Flying ships are a popular element in fantasy fiction; the airship brings a fantastic element to the romantic notions of sea travel. While sailors of the sea enjoy a freedom few settled folk ever experience, those who sail the air are literally above the world, flying high over those who must spend their days crawling across the dusty surface. This book allows you to introduce airships into your campaign, including everything from rules for constructing airships of your own, to systems for handling aerial combat, to information useful for aerial traders. Armed with what you find in these pages, you can open new horizons in your campaign, expanding your adventures from the earth to the sky and all points between. This book was adapted from _Airships_ by Sam Witt, published by Bastion Press (2002) \[[DriveThruRPG link](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/54900/airships)]. It has been updated to the 5.5 edition ruleset (originally having been made for 3.5 edition) and slightly modified to fit the current campaign, but roughly 95% of the original text remains. # Chapter I: Components of an Airship This chapter lists all the different components of an airship, their uses, stats, and costs. ## Tonnage A broad measure of an airship's size is its tonnage. This refers to the ton not as a unit of weight, but of available volume. Each airship ton is equal to 1000 cubic feet (a 10' × 10' × 10' cube) of enclosed space on an airship, including any enclosed structures on the deck's surface. While an airship could be as small as one ton in size, no airships currently constructed are larger than 100 tons. The tonnage of an airship is used to determine many of its pertinent game statistics. It determines how many Hull Points (health) the ship has, as well as sets its size category, which is used for a number of calculations. The size of a vessel also determines its base manoeuvrability, as larger ships are more difficult to manoeuvre and require greater effort to move about. All of this is explained in more detail later on, but you should be aware of these factors when considering the size of your airship. Many components of airships, especially engines and weapons, have space requirements listed in tons. These do not add to the total tonnage of the airship, but are instead a measure of how many 10-foot cubes the item occupies once it is installed. There are exceptions where noted; for example, side and bottom weapon turrets add to the tonnage of an airship and will need to be factored into any relevant calculations, though this tonnage is not available for cargo space or other such uses. It is important to remember that tonnage on an airship is not a measure of weight, but of volume. If for whatever reason you need to know how much your ship actually weighs, figure on average about 28 500 lbs per airship ton, fully loaded, although weight varies drastically from ship to ship due to construction, materials, and usage. > [!abstract] Airship Tons and Shipping Tons > Historically, a registered ton used for determining the size of a ship was equal to 100 cubic feet, which works out to an odd-sized cube a bit more than four and a half feet on a side – not terribly intuitive. For our purposes, then, the airship ton has been devised. > >The airship ton is a much easier unit to work with when designing a deck plan and is the perfect size for d20 games, as the 10-foot cube is well known to players and DMs alike. Assuming an average deck height of 10 feet, this allows a deck plan to be laid out quickly and simply, using a rule of thumb that each ton of the ship takes up a 10-foot square of deck space. ### Tonnage and Deck Plans When picturing the size of your vessel, it is sometimes difficult to imagine its dimensions, especially as airships are rarely shaped like the cubes pictured when thinking of tonnage. Deck plans are necessary to accurately envision an airship, and they are crucial when laying out the various components and elements of the ship. When drawing the plan, each deck should always be at least 10 feet in height. This accounts for the support structures and width of the planks or other materials used to construct the deck, while leaving room for crewmen to move about below decks without cracking their skulls on every doorway they pass through. This practice also makes things easier for you when you are mapping the airship, as you are working with 10-foot cubes, which are equal in volume to an airship ton. The 10' × 10' × 10' method of mapping has been used throughout this book, and is the reason that most airship components take up 100 square foot increments of floor space. While this method does not produce an accurate measure of the exact area of each portion of the ship, such as the slope of the airship's outer hull or other minutiae, it works very well for game purposes, allowing you to quickly map out an airship, providing a quick sketch that can later be turned into a detailed deck plan, suitable for use during ship-to-ship battles or boarding actions. If an airship is going to see regular use, its map should be as detailed as possible so as to avoid confusion later. While it may not matter in day-to-day operation of the airship, in a combat it can be crucial to know just where the ammunition for the ballista is in relation to the weapon itself. Trying to decide such details in the heat of battle not only breaks the mood, but can also lead to unnecessary disagreements during play. Laying out a deck plan keeps everyone on the same page and clearly illustrates how the different elements of the airship are related to one another. ### Tonnage and Size Categories The tonnage of an airship determines its size category. This, in turn, determines its basic manoeuvrability and Armour Class. **Table 1.1—Airship Size Categories** illustrates the various airship size categories, and details the appropriate statistics for each category. **Table 1.1—Airship Size Categories** | Tonnage | Size Category | Manoeuvrability | Armour Class | | ----------------------- | ------------- | :-----------------------: | :-----------------------: | | Up to 2 tons | 1: Fine | 2 | 18 | | 3 tons to 5 tons | 2: Diminutive | 2 | 14 | | 6 to 10 | 3: Tiny | 2 | 12 | | 11 to 15 | 4: Small | 1 | 11 | | 16 to 20 | 5: Medium | 1 | 10 | | 21 to 30 | 6: Large | 0 | 9 | | 31 to 50 | 7: Huge | 0 | 8 | | 51 to 70 | 8: Gargantuan | -1 | 6 | | 71 to 100 | 9: Colossal | -2 | 2 | | Each additional 50 tons | 10: Colossal+ | -1 per 50 additional tons | -4 per 50 additional tons | _Tonnage: The total tonnage of the airship. While the hull is the primary determinant of an airship's tonnage, turrets and some deck structures can also add to this value._ _Size Category: The size category of an airship is primarily used when the comparative size of two airships is important, but exact tonnage is not. Ramming damage, for example, is based on size category._ _Manoeuvrability: This number determines the maximum number of 45° turns an airship may make in a single round. A number of devices and conditions can impact a ship's manoeuvrability rating. See [[#Chapter IV Aerial Movement|Chapter 4]] for more information._ _Armour Class: The size of an airship determines its basic Armour Class. Smaller airships are simply more difficult to hit than their larger counterparts. Armour Class is discussed in [[#Chapter V Aerial Combat|Chapter 5]]._ ## Hull The hull of an airship determines a great deal about the vessel. The size and capacity of the airship is determined by the hull, as well as its overall ability to resist damage. Wood is the default material for all airships. **Wooden hulls provide 10 Hull Points per ton, and have a Hardness of 5.** The Hardness value acts similarly to a [[Combat and Damage#Damage Threshold|damage threshold]], and is subtracted from all damage suffered by an airship from attacks made by standard, non-ship weapons; any such weapons that deal less than 5 damage have no effect. Ship weapons, as detailed below, deal their full damage amount to a ship's hull. **A wooden hull also imparts +5 to Constitution and Dexterity saving throws that an airship makes.** Once you have determined the deck plan and size of your airship, multiply its tonnage by 10. This is the number of Hull Points your airship has. Airships do not have Hit Points, but Hull Points, which function in the same manner, serving as the health pool of your vessel. Other components, such as engines, may have their own Hull Points. When an airship hull suffers damage, it loses the requisite number of Hull Points, but any crew or components with their own Hit Points or Hull Points are not damaged, except as noted. ## Balloon Airships fly because they are lighter than air. In order to achieve this, a massive rigid balloon (or often, a series of balloons within a single rigid framework) is inflated with a gas that is lighter than air. This gas is known simply as "lifting gas", and is harvested from [[The Molten Lands]] beyond the River of Fire. Lifting gas is lighter than air, inert, and gives off a faint sulphur smell when inhaled directly (although it is not breathable, so this is best avoided). The rigid balloon is often called a "dirigible", though this more properly refers to the airship as a whole. The dirigible balloon's dimensions are treated as twice in length and beam as those of the airship, with a height equal to the balloon's beam, such that it forms an ellipsoid. It floats above the airship, either secured by chains or ropes to the ship, such that the ship hangs from the balloon, or it may be integrated into a single unit, with the ship's cabins and holds built into the underside of the balloon (this is not possible with semi-rigid balloons; see below). The balloon has volume equal to twice the tonnage of the ship. A dirigible is a huge target, and takes up one critical slot per 2 tons of the airship (or 4 tons of the balloon; these are the same). It also has one Hull Point per ton of the airship and takes up 5 square feet on the airship's deck (for the anchor ropes, burners, or gas canisters) for every 50 tons of the airship. However, although the balloon is quite flimsy, its large size means that any single hole caused by a weapon attack results in negligent loss of lift. To reflect this, the balloon has a Hardness rating of 10, and any weapon attack other than that of a Fire Thrower that does damage the balloon (whether by exceeding its Hardness or being an airship weapon) only inflicts 1 damage. When a dirigible suffers 25% or more of its total Hull Points, it begins to leak, losing 10% of its tonnage in lifting gas per round (rounded down to the nearest ton, minimum of 1). If this lifting gas is not replaced concurrently from available stores, then the airship will descend at a rate of 100 feet per round per 10% deficit of the balloon's capacity (eg, if the balloon is 70% full, it descends at a rate of 300 feet per round). The pilot may attempt to descend even faster, using the normal rules for descending (see [[#Chapter IV Aerial Movement|Chapter 4]]), but cannot slow the descent past this figure. #### Keeping the Dirigible Inflated A dirigible balloon must periodically be inflated due to routine losses of gas. Lifting gas is typically sold in large canisters each containing 3 tons of gas under pressure, which is equal to the amount of gas lost over the course of a week of routine flying. A case of ten canisters takes up one ton of space on the airship and costs 1000 GP. Combat and other adverse incidents can trigger larger losses, which need to be replenished in quite a timely manner to prevent a one-way trip to the ground. ## Airship Engines As airships are large, unwieldy things, it takes a decent amount of power to propel them through the air. Once underway, their aerodynamics can largely stabilise them and ensure smooth sailing, but that only underscores the need for effective propulsion. Coal-burning steam engines are the instruments of choice here, harnessing the power of fire and water to output constant force against the wind. The power factors of an engine determine how powerful the engine is, which determines the acceleration of the engine and how quickly it can reach its maximum speed. Of course, more powerful engines consume more fuel, which shortens your operating range. A captain wishing to optimise their flying efficiency must choose which parameter is more important to their aims. ### Power Factors and Acceleration The power factors of a ship's engines are equal to its basic acceleration, in mph. If an airship's engine has 10 power factors, the ship's acceleration is 10 mph. If an airship has a functioning engine, even if its efficiency has been reduced greatly, the airship still has a minimum acceleration of 1 mph. _Quick note:_ acceleration is described here in units of miles per hour (mph), but in actuality acceleration is measured in mph per turn, or the amount by which airspeed increases (or decreases) during a turn. An airship that starts the turn with a speed of 30 mph and has an acceleration of 10 mph will end the turn with a speed of 40 mph. It is possible to power a ship using more than one engine, but doing so causes a cumulative -2 penalty to all Dexterity (Piloting) skill checks for each engine beyond the first. Though ships can overcome this problem by installing an engine sync (see the piloting components section), without it, airships are simply not capable of fully suppressing the stresses caused by the additional engines. Airships with more than one engine simply add the power factors of all engines together when determining acceleration. Note that the ship's basic acceleration rating assumes that its engines are running at full power. Under-fuelled engines have reduced power factors, and reduce a ship's acceleration and maximum speed accordingly. In general, because airship speeds are most often measured in 10 mph increments, it is best to round an airship's current speed down to the nearest 10 mph. Thus, an airship travelling at 16 mph should be treated as moving at 10 mph until its airspeed reaches 20 mph. ### Maximum Speeds The maximum speed of an airship is equal to twice the power factors of its engine(s), in mph. An airship with an engine of 10 power factors has a maximum speed of 20 mph. Note that due to diminishing returns from wind resistance, no airship can travel at more than 200 mph. As long as a ship has at least an acceleration of 1, it eventually reaches its maximum speed, regardless of the weight of the vessel, the size of the engine, or any other factors. If an airship has more than one engine, the total power factors of all engines are added together when determining the airship's total maximum speed. ### The Limits of an Engine Airship engines are large, noisy, and powerful. Fuelled by burning coal, they are able to propel large airships far from the ground at alarming speeds. However, there are certain limits to their capabilities that at this time seem nearly insurmountable. #### Altitude An airship's maximum altitude can vary based on the design of the dirigible balloon, but in most cases is around 10 000 feet. However, pilots typically opt to maintain a cruising altitude of 1000 feet above the ground. #### Engine Stats Airship engines are limited to 100 power factors. **Fuel Cost:** 20 SP per hour per power factor. One ton of coal provides roughly 500 hours of fuel for an engine with one power factor. **Size:** A coal engine takes up 2 tons per 10 power factors it provides. It also takes up 1 Critical Hit slot on the Critical Hit Table per 50 power factors (minimum of 1 slot). **Hull Points:** Like airships, engines have Hull Points rather than Hit Points, which are used to determine how much damage the engine can withstand. Coal engines have 2 Hull Points per ton they occupy. **Hardness:** The hardness of the engine is deducted from the damage inflicted on it by any successful attack from nonairship weaponry. A coal engine's hardness is 5. **Repair:** Coal engines cost 200 GP in materials per Hull Point repaired. This does not include any required labour costs, such as if an engineer must be hired to work on the airship. The Repair DC is 15. ### Repairing an Engine Airship engines often take damage, whether from being pushed too hard by the captain of the vessel or as a result of combat. When the Hull Points for an airship's engine are reduced, they do not naturally repair themselves, but must be patched up by a skilled engineer. Repairing an airship engine requires a use of the Intelligence (Gearcraft) skill (DC 15). The total cost of the repair attempt is the number of Hull Points that need to be restored times the repair cost listed above for the engine type. ## Air Rudder Similar in functionality to the rudder used on a sailing ship, air rudders resemble sails mounted along the rear or bottom of the airship. These are directly connected to the wheel of the airship and provide the main source of steering available to the pilot. The basic air rudder consists of a wooden frame and canvas sail attached to the back of the airship, just below the engines. A complex linkage between the airship's wheel and its rudder is found below decks, allowing the pilot to control the airship from on the deck. The basic air rudder is always as tall as one-third of the airship's length or width, whichever is greater. **Cost:** None **Manoeuvrability Bonus:** 0 (but reduces the manoeuvrability of the vessel by 2 if destroyed) **Hull Points:** 1 per 10 tons of hull size **Crew Requirements:** Pilot only **Space Requirements:** 1 ton just below the wheel **Critical Components Spaces:** 1 per 3 size categories of the vessel ## Shipboard Weapons In campaigns that feature airships, it is inevitable for a fight to break out between two of these flying vessels. While longbows and arquebuses might be enough to pick off the crew of an enemy ship, they don't cause the kind of immense damage one needs when attempting to wreck a vehicle. In this section, there are a number of weapons provided for airships, all built specifically for wreaking havoc against enemy flying vessels. As noted in [[#Chapter V Aerial Combat|Chapter 5]], these weapons are devastatingly powerful and cause grievous harm to most creatures they strike. However, they are also horribly cumbersome and difficult to aim at small targets, making them relatively easy to avoid if you happen to be one. Unless otherwise stated, all shipboard weapons suffer a -6 penalty to attack rolls made against creatures that are not at least Huge in size. In addition, unless otherwise noted, the weapons below cause a Critical Hit whenever they strike a creature of Large size or smaller. Note that, with the exception of cannons, a weapon's arc of fire is not a function of its type, but of how it is mounted (see below). **Table 1.2—Airship Weapons** | | Ballista | Whirling Ballista | Cannon | Dart Launcher | Fire Thrower | | -------------------------- | -------------- | ----------------- | ---------------- | --------------- | ------------------------ | | **Cost** | 1500 GP | 6000 GP | 3000 GP | 2000 GP | 6000 GP | | **Damage** | 3d6 Piercing | 3d6 Piercing | 3d10 Bludgeoning | 3d6 Piercing | 5d6 Fire | | **Critical (roll/damage)** | 20/x3 | 20/x3 | 19 – 20/x3 | 20/x3 | 19 – 20/[[#Fires\|Fire]] | | **Range (feet)** | 100/300 | 100/300 | 200/1000 | 20/60 | 20/60 | | **Space required** | 1 ton | 1 ton | 1 ton | 1 ton | 1 ton | | **Critical slots** | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | | **Hull Points** | 10 | 10 | 20 | 10 | 5 | | **Crew required** | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 4 | | **Rate of fire** | 1 per 3 rounds | 1 per round | 1 per 2 rounds | 1 per 2 rounds | 1 per round | | **Ammunition storage** | 1 ton per 200 | 1 ton per 200 | 1 ton per 100 | 1 ton per 50 | 1 ton per 60 | | **Ammunition cost** | 10 GP per 20 | 10 GP per 20 | 300 GP per shot | 100 GP per shot | 250 GP per 20 | ### Ballista Essentially an oversized crossbow, the ballista fires five-foot-long bolts at enemy ships. While there are a variety of special bolts available for use, most ballistae rely on sheer force and the massive size of the projectiles to destroy their enemies. ### Ballista, Whirling While this device appears to be three ballistae mounted at right angles to one another, it is actually a single, very complex device. Where most ballistae can only fire once every three rounds, the whirling ballista uses an advanced gear-and-crank mechanism that allows it to fire every round by rotating on its horizontal axis. As the ballista rotates, the gears also cock the just-fired ballista stock, which is then reloaded by the crew so that it is ready when it is rotated into position. When loaded with grappling bolts, the whirling ballista can quickly put a half-dozen or so grappling lines on another ship, making this a favourite weapon amongst pirates and other predators. ### Cannons Gunpowder, like airships and the steam engine itself, is emblematic of the current age of technological progression. Therefore, it is only fitting that they should all be joined together, as seen in the proliferation of cannons as airship armaments. Cannons are the most prevalent weapons used for airship combat. Their range and destructive power more than make up for their other limitations. The major consideration is cost – not of the weapon itself, nor the shot, but the gunpowder itself. The city of [[Prosperity]] has a solid monopoly on the manufacture of gunpowder, and any captain who faces a potentially hostile situation must carefully weigh if escalation is worth the real financial cost. Unlike other weapons, cannons cannot swivel. They are mounted in wheeled or tracked carriages, which do not permit them to move side to side. Therefore, cannons only point in one direction (although they can angle up to 45° up and 15° down). The pilot must direct the ship in such a way as to place enemy vessels within the target window for the ship's cannons. ### Dart Launcher A dart launcher does no damage to airships, but can be devastating to the crew members on the deck during a battle. Dart launchers do not cause an automatic Critical Hit when striking non-airship targets. The dart launcher is never aimed at a specific target, but instead fires a hail of darts into a 20-foot radius from the point of impact – this is treated as a grenade-like missile. Any target caught in the area of effect must make a Dexterity save (DC 15) to avoid suffering damage from the darts. A successful save negates all damage from this attack. ### Fire Thrower The fire thrower is a dangerous weapon, typically only mounted on warships or those cargo or passenger vessels with crews who don't mind the chance they'll be burned alive if the weapon is damaged or misfires. Built on a modified ballista body, the fire thrower launches canisters of [[Chemist's Fire]] through a ceramic tube. A simple metal platform attached to the cables of the ballista's arms is propelled forward when the firing mechanism is triggered. This pushes the clay canister of chemist's fire up through the aiming tube and, with any luck, onto the deck of the target vessel. Fire throwers have the distinct advantage of igniting the vessels they hit, causing continuing damage as the flames race across the structure of the airship. Whenever a fire thrower scores a Critical Hit, it has succeeded in igniting the flammable surface of an airship, creating a small fire. See [[#Chapter IV Aerial Movement|Chapter 4]] for information on shipboard fires and how they can be extinguished. Note that, if a fire thrower is ever destroyed, a fire equal in size to the space taken up by the fire thrower immediately replaces the weapon. The crew suffers damage as if hit by a shot from this weapon, as well. ### Special