David! You inspired the following:

Arena - A place to perfom sports before the public - gladiatorial combat, racing, ball sports, and other competition., Add 0.5 to Yearly Fragment Value.

Gardens - Beautifully landscaped vistas of enchanting lovliness entrance visitors, earning 0.5 to Fragment Yearly Value and conservation of variegated plants gains 0.5 to Raw Vegetable Resource Value.

Brad! You inspired the following:

Air Carrier - This improvement requires a Keeled Shard with Sails and Fortification. By  placing protected roost chambers with exits along the shard sides, the shard can be used to carry large numbers of aerial knights into combat, and hopefully, safey out again.

Dave! That's what the game is all about!

Premier! Only thing I got from you was this:

Fish Farm - Fish bred in artificially constructed lakes in intensive aquaculture. Add 2 to Raw Animal Resource Value.

The spices are covered under Plantation above.

Already had Timber Forest. :<

Magical Artificial Lodestones are wonderful, but they are out because the only magic is inherent in the stone (Stone shaping and shipstone) and living things (Alchemy).

Sun Piracy is brilliant, but the surface is a terrifying bloody haunt crawling with monsters, with no possible civilization, which is why the only civilization is in the skylands.

Quote from: flyingmice;857080OHT, your reply inspired:

Hunting Reserve - Setting aside an area to be left wild for hunting. Add 1 to Raw Animal Resource Value.

Plantation - Growing high value non-food crops on part of arable land to earn higher net profit. Add 2 to Raw Vegetable Resource Value

Training Facility - Area for training recruits. Add + 0.5 to Fragment Yearly Value.

Hospital - Combines medical practices with alchemical potions. Add +2 to Fragment Yearly Value from grateful patients.

Jadrax - your reply inspired:

Keeling - Shaping shipstone under the fragment to optimize directional facing ability and enhance steering.

Battering Ram - Shaping a small fragment as a mobile instrument to crush enemy fortifications.

Honeycombing - Riddling a Shard or Clot (small fragments) with voids and passages so that the maximum volume can be occupied.

Bren, your reply inspired:

Lightening - Removing excess non-shipstone so that the fragment flies higher. Remove 1 from Raw Vegetable Resource Value and move Water modifier up one category.

Brendan, I got nothing! It sounded like wicked pissah fun, though!

Here's an issue I have with the first two:  Climate change.  By moving a fragment you'd change things like the typical weather pattern, the warming or cooling of the local air, currents and stuff, would make growing food, or keeping certain types of animals difficult.

Hunting (or just plain animal) preserves wouldn't be too hard, but you'd need to be savvy about what type of climates the animals you'd be keeping are like, it's the plantation and farming that's more worrisome.  Certain plants die if you change the weather by a degree or two in any direction.

Quote from: Christopher Brady;857108Here's an issue I have with the first two:  Climate change.  By moving a fragment you'd change things like the typical weather pattern, the warming or cooling of the local air, currents and stuff, would make growing food, or keeping certain types of animals difficult.

Hunting (or just plain animal) preserves wouldn't be too hard, but you'd need to be savvy about what type of climates the animals you'd be keeping are like, it's the plantation and farming that's more worrisome.  Certain plants die if you change the weather by a degree or two in any direction.

Certain types of plants are indeed extremely sensitive to small changes in climate, but most are far more hardy. Looking at range maps, this is quickly apparent. If you were keeping that sort of plant, then you would have to fly a rigorously precise route. If your plants are hardier, then you can be more free in your course. I leave it up to the group to decide exactly which they are carrying, as this isn't Earth.

Quote from: flyingmice;857109Certain types of plants are indeed extremely sensitive to small changes in climate, but most are far more hardy. Looking at range maps, this is quickly apparent. If you were keeping that sort of plant, then you would have to fly a rigorously precise route. If your plants are hardier, then you can be more free in your course. I leave it up to the group to decide exactly which they are carrying, as this isn't Earth.

