[Image courtesy of Wikipedia.]
Last month, the world collectively mourned the loss of the Opportunity Rover, as NASA declared that the incredible machine’s marathon body of work on Mars had officially ended.
Its mission was meant to last 90 days. Opportunity vastly overperformed, delivering photos and data for a mind-blowing fifteen years of service. The Little Engine That Could has got nothing on the Opportunity Rover.
The outpouring of sadness and affection for the Rover surprised many, serving as a heartwarming reminder of the amazing things we can accomplish. It also represents our almost magical ability to come together as a people in appreciation of an icon, one we’d come to adore and anthropomorphize into a plucky, inquisitive adventurer.
[Image courtesy of Tom Gauld.]
As you might expect, a character with this much esteem couldn’t pass into history without the game community immortalizing it in some way, shape, or form.
Thanks to WalrockHomebrew, an independent content creator for RPGs like Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition, the Opportunity Rover can now be part of your roleplaying campaigns!
Creating not only full stats for Oppy as a neutral good construct but a plausible explanation for how this real-world scientific device has found itself in a magical universe, WalrockHomebrew has crafted a fun fictional legacy for the much-loved rover.
Understandably, Oppy isn’t much of a fighter, though it can use its rock abrasion tool to scratch at any potential foes. It’s far more capable as an observer, seeing through magical illusions and glamours.
It can even see invisible creatures and creatures in the Ethereal Plane. As far as we know, the actual rover couldn’t.
Though, if it could, I suspect its reports to NASA would’ve been front page material every single day.
[WalrockHomebrew even offered rules for how to restore the rover in-game to full operational capacity. Pretty cool!]
This is a wonderful tribute to one of the most amazing devices ever conceived. Thank you, Oppy, for all of the wonders you revealed.
And thank you, WalrockHomebrew, for letting us hold onto that magic in an unexpected and delightful way.
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