Ballista Ammunition Ballistae are often loaded with specialised ammunition that can be used to achieve a desired effect in combat. While often much more expensive than a simple bolt, these tailored pieces of ammunition can provide a crucial edge in combat and see frequent use in airship battles. #### Grappling Bolts These oversized bolts are actually several bolts bundled together, each trailing a length of rope or wire. When fired, the bolts spread out from one another, and their heads begin to spin as the air passes over them. On impact, the spinning heads are better able to burrow into the wood of the airship. The barbs running down the heads and onto the metal lengths of the grappling bolts also prevent the bolts from coming loose. Attacks with a grappling bolt are resolved as a single attack by a normal ballista bolt. For every 3 Hull Points of damage caused by the attack, one grappling bolt is stuck in the side of the enemy vessel firmly enough to qualify as a hook in place for a boarding attempt (see Chapter 5 for more information on boarding attempts). No more than 5 grapples may be attached with any single attack, as this is the number of individual bolts packaged into a single grappling bolt. Note that no actual damage is caused when a grappling bolt is fired – the damage is calculated only as a way to determine how many grappling hooks are attached to the enemy ship. Grappling bolts are ineffective at more than 60 feet. **Cost:** 20 GP per bolt **Damage:** 3d6 Piercing (no actual damage; see above) **Range Increment:** 20 feet #### Lighters Tipped with a clay jug loaded with phosphorescent liquid, lighters are used to mark targets in dim lighting conditions, such as during heavy precipitation, or when fighting at night. The light provided by the liquid is bright, but only when heavily concentrated and in reasonably large quantities – the gallon of it stored in the head of the ballista bolt is enough to coat a 5-square-foot area with light that is clearly visible within 500 feet and dimly visible out to 1000 feet. Whenever an airship is hit by a lighter bolt, it is immediately illuminated, reducing any concealment it may receive as a result of darkness or other visual obstruction (such as fog) by one category. An airship hit by more than one lighter has its concealment further revealed, until it is no longer concealed at all because of the light coating its surface. Unfortunately, the material provides illumination only when exposed to air, and only lasts for 1d10 minutes. The reaction which provides the light is unstable, creating highly variable durations that make the light unsuitable for use as a light source. The fluid can be dissolved only through the application of lantern [[oil]] or other suitably flammable substances, requiring 10 gallons of the stuff to clear one 5-foot area covered by the lighter fluid. Obviously, most airship crews are difficult to convince of the wisdom in coating their decks with oil to put out the light. The substance contained in lighters can be created using the Alchemy skill (DC 20). **Cost:** 100 GP per shot **Damage:** None (see above) **Range Increment:** 100 feet ## Mounting Weapons There are several different ways in which each weapon may be mounted depending on its position on the airship and the desires of the owner. Though most weapons are mounted on the airship's deck to provide them with the largest fields of fire and simplest access by the crew, some weapons are mounted below decks or in external turrets, where they can be used to target airships below the vessel or in order to provide greater protection for the weapon crews. Listed below are the various methods by which a weapon can be mounted, along with the benefits, drawbacks, and requirements for each one. ### On the Deck A weapon mounted on the deck is always mounted on the edge of the ship, where it has the greatest arc of fire and is best able to target enemy airships. This is the simplest and most common method for mounting airship weapons and is the most comfortable for the crew of the weapon. Weapons mounted on the deck are placed upon a swivel, and can fire into a single quadrant (one of four 90° arcs arranged around the ship's centre). Airship weapons are not designed to fire back onto the deck, and normally are not designed to fire straight up or straight down. Airship weapons can fire at targets within the ship's altitude band with no difficulty, but have some trouble tracking to fire at targets higher or lower than the airship to which they are attached. A deck-mounted weapon can only fire up or down at a 45° angle or less (ie, the vertical distance must be equal to or less than the target's distance from the airship). A ballista, for example, can fire at a target 50 feet (one altitude band) above its airship, but only if that target is at least 50 feet away from the ballista itself. This remains true at all ranges. Enclosed ships do not have an open deck and therefore cannot mount their weapons this way. ### Deck Turrets The deck turret allows a weapon mounted on it to turn 360°, firing into any of the airship's quadrants, including back over the deck of the airship. Deck-mounted structures such as cabins or masts may block some portion of the reverse quadrant. It is important to remember that a deck turreted weapon can only fire at targets in its own altitude band or 45° above. Any steeper vertical angle is blocked by the balloon, and angling downwards would be firing down through the deck of the airship. Enclosed ships do not have an open deck and therefore cannot mount their weapons this way. **Cost:** Deck turrets cost 1000 GP per ton of space required by the weapon mounted upon them. Thus, a ballista that requires 1 ton of deck space would require a 1000 GP turret. Note that a turret does not increase the space required by the weapon. Mounting a weapon on a turret increases the DC of mounting the weapon (see [[#Chapter II Airship Construction and Upgrades|Chapter 2]]) by 5. ### Side Turrets A side turret is not mounted on the deck of the airship, but on the side, and is reached by means of a rope or wooden ladder hanging over the edge of the airship. The side turret allows the weapon to be fired at any target within the weapon's quadrant, regardless of its altitude in relation to the weapon. The side turret is fully enclosed and mounted against the hull of the airship so the weapon and crew can rotate smoothly inside the turret and target enemy airships more easily. Crew members within a side turret have 90% cover from anyone attacking from outside of the turret, but are denied their Dexterity bonus to their Armour Class because there isn't much space to move around in the turret, and stand a great risk if the airship is ever rammed. Any Critical Hit caused by a ram in the quadrant in which a side turret is mounted automatically damages the turret and its occupants. If more than one side turret is mounted in the same quadrant, randomly determine which turret suffers the damage. A turret on the side of the airship still takes up space, it just doesn't take up deck space. Side turrets, as well as bottom turrets, add 1 ton to the airship's total tonnage. Because this tonnage cannot be used for anything else (you can't store cargo in it, for example) it should be marked as weapons tonnage. Regardless of available space on the side of the airship, no vessel may have more than one side turret per quadrant per size category. **Cost:** Side turrets cost 5000 GP per ton of the weapon they must accommodate. The DC for mounting a weapon in a side turret is increased by 10. ### Bottom Turrets Mounting a turret on the bottom of the boat is a good idea, allowing a single weapon to cover a very wide arc of fire that is normally not protected at all. The great cost of these turrets and difficulty of properly mounting a weapon in them makes them rare outside of military use, however. Fire throwers are the favoured weapon for use in a bottom turret, allowing the weapon crew to bathe attackers from below with great gouts of fire. Bottom turrets are also excellent for destroying ground targets. A bottom turret works much the same as a side turret, as the crew all sit within an enclosed area while working the weapon. They receive 90% cover from any attacks made from outside the turret, but also receive no Dexterity bonus to their Armour Class as there really isn't room to move around inside the turret. A bottom turret can fire into any of the quadrants of an airship, but can only fire at airships in altitude bands below the airship. An exception to this is if an airship pilot manages to get his vessel over the top of another airship in the same altitude band (see [[#Chapter V Aerial Combat|Chapter 5]]); when this occurs, any airmen in a bottom turret are able to fire at will. Bottom turrets, as well as side turrets, add 1 ton to the airship's total tonnage. Because this tonnage cannot be used for anything else (you can't store cargo in it, for example) it should be recorded separately as weapons tonnage. **Cost:** Bottom turrets cost 8000 GP per ton of the weapon they must accommodate. Due to their violent recoil, cannons cannot be mounted in bottom turrets. The DC for mounting a weapon in a bottom turret is increased by 15. ### Gunport Weapons can be mounted belowdecks, firing through special portals cut into the hull; these are called gunports. They are most commonly used for cannons, which have a narrow profile, but can be made to work for ballistae and dart launchers. Whirling ballistae take up too much space to easily utilise a gunport, and fears of setting the lower decks alight typically preclude use of fire throwers belowdecks as well. Gunports limit the vertical angle available to the weapon. Weapons fired from a gunport can only hit targets in the same altitude band. Ballistae and dart launchers fired from a gunport can fire into the quadrant where they are located. **Cost:** Gunports cost only 200 GP to cut the hole in the hull and fit a hinged door over the opening. The DC for installing a gunport is 5. ## Extras The airship parts found in this section are of many types, from anchors to spotting towers. Extras take no time to mount, and their installation costs are included in their prices. ### Anchors It's important for an airship to have some way to keep itself in position when no pilot is on deck, or when the weather is too severe to allow normal flight. In these cases, the wise captain orders the anchor put overboard to keep the airship in place. Anchors normally weigh one hundred pounds per ton of the airship they are designed to halt. Most airships carry more than one anchor, scattering them around the lower deck of the airship so that the ship is not dependent upon a single anchor that can be easily cut by a ground force. Merchant airships often carry 50% more anchor weight than needed, while military vessels usually carry twice the required anchor weight. While the anchor is down, the airship does not move from its location, though extremely high winds may push it about. For every 10 mph of air speed over 50 mph, the airship moves 10 feet per round while the anchor is down. Each additional 100 pounds of extra weight on the anchor (above and beyond the norm) increases the airspeed required to move the airship while it is anchored by 10 mph. For example, an airship with an anchor that weighs 200 pounds more than is required by its tonnage is not moved until the wind is blowing faster than 70 mph. Light anchors decrease the wind speed needed to move the ship by 10 mph for every 100 lbs they are underweight. Anchors dragging across the ground tend to be extremely dangerous – they cause 1d6 hit points of damage per 10 mph per 100 pounds of weight as they gouge across the earth. Because of this, most airship captains do not weigh anchor over inhabited areas, but instead drop their anchors over areas where they won't cause any harm for the locals. Each anchor requires an anchor room on the ship of 1 ton in size per 5000 pounds of the anchor in question. This room is used to store the anchor and the chains used to weigh and raise it. #### Dropping and Weighing Anchor Dropping anchor, the act of releasing the anchor from its position to the ground below, requires only a single round for every 1000 feet of fall. Typically, the anchor is only lowered when the airship is relatively close to the ground, meaning they can drop their anchor in one round. Once the anchor hits the ground, it begins slowing the airship at the rate of 20 mph per round, until such time as the airship is brought to a complete stop. This assumes the anchor is of the proper weight; for every 100 pounds of weight below the norm, the airship slows 5 mph less each round. Thus, it is possible for an anchor to not weigh enough to stop its airship, and the anchor simply bounces across the ground, smacking everything in its way. Weighing anchor, or raising it up from the ground and returning it to the anchor room, requires one round per 50 feet of height above the ground. This requires the help of one crewmember for every 50 pounds of the anchor's weight. If the normal number of crewmen is not available to raise the anchor, the time taken to bring it back aboard is increased by one round per missing airman. Anchor winches (see below) reduce the crew quota needed to raise an anchor. #### Anchor Danger Being in the anchor room when it is dropped can be a horrible experience. The massive chains attached to the anchor spin out through the anchor's port and anything they touch can be ripped forward and crushed against the side of the hull, or more horrifyingly, could be partially yanked through the portal and chewed to pieces by the chain as it whips out and down. Any creature in the anchor room when it is released must make a Dexterity save (DC 15) to avoid being hit by the chain. Those who are hit by the uncoiling chain suffer 1d4 Hit Points of damage per 100 pounds of the anchor's weight. Those who roll a 1 for this save are snagged by one of the chain's links – perhaps their hand goes through the opening or a kink in the chain loops around their leg. If this occurs, the individual instead suffers 1d8 Hit Points of damage per 100 pounds of the anchor's weight for each round the anchor falls. **Cost:** 20 GP per 100 pounds of the anchor's weight **Critical Spaces:** 1 per anchor weighing at least 1000 lbs. DMs may allow the option of rerolling the location for any Critical Hit that strikes an anchor, as the anchor is, arguably, not excessively critical. **Hull Points:** 1 per 100 lbs of the anchor's weight. ### Anchor Winch Rather than rely on the brute force of their airman to raise an anchor, many airship captains invest in a winch, which uses the motive force of the engine to reel in the anchor. For this reason, the winch is only functional while the engine is running. An anchor winch fits into the same space as the anchor room and does not add to the space required for the anchor system. **Cost:** 500 GP **Space Required:** The winch takes up the same space as the anchor itself, as determined above. ### Charts and Maps Many captains and pilots stick to routes they have plied for years, flying by sight and memory. However, when voyaging to new lands, they and their navigators rely on charts and [[map]]s to make their way. However, good charts and maps are not cheap, and any airship that wishes to have the best navigational aids must be willing to spend a great deal of gold to acquire them. To determine the cost for an average map, multiply the number of square miles it details by 20 GP. While they provide no bonus to any skill checks, these maps are required for any type of navigation other than dead reckoning. Higher-quality maps are available at the DM's discretion. Frequently travelled areas, such as trade routes, are the places for which characters are most likely to find a good map, but there are always the odd treasure-quality maps that show a new route in surprising detail. The cost of these maps is based on the insight bonus they provide, ranging from +1 to a maximum of +5 to any Piloting or Survival skill checks made while travelling through the area covered by the map. Double the bonus and multiply it by the map's base cost to determine the final cost of the map. **Cost:** Square miles covered by the map, multiplied by 20 GP. Maps which provide a bonus cost this amount times twice the insight bonus (maximum of +5) they provide. ### Drop Lines Boarding a ship isn't always done from below. Drop lines are simply sturdy ropes attached to pulleys on arms that swing out over the side of an airship. The harness that goes with the line is then attached to the rope and the boarder can slide virtually silently down the rope to an unsuspecting airship below. This is one of the few cases in which grapples are not required to board an enemy vessel, though the pilot of the boat from which the boarders descend needs to have nerves of steel and excellent skills to keep his airship in position. See the section on boarding in [[#Chapter V Aerial Combat|Chapter 5]] for rules for using drop lines. **Cost:** 100 GP per drop line, 10 GP per extra harness. **Space:** 1 ton per 5 drop lines ### Glider Wings When these structures are added to an airship, the ship is equipped with side-mounted sails. These sails are reinforced and strengthened, allowing them to be used as massive glider wings. While a glider is not the most effective means of flight for long distances, vessels that fly through areas in which thermals are common find gliding to be an excellent use of resources and time. A glider can float for long distances without engine power, descending at a rate of 10 feet for every 50 feet of forward distance travelled. More importantly, a glider that is able to move through a series of thermals can quickly rise to great altitudes, then glide down slowly without needing to use fuel at all. Glider ships do not crash if they run out of fuel or suffer engine failures, assuming there is a place to land. Airships with glider wings are also better able to weather turbulence (see [[#Chapter VI Overland Travel by Air|Chapter 6]]). When entering or leaving a thermal, the pilot of a glider-equipped airship receives a +5 circumstance bonus to any Piloting skill checks necessary due to turbulence. This bonus is decreased to +2 for any other Piloting skill checks necessitated by turbulence. Glider-wing airships also receive greater lift from thermals (see [[#Chapter VI Overland Travel by Air|Chapter 6]]), rising an additional altitude band per round per 5 full points of the thermal's lift capacity. The side-mounted sails can only be deployed as gliders when the airship's engines are not in use. In addition, the Pilot suffers a -2 circumstance penalty per size category of his airship when making any Piloting skill checks due to wind or other weather conditions, not including turbulence. Each side-mounted sail has 5 Hull Points per ten tons of the vessel, and takes up one critical slot per three size categories of the ship. Side-mounted sails take damage before the hull if the glider is ever rammed broadside. If the side sails of the airship are ever destroyed, the airship cannot glide until they have been repaired or replaced. **Cost:** 5000 GP per size category. **Crew Requirements:** 2 for every 3 size categories (only to extend or retract) **Space:** none / 1 critical component per 3 size categories ### Landing Gear Many airships can only land on specially built airship platforms or docks, making it difficult to travel long distances or to remote areas without landing gear. Landing gear refers to a set of legs or braces that can be deployed to keep the ship upright and stationary upon flat ground. Crew members typically activate the landing gear with cranks. It takes 1 minute for landing gear to be either stowed or extended. A ship that flies with its landing gear down receives a -2 to its manoeuvrability, and a -5 to its acceleration. Landing gear has a Hardness of 5, and two Hull Points per size category of the ship. **Cost:** 100 GP per ton of the airship. **Crew Requirements:** 1 per size category of the ship (only to extend or retract). **Space:** 1 ton per 3 size categories of the airship / 1 critical component ## Mapping the Airship Once the size of an airship is known and all the critical components have been purchased, you may begin mapping your airship. We recommend using the airship character sheet provided at the end of this text. Because the size of an airship is given in tons, a unit that is conveniently 10 feet square on a map, it is a simple matter to sketch out the shape of the ship at whatever scale you choose. The recommended scale is one graph square = 5 feet, allowing enough fine details without bogging down in every minute nook and cranny of the boat. At this scale, four squares equal a ton of space. The main deck of the airship is generally the widest part of the airship, with decks beneath it decreasing in size. Once the main deck has been mapped, you are able to draw in the airship's quadrants, which determine the arcs into which airship weapons can be fired. Find a point near the centre of the airship and draw an X through that point, with the spaces between the legs of the X being as equal as possible. These spaces are known as the airship quadrants. The pilot's wheel is always found on the main deck, and is generally located in the rear third of the vessel, closer to the rudder. Likewise, the space requirements for the wheel should always be found directly below the wheel. In general, an airship should be laid out as cleanly as possible, with wide, shallow airships preferred over tall, narrow airships, so as to allow the vessel to slide through turbulence more easily. ### Default Crew Positions There are times when it is important to know where the crew of an airship is at any given time. Rather than keep a detailed account of where each member of the crew is during each round, simply draw the default positions onto the map. Unless there is a specific reason why a crewmember is not in that position, assume he can be found there at any point during his shift. This is also useful for determining who suffers damage when a Critical Hit impacts the crew. # Chapter II: Airship Construction and Upgrades Building an airship is a difficult, time-consuming process. Simply crafting the hull can take months, and properly integrating the engines and control mechanisms with the rest of the ship is a process best left to the experts. Still, to a group with enough cash and a big enough thirst for adventure, building an airship might seem like an excellent idea. **If you are not interested in building your own airship, you may skip this chapter.