 written by nathan j. hill |
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You're a robotic bellboy in a gigantic, chaotic, mega-hotel. The hotel you serve is built upon (and in) a massive asteroid hurtling through space. You serve a diverse client of space-faring humans, time-traveling wayfarers, undiscovered alien entities, and unhappy tourists. You must serve them well. You were built for this job, and you are a piece of the hotel-brain. If you do not function well, the hotel will begin to fail, and you will be fired (and we don't mean 'let go' -- no, you will be literally fired -- as in a very unpleasant and uncomfortable melting process). So what's in it for you? If you do a good job, you can earn nice tips, upgrade your robotic capabilities, and someday become hotel manager. It is a dream all hotel bellbots share. Your Work Environment 
The Galactic Dupazz Independent Hotel and Resort is one of a kind. Built by the legendary Dr. Alfred Dupazz, a bizarre techniophile inventor, the hotel was designed as a self-sustainable robotic hive. All of the services normally provided by inefficient humans have been replaced by expertly programmed, adaptable computer systems. From check-in to check-out, robots greet, assist, and serve all customers at the Dupazz Hotel & Resort. Certainly, the Dupazz Hotel & Resort has its share of bugs. For one, artificial intelligences tend to have interesting flaws which can irk many customers. However, the hotel is an amazing accomplishment. Robots that are broken are carted off deep in the subterranean levels of the hotel to be fixed or reprogrammed. Truly flawed machines are "fired" and used as spare parts in other repair processes. The central brain also sends out daily ROM updates to improve the efficiency and operating capabilities of its robots. Furthermore, Dr. Dupazz also built in a ladder system where the most pleasant and helpful robots can move up in the ranks, upgrading their systems and serving higher profile clients. While there is no real tangible benefit to robots in the upper echelons of service, it is a badge of honor to be promoted. Robots, therefore, do everything they can to hit the big time in the hotel. The hotel features over 4000 floors with hundreds of pools, saunas, exercise areas, restaurants, entertainment areas, and lounges. From cheap rooms for the budget conscious traveler to expansive penthouse suites for the debutante, the hotel is built to serve every traveler. Amenities from across the galaxy are also offered for bizarre, otherwordly guests. Because of this complexity and massive size, it is always rumored that many travelers have gotten lost permanently inside the byzantine complex. This may be why bellbots are considered the most important service bot in the hotel. The Bellbot's Job 
Your job as a bellbot is to be the jack-of-all-trades. You do pretty much what the customer wants, and if you do it well, you get a fat tip. Common errands for a bellbot include tracking down lost possessions, delivering room service, escorting travelers to their room, carrying luggage, guiding travelers to check-in or check-out services, giving expansive tours of the hotel's services, protecting travelers from assassination, and hunting down guests as they try to leave without paying. As you can see, your job is to do a little bit of everything. There are numerous other robotic services in the hotel that can assist you -- from security to customer service. You will have to barter and deal with these other services, for they rarely will help another robot unless there is something in it for them. As you will see, the other services have their own flaws which make the hotel a somewhat bizarre place to work and get things done. But the ultimate purpose is this -- you better get a tip. The more tips you get, the more quickly you can rise up in the ranks and become hotel manager. Other Services 
A regular customer of the Dupazz Hotel & Resort discovers that most robotic services have at least one critical flaw. This flaw can be frustrating or humorous. Customer Service bots run the check-in, check-out, billing, reservation, and phone support services for the hotel. While usually polite, the fatal flaw of customer service bots is money -- they will scheme to no end to wring as much money out of a client as possible. Therefore, checking out of the hotel can be a frustrating task, arguing over bills, taxes, and assorted fees. Most clients just pay their bill and move on, but others have begun to send bellbots in their place to prepare the bill. The bellbots are forced to argue and haggle with customer service bots, often filling out extra forms and tracking down obscure readouts which detail and prove what the customer did and didn't pay for. Room Service bots deliver food, clean rooms, provide extra amenities, and perform general room maintenance. The fatal flaw of room service bots is their time deficiency. The more time you spend performing a customer's job, the higher fee or tip you can expect. For example, an average customer who orders a warm meal will receive it 30 minutes late and incorrectly prepared at least twice. Room service bots will keep an ongoing tally of the time spent on the order and charge a perceived appropriate fee based on expended time. Eventually, they do get the order right. Bellbots are often now asked to pick up food, beverages, extra towels, clean linens, and so on in place of room service bots. This requires a bellbot to sneak into room service territory and barter for these items. Room service bots prefer to have a strangehold on their particular service and do not take kindly to other bots fulfilling their obligations (for cheaper too). Also, room service bots also make sure a variety of items disappear from each client's room, so they can charge a "finder's fee" for stumbling upon the lost article. Entertainment Service bots fill the rest of the extra loop holes for client satisfaction. They are the cooks, physical trainers, massagers, singers, waiters, jugglers, babysitters, and callgirls of the hotel. Among these entertainer bots, a handful actually are interesting and entertaining to clients of the hotel. Bellbots are often asked to track down the best singers and cooks for customers, and then they must deal with the contract process. You see, an excellent dance bot will require an extensive contract before any performance begins. Some clients also refuse to part with their entertainer bot without partaking in a fist fight. Some entertainer bots have also formed strange underground mobs, which look out for each other and charge hefty fees. Customers may find that they cannot hire the best singer that night -- they must also the accompanying dancers and "atmosphere" entertainer bots as well, since they are part of the