Airships make it too easy [Archive] - Wizards Community

Airships make it too easy [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
SirPudding
08-17-06, 08:31 PM My PCs have a wealthy patron who sponsors their expeditions to Xen'Drik and other places. There job is to (ahem) procur artifacts for the Morgrave University. There patron is a proffesor with some clout in house Lyrandar. They will therefore occasionally be getting a ride ina fancy schmancy airship. What I am worried about is that it might make getting Xen'Drik easier to get to and less exotic. Half the fun of an adventure is crossing treacherous, stormy, monster-infested oceans and miles of trackless and even more monster infested jungle. They would only be able to garner access to the Airship every once in awhile, but how to keep them from feeling railroaded "You let us fly there last time, why do we have to take a boring old boat this time?" Also, how do you get your PCs to camp out once they get access to Mordenkainens Magnificent Mansion? Do all the magical
convinences of Eberron take some of the rough out of roughing it? Please help me nip this thing in the bud!
beezly
08-17-06, 08:37 PM Maybe the NPC had a falling out with the house. Maybe they get raided by sky pirates!
hiryuu
08-17-06, 08:40 PM A lot of Eberron travel is meant to "red line" you to your destination, much like Indiana Jones films, or pulp comics ("Meanwhile, at the Hall of Cannith..."). If you want to slow it down a bit, just make that travel less available. Full up, being used somewhere else, and so on.
SirPudding
08-17-06, 08:44 PM I was thinking also of making it House Lyrandar policy not to go to far into the Xen'Drik interior without a hefty fee. "Rain of Siberys shards of the port bow!, Giants throwing rocks to the stern! Hey, who put scorpion venom in the drinking water?" I was also just thinking of various beasties that prowl the skys. Any got some of challenge rating 5 or so?
Bluebrush
08-17-06, 08:52 PM Put simply... They don't call it the Skyfall Peninsula for nothing.

If your PCs crossed it by airship last time without incident, then I guess they were just lucky that time, and their patron was pretty persuasive with the airship captain to get him to go there.
Splendide
08-17-06, 08:55 PM A capricious patron seems the best way out.

One minute he's the party's best mate, the next he's been offended by some minor slight and is only a bee's dick away from hounding them out of town. He may in fact sack them a number of times, then rehire them when he's calmed down.

While they're on the airship, he may hear a rumour from someone who doesn't like the party that they were badmouthing him in public, so he'll send out a message to leave them stranded wherever they are at the time. He may relent later on when he hears something else and send someone out to pick them up, or he may not.

As for the magnificent mansion...well, once PCs get to that point, the game is beyond camping out anyway. You really shouldn't be relying on night encounters to spice things up.
trevg
08-17-06, 08:58 PM A capricious patron seems the best way out.

One minute he's the party's best mate, the next he's been offended by some minor slight as is only a bee's dick away from hounding them out of town. He may in fact sack them a number of times, then rehire them when he's calmed down.

You could name him George ir'Steinbrenner (sp?)
Splendide
08-17-06, 09:00 PM Haha, exactly!
DarkWarriorKarg
08-17-06, 10:00 PM My PCs have a wealthy patron who sponsors their expeditions to Xen'Drik and other places. There job is to (ahem) procur artifacts for the Morgrave University. There patron is a proffesor with some clout in house Lyrandar. They will therefore occasionally be getting a ride ina fancy schmancy airship. What I am worried about is that it might make getting Xen'Drik easier to get to and less exotic. Half the fun of an adventure is crossing treacherous, stormy, monster-infested oceans and miles of trackless and even more monster infested jungle. They would only be able to garner access to the Airship every once in awhile, but how to keep them from feeling railroaded "You let us fly there last time, why do we have to take a boring old boat this time?" Also, how do you get your PCs to camp out once they get access to Mordenkainens Magnificent Mansion? Do all the magical
convinences of Eberron take some of the rough out of roughing it? Please help me nip this thing in the bud!

If you have serious issues with high level characters using their high level abilities, you should stop your game & restart.

Let's tackle the last one first.

If they have MMM, then they can have Teleport, Greater. They get to Stormreach instantaneously.