** If the characters have something very specific in mind, or if they cannot find any airships for sale, they may choose to build their own ship. In this case, the party can get exactly what they desire, assuming they have enough time and money to build it. For those who know what they are doing, building one's own airship is less expensive than buying it premade; however, inexperienced crafters can quickly stack up massive labour costs, sending a project way over budget. When building your own ship, you do not pay the market cost for the hull, balloon, or engine, but must instead navigate through the process of crafting the ship, requiring expenditures for materials, labour, and construction yards. Building a ship is no easy challenge, and those who can do so successfully often decide to go into the business full time, as the potential profits are not small. Note that it is suggested that DMs not include the cost of an NPC's airship when gauging the amount of equipment he receives; otherwise, the character ends up underpowered for his level. ## Airship Construction Yards You cannot build an airship in your basement. Ships up to the Small size category can be constructed without an airship construction yard, but any larger airship must be built in an appropriate facility. Construction yards are rated by the size of the airship they can build (limited by the size of their hull frames and lifting gear) and the number of airships they can build at any given time. Thus, an airship yard rated as Large (4) could have up to four Large ships under construction at any given time. An airship construction facility cannot cram two medium ships into the space of one large airship – each airship must be built on its own support frame, and the number listed in the airship yards rating indicates the number of available frames. All airship yards have enough employees, including overseers, foremen, and engineers, to work a single shift every day on each of the vessels the yard is capable of constructing at a given time. All workers in an airship yard only work one shift in a given day and are assumed to be of average expertise (see Labour, below). This basic labour is included in the rental price of the airship yard. The individual or company commissioning the airship must bring in any extra or highly trained labourers needed and pay for their salaries as detailed below. ### Airship Construction Yard Rental Fees  Airship construction yards charge a flat rate of 200 GP per month of construction per every size category of the airship being constructed. Each month's fee is paid in advance – it must be settled before any construction can begin, and each additional month's payment must be received prior to the start of that month. Failure to pay an airship construction yards fees can bring harsh penalties; more than one shipyard has been known to damage ships under construction, or even to steal raw materials from the construction site to pay for missed fees. Any fees for additional services (see below) must also be paid in advance. ### Construction Yard Extras In addition to the size and number of airships a shipyard can construct, there are other features of a shipyard that may allow it to more or less easily construct particular types or sizes of airships. The DM may add any of the following features to customise their shipyards, giving each a different feel and style. #### Calibrated Instruments When mounting weapons on an airship, one of the most important factors is correct calibration of the weapons sights with the level of the airship's deck. Calibrated instruments are available at some shipyards to make such work much simpler – when used for installing weapons, these instruments provide a +10 insight bonus to any necessary skill checks. _Cost:_ 800 GP per month #### Cranes Cranes make airship work considerably easier, and take much of the more backbreaking labour off of the backs of the common workers. Cranes provide a +10 morale bonus to all Craft (Airship) skill checks made while constructing the hull of the airship or the dirigible frame. _Cost:_ 400 GP per month #### Expert Labourers All labourers who work at facilities with this advantage receive state of the art training from some of the best craftsmen in the business. As a result, the labour force is of the very highest quality, and all labourers, foremen, and shift supervisors are considered to be of Expert skill level (see The Cost of Labour, below). As with ordinary shipyards, the yard pays for one work shift per day (the most expensive shift for each day if more than one shift is worked). The shipbuilder must cover the cost of any additional shifts. _Cost:_ 800 GP per month ### The Cost of Labour Three basic labourers must work during each eight-hour labour shift for each of the airship's tons. Thus, a 10-ton airship must have 30 men working on it at any given time, while a 5-ton airship only requires 15. For every 20 men, or fraction thereof, working on the airship during a shift, there must be one overseer to keep the work on track and the men from loafing off. Additionally, a ship needs one shift foreman for every five overseers, and one engineer for every work shift, regardless of how many labourers actually work during the shift. **Table 2.1** provides salaries for labourers at low skill, average skill, and expert skill levels, on a monthly basis. This assumes a seven-day workweek and 28 days worked during the month. A shipyard's rental fee covers the salaries of the first shift of labourers, overseers, foremen, and engineers at an average skill level. Don't worry about salaries unless you wish to hire highly skilled workers, speed up construction time with extra shifts, or employ specialists. Note that evening shift workers must be paid half again as much as those who work during the day, and graveyard shift workers must be paid twice the salary shown in the table. DMs may wish to adjust salaries depending upon the level of wealth in their games. Workers at each skill level are assumed to have a total number of ranks and ability modifiers in their relevant skills so as to provide them with the bonus listed in parentheses on Table 2.1 for any skill checks they need to make while operating on the airship. Basic labourers typically do not have a specific skill, but this category is still used to determine how effective they are and how well they take orders. If any material used in a ship's construction calls for the hiring of specialists, these workers must be hired at the same skill level as the engineer, or the engineer's skill is reduced to that of his specialists. While a talented engineer may be able to draft the most amazing, efficient plans ever, he needs specialists that can understand and work from them or the plans are worthless. **Table 2.1—Average Construction Salaries** | Staff | Low Skill | Average Skill | Expert Skill | | ------------- | --------- | ------------- | ------------ | | Engineer | 7 GP | 14 GP | 28 GP | | Labourer | 14 SP | 28 SP | 84 SP | | Overseer | 42 SP | 84 SP | 14 GP | | Shift Foreman | 7 GP | 14 GP | 28 GP | ### The Hull Note that this chapter assumes that a competent engineer designs the airship and oversees an appropriate team of labourers during the construction process. When constructing an airship, the wood materials for the hull costs 500 GP per ton, and any Craft or other checks made while constructing a wooden hull have a DC of 15. Once the size of the hull is decided upon, the construction of the hull can commence. Note that other phases of construction may occur at the same time, such as the commissioning of weapons for the airship or the design of the engine. The time it takes to build the hull is a function of the number of labourers working on the airship, the number of shifts worked each day, and the skill of the labourers and the engineer who guides them. The cost of labour is not figured into the cost of the hull, determined above, but is in addition to those material costs. This cost can be controlled somewhat by working only a single shift each day, though this increases the time it takes to build the airship considerably. Crafting the hull of the airship works much the same as any other use of the Craft skill: a portion of the hull's market cost is spent, time passes, and a skill check is made to determine progress. The primary difference is the number of people involved in the project and their effect on the process, and also the time necessary for each skill check. To determine the market value of the airship hull, simply multiply its tonnage by 500 GP. Thus, a 100-ton airship hull has a market value of 50 000 GP, which is the amount used when determining the cost of each Craft check. Once the market value is known, simply proceed with the steps below to walk through the construction of the airship's hull. When the hull has been completed, it is then time to mount the engines and begin preparing the vessel for weaponry and other components. #### Crafting the Hull 1. The DC of all Craft skill checks necessary during the construction of the hull is 15. Unless otherwise noted in the following steps, this DC is used for all skill checks during this process. 2. Determine the period for your progress checks. Ships built with one work shift per day make monthly checks, those built with two shifts make checks every two weeks, and those built with three shifts can make a check every nine days. 3. Pay 10% of the hull's market value. This payment covers the materials for one period of work, but does not cover the shipyard fees or the costs of labour, both of which are determined on a monthly basis in previous sections of this chapter. 4. Make a Craft (Airship) skill check against the DC determined in step 1, above. The skill modifier used is based on the average skill of all engineers involved in the project during the period – if there are three engineers working on the airship so that three shifts can be worked each day, then the average skill of those engineers is used to make this skill check. This skill check is further modified by the quality of the labourers working on the airship. If all of the labourers are hired at an expert level of skill (see chart above), then a +5 circumstance bonus applies to this skill check. If all of the labourers possess only low skill, then a -5 circumstance penalty is applied to the skill check. In order to get the best work out of labourers, however, the foremen and shift supervisors must be at least as skilled as the labourers. If they are not, the bonus or penalties for labour are determined by the skill of the foremen and shift supervisors, not the labourers themselves. 5. If the Craft check succeeds, your progress for the period is equal to the amount spent for raw materials, plus the Craft DC (15) multiplied by ten times the skill check result. If this total equals the value of the hull, then the hull is complete. If the result is not equal to the value of the hull, then construction has progressed, but the hull is not yet complete. Record the result and return to step 2 to make the Craft check for the next period of work. When you arrive at this step again, add the total progress so far to the result to determine if the hull is complete. If, however, the Craft check fails, no progress is made during the work period. If the skill check fails by 10 or more, the engineer and labourers have gone horribly astray and actually reduce the current progress on the hull by 2d10% of its value. ### Enclosed Airships Many ships in the modern period are constructed as a singular cylindrical unit, enclosing the hull and balloon into one shape. These are known as **enclosed airships**, and are favoured for increased safety and aerodynamic profile. Military vessels, especially those designed to transport troops rather than engage in combat themselves, have a great need to protect their crews from hostile fire. Covered vessels are constructed without open decks – navigators and pilots must look out through ports dotted along the edges of the vessel to take bearings. **Benefit:** The crew never suffers damage from a Critical Hit. In addition, crewmembers are never lost overboard if the ship heels over. The crew is also protected from most area effects. The airship's acceleration and maximum speed are each increased by 10%. **Penalty:** All navigation and piloting skill checks suffer a -4 penalty due to the decreased visibility. **Cost:** Constructing an enclosed airship costs an additional: 5000 GP per size category. Airships must be built from the start with the enclosed profile; a detached airship cannot be converted into an enclosed one. ### The Balloon The dirigible balloon is built from a framework of wood and filled with a balloon or multiple balloons typically made of treated animal intestine known as goldbeater's skin. The process for constructing the balloon and its accoutrements is the same as that used to craft the hull, as detailed above. The base cost of a dirigible balloon is 100 GP per ton of the ship (or 50 GP per ton of the balloon). The Craft DC is 15. ### The Engine Engines are typically the most complex components of a ship, and require construction by specialised engineers. Once an engineer is hired, they follow the same steps used to determine progress on the airship's hull, as detailed above. The Craft DC for a coal-burning engine is 20, and its base cost per power factor is 1000 GP. ### Mounting Engines and Their Operation Engines are almost always mounted at the rear of a vessel, in the bottom of the cargo deck. The rear of the engine is always exposed, allowing the energy of the engine to be transferred into thrust. Because the engines burn fuel, their exhaust systems must be vented to the outside of the ship to avoid a build-up of toxic fumes and the possibility of fires below decks. For our purposes, the exhaust from an airship is generally a trickle of smoke, and the gentle flare of fire can be seen within the exhaust pipes. The exhausts do not put off enough of a glow to be more easily seen at night, nor do they create a great plume of smoke that can be seen for miles during the day. Mounting the engine is a fairly difficult task, requiring a number of labourers and an engineer. It is possible to mount an airship engine on the bottom of an airship. This is normally done when the engine is too large to fit inside the airship, such as the case with the so-called zephyr freighters. The difficulty with this positioning is that the engine may be directly targeted by anyone below the airship, without requiring a Critical Hit. The engine has an Armour Class equal to the Armour Class of the airship it is mounted on. To instal the engine in an airship, follow the following steps. The engine is installed in the same yard where the hull was built, and typically takes a month. The process may be speeded up by working extra shifts. All yard rental fees and extra labour costs apply as with the hull. #### Installing the Engine 1. Installation requires one engineer, and one labourer per 10 engine power factors to handle the heavy lifting and to drag the thing into place. 2. Determine the DC for all Intelligence (Gearcraft) skill checks necessary by adding 10% (rounded down) of the engine's power factors to the Repair DC (15). The larger an engine is in comparison to the ship in which it is being mounted, the more difficult it is to properly secure and align the engine itself. 3. At the end of one month's work, the engineer must make an Intelligence (Gearcraft) skill check against the DC determined in step 2. The check is based upon the engineer's ability, and is modified by a competence bonus of +5 if all expert labourers are used, or a penalty of -5 if the bulk of the labourers are of low quality. If the check succeeds, the airship engine is installed and ready for testing. If the check fails, however, the engine was not properly mounted and the engineer must attempt the check again next month, with a -1 circumstance penalty. This process continues, with the penalty increasing by 1 every month, until either the engine is successfully installed or the engineer fails five times. After the fifth failure, a new engineer must be brought in and work begins anew on mounting the engine. If the skill check fails as a result of the Engineer rolling a 1 on his skill check, the engine appears as if it were mounted properly, but it is not and suffers a catastrophic failure the first time it accelerates to its maximum speed. Once the engine is successfully mounted, the weapons and extras may be attached to the airship in preparation for its first flight. ### Weapons Mounting weapons is much simpler than most other aspects of creating the airship, though there are several different ways in which each weapon may be mounted depending on its position on the airship and the desires of the engineer. Though most weapons are mounted on the airship's deck to provide them with the largest fields of fire and simplest access by the crew, some weapons are mounted below decks or in external turrets, where they can be used to target airships below the vessel or in order to provide greater protection for the weapon crews. Mounting a weapon requires eight labourers for every ton of the weapon's space requirement and a ship's engineer. The time necessary for the job is equal to four hours per ton of the weapon's space requirement. To succeed, the engineer must make a successful Craft (Airship Weapon) skill check (DC 10 + 5 per ton of the weapon's space requirement). Again, poor or expert quality labourers can adjust this check by 5. If the check succeeds, the weapon is installed correctly and is balanced and aligned with the deck of the airship. If the check fails, however, the weapon must be removed (requiring the same amount of time it took to install the thing) and another attempt must be made to get it aligned properly. # Chapter III: Airship Crews The airship is a complex machine that requires a skilled crew, able captain, steady pilot, and clever navigator to keep running. This chapter details the roles of the crew, the amount of time each role requires, and the skills necessary to fulfil the duties of the role. While not every crewman can be an effective captain, neither is every captain capable of handling all the duties needed on his ship. ## Officers The difference between officers and standard crewmen is one of authority and training. An airship officer has a very specific set of skills that he uses to perform his task, and has the authority to give orders to the crewmen in order to ensure the continued functioning of the airship as a whole. While not all officers are equal (the captain is certainly higher in rank than the pilot, for example), all officers are above the standard crewmen in ranking. On most ships, the actual authority of officers varies quite a bit. A pilot, for example, normally has authority to order around anyone he needs to in order to keep the ship flying, but would find his ability to issue orders severely limited in other cases. Experience plays a large role here as well – a grizzled old crewman who has worked on the airship for twenty years is going to have more respect from his mates than the new pilot that just signed on. These differences are best summed up with a sort of ship's alignment. The more lawful the alignment of the airship's crew, in general, the more rigidly they adhere to the rankings and power structures listed below. The more chaotic the crew and officers of a ship, the more likely they are to deviate from these rankings, following the orders of whomever seems to be the most experienced or authoritative at the moment. On evil ships, the rankings are enforced by punishment and fear, while on good ships the power structure of the airship is based on merit and personal skill rather than any threat of force or pulling rank. All officers aboard an airship receive a share of the airship's profits, from whatever source those profits come. This is the real separating line between the officers and those below them – if the airship prospers, the officers do as well, but they also suffer when the airship isn't bringing in any cash. Typically, the amount of profit-sharing hovers around 2% for the pilot and navigator and 3% for the captain. Lieutenants, while receiving valuable training in how to run a ship and lead a crew, typically receive only a cut of 1% of the ship's profits, and then only if they are amongst the highest-ranking lieutenants aboard the airship. Normally the top three lieutenants share this small profit, and are happy to get it. Apprentices always receive a small salary rather than a share of the airship's profits, which is generally just enough to keep them in spending money for shore leave. Apprentices are expected to work for such low wages because of the opportunities afforded them by their position. Someday, the reasoning goes, the training turns into a high-paying, prestigious officer's position aboard an airship and is worth the sacrifices the young men and women make. ### The Captain Ultimately, the captain is responsible for the successful running of his vessel, from take-off to landing. As the leader of the vessel, the captain issues the orders for others to follow and coordinates the activities of his officers for maximum effect. While on deck, the captain keeps his eye on every aspect of the ship and listens to the reports from his runners in times of crisis. In turn, the captain bellows the orders that keep everyone else doing what they need to do and offers advice to help his officers keep an eye on brewing trouble. The captain, however, has less of a role in the day-to-day running of the ship than he does during times of crisis. If there is no current obstacle or problem facing an airship, the captain may make a single Level check (1d20 + the captain's Sky Ranger level; DC 20) to bolster the efforts of his crew. If this check succeeds, all officers aboard the ship receive a +2 morale bonus to any skill check they make during the normal course of their duties. If the check fails, there are no negative repercussions; the captain is simply unable to motivate his men to do their best that day. During a crisis, though, the captain is a whirlwind of action, and his words can save or doom his airship. Once each round, the captain of an airship can assist any member of his crew with a skill check. The captain must be able to see the crewman and the crewman must be able to hear the captain. If both of these conditions are met, the captain is allowed a single Level check (DC 15). If this level check succeeds, the captain is able to help the crewman, who then receives a +4 competence bonus to the skill check. The captain may offer this support as a free action at any time during the round, though not if he is currently flat-footed. On the other hand, the captain is a symbol of his airship's power and majesty. If the captain falls in battle or is captured by enemies, the entire crew of his airship suffers a -1 morale penalty to all skill checks, attack rolls, and damage rolls until the battle ends or the captain is revived or rescued. This penalty only applies to NPCs, not player characters. The captain spends a full shift of 10 hours each day overseeing the duties of his officers and watching the crewman go about their business. The captain may miss one of his shifts without causing undue problems on his ship, but for each subsequent missed shift, the crewmen and officers (NPCs only) suffer a -1 circumstance penalty to all skill checks related to handling the ship. This penalty persists until the end of the next full shift the captain visibly works. >[!tip] Skyborn Note >Because the airship is so automated, the captain of the _Skyborn_ merely needs to be present for the shift, not actively working. There is only ever one captain aboard an airship and that captain is the ultimate authority for everything that happens on the airship. **Pay Per Day:** Airship captains are paid very well: 10 GP per day when not carrying a cargo, or 3% of the cargo's value upon delivery. **Needed:** Every airship has one captain, and no more than one. The captain is the ultimate authority on an airship, and any airship without a captain is in dire straits indeed. All Dexterity (Piloting) skill checks made while an airship has no captain suffer a -2 morale penalty, as the officers attempt to keep their chins up. This penalty applies to NPCs as well as player characters. ### Pilot Pilots handle the actual steering and manoeuvring of their airships. Their duties are very demanding when close to geographical features, or when landing and taking off, but most pilots have a great deal of time to relax during their journeys. Few crewmen begrudge the pilots their leisure, however, as it is the pilot who is most directly