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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sigurd" data-source="post: 4624198" data-attributes="member: 19412">What sort of flying ship?Economic Impact will depend on how they are different from coventional transport.Cheaper? - Unlikely, because they are probably rare. This potentially makes the operators rich. If they are cheaper per kg of cargo there will be steady pressure to have more and more air ships.Colder? - Perishable goods might be carried.Safer? - Can they float above the weather? Are there air pirates? Flying monsters?Asherakes (OGL Bastion Press, Complete Minions 3.5, p.8) are brutal flying tiger\men that operate floating slave ships.Earthdawn (not D20) and Eberon have developed flying ship economics.Dragons might object to sharing their air space, want a quick meal or want to defend their privacy.Faster? - They will swiftly be monopolized by defenders or attackers, politicians or 'Important People'. This reduces official interest in maintaining inns, road safety, etc...Offensive? - Information is always useful. Just reports from a floating ship gives you a possible tactical advantage. Dropping Bombs? Paratroopers? Poison? Area Spells?Defensive? - See information. They might be part of patrols over cities and important sites. Magical spells for seeing distance and targeting will enhance their usefulness. Making your line of site several km long changes things.Can they make long journeys? - Vessels that cross land and sea are really convenient.Can they be followed, found or tracked? Are they a guarded secret belonging to one faction?Do you have to worship\serve a particular entity to power\use them? Are they powered by conventional fuel, elementals, demons, devine\arcane\explosive etc...  Limits on their use will, of course, affect everything.If they are powered by the agony of tortured elephants and eject a spent elephant every 50' that's going to change a lot! Don't want to be under their flight path. Where will they store the extra elephants? Fuel efficiency and self sufficiency of their design is a huge consideration.Do the ships naturally\magically float? This reduces the power\aerodynamic  requirement tremendously.Ebberon uses imprisoned elementals for thrust and magically floating ships. Spell Jammer, not D20, consumed magic items. Whatever motive force you choose will change everything. Steampunk settings have their own solutions\flavours.It can be a great concept, but you are right to consider its implications.Also check out youtube for some inspirational viewing. Make sure to check out [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vORsKyopHyM]YouTube - The Mysterious Explorations of Jasper Morello[/ame]. It is long and dark but it is so cool.Sigurd</blockquote>

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