AMICITAS FLIGHT THREE – MISSION DAY 270
ARES III SOL 267
Sixteen normal-sized batteries (the three from the Hab having been so close to empty as not to be worth adding) plus four partially charged jumbo batteries didn’t light the single field projection up any brighter than normal. The rainbow sparks that rose from the Jacolt’s ladder could only discharge magic so fast. They just kept the projector going from a little past lunchtime until long after everyone had taken to the sleeping rolls for the night.
When they woke, tiny static discharges danced around the base of the terminals, a sign that the batteries were completely drained…
… and Dragonfly’s cocoon remained where it was, sealed, undisturbed in any way.
As the others went about their breakfasts, Starlight Glimmer shut down the projector and disconnected the cables which connected the batteries. Ironically, when the day before had begun, the three batteries from the Hab had been almost totally drained. Now they were the only batteries that held any charge- not more than twenty percent each, but that was more than the flat zero in all the batteries that had been in the farm.
Starlight snorted. One battery at twenty percent power had been enough to lift Amicitas out of the rubble of its crash site and onto its landing gear. One. Now here she was, thinking how terrible it was that they only had three batteries at that power…!
And yet… sixteen batteries at full power plus whatever had been in the four jumbo batteries… enough power to have picked up Amicitas and carried it all the way to the Hab… and that still wasn’t enough to get Dragonfly to come out of her cocoon.
Starlight was beginning to come around to Chrysalis’s thinking regarding “lazy bugs.” She turned to stare at the cherry saplings, each of which had several limbs which, if not suitable for heavy sticks, might at least make the kind of switch that old-fashioned pony parents would use to keep wayward foals in line.
“Touch so much as one leaf,” Cherry Berry’s voice called from behind her, “and vengeance will be swift and terrible.”
Starlight looked at Cherry. “You’ve been hanging around changelings too long,” she said. “You do that far too well.”
“Don’t try me,” Cherry said.
Starlight sighed and turned away from the trees. She wasn’t yet willing to hit Dragonfly’s cocoon directly, not yet. But it would take two and a half weeks for all the batteries to be full again for a second attempt- longer, really, since they’d need to run the projector for at least a couple of minutes every day just to sustain Dragonfly. She’d need to sit down and do the math. After that, she could prepare- for she already knew she was going to do something very different next time.
And if that didn’t work, then came the stick, no matter what Cherry Berry said-
“I can see you thinking about it.”
-with Cherry Berry’s full consent, that is.
[13:18] WATNEY: Test. I see the chat is up again.
[13:55] JPL: Hello, Mark. Yes, the data transfer finally completed. We received your telegram yesterday. We’re sorry to hear about Starlight’s suit, but we hope it can be fixed soon.
We tied up the data transfer for a week for a good reason, though. In the rover data buffer you will find text-only versions of Dungeons and Dragons Player Handbook, Dungeon Master Guide, and eight adventure modules, plus an application for your computers to simulate die rolls. All of these were provided by Hasbro free of charge, and definitely not as any incentive for NASA to look favorably on their bid to make toys of your friends.
We hope the games give you something to do together besides work and thus improve morale. That’s the main reason we took up Pathfinder for a week. When you get a chance, can you please give a report on your current situation?
[14:41] WATNEY: Um… tell Hasbro thanks and all… but version 4.0?? Really??? If they were going back to ancient history, why not just send 3.0 or 3.5? It’d be appropriate, what with Pathfinder and all.
[15:12] JPL: Quit complaining. It could have been GURPS. That was what I played in college.
[15:41] WATNEY: I’d make wise-cracks about math geeks and RPGs, but to be honest I’m really hoping for some real life min-maxing about now. Like, how much Constitution do I have to dump to get enough Dexterity/Speed to get off this rock?
[16:10] JPL: Bruce and his people are still working on that. We’ll let you know. But we’ll try not to let your stats drop down to wizard levels.
[16:39] WATNEY: This is Starlight. What is that supposed to mean? Is that an insult?
[17:44] WATNEY: Well? Is it? Answer me!!
Yes, because wizards need a special set of stats beans good.
Okay, why is Starlight bent out of shape about D&D? Is it the alignment table?
Sticks and DnD. Nice. Is Dragonfly still producing un-light? If not, then it may be safe to just bust her out now.
8970909
Because Wizards are weak and squishy, and she is a wizard.
Really disappointed that Lazybug didn't come out. Do they need to say please?
What’s so bad about wizards?
8963557
That works too!
If Dragonfly sticks her head out of her cocoon and sees she still has a magic shadow, does that mean 100 more sols of winter?
They will now have something to do during the downtime of the dark side.
