Airship Campaign [Archive] - Wizards Community

Airship Campaign [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Daemeon_Blackheart
10-29-05, 03:57 AM Hi all thats right I am planning on running an Airship campaign. The problem is what will be the main focus of the adventure? I tried this once before but it feel thru pretty quickly. Need some advise on this one.

Heres what I got so far. One of the heros in the party inherits an airship from his late grandfather or some other family member that has passed on. It is in disrepair and thus needs to be repaired. Also they need to find a captain, pilot, and the crew. I was thinking of making all the senior officers the PCs.

Heres what I have planned for them:
1. Need to repair the ship but the problem is they have no money do to it.
2. They need to find an elemental. What I was planning for this is a willing wind or fire elemental agrees to pilot the ship for the pilot and thus will be an NPC.
3. Need to find a crew which will consist of mainly warforged since they don't need to eat, breath or sleep.
4. Have no idea after this

Also I will be using gunpowder rules that are presented in a dragon mag. So any help would be greatly appricated.
icedrake
10-29-05, 03:00 PM What leve are the characters going to be starting at?

Will the pc owner of the ship recieve it at the beginning of game or as it progresses? Also, where will the airship be sitting while its waiting to be repaired?

I would suggest giving the PC his airship as the game progresses, that way after he finds out about it, the party can make a series of adventures trying to get some money to repair it and find the crew. There are several things you can do to make a game out of repairing the ship.

During the course of the party's adventures, they should meet former sailors or a Lyrander heir, save them or help them or somehow befriend them and they will in turn serve the party as an allied npc. To repair the ship, they will need to make a trip Stormhome to find a supplier of soarwood to repair the ship. While there, they can get caught up in the covert ingritue of the spies from various nations and thwart a plot or two. At the same time, they might be able to find a pilot.

Not sure about the warforged, though. There could be a corrupt dwarven or caneith adept who's ignored the Thronehold Treaty and subjects his warforged creations to slavelabor. The pcs find out about this and in turn try to recuse the warforged.

If the grandfather owns the ship, there might be surviving members of his crew across Khorvaire or Stormreach (who knows where a sailor might end up after serving on a ship?). After talking to the grandfather before he dies or reading through his logs, they might find the names of some of his crew members and they could lead the party into a bunch of adventures. The corrupt first mate could have stolen the ship's Khyber shard and they need to get it back. The deckhands could have been kids then serving on the ship but now they'd easily be 20 or 30 and expeireced, hardened sailors. Having a few of them on the crew would be very advantageous. Thing of all the crazy, funny or dark, secret stories they could share about the pc's grandfather. Their presence alone easily spins the game into a whole new direction after the ship's been repaired and is up and running.

The grandfather could have done one or two missions for a dark, secret origination that's out to get revenge for him failing to complete it and wants to kill the pc.

That's all I can come up with for now, but I might have an idea or two more after thinking about this.
MarkB
10-29-05, 04:01 PM Airships were only developed over the last decade, so you won't find many of them turning up as heirlooms.

The Windwright Captain prestige class in the Explorer's Handbook has an explicit rules framework for allowing players to acquire control of an official House Lyrandar airship to operate semi-independently, so if your game is hih enough level, you could encourage one of your players to build a character with this prestige class. Minimum entry is 8th level, and you only get your own ship with the second level of the PrC, but if you're going to go with a campaign of this type, it's an excellent prestige class.
DoveArrow
10-29-05, 04:30 PM Airships were only developed over the last decade, so you won't find many of them turning up as heirlooms.

The Windwright Captain prestige class in the Explorer's Handbook has an explicit rules framework for allowing players to acquire control of an official House Lyrandar airship to operate semi-independently, so if your game is hih enough level, you could encourage one of your players to build a character with this prestige class. Minimum entry is 8th level, and you only get your own ship with the second level of the PrC, but if you're going to go with a campaign of this type, it's an excellent prestige class.

