Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Airship Racing with a Dragon
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Fralex" data-source="post: 6874277" data-attributes="member: 6785902"><p><strong>stupid HTML tags</strong></p><p></p><p>Since it's a mummy dragon, maybe a thunderous duststorm would be more thematic?</p><p></p><p>Ever play <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBfHhfxLNPE" target="_blank">Space Team</a>? The gist of the game is, each player's mobile device has a unique set of control panels with bizarre labels, and at random intervals, a player will receive an instruction like "reverse Flanger Seven!" meaning that whoever has Flanger Seven needs to reverse it or bad things happen. It's a clever way to put an emphasis on player communication and teamwork since the person receiving the order rarely is the one capable of carrying it out. Over time, the orders become more rapid and complex, and the game turns into this crazy panicky chaos with everyone frantically shouting out orders and scanning their devices for the things they can do.</p><p></p><p>You could do a similar mechanic on your ramshackle airship. Create a random "encounter" table with a bunch of simple potential emergencies, like "fix leak on left side of envelope" or "rebalance engine 3" and have players roll on it at the starts of their turns. Leave the last half of the table blank so the surprise challenges aren't happening all the time, BUT, depending on whether they did a particularly good or poor job fixing the thing up, roll on the table with advantage or disadvantage, respectively! For example:</p><p></p><table style='width: 100%'><tr><td>D20</td><td>Airship Snafu</td></tr><tr><td>1</td><td><strong><em>Rudder jam. </em></strong>The airship cannot steer. Un-jam the rudder with a DC 15 Strength check.</td></tr><tr><td>2</td><td><strong><em>Tear on envelope. </em></strong>There's a leak on section 1d4 of the balloon. For every unpatched leak, the airship will descend 10 feet per round and lose 10 hit points. A DC 12 Dexterity check can stitch it shut.</td></tr><tr><td>3</td><td><strong><em>Dust mephits.</em></strong> 1d4 <strong>dust mephits</strong>, drawn out by the powerful undead dragon, appear on the ship.</td></tr><tr><td>4</td><td><strong><em>Arcane malfunction.</em></strong> A random engine or magic weapon on the ship has gone offline due to a problem with the sigil network in the core. A successful DC 12 Intelligence (Arcana) check can mend the broken connection.</td></tr><tr><td>5</td><td><strong><em>Targeting system misaligned.</em></strong> A random ship weapon now makes short-range attacks with disadvantage and automatically misses with long-range ones. Recalibrate it with a DC 15 Dexterity check (add proficiency bonus if using tinker's tools or thieves' tools).</td></tr><tr><td>6</td><td><em><strong>Magic weapon overheating.</strong></em> One of the ship's magic weapons begins to smoke. 2d4 rounds later, an explosion of energy deals 3d6 lightning damage to all creatures and structures within 15 feet. Stop it by cooling it down or disconnecting it from the sigil network (a DC 15 Intelligence (Arcana) check) for a round.</td></tr><tr><td>7</td><td><em><strong>Turbulence.</strong></em> Everyone standing on the ship must make a DC 15 Dexterity save or be knocked prone.</td></tr><tr><td>8</td><td><em><strong>Engine overheating.</strong></em> A random engine begins to smoke. If left alone, it catches fire 1d4 rounds later. Stop it by cooling it down or disconnecting it from the sigil network (a DC 15 Intelligence (Arcana) check) for a round.</td></tr><tr><td>9</td><td><em><strong>Engine power imbalance.</strong></em> Swap the energy crystals powering two random engines to correct the imbalance. If left alone, one of them overheats next round.</td></tr><tr><td>10</td><td><em><strong>Loose rigging.</strong></em> A line is loose somewhere and interfering with the ship's stability. If three or more lines come loose, the ship moves at half speed. Pull one back into position with a DC 15 Strength check.