Bedtime Campaign: Pilot Nico’s Battlebot!

This post is part of a growing series relating the role playing bedtime stories I make with my kids.  I hope you still enjoy them.

Over the holidays, I concluded Nico’s Sword of Dream story.  I’m not going to write about it, mostly because I forgot to record them and I don’t remember much from them.

For completeness sake though, here’s a summary of what I do recall before we go into today’s story.

• We explored a dungeon under the Mountain of Weight and found the 3rd piece of the sword.
• Said sword allows one to adventure in the world of dreams.
• In that world, Nico revisited characters from the stories I used to tell him before we went interactive.  Some of those characters going back to Nico’s infancy.
• In the last story, I forgot about a bird NPC that was adventuring with Nico.  He told me after the story that that character had been there for nothing since it didn’t do anything in the story.

Oh noes! My son has a functional fridge logic detector!  Quick, inject more cool!

Time for something different then.

Chatty: All right Nico, what story do we do tonight?

Nico: Can we do a game story again?

Sure, another Super Nico the Laser Knight story?

Hmmm, maybe we could try something new? (Nico is quite conservative, so when he’s ready for change I grab it)

Chatty: How about we try something in the future?

Nico: Ooookay…

All right, what if you were a pilot of a giant Robot with lasers and weapons?

(Intrigued) And missiles?

Of course!  You’d be Pilot Nico and you’d own a Mecha.

What’s a Mecha?

Its the name we give to these giant war robots (I know that mecha technically applies to all vehicles in Mangas and Animes)

(Getting into the idea) Cool!

Okay, so you’re a Mecha Mercenary…

Mercenary?

People who get paid to fight in wars

Oh, okay.

So what’s your Robot like?

I don’t know…

What if it has 2 legs and 2 arms like humans and you sit behind a transparent bubble in the robot’s head.

Lets make the bubble indestructible so I don’t get killed by weapon fire.

Good idea.  What weapons do you have?

I have a big Bazooka! (Funny, the bazooka was my favorite weapon when I was his age, I think it’s the actual word that we like, plus the potential to blow stuff up).

Nice.  Also, you have a laser mounted on your head and you have a gigantic missile launcher mounted on your shoulder.

Yay!

What shall we name your robot Pilot Nico?

Hmmm, Battle Robot! (Robot Bataille in French)

Great name! Okay ready to start?

Yes!

All right so you’re sitting on the ground by a campfire away from the cities.  Your robot crouched behind you.  You are roasting Hot Dogs on a stick when you hear your radio squeaking. It’s one of your pilot friends.  What shall we name him?

I don’t know… Philippe?

How about Pilot Phil?

Great!

So Pilot Phil is calling you for help.  He’s being attacked by Extra Terrestrial Pod Bots!

Okay, I climb into my robot, but before I enter the bubble, I stop.

Why?

So I can finish eating my Hot Dog

(Damn, I’ve got a natural Bad Ass here!)

Chatty: Wow! You jump into your robot and you start it.  On your radar you see your buddy being attacked by 5 pods in the forest about 1 km away.

I run toward them!

Okay, as you approach, you see that the forest is on fire and that your friend’s robot is highly damaged.

I run faster and I launch a missile at one of the pods.

Your missile streaks from your shoulder launcher and hits one pod and it explodes!  All 4 other pods, each bearing a red laser-eye fly toward you now.

I shoot them with my Bazooka

You hit one, two, three of them before they reach you.  The last one still flying shoots its laser at you!

I dodge it by jumping up!

Okay, you jump really high and the pod flies right under you.

I drop on it and squash it!

CRUNCH! It’s now a pile of scrap metal stuck under your Mecha’s foot.

Yay!

Pilot Phil thanks you and asks you to help his mecha get to the nearest village where Jack the Mechanic can fix it.

Okay, I help him out.

Cool you get to the mechanic and Pilot Phil gets his robot fixed.

Is the story over dad?

Do you want it to be?

No, just a bit more please!

Of course, when Jack the Mechanic learns you had been fighting Extra Terrestrial pods, he asks you to go and fetch some parts of those pods you destroyed so he can study their technology.  In exchange, he’ll upgrade one part of your robot.

(At the point I expected him to go back and fetch parts of robots in the wilds)

Okay… Hmmm.  Oh I know! I lift my robot’s foot and give him the pod scraps stuck underneath it.

(That kid will always surprise me)

“Great” says Jack! “That will be very useful”.  What do you want me to improve on your mecha?

Can I have better armour?

Sure, Jack bolts a set of Steel armour plates on your mecha’s chest!

Yay!

Good night Pilot Nico.

Good night daddy!