I'm certain that this has been done before (not thinking of Spelljammer, but something more like....)
Sky Pirates. A world where there are literal airships, tech level otherwise about that of the 1600 - 1700s. Spanish Main kinda stuff. Maybe throw in some magic or steampunk-style technology. Cannons. Fencing. Floating ports or forts or cities held up by huge balloons, or some kind of "liftwood". Hidden jungle kingdoms. Globe-straddling Empires patrolling the skies. Secret societies. Mythical treasures. Stuff like that. Earth, or not-Earth, or an analog.
Been done before? Does it need to be done? Thoughts? Suggestions?
Isn't Chad Underkoffler doing something along these lines right now?*
That said -- Gliders. Not prop-driven planes, but gliders launched from airborne platforms. Silent, spiraling dogfights on the updrafts high above the ground.
!i!
[*Edit: Swashbucklers of the Seven Skies (http://evilhat.wikidot.com/s7s)]
Ah, dangit! Well, he has literal sky kingdoms, I wasn't going that far with it.
I think Space: 1889 might be a close-ish fit too, at least in feel if not in technology.
In fact, just jotted down this:
Liftwood:
Specially treated hardwood from the jungles of various equitorial islands. When a weak electrical current is passed through the wood, it lifts, hence its name. The amount of lift is based on the amount of current and the amount of wood: larger currents through more wood = greater lift. Small dry-cell bateries and about 5 lbs of wood is enough to lift a man, and the current can be varied to increase/decrease the lift. Keels and running boards of liftwood and larger banks of cells or generators will lift a ship. While liftwood will lift, it does not provide motive force. For that, sails are needed.
World:
Two larger continents, lots of scattered islands. Earth-analog, with the "England" of the world competing with the "Spain" of the world, and the "France" of the world working both sides of the coin. All three countries have liftwood technology, but there is one other large empire, a "China" analog, without liftwood but with other technologies/abilities that make up for it. Gold, silver, gems, etc. are greatly valued, but liftwood even moreso. The best liftwood comes from the oldest trees, so even though liftwood plantations can be justified, their wood is far inferior, and not suitable for shipbuilding. Exploration is driven by the search for ancient liftwood jungles and the fabled wealth of mythical lost empires.
How about this for liftwood. The lift property is not an inherent quality of the species of tree itself, but of a peculiar mineral dissolved in the local water table. Foreign discoverers haven't worked this out yet, but the "lift" effect is the result of a sufficient concentration of this mineral in the woody tissues of mature trees. Other materials could potentially be imbued with lift properties as well, if only the mineral and a process could be discovered. In the meantime, liftwood is a highly limited resource that requires fevered exploration and entrepreneurship to exploit.
Also, with an effective limit on the amount of liftwood, more conventional methods of flight (like gliders!) are vital for projecting power into the skies beyond a nation's liftwood platforms.
!i!
Hmm... yes. That would explain why mature trees are needed, quite nicely. Your shipboard doctor/naturalist could be tryingto figure out the properties of Liftwood as well as finding new species of bugs.
I added the "electrical current" idea to keep the trees from floating away on their own, although a lightning strike during a storm might prove interesting. A low-tech Traveller misjump. :)
And yes, gliders - how else are you going to board enemy ships? And if you can run silent on a moonless night and get close enough, you might be able to take a ship without a shot fired! Or raid a port town - swashbuckling commandos!
Every so often I feel like I must be mentally connected to some cosmic zietgeist generator or something. About a month ago I was busy laying out the foundation for a 'sky pirates' setting that, sadly, failed to get off the ground.
Mine had more to do with a mad scientist being exiled from his 'home ground' taking to the air in a alchemical air galleon and a huge church organization declaring flight heretical... unless used by the church or with church approval. Thus you had holy fliers dogfighting against heretical pirates over resources the 'groundless' needed but could never get legally.
Quote from: WerekoalaAnd yes, gliders - how else are you going to board enemy ships?
