Exciting and Exotic Battle Scene

[Grifter86]

Hello all,

This is the deal: I'm doing a Deadlands d20 game, and I have planned a battle on top of a zeppelin about to explode. The characters are fighting for a place on an escape chair against southern assassins (the imminent explosion of the zeppelin isn't related to their activities; the owner has heavily insured the unprofitable zeppelin and now plans on collecting).

In such a battle, what rules mechanics should I employ to make the fight exciting?

Should I have the PC's make a balance check every time they are struck? Note that the zeppelin's design includes a "safety banister" that escapees can use to safely navigate the top of the zeppelin.

Any suggestions are welcome. Thank you for taking the time to read this.

 

[kreynolds]

I'm doing a Deadlands d20 game...

First, this should go here. But to answer your question...

Should I have the PC's make a balance check every time they are struck?

Seriously, dude, that is an awesome idea. Wish I had come up with something like that.

 

[Pielorinho]

Sounds like a great battle. My own favorite battle setpiece occurred on a storm-tossed ship; this does that idea about three or four better.

Some ideas:
-Have it be windy up there, with the top deck a little bit unstable. Moving more than half your movement rate requires a balance check, DC 10; charging or running requires a check DC 15. If you fail either check, you're prone; if you fail by more than 5, you go overboard.
-There are ropes all along the side of the zeppelin, holding the balloon and allowing for people to climb over its surface to do repairs. Someone who falls over may make a reflex save (DC 10) to grab hold of a rope. Allow a +2 competence bonus for any character with at least one rank in use rope.

The idea here is that you really WANT someone to fall over the side, but you also want them to catch themselves and hang onto the side of the zeppelin. If that happens, you've got some fine action going. You may even want to lower the reflex check: these ropes are also intended to be safety mechanisms for anyone that falls over the side of the zeppelin, so they're easy to grab onto.

If possible, the explosion shouldn't be one big boom: it should be a small explosion that rocks the zeppelin, followed two or three rounds later by the big one. When the small explosion occurs, everyone makes a DC 15 balance check, as above.

How do zeppelins turn -- do they use big rudders, or blowing fans? At any rate, they probably have big fun moving parts that should figure into the fight: if there are rudders, the bad guys might cut the ropes on the rudders, sending the zeppelin careening out of control and forcing the PCs to dodge out of the way of the swinging rudder; if there are big fans, they should be shooting at the PCs through the spinning blades of the fan (this could provide 50% cover to the PC, with shots spinging off of the fans and possibly even breaking their blades).

Although it's not a particularly good movie, watch Wild Wild West: it's got an extended battle sequence on a zeppelin, and is the closest I've ever seen to a movie version of Deadlands.

Man, I wish I could play in this session!
Daniel

 

[IceBear]

The Rocketeer had a similar battle sequence. (Jennifer Connelly

is also in it, so that's all the more reason)

IceBear

 

[AuraSeer]

The idea here is that you really WANT someone to fall over the side, but you also want them to catch themselves and hang onto the side of the zeppelin. If that happens, you've got some fine action going. You may even want to lower the reflex check: these ropes are also intended to be safety mechanisms for anyone that falls over the side of the zeppelin, so they're easy to grab onto.

If you don't want to kill people off, you may want to fudge it. Instead of having the player roll his own check, ask him what his Reflex save is, then roll some dice and tell him he made it. Otherwise, no matter how easy you make the save, someone will manage to fail.

I ran a battle on top of a bell tower once, and a character got knocked off the side of the platform. I gave him four chances to make a save and grab something-- a companion's hand, the bannister, the side of the platform, one of the bell ropes-- but he rolled lots of 1s and 2s, and went splat at the bottom.

[typo]

 

[Pielorinho]

If you don't want to kill people off, you may want to fudge it. Instead of having the player roll his own check, ask him what his Reflex save is, then roll some dice and tell him he made it. Otherwise, no matter how easy you make the save, someone will manage to fail.

(I agree, AuraSeer -- if the DM is willing to fudge, this is a great place to do it. I'd even say it's okay to fudge twice -- once on the balance check, and once on the reflex check -- in order to get the cool scene. But that's borderline blasphemy in the rules forum, so I didn't mention it in my original post )

Daniel

 

[phillipjp]

You could also give a fall range, say 60 feet. Then for every point the character makes the save by they catch the rope 5' up.

Then, of course, on their next round(s) they have to spend action(s) climbing.

 

[Maitre Du Donjon]

One thing i think you should look out for is that you don't get too bogged down in dice-rolling. The action should be fast-paced, and rolling 2, 3 more dice for every creature involved in the fight might slow things down a bit...

Nevertheless, this ought to be a great session!

Maitre D

 

[kreynolds]

Although it's not a particularly good movie, watch Wild Wild West: it's got an extended battle sequence on a zeppelin...

It does?

It's been a while since I've seen it, but I don't remember that. Where about was it in the movie?

 

[IceBear]

Actually, that's true - I saw it once and I remember a battle on a mechanical spider but not in a zepplin. Maybe he's thinking of The Rockeeter (Hmmmmm.....Jennifer......hmmmmmm......)

IceBear