Steampunk Airship Chase/Raid/Pirate help

[Haxor295]

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...

YouTube - sky diving and stuff like that bird suit
YouTube - Flying Suit ..Extreme Base jumping
YouTube - The best wing suit /skydive from you tube PART1

OHMAIGAWSH!!! this is possibly the coolest idea yet!!!!!!!!!!! the only problem is that my PC's would try to capture one or more of the suits (i know how they think ) and take it exploring and i'm far too lazy to do an airborne encounter with the possibility of death so close... that aside, it's bloody brilliant!

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I wouldn't worry too much about the suits being taken. I'd consider them to be difficult enough to use as to require a skill check to use properly...perhaps based on Ride or some such, with synergies with Tumble.

In addition, the RW suits require a parachute for the final landing (although one guy detailed in Popular Mechanics or some such is trying to land without one...)- if the PCs don't know the trick of how to land the suit, they're going to die the first time out.

And the trick could be any number of things, ranging from an actual parachute to a single-use Feather Fall to a second raider ship equipped with nets flying at a lower altitude to only doing raids over a particular deep lake and so landing by doing the equivalent of a cliff dive.

Besides, they'd still have to get the suit off of the raider without damaging it. How many of the PCs use edged or piercing weapons?

Now, eventually, they'd figure the things out...but by then, they may have their own, probably magical, answers. Bird suits are nice, but a Fly spell has it all over the non-magical togs.

 

[Haxor295]

I wouldn't worry too much about the suits being taken. I'd consider them to be difficult enough to use as to require a skill check to use properly...perhaps based on Ride or some such, with synergies with Tumble.

In addition, the RW suits require a parachute for the final landing (although one guy detailed in Popular Mechanics or some such is trying to land without one...)- if the PCs don't know the trick of how to land the suit, they're going to die the first time out.

And the trick could be any number of things, ranging from an actual parachute to a single-use Feather Fall to a second raider ship equipped with nets flying at a lower altitude to only doing raids over a particular deep lake and so landing by doing the equivalent of a cliff dive.

Besides, they'd still have to get the suit off of the raider without damaging it. How many of the PCs use edged or piercing weapons?

Now, eventually, they'd figure the things out...but by then, they may have their own, probably magical, answers. Bird suits are nice, but a Fly spell has it all over the non-magical togs.

i like the idea of larger, slower, bigger carriers below with nets!

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

On the raiders using nets on a secondary recovery ship idea: I can see the wingsuited shocktroopers using their grapples to help them hit those nets just like they use them to land on the target ships.

Instead of the netships, however, I have another thought: the wingsuited shocktroopers could have safety lines of silk attached to oversized reels (like a giant fishing rod might have). IOW, they're always attached to the carrier. This does 2 things:

1) It acts as a safety/recovery line for the shocktroopers.

2) Once they land on their target, it acts as a guideline for a heavier rope that the shocktroopers could then attach to the target craft. After the heavier ropes are attached, they can be used as ziplines for standard (non wingsuited) raiders to board and let the raiders' ship restrict the maneuverability of the target.

 

[Haxor295]

thanks so much! it's funny, though. i had a plotline set aside for this. i had my Campaign meet today, and almost as soon as they started, being players, they went a completely different way oh well, i guess i'll work it in another way

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Being a DM is as challenging as being a Cat-Herder.

Don't worry about it- you'll have your chance!

 

[Haxor295]

Being a DM is as challenging as being a Cat-Herder.

Don't worry about it- you'll have your chance!

lol, i hope so

 

[Psychotic Jim]

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.

There may be another option besides vehicles as well. What about flying beasts? Like, barbarian tribes of wyvern or griffin riders who raid along regular travel channels and rob traveling aerial caravans of the more easily carried goods. If beasts like this can be tamed at least enough for a symbiotic link, they may have the edge on maneuverability over bulky vehicles. This would make for effective hit and run tactics for small mercenary bands as well.

 

[Haxor295]

There may be another option besides vehicles as well. What about flying beasts? Like, barbarian tribes of wyvern or griffin riders who raid along regular travel channels and rob traveling aerial caravans of the more easily carried goods. If beasts like this can be tamed at least enough for a symbiotic link, they may have the edge on maneuverability over bulky vehicles. This would make for effective hit and run tactics for small mercenary bands as well.

not to sound like a nag, but the title of this does say that this is an AIRSHIP encounter. like, only airships.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Actually, Haxor295, he has a point, and a good one based at least in part on economics again.

Just like automobiles are much more expensive than horses, an airship will cost many times the expense of trained flying mounts. They also won't require the same kind of open space for a landing field.

IOW, it would probably be cheaper and stealthier for raiders to operate with flying mounts than airships of their own.

And, FWIW, the same goes for any kind of "Air Rangers" that may be formed to combat the raiders...

This is not to say that you can't have both- they have different strengths and weaknesses. For instance, it would be next to impossible to train flying mounts to operate in unison as aerial draft animals to lift heavy cargoes- something an airship does quite well.