weem
First Post
A while back I made post about creating an airship on a big piece of cardboard for use in my new campaign. The PC's were going to be spending a lot of time there so I thought it would be nice to have it laid out etc.
The early games we have played have solidifed the background of the campaign, and the airship will represent the widening of the campaign allowing them more freedom. There is an overall story arc, and that will always be on their minds - the access to the airship will help with their goals regarding the overall arc but also provide them with a lot of side options along the way.
The setup...
The players will be asked to come aboard this particular airship by the captain. There will be a point in the campaign (after 1-2 more games) where they will meet him during a time when they need to disappear for a while - he knows this and is willing to help. So they will join, not as crew, but as guests - of which the ship has many (it's a big ship). Some are on for long periods of time, others come and go replaced by more who come and quickly go.
The ship's captain and crew belong to an organization that has mysterious goals, and as such they travel a lot to a wide variety of places. Sometimes the PC's may be involved in some of these missions, other times they won't (up to them). Sometimes an NPC on the ship might have an opportunity for them, or they may hear about something they want to explore - but there is also the larger story arc that will come up from time to time they may feel compelled to follow. Whetever it is that comes their way, they can choose to pass on or explore further. Wherever they go, the ship will have become like their home and for the most part they will be able to find their way back to it (some times will take longer than others) or it may find them
The hooks (or reasons I like this idea)...
- Meeting many NPC's on the ship, some good some not - many opportunities for adventure off-ship will be instigated in one way or another by NPC's, their stories, their requests, etc.
- The ship will feel relatively safe, like a home, and provide some 'downtime', but also present opportunities for skill challenges, social encounters and yes, occasionally combat (ship to ship AND between players/NPC's etc) and other dangers. Specifically, for one example, there is an Artificer in the group who, over the course of the campaign, will come up with various ways to improve the ship.
- The crew as extended group members. I want to have various members of the crew have certain specialties. So, when the PC's discover some artifact (for example) instead of saying "we need to go the the library of X to study this" they can instead say, "we need to get back to the ship... Ormak could probably tell us more about this".
- An airship provides the means by which to explore the continent/world. This is all happening on a new setting I have been developing, so this is a good way to give the players a little bit of experience with a lot of different areas so they get an idea for what it is all about.
- There will be so much to interact with on the ship that an entire session or two could be played entirely on the ship without leaving it, which would be really cool during a particularly long (far off) expedition.
The inspiration...
While initially inspired by Mass Effect, I have more recently been inspired by Firefly - particularly that each crew member fits not only a mechanical role (pilot, captain, doctor, engineer, etc) but they also represent very different personality roles (the leader, tough guy, the intellectual, the wise one, etc) - which presents a cool dynmamic as far as which players get along with which crew members and to what degree, etc.
There was also a lot of exploration, a TON of adventure, but then everything always came back to the ship and it felt safe there, even though it wasn't always exactly "safe".
Finally, some loose ideas...
In the special features of the Firefly DVD, they go over the design of the ship - the concept and colors and how they represented various feelings etc, which was really interesting and gave me another idea...
...the ship I do will be much larger, and have many more rooms including a large library, observatory, etc. I was thinking that each room could give a certain bonus for various activities. The library could give a "History" check bonus for example, the Dining Hall could give a one time bonus of some kind - perhaps the ability to auto succeed on the next Save made that day.
I also thought it might be interesting during travel to ask the PC's where they intend to spend the majority of their time for specific bonuses or temporary power that will work while they are away from the ship. They could be done as utility powers perhaps. So the fighter says, "I spend most of my time in the training room" and he can get a utility card with X number of uses that does something kind of cool, or perhaps some healing potions if you spend time in the Infirmary etc. I could come up with one or two for each of any number of the rooms. Also, based on those choices, I could instigate various side quests, or trigger rumors, conversations, skill challenges.
Anyway, sorry for the length, but I just wanted to dump this here and get some feedback.
Do you have any ideas to add? Maybe something I should consider?