Ornithopters ... with the big motor-driven wings flapping so fast that they're nothing but a rip-saw blur. They hover, they bank, they loop ... they're everything a sky pirate needs.
(http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/ee110/TonyLB_photos/Ornithopter.jpg)
Quote from: WerekoalaAnd yes, gliders - how else are you going to board enemy ships? And if you can run silent on a moonless night and get close enough, you might be able to take a ship without a shot fired! Or raid a port town - swashbuckling commandos!
I used gliders in Sweet Chariot, exactly as you described... :D
Also steam-powered fighter blimps.
-clash
Liftwood chariots with the traces filled by 6 geese, specially bred for size and strength? Possibly as cool/cooler than gliders?
Human powered air-screws, propelling specially outfitted boarding longboats?
skies of arcadia for the dreamcast has similar stuff going on. tried to put that element into my 3.x game years ago but the players never went near that action. :( i was able to bring a gnomish sky galleon into play, but they didn't get to explore that part of the campaign world.
if i even get to run fantasy again, that sort of stuff is going right back in.
weren't there sky corsairs or the like in earthdawn?
Quote from: TonyLBOrnithopters ... with the big motor-driven wings flapping so fast that they're nothing but a rip-saw blur. They hover, they bank, they loop ... they're everything a sky pirate needs.
(http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/ee110/TonyLB_photos/Ornithopter.jpg)
Holy cats, I completely forgot about
Castle in the Sky! That's a great movie.
!i!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sky_Pirates!
When I read the title of this thread. I automatically thought Crimson Skies. But this has proved very fun and interesting as well.
Quote from: WerekoalaSky Pirates. A world where there are literal airships, tech level otherwise about that of the 1600 - 1700s. Spanish Main kinda stuff. Maybe throw in some magic or steampunk-style technology. Cannons. Fencing. Floating ports or forts or cities held up by huge balloons, or some kind of "liftwood". Hidden jungle kingdoms. Globe-straddling Empires patrolling the skies. Secret societies. Mythical treasures. Stuff like that. Earth, or not-Earth, or an analog.
I am
so down with this, I cannot put it into words. Instead, I will express my enthusiasm through spastic, nonsensical gibberish:
GWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGHHHH, lubbalubbalubbalubba WOOPT-WOOPT-WOOPT ghaaark! ghaaark! ghaaark! GNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOHHHH, MOMMA! (wipes chin)
Thank you.
Menschheit! Zum Himmel!
Oooo...channeling some Doctor Zorbo there. Sorry.
There are airships in Realm-Antique. The game is set in a late 18th/early19th century parallel earth.
Not really familiar with Eberron, but aren't there elemental-powered airships scootin' around there?
AH! it appears that there are!
(http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/eb_gallery/82108.jpg)
and it that's not cool, then I don't wanna see what is! :P
Meridian by CrossGen Comics
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meridian_%28comics%29
Both of these Compilations have a little of what you are looking for.
Victorian Hero Resources
http://herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=30759
Pulp Hero Resources
http://herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=30071
Good luck
QM
Upsidasium (http://www.hjo3.net/gurps/steam/index.htm)
I was thinking of stealing this idea but pushing things back to a middle ages light fantasy setting. Kinda Ars Magica Punk.
Quote from: WerekoalaI'm certain that this has been done before (not thinking of Spelljammer, but something more like....)
Sky Pirates. A world where there are literal airships, tech level otherwise about that of the 1600 - 1700s. Spanish Main kinda stuff. Maybe throw in some magic or steampunk-style technology. Cannons. Fencing. Floating ports or forts or cities held up by huge balloons, or some kind of "liftwood". Hidden jungle kingdoms. Globe-straddling Empires patrolling the skies. Secret societies. Mythical treasures. Stuff like that. Earth, or not-Earth, or an analog.
Been done before? Does it need to be done? Thoughts? Suggestions?