responsible for the survival of an airship during bad weather or combat. Pilots generally have from one to three apprentice pilots who actually handle the wheel during standard flights, but only when there is no immediate danger. These apprentices are learning the ropes and do nothing without the direct guidance of the pilot – if they are caught unaware by a sudden storm, strong winds, or an attacker, the apprentices are instructed to perform no action other than moving away from the wheel to let the pilot take over. See Apprentices below, for more information. A pilot spends an eight-hour shift each day overseeing his apprentices or directly manning the wheel before handing over the wheel to another pilot. During bad weather or combat, pilots remain at the wheel unless killed or forcibly removed. The number of pilots on a vessel changes based on the distance the vessel is going to travel. For day trips, it is rare for an airship to have more than a single pilot. Ships that plan on travelling for more than a day, however, always have at least three pilots aboard, each of whom takes an eight-hour shift during each day of the journey. Airships that take particularly harrowing journeys often bring along an extra pilot or two, just in case one of the main pilots suffers an injury or is otherwise unable to attend to his duties. **Pay Per Day:** Pilots receive 5 GP per day or 2% of their cargo's value. **Needed:** At least one pilot is needed for every shift the airship intends to fly during the day. Each pilot is entitled to one day off per week, making it necessary to bring along extra pilots if the flight is going to last for one week or more. >[!tip] Skyborn Note >The _Skyborn_'s helm is capable of remaining on set courses, so a pilot may perform other tasks on the deck or main cabin of the ship during their shift. Flying at nighttime, however, requires constant vigilance from either the pilot or a lookout. ### Navigator The navigator is a crucial member of any airship crew. While the captain is the ultimate authority on the course a ship takes, the navigator defines the courses a ship can take and ensures the vessel remains on the course chosen by the captain. While some ships are able to run very short runs of a few hundred miles along well-charted geographical landmarks without a navigator, most ship crews believe running without a navigator is simply bad luck waiting to happen. On very small ships, the captain may very well take on the role of the navigator himself, but it is far more common for the captain to take over piloting duties rather than the measurement-intensive navigator job. A navigator normally works for eight hours each day and spends the majority of that time overseeing the efforts of the crewmen and apprentices assigned to him by the captain. Air speed readings are checked very regularly. Likewise, it is not uncommon for a navigator to spend one minute out of every three verifying the position of the airship using a compass, quadrant, and his charts. Though the navigator may not need all the measurements, bearings, and latitude findings he takes, the sum total of that knowledge is needed to keep the ship on course and to chart new courses. Most navigators have at least two apprentices working with them at all times. These young men and women ferry the readings to the navigator from the crewmen who take them. As they gain experience, they often take over some of the less-demanding tasks for the navigator and begin to assume a bit of the officer's position, particularly as it relates to overseeing the duties of crewmen assigned to the navigator. Airships that fly for fewer than eight hours during a given trip seldom use more than one navigator. Airships which fly for longer periods, however, always have at least three navigators (one for each shift during the day) and those that fly for many days often have an extra navigator to help rotate the others off-duty, giving them a chance to rest and recuperate from the rigours of their daily duties. **Pay Per Day:** Navigators receive 5 GP per day or 2% of their cargo's value. **Needed:** Two navigators are needed to handle a day's worth of navigating for an airship. One navigator handles the night navigation, while the other takes care of the day navigation. Like pilots, navigators are given one day each week off, so extra navigators need to be brought along if the flight lasts longer than a week. >[!tip] Skyborn Note >The ship's instruments are capable of performing much of a navigator's role. Normal navigator's tasks can be handled by the pilot and/or captain in the course of their duties, unless the ship is sailing into territory unfamiliar to the pilot. ### Lieutenants These men and women work directly for the captain and are intended to help take the less critical of his responsibilities. There is normally one lieutenant aboard an airship for every 20 standard crewmen (not including officers) and each lieutenant has his or her own specialty. The lieutenants are, technically, second only to the captain in rank aboard the ship, and each lieutenant has an individual rank (from first lieutenant to second lieutenant and so on) that denotes their place in the pecking order. In reality, lieutenants are the captain's grunts and receive little respect from the crew based on their rank alone. A lieutenant who proves himself capable and assists the crew in accomplishing his orders can quickly gain the trust and favour of his men, making him a valued member of the crew in his own right. There are as many good lieutenants as bad on most airships, and the wise captain knows to use their personalities to direct and control the anger of his crew, should the situation warrant it. If the captain is incapacitated or killed, the first lieutenant is expected to step in and fill his shoes, accepting the captain's rank as his own. On pirate vessels and other airships of ill repute, this is seen as one of the legitimate methods of promotion to the captain's position, but most other airships dread the loss of the captain. When a lieutenant takes over for the captain, the results are often jarring to the crew, who must learn to take orders from an entirely new individual who may have his or her own ideas about how a ship should be run. **Pay Per Day:** Lieutenants are horribly underpaid, though they don't really care because they are learning a trade that could make them quite wealthy one day. They tend to make 2 SP per day, or a very small cut of the profits (see above) if they work aboard cargo vessels. **Needed:** One lieutenant is needed for every 20 NPC crew members on the ship, not including officers. Typically, an extra lieutenant or two is brought along to give the younger officers a break here and there, but this is not required. Lieutenants work irregular shifts, and at least one of them is expected to be on the deck at any given time. When the captain is awake, the lieutenants are also expected to be awake and ready to take his commands. Because lieutenants do help keep the ship running smoothly, all Piloting and Navigation skill checks made when there are not enough lieutenants on board suffer a -1 circumstance penalty for each missing lieutenant. >[!tip] Skyborn Note >Because the ship is so small, any player character without a dedicated role in handling the airship can serve as a lieutenant so long as there are fewer than 20 NPC crew, which will be the case due to the _Skyborn_'s size. ### Apprentices Though not technically officers in their own right, the apprentice pilots and navigators share so much of their masters' influence and authority that they are included in this section. While a crewman may not respect an apprentice, he certainly knows that any order coming from an apprentice came from the pilot or navigator and should be treated as such. This gives apprentices a great deal of power without a corresponding amount of responsibility. Taken together with the young age of most apprentices (usually in their early teens), this can lead to all manner of discord aboard an airship. To curb clashes between snotty young apprentices and valuable members of the crew, most navigators and pilots keep their apprentices on very short leashes. An apprentice who steps out of line with a crewman may not suffer at the hands of the man he insulted, but he will surely taste the lash of his master's tongue (at least) when word gets out. Apprentices who continue to cause problems are most often simply removed from the ship's crew when it stops at the next port; some are even abandoned at port by their shipmates and must attempt to find work on another ship if they wish to return to their homes. When things are going well for the apprentice, however, he spends most of his time running between his master and the crew, delivering orders and returning with information about current weather conditions, wind speeds, or reports from the scouts. Officers keep their apprentices very busy, not only with their traditional duties and with helping out on the deck or in the navigation room, but also in performing personal tasks for the officer. The master of an apprentice uses menial labour and demeaning tasks to reinforce the apprentice's position in the airship's ranking and to instil discipline and a respect for the hard work the crew performs. **Pay Per Day:** Apprentices receive 5 copper pieces per day. Some merchant houses work their apprentices differently, providing only room and board for apprentices who serve aboard airships. **Needed:** Apprentices are needed to help take some of the load off the navigators and pilots, doing much of their scout work and helping clean their quarters and keep their uniforms neat and polished. If a pilot or navigator does not have an apprentice, he suffers a -1 morale penalty on all Dexterity (Piloting) or Wisdom (Perception or Survival) skill checks he makes after his first day in the air. While a pilot or navigator doesn't really need an apprentice for shorter journeys, the young apprentice is definitely missed on journeys that are any longer. >[!tip] Skyborn Note >The automated ship's systems take much of the strain off the pilot and navigator, and this penalty does not apply. ## Warrant Officers Warrant officers are given their positions by the captain based on their skill and experience. Most begin their careers as crewmen, working their way up through the ranks before finally being recognised and given a position of authority on their airship. Though warrant officers are ranked lower than standard officers, they are often more respected by the crew because they must spend more hands-on time performing their duties. Smart officers rely heavily on the warrant officers during their interactions with the rest of the crew, using the good reputation of the warrant officers to bolster their own position. Warrant officers are treated better than the rest of the crew and are often well paid. This is to reduce the potential hazards of mutiny by the warrant officers and to keep the rest of the crew motivated. Because the warrant officers come up from the ranks, they allow other crewmen to see their own opportunities to rise above the common rabble and work all the harder. That fewer than one in ten members of a crew even has a chance of becoming a warrant officer is less important to most crewmen than the possibility itself. ### Boatswain The boatswain (bo'sun) is responsible for the general operation and repair of the airship. He constantly checks the boat for any damage it may have suffered and keeps a wary eye on the hull, balloon, and ropes. The boatswain recruits crewmen on an as-needed basis, pulling men from less important duties to help him repair the vessel, untie fouled lines, and generally keep things running. **Pay Per Day:** The boatswain normally receives 3 sp per day. **Needed:** Every airship needs a boatswain. When he does his job well, no one even notices him, which is just the way he likes it. Airships without a boatswain suffer a -1 AC penalty, as damage and wear are not repaired in a timely manner. ### Bursar Airships burn up fuel at an alarming rate, require a great deal of provisions (and ammunition) for long flights, and have repairs that cost as much as most sailing ships cost to build. The bursar keeps his eye on this outflow of money and also tracks the airship's income, accounting for every copper piece that enters or leaves the boat. Bursars are well paid, and often receive bonuses based on the profits of the airship they serve. This helps to curb corruption and theft, but also provides an incentive for the bursar to help the ship's officers accurately judge expenses to increase profits. Of course, a few bursars are so dishonest as to cook the books and make the profits of the airship seem greater than they are in order to gain a more substantial bonus for themselves. This leads to all manner of difficulties for the airship and its crews, and bursars caught skimming from the profits or altering the ship's accounts are likely to be tossed overboard from a great height. **Needed:** Any airship that carries a total cargo in a month worth more than 1000 GP must have a bursar to keep an accurate accounting of expenses. Airships who do not keep a bursar on board in these cases suffer a 1d4% loss on every cargo delivered, due to unexpected expenses and outright theft of goods. **Pay Per Day:** Bursars receive the princely sum of 4 SP per day, enough to keep most of them honest and interested in keeping their jobs. ### Chirurgeon The airship business is dangerous, especially for the crews of the ships. Mishaps in flight attacks by pirates or dangerous creatures can lead to serious injuries to crewmen and officers alike, making the chirurgeon's role an important one on an airship. Responsible for stitching closed wounds, setting broken bones, and otherwise seeing to the health and well-being of his crew, the ship's chirurgeon is a revered and honoured member of any crew. Skilled chirurgeons can be found in any large city, including those who have experience in airship crew injuries. **Pay Per Day:** Chirurgeons are normally paid 5 GP per day, except on boats where combat is expected, when they are paid by the number and types of healing treatments applied, as per the information found in the Hirelings section of the PHB ([[D&D 5.5E PHB.pdf#page=231|page 232]]). Note that most chirurgeons actually work in exchange for passage, providing healing in return for rapid travel. **Needed:** The crews of any airship without a chirurgeon aboard suffer a -1 morale penalty to all attack and damage rolls. Without the assurance they'll be patched up after a fight, the men are less likely to throw themselves into the battle. Any player character on board of the Chirurgeon class or with proficiency in Wisdom (Medicine) is able to negate this penalty. ### Engineer Engines are tricky beasts, and airships that use them must have an engineer aboard to keep an eye on them. The engineer's role is simple: to oversee the operation of the engines at all times, ensuring they don't explode or otherwise endanger the airship. This keeps the engineer quite busy, and most of these warrant officers sleep and take their meals in rooms adjacent to their precious engines. This means that the engineer is usually the first one to suffer if the engines rupture or otherwise malfunction, providing an incentive to keep the engines running smoothly. **Pay Per Day:** Engineers are among the highest-paid members of the crew, collecting between 3 GP and 5 GP per day. Because they are so crucial to the operation of the airship, they are paid accordingly. **Needed:** Any airship with an engine needs an engineer to keep it running. Most ships possess two or three. An engine without an engineer suffers a -10 decrease in its power factors during any eight-hour shift in which there is no engineer. For each full shift that passes without an engineer keeping an eye on the airship, there is a 5% chance that the penalty becomes permanent, as the engine burns out some of its vital components. >[!tip] Skyborn Note >The engine of the _Skyborn_ is largely self-sustaining and does not require an engineer. It must still receive regular maintenance by an engineer or a player character proficient in Gearcraft. ### Master-at-Arms There are few men aboard an airship more feared and despised than the master-at-arms. In charge of discipline and the weapons of the ship, the master-at-arms is the last person any crewperson wants to spend time with, as such close encounters usually end in a flogging or other unpleasant punishment. Despite his poor reputation, however, the master-at-arms is given a great deal of respect for his skill with weapons and his ability to quickly mobilise crewmen into fighting units. Though the master-at-arms prefers to have nothing to do, during combat he's all too busy. If he's not ordering men to cart ammunition to shipboard weapons or handing out weapons and armour, he's leading a group of crewmen to repel boarders. The master-at-arms also offers fighting instruction to crewmen during his off-hours, keeping them in shape and honing his own skills with rigorous sparring matches. **Pay Per Day:** Most masters-at-arms receive 4 SP per day, though bonus pay of up to 10 GP per day may be authorised for particularly daring or desperate defences of the airship. **Needed:** The crew of any airship with a master-at-arms aboard is entitled to a +1 circumstance bonus to any melee attack or damage rolls they make while on board. On the other hand, the weapons crews of any airship without a master-at-arms suffer a -1 circumstance penalty to all attack rolls without the advice and leadership of the master-at-arms to guide them. A player character without another dedicated role may serve this role, provided they are of Fighter class or are at least level 5. ### Signal Master Airships, especially those involved in the military, often find it useful to communicate with one another or with parties on the ground. Mirrors are the most commonly used methods for such communication, allowing codes to be flashed between conversing parties over great distances (see Signal Mirrors in Chapter 6). The signal master is in charge of the mirrors used in signalling and also handles the communication chores aboard the ship. Most signal masters are scholarly and are proficient in more than one dialect, allowing them to communicate more readily with a wide range of individuals. In areas where airships are common, signalling is taught in schools so that students can read the messages flashing through the sky overhead. **Pay Per Day:** These men and women are paid 2 SP per day. **Needed:** Airships need signal masters only if they intend to use signalling mirrors to help them stay in formation or to receive messages from other airships. ## The Crew While officers and warrant officers normally occupy unique, or at least limited, positions aboard an airship, the crew is composed of the rank-and-file sailors. They do what they're told, when they're told to do it, and earn a decent wage for their efforts. Unlike ocean sailors, who often join up with the crews of ships to avoid punishment for crimes or to escape a former life, the crew of an airship is often intelligent, educated, and looking for adventure and excitement. Because the majority of airships do not make long-distance trips, the crew becomes quite well known in its ports of calls, giving each place an air of familiarity and welcome that crewmen cherish. Crewmen are paid upon arrival at each port, shortly after the captain and bursar collect any payments the ship has earned and the cargo is unloaded. There are three basic types of crewmen, and each type is paid according to his skills and value to the airship. ### Landsmen When a man first takes a position on an airship, he is known as a landsman. He'll remain a landsman until the boatswain is confident in his skills and ability to take on responsibility. Landsmen don't do much of anything without a direct order and spend a lot of their time doing menial, unpleasant work such as mending ropes or scrubbing the deck. In part, a landsman's tenure is a test of his resolve and willingness to do what needs to be done in order to keep the ship up and running. Those who complain the loudest about their roles are rarely promoted to the next rank, and most leave within a few months of signing on. Landsmen work in two shifts, each twelve hours long. The night crew is often given a slightly lighter workload than the day shift, but pays for it with less food and a disrupted sleep schedule. Unless specifically detailed, all landsmen are considered to be first-level experts. **Pay Per Day:** Landsmen receive a mere 1 SP per day. **Needed:** Landsmen are the grunts of the airship. While a crew could, theoretically, be made up entirely of landsmen, this is very rare because of the danger their lack of skill poses to the airship as a whole. Any airship with a crew composed of more than 60% landsmen suffers a -1 manoeuvrability penalty due to their inability to keep the ship in good working order. ### Airmen When a landsman has impressed the boatswain with his initiative, skills, and work ethic, he is promoted to a position as an airman. The airmen do most of the real work on an airship – they patrol the dirigible, handle the cargo, and do whatever the officers ask of them. While their work is usually not as menial as that performed by landsmen, it is still very difficult and demanding. Like landsmen, airmen work twelve hours each day and have no days off, save for when the airship is at port. The night crew airmen spend the majority of their time working with the pilot and the navigator, learning the rudiments of both those trades. While the day crew has an easier schedule, they do not have the time to spend with these experts and rarely advance, as a result. Most warrant officers, in fact, are taken from the ranks of the night crew airmen, who have proved their dedication and learned some useful skills while toiling the nights away. Unless specifically detailed, all airmen are considered to be second-level experts. **Pay Per Day:** Airmen receive 2 SP per day. **Needed:** Airmen normally fill out the ranks between the landsmen and the veterans. They serve mainly to help train the landsmen and keep them from breaking anything while keeping the airship sailing smoothly. ### Veterans Airmen who have been aboard an airship for a sufficient length of time eventually graduate to veteran status. These men and women are trusted by the officers and are sometimes given charge of small groups of other crewmen to accomplish a specific task. Veterans are extremely familiar with their airship and know all of its idiosyncrasies and strengths. The skill level of veteran crewmen is quite high and they are paid very well for their labours. Unlike airmen, veterans only work 8 hours a day and are never on the night shift. They are, however, on call, and in the event of a problem during the night, the airmen consult with the veterans rather than bothering the officers or the captain. Though most veterans are respected by their peers, a few are reviled for their bullying ways – these, sadly, often end up taking a dive off the side of the boat during the dead of night long before they get the hint and mend their ways. Veteran crewmen never have any trouble getting work; if they lose a job on one airship, a quick trip to an airport is all they need to pick up work, unless, of course, the veteran was booted off the airship for a good reason, such as theft or violence. Airship captains and boatswains talk to one another frequently, and a bad reputation quickly precedes its bearer. Unless specifically detailed, all veterans are considered to be third-level