At the levels you're talking about, half the fun isn't getting there, it's finding out where to go next.

13th+ level characters don't worry about common bandits. Common bandits worry about them.

As for the airship, there's wild elementals & other things that can keep things lively, as well as enemy-planned ambushes.

But quite frankly, you should be "red-lining" it.

And if the mage uses a MMM every night, that's one less LImited wish or delayed blast fireball available.
Korhal_IV
08-18-06, 08:48 PM I was thinking also of making it House Lyrandar policy not to go to far into the Xen'Drik interior without a hefty fee. "Rain of Siberys shards of the port bow!, Giants throwing rocks to the stern! Hey, who put scorpion venom in the drinking water?" I was also just thinking of various beasties that prowl the skys. Any got some of challenge rating 5 or so?
There's only about twenty or thirty airships in existence anyway. Who says their patron is important enough to have one at his disposal all the time anyway? Perhaps the airship that took them there last time had to go to Xen'drik for another reason (picking up important packages and personages), and they just happened to have the space to carry some adventurers as a favor to the nutty professor. So their "privilege" is being able to be hitchhiking bums instead of walking there. :P
The Dreaming Duck
08-19-06, 01:05 AM I was thinking also of making it House Lyrandar policy not to go to far into the Xen'Drik interior without a hefty fee.
According to page 11 of Secrets of Xen'drik, Lyrandar doesn't even like sending airships to Stormreach, let alone past it.

"Airship captains have encountered unbound elementals, yrthaks, insect swarms, and even more dangerous things in the Xen'drik skies. As a result, House Lyrandar typically deploys airships to Stormreach only on urgent business of the house or when a vessel is chartered by a favored client... the cost can be prohibitive."

... And that's just going to STORMREACH, not into the hostile territory of the wilds.

In my eyes, airships are the red line of Indiana Jones. But the red line typically gets Indy to the closest major city; he has to hike out to the ruins in the jungle the hard way. So your party can get the quick jaunt to Stormreach, but it shouldn't be so easy to reach the inland places. And if they compel the captain, you've got all the dangers mentioned above, plus any others you can think of.

At GenCon, David Noonan said that in his campaign, his players won't get anywhere near an airship, because they ALWAYS crash or suffer terrible disasters!
ChaoticGood
08-19-06, 02:45 AM Why can't airship travel be just as exciting? There are plenty of decent airborne monsters, from simple stirges to arrowhawks to angry dragons to tempest elementals! Not to mention the other passengers! It's hard to escape the ghost of the haunted airship when you're 2 miles up and 100 miles out over the Thunder Sea and you can't fly on your own. Travelling on an airship is NOT guaranteed to be a bed of roses.

Also, it's been touched on, but I'll spell it out: As far as my sources can ascertain, there is no airship dock in Stormreach. Xen'drik runs are not commonplace for Lyrandar crews. If they flew there once, it was because the House itself had reason to do so, not because their patron had the cash.

Imagine calling up United Airlines or British Airways and saying, "Well, I know there's not actually an airport nearby, but I'd like to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro, and I was thinking, since there's not really much out there, we could just land the 747 in a field or something. Oh, I know that's nowhere near your usual routes, but I know this guy who can pay for it!"

Go ahead and try it. I don't care if you personally know Bill Gates, it's not going to happen.

Now if they were to steal their own airship, that's another story... but then they have to pay upkeep for crew and stores and such.
Eled_the_Worm_Tamer
08-19-06, 02:11 PM In my capeghns I added a new environmemtal hazard, a remenant of the magic Giants used against Dal Quor. Locals called them Shoals, areas where mgical items were deminshed/ counterd/ neutralised. They moved slowly, meaning up to date charts were esental, but only the local drow tribes had them. Trying to cross Xen'Drik without forwarning of the shoals, well put like this, you were better off running head long into a mechanical meat packer. Made travel slow and painstaking, but let me speed it up when it was needed.
davethebrave371
08-20-06, 02:33 AM How much does a wand of dispel magic cost?