I watched Stardust (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0486655/) last night, which has something similar. Captain Shakespeare (Robert De Niro), flies a vessel that looks like a cross between a galleon and a zeppelin. It flies, but also lands in the water (which is an awesome scene). It's
almost believable, except for the mechanical "wings" that spread out in flight and flap like a bird. The crew of the ship are basically a bunch of pirates that make a living collecting lightning from storm clouds.
The whole thing was pretty cool. I reckon I might try and pick up the graphic novel that it was based upon. Definitely inspirational material for roleplaying.
I'm pretty sure those wings were only there to collect the lightning they bottled... itself a totally awesome concept. Particularly the part where it seemed like they were poaching it somehow....
Quote from: SpikeI'm pretty sure those wings were only there to collect the lightning they bottled... itself a totally awesome concept. Particularly the part where it seemed like they were poaching it somehow....
The
entire movie was a cornucopia of roleplaying ideas.
Quote from: Tyberious FunkThe entire movie was a cornucopia of roleplaying ideas.
What? You expect me to argue????
;)
It may not fit all your criteria, but we have a free world book for JAGS called C -13: The Thirteen Colonies that is an alternate reality with steampunk / pulp sensibilities. The idea is that magic experienced a resurgence and changed history. In the C13 reality America is still composed of the 13 colonies and there is around a 1920's-1940's tech level.
There is an adventure called Sky Pirates that has the characters investigating blimp heists over New York City. There is a GURPS conversion. All of it is free.
Link below.
-Marco
Quote from: MarcoIt may not fit all your criteria, but we have a free world book for JAGS called C -13: The Thirteen Colonies that is an alternate reality with steampunk / pulp sensibilities. The idea is that magic experienced a resurgence and changed history. In the C13 reality America is still composed of the 13 colonies and there is around a 1920's-1940's tech level.
There is an adventure called Sky Pirates that has the characters investigating blimp heists over New York City. There is a GURPS conversion. All of it is free.
Link below.
-Marco
It also kick nineteen kinds of ass. It's what turned me on to JAGS way back when. :D
-clash
Speaking of JAGS, I read the Wonderland stuff a couple years back. Pretty damn impressive handling of what might have otherwise seemed like a bad joke.
Of course, I got no clue how JAGS works from that, but hey!
Quote from: SpikeSpeaking of JAGS, I read the Wonderland stuff a couple years back. Pretty damn impressive handling of what might have otherwise seemed like a bad joke.
Of course, I got no clue how JAGS works from that, but hey!
You shouldn't, any more than reading The Big Book o' Tech will tell you how StarCluster works! It's a supplement, watt-head! :D
Marco has written tons of excellent supplemental material for JAGS, all of it free - but three supplements stand out as trancendant - C-13, Have-Not, and Wonderland. Brilliant, brilliant stuff!
-clash
Quote from: Tyberious FunkI watched Stardust (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0486655/) last night, which has something similar. Captain Shakespeare (Robert De Niro), flies a vessel that looks like a cross between a galleon and a zeppelin. It flies, but also lands in the water (which is an awesome scene). It's almost believable, except for the mechanical "wings" that spread out in flight and flap like a bird. The crew of the ship are basically a bunch of pirates that make a living collecting lightning from storm clouds.
The whole thing was pretty cool. I reckon I might try and pick up the graphic novel that it was based upon. Definitely inspirational material for roleplaying.
That movie ROCKED, so hard in fact that I saw a bunch of Finnish Death Metal guys running away from it, wiping mascara from their eyes, screaming "Tevreden, niet zo hard!"
Anyway I interpreted the wing-thingies as a steering mechanism or maybe an energy-collector or something. Hell, I dunno, I'm just gonna buy the DVD as soon as it's available and watch it again because that movie was so bad-ass that I saw Shaft and Nick Fury hiding from it in a trash can one day at the Safeway. After I do so I can drop you a line, if I can still walk because DAMN.
weirdly, I pretty much thought the movie should have ended about the time he punked out the other suiter back in his own side of the wall. Everything after was just tying up loose ends for me....
Not that they didn't need to do all that, but really. THAT was the end of the main character's story arc.