experts. **Pay Per Day:** Veteran crewmen receive 25 CP each day and most receive monthly bonuses from 1 GP to 5 GP, depending on the whims of the captain and the fortunes of the airship. **Needed:** Veteran crewmen can prove a real boon to any airship on which they serve, but there must be a significant number of them before they really start to make a difference. For every 10% of the crew made up of veterans, the airship's manoeuvrability is increased by 1, with a maximum possible increase of 3. ## Space Needed by the Crew Airships that wish to have space for their crew to sleep and relax must provide crew quarters. Six crewmen can rest comfortably in a one-ton room, while officers are each entitled to a half-ton room of their own. The captain typically takes a one to two-ton room, though in some cases may satisfy himself with a half-ton room to make more space for cargo on smaller vessels. ## Calculating Crew Requirements It is extremely important to know how many crew members a ship needs in order to fly. Balancing one's crew is a tricky task; crewmen eat up resources, including food, space, salary, and leadership, but operating without them is impossible. Just covering the basics isn't enough either; while it may be acceptable for short-distance merchant vessels to set off with a skeleton crew, most ships need a full backup crew of airmen to work evening shifts, and to defend the ship from attackers. ### Crewmen Start your count with the non-officers. Calculate your minimum crew requirement based upon how many men are needed for each of your ship's components. Anything listed in [[#Chapter I Components of an Airship|Chapter 1]] with a crew requirement needs a minimum number of men to operate. Some men can double up tasks; weapon crews, for example, are only needed in combat, and can lift anchors and extend landing gear. Decide how many 8-hour shifts per day your ship needs to operate. If only one, the minimum crew plus a few backup men is fine. If two, double the minimum crew requirement. If three, decide upon the experience level you want your crewmen to have. If you want all landsmen, you may operate with only double the minimum. If you wish for a few veterans or airmen, more crew are needed. Generally, about two and a half times the minimum works out well, meaning that only half the men working at any given time are landsmen. In combat, all crewmembers are woken from their slumber and called to battle stations, regardless of their shift. When crew members fall, the extra men step up to take their places. Crew members not employed in a specific task are free to put out fires, board other ships, or fight in hand-to-hand combat. ### Officers The number of officers a ship requires depends upon its purpose. A simple merchant vessel may not need a master-at-arms, for example, or a military vessel might be able to function without a bursar. To calculate the number of officers needed for a ship, step through each of the officer categories listed above and refer to the individual sections labelled "Needed". Note that some officers may be able to perform more than one role. A captain may be able to serve as the navigator, for example, or nearly any officer could serve as the signal master. Remember that officers that take on more than one role can only perform one of the roles at a time. Doubling up a pilot as an engineer, for example, won't work, as he can't watch the wheel and the engine simultaneously. The possible combinations of officers are too numerous and dependent upon the role of the individual ship to provide rules for, so simply use your best judgement when assigning roles. # Chapter IV: Aerial Movement Moving through the air can be more complex than simply walking across the ground, especially if you're in an airship. Airships have some restrictions on the rate at which they can turn and their ability to rise or descend. These limits are based on the manoeuvrability of the vessel and its speed, as well as the skill of the captain and crew. ## Aerial Movement Scales and Rates As with standard d20 movement, there are three scales used when handling aerial travel: tactical, local, and overland. Though each of these movement scales are handled the same, they offer varying degrees of precision, and each is best suited for use in particular types of situations. ### Tactical Movement This type of movement deals in six-second rounds and allows for the most accurate tracking of airship placement and movement. Because airships move much more quickly than do most creatures, movement is handled in 50-foot increments at this scale, rather than the 5-foot increments most often used when tracking the movement of creatures or characters. This movement scale should be restricted to use in combat encounters or where the precise positioning of an airship is important (such as when a ship is moving through a particularly treacherous canyon or mountain pass, for example). In general, this movement scale is best handled through the use of miniatures (or counters of the appropriate size and shape) and a combat map. This allows everyone to visualise the scene more easily and helps organise and coordinate movement of various vessels. When engaged in tactical movement, vessels may move at any speed up to their full movement rate, with the standard restrictions for turning, accelerating, rising, or descending (see below). ### Local Movement At this scale, movement is handled in one-minute increments. A vessel may move up to ten times its standard tactical movement rate while engaging in local movement, and the captain/pilot only needs to make a Piloting check if the airship attempts to turn more than ten times during each minute or if it passes through a square containing an obstacle of some sort. Local movement is best used to represent scouting missions, or instances when the airship is moving through an area in search of something specific. It can also be used effectively if the details of movement are somewhat important, such as when an airship attempts to navigate between mountains or in cases where foul weather endangers the ship. ### Overland Movement When a vessel is flying from one point to another, it is rarely necessary to map out each step of the journey, or to play through every minute of travel. In general, overland movement is measured in hours, though some DMs may prefer to use days if they have no plans for encounters to occur during the journey. As seen in **Table 4.1**, airships can travel a great distance in a relatively short time. This can have the effect of decreasing the size of your world, especially in areas with few natural obstacles to prevent the flow of air traffic. While a particularly tall mountain range may be as effective a barrier to airships (see [[#Flight Ceiling]] below) as it is to men on foot, forests, swamps, bodies of water, and other features can be bypassed very easily by an airship. **Table 4.1—Travel Times** | Speed | Tactical (Round) | Local (Minute) | Overland (Day) | | ------- | ---------------- | -------------- | -------------- | | 10 mph | 100 feet | 900 feet | 240 miles | | 20 mph | 200 feet | 1800 feet | 480 miles | | 30 mph | 250 feet | 2650 feet | 720 miles | | 40 mph | 350 feet | 3500 feet | 960 miles | | 50 mph | 450 feet | 4400 feet | 1200 miles | | 60 mph | 500 feet | 5300 feet | 1440 miles | | 70 mph | 600 feet | 6150 feet | 1680 miles | | 80 mph | 700 feet | 7050 feet | 1920 miles | | 90 mph | 800 feet | 7900 feet | 2160 miles | | 100 mph | 900 feet | 8800 feet | 2400 miles | _Note: The Overland (Day) figures represent an airship flying for 24 hours each day, with a full crew for each shift. If an airship is only capable of flying a specified number of hours each day, either as a limitation of its engine or an incomplete crew, reduce the miles per day proportionately._ _Note that there are some rounding errors in the above table – this was done to make it easier to track tactical and local movement on the maps and only affects the Tactical (Round) and Local (Minute) movement rates._ ## Aerial Movement Basics Airships do not move in the same way as characters or creatures. In this section, various aspects of aerial movement are discussed, including information for determining the speed at which an airship can rise or descend and how airships turn. ### Ascending and Descending An airship that is stationary, or travelling horizontally at 10 mph or less, may ascend up to 50 feet in a round. Airships travelling at 10 mph or less do not gain any horizontal movement while ascending; they remain in the same square while their altitude increases. If a ship is moving horizontally at more than 10 mph, it may spend 150 feet of its forward movement to ascend up to 50 feet. Thus, a ship travelling at 200 feet per round (200 mph) may move forward 50 feet and ascend 50 feet (which costs it the additional 150 feet of its normal movement for the round). An airship travelling at 10 mph or less may descend up to 100 feet per round without danger. An airship moving horizontally at more than 10 mph may descend up to 50 feet per 50 feet of horizontal distance covered during the round, at no additional movement cost. So, for example, an airship traveling at 250 feet per round can descend 250 feet during a given round without any horizontal movement cost. Faster ascents and descents are possible, but require specialised equipment and engines as well as a trained crew and captain. Knowing the limits of a vessel is an important part of flying an airship. Those who attempt to force their craft into extreme manoeuvres often pay the ultimate price (see [[#Pushing the Limits]] below). Note that an airship that descends during a round may not then later ascend during the same round. In addition, a full round must pass between the descent of an airship and its ascent. Airships that ascend may then descend in the same round, however, provided they have enough movement to do so. ### Turning Each airship has a manoeuvrability rating, which determines the number of 45° turns it can make during a given round. An airship must move at least 50 feet (1 square) between each of these turns, though more extreme manoeuvres may be possible (see [[#Pushing the Limits]] below) for particularly agile ships and skillful crews. Due to the 50 foot minimum, ships with very high manoeuvrability ratings may not be able to take advantage of their accelerated turning rates when moving at slow speeds. A ship with a manoeuvrability rating of 5, for example, needs to travel at least 30 mph (250 feet per round) if it wishes to take all of its turns. Again, tighter turns can be made, as detailed below under Pushing the Limits. Note that airships hovering at 0 mph may choose to take as many of their available turns as they wish in a single round, using the power of their engines to turn them in place rather than pushing them forward or lifting them up. An airship can turn and ascend or descend during the same round, though an airship still may not descend and then ascend in the same or following round. ### Acceleration The max rate in mph at which a vessel can accelerate in one round is equal to the power factors of its engines, plus any modifications from special equipment or effects. Acceleration is announced at the beginning of any round in which the captain wishes to increase the speed of his vessel. The captain must announce the amount by which he intends to increase his ship's speed, up to the total amount of acceleration available. The airship moves at its current speed for the remainder of the round, but is considered to be moving at its new speed at the end of the round (barring an accident or other problem). Accelerating at more than 20 mph is a dangerous tactic and all crewmembers that are not secured must make a Dexterity (Acrobatics) check (DC 10 plus 1 for every 5 mph over 20) or be thrown to the deck. During combats, this can be useful as an attempt to throw invaders off their feet, but it often has disastrous consequences. ### Deceleration A ship can decelerate a number of miles per hour equal to its current manoeuvrability times 10. Thus, a small ship with a manoeuvrability of 5 could decelerate 50 mph without any danger of losing control of the airship. If a pilot attempts a faster deceleration, they must immediately make a Dexterity (Piloting) skill check (DC 17). If this check succeeds, the airship is able to decelerate by as much as 20 mph more than its manoeuvrability rating normally allows, but no more. If the check fails, the airship is immediately [[#Out of Control]]. Like with acceleration, deceleration of more than 20 mph per round requires the crew members to make balance checks. ### Taking Off When taking off from the ground, an airship must ascend at least 50 feet before it can begin any horizontal movement. At that point, it begins moving as per the rules stated above. ### Landing To land safely, a vessel must be moving at no more than 50 feet per round (5 mph) and cannot descend more than 50 feet during the round in which the landing occurs. More extreme conditions for landing cause damage to the vessel (and probably the crew, as well) and may cause the airship to skip across the ground before finally coming to rest. A ship with a speed of zero can still move forward at a rate of 10 feet per round; such slow speeds are often used for docking manoeuvres or other tricky flight operations that require a great deal of delicacy. ### Flight Ceiling An airship's maximum altitude is 10 000 feet, unless otherwise specified by its balloon construction. Above this height (known as the "pressure height"), the pressure in the gas balloon(s) exceeds the low atmospheric pressure, causing the balloons to distend and possibly rupture. If the airship ever exceeds 10 000 feet (or its pressure height as otherwise specified), the airship must make a Constitution saving throw (DC 13). Upon a failure, the dirigible balloon takes 1d4 Force damage. If the saving throw failed by 5 or more, the balloon develops a tear, causing it to leak as if it had lost 25% or more of its Hull Points (see [[#Balloon|Chapter 1]]); if the saving throw failed by 10 or more, the balloon ruptures entirely, losing all lifting capacity and sending the airship plummeting to the ground. If the airship has multiple independent balloons, choose one at random to suffer these effects. Every time the airship rises another 50 feet above its pressure height, it must make the Constitution saving throw again, with the DC increasing by 1 for each additional 50 feet. The low air pressure at high altitudes also reduces atmospheric drag, allowing for increased speeds. For each 50 feet above 10 000 feet, an airship's acceleration and maximum speed each increase by 1 mph (10 feet per round). A captain in a life-or-death situation may decide to take the ultimate gamble. Note that this altitude does not shift based on the airship's pressure height and is a function of absolute elevation. ### Facing An airship's facing is important to keep track of. An airship is always facing in a particular direction (as indicated on the counter or miniature used to represent the airship). This is important because the airship may have weapons on one side of the ship, but not the other, and to determine how far the airship can turn during a given round. ## Pushing the Limits For most captains, the basic information provided above is sufficient. They have no interest in pushing their ships into extreme aerobatic manoeuvres and always land and take off using the approved speed limits. Others, such as pirates and warriors, prefer more aggressive manoeuvres, pushing their airships to the very limits of their performance. While some ships are designed for this, most can handle the strain of these stunts for only a brief time before sustaining damage. ### Abrupt Ascent In times of emergency, it may be necessary to quickly elevate yourself above the fray. The abrupt ascent manoeuvre allows your vessel to rise up to its current forward movement rate (if it is not currently moving faster than 10 mph), but requires a ship Constitution save (DC 10 + one-tenth the number of feet by which your vessel exceeds its safe ascent rate). If your vessel's saving throw succeeds, it sustains no damage. If it fails, however, your ship suffers 1d6 Hull Points of Force damage. Airships that are travelling faster than 10 mph may use the abrupt ascent to rise 100 feet for every 150 feet of horizontal travel during the same round. This requires a ship Constitution save (DC 10 + 5 for every 50 feet of ascent during the round beyond the safety limit) by the ship. If the airship fails its Constitution save, it suffers 1d6 Hull Points of Force damage per additional 50 feet of ascent. ### Plummeting Descent By accelerating toward the earth, an airship can descend quite rapidly, though it may not be able to recover from its dive before impact. Regardless of its forward momentum, an airship may double the rate at which it can descend during a given round. However, it must descend one-half again the distance of its plummeting descent on the following round as it attempts to regain equilibrium and resume standard flight. A captain who wishes to reduce this secondary descent distance required after a plummeting descent forces his ship to make a Constitution save (DC 10 + 1 per 10 feet by which the secondary descent is shortened). If the Constitution save succeeds, the airship pulls out of its descent without further difficulty and begins flying normally on the following round. If this save fails, however, tremendous stress can crack the vessel right in half. The airship suffers 1d6 Hull Points of Force damage per 10 feet by which the dive was shortened. In addition, the vessel falls momentarily out of control and plummets an additional 1d10 × 5 feet before recovering and resuming normal flight. ### Sharp Turns In normal flight, an airship's captain must allow for a full 50 feet of movement between each of its turns in a given round. It is possible, however, for a ship to make a sharper turn at the risk of overbalancing or straining the control mechanism. The captain of a ship may call for up to half of the ship's available 45° turns to be made in any one normal turn interval. Doing so puts the ship at great risk of overbalancing, however, and even if the turn does not wreck the ship, there is a good chance the steering mechanism suffers possibly fatal damage. For every turn after the first which the ship makes without covering the required distance, the pilot must make a Dexterity (Piloting) skill check (DC 15 + the number of turns made during this round so far). If this check succeeds, the airship must then make a Dexterity save (DC 10 + the number of turns made during this round so far) or suffer a Critical Hit to the control mechanism (rudder, engine swivel, etc.). This Critical Hit is treated as if it had caused 1d6 points of damage per turn made during the round. If the Piloting skill check fails, however, the airship immediately overbalances and begins rolling in the direction of its last turn (see [[#Heeled Over and Rolling]] below). Note that the airship's speed is reduced by 5 mph for every additional turn it makes, as the engine's force is used to turn the ship rather than applying forward momentum. Thus, a particularly sharp turn can bring even a very fast ship to a complete halt, as its engines struggle to compensate for the sudden change in direction. Ships must accelerate as normal after making a turn if the captain wishes to resume his cruising speed. If an airship's speed is reduced to less than 10 mph as a result of sharp turns, it also loses 50 feet of altitude and loses another 50 feet if the captain does not immediately accelerate during the following round. ### Pushed Acceleration By pushing the airship's engine beyond its normal limits, it is possible to eke out a bit more acceleration. On the other hand, punishing the engine in so dramatic a fashion also carries the risk of blowing the engine apart and leaving the ship adrift. Pushing the acceleration of a ship always causes damage if there is not an engineer aboard the vessel and may cause such damage even if the airship's crew does contain a qualified engineer. When an engine is pushed, the captain must declare by how far he is willing to open the throttle. The ship may accelerate from zero to its maximum speed in a single round, but the Engineer must make a successful Intelligence (Gearcraft) skill check (DC 15 + 1 per 5 mph of pushed acceleration) in order to keep the engine from damaging itself in the process. If this check succeeds, the acceleration is successful and the engine suffers no damage. If the skill check fails, however, the engine begins overheating and the stress of the acceleration starts tearing the machinery apart. In this case, the engine suffers 1d6 Hit Points of Fire damage per 5 mph of pushed acceleration – this damage is applied at the end of the round in which the pushed acceleration occurs. Pushing a ship's acceleration in subsequent rounds causes the ship's engineer to suffer a cumulative -5 circumstance penalty on each of his Intelligence (Gearcraft) skill checks. If the airship does not have an engineer, the engine automatically suffers 1d6 Hit Points per 5 mph of pushed acceleration and cannot be pushed in two consecutive rounds. Any attempt to push the acceleration two rounds in a row without the assistance of an engineer immediately destroys the engine as if it had been reduced to zero Hit Points (see Critical Hits in Chapter 5). ## Mishaps in the Sky There are many things that can happen to an airship as it flies along; unfortunately, most of them are simply not desirable, and may very well end with the ship broken and spiralling toward the earth. This section describes some of these mishaps and their results. ### Heeled Over and Rolling A ship that is caught by a strong wind, turns too tightly, or is rammed by another ship may become heeled over. This is air sailor slang for a ship that has tilted onto its side and is in danger of rolling over completely. Sailors hate the idea of being heeled over, which is certain to end with a large number of sailors plummeting off the deck to their death on the hard ground below. When a ship is heeled over, all crew members aboard must immediately make a Dexterity save (DC 20) to grab hold of something before they begin sliding toward the ground. Any crew members who fail this Dexterity save begin hurtling toward the ground, sliding across the deck and out into the air. Sailors below decks who fail this roll do not fall out of the ship, but may take falling damage depending upon how far they are from the nearest bulkhead. Even if no damage is taken, such men are knocked [[Conditions#Prone|Prone]]. The balloon hanging above prevents the ship from fully rolling over. The pilot must make a Dexterity (Piloting) skill check (DC 20) to use the engines to rotate the ship back into the correct position (that is, hull down, deck to the sky). Until the pilot succeeds on this check (which can be made once per turn), the ship cannot manoeuvre or accelerate. ### Crashing Any time a vessel hits the earth or another terrain obstacle without making a landing, it has crashed. When a vessel crashes, it suffers 1d6 Hull Points for every 10 mph of its current speed, plus 1d6 Hull Points of damage for every 50 feet of descent during the round in which it impacts the earth. Every creature aboard the ship when it crashes suffers the same number of hit points of damage as the vessel suffers Hull Points. If a ship is reduced to fewer than zero Hull Points by a crash, it has broken up and all critical components suffer 2d6 Hull Points of damage as a result. In addition, all creatures on the ship suffer double the normal damage from the crash, as the shattered pieces of the ship explode through them like shrapnel. ### Fires Shipboard fires are a horrible tragedy if allowed to get out of hand. Any attack with an area of effect and which causes its damage primarily through heat or fire (such as an attack from a Fire Thrower) may set an airship alight. Damage caused by fire-based weapons forces a Constitution save to avoid catching on fire (DC equal to 10 + Hull Points of damage caused by the attack). If the damage comes from another effect, the airship must also make a Constitution save, with the DC defined by said effect and in addition to any other save allowed to avoid damage.  