The FRA Betrayal Game

[parassyte]

So I'll throw my hat in if Martijn's willing to take on another!

Parasite


Shape: Parasite-shaped, like in the picture :V
Colour: black and grey with red/yellow decals
Weight: ~100 kg
Armour:
-5 mm lexan on tops and bottoms of the wheel motor housings.
-7 mm titanium on the side edges and on the upper side of the rear wedge.
-5 mm aluminum on the bottom of the rear wedge. Internal components are held with 2024 aluminum scaffolding
-7mm thick hardox 500 tube frame keeps the bot solid and the weapon steady.
Drive: 2x S28-300 Magmotor
Power: 24 volt NiMH Battlepacks
Motivation: 4x foam polyurethane tires with rubber treads
Top Speed: 10 mph
Ground Clearance:
-Weapon clearance - 0.25-3.0 cm, depending on how high I set the blade for the match
-wheel pod clearance - 4 cm,
-weapon motor housing clearance - 0.2 cm
Turning Circle: 0
Dimensions: 141.224 cm length / 109.347 cm width / 18.15 cm height
Weaponry: 15 kg single bar at ~2500 rpm, ~60 kj

http://www.cloudelectric.com/product_p/mo-es-80a.htm
The weapon motor is a D&D Motor Systems MO-ES-80A Series Wound Single Shaft Motor

20 HP peak, 2.8 HP continuous, 3625 RPM
17 kg weight
36 Volt, 110 Amps

Notes: Uh... won stuff a long time ago. Who knows what on earth it was at this point.

[majinb]

Thanks Nick! Sign-ups are now clooooosed... expect this shit to kick off tonight!

[majinb]

The FRA Betrayal Game

Chapter 1

Not your average robotic event

It had been a long and daunting flight to Bermuda, but hey, when you get a personal invite to participate in Bermudan Robot Wars - Series 1, including a plane ticket, who's gonna say no?
Didn't matter why they specifically reached out to him.
Still, that part where the letter self-destructed after reading was a bit odd wasn't it?
Martijn shrug off these thoughts as he walked into the City Hall of Hamilton, Bermuda's capital with a whopping population of 1800... was anyone even gonna see this event?
He had taken With or Without You with him, clusterbots were always practical when travelling.
He went through the door wondering what oddities he might face on this exotic island. Caribbean engineers with vertical rammers? Horizontal flippers? Steamrollers?
...
Andrew's Axeon 4.0?
Steven's Wedge Devo?
Alex Holt's Baldur Gamma?
Alex Valentine left his Dreadnought Mk2. behind for a second to address the situation.
"Lemme guess, a personal invite as well?"
"... yes"
"Self-destructed?"
"Yes..."
"We all got that"
"Say, this is quite a non-Bermudan crowd for what is Bermudan Robot Wars isn't it? Surely I haven't flown all the way from The Netherlands just to see some people I see on the British events anyway? And even the Canadians and Americans over there in the corner I have met before!", Martijn said, as he waved to Kody, Tracy, Josh, Dylan and Nick, stood by Seung Mina VII, Mobile Failure, Revolver Ocelot, WhipCoil 4.5 and Parasite respectively. Also present was Shane and his robot Air. Martijn had not seen the finished product yet, he was impressed. And then there was Playzooki and Good For It.
"And what you may like to know is that Joey is currently on the toilet", Shane said.
"Yeah, very cool that he showed up." Andy agreed.