Because I'm pretty sure a couple charges = no more elemental. Simple, easy, and fits inside an NPCs wealth bracket rather nicely at the levels where a party is casting MMM.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
SirPudding 08-17-06, 08:31 PM	My PCs have a wealthy patron who sponsors their expeditions to Xen'Drik and other places. There job is to (ahem) procur artifacts for the Morgrave University. There patron is a proffesor with some clout in house Lyrandar. They will therefore occasionally be getting a ride ina fancy schmancy airship. What I am worried about is that it might make getting Xen'Drik easier to get to and less exotic. Half the fun of an adventure is crossing treacherous, stormy, monster-infested oceans and miles of trackless and even more monster infested jungle. They would only be able to garner access to the Airship every once in awhile, but how to keep them from feeling railroaded "You let us fly there last time, why do we have to take a boring old boat this time?" Also, how do you get your PCs to camp out once they get access to Mordenkainens Magnificent Mansion? Do all the magical convinences of Eberron take some of the rough out of roughing it? Please help me nip this thing in the bud!
beezly 08-17-06, 08:37 PM	Maybe the NPC had a falling out with the house. Maybe they get raided by sky pirates!
hiryuu 08-17-06, 08:40 PM	A lot of Eberron travel is meant to "red line" you to your destination, much like Indiana Jones films, or pulp comics ("Meanwhile, at the Hall of Cannith..."). If you want to slow it down a bit, just make that travel less available. Full up, being used somewhere else, and so on.
SirPudding 08-17-06, 08:44 PM	I was thinking also of making it House Lyrandar policy not to go to far into the Xen'Drik interior without a hefty fee. "Rain of Siberys shards of the port bow!, Giants throwing rocks to the stern! Hey, who put scorpion venom in the drinking water?" I was also just thinking of various beasties that prowl the skys. Any got some of challenge rating 5 or so?
Bluebrush 08-17-06, 08:52 PM	Put simply... They don't call it the Skyfall Peninsula for nothing. If your PCs crossed it by airship last time without incident, then I guess they were just lucky that time, and their patron was pretty persuasive with the airship captain to get him to go there.
Splendide 08-17-06, 08:55 PM	A capricious patron seems the best way out. One minute he's the party's best mate, the next he's been offended by some minor slight and is only a bee's dick away from hounding them out of town. He may in fact sack them a number of times, then rehire them when he's calmed down. While they're on the airship, he may hear a rumour from someone who doesn't like the party that they were badmouthing him in public, so he'll send out a message to leave them stranded wherever they are at the time. He may relent later on when he hears something else and send someone out to pick them up, or he may not. As for the magnificent mansion...well, once PCs get to that point, the game is beyond camping out anyway. You really shouldn't be relying on night encounters to spice things up.
trevg 08-17-06, 08:58 PM	A capricious patron seems the best way out. One minute he's the party's best mate, the next he's been offended by some minor slight as is only a bee's dick away from hounding them out of town. He may in fact sack them a number of times, then rehire them when he's calmed down. You could name him George ir'Steinbrenner (sp?)
Splendide 08-17-06, 09:00 PM	Haha, exactly!
DarkWarriorKarg 08-17-06, 10:00 PM	My PCs have a wealthy patron who sponsors their expeditions to Xen'Drik and other places. There job is to (ahem) procur artifacts for the Morgrave University. There patron is a proffesor with some clout in house Lyrandar. They will therefore occasionally be getting a ride ina fancy schmancy airship. What I am worried about is that it might make getting Xen'Drik easier to get to and less exotic. Half the fun of an adventure is crossing treacherous, stormy, monster-infested oceans and miles of trackless and even more monster infested jungle. They would only be able to garner access to the Airship every once in awhile, but how to keep them from feeling railroaded "You let us fly there last time, why do we have to take a boring old boat this time?" Also, how do you get your PCs to camp out once they get access to Mordenkainens Magnificent Mansion? Do all the magical convinences of Eberron take some of the rough out of roughing it? Please help me nip this thing in the bud! If you have serious issues with high level characters using their high level abilities, you should stop your game & restart. Let's tackle the last one first. If they have MMM, then they can have Teleport, Greater. They get to Stormreach instantaneously. At the levels you're talking about, half the fun isn't getting there, it's finding out where to go next. 13th+ level characters don't worry about common bandits. Common bandits worry about them. As for the airship, there's wild elementals & other things that can keep things lively, as well as enemy-planned ambushes. But quite frankly, you should be "red-lining" it. And if the mage uses a MMM every night, that's one less LImited wish or delayed blast fireball available.
