Thanks for the link! I have all of the Spelljammer stuff, but that's still useful.
Steampunk Airship Chase/Raid/Pirate help
- Thread starter Haxor295
- Start date
ajanders
Explorer
Dumb question for the OP, please bear with me.
Are your PC's fighting aboard the the airship, or are they piloting the airship and attempting to shoot down, pursue, or capture the opposing airship?
If they're the equivalent of naval marines, it's just regular D&D combat with an interesting environment. Add rules for jumping/swinging/teleporting/flying between the two ships and maybe pick some special terrain or items to interact with (Spike the guns! Slash the rigging!") and you're done.
If they're flying the ship, it gets ticklish. I recommend you pick a skill for piloting, have the PC's elect a pilot, and then do opposed skill checks against your NPC pilot. The best score loses or gains 10 feet, gets on their enemy's tail, or breaks away. Really bad failures lead to crashes or stalling out. The other PC's can aid the pilot or fire weapons at their enemies: ship or personal.
Star Wars had a system like this.
It's not perfectly realistic, but I've played perfectly realistic 3D combat games before and don't recommend them unless you not only understand vector addition, but you think it's fun.
And really, this is D&D. If your party is composed of a dragon man, a cat woman, an intelligent bush, a magic robot, and a crystal man it seems unfair to say air combat doesn't look like it did in WWII.
Are your PC's fighting aboard the the airship, or are they piloting the airship and attempting to shoot down, pursue, or capture the opposing airship?
If they're the equivalent of naval marines, it's just regular D&D combat with an interesting environment. Add rules for jumping/swinging/teleporting/flying between the two ships and maybe pick some special terrain or items to interact with (Spike the guns! Slash the rigging!") and you're done.
If they're flying the ship, it gets ticklish. I recommend you pick a skill for piloting, have the PC's elect a pilot, and then do opposed skill checks against your NPC pilot. The best score loses or gains 10 feet, gets on their enemy's tail, or breaks away. Really bad failures lead to crashes or stalling out. The other PC's can aid the pilot or fire weapons at their enemies: ship or personal.
Star Wars had a system like this.
It's not perfectly realistic, but I've played perfectly realistic 3D combat games before and don't recommend them unless you not only understand vector addition, but you think it's fun.
And really, this is D&D. If your party is composed of a dragon man, a cat woman, an intelligent bush, a magic robot, and a crystal man it seems unfair to say air combat doesn't look like it did in WWII.
the first one, i think. unless they really want to pilot the ship, i wont let them.
edit: also, i love your description of the party. nicely done
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weem
First Post
I ran a game with an "Out of control airship" challenge that we pretty well.
What's there is not exactly what I ended up using (the thread was about getting feedback) but you will get the idea (if you are interested).
Also, here's some Airship inspiration from my site (posted works/links from DeviantArt along with some descriptions, ideas etc).
What's there is not exactly what I ended up using (the thread was about getting feedback) but you will get the idea (if you are interested).
Also, here's some Airship inspiration from my site (posted works/links from DeviantArt along with some descriptions, ideas etc).
Type of airship matters as well.
- Flammable Gas: Risky in a world of dragons and flame or lightning-slinging spellcasters...not that likely, IMHO.
- Heated Gas: Less risky, but still with some interesting challenges...all of which are shared with Flammable Gas airships. A fire spell could cause an altitude jump; other elemental spells could cause a plunge. Summonings of physical creatures could do likewise. Certain attacks could puncture the gasbags...
- Magic: Less risky and has any number of forms- Enslaved Air Elementals, Brooksian "diapson" powered ships with parse tubes, Wellsian/Space:1889 style cavorite steamers & liftwood sailing ships, Spelljammers and so forth.
- Lost Ultra Tech: Least risky, but to some, the least satisfying because it implies your campaign world is Post-Apocalyptic...or at least "Post-Atlantean." Still, it makes for fun- see Brooks' Shanarra books, Corben's Den, or simply listen to The Sword's [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iI7227GHvQY"]Fire Lances of the Ancient Hyperzephyrians[/ame]
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well, in the campeign there WILL be a crashed spaceship-type thing, but i think i'll have the commercial airships use heated gass, and the raider ships use flammable gas (for the explosion effect
)
On a certain level, it makes sense- raiders might be willing or even forced to use riskier tech if they can't get their hands on the safer stuff. (That is, from what I understand, part of why the Hindenburg was using hydrogen instead of helium.)