</td></tr><tr><td>11</td><td>--</td></tr><tr><td>12</td><td>--</td></tr><tr><td>13</td><td>--</td></tr><tr><td>14</td><td>--</td></tr><tr><td>15</td><td>--</td></tr><tr><td>16</td><td>--</td></tr><tr><td>17</td><td>--</td></tr><tr><td>18</td><td>--</td></tr><tr><td>19</td><td>--</td></tr><tr><td>20</td><td>--</td></tr></table></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Fralex, post: 6874277, member: 6785902"] [b]stupid HTML tags[/b] Since it's a mummy dragon, maybe a thunderous duststorm would be more thematic? Ever play [URL=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBfHhfxLNPE]Space Team[/URL]? The gist of the game is, each player's mobile device has a unique set of control panels with bizarre labels, and at random intervals, a player will receive an instruction like "reverse Flanger Seven!" meaning that whoever has Flanger Seven needs to reverse it or bad things happen. It's a clever way to put an emphasis on player communication and teamwork since the person receiving the order rarely is the one capable of carrying it out. Over time, the orders become more rapid and complex, and the game turns into this crazy panicky chaos with everyone frantically shouting out orders and scanning their devices for the things they can do. You could do a similar mechanic on your ramshackle airship. Create a random "encounter" table with a bunch of simple potential emergencies, like "fix leak on left side of envelope" or "rebalance engine 3" and have players roll on it at the starts of their turns. Leave the last half of the table blank so the surprise challenges aren't happening all the time, BUT, depending on whether they did a particularly good or poor job fixing the thing up, roll on the table with advantage or disadvantage, respectively! For example: [TABLE="width: 500"][TR][TD]D20[/TD][TD]Airship Snafu[/TD][/TR][TR][TD]1[/TD][TD][B][I]Rudder jam. [/I][/B]The airship cannot steer. Un-jam the rudder with a DC 15 Strength check.[/TD][/TR][TR][TD]2[/TD][TD][B][I]Tear on envelope. [/I][/B]There's a leak on section 1d4 of the balloon. For every unpatched leak, the airship will descend 10 feet per round and lose 10 hit points. A DC 12 Dexterity check can stitch it shut.[/TD][/TR][TR][TD]3[/TD][TD][B][I]Dust mephits.[/I][/B] 1d4 [B]dust mephits[/B], drawn out by the powerful undead dragon, appear on the ship.[/TD][/TR][TR][TD]4[/TD][TD][B][I]Arcane malfunction.[/I][/B] A random engine or magic weapon on the ship has gone offline due to a problem with the sigil network in the core. A successful DC 12 Intelligence (Arcana) check can mend the broken connection.[/TD][/TR][TR][TD]5[/TD][TD][B][I]Targeting system misaligned.[/I][/B] A random ship weapon now makes short-range attacks with disadvantage and automatically misses with long-range ones. Recalibrate it with a DC 15 Dexterity check (add proficiency bonus if using tinker's tools or thieves' tools).[/TD][/TR][TR][TD]6[/TD][TD][I][B]Magic weapon overheating.[/B][/I] One of the ship's magic weapons begins to smoke. 2d4 rounds later, an explosion of energy deals 3d6 lightning damage to all creatures and structures within 15 feet. Stop it by cooling it down or disconnecting it from the sigil network (a DC 15 Intelligence (Arcana) check) for a round.[/TD][/TR][TR][TD]7[/TD][TD][I][B]Turbulence.[/B][/I] Everyone standing on the ship must make a DC 15 Dexterity save or be knocked prone.[/TD][/TR][TR][TD]8[/TD][TD][I][B]Engine overheating.[/B][/I] A random engine begins to smoke. If left alone, it catches fire 1d4 rounds later. Stop it by cooling it down or disconnecting it from the sigil network (a DC 15 Intelligence (Arcana) check) for a round.[/TD][/TR][TR][TD]9[/TD][TD][I][B]Engine power imbalance.[/B][/I] Swap the energy crystals powering two random engines to correct the imbalance. If left alone, one of them overheats next round.[/TD][/TR][TR][TD]10[/TD][TD][I][B]Loose rigging.[/B][/I] A line is loose somewhere and interfering with the ship's stability. If three or more lines come loose, the ship moves at half speed. Pull one back into position with a DC 15 Strength check.[/TD][/TR][TR][TD]11[/TD][TD]--[/TD][/TR][TR][TD]12[/TD][TD]--[/TD][/TR][TR][TD]13[/TD][TD]--[/TD][/TR][TR][TD]14[/TD][TD]--[/TD][/TR][TR][TD]15[/TD][TD]--[/TD][/TR][TR][TD]16[/TD][TD]--[/TD][/TR][TR][TD]17[/TD][TD]--[/TD][/TR][TR][TD]18[/TD][TD]--[/TD][/TR][TR][TD]19[/TD][TD]--[/TD][/TR][TR][TD]20[/TD][TD]--[/TD][/TR][/TABLE] [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Airship Racing with a Dragon
Top