Penny Arcade - Comic - The Die Is Cast

Dog

Penny Arcade - Comic - The Die Is Cast

Videogaming-related online strip by Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins. Includes news and commentary.

Read the full story here

RenegadePhantom

This isn't the first time Gabe commanding a space ship has gone wrong. I wonder who keeps putting him in charge:P

darleysam

This is Tharsis. This is entirely Tharsis.

GDT1985

RenegadePhantom wrote: »

This isn't the first time Gabe commanding a space ship has gone wrong. I wonder who keeps putting him in charge:P

Clearly, he is in charge.

azith28

What game is this about?

Tube

Tharsis

AntonNUL

I'm more impressed he rolled a 1 with 3 dice.

Tube

AntonNUL wrote: »

I'm more impressed he rolled a 1 with 3 dice.

I think it's rolling three dice and at least one of them has to be 2 or above. It's very unlikely to roll three 1s, but obviously not impossible.

DocGratis

AntonNUL wrote: »

I'm more impressed he rolled a 1 with 3 dice.

Stasis, void, injury

If she the last person this turn there are likely zero assists left

darleysam

Yeah you can absolutely get less than 2 with three dice, and boy does the game like to let you know it.

DocGratis

azith28 wrote: »

What game is this about?

It is about dying and dieing (as in rolling) on the way to Mars...

I'd Fuck Chuck Lidell Up

AntonNUL wrote: »

I'm more impressed he rolled a 1 with 3 dice.

You should play warhammer with me some time. I can do some magical thing with pools of dice. Hit on 3 and up? miss every shot.

Hevach

I'd Fuck Chuck Lidell Up wrote: »

AntonNUL wrote: »

I'm more impressed he rolled a 1 with 3 dice.

You should play warhammer with me some time. I can do some magical thing with pools of dice. Hit on 3 and up? miss every shot.

My last time playing D&D before I graduated from college:

"Ok, hit on 15, you miss."
"I didn't roll yet."
"You haven't rolled a 15 since second edition. You miss."
"Fuck you, I'm rolling." *rolls*
"Ok, now you miss and you hurt yourself, happy?"

ziddersroofurry

Lately I get the feeling Gabe and SpaceX are using the same dice.

Djiem

AntonNUL wrote: »

I'm more impressed he rolled a 1 with 3 dice.

Spanned across two consecutive rolls in a game of Gauntlet of Fools, a friend of mine rolled 11 ones with 13 dices. The other 2 dice were twos. He had the "1s and 2s don't count" boast token on him (not that he would have succeeded without it).

Some people just can't roll.

Djiem

To be fair it made sense thematically, he was a blinfolded barbarian with one hand tied behind his back, and he rolled to attack a swarm of bees with a longbow.

Morninglord

ziddersroofurry wrote: »

Lately I get the feeling Gabe and SpaceX are using the same dice.

They landed the second last one tho. They rolled all sixes.

Morninglord

Also just to get some, like, opposite to the horror stories in here, I was once present at a game where a gretchin managed to get the kill shot on a terminator with a blunderbuss.

The space marine player was the orc players little brother. He was super salty.

tech_hunter

I think I have played over 20 games of Tharsis and have not gotten even close to winning. I lasted 5 turns one time and that was it, I do not particularly like it. I want to like it, the concept and mechanics are interesting. The implementation to me is flawed, you start out in the weeds and get no opportunity to recover even a little. You will see by turn 2 that it is not going to happen but you are foolish and think there could be a chance however there never is. I think if the side missions mechanic were changed so that you have the choice of a boon and a small consequence rather than a boon and a fuck you that it is now it could give a glimmer of hope.

Marathon

Reminds me of their old D&D podcasts where they once failed a roll but had an ability to let them roll again...only to fail the second roll as well

Gitcherdickout

forty

A story from my friend:

Gauntlet Games [forty: A game store in a nearby city] is having a promotion where you roll a d20 to get your percentage discount. If you want, you get one reroll, but you have to keep the second roll.

I rolled 2. Hey, at least a reroll is a no brainer, right? Then I rolled 1.

