Sunday, July 24, 2016

Sky Forge User's Guide House rules.



House rules:

Flying ships in Aleria.

Long Long story Short.
For generations the gnomes ruled the sky with a fleet of flaying trading vessels. During the war with Orduth the Mind-flayer overlords enslaved the gnomes and used the sky ships to devastating effect. The mind-flayers forced the gnomes to pour their magical and physical energy into the sky forges that powered their vessels, killing many gnomes in the process. Near the end of the war when gnomes were becoming more and more scarce the sky ships began to fail, many were lost to crashes and a few more were lost to combat. The Mind-flayer gambit failed, with out the expertise of the gnome engineers the ships were near useless.
The technology of the sky forge was believed lost after the war.

The party rediscovered a sky forge along with the ships engineers notes deep in the ruins of Careth. Johann took a winter to piece the sky forge back together again in hopes of rediscovering a part of his people history.

What does a sky forge do?
By use of a rapidly rotating energy sphere it creates lift crossed a plain, based on the size of the forge and the amount of energy (spell slots) feed into the forge.
The lift is adjustable using the sky forge to create limited movement in any direction, however this movement is normally used for fine maneuvers such as docking and landing.

Set up and limitations.
A sky forge must be aligned and attached to the hull of it’s vessel in a very specific way so that it’s changing lift can be spread through out the superstructure evenly. The gnomes used rune covered copper conduits to achieve this energy balance.
A lay man can place and set up a sky forge only if he or she has engineering documents to work from.

Setting up a forge with out instructions no experience is a Heroic difficulty feat (DC30)
With instructions it is a formidable difficulty (DC25)
Even with With instructions and the right kind of boat (DC20)
  • A successful Intelligence check is necessary to set up the S-Forge.
  • If there are instructions available an investigation check vs DC20can be made to give the character advantage on the intelligence check for setting up the Sky-Forge.
  • A failed set up roll means all piloting rolls are made at disadvantage.

Attaching / installing the forge:
After the forge is properly aligned the forge needs to be firmly set in the superstructure of the ship.
Any character may make a “profession” or wisdom check to secure the sky forge. The professions that might apply would be Engineer, shipwright, and carpenter.
A failed roll means the ship has disadvantage on any and all saves made when making sudden maneuvers with the sky forge.


Forge lift strength:
A forge can lift a limited amount of weight, and lift above a forges uper limit will result in the ship needing to make saves to avoid the forge ripping it’s self loose for the superstructure.
  1. Class A: Sloop
    • up to 100 tons
    • cargo up to 40 tons
    • (12 known to have been built)
    • up to 50 sailors
    • unloaded top speed 30 knots (good wind, perfect conditions)
    • loaded to speed 20 knots
  2. Class B: Schooner
    • up to 200 tons
    • cargo up to 100 tons
    • (6 known to have been built)
    • up to 60 crew
      • This is the class Johann found.
    • unloaded top speed 25 knots (good wind, perfect conditions)
    • loaded to speed 15 knots
  1. Class C:
    • up to 400 tons
    • Cargo up to 250 tons
    • (4 known to have been built)
    • up to 100 crew
    • unloaded top speed 22 knots (good wind, perfect conditions)
    • loaded to speed 12 knots
  1. Class D:
    • Up to 1200 tons
    • cargo up to 900 tons
    • (2 known to have been built)
    • One known lost at battle of Dairhouse)
    • up to 150 crew
    • unloaded top speed 18 knots (good wind, perfect conditions)
    • loaded to speed 10 knots
  1. Class S:
    • Up to 2000 tons
    • Cargo up to 400 tons
    • Legendary, perhaps only one built.
    • Up to 200 crew.
    • unloaded top speed unknown
    • loaded to speed unknown




Flying A sky ship:
New skill:
Profession: Sky ship pilot. (Wisdom)
You are skilled at keeping a sky ship level and buoyant using a charged sky forge.

Sky forgets are finicky even at the best of times. The bigger the ship the harder it is to keep in the air.
Skill rolls need to be made for the following occurrences:

Weather:
Wind more than rains or snow is the nemesis of a sky ship. Sky forges can self maintain in light weather but anything worse than a stiff breeze will require the pilots attention.

  1. Gusts of wind:
    1. 30 Mph gust DC 15
    2. 31 mph to 50 mph DC 20
    3. 51 mph or more DC 25
  2. Strong sustained winds:
    1. DC 20 (40 mph or around 34 knots)
    2. Plus 1 DC per 5 mph of sustained winds beyond 40 mph.
      1. (A low level hurricane for example would cause checks at DC 27.)
New Skill:
Sky Navigation: (wisdom)
You read the weather to find safer routs around storms, and detect bad weather.
After a successful navigation check, the ships pilot can make their next steer check with advantage.

