The Shaman
First Post
Cool Hand pulls back on the stick and the Extra 300L soars into a graceful loop. Halfway through the maneuver the veteran pilot snaps the stick over and the little plane, its engine whining, executes a precise half-roll at the top of the loop and dives toward the conical pylons in the grassy meadow below. Out of the corner of his eye he sees the blue-and-white Sukhoi gaining on his own garishly-colored aircraft.
“Not today, Dmitri,” he says, dropping the nose slightly to increase his speed. The two planes hurtle toward the ground and the paired white pylons. Throttle wide open, Cool Hand grimaces as the Sukhoi races ahead.
Too hot, you crazy Cossack, he thinks, as he eases the nose up and puts the plane on one-wing to make the knife-edge gate pass. The Extra slips between the pylons easily as the Sukhoi dips too low and swings wide, wingtips waggling as the Russian fights for control...
Introduction
Airspeed! is a d20 Modern play-by-post campaign of high-octane aerobatic racing!.
The player characters are hotshot pilots competing in an international aerobatic race series. Aerobatic races, such as the real-life Red Bull Air Race, combine challenging aerial acrobatics with maneuvering between pylons in a race against the clock – in Airspeed! there is the added dimension of racing head-to-head!
Races consist of a course with prescribed maneuvers that each character must complete successfully. Each maneuver will have a DC assigned based on its difficulty – a successful Pilot skill check earns the character aerobatic points equal to the margin of success on the roll (e.g., a roll of 17 on a DC 15 maneuver earns two aerobatic points). The character with the most aerobatic points wins the race. If a character misses a skill check, aerobatic points are deducted and the character may suffer additional mishaps, such as flying off the course, falling into a spin, or crashing. Wind, clouds, wildlife, mechanical mishaps, and G-forces may add to the difficulty of executing aerobatic maneuvers.
In addition to racing, there are promoters and sponsors to satisfy, fans and groupies to attract, engineers and mechanics to annoy, hotshot youngsters and wily veterans with whom to tangle, gamblers and gangsters to avoid, and possibly even saboteurs to foil...
After the characters are completed and approved for use, each player will select a sponsor and an aircraft from a list provided by the GM. Each aircraft will have different handling characteristics that will add to (or subtract from) the success of different maneuvers. Characters will roll for selection order before choosing a sponsor.
Players in Airspeed! may utilize the following resources:
Characters
Players should consider selecting a balanced group of classes and skills as the game will involve investigation, infiltration, and diplomacy as well as combat.
Players may select any of the base classes in the d20 Modern core rules. The following guidelines apply:
Please show your work on your character sheets – include all modifiers and ranks to a skill modifier, melee attack modifier, Wealth score, and so on, so that I can see how each number is derived. (Example.)
Skills, Talents, and Feats
Non-FX skills, talents, and feats in the d20 Modern Core Rulebook are available. The following skills from the d20 System 3.5 SRD are also permitted:
A new homebrew skill, “Craft (culinary arts)” is added:
Pushing the Envelope
Prerequisites: Dex 13+, Pilot 6 ranks
Benefit: Before making a Pilot skill check roll, you may choose to subtract a number from the skill check roll – this number may not exceed the character’s Pilot skill ranks. If the check is successful, the amount subtracted from the skill roll is added to the margin of success for determining aerobatic points. Example: A character reduces his Pilot skill check roll by three – if the DC is 15 and the pilot rolls a 17, then the aerobatic points scored on the maneuver is five, instead of two.
Find the Horizon
Prerequisite: Pilot 4 ranks, Vehicle Expert
Benefit: If the character fails a Pilot check that results in a spin, the character gets a +4 bonus to subsequent Pilot checks to recover the aircraft and prevent a crash.
Equipment
Equipment from the d20 Modern core rules and web enhancement is permitted. Please track all Wealth expenditures carefully.
Each character is assumed to have a driver’s license, pilot’s license and a passport – all other licenses and permits will need to be purchased normally. Keep track of Wealth bonus changes from purchases of licenses.
Combat encounters are uncommon in Airspeed!, combat with firearms exceedingly so. In selecting weapons, consider that the adventures will involve international travel by commercial air and ground carriers – thorough security screening should be anticipated.
Roleplaying
Roleplaying is integral to Airspeed!. Please prepare a thoughtful background for your character. At a minimum, the background should include something about the character’s education and previous employment (if applicable), interests, friends and family, personality, goals, and a physical description. The background is a good place to lay a foundation for future base or advanced classes as well.
Housekeeping
This thread will continue as the metagame, out-of-character thread after the final roster of players is filled.
To join this campaign, please post a character sheet including a background as described under “Roleplaying,” above. A player will not be added to the roster until a character with background is posted – your character sheet is your sign of commitment to active participation in the game.
Using colored text for dialog is recommended – please use dark gray for OoC text in the game thread.
You may use either the Invisible Castle on-line dice roller or Nadaka’s dice box for rolls – please link the results in the game thread like this: Search: 12.
GM Notes
Experience: Experience is awarded through story awards. A group bonus for roleplaying may be awarded at the end of each adventure, generally equal to 100 XP times the average character level of the player characters. One individual bonus equal to 50 XP times character level will be voted on by the players at the conclusion of each adventure – this is your opportunity to reward your peers for good roleplay.
House Rules: Additional house rules will be posted in the metagame thread as needed.
Player roster:
“Not today, Dmitri,” he says, dropping the nose slightly to increase his speed. The two planes hurtle toward the ground and the paired white pylons. Throttle wide open, Cool Hand grimaces as the Sukhoi races ahead.
Too hot, you crazy Cossack, he thinks, as he eases the nose up and puts the plane on one-wing to make the knife-edge gate pass. The Extra slips between the pylons easily as the Sukhoi dips too low and swings wide, wingtips waggling as the Russian fights for control...
