Info!
First, addressing Marvin's age. As mentioned in my app, I'm going with several months old. Marvin was stolen with the spaceship Heart of Gold when it was brand new, and everything in the ship has GPP (Genuine People Personalities). Marvin states that he was a prototype GpP, meaning he was probably built before the ship, but not by much. I'm taking him around the end of the first book/beginning of the second book, so he's definitely fairly new.
Second! I would like to take this opportunity to encourage everyone to GO OUT OF THEIR WAY to abuse Marvin. Maybe you'd like to rip his arm off and try to convince people it's a rifle so you can threaten them. Make him do the stupidest, most pointless tasks. It is canon for everyone around him to abuse him in pretty much any way possible; he gets dropped into a sun, an army of killer robots steal his leg, the crew repeatedly leaves him to sit in one place for thousands of years on end. They even make Marvin face down a tank armed only with his intellect.
Basically? Feel free to do everything you can to fuck Marvin over. It's really going to be hard to beat the abuse he goes through canonically and where other characters can become unplayable because of emo caused by abuse, Marvin basically has one emotional state, so I'm not really worried.
Next on the agenda is Marvin's job. He's going to be the backup loudspeaker, so hopefully this means I won't be horning in on fun with the actual loudspeaker. I was thinking that basically Marvin would occassionally Marvin would make his typical announcements, but more importantly, if anyone wants to use Marvin to make an announcement, feel free. Make him do prank announcements, have him say ridiculous things, etc. I'm probably also going to use this job as an excuse to have him sign up to help announce for the next camp tournament and other such things.
Another thing! If any machine/computer/robot interfaces with Marvin, they are going to immediately have Marvin's perspective of the universe dumped on them, which generally has the effect of causing the poor thing that hooked up to Marvin immediately do anything from start smoking and give up on life...to commiting suicide. Be warned! (Hi Artoo, Tachikoma! ♥)
Last order of business, because I probably forgot a few things!
Marvin regarded it with cold loathing while his logic circuits chattered with disgust and tinkered with the concept of directing physical violence against it. Further circuits cut in saying, Why bother? What's the point? Nothing is worth getting involved in. Furhter circuits amesed themselves by analyzing the molecular components of the door, and of the humanoids' brain cells. For a quick encore they measured the level of hydrogen emissions in the surrounding cubc parsec of space and then shut down again in boredom. A spasm of despair shook the robot's body as he turned.
--
"I know," said Marvin.
Ford called out from the controls he was still fighting a losing battle with.
"Stay out of this, Marvin," he said. "This is organism talk."
"It's printed in the Earthman's brainwave patterns," continued Marvin, "but I don't suppose you'll be very interested in knowing that."
"You mean," said Arthur, "you mean you can see into my mind?"
"Yes," said Marvin.
Marvin, as should be implied by how he keeps talking about having a brain the size of a planet, treads the line of being an information godmoder. He is supposed to be able to read people's minds. Now...this is tricky. I don't think I'm going to consider if people can shield their minds or anything like that, because Marvin isn't being psychic or using magic; this is a machine literally scanning your mind, and this is something that he can do with a tiny fraction of his computing power. It actually doesn't even matter if your character started concentrating on something in an active effort to throw the reading off, because the entire reason Marvin even brings the ability up in the first place is because Arthur Dent is supposed to have the question to the answer of Life, the Universe, and Everything Else locked away in his brain. It's unconscious knowledge; Arthur himself doesn't know the answer, just that he's supposed to have it.
However! The ability only comes up once in a series of five books. When asked why he didn't mention anything about being able to read minds before, Marvin answers with a simple "you didn't ask." And frankly, Marvin literally couldn't care less about your secrets and your thoughts, so I actually wouldn't be surprised if this never even comes up in camp. But I figured it would be safest to give a heads-up and make the following proposal:
If you want Marvin to bring something from your character's mind up for god knows what reason, talk to me. Otherwise, if there's some reason I'd like Marvin to read your character's mind, I will find a way to ask you OOCly on a case-to-case basis. If you think there's any problems with this arrangement, or maybe even have a better idea, talk to me. Basically, I don't want to step on any toes, but I also don't want to ignore a part of my character. I'm hoping this is a good middle ground.