same mob. Once again, the bellbot's job becomes negotiating and dealing with these relationships, often putting itself in harm's way to see its customer's needs met. Maintenance bots rarely deal with customers, and their thankless task is to clean up the hotel, fix broken pipes, upgrade systems, and generally make things safe. The ultimate weakness of maintenance bots is their innate desire to communicate and express their feelings to humans and other robots. Unfortunately, they are not equipped for this sort of conversation, and therefore, tend to talk about their day-to-day chores. In turn, this bores other robots and especially humans, who quickly find something more interesting to converse with (including a wall). Maintenance bots keep descriptive, accurate tallies of the number of broken things they have fixed and the types of equipment they have built. This tally system allows maintenance bots to rank themselves, with experienced bots receiving praise and honor (sometimes even gifts of new tools in exchange for teaching). A bellbot will have to interact with maintenance bots throughout his job. Beyond their ability to fix things, maintenance bots also know how to get into places without going through the front door and are usually privvy to sensitive data picked up while working quietly. Gaining access to this information usually is as simple as offering new, rare, or unique tools, based on the importance of the data. And don't forget that maintenance bots are the best to fix broken ports, limbs, and robotic malfunctions. Security bots tend to be the laziest of the bots in the hotel. They perform regular patrols, monitor private areas, and detain troublemakers (bot or human). However, the hotel tends to run itself, and few folks make any major trouble. Therefore, security bots like to hang out, get into other people's business, and generally appear tougher than they are. However, if need be, security bots have an arsenal of shock weapons and anti-tank missiles to take down enemies and rowdy clients. Also, they do detain guests from time to time for no reason, requiring bail fees to release the suspect. If a dangerous incident does arise in the hotel, security bots usually jetison the unwanted individual quietly before anything untoward takes place. Creating Your Bellbot 
1. Your Name: Your Bellbot's name has got to be similar to a human name with some unexpected twist. A common name, for example, is "Danx". Another example is "Lauraz". Bellbots want names that connect them with humans but don't create awkward situations. 2. Attitude: Bellbots differentiate themselves based on attitude -- is your Bellbot optimistic, hilarious, loving, nurturing, comforting, ambitious, keen, witty, or smart? Make up your own attitude for your Bellbot, and roleplay it out. 3. Appearance: Your Bellbot's appearance can be sophisticated, savvy, or rudimentary. Really, let your imagination run wild here. Your bot can be sleek and smooth. Your bot can look like a charming, old clunker. However, make sure your bot's appearance fits its attitude above. 4. Attributes: Your Bellbot has four attributes. Suave is your Bellbot's ability to persuade, convince, impress, and encourage clients and other bots. Groveling is your Bellbot's ability to whine, plead, compliment, and suck up to clients and other bots. Speed is your Bellbot's quickness and moving ability, useful when racing other bots or trying to get through a closing door. Strength is your Bellbot's raw crushing power, used to intimidate other bots and carry heavy things. Each starts at 1, and you have 4 points to spend between them. 5. Endurance: Your Bellbot's Endurance, which is a sort of a catch-all stat for how long it can operate before getting tired or falling apart, is your Strength + 8. Also, you can reduce it down at anytime and get an extra die to roll when doing something for a customer. Once it reaches zero, you have to get juiced up from a maintenance bot or recharge for about 8 hours to get back up to full. Playing the Game 
Your Bellbot will get a job from a customer while waiting around in a lobby. The job could be anything -- find a missing personal article, show me the best place to eat, fetch my bill, guide me to my room, reserve a sauna, order a massage specialist, assassinate another hotel guest, find out what secret meeting is going down in room 1403B, or make me a drink. Anytime you perform an action where your intent is to impress your client (and increase your tip), you roll some dice. Roll a number of d6s equal to the attribute you are using. For example, if your customer asks you to fetch them a fresh martini, you could say -- "I speed down the corridors to the best martini bar in the hotel." You would roll a number of dice equal to your Speed attribute. Next, add up your dice result. For every point over 5, you gain that many dollars on to your eventual tip. In the previous example, if the dice result was 16, my Bellbot would have racked up $11 from using his speed to get to the martini bar quickly. At times, you will have to user your attributes to convince other customers or bots to help you. You might also have to use them to outwit other bots or savagely destroy them. In this instance, you roll against the other bots' related or opposite attribute. The highest score wins the bout or challenge. If you lose, you have to decrease your tip, because losing is definitely not impressing your client. However, you may try again or find another way to succeed at your action. Don't forget that you can use your Endurance to boost your chances. Once you complete your action, add up all of your tips to figure out how much you get for a doing job well done. A fat tip is worth all the extra adventure, even if you explored deep depths of the hotel to find a missing watch. Your customer will be thankful for your services. Your tip can be saved up to purchase upgrades. Upgrading an attribute by 1 costs $100. Once your attributes reach at least 5 each, you are elevated into Upper Bellbot status and now serve VIPs and special clients. Your job gets harder too. Once you reach a level 10 in all attributes, you become a hotel manager... and really, no one knows what happens next. Some say you are cloned so the hotel will have other bots like you. Others say you get to relax and tell other bots what to do all day. Others say, you start over. Who knows? You can find out though! Closing Notes 
I hope you enjoy Bellbot, written up (mostly) during a recent stay at a hotel. Please feel free to drop a few dollars through Paypal if you thought it was a fun read or even *gasp* play it one day. This is Donateware, so I appreciate your support. Please email me if you have any questions or suggestions -- and check out the forums to add any comments of your own as well. |