Introduction
Airspeed! is a d20 Modern play-by-post campaign of high-octane aerobatic racing!.
The player characters are hotshot pilots competing in an international aerobatic race series. Aerobatic races, such as the real-life Red Bull Air Race, combine challenging aerial acrobatics with maneuvering between pylons in a race against the clock – in Airspeed! there is the added dimension of racing head-to-head!
Races consist of a course with prescribed maneuvers that each character must complete successfully. Each maneuver will have a DC assigned based on its difficulty – a successful Pilot skill check earns the character aerobatic points equal to the margin of success on the roll (e.g., a roll of 17 on a DC 15 maneuver earns two aerobatic points). The character with the most aerobatic points wins the race. If a character misses a skill check, aerobatic points are deducted and the character may suffer additional mishaps, such as flying off the course, falling into a spin, or crashing. Wind, clouds, wildlife, mechanical mishaps, and G-forces may add to the difficulty of executing aerobatic maneuvers.
In addition to racing, there are promoters and sponsors to satisfy, fans and groupies to attract, engineers and mechanics to annoy, hotshot youngsters and wily veterans with whom to tangle, gamblers and gangsters to avoid, and possibly even saboteurs to foil...
After the characters are completed and approved for use, each player will select a sponsor and an aircraft from a list provided by the GM. Each aircraft will have different handling characteristics that will add to (or subtract from) the success of different maneuvers. Characters will roll for selection order before choosing a sponsor.
Players in Airspeed! may utilize the following resources:
- d20 Modern Core Rulebook
- d20 Modern web enhancement
Characters
Players should consider selecting a balanced group of classes and skills as the game will involve investigation, infiltration, and diplomacy as well as combat.
Players may select any of the base classes in the d20 Modern core rules. The following guidelines apply:
- 4th level player characters at start
- Standard array (15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8) for attributes
- Full Action Points
- Human characters only
Please show your work on your character sheets – include all modifiers and ranks to a skill modifier, melee attack modifier, Wealth score, and so on, so that I can see how each number is derived. (Example.)
Skills, Talents, and Feats
Non-FX skills, talents, and feats in the d20 Modern Core Rulebook are available. The following skills from the d20 System 3.5 SRD are also permitted:
- Appraise (Smart class skill)
- Knowledge (local) (trained only; all-class skill) – the player must specify a discrete location such as a city or other similar geographic area: ‘Seattle’ or ‘San Juan Island’ is acceptable, but ‘Washington’ or ‘the Cascades’ is not.
- Use Rope (Fast class skill)
- Knowledge (military science): Military organization and administration, history and traditions, combat tactics and maneuver, logistics, and military justice.
A new homebrew skill, “Craft (culinary arts)” is added:
- Craft (culinary arts): Food preparation, menu planning, and food preservation and storage.
- Recognizing the ingredients of a dish by taste or presentation
- Preserving foods for travel
- Correctly planning rations needed for an expedition
- Preparing a cordon bleu meal
- Identifying a fine wine
- Action Boost
- Fleet of Foot (Fast bonus feat)
- Jack of All Trades
- Vehicle Specialization (Fast and Tough bonus feat)
Pushing the Envelope
Prerequisites: Dex 13+, Pilot 6 ranks
Benefit: Before making a Pilot skill check roll, you may choose to subtract a number from the skill check roll – this number may not exceed the character’s Pilot skill ranks. If the check is successful, the amount subtracted from the skill roll is added to the margin of success for determining aerobatic points. Example: A character reduces his Pilot skill check roll by three – if the DC is 15 and the pilot rolls a 17, then the aerobatic points scored on the maneuver is five, instead of two.
Find the Horizon
Prerequisite: Pilot 4 ranks, Vehicle Expert
Benefit: If the character fails a Pilot check that results in a spin, the character gets a +4 bonus to subsequent Pilot checks to recover the aircraft and prevent a crash.
Equipment
Equipment from the d20 Modern core rules and web enhancement is permitted. Please track all Wealth expenditures carefully.
Each character is assumed to have a driver’s license, pilot’s license and a passport – all other licenses and permits will need to be purchased normally. Keep track of Wealth bonus changes from purchases of licenses.
Combat encounters are uncommon in Airspeed!, combat with firearms exceedingly so. In selecting weapons, consider that the adventures will involve international travel by commercial air and ground carriers – thorough security screening should be anticipated.
Roleplaying
Roleplaying is integral to Airspeed!. Please prepare a thoughtful background for your character. At a minimum, the background should include something about the character’s education and previous employment (if applicable), interests, friends and family, personality, goals, and a physical description. The background is a good place to lay a foundation for future base or advanced classes as well.
Housekeeping
This thread will continue as the metagame, out-of-character thread after the final roster of players is filled.
To join this campaign, please post a character sheet including a background as described under “Roleplaying,” above. A player will not be added to the roster until a character with background is posted – your character sheet is your sign of commitment to active participation in the game.
Using colored text for dialog is recommended – please use dark gray for OoC text in the game thread.
You may use either the Invisible Castle on-line dice roller or Nadaka’s dice box for rolls – please link the results in the game thread like this: Search: 12.
GM Notes
Experience: Experience is awarded through story awards. A group bonus for roleplaying may be awarded at the end of each adventure, generally equal to 100 XP times the average character level of the player characters. One individual bonus equal to 50 XP times character level will be voted on by the players at the conclusion of each adventure – this is your opportunity to reward your peers for good roleplay.
House Rules: Additional house rules will be posted in the metagame thread as needed.
Player roster:
- Bobitron
- Ranger Rick
- Gomez
- Falkus
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