...Ah, yes! And if anyone wants to talk to me about problems in my app, I'd love to talk to you about it. Comment here, PM me on IRC, email me, wait until the next cfud_concrit post...whatever you want to do. I want to head of any problems with Marvin's voice before it has a chance to get ingrained.
Second! I would like to take this opportunity to encourage everyone to GO OUT OF THEIR WAY to abuse Marvin. Maybe you'd like to rip his arm off and try to convince people it's a rifle so you can threaten them. Make him do the stupidest, most pointless tasks. It is canon for everyone around him to abuse him in pretty much any way possible; he gets dropped into a sun, an army of killer robots steal his leg, the crew repeatedly leaves him to sit in one place for thousands of years on end. They even make Marvin face down a tank armed only with his intellect.
Basically? Feel free to do everything you can to fuck Marvin over. It's really going to be hard to beat the abuse he goes through canonically and where other characters can become unplayable because of emo caused by abuse, Marvin basically has one emotional state, so I'm not really worried.
Next on the agenda is Marvin's job. He's going to be the backup loudspeaker, so hopefully this means I won't be horning in on fun with the actual loudspeaker. I was thinking that basically Marvin would occassionally Marvin would make his typical announcements, but more importantly, if anyone wants to use Marvin to make an announcement, feel free. Make him do prank announcements, have him say ridiculous things, etc. I'm probably also going to use this job as an excuse to have him sign up to help announce for the next camp tournament and other such things.
Another thing! If any machine/computer/robot interfaces with Marvin, they are going to immediately have Marvin's perspective of the universe dumped on them, which generally has the effect of causing the poor thing that hooked up to Marvin immediately do anything from start smoking and give up on life...to commiting suicide. Be warned! (Hi Artoo, Tachikoma! ♥)
Last order of business, because I probably forgot a few things!
Marvin regarded it with cold loathing while his logic circuits chattered with disgust and tinkered with the concept of directing physical violence against it. Further circuits cut in saying, Why bother? What's the point? Nothing is worth getting involved in. Furhter circuits amesed themselves by analyzing the molecular components of the door, and of the humanoids' brain cells. For a quick encore they measured the level of hydrogen emissions in the surrounding cubc parsec of space and then shut down again in boredom. A spasm of despair shook the robot's body as he turned.
--
"I know," said Marvin.
Ford called out from the controls he was still fighting a losing battle with.
"Stay out of this, Marvin," he said. "This is organism talk."
"It's printed in the Earthman's brainwave patterns," continued Marvin, "but I don't suppose you'll be very interested in knowing that."
"You mean," said Arthur, "you mean you can see into my mind?"
"Yes," said Marvin.
Marvin, as should be implied by how he keeps talking about having a brain the size of a planet, treads the line of being an information godmoder. He is supposed to be able to read people's minds. Now...this is tricky. I don't think I'm going to consider if people can shield their minds or anything like that, because Marvin isn't being psychic or using magic; this is a machine literally scanning your mind, and this is something that he can do with a tiny fraction of his computing power. It actually doesn't even matter if your character started concentrating on something in an active effort to throw the reading off, because the entire reason Marvin even brings the ability up in the first place is because Arthur Dent is supposed to have the question to the answer of Life, the Universe, and Everything Else locked away in his brain. It's unconscious knowledge; Arthur himself doesn't know the answer, just that he's supposed to have it.
However! The ability only comes up once in a series of five books. When asked why he didn't mention anything about being able to read minds before, Marvin answers with a simple "you didn't ask." And frankly, Marvin literally couldn't care less about your secrets and your thoughts, so I actually wouldn't be surprised if this never even comes up in camp. But I figured it would be safest to give a heads-up and make the following proposal:
If you want Marvin to bring something from your character's mind up for god knows what reason, talk to me. Otherwise, if there's some reason I'd like Marvin to read your character's mind, I will find a way to ask you OOCly on a case-to-case basis. If you think there's any problems with this arrangement, or maybe even have a better idea, talk to me. Basically, I don't want to step on any toes, but I also don't want to ignore a part of my character. I'm hoping this is a good middle ground.
...Ah, yes! And if anyone wants to talk to me about problems in my app, I'd love to talk to you about it. Comment here, PM me on IRC, email me, wait until the next cfud_concrit post...whatever you want to do. I want to head of any problems with Marvin's voice before it has a chance to get ingrained.