And maybe Dragonfly just needs a while to "digest" all that magic, just like a malnourished person doesn't heal as soon as food enters the body.
8970942 Well, for the most part, they tend to dumpstat con (never do this, never ever) and make very silly decisions regarding their battlefield placement "just to get the right angle for a spell". Oh, and there's the whole 1d4 HD thing.
Oh, dear god... why do I get the feeling that Fireball is going to cast Fireball in an enclosed space?
(only fellow D&D players will understand that joke, BTW)
Aww, No song AND no dragonfly? I am ever so slightly disappointed.
8970895 8970942 8970930 In D&D (and indeed in most fantasy RPGs), if you're playing a Wizard, then your dump stats are either Strength or Constitution. In combat your only role is to throw fireballs at clusters of enemies and then hide behind the tanks, because your HP will remain in the range of one-hit kills until level 8 or so. A typical D&D wizard, outside his robes, is the "Before" picture in the Charles Atlas ads.
(As opposed to a Discworld wizard, whose existence outside of robes would not bear speculation.)
8970942
Well, 3.0 or 3.5, wizards were a nigh useless burden on the rest of the party until around level 5. Then their power levels shoot up and far outpace everyone else until they're unmitigated aggravations to any DM after about level 12.
4.0 was poorly received by a lot of people because they reworked powers massively, and many players likened it to an MMO. However, they also balanced out everyones' growth rates. Wizards don't start out useless in 4.0 and everyone else keeps pace with them better as they progress. My only real issue with 4.0 is not caring for how they rebuilt magic items.
8969902
I admit to not knowing she didn't need to be there to run it. But my point about taking her there in an ill fitting suit being better than an extra trip still stands, and that was my main point.
8970961 Isn’t stat dumping already frowned upon anyway?
Currently playing 5th edition D&D, and every character I play starts with a 14 Con, period. Same for 4e and 3e. In 2e, you had to go to 16 Con to get the same benefit.
In 3rd edition, it was easy to get a very good AC as a wizard. Things like mage armor, shield, and alter self (troglodyte = +6 natural armor) all stacked.
8970956
Bill Murray as Mark Watney in:
Groundhog Sol
8970980 Depends how you go about it. Stat dumping to 4 is beyond stupid. Putting your lowest roll into con is still not the wisest move.
8970992 I agree. Having con as your lowest stat is just asking for trouble. You’re a glass cannon at best and a distraction at worst.
I think you meant to say
A Dice app. Honestly? All those ways of processing data, scripting etc on the laptops and even Sojourna and they use up data. Wonder just how much compression there was applied to the text given Ive used old programs that did 90% on text and thats not even neural net predictive based stuff.
I dunno, PCGen was 120 Meg I think last time I downloaded it, or 4 times the apparent current data dump, but thats the whole Pathfinder, 3.5, Starfinder, extra books, GM database module, Dice engine etc.
Time to do some Pokemon, Pathfinder cross referencing for the ability matrices. Then again, having all the combat, encounters, monsters and characters be mathematically defined might make them work together but would likely break so much because they were only guessed at first?
D120 is very useful. 2,3,4,6,8,10, 12, 20, 0x etc.
What seems to be non achievable now is the turn over point with the batteries, where the continous output of a battery is enough to stimulate the life content of the farm so that it generates enough field to charge up the array of batteries at the same rate as use discharge of one. Cos at that point, Starlight achieves Fully Operational Capacity.
8970969
And as opposed to a Sorcerer (or Oracle for the cleric equivalent). While their Charisma doesn't HAVE to be narrated in terms of physical appearance, if you want they can start their career at the far end of 'best looking people you'll ever meet' and top out at 'Angels start blushing'.
Also funny is the Diskworld wizard exception, Ridcully. The formerly assassination-happy wizards brought in a hedge wizard type as a peacemaker, figuring if it didn't work at least he'd be a weak naive fool easy to bump off. Then they discovered his habit of jogging, and just how good he was with a crossbow.
8970974
That was exactly the problem though. They balanced out the growth rates to the point that all flavor was taken out of the classes. It didn't matter what class you picked, or what flavor text your abilities had, every character was practically identical and didn't feel different in play.
They sacrificed role playing for balance, and a cooperative role playing game doesn't need nearly as much balance as it does role playing.
8971000 Heh, for a lark I ran a game (Pathfinder) once where I made people roll their stats with 3d6—no mixing around the numbers and no rerolls, either. I did cut them a break and let them pick race and class after rolling. Alas no one had a stat of 3.
8971004
Actually, I think the 0 was meant to be a dash or an ellipsis or something.