DocGratis

tech_hunter wrote: »

I think I have played over 20 games of Tharsis and have not gotten even close to winning. I lasted 5 turns one time and that was it, I do not particularly like it. I want to like it, the concept and mechanics are interesting. The implementation to me is flawed, you start out in the weeds and get no opportunity to recover even a little. You will see by turn 2 that it is not going to happen but you are foolish and think there could be a chance however there never is. I think if the side missions mechanic were changed so that you have the choice of a boon and a small consequence rather than a boon and a fuck you that it is now it could give a glimmer of hope.

If the side missions are a total screw job, it may be that your crew's stress is too high... causing them to make bad decisions options...

not that I have won yet, but I have had some good attempts

darleysam

tech_hunter wrote: »

I think I have played over 20 games of Tharsis and have not gotten even close to winning. I lasted 5 turns one time and that was it, I do not particularly like it. I want to like it, the concept and mechanics are interesting. The implementation to me is flawed, you start out in the weeds and get no opportunity to recover even a little. You will see by turn 2 that it is not going to happen but you are foolish and think there could be a chance however there never is. I think if the side missions mechanic were changed so that you have the choice of a boon and a small consequence rather than a boon and a fuck you that it is now it could give a glimmer of hope.

Thing is, I felt like this while playing FTL until I suddenly broke through that wall. Right now it does feel like my fate's already written and it's really just a case of watching it play out, but I do feel like there's a lot more there that I'll be able to control with some understanding. I'm trying to put out every fire and finish every day cleanly, but that means I don't have anyone free to use any of the ship's modules, so I think there's a degree of balance expected, where you're taking acceptable hits and damage in order to have a stronger round next time.

Unknown

This content has been removed.

Bremen

tech_hunter wrote: »

I think I have played over 20 games of Tharsis and have not gotten even close to winning. I lasted 5 turns one time and that was it, I do not particularly like it. I want to like it, the concept and mechanics are interesting. The implementation to me is flawed, you start out in the weeds and get no opportunity to recover even a little. You will see by turn 2 that it is not going to happen but you are foolish and think there could be a chance however there never is. I think if the side missions mechanic were changed so that you have the choice of a boon and a small consequence rather than a boon and a fuck you that it is now it could give a glimmer of hope.

I've beaten Tharsis on both normal and hard mode. I think the key is getting a good strategy going; with the right plan, you can avoid being at the mercy of the RNG.

Also, I pretty much ignored food and just used the captain to keep my crew's dice up. Remember that if you start with two crew in one module, you can move the other crew there and then the captain and use the captain's ability to give them all one die, then move the other two crew around and take their actions with an extra die. It should be pretty easy to grab at least 3 dice bonus each turn with tactics like this, which basically means you can keep everyone at near full dice.

Rhesus Positive

Marathon wrote: »

Reminds me of their old D&D podcasts where they once failed a roll but had an ability to let them roll again...only to fail the second roll as well

Gitcherdickout

DeserterKalak

I find the secret to Tharsis is never, ever give up dice for any reason. Like if one astronaut says she's found a way to teleport the ship back to Earth, but two people are going to have to lose a dice, while another guy is trying to drum up support for his project to create a totally sweet aft bay window by destroying the rear half of the ship with mining explosives, go with the second guy's plan. Get everyone up to four or five dice, and then keep them there using the captain and that one centre module. The module that lets you regenerate dice doesn't require a matching pair of two unless you want four dice back (or two seperate people to get two each). If a couple people have only three dice at the end of the round, consider feeding at least one of them a ration even though it's a waste. You need those dice.

If you have the technician and you're lucky enough to get a sub-system denial or single hull damage crisis in the lower or upper modules (the stress-reduction one or the assistance one, respectively) just leave them there. They'll fill up a space that might otherwise be filled by something nastier. You don't want or need to go to those places, anyway; you can repair at least two damage per turn easily by having a guy with half decent dice work the engine room. Four, if you fill up all three of the slots and the engineer manages to use his ability, or you use research repair. I swapped the Doctor out for the Technician as soon as I got her, so it might be a dicier proposition to abandon the Assistance module if your crew doesn't include a technician, but even in the rounds where her ability didn't trigger, I did okay.

I mostly ignore crew stress, barring the occasional project that lowers everyone's stress by 30 or sedative research or whatnot. Your guiding star is less what the projects offer you, and more to pick whatever plan doesn't involve anybody giving up dice.

Of course I've yet to try Hard mode yet...