Korhal_IV 08-18-06, 08:48 PM	I was thinking also of making it House Lyrandar policy not to go to far into the Xen'Drik interior without a hefty fee. "Rain of Siberys shards of the port bow!, Giants throwing rocks to the stern! Hey, who put scorpion venom in the drinking water?" I was also just thinking of various beasties that prowl the skys. Any got some of challenge rating 5 or so? There's only about twenty or thirty airships in existence anyway. Who says their patron is important enough to have one at his disposal all the time anyway? Perhaps the airship that took them there last time had to go to Xen'drik for another reason (picking up important packages and personages), and they just happened to have the space to carry some adventurers as a favor to the nutty professor. So their "privilege" is being able to be hitchhiking bums instead of walking there. :P
The Dreaming Duck 08-19-06, 01:05 AM	I was thinking also of making it House Lyrandar policy not to go to far into the Xen'Drik interior without a hefty fee. According to page 11 of Secrets of Xen'drik, Lyrandar doesn't even like sending airships to Stormreach, let alone past it. "Airship captains have encountered unbound elementals, yrthaks, insect swarms, and even more dangerous things in the Xen'drik skies. As a result, House Lyrandar typically deploys airships to Stormreach only on urgent business of the house or when a vessel is chartered by a favored client... the cost can be prohibitive." ... And that's just going to STORMREACH, not into the hostile territory of the wilds. In my eyes, airships are the red line of Indiana Jones. But the red line typically gets Indy to the closest major city; he has to hike out to the ruins in the jungle the hard way. So your party can get the quick jaunt to Stormreach, but it shouldn't be so easy to reach the inland places. And if they compel the captain, you've got all the dangers mentioned above, plus any others you can think of. At GenCon, David Noonan said that in his campaign, his players won't get anywhere near an airship, because they ALWAYS crash or suffer terrible disasters!
ChaoticGood 08-19-06, 02:45 AM	Why can't airship travel be just as exciting? There are plenty of decent airborne monsters, from simple stirges to arrowhawks to angry dragons to tempest elementals! Not to mention the other passengers! It's hard to escape the ghost of the haunted airship when you're 2 miles up and 100 miles out over the Thunder Sea and you can't fly on your own. Travelling on an airship is NOT guaranteed to be a bed of roses. Also, it's been touched on, but I'll spell it out: As far as my sources can ascertain, there is no airship dock in Stormreach. Xen'drik runs are not commonplace for Lyrandar crews. If they flew there once, it was because the House itself had reason to do so, not because their patron had the cash. Imagine calling up United Airlines or British Airways and saying, "Well, I know there's not actually an airport nearby, but I'd like to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro, and I was thinking, since there's not really much out there, we could just land the 747 in a field or something. Oh, I know that's nowhere near your usual routes, but I know this guy who can pay for it!" Go ahead and try it. I don't care if you personally know Bill Gates, it's not going to happen. Now if they were to steal their own airship, that's another story... but then they have to pay upkeep for crew and stores and such.
Eled_the_Worm_Tamer 08-19-06, 02:11 PM	In my capeghns I added a new environmemtal hazard, a remenant of the magic Giants used against Dal Quor. Locals called them Shoals, areas where mgical items were deminshed/ counterd/ neutralised. They moved slowly, meaning up to date charts were esental, but only the local drow tribes had them. Trying to cross Xen'Drik without forwarning of the shoals, well put like this, you were better off running head long into a mechanical meat packer. Made travel slow and painstaking, but let me speed it up when it was needed.
davethebrave371 08-20-06, 02:33 AM	How much does a wand of dispel magic cost? Because I'm pretty sure a couple charges = no more elemental. Simple, easy, and fits inside an NPCs wealth bracket rather nicely at the levels where a party is casting MMM.