Quote from: Dr Rotwang!That movie ROCKED, so hard in fact that I saw a bunch of Finnish Death Metal guys running away from it, wiping mascara from their eyes, screaming "Tevreden, niet zo hard!"
Anyway I interpreted the wing-thingies as a steering mechanism or maybe an energy-collector or something. Hell, I dunno, I'm just gonna buy the DVD as soon as it's available and watch it again because that movie was so bad-ass that I saw Shaft and Nick Fury hiding from it in a trash can one day at the Safeway. After I do so I can drop you a line, if I can still walk because DAMN.
Well, I don't quite know about
that. I thought the plot rambled a bit at times... something quite common when a screenplay is adapted from a book or comic. But I definitely thought that the whole idea of the galleon/zeppelin with the crew of pirates collecting lightning could make an awesome story all on it's own. Maybe someone will follow-up with a sequel?
Quote from: SpikeSpeaking of JAGS, I read the Wonderland stuff a couple years back. Pretty damn impressive handling of what might have otherwise seemed like a bad joke.
Of course, I got no clue how JAGS works from that, but hey!
Jags Wonderland and Jags Have-Not are two great settings. C-13 is good too, but, in my opinion, not as good as Wonderland and Have-Not.
Tyberious: I know I...and I suspect the Doc, aren't referring to the overall storytelling when we mention the movie rocking on toast. Instead we refer to the sheer gameablity of it all, of the awesome of skypirates poaching lightning to bottle and sell, of witches eating the hearts of fallen stars to remain young and of candles that take you where you want to go, even if you sort of get distracted and forget where that was.
For mentors, who can go wrong with DeNiro the sky pirate godfather hairdresser? There are so many cliches its actually an 'anticliche' that destroys other cliches on contact.
I'm talking about having come out of a movie going "Wow!" again, for a damned change.
Quote from: SpikeTyberious: I know I...and I suspect the Doc, aren't referring to the overall storytelling when we mention the movie rocking on toast. Instead we refer to the sheer gameablity of it all, of the awesome of skypirates poaching lightning to bottle and sell, of witches eating the hearts of fallen stars to remain young and of candles that take you where you want to go, even if you sort of get distracted and forget where that was.
For mentors, who can go wrong with DeNiro the sky pirate godfather hairdresser? There are so many cliches its actually an 'anticliche' that destroys other cliches on contact.
The interesting thing, is that I didn't see
anything in the movie that couldn't easily be handled in game terms, mechanically speaking. The bottled lightning? Just a Wand of Lightning I guess. The candle? A scroll of teleportation. Stuff that D&D has been doing for years, but made soooooo much more interesting.
The real issue, is about the tone.
I loved the whole notion that in the alternative world (ie, on the other side of the wall), magic was very real. And yet still very, very special. Too many games (eg, D&D, Exalted) make magic so common place that it becomes "ho hum". The alternative seems to be grittier, more historical games where magic is almost non-existant. I love the balance that was struck in
Stardust and I wish I could carry that tone into a game.
Quote from: Tyberious FunkI loved the whole notion that in the alternative world (ie, on the other side of the wall), magic was very real. And yet still very, very special. Too many games (eg, D&D, Exalted) make magic so common place that it becomes "ho hum". The alternative seems to be grittier, more historical games where magic is almost non-existant. I love the balance that was struck in Stardust and I wish I could carry that tone into a game.
that's the trick, eh? i used to think, "wow, let's do something with magic in place of tech." but the more i thought of it (seeing some FR stuff as well) something seemed lacking. and that's it, magic should be special. it's boring to make it the tech replacement (IMO) and it's too easy to go the other, "burn the witches!" route too.
TF, your observation sold me on this flick. as soon as i can rent it, or it becomes available at my library, i'm seeing it! :)
Oh, hey. I meant to post this last weekend, but go too busy. While looking for a new book to read to my kids, I stumbled across this in the children's section: The Last of the Sky Pirates (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_of_the_Sky_Pirates). I'm intrigued by the entire series now.
!i!