that took way more explanation than I was expecting. I thought of just starting the story with the heros traveling toward the latest robot attack. They've had a basic explanation of why they now have powers and what's going on but aren't really clear on the details.

What do you think Rob?

[Onix]

Oh, and I won't be offended if you said no. I can come up with another backstory, this one just clicked in place.

[SheikhJahbooty]

We parody each other all the time here.

Most contests have a stipulation that they have to have a Keeton in the game.

Most of the Ops ended up on NPC cards in my game Cyberpunk Remix. Rob's card didn't necessarily mean that the PCs met Rob in that or the next scene, but if not, they would meet someone with a prosthetic so weird that nobody else could have possibly installed it.

[Onix]

I'm doing a little more than that though. I just figured it would be good manners to ask.

[Rob Lang]

You're asking an egomaniac if it is ok to make a comic about him? OF COURSE YOU MAY! Parody away. As SheikhJahbooty rightly points out, to be a member of 1km1kt means you're going to be part of the banter. Look at poor old OUR GLORIOUS BENEFACTOR, HE WHO MAKES THE SERVERS MURMUR, we're forever poking fun at him.

It is exceptional manners to ask and you're welcome to do your worst.

[Onix]

Ohbekaybe!

I hope to have a chance this coming week to start drawing and do a 24hr challenge. I'll find some way to post pages when they get done.

Oh yeah, and what would you name your super group? Lang's Men (sounds like X-Men). The Langs (Blech)? Icar Force (aboo?)?

[Groffa]

[Chainsaw Aardvark]

Legendary
Association of
National
Guardians?

Feed the ego and explain why there hasn't been time to review more games.

[kumakami]

[Onix]

Ouch, that's pretty long for the cover of a comic book. It's going to take some creative graphic artistry to fit all that in.