Air ships stats & usage????

Lurker · Post by **Lurker** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 12:04 am

Ok I guess Ive been reading my little girl tooooo many fairy tales, watching too may high fantasy movies I say they are for her but a part of my secretly likes it too- and have let DeVincis notebook & sad to say the Clorox commercials get to me.

Ive an itch to add some high fantasy to the notes on (the never ending) home brew world Im working on. Im normally a more gritty & historic bent kind of gamer so Im sure there is a lot more on this out there than I have.

I know there is some work on this kind of ship in space 1898, but I thinking more renaissance.

First what kind of stats would there be for these? Im thinking 5 or 6 different sized ships, from smallish 3-4 man craft to faster 12-14 man ships to larger cargo/cogs and of course smallish and largish war ships.

Second what are the realistic uses (well as realistic as there is in a world where magic flying sail ships exist) for them? Of course the normal movement of people and goods come to mind but the cost for building & maintaining the ships would make the goods VERY expensive. Also quickly carrying information kind of a pony express, but again VERY expensive. And near to my heart, war with ships of the line and paratroopers. But Id think actual galley on galley fighting would be rare (again the expenses). The more fanciful catching lightning (yes stardust is one of the movies that got me thinking down this road) and other spell like components (mist from the heart of a cloud, breath of a storm giant etc.

Last how many would there be in a world. Im thinking my world is about the population of the 1500ish time frame, so the normal navies would be halved also. Id off the top of my head say 1/25 1/50 air ships to normal ships.

Id normally not ask around for this kind of stuff (its my homebrew.) but work has gotten busy and Ive been told by my Sr NCO to finish my school or hed kick my. Also time with the baby (got to watch more of these movies to get more ideas, plus do you know how dark & violent some of the stories for kids are.) and get ready for the other one on the way. So any ideas out there to get me going and help out without reinventing the wheel or sail in this case.

Thanks in advance for any ideas or help
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TheNewGuy · Post by **TheNewGuy** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 1:44 am

Hi Lurker!

I can think of two products which might help you out. They're both d20-based, version 3.x, but adapting things to C&C is pretty easy, according to everyone here. The links below go to the writeups for the PDF versions on RPGNow.

The one I own is Aerial Adventure Guide: The Sky Captain's Handbook by Goodman Games. A good-quality product, pretty exhaustive, and I'm not sorry I bought it. Link is HERE.

There's another one, just out from DragonWing Games, called Airships. I haven't seen it, but I notice that DWG's other PDF products have gotten decent reviews. Also in its favor, the DWG PDF is about five dollars cheaper than the Goodman Games one. Link is HERE.

Hope this helps!

TheNewGuy

anglefish · Post by **anglefish** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 3:20 am

Scattered among several Eberron supplements are some airships as well.

But if you want to get REALLY serious about airship armies, then there should be a wargame. The stuff I've found so far, though focus on either Victorian SF or steampunk space.

Lurker · Post by **Lurker** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 12:28 pm

Thanks for the help. I'll check out the pdfs (once I have a chance & a little extra money)

I doubt there would be large scale "airship" battles. I've looked around a little and the average navy in early renaissance was 150 - 400 ships (half again counting all the little fishing type ships big enough to be useful to a navy)). Most of them were pressed into service so not made to fight but usable.

With those numbers I'd say due to the expense of making an airship & maintaining it, a large rich country would have 15 to 20 airships commissioned by the crown and the same to twice that civilian trader ships at most. A poor country only a hand full of small ships if it had any at all.
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serleran · Post by **serleran** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 12:29 pm

Hunt down Sky Point and Vivane, the Earthdawn box set.

Omote · Post by **Omote** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 12:31 pm

Dude, Champions of Mystara... great box set. Lots o' flying ships. Never seen the earthdawn ones though. *shrugs* Perhaps one day.

-O
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Lurker · Post by **Lurker** » Fri Mar 21, 2008 11:17 pm

Thanks!

Quote:
Hunt down Sky Point and Vivane, the Earthdawn box set.

I've never played earthdawn but will give it a look

Quote:
Dude, Champions of Mystara... great box set. Lots o' flying ships. Never seen the earthdawn ones though. *shrugs* Perhaps one day.

-O

I'd forgotten about that. I'll have to look up the articles from Dragon.
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Forgive all spelling errors.

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anglefish · Post by **anglefish** » Sun Mar 23, 2008 11:19 pm

Found another d20 airship book -- Airships (d20) (Bastion Press ).
http://paizo.com/store/downloads/bastio ... rce=search

No idea what it's like.

Brutorz Bill · Post by **Brutorz Bill** » Fri Mar 28, 2008 2:42 pm

I've used airships in the past to good effect. Probably will again. The old Mystara articles in Dragon (*sigh I miss Dragon*) are really good resource for ideas on how an Airship based Campaign might go.

Catweazle · Post by **Catweazle** » Fri Mar 28, 2008 5:55 pm

Hmm, well, if you have gunpowder in your world, then they could be used as bombers. Even if you only have Greek fire, dropping kegs of the stuff overboard will play merry hell with a big set-piece land battle, as would more mundane payloads such as stones or darts (which is how bombers got started in WW1, with darts being dropped out of recon planes).

Feeling wicked? use one to drop soft soap onto the decks of sailing ships (a common and effective tactic at the time); or maybe just drop a couple of beehives on the Grand Emperor's Elite Guard for shits and giggles.

Either way, the strategic power of the castle will never be the same again (one reason I restrict flight in my games).

Don't forget less belligerent uses, either. They're great recon platforms, surprisingly stealthy if they go with the wind, and can keep communication with outposts that are cut off by sea, high mountains or other unsympathetic terrain.
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Lurker · Post by **Lurker** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 1:15 pm

Anglefish Thanks I'll give it a look.

Cat thanks, I hadn't though of the soap, great idea! I like it as it will disable the ship with out causing tooo much damage.

What I'll be using them in is a renaissance game so the use of castles is already on the downturn. Even with that being said, flying ships will be few & far between!
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"And so I am become a knight of the Kingdom of Dreams and Shadows!" - Mark Twain

Forgive all spelling errors.

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