What he said. Only I would add that perhaps one of the PCs inherited a soarwood vessel from their grandfather and have decided to turn it into an airship.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Daemeon_Blackheart 10-29-05, 03:57 AM	Hi all thats right I am planning on running an Airship campaign. The problem is what will be the main focus of the adventure? I tried this once before but it feel thru pretty quickly. Need some advise on this one. Heres what I got so far. One of the heros in the party inherits an airship from his late grandfather or some other family member that has passed on. It is in disrepair and thus needs to be repaired. Also they need to find a captain, pilot, and the crew. I was thinking of making all the senior officers the PCs. Heres what I have planned for them: 1. Need to repair the ship but the problem is they have no money do to it. 2. They need to find an elemental. What I was planning for this is a willing wind or fire elemental agrees to pilot the ship for the pilot and thus will be an NPC. 3. Need to find a crew which will consist of mainly warforged since they don't need to eat, breath or sleep. 4. Have no idea after this Also I will be using gunpowder rules that are presented in a dragon mag. So any help would be greatly appricated.
icedrake 10-29-05, 03:00 PM	What leve are the characters going to be starting at? Will the pc owner of the ship recieve it at the beginning of game or as it progresses? Also, where will the airship be sitting while its waiting to be repaired? I would suggest giving the PC his airship as the game progresses, that way after he finds out about it, the party can make a series of adventures trying to get some money to repair it and find the crew. There are several things you can do to make a game out of repairing the ship. During the course of the party's adventures, they should meet former sailors or a Lyrander heir, save them or help them or somehow befriend them and they will in turn serve the party as an allied npc. To repair the ship, they will need to make a trip Stormhome to find a supplier of soarwood to repair the ship. While there, they can get caught up in the covert ingritue of the spies from various nations and thwart a plot or two. At the same time, they might be able to find a pilot. Not sure about the warforged, though. There could be a corrupt dwarven or caneith adept who's ignored the Thronehold Treaty and subjects his warforged creations to slavelabor. The pcs find out about this and in turn try to recuse the warforged. If the grandfather owns the ship, there might be surviving members of his crew across Khorvaire or Stormreach (who knows where a sailor might end up after serving on a ship?). After talking to the grandfather before he dies or reading through his logs, they might find the names of some of his crew members and they could lead the party into a bunch of adventures. The corrupt first mate could have stolen the ship's Khyber shard and they need to get it back. The deckhands could have been kids then serving on the ship but now they'd easily be 20 or 30 and expeireced, hardened sailors. Having a few of them on the crew would be very advantageous. Thing of all the crazy, funny or dark, secret stories they could share about the pc's grandfather. Their presence alone easily spins the game into a whole new direction after the ship's been repaired and is up and running. The grandfather could have done one or two missions for a dark, secret origination that's out to get revenge for him failing to complete it and wants to kill the pc. That's all I can come up with for now, but I might have an idea or two more after thinking about this.
MarkB 10-29-05, 04:01 PM	Airships were only developed over the last decade, so you won't find many of them turning up as heirlooms. The Windwright Captain prestige class in the Explorer's Handbook has an explicit rules framework for allowing players to acquire control of an official House Lyrandar airship to operate semi-independently, so if your game is hih enough level, you could encourage one of your players to build a character with this prestige class. Minimum entry is 8th level, and you only get your own ship with the second level of the PrC, but if you're going to go with a campaign of this type, it's an excellent prestige class.
DoveArrow 10-29-05, 04:30 PM	Airships were only developed over the last decade, so you won't find many of them turning up as heirlooms. The Windwright Captain prestige class in the Explorer's Handbook has an explicit rules framework for allowing players to acquire control of an official House Lyrandar airship to operate semi-independently, so if your game is hih enough level, you could encourage one of your players to build a character with this prestige class. Minimum entry is 8th level, and you only get your own ship with the second level of the PrC, but if you're going to go with a campaign of this type, it's an excellent prestige class. What he said. Only I would add that perhaps one of the PCs inherited a soarwood vessel from their grandfather and have decided to turn it into an airship.