13
MAR/21
The Teaser.
Where in the world is Walder 16? (From Walder’s last game with the Righteous Fete)
The second cultist healer slipped off Walder’s rapier and before he hit the floor Walder was on the move, rapidly closing the distance to the third. Before Walder could get there this healer was slain by another member of the Fete. Some area effect spell he thought but wasn’t’ sure, the fog of battle was thick.
With no more healers Walder turned back to the dragon. Walder heard Harshnog roar and rush towards the great black beast. Harshnog grappled it while the rest of the Fete sliced and hammered away. The dragon was bleeding from a dozen wounds when Harshnog lifted and exposed the underbelly to Ciaranbas’s blade. She sliced through the thick hide. The insides of the dragon began to bulge out like a bad hernia. Walder smiled as his legs propelled him at great speed towards the dragon. ‘This is going to be gross’ he thought, and the smile was now huge across his face. He raced to the low point of the exposed wound and began to slide under the Dragon. As he did so his right hand operated his rapier like a sewing machine. Up and down, in and out, but instead of stitching up a wound he was puncturing the intestines of the dragon in rapid fashion. Gut juice poured out in large quantities, erupting from the swollen intestines and stomach in an explosion of poo, bile, and partially digested Giant. Looks like that dragon had been snacking on Harshnog for a while. Only Walder’s remarkable speed saved him from getting bathed in it all.
As Walder popped up from his slide everything changed. He was getting taller, his skin was getting darker. And the room with the Righteous Fete and the dragon and Harshnog faded away quickly and he found himself standing in room with Wesley Crusher, Data, Geordi La Forge, Captain Picard, and Deanna Troi. Arban, Nalla, Ciaranbas and Alysanne were still in the holodeck. Worf shook his head and tried to remember their real names. Chief O’Brien, Guinan, Ro Laren and Vash.
All right, here is the Star Trek story I have been working on. Just an attempt to provide an alternative story line that makes use of ‘Holodeck Glitch’ that got rolled up on some table a few times.
Basically the idea is that some Star Trek characters are playing D&D in an upgraded holodeck. Since the Universe is infinite, in this particular version the Star Trek characters are playing the exact same campaigns we are. This is the story of how those players played our characters the exact same way we did but for their own reasons. Below is a list of players and the Star Trek persona who happens to be playing the characters you are playing. The Star Trek characters are not meant to resemble you, nor you them, I don’t think I share a lot with Worf, so don’t read anything into who happens to be playing your character. Also, I don’t know the Star Trek characters all that well so I may make some errors about their personalities in the story.
Some more notes:
The story changes styles, bouncing back and forth between an interview style and a more traditional story telling style, as well as some other style I don’t even know what to call. The interview style is a flash forward, like a debriefing of the event. And there are some flash backs as well. And all that is because I had about 10 different ideas on how to tell it.
This is also a crossover story linking Storm King’s Thunder, Tyranny of Dragons, and Reign of the Dragon Queen.
Star Date: unknown
Player Star Trek Player playing the same characters you played
Aj Worf
Kiai Chief O’Brien
Kelly Deanna Troi
Kristin Ro Laren
Jordin Vash
Greg Riker
Zach Data
Travis Guinan
Marcus Red Shirt
Gabe ??? :)
The beginning of ‘The End’
This was it. The End. His own personal Kobayashi Maru. Picard stood on the bridge observing through the view screen as the Romulans circled back to deal the death blow. The Enterprise was badly wounded, shields down, warp drives disabled, phasers malfunctioning and somehow out of photon torpedoes. Picard had no offense, no defense, and nowhere to hide even he could run.
Worse yet key members of his crew were trapped in the holodeck. Worf, Deanna, Chief Obrien, Riker and Data were all stuck in an ‘entertainment’ program, as Wesley had called it. Now Wesley and Geordi were working frantically trying to figure out what went wrong in the program.
“Captain, we are be hailed by the Romulans.” Said ‘another crewmate’ on the bridge.
“On screen,” he commanded, still firm in voice and assurance. Even in a moment of extreme duress the captain managed to maintain his composure.
“Captain Picard. You have something we want. Give it to us and we shall spare your ship. Deny us and we shall destroy your life support and after you are dead we will simply come and take it.”