8971018
You're absolutely correct. Fixed my previous comment, thanks!
Also, I'm reminded of a bit from the fanfic Ultimate Video Rumble 3 where some of the characters (all from different fighting games) are playing a role-playing game to pass the time before the tournament they're in actually starts. One of them (Rimururu, from the Samurai Shodown series) comments, "You guys do this for fun? This seems just like you're playing house to me." I'm looking forward to someone *coughstarlightcough* nitpicking the Monster Manual entries.
8971008 A simple die-roll app doesn't have to take up much bandwidth.
And it would require about 720 batteries to be able to run one projector full-time solely on the power the batteries absorbed from the field generated by the farm. They might have enough parts for about a hundred, total.
Ahem... WAKE UP YOU LAZY BUG!
Alright, time for a rousing game of guess who the metagaming jerkwad will be! I bet 5 Marstatoes on Starlight.
Man, 4th edition? At the very least they could've gone with 5th. Yes, 3.5 is the king, but 5 is pretty good as well.
Starlight must be aware of magic as it all goes somewhere. What if this constant use of magic could cause a little node to form
8969928 I used one of those to build a nuke for North Korea!
...
Errr! I mean! *black helicopters start buzzing his house* Ah crap, not again!
8970056 This was not unrefined ore. It was metallic and pegged the little lab scintillation counter meter with over 60,000 decays per second.
#wakeuplazybug
8970942
They are quick to anger and will pee on your computer.
No, wait...that's cats.
D&D 4.0!?! Those monsters!
8971030
Or
They could have just carved a die out of one of the crystals; surely the structure of the Quartz would be amenable to geometric shapes, and in any case, Starlight could make the sides exact if it wasn't. It would certainly make it more engaging, to have something tactile to play the game with as opposes to doing everything via computer.
8971030
Great to see D&D in the HAB, but why did you pick one of the worst editions to send Mark and the Ponies?!? There's a reason 5th edition was so hot on the heels of 4th!
Hope they at least have stats for Dragon-halfs so Fireball has something to play (that'll be enjoy).
But in all seriousness this is how I see the characters breaking down for each player to start out with and to later change to:
Fireball: Starts out as a tiefling barbarian, might change to tiefling sorcerer with Dragon Bloodline.
Spitfire: Starts with Elven fighter favoring ranged attacks, moves to elven ranger with favored domain sky.
Cherry: Starts with dwarf fighter but soon changes to dwarven druid, favoring plant-based spells.
Starlight Glimmer: Starts as a human wizard, changes to human monk when she learns how cool they get at later levels.
Dragonfly: Gnome bard all the way! (though will later run as DM so Mark can get a turn playing--he dies each session of his own fault).
#KeepDragonflyAlive
Why does it have to be a stick from a cherry sapling? Couldn't any long thin thing do?
"definitely not as any incentive for NASA to look favorably on their bid to make toys of your friends." Oh hey, I was planning on asking about that today, anyway. More specifically to Cherry replying to that e-mail from weeks ago.
8970909
She doesn't like the implication that "wizard level" is something you "drop down" to.
8970967
Another song? We're not done with the first one yet!
I'm wondering if they could have used all those batteries to put out a signal for Twilight to trace at the same time. Or if just running them would allow a trace.
Also Cherry Berry should have been growing their crops the whole time with that magic. With that much magic based off what she could do with half an hour she could have restored the whole field to healthy and max life.
I want to hear lots about their DND campaign.
8971129 After A-Kon I might have time again to do more work nailing down the melody and rhythm I had in mind when I wrote the lyrics. Haven't done it yet because I need time with my music keyboard, pen and paper... and I haven't had it to spare, what with five cons in a row.
8971012
Letting them pick their race after they see their rolls feels wrong to me. All it does is contribute to the statistical imbalance of having way too few 16 INT half-orc wizards.
8971129
They were raised with love, which officially makes it a sacrifice! (But only of Cherry agrees)
8971186
Did you hear KwirkyJ's interpretation of your version? He said he sent it to you.
And you're always welcome to join our server if you want. I have a role with your name on it.
i.imgur.com/eItZM3C.png
8971204
But that's food! Cherries she could eat!
8971208
Say, this actually raises a question. Could cherries specifically raised with love, like Cherry's, nourish a changeling? Possibly more than plain emotional drain, because it's spent so much time soaking into the plant and become part of it's nature?
8971212
You can't feed cherries to Dragonfly if she's comatose.
8971208 After A-Kon. I'm not currently on Discord.
8971214
Well sure. What I'm asking is, if the cherries somehow give fruit at least once, will changeling be able to get a meal from the inevitable tiny feast?