At that point, the assembled roboteers could hear doors around them locking. The Bermudan equivalent of Refbot drove into the room. It was twice the size of the British one, was tracked, had a pair of large Swiss army knifes for arms (or, on closer inspection, Bermudan army knifes), had dreadlocks, and, as it soon turned out, a very stereotypical Caribbean accent.
"Welcome to Bermudan Robot Wars man! Our goal is to give you a good time! All competitors are here, you know the drill, so I say let the wars begin!"
"All the competitors are here? There's 13 of us." Kody thought out loud.
"Since when are you so superstitious?", Josh replied, "yes there's 13 of us and yes we are on Bermuda, what could possibly go wrong?"
"Not superstitious, it's just that 13 is a very inconvenient number of participants for a tournament."
"Say Refbot!" Alex shouted. "What price can we even win?"
"That was said in the letter man." Refbot aswered.
"The one that self-destructed?" Nick cunningly said.
"Good point man. The price is a duplicate version of your robot made of rum. And maybe a private island, but we are still ironing out the formalities on so please forget I said that."
"You mean you haven't yet got a private island to give to us?" Dylan concluded.
"Here in the Bermuda we do everything in our own time man." The refbot answered.
"My own private island!" Playzooky yelled.
"Just wait until Joey hears this... talking of whom, what's taking him so long?" Tracy wondered...

"WAAAAAAAAAAAHAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
A loud scream came from the toilet.
Everyone started running towards it.
The door was locked, but the oncoming crowd quickly solved that problem.
They could only just see Joey's hand sticking out from inside the toilet.
He was sucked in.
"Well man, at least the problem of the odd number of entrants is solved now, with 12 competitors my job will be a lot easier." Refbot said.
"What..." Tracy started.
"He's a robot Tracy." Kody said. "He can't help being logical."
"Hey look, there's a letter with him." Martijn said, as he grabbed it.
"What does it say?" GF asked.
""Joey was but the first. I am among you and I will get you all. You can't run, you can't hide. This letter will self-destruct in 10 seconds.""
"Where does this asshole even buy this self-destructing paper?" GF wondered.
BOOM!
Everyone expected a minor explosion. Harmless. Small. Like with the self-destructing invitations they all received earlier. Instead they got a massive explosion. Most were only slightly harmed, but Martijn, holding the letter, wasn't so lucky.
"And down to 11 competitors, I will have to come up with a new format for this tournament..."
"You!" Shane yelled, pointing at the robot.
"Don't take out your anger on him." Dylan said. "We all know enough of robots to understand that blaming a robot is pointless. The culprit is amongst us."
"Processing data..." The Refbot said. "Round 1 of this tournament will be an 11-robot rumble. All competitors are expected to do battle in 30 minutes."
And the Refbot drove off...

Alive and kicking

Alex Holt - Baldur Gamma
Playzooki - Good For It Snr
Josh "NWOWWE" Noel - Revolver Ocelot
Kody "Kodster" Kunz - Seung Mina VII
Tracy "Shadowflare" Farber - Mobile Failure 2.5
Andrew Jackson - Axeon 4.0
Steven McGregor - Wedge Devolution
Dylan "Badnik96" McCarthy - WhipCoil 4.5
Alex "GF93" Valentine - Dreadnought Mk2
Shane "Swanaldo" Swan - AIR
Nick "Parassyte" Schuch - Parasite

Fallen

Joey McConnell - ... robot as of yet unseen...
Martijn "MajinB" Benschop - With or Without you

I was quite liking this Martijn character actually, pity he didn't make it past the opening post. That is what the Betrayal Game does to you, a roller coaster of emotions!

And now...

Role play! There is a robotic event and a murder mystery going on here, and you have to deal with it! Mourn, investigate, discuss, or just ignore the killing and prepare and work out tactics for the 11-way robot rumble that is coming up soon. If you wish you can even drop out of the tournament altogether, but good luck trying to leave the building. I want at least 1 post per round per person. If busy, a short post will do, but please do post.

Vote! One of you IS the killer, and each of you will get 2 guesses per round as to who this might be. Contact me in private, through Skype or Private Message or whatever, to vote.

Get your stuff sorted out before my Saturday starts please, and I'm GMT+1.

[playzooki]

(woah.... this is different to doncaster. that hurt too. this is scary, 2 people dead, this is bad. i hope i dont die. oh well, a rumble first, cool. i hope my robot doesnt get wrecked, my parents would be mad.)
"woah. Do you guys know if anyone could have rigged this?" playzooki said to his fellow roboteers. He then went over to his robot to do some final checks.
"Does anybody know if there will be tech checks?"

TACTICS:

Stay away from hazards, and attack the weaker armoured robots with the ring. Spin the ring. Team, anyone?

