Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 thomascannon Nov 21, 2009 12:29:51	So in my campaign im using airships similar to those used in the eberon campaign. i had an idea that i think my group will like. i wanna do air battles between airships. players can pilot them, use mounted siege style crossbows to damage or rope other airships. players could jump from one ship to the other to fight the other crew directly, and so on. any one got any ideas? what im looking for: 1: rules on movement 2: weapon / defense ideas ( ship upgrades, how many an airship can have, and how they affect other things) 3: any other input you may have
#2 herbaltea Nov 21, 2009 13:58:51	One idea that I seem to remember from long ago from a similar situation was to treat the battle in two main phases - 1. The movement of the actual air ships and tactical positioning, so they can fire their weapons at each other. I'd say something like they can move up to 5 squares each, depending on the size of the ships etc 2. The combat encounters that take place when someone has boarded someone elses ship. Taking hits as their ships are hit could be a different matter however, as there are several ways you could do this. You could say that when a ship is hit successfully, there is impact damage that knocks the PCs over, so they must make an acrobatics check to avoid taking damage themselves. If I remember correctly, we stayed with phase 1 up until we or the enemy boarded, then split the rounds between the phases.
#3 herbaltea Nov 21, 2009 14:00:29	and perhaps to spice things up a bit, maybe have flaming ammunition to make the encounter a bit more epic
#4 thomascannon Nov 21, 2009 16:15:23	Was thinking about weapons that would be a crossbow version of the mounted harpoon guns on modern boats. the arrows/bolts could be fiitted with a variety of tips, including magical fire, ones with chains to hold on to a ship, and maybe some that can be fitted to deliver alchemist items. per turn they can only make like 45 degree turns, which is basically strait to diaganal, or vise versa movement, and up to like 6 in combat. also looking at things like armor which help defense but because of weight slow it down. all the guns could be mounted on one side, so when that side is open they can do some damage, but if they have weapons all around, its less strategic, but also less possible damage per round. just some ideas...
#5 Quixotist Nov 22, 2009 2:01:40	There was a Dreamcast game called Skies of Arcadia back in 2000 that had airship battles, you could draw some mechanics from there. I'm sure you can find some explanations if you search for that in Google. I personally think it would be easier to not use a grid for the ship's movements, just movement aboard each ship's deck. Instead, explain that generally the airships are close with some distance in between, but give the players a few options to navigate with in order to try and gain an advantage (e.g. maneuver behind the enemy to escape attacks for a round, bring the ship in closer to increase accuracy/damage, etc.). These tactics would of course be open to the enemy ship as well. You could roll a d6 to determine the success of their tactics (1 or 2, the enemy navigator manages to prevent their maneuver). You might also limit these navigation options frequency, depending on how many rounds you expect there to be. As for weapons, ballistae would make sense. Any number of magical or non-magical effects can be added onto those, which could add interesting things the players might have to do (put out fires if they were shot with flaming bolts or alchemical fire, cut down grappling ropes, etc.). If the PCs own this airship and are equipping it, you can balance things like how heavily armored their ship is by changing the success rates of their navigation tactics (heavier ships move slower, are easier to avoid), and you can have various weapons that have more power, more accuracy, etc. Hopefully this gives you some ideas.