Post/Author/DateTime	Post
REN 08-04-05, 09:10 AM	HELP! I was running the "Shadows of the Last War" and the party opted to take the Elemental Galleon to their destination. As I didn't have a whole lot of time to prep as I would have liked, I ended up assuming that the Elemental Galleons would use bound water elementals. I knew Fire was used for air ships (heat rises so that makes sense) and that Air was used to propel the Lightning Rail (it kinda floats on top of the conductor stones - right, so air pushing it also makes sense) but was unsure how the Galleon would move across the waters. I made a snap decision and after looking at the Airship artwork in the Eberron setting, I decided to use the same concept except in water with a water elementatl bound to the vessel. I even drew a simple overhead view of the vessel for the miniatures. It had a water elemental ring bound to the center and I figured the water elemental would cradle the vessel thus allowing the ship to practically float ontop of water. Then this morning, I read in the Eberron setting, that these Galleons also use air elementals that are bound to the back of the ship in a tower. OK... so now I have to either : A - write a revisionist history version of what happened or B - use this new type of vessel in my campaign I hate revising what happened, and prefer to come up with new ideas. So what do you guys think? Would having a new type of Galleon powered by a water elemental be reasonable? My thinking is that the earlier models would have been adapted to fit onto regular galleons that normally relied on sails, but the deisgners wanted to make these vessels faster and decided that water would interact better with water and thus allow the vessels to travel faster than by air. Only a few have been built as they are much more expensive to build and difficult to control. Instead of the 64000 GP it normally costs, this type of design would cost upwards of 150000 -> even more than the Air ships. The speed can reach 30MPH (faster than any other elemental vessel). There are a few extra hazards however, as my party found out. The faster the ship moves, the faster the water ring flows around the center of the ship. This created a dangerous situation when battling the skeletons. Luckily for the party, the skeletons got too close to the edge and touched the water ring that bascially took the skeletons and crushed them scattering bone fragments everywhere. IT WAS COOL! Also, the noise of the water moving about all the time makes it too noisy to be a true passenger vehicle. So what do you think? Am I just crazy or should I just use revisionst history and tell my players that the ship was actually wind powered and the skeletons were blown away by the wind? HEHE! thanks! :cool: Ren (AKA JYNX) www.rpgmontreal.com (http://www.rpgmontreal.com)
Sereno 08-04-05, 09:39 AM	There's no reason not to use the vessel you've already described. I came up with a similar idea for an elemental riverboat that used a pair of smaller rings along the side of the ship like paddlewheels on Mississippi riverboats. I wouldn't think that they'd be more difficult to operate, but they might be more expensive. Revising the history you've already played through goes a long way to breaking the players willing suspension of disbelief that adds to the fun of role-playing. Don't do it unless it's absolutely necessary; for example if a mistake on your part as DM led to a TPK.
Gishsarath 08-04-05, 09:41 AM	I say go for it, man. The Water-elemental powered galleon can be an experimental prototype, custom-built by the gnomes to fulfill a specific purpose. Don't be a slave to the rules in the books, if you feel that a water elemental galleon idea is cooler, rock on. It seems like you thought it through, and it makes no sense to change the specifics of what sounds like a really cool action scene.
REN 08-04-05, 09:46 AM	THANKS! It was really cool... much more so than the module described it. I added lots of ocean type sound effects while running that scene (I prefer to call my 'encounters', scenes) and they were blown away at how the skeletons were taken out by the force of the water ring. I don't want to change what happened, but I have a couple of players who really know the Eberron books well, so I was afraid they would argue my view on the vessel. What am I saying??? I'm the freeken DM... so what I say goes.!! hehe!
Just another user 08-04-05, 10:04 AM	House Cannith and Sivis experimented with water elemental when studing the praticability of elemental galleons, while the idea of water elemental powered ships seemed more logical and it had some advantage it was quickly abbandoned for the reasons you have seen in your game, those water ring can be too darm dangerous, think what could happen during a storm or with strong winds. The houses considered a waste to just dismantle the few prototypes they so they simply have put it into service. Your PCs should consider themselves lucky to have been able to see one, there are not many of those ships around Korvhaine.
Aubri 08-04-05, 10:22 AM	Yeah, even elemental galleons are quite new. The "typical" one looks like a hydrofoil with an air elemental ring mounted where the rear sail should be (or maybe on the extreme aft), but it's not unthinkable to have a water ring down below instead. They're still being experimented with, after all, and if you check out the art galleries you'll note a water-elemental powered submarine in Grasp of the Emerald Claw. In fact, ECS p.125 says that elemental galleons run on water elementals, so there's a precident. I just assume there are advantages and disadvantages to using air or water (or air or fire in airships). Presumably a water-bound ship has more deck space but a much deeper draft. "I made a ship with an earth elemental ring!" *roll roll roll*