Well, you could also have some Fragments bring their own climate with them, magically or otherwise, which also would overcome some problems.

The key element with Hunting Ranges would be ease of access.  If you've got exotic animals to hunt, it'll do you no good if your potential customers can't reach you.

Also, unless you're using the plantation to feed yourself, there's the issue of why bother selling your crops, if people can get the same food on the ground level, so to speak.

Not trying to shoot this down, but I had a similar idea for a campaign setting (which got drastically changed) a few years ago, and my players (two of them are Science Teachers, one's a historical nut and the other one, well, he doesn't care) tore my idea apart, so I just want to see how someone else deals with these same questions.  In fact, the more people can answer, the better for me!

Quote from: Christopher Brady;857113Well, you could also have some Fragments bring their own climate with them, magically or otherwise, which also would overcome some problems.

The key element with Hunting Ranges would be ease of access.  If you've got exotic animals to hunt, it'll do you no good if your potential customers can't reach you.

Also, unless you're using the plantation to feed yourself, there's the issue of why bother selling your crops, if people can get the same food on the ground level, so to speak.

Not trying to shoot this down, but I had a similar idea for a campaign setting (which got drastically changed) a few years ago, and my players (two of them are Science Teachers, one's a historical nut and the other one, well, he doesn't care) tore my idea apart, so I just want to see how someone else deals with these same questions.  In fact, the more people can answer, the better for me!

Ah! it's not exotic animals so much as it is normal animals which are not domesticated. The surface is crawling with monsters, to the point that civilization is not possible, so hunting meat on the surface is very dangerous. Putting deer or moose or antelope in a hunting park up on a fragment makes things a lot safer.

Quote from: flyingmice;857114Ah! it's not exotic animals so much as it is normal animals which are not domesticated. The surface is crawling with monsters, to the point that civilization is not possible, so hunting meat on the surface is very dangerous. Putting deer or moose or antelope in a hunting park up on a fragment makes things a lot safer.

This changes the entire dynamic then.  If these Fragments are so safe (and why shouldn't they be?) then most human (and other) races would likely abandon the surface world and just plain live on the Fragments.

Even if the Lands Below isn't as dangerous as they might be suggested, and even if people could live on the surface for generations without ever having to face a monster, why bother the risk of being attacked even remotely, where you can settle someplace where you know you won't be?

What I would do with a Fragment, with a company of mercenaries or heroes, with access to aircraft for transportation and it's half the size of Rhode Island (which is a substantial size of land)?  Make a new home, a Kingdom.  Like every other sane (and that frankly, can be a dubious belief that there are sane people left) person would.

Humans in general do not like to gamble, they will settle for the safe bet, in my experience.  And these Fragments are the safe bet.

Quote from: Christopher Brady;857119This changes the entire dynamic then.  If these Fragments are so safe (and why shouldn't they be?) then most human (and other) races would likely abandon the surface world and just plain live on the Fragments.

Even if the Lands Below isn't as dangerous as they might be suggested, and even if people could live on the surface for generations without ever having to face a monster, why bother the risk of being attacked even remotely, where you can settle someplace where you know you won't be?

What I would do with a Fragment, with a company of mercenaries or heroes, with access to aircraft for transportation and it's half the size of Rhode Island (which is a substantial size of land)?  Make a new home, a Kingdom.  Like every other sane (and that frankly, can be a dubious belief that there are sane people left) person would.

Humans in general do not like to gamble, they will settle for the safe bet, in my experience.  And these Fragments are the safe bet.

Humans can and do live on the surface, but it isn't a pretty life. They are currently nomad hunter-gatherers whose ancestors never fled to the sky. They are constantly hunted by the monsters, though they hunt back against some of the weaker ones. They are tricky, wily, and incredible in the wild, but they maintain no civilization. Just an oral memory of times before.

