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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JoeGKushner" data-source="post: 2010196" data-attributes="member: 1129">Airships is Bastion Press’ latest entry into the d20 market.  Like previous books in this vein of all-purpose d20 supplements, it boasts the red spine, 96 pages in length and full color interiors.To put it simply, if you’re interested in creating unique and useful flying ships for your campaign or want to tie in some of the material already in use in Oathbound with more details, this book is for you.Want to make your ship out of a unique type of material?  Many different styles ranging from iron and wood to diamond and mitrhril are covered.  Looking for a good power source?  You’ve got choices ranging from arcane and divine engines, similar to the old Helms from Spelljammer that feed on spellcasting ability, to engines that use elementals as fuel and good old fashioned oil burning and wood-burning.Some are never happy with just having the standards customized and want more like templates for ships.  What an armored ship?  How about a tribute to the old Total Annihilation Kingdoms with the Dirigible?  Of course we can’t forget about little things like the rigging, which can range from square sails to panel sails.In addition to the above, there are other things to add on or tinker with.  What type of navigational components will you have?  What about piloting goods?  Will you have altitude crystals and engine syncs?  What about turbines or airspeed monitors?  Razor launchers and ram spikes?  Fire throwers and lightning bombards?  Where does it end?In short, you can have a very customized ship.Now there’s more of course.  What type of ship you have will determine what type of crew you’re going to need and the book does a good job of providing the roles that need to be filled out in the offier ranks and the standard crewmen.  The bigger the boat along with the most modifications, generally requires a larger crew.  Titles are listed along with duties so you can tell the difference between a chirurgeon (ship’s non-magical healer) and the Signal Master.  Between the landsmen (greens who aren’t too hip to the whole airship thing) to airmen to veterans.Still, that’s not enough.  You’ve got the ship and the crew, but what about all of those other ships and crews out there?  That’s right, you need combat information and the book provides numerous options and details ranging from spot DCs to initiative to hull points and maneuverability.  What happens with hull points and hardness?  What special combat maneuvers can a ship do?  What about ramming angels?  Would a page of illustrated ramming angels make you happy?  I hope so because it’s included here.Of course other airships aren’t always the only issue airships.  What happens when you hit high winds or get lost?  How do you map from altitude and what’s over the next hill?  Need to know about air trips over the desert or the sea?  Need to know how to fly through the heart of a storm?  You’ve covered.Players on the other hand, may not find most of this information useful if they don’t plan on being captains.  That’s why we’ve got equipment, skills, feats, prestige classes, spells and magic items.  Bastion knows what their readers want.The feats range from bonuses to Balance Checks to using airship weapons.  Useful but nothing that stuck out or strikes me as vital.  While it’s nice to have Aerial Command to provide a morale bonus or Natural Pilot to get a bonus to Airship Pilot skills, it’s not going to make or break a player’s purchase decision.Now the prestige classes on the other hand, have some interesting twists.  The Airship Saboteur is a master of destroying airships either though crippling the engines, planting explosives or using his dreaded ‘ship killer ability that allows him to destroy the engine of a ship.  Being a high magic concept, no book on airships would be complete without having its own Ship Mage or Ship Theurge, a divine spellcaster who ‘heals’ damage to the ship.  A master of the rough and tumble world of airships, the Sky Slayer is a competent fighter more at home in the air than on the ground and even more dangerous on the deck of a ship than on land.The spell section here did something different too.  Not only are there new spells but many standard spells and their uses are listed out.  Want to know how to use Wall of Fire or Reverse Gravity?  You’re covered.  The new spells are like the feats, specific to the airships like Engine Jolt where you increase an engine’s effectiveness but could destroy it to Raptor’s Wings where the ship gains a bonus to its maneuverability.Now for some, the sheer amount of information in crafting and creating a ship may be too much.  That’s why we’ve got example ships.  How about the Asherake Sunshadow, run by the beings first introduced in Minions and now in Oathbound, this Necrotic powered ship uses whirling ballista and lightning bombards to bring its foes down even as the Dwarven Waraxe uses Fire Throwers and Ram Spikes to crush its foes.  What book of magical airships would be complete without an elven presence?  The Elvish Cloudleaper isn’t armed with standard weapons but relies on the mages aboard to take out the enemy while the Fleshtalker, an undead style ship also powered by a necrotic engine, uses razor launchers and dart launchers to take out its enemies.  Lastly, the Dragonship is a perfect pirate vessel and uses fire, in the forms of Fire Missiles and Fire Throwers to take out its foes.For those more brave and wishing to add their own ships, they get two blank pages to copy and start their own path to world conquest.One thing that stood out was the lack of an index.  There’s a ton of information here and the inability to quickly flip to an index and find what you need is a little frustrating.  Another is the art.  Because most have different taste in art, it’s difficult to say with final authority that there’s some below grade art here but I didn’t enjoy several illustrations like the winged asherake on page 30 or the zombie on page 79.  On the other hand, the illustrations for the ships included are fantastic.In addition, while the full-page illustrations were nicely done, I’ve heard enough complaints about the price to wonder if illustrations instead of more text are the way to go.  Others have compared these books to the Secrets series and other books from the L5R and Swashbuckling Adventurers line and found the paper here much thinner than those books.The paper density may be a serious issue for some, but the other issues are subjective and are really minor issues.  In the end, the book does an excellent job of providing the GM the means to use airships in his campaign.  I know that in the Scarred Lands, I’ll be looking at this information for the Pirates of the Toe Islands and my own little raiding parties.Those unsure on the value of airships need to check out e-Ships, also designed by Sam Witt and edited by Greg Dent.  It’s a 36-page preview-expansion and should help you make up your mind right away.</blockquote>

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