A successful save indicates that the ship is not set alight. A failed save, however, means the airship is burning, and it continues to burn until it is extinguished. The initial fire covers a 10-foot square area at the center of the area of effect or wherever the physical attack landed. Each round, there is a 2 in 6 chance that the fire spreads to encompass another 10-foot square. This new square is chosen by rolling 1d8 – a 1 is North, a 2 is Northeast, and so on clockwise until 8, being Northwest. Roll for spread once a round per fire, not per 10-foot square; fire always spreads from the most recently ignited square. If the fire spreads back into an area already on fire, it does no additional damage, but the fire has a 1 in 6 greater chance of spreading to additional squares during the next round. If a fire spreads past the edge of the deck, it begins moving down the side of the ship. If the fire is on an exposed deck of the airship, increase the chance of it spreading each round by 1 in 6 for every 10 mph of the airship's current speed above 30 mph. If the airship is not moving, increase the chance of the fire spreading by 1 in 6 for every 20 mph of the wind's current speed. At the end of each round, every 10-foot square that is burning causes 1d6 Hull Points of damage to the flaming airship. While airmen do not suffer damage unless they enter a burning square, they do suffer 2d6 Hit Points of damage during any round in which they perform an action within a burning square. A character who simply passes through a burning square can avoid the damage with a successful Dexterity save (DC 10 + 1 per 5 feet of flaming area the character has moved through during the round), but otherwise suffers the standard damage for the current square he is moving through. Note that fire causes half its normal damage to any components located in an engulfed area each round. Extinguishing a fire is not difficult, provided the fire has not spread. Every 10-foot section of burning airship must be extinguished individually. Up to six fire fighters can work on each section, pouring sand or water on it. To automatically extinguish a 10-foot section of burning airship, the crew must douse the flames with at least 30 gallons of water, or a similar amount of sand. The water or sand must all be applied during the same round. A single crewman is able to successfully apply 5 gallons of water or sand to the fire (distributing it evenly in an area, rather than just sloshing it down) as a standard action provided he has a sufficient quantity of water or sand (and a bucket to carry it) on hand. A successful Wisdom check (DC 20) allows the crew member to apply up to 10 gallons of water or sand as a standard action, if this amount of extinguishing material is on hand. If fewer than 30 gallons of water or sand are applied to the fire during a given round, the chance of extinguishing the fire drops to 50%. If fewer than 20 gallons of water are applied to the 10-foot section in the same round, the chance is a mere 25%, while fewer than 10 gallons of water applied in the same round simply cannot extinguish the fire at all. Fire-fighting materials are normally held below decks unless a combat is imminent, in which case they are rolled into the center of the main deck, where they can be readily accessed by the crew in the event of a fire. ### Out of Control An airship that is out of control is in grave danger. The pilot is no longer able to steer the vessel, leading to wild variations in facing, attitude, and altitude. Airships become out of control for a variety of reasons: poor weather conditions, severe damage, and over-aggressive piloting are just a few of the reasons an airship might find itself out of control. For the pilot, it's not important to know what sent the airship out of control; what matters is getting the airship settled before it crashes. At the end of every round that the ship is out of control, the pilot is allowed a single Dexterity (Piloting) skill check to regain control. The DC of this check is 15 plus 1 per 10 mph of the ship's speed, and plus 2 for every altitude band the ship has gained or lost in the round. When an airship is out of control, a number of things happen during every round the out of control condition persists. - **Heading change.** One per round, per point of manoeuvrability, the DM should roll 1d6. On a result of 1 or 2, the airship turns 45° to its left. On a roll of 3 or 4, the airship does not change heading. On a result of 5 or 6, the airship turns 45° to its right. The changes should occur more or less at random, but no two turns occur within 50 feet of one another. An airship never turns directly into the wind when it is out of control. Treat any result which indicates an airship would make such a turn as if a 3 or 4 had been rolled. - **Speed Change.** Fortunately for everyone aboard the airship, its speed begins decreasing the round immediately following the round in which it became out of control. The airship decelerates at a rate of 10 mph each round until the pilot regains control. - **Altitude Change.** The DM should roll 1d6 at the beginning of any round during which the airship is out of control. On a result of 1 or 2, the airship descends 1d4 altitude bands (each altitude band is 50 feet). On a result of 3 to 5, the airship remains at its current altitude and, on a result of 6, the airship gains 1d2 altitude bands. Any airship which falls below the first altitude band while out of control crashes. # Chapter V: Aerial Combat Fighting in the air is much different than battling on land or even on the high seas. There is no cover; only the concealment of clouds protects you from the ballista bolts and cannon shots of your enemies, and engagements occur at a distance of hundreds of feet. While you are often secure on the deck of your airship, there is always the chance of a sudden shift in footing as the captain wheels the vessel around for better position during the fight. Even worse, you must contend with flying opponents above and below your ship, some of whom you can see, and others concealed by the blinding light of the sun or the deck of your own ship. Aerial combat is dangerous, but those who make their living plying the skylanes swear by it as the most exhilarating time of their life. This chapter contains all the information you need to lead the crews of your airships against your enemies. Whether battling pirates, mercenaries, or fellow merchants, you can find everything you need in the pages that follow. Study these systems well – they may be all that stands between your airship and the rocky earth below. ## How Aerial Combat Works Combat encounters in a dungeon setting, or even in the wilderness, occur at relatively close ranges. Combatants are separated, most times, by a few dozen yards and often rush in as quickly as possible to get to the meat of mêlée. Individuals may work as a team, but they are primarily concerned with their personal survival and the actions they plan on taking. Aerial combats, on the other hand, often begin with airships hundreds of feet apart, manoeuvring for position as they near one another. Individuals matter in these battles, but it is the ship as a whole that is responsible for your survival and your actions must support the plans of your captain if you hope to survive. In short, airship combat is about the ships and their crews. ### The Setup Aerial encounters begin when one or more airships spot one or more potential enemy airships. On a clear day, spotting can happen at a distance measured in miles, but when the fog rolls in, visibility drops to a matter of a few dozen yards, and even less during thunderstorms or more severe weather. Table 5.1 lists the Spot DCs for locating other aerial crafts or creatures under various conditions. Weather has a drastic effect on visibility. Any lookout on duty on any ship within 30 000 feet (a little less than 5 miles) of another flying creature or vessel is allowed one Wisdom (Perception) skill check per minute to locate the other vessel. If the vessel is actually approaching the lookout, he is entitled to a Perception skill check at the beginning of each round once the vessel comes within 3000 feet. Refer to **Table 5.1** for the DCs for these checks. In addition to distance, darkness, and clouds, there are two other factors that can hamper visibility. The first of these is the sun, which can prove a serious liability to scouts, who cannot look directly into the fiery orb. The sun is always considered to be lighting one of the quadrants of a vessel. If a vessel approaches a lookout from the direction of the sun, the lookout suffers a -10 circumstance penalty to all Perception checks to detect that vessel. Obviously, the approaching vessel does not suffer any such penalty, and it is a common tactic of pirates to always keep the sun at their backs to help them spot their enemies while avoiding detection by their targets. Targets that are substantially below the ship create a problem for the lookout as well. When attempting to spot a target at a lower altitude, the lookout suffers a -1 circumstance penalty to his Wisdom (Perception) skill check for every range band (50 feet) difference in elevation. **Table 5.1—Airship Spot DC in Weather** | Distance | Clear | Light | Moderate | Heavy | | -------------- | ----- | ----- | -------- | ----- | | 0 – 300 feet | 5 | 8 | 10 | 15 | | to 1500 feet | 10 | 12 | 15 | 20 | | to 3000 feet | 10 | 15 | 20 | 25 | | to 15 000 feet | 15 | 17 | 22 | 27 | | to 30 000 feet | 20 | 25 | 30 | 35 | _Note: Darkness increases all of these DCs considerably. Moonlight adds +5, and a moonless night adds +10._ _Light includes a light amount of clouds and fog._ _Moderate includes a moderate amount of clouds and fog._ _Heavy includes storms and thick haze._ ### The Surprise Round If, at any time, one vessel, or group of vessels, is aware of targets that are not themselves aware of opposition, the spotters may be able to surprise the targets. If one vessel can get into combat range of another without being spotted, the approaching vessel has successfully surprised its target and is entitled to a partial action. ### The Combat Sequence Just as in standard character versus creature combat, there is a definitive sequence of events to follow. Following the setup and surprise round (if any, see above), every aerial combat follows the following steps: 1. Vessels (and their crews) start the combat flat-footed. Once a vessel acts, it (and its crew) is no longer considered flat-footed. 2. If any combatant vessels are entitled to a surprise round, they may act before the official beginning of combat, as per normal combat. The characters and vessels operating during the surprise round are entitled to a partial action and can roll initiative for this round. The surprised characters and vessels receive no actions during the surprise round and start the battle flat-footed during the first standard combat round. 3. Once the surprise round passes, any character or vessel involved in the combat that has not yet rolled initiative does so. All combatants and engaged vessels are prepared to begin the first round of combat. 4. Each vessel and its crew acts in initiative order. 5. When every creature or vessel has had a turn, the round ends and the combatants with the highest initiative begin taking their actions again at the start of the new round, and steps 4 and 5 repeat until the combat is ended. 6. A combat ends when either all vessels or creatures on one side are dead (or have surrendered) or one vessel manages to get far enough from its pursuers to break off combat. ## Combat Information There are several differences between normal combat actions and their airship counterparts. Though these differences are relatively minor, they have an impact on the manner in which the rest of a combat is carried out and are explained here to avoid confusion. ### Attack Rolls Just as in normal combat situations, an attack roll with an airship's weaponry is made by rolling a d20 and adding any applicable attack bonuses. The differences in this instance are in where those bonuses come from. There are several different types of attack bonus, some of which are summarised here: - **Captain.** A good captain can lend their skill to others, helping them operate at the peak of their efficiency. The captain bonus is explained in more detail below, and is one of the most common types of bonus found in aerial combats. - **Personal.** The gunner of a shipboard weapon adds their own applicable attack bonus to any attack rolls they make with their weapon, provided they have proficiency with the weapon in question (see [[#Chapter VIII Aerial Feats|Chapter 8]]). - **Manoeuvre.** Various manoeuvres can provide the gunners of a vessel (or more often, gunners on a particular facing of the vessel) with a bonus to their attack rolls. ### Damage Airships and other vehicles are resistant to damage from normal attacks such as those inflicted by swords or arrows. This is represented by a Hardness rating that is automatically overcome by any weapon mounted on and fired from another airship, or any effect with an area of effect greater than a 10-foot radius. A ship's weapons can also hit a creature or character and do serious damage. All hits by these weapons against creatures or characters are automatically Critical Hits, as their immense size and power is able to cause grievous harm to creatures. #### Critical Hits Critical Hits caused by any attack that bypasses an airship's Hardness are handled differently than normal Critical Hits. Such powerful attacks punch through the armour of the ship's hull to damage, or even destroy, the airship's sensitive components. A lucky shot could, for example, blast through the hull of a ship to destroy its engine, dooming the entire ship. A Critical Hit normally has some detrimental effect on the struck ship, usually reducing one of its abilities (such as speed or manoeuvrability) and sometimes injuring or killing crew members as well. Even more so than in standard combat, a Critical Hit during an aerial battle can be devastating. ### Armour Class All vessels have an Armour Class, which works the same as for a creature or character. Whenever an attack roll is made against a vessel, its Armour Class sets the Difficulty Class for the attack. This Armour Class is based solely on the size of the airship, but other factors, including its physical armour, its speed, and its manoeuvrability, can add bonuses or penalties to attacks made against airships. Other enhancements may also come into play, just as in a standard combat. ### Hull Points Airships do not have Hit Points; they have Hull Points. This represents the structural integrity of the ship, including its ability to continue to fly. When above 0 Hull Points, the ship is able to fly without penalty, provided it has suffered no negative modifiers as a result of one or more Critical Hits. At 0 Hull Points, the vessel is no longer airworthy and must begin descending. Even during the descent, the airship can receive further damage, reducing its Hull Points even further. When a ship is reduced to less than 0 Hull Points, it begins an uncontrolled descent and crashes unless it can somehow be repaired enough to regain its flight capabilities. ### Speed All airships have a Speed rating which, just as with a creature, determines how far it can move in a given round. Unlike creatures, ships must continue moving at their current speed unless they spend time slowing down or accelerating; once in motion, a ship remains in motion unless specific orders from the captain dictate otherwise. This aspect of aerial combat is one of the most difficult to deal with, as all targets are in constant motion and the conditions of the battle change round-to-round as a result. ### Manoeuvrability Unlike creatures and characters, airships cannot simply turn and move as they desire. The manoeuvrability rating of the ship determines how nimble it is in the air and how easy (or difficult) it is to perform various manoeuvres. A small ship, for example, is able to change course rapidly, altering its trajectory without much effort, while a dreadnought may only be able to change course once every few hundred feet. More manoeuvrable ships are better able to position themselves in combat and have less difficulty responding to changes in the battle than do larger, less manoeuvrable ships. See [[#Chapter IV Aerial Movement|Chapter 4]] for more information about the manoeuvrability of airships. ### Saving Throws Ships make saving throws in certain circumstances, as do characters or other creatures. In general, a ship must only make Constitution or Dexterity saves. Constitution saves should be used in circumstances where the general durability of the ship is threatened (such as when a ship sustains a Critical Hit or is put under great strain). Dexterity saves, on the other hand, are useful when there is a chance of the ship receiving only a glancing blow or escaping from the blast radius of an attack with an area of effect. The easiest way to remember this is that a Constitution save represents the airship's ability to weather damage, while a Dexterity save is the vessel's ability to avoid damage. ### Critical Hit Components Table Every ship has a table of this type. This simply lists the critical components of a ship and their probability of being hit whenever the ship suffers a Critical Hit. While the ship's builder determines the placement of components on the table, the number of spaces each component takes up on the table is fixed – components take up a particular number of slots based on their type, size category, and the size of the ship. Larger components (such as engines) tend to get hit more often, for example, while smaller components (such as compasses) rarely suffer direct damage from Critical Hits. ## Initiative During each round of aerial combat, each involved character, creature, and ship is allowed to take one or more actions. Just as in standard combat, ships, creatures, and characters all act during a turn, from highest Initiative to lowest. ### Initiative Rolls At the beginning of each encounter, the captain of every involved airship must make an Initiative roll. The captain's Initiative determines the Initiative of every action his airship takes, from manoeuvres, to movement, to the firing of its weapons. The Initiative of officers or individual crew members only becomes important if a boarding action occurs, or if the captain is killed. ### Flat-Footed All creatures and airships involved in an aerial combat are considered flat-footed until they take their first action. Characters are unready for battle and have yet to prepare their airship for combat. A flat-footed character, creature, or vessel loses their Dexterity bonus to their AC and cannot make [[Combat and Damage#Opportunity Attacks|Opportunity Attacks]]. Naturally, special abilities for creatures or characters can overcome this flat-footed state faster than normal. Note that airships do not make Opportunity Attacks (see below). ## Surprise Surprise is much more likely to occur in aerial combat than it is in most standard combat situations. Because airships can approach using the concealment of clouds and may be able to initiate attacks from a very great distance, it is not at all uncommon for a surprise round to occur between airships. ### How Surprise Works Anytime one airship spots another airship without being spotted in return, there is the chance of a surprise round. If the spotting airship manages to get within weapons range of the unaware airship without being spotted, the spotting airship is then entitled to a surprise round. ### The Surprise Round During a surprise round, all crewmembers aboard the airship, including all officers and weapons crews, are allowed a single partial action. This allows the airship to manoeuvre into position and each of the weapon crews to fire their weapons a single time, for example. ### Unaware Combatants When a combatant is attacked during a surprise round, he is still flat-footed and loses any Dexterity bonus to his Armour Class. This penalty applies to airships as well, who lose any bonuses their pilots might provide to their Armour Class during the round (see Defensive Manoeuvres, below). This can have devastating effects on the surprised airship, which may be torn asunder by enemy fire before it ever has a chance to react. ## Actions in Aerial Combat Just as in ground-based combat, aerial combat is composed of a sequence of movement, attacks, and ability use. The combat round and the actions it comprises are detailed below. ### The Combat Round Each round of aerial combat takes roughly 6 seconds of game time. During this round, each character, creature, or airship involved in the action is given an opportunity to take an action, which can be anything a person can reasonably perform in 6 seconds. Each round begins with the characters with the highest Initiative result acting first, followed by the actions of all other involved creatures, characters, or airships, taking place in sequential order until the creature or airship with the lowest Initiative has had a chance to act. At that point, the round ends, and another round begins. ### Action Types All creatures and characters involved in an aerial combat are allowed to take any actions they would normally be allowed to take during any other combat, with the following exceptions. **Captains** must spend a standard action each round directing the ship. If the captain does not spend a standard action directing his airship, the airship continues on its present course and only deviates from that course if the pilot of the airship is attempting to avoid a collision or some other hazard. As noted above, the captain of the ship must give orders before NPC crew can begin acting on them. Player characters, however, can take whatever actions they deem best during their Initiative, and may even disobey the captain's orders (though this may lead to disciplinary actions during or after the battle). **Pilots** must use a full-round action to keep the ship in the air and heading in the proper direction. If the pilot does not, or cannot, take a full-round action to pilot the ship, the vessel is considered out of control during that round (see [[#Chapter IV Aerial Movement|Chapter 4]]). If the captain and the pilot are the same character, they may combine their "directing the ship" and "steering the ship" into one standard action. ### Airship Actions An airship is not a living creature, and performs differently from a creature during combat. The significant differences between an airship and a creature are as follows: - The airship cannot freely change direction, speed, or facing. See [[#Chapter IV Aerial Movement|Chapter 4]] for more information on how an airship can move and the restrictions it has on this movement. - An airship must always move its full current speed during a round, without exception. The airship moves during its Initiative, as directed by its captain and according to any skill checks necessary to fulfil those