“What is it you want?”
“Your new and improved holodeck.”
Picard was taken aback. It was an odd request to be sure. If he had been given 20 guesses as to what they had wanted he would not have thought the holodeck. “Why do you want it?” he asked.
“None of your concern captain. We will give you 10 minutes to comply.”
Picard tried to respond, to tell them about the crew members stuck in the machine, to ask how he was even supposed to dismantle the holodeck so quickly, but they were already off screen.
With the view screen showing the Romulan ship dead ahead at 3,000 (yards, miles, kilometers, parsecs?), Picard took a moment to gather his wits. Something wasn’t quite right. How did they even know about the new holodeck? Why would they want it? Well, he could deduce that already, judging by the reaction of the crew. Wesley had crew members on waitlists trying to join the games he was running. Even Obrien, who had expressed his doubt as to the value of a new and improved holodeck, had joined. Multiple games evidently. So did a number of crew members.
But how did the Romulans know it was such an upgrade? It didn’t make sense but time was short and Picard needed to know how Wesley and Geordi were doing.
“Wesley, status report.” Picard commanded through the communications system.
Interviewer: “So, how did this get started?”
Wesley: “It was just supposed to be D&D but better. We had played on the table top a couple of times, but everyone was so new to it that they really didn’t play their characters, they just played themselves. Worf was so ridiculous. We agreed that his character would have a phobia, but he didn’t ever remember or even try to play it up.”
Interviewer: And that was a problem?
Wesley: “Yeah. I’ve seen how D&D can be played, I’ve watched the historical documents. And this just wasn’t cutting it.”
Interviewer: Isn’t roleplaying a skill that takes time to develop?
Wesley: Looking sullen “Yeah, but I didn’t want to wait. So that’s why I bought the new holodeck upgrade.”
Background of the tech and a note from the Salesman
Background of the Tech:
It started, and this was a while ago, as a replacement for body cams with our security forces. A camera on a chest or helmet is a lot better than just someone’s testimony, but in our quest for more transparency and accountability we decided to go with an idea first floated in a movie from the 20th century. Did you ever see Strange Days? It has a technology that allows a user to experience other people’s memories. There was a thing they called the “squid” which went on top of your hair like a net. It came with a control box and recording device that allowed a user to record their life. Another user could then wear a squid and play the tape (yes tapes lol). This second user would then fully experience that record of the other person’s life. Taste, touch, smell, fear, excitement, the whole thing, as if you were there as them.
We developed that to assist in the training of our officers as well as for investigations into complaints against the department.
Commercial developers took that technology and ran with it. Pretty soon the developers created fictional memories and fictional characters that a user could ‘experience’. It wasn’t long after and you could make decisions in the ‘memory’ although it wasn’t a memory anymore, fictional or not. Now it was more like ‘The 13th Floor’, or maybe even the ‘Matrix.’ It was a ‘choose your own adventure’ novel for the 23rd century. Advances made to the holodeck removed the need for the squid and made for a very bad ass way of playing D&D.
A Note from the Salesman:
If it were to be sold as an idea for tactical training and team building, and that’s how this project started, I would say the new Holodeck gives a person a great opportunity to feel what it is like to walk a mile in another person’s shoes. It’s one thing to share an experience, i.e. you both hike the same trail at the same time. But it’s another to experience it as the other person.
The new Holodeck, with its patented “character” program, allows a user to more fully experience what it is like to be someone else. It’s so easy for a big strong person to say in a certain situation “well if I was there I would have punched that guy.” But would he have if was not in a big strong body? Would he have punched if he had been raised in a pacifist household? Or perhaps some childhood trauma that caused paralyzing fear in certain situations. Our new Character program allows a user of the holodeck to have a whole new personality added during holodeck use in addition to a whole new body type. During the use, your own personality is suppressed and you experience the Holodeck as whatever character you select, instead of yourself.
But I am not selling it as a team building exercise. I am selling it as fun to play. Sure you could watch recorded memories of your ex to try to gain some understanding of why she dumped your lazy ass, but wouldn’t it be way cooler to experience liberating a village from an evil vampire as a Paladin?
