Planeship

[Frostmarrow]

What if you could build a planeship? An orb or something in which you and three of your more adventurous friends could live in. You could travel in this orb from plane to plane (naturally, that's what planeships does) and perform missions of different kind. I would very much like to have a planeship; I'd call it Enterprise or somesuch. Have fun!

 

[Horoku]

I had something kinda like that in a Sci-Fi campaign that I never started... the Aether Drive.
I used a cosmology that was kind of a combination of Planescape, Spelljammer, and Myst. The basic cosmology was Planescape, but the Prime Material Plane had, between all of its worlds, the Star Fissure (instead of the Phlogistron (sp?)). The Star Fissure is a massive, dark void with a "breathable" atmosphere... there isn't really any atmosphere, but like the Ethereal Plane, any creature can breathe there, and all the primes are represented by glowing crystal spheres the size of a large planet.
By touching a crystal sphere, depending on the point you touched, and the angle your intersected it at, you could wind up anywhere in that prime's universe.
The Aether Drive was a small crystal sphere in the center of a Planeship. This sphere contained a tiny singularity that was regulated by a constant energy stream. While in a prime universe, the sphere would appear to be a window to the Star Fissure. If the stream's polarity was reversed, then the singularity would release, and the ship would fall into the Star Fissure. In this way, the ship's default location actually was the Star Fissure; it could only exist in a prime as long as the singularity was contained; if the power were to shut down, the ship would drop back into the Fissure.
Within the Star Fissure itself, the Aether Drive kept the ship "afloat", so it wouldn't be affected by the Fissure's ambient gravity (in the Fissure, everything falls. There is an up and a down... though nobody's really sure what's at either end. However, the worldspheres are unaffected by this gravity, and, if you're close enough to them, they have their own gravity, too. In this way, the ship is basically its own little artificial worldsphere), but when the polarity was reversed, the ship would simply fall into the worldsphere that it was orbiting... or just straight down. So, if you plot a proper course, you can "fall" into the worldsphere at whatever angle is necessary to get to where you need to be (assuming you've mapped the universe, or at least part of it). It was a pretty cool idea, but I never really went anywhere with it. I should think about that one....

 

[Frostmarrow]

I was thinking. A league of wizards first built the Orb in order to explore the multitudes of the planes. They hadn’t counted on the fact that they don’t get along when shoved into a tight space together or the fact that once they were done they could travel the planes far more easily when left to their own devices. So that’s why the Orb was left to someone else who came up with the idea of letting a team of adventurers inherit the Orb and have them do the exploring. Of course a few of the creators are still out there and one or two of them still covet the Orb for use to promote their own agenda.

The Orb is big enough to accommodate eight people comfortably or even twelve uncomfortably. However, only four are needed to operate the Orb at full capacity. Even fewer are needed to make it perform single tasks. The Orb is furnitured as per the Mordenkainen’s mansion-spell. It looks like the interior of the Nautilus (as in LXG) more than a regular manse, though.

The Orb is spherical and it flies (60 avg.). It is designed to be able to travel on all planes that allow such and at least sustain it self and it’s crew on planes that does not. I.e. on an elemental plane of earth it can’t move but it can survive the intense pressure of millions of tonnes of dirt. Maybe it’s even egg-shaped? On board you will find the gear you might imagine on a spaceship. I.e. there would have to be a sickbay and a cargo hold. Also there might be gun turrets of some sort, perhaps in the shape of wands of magic missiles that can be retracted in to the Orb’s shell.

Oh, I’ve forgotten the most important part: The Orb is capable of plane-shifting it self and it’s crew. This ability needs to be limited in some way. Perhaps the Orb requires gems as fuel? That would get those pesky adventurers moving! The Orb is self-sufficient when it comes to internal light (Everburning torches) and food for the crew.

The schtick is that the adventurers (including horses, animals, and cohorts) use the Orb to go to distant planes. They leave the Orb, to explore the surroundings and come across different civilizations. Those civs are always on the brink of destruction and only the adventurers can save them. In the last episode they go to hell. Neat.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

In an old 1st edition game, I had a pirate ship run by Githyanki that could shift from the Astral to the Prime Material plane (or other planes) once per day, and the PC's found a smaller ship that could do the same. Both ships could also fly.

For the plane shifting power, they had dials and such near the regular wheel of the ship that needed to be set correctly. When they shifted, a portal opened up in front of them, and they just sailed on through. It would be possible for someone not on the ship to make it through as well, and I imagine a large number of fish would get stranded on the Astral from time to time. The portal stayed open a few rounds after the ship completed its transition, so even a regular ship, if close enough, could try and sneak through, though with no means of movement on the Astral, they could be in big trouble.

I like the idea of making the method of travel look as much like a regular, "real world" vehicle as possible.

 

[Frostmarrow]

Yeah, there is definately something to say for the old ship-design. Especially in fantasy such as this. I imagined something along the lines of the planar comapass (featured in Manual of The Planes) but a ship will do - or even a train. I love the idea of levers and dials to steer the vessel. On board there also has to be a tome of spells that can be used to do nifty things with the vessel. Provided there is a wizard on board with just enough levels. "Oo. I think we might be able to turn this thing invisible - at least briefly..."

 

[tleilaxu]

What if you could build a planeship? An orb or something in which you and three of your more adventurous friends could live in. You could travel in this orb from plane to plane (naturally, that's what planeships does) and perform missions of different kind. I would very much like to have a planeship; I'd call it Enterprise or somesuch. Have fun!

this has been one of my long time obsessions and ideas

 

[trancejeremy]

The first (and only, I think) adventure for the original Manual of the Planes, "Tales of the Outer Planes" had an ethership. Was more like a submarine, though. I always thought that was really cool.

 

[trancejeremy]

Also, a couple of adventures for Chaosium's Stormbringer had plane travelling things. One, a travelling, flying ship, and another, more weird, was a giant cathedral.

 

[Gez]

What if you could build a planeship? An orb or something in which you and three of your more adventurous friends could live in. You could travel in this orb from plane to plane (naturally, that's what planeships does) and perform missions of different kind.

Make that a large, multifaceted gem set in the cellars of a castle, each facet allowing to enter a different plane.