[kodster]

"Self-destructing letters... what is this, Inspector Gadget? That's so cliche. The toilet though... ugh."

TACTICS: Flip things.

[NWOWWE]

After the display in the bathroom, Josh starts singing... "The water's your friend, the tub is your pal, you can't get sucked down the drain! The water's your friend, the tub is your pal, you can't get sucked down the drain!"

He trails off as he notices some funny looks being shot his way.

"Oh come on! I can't be the only one that used to watch Rugrats! And when else would I get a chance to use that song?"

Josh then looks at the corpse of Martjin.

"And what's with these exploding letters? I don't think I want to open any more mail for awhile."\

"Don't take out your anger on him." Dylan said. "We all know enough of robots to understand that blaming a robot is pointless. The culprit is amongst us."

"The culprit is among us? Dear god not this crap again. I've done this before and I did not like it! I ended up dead!"

Blank looks follow this.

"Okay, it was just Chris and I's web show, but my character died and no one cared! Least of all me come to think of it."

Josh coughed before continuing.

"Anyway, let's not get started on this paranoia s***. Joey got sucked down the toilet. It's either supernatural or an extreme achievement in ignorance. Possibly both. We all revived exploding letters, that one just happened to be extra potent. Let's just do this rumble alright?"


TACTICS:

Stick to a safe section of wall and play hazard early on. Attack any wedge-y bots if they have their backs to me. Protect my sides and back.

[Badnik96]

Battle tactics: Stay away from the spinners when they're at full speed, attack them with the plow when they're not. Use the jaws, press them into the floor and get under the other wedges so I can pit/floor flipper them.

Plot:

"I'm with you Josh, I've been a part of these things too and they aren't fun. Last time I was in one I ended up shoved off a moving plane. Lucky I survived that one," Dylan said, more odd looks surrounding him.

"Anyway I'll see you guys later, customs disassembled WhipCoil so I need to get it into running condition for the match. Good luck everyone." He walks back to the pit area and soon the sounds of clanking metal echo in the distance.

[swanaldo]

Perhaps the name of the game is to win. what if i lose and i cop it with a length of andrex.

Tactics: Defo flip things and sorry but i don't trust anyone at the moment to team up. On me own for this round.

[playzooki]

"woah... seems like some of you know what happens, huh?"

[GF93]

In light of the recent death of Martijn, Alex was not only shocked, but worried by what was happening- and found himself wondering who or what could have been responsible for it. Sure there was the fact that he'd been sucked into the toilet, which could've been the basis for an accident, but considering he was not in a Captain Underpants novel, there must've been some involvement from someone else to have that happen.

Alex decided to look into the matter later. After paying his condolences to his fallen friend, he took Dreadnought Mk2 over to the Pits- his prized machine had made the trip over the Atlantic pretty much unscathed and in the right place (And not for example, ending up in Moscow.), which did relieve his tension somewhat.
With that, Alex set about making the last few touches to Dreadnought in preparation for its fight in Round One, whistling something* as he worked. He'd looked around the Pits at the other robots earlier, so there was some uncertainty, but he felt reasonably confident he could do well.


STRATEGY
Keep constantly moving, be unpredictable, and focus on flipping/shunting opponents around, and getting them to either the Pit or even the Arena Wall to flip them out. Keep out the way of the spinners early on to avoid taking too much damage, and go for them once they slow down- my armour's very good indeed, but any visible signs of damage could count against me if I'm not careful.

Avoid the hazards if I'm not taking opponents to them myself, keep my back and sides well-protected against the other wedges, and use my speed and agility to get to any weak spots and get underneath them quickly. I can't say I can really team up with anyone at this point, so fight a tactical battle and watch out for any ambushes. Good luck!