Interviewer: “What happened then?”
Wesley: I got a game together; Worf, Chief O’Brien, Guinan, Ro Laren and Vash.
Interviewer: “How did it go?”
Wesley: “It went perfect, it worked exactly as described in the advertisement. It was just going to be a Beta Test, a trial run, but the players really loved it. They didn’t want to come out. Eventually I pulled Worf out first to get some feedback and let someone else join the game. That’s one of the limitations, only so many can play at a time.”
Interviewer: “What was Worf’s feedback?”
(Continues from Teaser)
Worf looked around, speechless for a moment.
“Well?” Geordi asked.
Worf just smiled, ear to ear and nodded his head.
“I want to try! Me next, can I, please?” Deanna asked excitedly. “I want to try a Dragonborn Barbarian!”
Worf finally spoke. “Why did you pull just me out?”
“The Beta Test isn’t over, but we gotta line of folks itching to play.” Wesley said in his normal voice before he lowered it so only Worf could hear, “besides, I didn’t think you would mind if you knew Deanna was taking your spot.” Wesley grinned as he delivered the line.
“What do you mean ‘Beta Test’”? Worf asked, ignoring Wesley’s last comment.
“You know, a trial run. Just to make sure everything is working ok. Clean up the bugs. Then we are going to take what you like and put it in the next one, get rid of the stuff you don’t. Speaking of, let’s do a post-game interview while Geordi gets Deanna ready to load into the game.”
Worf agreed and walked away with Wesley to a separate room, taking just a quick glance of Deanna before departing.
“So, what did you like?” Wesley asked.
Worf smiled again. “Killing the dragon. I am disappointed I didn’t get to take a piece of him as a trophy. It was a great feat, one to be remembered for a long time. Can there be dragons in the next one?”
“Sure.”
“More than one. I would like to kill a lot of them.”
“Oh, that’s perfect for what I had in mind. Ok, what else did you like?”
“I really liked how fast Walder 16 was. But maybe it was a bit much. My next character should be fast, but not that fast. And not a rogue. Something more…honorable.”
“Cool. We have this thing called Gloom Ranger, I think that is a better fit. And do you mind if I add in that water phobia thing. I know we did it on table top, but I would love to see how it works in the holodeck.”
“Hmmm. I suppose so.” Worf said unenthusiastically.
“Ok, and your next character after that. How about a Bard who is really bad at being a bard?”
“My next character? Why would I need more than one?”
“Well, The Tyranny of Dragons is no Beta Test. There is a good chance you might lose a character, maybe even two. But two max, I promise.”
“So, it will be more difficult?” Worf asked worriedly. “Will I feel the pain of dying?”
“Just a little bit more difficult. And yes, you will feel pain, but not too bad.” Wesley grinned a little.
“It didn’t seem easy when I was in it. In fact I remember suffering in a cave prison until Arban and the group rescued me. Cultists had me, I believe.” Worf shivered a little at the memory. While Wesley smiled a little more.
“Yeah, cultists. Good, you will get a chance at revenge, cultists are big part of Tyranny of Dragons. In fact, let’s add some cultist stuff into the background of your first character. And a name. I’ll run the auto name generator. ‘Kruger’, ok good. Water phobia, parents killed by cultists so you have a need for vengeance.”
“Who else is will be playing?”
“Riker wants to play. He has even made a couple of characters. A Calishite prince and swamp dwelling druid.”
Worf had started to scoff when he heard the first character thinking that was ‘so Riker’, but stopped abruptly when he heard the second and instead simply asked “Really?” the surprise registering in his voice.
“Data wants to play a dwarven wizard and Vash is going to be a Rogue.” Worf nodded in approval. Wesley continued “and I think O’Brien wanted to play a human merchant.
This time Worf roared in laughter.
Interviewer: “So, there were no problems during the beta test?”
Wesley: “Not that we noticed. Aside from a little Player Bleed, but we expected a little of that. Not surprising that it was Worf. Something about Klingons and the programming. Other than that it ran smoothly the whole time.”