orders. - Airships never make attacks, but the crews of airships make attacks using the airship's weaponry. These attacks occur during the captain's Initiative. - Airships do not make [[Combat and Damage#Opportunity Attacks|Opportunity Attacks]]. In addition, airships do not provoke Opportunity Attacks either, regardless of how many threatened areas they pass through. ### Armour Class and Airship Speed The Armour Class of an airship is based on its size, primarily, but also on its speed. A fast-moving airship is very difficult to hit, regardless of its size. For every 10 mph an hour an airship is travelling above 30 mph, it receives a +1 bonus to its Armour Class and to any Dexterity saves it may be required to make. Note that this bonus is based on relative speed, rather than actual speed. In cases where one airship is trailing another, the relative speed of the leading aircraft is equal to its actual speed minus the speed of the airship that is trailing. Thus, an airship that is travelling at 50 mph being trailed by an airship traveling at 30 mph has an actual airspeed equal to 20 mph with regard to the trailing airship and receives no bonus to its Armour Class. When two airships are approaching one another head-on, neither airship receives the speed bonus to its Armour Class against attacks made by the other airship. In all other cases, the relative speed of an airship is equal to its actual speed. This makes it quite possible for an airship to have a different Armour Class against attacks from different opponents, based on their relative positions. ### Opportunity Attacks As noted above, airships neither make nor provoke [[Combat and Damage#Opportunity Attacks|Opportunity Attacks]]. Creatures and characters may still make or provoke this type of attack, as per the standard combat rules. It is possible, however, for a character on, or attached to, an airship to provoke an Opportunity Attack if they leave another character's reach. This happens rarely, but it can happen, especially if two ships collide or pass within a few feet of one another during combat, or when creatures on the deck of an airship have considerable reach. ### Attack Actions Characters or creatures involved in combat may perform any of the attack actions they are normally allowed during a combat round. When attacking other creatures or characters, all standard modifiers and rules apply, with the following exception: Creatures aboard another airship are always considered to have [[Cover and Perception#Cover|Half Cover]] (+2 to AC and Dexterity saving throws) from any attacks that come from outside of that airship. In addition, all creatures aboard an airship receive the same speed bonus to their Armour Class as the airship itself against any attacks that come from outside the airship. ### Hull Points and Hardness An airship is an object; as such, it has a Hardness rating based on the type of material used in its construction (this value is 5 for airships with wooden hulls). This Hardness rating only applies to attacks made by creatures using weapons that are not designed for ship-based combat. #### Applying Hull Damage Damage suffered by the ship reduces its Hull Points. When a ship's Hull Points are reduced to 0, it must begin descending immediately and loses 50 feet of altitude each round even if it attempts to maintain altitude. If reduced below 0 Hull Points, a vessel begins falling. During the first round in which it falls, the vessel falls 150 feet, after which it falls 500 feet per round until it impacts the earth and is considered to have crashed – see below for more information on crashes and impacts with other terrain features. #### Airship Critical Hits When an airship suffers a Critical Hit from another airship weapon, it is handled differently than a standard Critical Hit, which simply causes more damage. Instead, the attacker must roll 1d100 and announce the result; the damage from the Critical Hit is then applied to the critical component listed on the target airship's Critical Hit Components Table. Note that the applied damage is rolled normally and is not doubled, as with a normal Critical Hit. In most cases, when a weapon is reduced to 0 Hull Points, it immediately becomes non-functional, but no other ill-effects occur. Engines, however, and some weapons, react rather poorly when destroyed. See the description of individual components for any additional effects that occur when a component is destroyed. Note that destruction of any component automatically removes any benefits supplied by that component, in addition to any other effects that occur. ### Damaging Characters or Creatures with Shipboard Weapons Weapons designed for combat between airships are tremendously powerful, built to inflict massive damage against sturdy, well-armoured objects. Because of this, hitting a character or creature causes a lot of damage. Any creature of less than Huge size hit by a weapon designed for ship-to-ship combat automatically suffers a Critical Hit from that weapon. Creatures of Huge size or greater do not suffer such grievous damage because their bodies are large enough to absorb the impact. When a Critical Hit indicates a crew hit, do not roll damage; simply reduce the total crew Hit Dice by the number of damage dice caused by the attack and reduce the number of crewmen appropriately (this is explained more below in [[#Damage to the Crew]]). Note that reduced crew numbers may adversely affect an airship, as detailed in [[#Chapter I Components of an Airship|Chapter 1]] and [[#Chapter II Airship Construction and Upgrades|Chapter 2]]. ### Attacking Upward or Down When launching an attack at a target 50 feet or more above you, the drag of gravity quickly reduces the range of any weapon with a physical projectile. Likewise, firing at targets 50 feet or more below you allows you to squeeze a bit more range out of your weapon. When firing at targets above, you must decrease the maximum range of your weapon by 10% for every 50 feet of elevation. This only affects the maximum or far range, the range at which attacks are made with disadvantage. The near range is unaffected. Likewise, when firing down at targets below you, you may increase the maximum range of your weapon by 10% for every 50 feet difference in elevation. Again, this only affects the far range of the weapon; the near range (where ranged attacks are made without disadvantage) is unaffected. When two airships occupy the same horizontal space but are separated by a vertical distance, they are most often not perfectly lined up, one above the other. The crew of the higher ship may fire down on the crew of the lower ship without penalty, as they lean out a bit over the gunwales of their ship and launch attacks down. Unfortunately, the crew of the lower ship is at a great disadvantage when returning fire at the crew of the ship above them. The higher ship's crew receives [[Cover and Perception#Cover|Three-Quarters Cover]] from the body of their ship, which protects them from the attacks of their enemies. ## Special Combat Manoeuvres The pilot of an airship can attempt to perform a few movement manoeuvres with the airship that are not normally available during other types of combat. These manoeuvres are described in this section. ### Fly Over It is possible to fly over the top of another ship that is within the same altitude band (within 50 feet of elevation). Doing so allows your crew to attack with less fear of reprisal from their enemies, shielded as they are by the body of the airship. When you attempt a fly-over, your opponent is certainly going to attempt to stop you from getting in a better position from which to attack. Pilots of both ships must make individual Dexterity (Piloting) skill checks (DC 15 + the size rating of their respective vessels). The pilot who succeeds by the greater margin manoeuvres his ship to the stop of the stack and the loser must be satisfied with passing beneath the winner. On a tie or if both pilots fail their skill checks, the ships collide. ### Ramming Intentionally piloting an airship into another airship is referred to as ramming, and is performed only by those pilots who aren't overly concerned with the safety of their own ships. The damage caused by a ram is based on the sizes of the involved ships and their relative speeds. While very large ships can easily damage smaller ships, a small ship travelling at a high rate of speed can quickly turn into a very damaging obstacle for even a large ship. For every full 10 mph of relative movement, an impact between two ships causes 1d6 Hull Points of damage to the target ship. Relative speed, as applied here, includes the speeds of both ships as well as the directions of travel. If the target ship is facing the same direction as the attacking ship and both are pointed in the same direction, subtract the target ship's speed from the ramming ship's speed to find the relative speed. If the target ship is fleeing at an angle (any angle less than 90°) when struck, subtract half the target ship's speed from the speed of the ramming ship. If the target ship is perpendicular to the ramming ship and is struck broadside, subtract a quarter of the target ship's speed. If the target ship is approaching the ramming ship at an angle (any angle less than 90°) when struck, add a quarter of the target ship's speed to the attacking ship's speed. If the two ships collide head-on, simply add the speeds of the two ships. Successfully ramming an enemy ship requires more than simply manoeuvring your ship into the same square as an enemy ship at the same altitude. The ramming vessel must move into the square of the defending airship, then the pilots of both vessels must make opposed Dexterity (Piloting) skill checks (DC 15 + 1 per 10 mph of ramming speed). If the attacking pilot wins the opposed skill check, the ram occurs. If the target pilot wins, however, the attacking vessel continues its movement and does not impact the target ship at all. If the movement of the attacking vessel ends in the same square as the target vessel, the attacking vessel is above the target vessel. With a successful ram, if the attacking vessel is one or more size category smaller than the target vessel, the attacking vessel suffers the same amount of damage as the target vessel and immediately comes to a stop. If the attacking vessel is at least the same size as the target vessel and no more than one size category larger, reduce the damage it suffers from the ram by 2d6 Hull Points, to a minimum of 1d6 Hull Points; the attacking vessel's speed is immediately reduced to 10 mph and it stops in the same square as the defending vessel. If the attacking vessel was already travelling at 10 mph, its speed is reduced to 0 mph. For every additional size category larger the attacking vessel is than the target vessel, the attacking airship suffers 1d6 fewer Hull Points of damage. In addition, if the attacking vessel is at least two size categories larger than the target vessel, the attacking vessel may continue its move for the round, and its speed is reduced to one-half its speed before the collision, rounded down to the nearest 10 mph. In this case, the facing of the rammed airship is pushed 45° away from the direction of the impact with the ramming vessel. A vessel that is rammed by an airship more than two size categories larger than itself may also be pushed or heeled over if it is struck at an approaching angle or from the side. A ship struck at an approaching angle must make a Dexterity save (DC 15 + 1 per size category smaller than the ramming ship) to avoid being heeled over. If it does make the Dexterity save, it is still turned 45° away from the ramming ship, though it remains in the same square and is now under the ramming ship if that ship also remains in the same square. If the Dexterity save fails, the rammed ship is now heeled over onto its side, away from the ramming ship, and is also pushed below the ramming ship. If it is rammed in the side, the airship must make a Dexterity save (DC 15 + 2 per size category smaller than the ramming ship) to avoid being heeled over. If this save fails, the rammed ship immediately heels over onto its side and is pushed below the ramming vessel. If the rammed ship succeeds at its Dexterity save, its rear is pushed 90° away from the attacking vessel and below the ship that rammed it. In most cases, this places the rammed vessel beneath the ramming airship and heading in the exact opposite direction as the ship that just rammed it. ### Boarding Attempts Sometimes, it is much easier to deal with an enemy airship by simply pulling up alongside it and unloading some heavily armed adventurers onto its deck. Boarding manoeuvres also have the added bonus of allowing the capture of prisoners as well as expensive airships. To board an enemy ship, you must first draw alongside it and either put down boarding gangplanks or, more likely, tether the two ships together using grappling hooks and lines. Drawing alongside another ship requires that both ships be moving at the same speed. Matching the speed of the airship you wish to board requires a Dexterity (Piloting) skill check (DC 15 +1 per 10 mph of the targeted vessel's current speed) and may require several rounds of acceleration or deceleration to achieve. Once the skill check is made, the pilot may then attempt to draw close enough to the enemy to let his crew attempt to board. To do this, the pilot must put his ship into the same square and altitude band as the target vessel. During the round in which the boarding vessel enters the same square and altitude band as its target, the crew of the boarding vessel may attempt to throw grappling hooks onto the target vessel. This is a ranged touch attack against an Armour Class of 15, regardless of the actual Armour Class of the opposing ship. For every grappling hook attack check that succeeds, one grappling hook becomes attached to the enemy vessel. Crew members may only make a grappling hook attack if they readied an action during this or the previous round, as they must time their attacks for the moment when the two ships are within range of one another. The grappled ship's pilot may attempt to break free of the boarding attempt by making an opposed Dexterity (Piloting) Skill check against the pilot of the boarding vessel. The targeted vessel suffers a -1 circumstance penalty for every grappling hook attached to it (which applies to the pilot's skill check), however, as these lines interfere with its ability to manoeuvre. The targeted ship may attempt to escape from a boarding attempt once each round, until enough grappling lines have been attached to it to immobilise the vessel (see **Table 5.2**). **Table 5.2—Grappling Airships** | Airship Size | Grappling lines needed to immobilise | | ------------ | :----------------------------------: | | Tiny | 2 | | Small | 3 | | Medium | 4 | | Large | 5 | | Huge | 7 | | Gargantuan | 9 | | Colossal | 12 | While grappling hooks are being applied to a vessel, it is quite possible for the ship's crew to chop those lines down. During each round, the crew may make a standard melee attack against an Armour Class of 10 to cut the ropes loose. Assuming standard ropes are used, every successful hit by a crewman removes one rope from his airship. A crewman must stand at the gunwale of his ship and reach over to cut a grappling rope, exposing himself to enemy attack. Successful boarders complement their grapple attempts with heavy missile fire in order to keep the enemy crew down and frightened. Of course, sheer force of numbers is effective as well. Once the requisite number of grappling hooks are in place, the attackers may lower their gangplanks and begin flooding across to lay waste to the enemy crew. At this point, it's best to move the action to the deck plans, placing them side by side and playing out the rest of the battle using the standard combat rules. Note that it is not possible for a smaller airship to immobilise a larger airship; however, a smaller airship may attempt to bind itself to a larger vessel using the same process as above. In this case, however, the number of grappling hooks that need to be attached to the enemy vessel are equal to the size category of the attacking ship. Once the required number of hooks are in place, the smaller ship is considered attached to the larger ship and remains connected to it until the grappling hooks are cut loose. While a smaller airship is attached to it, the larger airship suffers a manoeuvrability penalty equal to -1 per size category of the smaller vessel. If, at any time, the crew of the larger airship is able to reduce the number of attached grappling hooks below the required level, the smaller airship breaks free and is considered out of control. ### Boarding from Above A pilot may, if he chooses, decide to fly over the top of an enemy airship in order to put his drop line boarders into position. Matching speed and manoeuvres of the enemy airship is crucial in this case, even more so than when attempting to board using grapples and gangplanks. Using drop lines requires the same attempts to match speed and course as for a normal boarding attempt, but the attacking pilot suffers a -5 circumstance penalty as he attempts to line his vessel up over an airship he cannot really see. ### Movement on the Deck While it is not difficult to remain standing on a smooth-flying airship, staying on your feet during a frenzied combat as your ship dives, turns, and takes hits from enemy ships may not be so easy. Balance is an important skill to have on the deck of a ship. During any round in which a vessel takes more than two 45° turns, deck hands who are not otherwise secured must make a successful Dexterity (Acrobatics) check (DC 10 + 2 per turn after the first) or fall to their knees (unable to move and losing their Dex bonus to AC for 1 round). Similarly, when a ship is rammed, all deck hands that are not secured must make a successful Acrobatics check (DC 15 + 1 per 1d6 Hull Points of damage caused by the ramming attack) or fall [[Conditions#Prone|Prone]]. ### Defensive Manoeuvres Each round, as a free part of his normal Dexterity (Piloting) actions for that round, a pilot may attempt to provide a defensive bonus for his airship. The pilot makes a Dexterity (Piloting) skill check (DC 20). Success provides a +1 circumstance bonus to the airship's Armour Class until just before the pilot's first action on the following round. An additional +1 to this bonus is added for every 5 full points by which the DC of the skill check is exceeded. This bonus may not exceed the base manoeuvrability bonus of the airship (defined by its size category), however. ## Flying Creatures and Characters Once a flying creature leaves its airship, it moves at its own rate, and not at the speed of the ship. Given the scale at which airship combat normally occurs (50-foot squares being the norm), creatures and characters that are flying must move very quickly to have any meaningful place in the battle. Most flying creatures move significantly slower than flying ships. A creature with a Fly Speed of 90, for example, only flies at 10 mph, or 20 mph if it [[Actions#Dash|Dashes]]. Most flying creatures are not even this fast (calculate proportionally). At combat speeds, a flying creature can quickly be left behind. If a creature flies less than 50 feet in a given round, it can't even move out of its current square. In this case, the creature requires two rounds to move from one square to the next. Of course, the character can always take the Dash action to double its movement speed. Regardless of its Speed, a creature confined to a single square may close with any airship occupying the same square in a single round. ### Ramming Creatures It is possible for creatures to ram airships, but it is rarely a good idea. Only creatures of sizes Huge, Gargantuan, or Colossal may ram an airship, and are treated as if they were airships of size Tiny, Small, and Medium, respectively. Creatures who ram airships suffer Hit Point damage equal to the Hull Point damage an airship would suffer during a ram, but cause only half the damage an airship would deal on a successful ram. On the other hand, airships that ram creatures suffer only half the normal damage they would suffer from ramming another airship, but deal full damage. Rather than making Dexterity (Piloting) rolls, a flying creature may roll 1d20 and add its Dexterity score to the result. When determining the success of a ram, this roll opposes the skill of the enemy pilot. ### Winged Boarders Using flying creatures to board a vessel is of course the easiest way to take over an enemy ship. However, unless the ships are moving slowly, or are close together, this manoeuvre may not be possible. Because of the round-based nature of aerial combat, it should not be difficult for most flying creatures to get to enemy ships that are within a few hundred feet of their own, but they may have a hard time actually landing on one if the airship is travelling faster than their maximum move rate. Calculate the relative speed between a creature and a ship by subtracting the creature's max Speed from the ship's current speed. To successfully land on a fast-moving ship, the creature must make a Dexterity (Acrobatics) check to keep its balance (DC 10 + 1 per 5 mph of relative speed difference). A successful roll puts the creature wherever he likes on the deck (failure indicates that the creature missed the ship, is flying in the same square as the ship, and can make another landing attempt next round if he can catch up to the ship). Use **Table 5.3** to convert the Fly Speed of creatures to mph. For creatures with Fly Speeds greater than 100, calculate by adding rows. For example, for a creature with a Fly Speed of 120, add rows 100 and 20. Speeds should be rounded to the nearest 5 mph in most circumstances. Keep in mind that a creature may take the [[Actions#Dash|Dash]] action if it so chooses. **Table 5.3—Converting Speed to MPH** | Fly Speed | Normal mph | Dash mph | | :-------: | :--------: | :------: | | 10 | 1 | 2 | | 20 | 2 | 5 | | 30 | 3 | 7 | | 40 | 5 | 9 | | 50 | 6 | 11 | | 60 | 7 | 14 | | 70 | 8 | 16 | | 80 | 9 | 18 | | 90 | 10 | 20 | | 100 | 11 | 23 | ## Tracking a Combat Three-dimensional battles can be quite complex and often involve a good deal of record-keeping. While there is no one right way to keep track of these battles, this section offers some suggestions for keeping track of where ships are in relation to one another. ### Maps This book was written with the assumption that some sort of battle map is used during aerial conflicts. Ranges and other aspects of ship-to-ship combat were designed for a square map on which every square represents 50 feet. Using a map of this type greatly simplifies your combats and makes it much easier to make tactical decisions based on positioning of ships and their movement. Where geographical features exist on your map, you should note their heights. This allows you to keep track of which features block line of sight between two airships and to determine at what point airships impact terrain features. ### Positioning and Altitude Bands Altitudes and exact positioning of airships is not assumed in this combat system – all ships are assumed to be within a 50-foot square on the map and within the same 50-foot altitude band. Two ships may only occupy the same square and altitude band if at least one of the airships is size Small or smaller. Larger ships may never occupy the same square if they are also within the same altitude band. Note that all ships in the same altitude band are considered to be at roughly the same altitude in comparison to one another. That is, neither ship is specifically above nor below another, though