These are just the things I have been thinking of, but I'm curious to hear about what you have done, or what you want to do, or what you think would be cool as a player etc.
Thanks
The early games we have played have solidifed the background of the campaign, and the airship will represent the widening of the campaign allowing them more freedom. There is an overall story arc, and that will always be on their minds - the access to the airship will help with their goals regarding the overall arc but also provide them with a lot of side options along the way.
The setup...
The players will be asked to come aboard this particular airship by the captain. There will be a point in the campaign (after 1-2 more games) where they will meet him during a time when they need to disappear for a while - he knows this and is willing to help. So they will join, not as crew, but as guests - of which the ship has many (it's a big ship). Some are on for long periods of time, others come and go replaced by more who come and quickly go.
The ship's captain and crew belong to an organization that has mysterious goals, and as such they travel a lot to a wide variety of places. Sometimes the PC's may be involved in some of these missions, other times they won't (up to them). Sometimes an NPC on the ship might have an opportunity for them, or they may hear about something they want to explore - but there is also the larger story arc that will come up from time to time they may feel compelled to follow. Whetever it is that comes their way, they can choose to pass on or explore further. Wherever they go, the ship will have become like their home and for the most part they will be able to find their way back to it (some times will take longer than others) or it may find them
The hooks (or reasons I like this idea)...
- Meeting many NPC's on the ship, some good some not - many opportunities for adventure off-ship will be instigated in one way or another by NPC's, their stories, their requests, etc.
- The ship will feel relatively safe, like a home, and provide some 'downtime', but also present opportunities for skill challenges, social encounters and yes, occasionally combat (ship to ship AND between players/NPC's etc) and other dangers. Specifically, for one example, there is an Artificer in the group who, over the course of the campaign, will come up with various ways to improve the ship.
- The crew as extended group members. I want to have various members of the crew have certain specialties. So, when the PC's discover some artifact (for example) instead of saying "we need to go the the library of X to study this" they can instead say, "we need to get back to the ship... Ormak could probably tell us more about this".
- An airship provides the means by which to explore the continent/world. This is all happening on a new setting I have been developing, so this is a good way to give the players a little bit of experience with a lot of different areas so they get an idea for what it is all about.
- There will be so much to interact with on the ship that an entire session or two could be played entirely on the ship without leaving it, which would be really cool during a particularly long (far off) expedition.
The inspiration...
While initially inspired by Mass Effect, I have more recently been inspired by Firefly - particularly that each crew member fits not only a mechanical role (pilot, captain, doctor, engineer, etc) but they also represent very different personality roles (the leader, tough guy, the intellectual, the wise one, etc) - which presents a cool dynmamic as far as which players get along with which crew members and to what degree, etc.
There was also a lot of exploration, a TON of adventure, but then everything always came back to the ship and it felt safe there, even though it wasn't always exactly "safe".
Finally, some loose ideas...
In the special features of the Firefly DVD, they go over the design of the ship - the concept and colors and how they represented various feelings etc, which was really interesting and gave me another idea...
...the ship I do will be much larger, and have many more rooms including a large library, observatory, etc. I was thinking that each room could give a certain bonus for various activities. The library could give a "History" check bonus for example, the Dining Hall could give a one time bonus of some kind - perhaps the ability to auto succeed on the next Save made that day.
I also thought it might be interesting during travel to ask the PC's where they intend to spend the majority of their time for specific bonuses or temporary power that will work while they are away from the ship. They could be done as utility powers perhaps. So the fighter says, "I spend most of my time in the training room" and he can get a utility card with X number of uses that does something kind of cool, or perhaps some healing potions if you spend time in the Infirmary etc. I could come up with one or two for each of any number of the rooms. Also, based on those choices, I could instigate various side quests, or trigger rumors, conversations, skill challenges.
Anyway, sorry for the length, but I just wanted to dump this here and get some feedback.
Do you have any ideas to add? Maybe something I should consider?
These are just the things I have been thinking of, but I'm curious to hear about what you have done, or what you want to do, or what you think would be cool as a player etc.
Thanks