‘An interview with Worf regarding ‘Player Bleed’
Tech Support: Player Bleed. Sometimes, despite the best efforts of the programmers, players’ personalities can be strong enough to override certain character traits. We call this ‘Player Bleed’. Think of this as the original problem we are trying to solve, players playing themselves instead of their characters. It might be easiest to explain through example.
During the Beta test Worf was playing a character called Walder 16. And I think Worf can explain it himself.
Worf: “Yes. Hmmm.” Worf said gruffly then paused for a moment before continuing. “Well, this Walder 16, he was a rogue with little honor. He was raised as an assassin from a most ignoble family. He enjoyed sneaking up on people and stabbing them in the back. He liked killing for killings sake, it made no difference if the person he killed was good or evil. At least that is how the character was designed. Well, during play, even though I didn’t realize I was Worf, the killing for killing’s sake became a bother and a source of internal tension. I, as Worf can see the value in fighting honorably and for good, but this Walder character was just in it for blood at the start. Over time the Walder character changed to some degree. He still loved to kill, but insisted on doing it in the name of good. My personality bleeding into Walder.”
Interviewer: “Why ‘Bleed’ and not ‘blend’ or ‘merge’ or ‘crossover’?
Worf and Tech support just look at each other then look back at the interviewer but neither speaks.
Interviewer: “Can you give me another example of Player Bleed.”
Worf: “Yes, sometimes I grew impatient with the sneaking and lock picking and stealthing and instead I just moved forward ready to bring the situation to a head. This was a common problem. There were bards and rangers and wizards in the main campaign that I played that all should have been sneakier than they eventually were. My Klingon impatience “bleeding” through.
Interviewer: Anymore examples for yourself?
Worf: He thought about David and Sora and smiled inside, but outwardly just shook his head ‘no’.
Interviewer: “What about the other players? Did you notice any bleed with them?”
Worf: He thought for a moment and then spoke. “Yes, but just one. Guinan seemed obsessed with owning a bar.”
Interviewer: “When did you first notice the bigger problems with the holodeck?”
Wesley: “Immediately. The first day of the main campaign, the ‘Tyranny of Dragons.’ The settings of the game had changed more than I intended. I tried to make it just a little more difficult but the game played much harder. Vash (Layleighlana) died the first day. Worf and a Redshirt (Kruger and Suadade) died at third level. I tried adjusting the difficulty level but it didn’t work. I tried a hard reboot and it failed. Then O’brien (Jonah) died. Deanna insisted on entering the program, she thought she could help make the characters aware they were in a simulation and then they could break free. We programed her to enter the game as a chef in the castle the group. We even gave her an A.I. assistant named Peter, but it didn’t go as planned. She immediately became a fighter and joined the adventure while Peter…met an untimely and almost immediate demise.
Then Riker (Porter) died. The rest of the group barely escaped. They were hardly progressing in the adventure while dying like flies. I tried everything I could think of but nothing worked. The program wasn’t responding as it should. I did manage to get the Redshirt out shortly after Worf’s second death (Bania) and before O’brien’s second (Rach), but I couldn’t replicate it.
Interviewer: So the players were stuck in the simulation and it was more deadly than it should have been. Were there other problems?
Wesley: Well, during our diagnostics we noticed, and again was primarily with Worf, something we called Character Bleed. Attributes of some of this characters were appearing in other characters.”
Interviewer: Examples?
Wesley: Well, Worf’s first character was supposed to have these dragon tattoos on his forearms magically appear the next time he leveled. Part of his background was that this Kruger character came from a family of sorcerers. Well Kruger died too early for that. The tattoo theme came back with his next character Bania, but on his back this time. And after Bania died his next character Toobee got the same tattoo. Then, after the fast forward to the Desert Campaign the Average Joe character had a back tattoo.
Interviewer: And that was supposed to be a divination tool for another of Worf’s characters?
Wesley: “Yes, FastStaff, who was actually a Walder but I forget the number.” Wesley’s speech begins to pick up speed. “One of the last Walders. But Average Joe and Faststaff died early too. And did you see what happened with the tattoo after that? Right before the body got harvested for blood? Yeah, for some reason the tattoo peeled itself off and flew in shadow tattoo dragon form to David and planted itself on his back. David doesn’t even know it is there and it seems to be playing no part in the story, and yet it’s there. It’s like the program is at conflict with itself. It has these story lines it wants to run through the characers yet the program kills the characters off before the story line comes to fruition, so the program tries moves the storyline to the next character. It can’t have been designed that way!”