*Dreadnought's theme-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xu7TNlWUd1M

[Badnik96]

Dylan put the finishing touches on WhipCoil and went over to scout out the competition. He saw some old foes and some new ones, including a brightly colored flipper that looked to be Kody's robot and a low to the ground pneumatic flipper named Air. There was also a boxy scoop robot he didn't know the name of, but definitely looked like a fierce competitor. For familiar robots, he saw Revolver Ocelot, Wedge Devolution and Parasite, among others. The crates containing Marti's and Joey's robots remained unopened, and Dylan didn't know what would become of them.

Ever since Joey and Marti's untimely deaths, the tension was so thick that, to reuse an already overused cliche in robotic combat, you could cut it with a knife, or more appropriately a circular saw. No one knew who would be next, and the ever-real danger that perhaps their robot could go out of control and kill them was making everyone nervous. Dylan restrained from plugging the battery in on his robot until the last second just in case.

He went over to talk to Alex, who was also working on his robot Dreadnought. Perhaps it would relieve the tension a bit...

"Hey, dude."

[majinb]

Rastarefbot:"In case I forgot to mention man, the arena is a triangular version of the UK Robot Wars one."

[steven_mcg]

Um. Guys. Two of us just sort of, you know, died. Like, within minutes of each other. With a exploding letter threatening to get the rest of us. Maybe we should, I don't know, put the silly robot fight off for just a little bit? I mean, until the psychopathic serial killer is caught?

Possibly?

Oh, come on! Am I the only one who's a touch disconcerted by this whole mess? I know I've not seen Joey in Skype much recently, but he hardly seemed ready for suicide by swirly last time I saw him! For God's sake, Martijn is in so many bits that Refbot's digging out his vacuum cleaner! Not even Inspector Gadget's post-it notes do that much damage! These are our friends, guys!

Aren't they?

Sigh.

Fine. If playing with our robots is more important to you guys and our hosts, go ahead without me for now. I'm going to grab someone in the staff and check the crime scenes for clues. There must be something around Joey and Marti's, er, remains that'll help narrow down who the culprit is. It's a good thing I got Wedge Devo all set up nice and early. Today's lesson, guys: plan ahead. Also, don't get murdered by loonies. Close second.

And if that Refbot insists that I have to fight, then I'll try and get rid of the spinners early on - Good For It, Revolver Ocelot, Parasite - you know, invert their blades to be less effective, feed them to other bots and play passive to save my body parts. Then I'll try my hand at flipping the axebots into the hazards and focus on the flippers last when they're nice and low on weapon power.

Catch you later.

Finally. All those years of Poirot stories are finally going to pay off.

[Badnik96]

"What do you mean by triangular? There are 3 CPZs? Can we maybe get a top-down drawing"?

Dylan hears Steve's rambling but he's still too rattled to really put much effort into hunting the killer down. He wants to ease his nerves with a quick robot fight first.

However, when he goes to the bathroom, he sees something sticking out under the stall Joey was killed in. A plunger of some sort, which must have been used to plunge Joey down! He calls in everyone to investigate.

"If this killer has planned this out as much as I thought he has, then he wouldn't be dumb enough to leave fingerprints on the plunger. Let's check anyway, and see if there are any that match anyone here. I haven't touched it, so there wouldn't be mine on there."

Refbot goes to fetch some tools for an impromptu dusting kit, while the roboteers look around in awe, or perhaps in search of clues...

or scouting their next victim, says a small, nagging voice in the back of Dylan's head. He doesn't want to realize this yet but he has a chance of not leaving Bermuda alive. He goes back to his pit area and sends an e-mail to his brother, telling him to get the word out, though he doubt anyone will come rescue considering it's April Fool's Day. As long as his parents know, he could at least die somewhat less disconcerted than before.

OOC: lol rastarefbot

[GF93]

He went over to talk to Alex, who was also working on his robot Dreadnought. Perhaps it would relieve the tension a bit...

"Hey, dude."

"Hello." Alex replied, looking up from his handiwork. He had since finished reassembling Dreadnought since getting it through the customs at London Heathrow, and was now in the process of polishing it- paying particular attention to the UK flags that adorned the sleek wedge's sides.
"Just finishing off old Dreadnought here. Done pretty much all the technical bits, so just giving it a bit of a polish to make it look good once it's in there. Are you OK?"