Here comes a robot with electric brains...

[peter--parker.livejournal.com]

From Friday, July 25th through Sunday, July 27th, Fandom will be playing host to another themed convention. In the proud tradition of MercCon, Fandom will soon be hosting ROBOCON 2008.

Much like MercCon (the format of which I'm blatantly stealing because it was brilliant), ROBOCON is an annual gathering for robots from across the multiverse and this year it just so happens to take place in Fandom. Mechanical characters will be able to host and attend panels on appropriate topics (sample topics: Self-Maintenance, How I Learned to Love Asimov's Laws, Pimp Myself: The Art of Self-Modification, etc).

Robots and cyborgs (such as C-3P0, Robocop, and Rosie the Robot) will be welcome, and even robots and cyborgs currently in Fandom may come to the conference. As a general rule, at least approximately 50% of the character's body (internal or external) should be mechanical (ETA: or biomechanical, if you will) to count. Human meatbags will be able to come to panels (but they will not be able to participate in the panel or get a nifty name tag), even though they will likely be treated with a certain disdain and rudeness due to all of their fleshy parts.

In terms of structure, all of the panels for Saturday morning will go into one post, Saturday afternoon would be a second post, third verse same as the first for Sunday. Robots would be able to arrive on the island on Friday evening and would be expected to leave by Sunday evening.

Of course, a convention with guest characters will require some rules. And thus, these shall be ROBOCON's Three Laws:

1. A robot may not injure another being - human or robot - at ROBOCON. Allowing harm to come to them through inaction is fine, though, because ROBOCON is first and foremost a vacation, so screw the meatbags.

2. A robot must PARTY.

3. A robot who does not comply with the First or Second Laws may be scrapped by local authorities and have their hard drive sent back home to think about what the robot has done.

Applications for ROBOCON are open to all current players, limit two per person, apps pending the approval of the admins, offer not valid in Hawaii. The app post will go up shortly.

Apps must be in by Saturday, July 19.

Questions? Comments? Oh, and no Lucky Star Decepticons. They creep me out.

ETA: Biomechanical beings count as mechanical for this, why not? So Cylons, Androids, Synthezoids, and other things along those lines count.

Yes, Synthezoids. That's an actual Marvel Comics term.

ETA2: You don't have to run a panel to attend, but I like it when you also have a panel in mind. :D

ROBOCON guest app

[peter--parker.livejournal.com]

This is the guest app post for ROBOCON 2008. For more information or any questions, see the previous post. This goes for both guest characters and informing us of characters currently in the game who will be attending as a formal guest or panelist. Feel free to coordinate with others to get a panel set up.

Player Name:
Guest Character Name:
Fandom:
Journal Name:
What is your robot/cyborg's primary function (war, manual labor, translation, etc):
Panels and/or Workshops:
Are there any potential issues you see with the robot/cyborg showing up? (Characters who may freak out at them, possible radioactive leaks, programming to destroy all humans no matter what the Laws of ROBOCON say? These will not necessarily prevent the character from getting in, it's just nice to have a head's up.)

Please drop the app in the comments to this post. All comments are screened.