Failed checks represent loss of control and tipping. Unsecured people makes Dex saves or be flung about.
Failed saves have the following results.
  • Roll a 1 critical fail
    • Above deck, overboard!
    • Below deck, Con save or be reduced to 0 hp and get knocked unconscious
      • A successful con save character still takes 4d6 damage from getting bounced around.
  • Fail save by 10 or more
    • Above decks, Dex save or fall overboard.
    • Below deck 3d6 damage
  • Fail save by less than 10
    • Above deck bounced around date 1d6 damage
    • Below deck take 2 d 6 damage.


Moving:
Forward movement can be achieved via the sky forge but it is not particularly fast.
4 knots tops:

Movement via sail:
A sky ship can be propelled like any normal sailing vessel, using sails to capture the wind.
Where as a normal ship with good wind might make 6 knots, a sky-forge ship deals much less drag, than a sea bound vessel. Speeds of 15 to 20 knots are not uncommon, with small unloaded sky-forges managing an incredible 30 knots (34.5 mph.) This makes transport via Sky Forge much faster than via normal ship.

Working the rigging and sails of a sky forge ship use all the normal skills and techniques that are used when manning normal sailing ships.

Altitude:
Each spell slot pumped into a sky forge can raise the vessel by 10 feet over the current ground height. A sky forge will maintain it’s altitude over the normal contours of the ground. The ship wills simply move up and down in altitude to maintain it’s cruising height above most hills, gulleys and natural features.
Sudden shifts, such as cliffs, or canyons my require the pilot to commit more energy to maintain altitude and still maintain forward movement.

For this reason wise pilots will often achieve a safe height and navigate following natural flat areas, such as rivers, river valleys and plains.

1 level spell slot adds 10 feet of altitude and lasts for 8 hours.
After 8 hours the pilot need only commit one level worth of spell slots to maintain altitude.
After 8 hours if no spell slots are added the spell forge slowly descends at a rate of 1d4 x10 feet per hour.

Structure:
The structure of the ship is measured in structure points.
Structure points can be considered hit points for the ship.

New skill:
sky ship repair (wisdom / Profession)
With a success full roll you may repair 1d10 + your proficiency bonus structural damage given time and materials. Emergency repairs to fix sudden malfunctions are up to the DM’s discretion.

Crashes causes 1d10 points of structure damage per 10 feet crashed above the initial 10 feet.
Anyone in a crash will take the same damage in hit point damage and may make a constitution save to only receive half damage.



Any damage that causes more that the ships total structure points divided by 10 in one blow, causes a breach in the hull.

Sky ship combat:
Ship combat will be carried out using 5th ed combat rules, with advantage disadvantage given for clever maneuvering.
Tehre are no cannon exactly so most fights will maneuver and board affairs .



New Skill:
Sky Navigation: (wisdom)
You read the weather to find safer routs around storms, and detect bad weather.
After a successful navigation check, the ships pilot can make their next steer check with advantage.
New skill:
sky ship repair (wisdom / Profession)
With a success full roll you may repair 1d10 + your proficiency bonus structural damage given time and materials. Emergency repairs to fix sudden malfunctions are up to the DM’s discretion.

New skill:
Flying A sky ship:
Profession: Sky ship pilot. (Wisdom)
You are skilled at keeping a sky ship level and buoyant using a charged skyforge.

Gems:
A skyforge may also be fueled by gems.
Each  500 GP isn value is equivalent to 1 spell slot level. 
Gems used must be single specimens. In other words two 250 gp ruby's does not equal one 500 gp  ruby in this context.

 In their heyday, gnome captains would often stich several large gems into their surcoats, so that they would have the gems on hand in case of emergency. This is especially true of rubies and Rainbow moonstone. This practice gave rise to the saying "richer than a gnomes coat" which denotes a person of high station, or great wealth.

 Some Types of Gems create varying qualities when loaded into a skyforge. 
All qualities and effects last for 8 hours.

 Known Gem Qualities:

 Greater Gems:

  • Ruby provides resistance to fire.
    • useful if the sky ship indeed catches fire or if  the vessel comes under attack.
  • Emerald provides a degree of  camouflage based on the  surrounding environment. 
    • DC 15 + 1 per 500 GP in Gem value to detect while not moving 
    • DC 12 + 1 per 500 GP in Gem value to detect while  moving. 
  • Diamond Provides  a boost of temporary structure points.
    • 1d10 structure points per 500 gp  in gem value.
  • Garnett: Makes the ship  notably more maneuverable.
    • Pilot of the  ship  gains advantage on 1d4 piloting rolls per 500 gp gem value.
Lesser stones:
  • Onyx: Changes the vessel's color to jet black.
  • Star Sapphire: The vessel gives off a dull light in a 30 foot radius.
  • Lapis Lazuli; The vessel surface repels water vial a magical barrier coating all of it's surfaces.
  • Rainbow Moonstone: As long as the sky forge is operational this stone stops any downward progression of the ship.
Other Gems may cause other effects.
Mixing gems can have unexpected and unpredictable effects.
This document will be added as we come up with more ideas.

links:
http://tao-dnd.blogspot.com/search/label/Hirelings
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