To jazz things up, an additional rationale for the raiders using flammable gas is as a rudimentary form of jet travel. Yeah, I know its not realistic, but perhaps they use the flammable gas for both lift AND for a "rocket" propulsion. This would enable them to close on target craft quickly, like pods of orcas chasing down right whales...
Its a risk/reward thing: they risk blowing up (either by accident or by attack) in exchange for the increased likelihood that they can close on and disable their prey before a reasonable defense can be mounted, improving their odds of a successful raid. IOW, mo' problems for mo' money.
To jazz things up, an additional rationale for the raiders using flammable gas is as a rudimentary form of jet travel. Yeah, I know its not realistic, but perhaps they use the flammable gas for both lift AND for a "rocket" propulsion. This would enable them to close on target craft quickly, like pods of orcas chasing down right whales...
Its a risk/reward thing: they risk blowing up (either by accident or by attack) in exchange for the increased likelihood that they can close on and disable their prey before a reasonable defense can be mounted, improving their odds of a successful raid. IOW, mo' problems for mo' money.
that's a great idea!! i was thinking of the Hindenburg when i said that....
Other wrinkles & tactics...
1) Hydrogen has more lift than other gasses, which means it may be possible for the raiders to use a classic aerial combat tactic- attacking from above. If they maneuver properly, the raiders may be able to attack from their target's blind spot and even land boarding parties on the ship before anyone is even aware they're there.
2) The "rocket" engines may be even equipped on smaller "sky sleds"- essentially, 1-man air craft- for shock troops launched from raider "carriers". (I used (non-rocket) sky sleds in a Supers campaign set in 1900, which was in turn inspired by similar vehicles in a Michael Moorcock story.)
As an aside, rocket powered sky sleds would look really cool in a night attack. You tell the players their PCs spot some shooting stars that seem as if they're coming right at the airship and see if any of them realize that the fit is about to hit the shan.
3) Instead of sky sleds, you could have the raiders' shock troops using wing/sky/bird suits, again, launched from raider "carriers" overhead. They use small grappling hooks to grab the shell of the airships, slowing them down enough to land while simultaneously opening paths of ingress and reducing their target's lift...
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ax8avINOufA]YouTube - sky diving and stuff like that bird suit[/ame]
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_F9RJSPnf8A&feature=related]YouTube - Flying Suit ..Extreme Base jumping[/ame]
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5N9t5qOSzCU&feature=related]YouTube - The best wing suit /skydive from you tube PART1[/ame]
1) Hydrogen has more lift than other gasses, which means it may be possible for the raiders to use a classic aerial combat tactic- attacking from above. If they maneuver properly, the raiders may be able to attack from their target's blind spot and even land boarding parties on the ship before anyone is even aware they're there.
2) The "rocket" engines may be even equipped on smaller "sky sleds"- essentially, 1-man air craft- for shock troops launched from raider "carriers". (I used (non-rocket) sky sleds in a Supers campaign set in 1900, which was in turn inspired by similar vehicles in a Michael Moorcock story.)
As an aside, rocket powered sky sleds would look really cool in a night attack. You tell the players their PCs spot some shooting stars that seem as if they're coming right at the airship and see if any of them realize that the fit is about to hit the shan.
3) Instead of sky sleds, you could have the raiders' shock troops using wing/sky/bird suits, again, launched from raider "carriers" overhead. They use small grappling hooks to grab the shell of the airships, slowing them down enough to land while simultaneously opening paths of ingress and reducing their target's lift...
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ax8avINOufA]YouTube - sky diving and stuff like that bird suit[/ame]
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_F9RJSPnf8A&feature=related]YouTube - Flying Suit ..Extreme Base jumping[/ame]
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5N9t5qOSzCU&feature=related]YouTube - The best wing suit /skydive from you tube PART1[/ame]
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