But we are getting way off topic! The replies have been extremely useful so far!

Is there ever a political, military, economic or other need to join several fragments together? If so, there might be a Masons' Guild who carve flat sections into the sides of fragments with various cog-like projections and clefts that fit together, so islands can be joined together like LEGO blocks.

Oh, and if the surface is so dangerous but there's nevertheless some reason to go down there for adventuring or whatnot, then some smaller islands might specialise in high-speed diving & recovery: tether the small island to a large one, fill it with ballast, cut the tethers, it sinks down. Once you're done, you drop the ballast and float back up. Probably also loaded up with ballistae, Greek Fire throwers and whatnot to discourage anything nasty that might want to get onboard. Good for transporting groups too large for normal airships.

Ritualistic burial platform. Not just any burials. Sky burials.

Quote from: Premier;857144Is there ever a political, military, economic or other need to join several fragments together? If so, there might be a Masons' Guild who carve flat sections into the sides of fragments with various cog-like projections and clefts that fit together, so islands can be joined together like LEGO blocks.

Yes, they do, but I already have this improvement - it's called Profiling. Excellent job, Premier!

QuoteOh, and if the surface is so dangerous but there's nevertheless some reason to go down there for adventuring or whatnot, then some smaller islands might specialise in high-speed diving & recovery: tether the small island to a large one, fill it with ballast, cut the tethers, it sinks down. Once you're done, you drop the ballast and float back up. Probably also loaded up with ballistae, Greek Fire throwers and whatnot to discourage anything nasty that might want to get onboard. Good for transporting groups too large for normal airships.

Now that is interesting! There are indeed reasons for visiting the surface - monsters have parts harvested for alchemy, picking up specimens of normal plants and animals for possible use on the fragments, and occasional trade with the surface tribes - but in small groups. I'll think on this because it's very cool, and thus tempting.

Mr. Kent - not much call for this, but a profitable one when required! Mausoleums for great leaders and prophets! Thank you! I will write it up when I get home.

Quote from: flyingmice;857158Mr. Kent - not much call for this, but a profitable one when required! Mausoleums for great leaders and prophets! Thank you! I will write it up when I get home.

Carve entire fragments into the faces of famous leaders and heroes; having four fragments as a loose flying Mt Rushmore bearing down on another fragment would be awesome.

I like that, rawma! Call it Colossal Art!

Quote from: flyingmice;857143Humans can and do live on the surface, but it isn't a pretty life. They are currently nomad hunter-gatherers whose ancestors never fled to the sky. They are constantly hunted by the monsters, though they hunt back against some of the weaker ones. They are tricky, wily, and incredible in the wild, but they maintain no civilization. Just an oral memory of times before.

But we are getting way off topic! The replies have been extremely useful so far!

Are they?  I find that most of them assume that these Fragments are one offs.  Nothing to take too seriously, nor expecting anyone living on them for more than a retired adventurer's project.

Then again, you never mentioned how difficult it was to live on the surface, so it's natural that very few of the people here would think that way...

Well, I've got nothing funny to add as ideas, sorry.  Happy Gaming.

Quote from: Christopher Brady;857322Are they?  I find that most of them assume that these Fragments are one offs.  Nothing to take too seriously, nor expecting anyone living on them for more than a retired adventurer's project.

Then again, you never mentioned how difficult it was to live on the surface, so it's natural that very few of the people here would think that way...

Well, I've got nothing funny to add as ideas, sorry.  Happy Gaming.

They get me thinking laterally, which is a good thing. I know most of them have been a bit wacky and meant to be funny, but if you take them seriously and say "Why would anyone do anything like this in this setting?" interesting ideas come up. For example, no one would waste a fragment as a ritual graveyard, they are too precious, but putting the mausoleum of a revered prophet there would generate pilgrimage. Pilgrims spend money. Money is a return on investment. That's eminently practical, but I wouldn't have thought about it without the original post.

-clash