#and robot is a very good character regardless so wonky rep is less of a big deal when that's the case. y'know?

[cosmos-dot-semicolon]

Who's your favourite Dicey Dungeons contestant?

Robot! It embodies Dicey Dungeons at its best.

Writing-wise, Robot really struck a chord with me when I first played the game ('oh wow who could've seen that coming from the guy that wrote-' shhhhhh). All of the protagonists in this game have some sort of message attached to them: a sort of comment on how their mindsets clash with their actual fate-

-hey did anyone see that? i'm sure it was nothing. Anyways, they're all surprisingly relevant to modern life despite the game's fantastical design, but Robot's really is the most unique and effective of them: you have limits, and you can't win them all.

Growing up, there was a very real pressure for me to be 'productive' as a kid as a result of my rocky upbringing and undiagnosed neurodivergency. I always had the idea in my head that if I just worked Betterer and Harder and Always, things would eventually reach an equilibrium point and I would never have to worry about anything again. You wouldn't be looked at as a weirdo because you'd be so good at your thing everyone would have to accept you! You wouldn't have any mortal problems anymore! You wouldn't ever have to make decisions in your life because you could simply attempt everything, with no consequences. Ever.

Also there was like, a huge glut of self-help and grindset culture being pushed in the mid 2010's. I don't know if you remember when 'I'm good at multi-tasking' was the hot new thing to put on CVs (until studies discovered it was actually worse), and how there were 100 TedTalks on how to stop procrastinating, but it was so fucking prevalent even in secondary schools back then. And also it was religious propaganda.

This wasn't really investigated much until the end of the decade, where a lot of peoples' fascination with tech wore off, and it became clear capitalism was the problem. We all know now that people work better when they have time to clear their minds, and it's kind of insane to spend your one life grinding out work.

So the fact that a kids' game managed to tackle this subject better than entire sectors of the publshing industry -- by making one kind of nutty but lovable character (who turned down immortality for not missing out on work) -- is just fantastic.

And everything in Robot's gameplay is made to suit this goal. It isn't that hard to master, as you've said in the past: you just need to know when's a good time to stop, and what best works with your build. You're in control of your gains and your losses; you can handle probability better than you think you can, if you're just willing to meet her where she stands. I think that's the core philosophy of Dicey Dungeons' design, and Robot constantly getting unique mechanics being based off classic games of chance like Blackjack and coin flips really emphasises that. You really get the sense that the dev had this idea polished right down to the last detail.

Also I just love how you usually have a full 6 pieces of equipment with Robot compared to like 3-5 with the others. You get a lot of room to explore different synergies. It's very hard to optimise your slots fully, and you end up with a couple of boring (but also potentially life-saving) redundancies.

And on a more subjective note, Robot just feels like it has the most personalised design of the main characters? It would've been so easy to lean into 'beep boop', or base another archetype off D&D, or make shallow nods at the concept of 'humanity' for a robot character, but no! Robot's fun! And a try-hard finance kid! And adorable! You get to see all of Marlowe Dobbe's cool theming with her art, Holly Gramazio's witty but reflective writing style, and Terry Cavanagh's hilarious equipment names and past as an actuary, all in one character!

Also it's autistic and uses it/its and that's so mecore