Interviewer: Were there other signs of character bleed?
Wesley: “Oh yeah, David was hearing the voice of Kruger in his head, mostly when David was around water. And even Yetto, who is supposed to be one type of Bard, not a singer type, more of an orator. But what happens shortly after Worf is playing Yetto? A Toobee type song, Little Sister. Pretty damn good actually. Way better than anything Yetto should be doing.”
Wesley continuing: “But that’s not all, the bleed was so bad other characters were being affected. Oni started seeing Average Joe intermittently when he looked at David.”
Interviewer: What other steps did you take to rescue the crew members stuck inside?
Wesley: “After a TPK, yeah even Data died, he had managed to survive up until that point, the only one to do so. Anyway, after the TPK I thought the game might end but they were still stuck and starting to respawn with new characters again. I tried a fast forward feature in the program. I moved ahead in the story, trying to get to the end. The game just adjusted and continued. 2000 years I went, way farther than any simulation or game should go, but it did. And the simulation became even more deadly, somehow.” Wesley shakes his head in frustration. “It became a desert world where the sun or thirst could just as easily kill them as any monster they had previously faced.”
Interviewer: What came next?
Wesley: “We didn’t know what to do, we thought it was all over. But before it can be all over you have to know how it all really started.
How it all really started.
Q had been bored. Sometimes when boredom struck him he would visit the Enterprise and try to have a little fun with Captain Picard. On one of these visit he happened upon Wesley Crusher who happened to be in a full on binge of late 20th and early 21st century entertainment. Watching Wesley feast on old sci fi movies, sit coms, video games and the like captured Q’s interest. Q knew of Picard’s and Wesley’s history and how Wesley could bother the captain with his presence. Since bothering Picard always pleased Q he decided to hang around and make use of the situation, surreptitiously of course.
When Wesley discovered Dungeons and Dragons, Q had the first inkling of an idea. When Wesley started looking for a way to combine the Holodeck with D&D, Q became inspired. And when Q discovered what the crew had done to Moriarty, Q thought it was time to have some fun with Picard, 20th century style.
The end of The End.
“Wesley, status report.” Picard commanded through the communications system.
“Sir, there is nothing we can do, we can’t get them out.” Wesley replied
“Sorry captain.” Geordi added with a note of despair in his voice.
Picard closed communication and looked down. He gave his shirt a tug and gathered himself. Moments later the view screen was filled again with the image of the Romulan captain,
“Well Captain Picard? Will you surrender the holodeck, or shall we step over your dead body to get it.”
Picard again tried to reason with the Romulans. His crew was stuck inside he pleaded, he needed time, but the Romulans were having none of it.
“Enough Captain. We are tired of your delays and excuses. Prepare to die.”
But instead of firing the Romulans just looked at Picard for a moment before speaking again.
“One last thing Captain. I want to know your answer to one final question before you die.”
There was a pause for dramatic effect, and then “Are you scared? …. Because you shouldn’t be, you’re on Scare Tactics!”
Picard stood dumbfounded, not understanding the implications of what he just heard. The Romulan no longer looked so menacing. In fact he was smiling. “You’re friend Q set you up.”
“What is the meaning of this?” Picard roared as Q materialized next to him. Simultaneously the Romulans disappeared, the ship was repaired and the holodeck resumed operating normally.
“Oh come on captain. What? You didn’t like your crew trapped in the holodeck unaware they were in a simulation with no hope of escape? I guess something like that is only suitable for troublesome adversaries, but never for people you care for?” Q looked on mockingly at Picard.
Picard stood silently for a moment, thinking over what Q had just said before replying “Moriarity.” It wasn’t a question.
“Yes captain, Moriarty.”
“So, you thought what I did to Moriarty was wrong and you wanted to teach me a lesson?”
“No captain, I thought what you did to Moriarty was devilishly clever and a bit diabolical. I loved it. And as a certain Vulcan science officer once said “Sauce for the goose, Mr. Saavik.”