particular manoeuvres can briefly change this. ### Altitude Markers Because airships in combat are often not going to have drastic elevation differences, you can easily use dice to keep track of the altitude of each ship in the combat. A d20 can track 50-foot altitude bands up to 1000 feet, and a d10 can mark larger superbands of 1000 feet. Thus, a d10 at 3 and a d20 at 5 represent 3250 feet. If an airship is below 1000 feet, simply remove the d10. As most airship battles will take place in the same 1000-foot superband, you can use a d10 to define the general field of battle and only use a d10 for an individual ship if it changes to a different superband. Small beads can also be used to denote different altitudes, with beads of one colour used to denote 50-foot altitude bands and beads of another colour used to denote the 1000-foot superbands. Whatever method you choose, it should make it immediately obvious which altitude band a ship is in, making your combats clearer and simpler to track. ### Deck Plans When characters are involved in an airship combat, it's a good bet they want to attempt to get on board another ship and deal some mayhem up close and personal. For this reason, it is a good idea to have deck plans of the involved ships at hand, so that characters who board a ship have a battle map of their own. It is recommended that deck plans be drawn with 5-foot squares, to make it as simple as possible to track the movement and actions of characters that are aboard airships. ## Characters and Crewmen The role of the individual aboard an airship is greatly lessened during battles between these flying vessels. While the number of crewmen available is crucial in determining which of an airship's many components can be currently manned, a single crewmen has little impact on the course of the battle as a whole. Player characters and important NPCs, on the other hand, play a much more active role in the course of the battle and can significantly change the course of an aerial combat through their actions. During an aerial combat, a player character or important NPC can take any action he is normally allowed in a round, including making attacks, using class features, or moving. Because of the larger scale of aerial combat, however, it is sometimes necessary to fudge the actual movements of characters, especially those that are unable to move at least 50 feet each round under their own power. ### Airship Scale and Characters Because airship combats are resolved on battle maps with 50-foot squares, it is quite difficult to accurately place characters. Because of this, a character is always considered to be somewhere in the square in which his counter is located, but his exact location inside that square is unimportant. Moving from one square to another requires moving 50 feet in a single round; otherwise the character is simply flitting around within the same square. Characters unable to move 50 feet in a round take two rounds to move between squares, unless they take the [[Actions#Dash|Dash]] action. ### Damage to the Crew The crew of an airship is generally made up of a number of airmen who are essentially the same, in terms of combat ability and overall skill. Because of this, it is easier to track the crew as a unit, deducting Hit Dice of damage when the crew is injured. When a number of damage dice equal to the average Hit Dice of the crewmen is dealt, remove an airman from the ship's roster. This has two benefits: first it reduces bookkeeping, which is important when there are several ships with dozens of crewmen on each side of a battle; and second, it keeps the focus on the characters. Because they aren't simply one of the many minions running the airship, they should receive the lion's share of the attention. When crewmen are removed from the ship's roster, those that were not on duty move in to replace any lost while actively operating the airship. Only when an airship is reduced below the minimum number of crewmen required to keep its components operating does it suffer adverse effects from crew loss. Of course, dying crewmen aren't defending the airship any longer, which makes it that much more likely that a boarding attempt succeeds. Note that this system does not apply to the officers (or warrant officers) of an airship – they are only injured when specifically targeted by an enemy airship's crew or when their airship suffers a Critical Hit. In most ways, they are very similar to player characters and are as important to the ship's functioning. ### The Crew in Combat Most of an airship's crewmen simply do not have time to engage in combat while their airship is flying. Only those crewmen not required to keep the airship running are ever involved in combat – unless, of course, boarders arrive on the airship intent on taking the vessel by force. During combat, crew members can be treated as an extension of their officers or player characters. This allows combat to be abstracted significantly and can eliminate the need for maps at a character level at all during airship-to-airship battles. While not everyone finds this system to their liking, it does provide a quick and reasonably accurate method for resolving large-scale combats without tedious bookkeeping and counters or miniatures. ### Supporting Crew All crew members should be assigned to an officer or another character, and no officer or character can take command of more crew members than he has levels or Hit Dice. These assignments should be noted on the ship's roster for future reference. During combat, the crew members can follow their leader wherever he goes, provided they do not need any specialised means of travel (such as being able to fly) in order to move to the leader's current position. As long as these crew members are with their leader, they provide a +1 circumstance bonus to his Armor Class and Attack rolls as they follow his lead in battle. Attacks which affect an area cause damage to followers just as they would the airship's crew – that is, one die of damage removes one Hit Die from the followers, and when a number of Hit Dice equal to the average level of the followers has been removed, one of the followers goes down. Characters and officers suffer damage as normal during a combat and have all their normal options available during the combat round. If it ever becomes important to know, all crew members are gathered around the character as close as possible, though none obstruct his view of the enemy or ability to engage in melee combat. This normally means that there are seven crew members clustered around the character, leaving only his front square open. ### Officers in Combat Most of the officers aboard an airship engage in combat only as a last resort, or to repel boarders. Captains, for example, do not leave the decks of their ships to engage the enemy, but also don't hesitate to go after any enemy creatures that do make it to their airships. The Master of Arms is one exception to this rule; he always goes out of his way to bring down as many of the enemy as possible. If he's given a chance to lead a group of airmen onto an enemy vessel, he'll do his best to capture the vessel and turn it against any other enemies in the area. For his part, the pilot does not leave the wheel unless he receives a direct order from the captain during combat. Many pilots have been found dead, with their hands still locked tight on the pegs of their wheels despite their grievous wounds. Navigators and other officers without much place on the deck during a pitched combat typically retreat below decks. However, as many navigators are healers or have other capabilities, they try to brew up as many nasty surprises as possible for their enemies, and many emerge on the deck in the latter stages of the battle to turn the tide for their allies or to simply help with the quashing of their enemies. ### Weapons Crews These crews act as a unit during the ship's Initiative phase, using the highest attack bonus amongst them as the bonus for the weapon. When not firing, all crew members are considered to be occupied with loading and aiming the weapon. The rates of fire in [[#Chapter I Components of an Airship|Chapter 1]] account for this method of firing and the times needed for reloading the weapons. ### Characters Attacking Airships Directly attacking an airship is rarely the best choice of action for a character; however, powerful individuals may choose to take a stab at a smaller airship or one that has already been weakened by enemy attacks. A sufficiently powerful attack by an individual character might even be able to deliver the killing blow to an airship, but such events are the stuff of legends and occur only rarely. Attacks against specific creatures are resolved normally. However, when making a physical attack against an airship, Critical Hits are resolved differently. While a character may cause a Critical Hit against an airship, he only scores a critical threat on a result of a natural 20, regardless of the weapon used. The damage for a confirmed critical is not doubled or tripled; instead roll on the critical components table and apply standard weapon damage to the airship component that suffers the Critical Hit. Remember to reduce the damage caused by any creature of less than Huge size by the Hardness rating of the airship or component. ## Special Character Combat Manoeuvres While standing and fighting is all well and good for those who wish to stay safely on the deck during combat, there are other options available to characters who are more daring. In this section, you will find information on ways in which you can use standard combat manoeuvres to greater effect during aerial combat, as well as a handful of new manoeuvres you can use to get the drop on your foes in the sky – or on the ground. ### Shove While this is relatively tame on land, it can be devastating when used against an opponent near the edge of an airship's deck. If the airship has a railing, and most airships do, your opponent is treated as if he were one size category larger than normal when you attempt to shove him off the deck. If your [[Combat and Damage#Unarmed Strike|shove]] attempt succeeds, however, you have just shoved the target up and over the railing. Unless he can fly (or manages to get a desperation grab in) your opponent is on his way to the ground now, most likely suffering a very messy death. #### Desperation Grab Characters or creatures knocked over the rail by a shove or other attack are allowed an opportunity to make a last, desperate grab to catch the railing before pitching over to their doom. This requires a Dexterity save (DC 15 + the amount by which the defender failed their shove saving throw), which, if successful, leaves the defender dangling from the railing off the side of the airship. While this probably isn't enough to save his life on its own, it does give the attacker a chance to show mercy and the defender an opportunity to be saved by his peers. Pulling oneself back over the railing of a ship requires a simple Strength check (DC 10) and consumes all of one's movement speed, and also triggers an [[#Opportunity Attacks|Opportunity Attack]] from any hostile creature still standing in melee range. ### Disarm Any creature or character disarmed within 5 feet of the edge of an airship's deck stands a 10% chance of the weapon going overboard. If the disarming character would like to improve his odds of sending the defender's weapon over the edge, he may accept a -5 penalty to his attack roll to ensure it goes tumbling over the railing and to the ground below. ### Grappling An attacker that [[Combat and Damage#Grappling|grapples]] a defender can move him around, per the standard rules. On the deck of an airship, this can have deadly consequences. If the grappling characters are at the edge of the airship deck, either character may attempt to hoist his enemy over the railing and to the ground below. This expends 5 feet of movement (though this is doubled due to standard grapple mechanics to 10) and is decided with an opposed Strength (Athletics) contest, but the attacker suffers a -4 penalty to his Athletics check due to the difficulty of lifting his foe over the rail – this penalty does not apply to those rare ships that have no rails. If the attacker wins, the defender is hoisted over the rail and dropped to the ground below. A [[#desperation grab]] can be attempted, catching hold of the attacker 50% of the time, and the rail the other 50% of the time. If the defender wins this grapple contest, he remains in position and is not hoisted over the rail and may attempt to do the same to his attacker on his Initiative. An attacker caught by a desperation grab is in dire straits – he must immediately make a Dexterity saving throw (DC 10 + 1 per 50 pounds of the defender's weight) to avoid being pulled over the rail himself. If he succeeds at the Dexterity save, he must then pry the defender's hand off him and let the fool drop to his death. This requires an opposed Strength check. If the grabbed character wins this check, the grabbing character is dropped immediately and is not allowed a further desperation grab. If the grabbing character wins, however, the attacker is still grabbed. While grabbing another character, a character hanging over the edge of the rail may attempt to pull himself back aboard, as noted under Desperation Grab, above. In this case, the grabbing character ends his move adjacent to the character he was grabbing, but still at the edge of the airship's deck. If he wishes to maintain his hold on the character he was grabbing, he must initiate a grapple during the following round. ### Loading a Shipboard Weapon This is a full-round action and is required of all members of the weapons crew during the round after which it is fired. Reload times vary from weapon to weapon. Weapons with a fire rate of one or more per round require constant full-round loading actions from all assigned crew members except for the actual gunner. ### Readying a Shipboard Weapon This action is taken by the crew of any heavy weapon that is not currently being loaded if they wish to fire the weapon during the current round. The readied action allows the shipboard weapon to be fired upon the captain's orders. ### Dash This action is more difficult on an airship while it is in motion. [[Actions#Dash|Dashing]] requires a successful Dexterity (Acrobatics) skill check (DC 10 + 1 per 10 mph of the ship's speed). If this check fails, you are unable to keep your balance long enough to run; the Dash action in this case allows you to take half your movement speed again, rather than the full amount. ### Sidestep If a character standing on the deck of an airship is targeted by a creature attempting to charge him, he may attempt to sidestep the charge. Using his Reaction, the defender makes a Charisma (Deception) roll contested by the attacker's Wisdom (Insight) check, to which the attacker may add their attack bonus. If the defender wins, he is allowed a 5-foot step to either side of the attacker, who must continue with his movement. The attacker is allowed a Dexterity save (DC 10 + the amount by which the defender won the feint contest). If this save is failed, the attacker is unable to prevent himself from plummeting over the edge of the railing. No desperation grab is allowed in this case, as the attacker has already lost his ability to stop himself from plummeting over the edge by failing his saving throw. ### Stand Up From Prone This action requires a Dexterity (Acrobatics) skill check if the vessel you are on is moving during the round in which you attempt to stand (DC 10 + 1 per 20 mph of the airship's current speed). # Chapter VI: Overland Travel by Air Airships are useful for making short runs between two cities, but they also find use in extremely long journeys that would be impractical for other modes of transportation. Merchants have discovered the extreme value to be realised by carrying light cargoes over great distances – while the small load of teak wood you pick up in one location may be worthless where you get it, its value may be much higher a few thousand miles distant. Many daring merchants practice this sort of speculation, often starting their own trade routes as a result of their explorations. Before you can make your fortune travelling thousands of miles from home, though, you have to be able to navigate and find your way from point to point without getting lost. This chapter presents some of the navigational hazards of such overland travel – everything from dangerous weather, to the threat of air pirates, to the very real possibility of simply becoming lost and running out of fuel. While talented navigators are certainly able to reduce all of these threats, there is no such thing as perfect safety when navigating the wild open spaces of the skies. ## Geographical Navigation Unlike sea sailors, airship crews have the advantage of being able to look down upon the geography of the areas through which they travel, allowing them to make extremely accurate maps. In the simplest form of navigation, the navigator simply compares visible geographical landmarks with the landmarks shown on his maps. Given an accurate group of maps and an observant navigator, it's a relatively straightforward process for the navigator to guide a ship from its home port to its destination. Navigators who guide their ships by geography need only make one Wisdom (Piloting) skill check (DC 10) every four hours (note that this Piloting skill check uses Wisdom instead of the more common Dexterity). This assumes they have maps of the areas they are travelling over and are able to see the landmarks below them. If there is a great deal of haze or low clouds, the DC is increased to 15 and the check must be made every three hours, rather than every four. The downside to this method, of course, is that the navigator is limited to the maps he has on hand and the paths of those who have already been to all the places he's now going. This reduces the potential profits of a trade route, as someone has clearly already mastered the journey and is likely engaging in profitable trade even as you set out on your expedition. Another problem with navigating by landmarks is the risk of air pirates. Pirates are smart enough to figure out where the most commonly used routes are, and have little difficulty staking them out. The use of visible landmarks makes it as easy for the pirates to navigate as it is for you, and that leads to a very real threat of frequent pirate attacks. It is possible to use geographical navigation without a map, but only if the navigator possesses proficiency with [[Cartographer's Tools]] and the time necessary to make accurate measurements. This process is simple – the navigator spends most of his time on the deck, taking measurements of landmarks below him and drawing a [[Map]] of the area the airship has covered. Making a map in this way allows an airship to trace back its journey at any time, but also slows the airship to a movement speed of no more than 30 miles per hour. This relatively slow pace is necessary to allow the navigator the time necessary to create his map and take the appropriate measurements for his logs. While the map, even if crudely drawn, is enough to allow the navigator to guide the ship back along its original course during the same journey, to make a map which is useful for future journeys requires a successful Wisdom (Piloting) skill check (DC 15) every four hours during the entire journey. If more than one-third of these skill checks fail, the map is useless for future trips, though it still allows the navigator to guide his airship back to the port from which it departed. It is crucial to realise that a navigational map cannot be made unless there are recognisable landmarks within four hours travel from one another, and in a relatively straight line. If a landmark cannot be found in four hours, a navigator is unable to accurately continue the map and must direct the ship to turn back. Recognisable landmarks include such features as coastlines, rivers, mountains, or any other feature that is visible throughout the year at the intended elevation of travel. Because of this limitation, the most common routes follow rivers, the edges of continents, and mountain ranges, allowing navigators to easily chart the courses of their airships. See [[#Chapter VII Aerial Trade|Chapter 7]] for more information about the value of these types of maps and for topics of interest in general aerial trade. **Table 5.1 – Horizon Distance Based on Airship Height** | Airship altitude | Distance to horizon | Visible area | | :--------------: | :-----------------: | :----------: | | 100 feet | 13 mi | 551 sq mi | | 200 feet | 19 mi | 1102 sq mi | | 300 feet | 23 mi | 1653 sq mi | | 400 feet | 26 mi | 2203 sq mi | | 500 feet | 30 mi | 2754 sq mi | | 600 feet | 32 mi | 3305 sq mi | | 700 feet | 35 mi | 3856 sq mi | | 800 feet | 37 mi | 4407 sq mi | | 900 feet | 40 mi | 4958 sq mi | | 1000 feet | 42 mi | 5509 sq mi | ## Dead Reckoning—The Art of Overland Navigation Airship sailors have learned a lot from the sailors of the seas and use some of the same techniques for navigation. Dead reckoning is the default method of navigation for airships, involving some basic math, a chronometer, readings from the airship's instruments, and a detailed ship's log. The practice is not difficult, but without accurate bookkeeping and the proper knowledge, it can be very difficult to navigate long distances overland. Engineers have developed airspeed gauges that use differential pressures to determine the speed of motion through the air. Armed with this information about the speed of his vessel, the navigator of an airship can then determine how far the airship moves in a given period of time. Combined with heading information (taken from a compass), this data allows the navigator to create a detailed log of his ship's journey. While this seems like a very reliable method of navigation, there are some problems with dead reckoning that every navigator must consider. Most notably, the ship's instruments can only measure "airspeed"; that is, the airship's apparent speed through the atmosphere. Wind can greatly affect this; if the ship is flying into the wind, the wind's speed will be reflected in the airspeed gauge, which will indicate that the ship is travelling much faster than its position relative to the ground reflects. The opposite is true if the wind is at the ship's back, and so on. There is no reliable way to measure wind speed and direction from the deck of an airship in motion. A navigator or pilot must use their instincts, combined with information from the ground (such as a fluttering flag or rising smoke from a fire), to estimate the wind speed and adjust their airspeed readings accordingly. Dead reckoning requires a great deal more skill than geographical navigation, even under ideal conditions. Assuming the navigator has the proper tools for the job, dead reckoning requires hourly Wisdom (Piloting) skill checks (DC 15) to accurately track the course of the ship. As long as no two of these skill checks are failed consecutively, the ship remains somewhat on course, though it does travel a bit out of its way. For each failed roll, the navigator steers the ship 2d10% off course (see [[#Lost]] for more information about getting off course). ## Celestial Navigation Celestial navigation is the most accurate form of navigation available to airship crews. By comparing the position of stars or other celestial bodies to the horizon, a skilled navigator is able to determine his rough position on the map. This method requires a great deal of skill, however, and is only used by those airships that make extremely long journeys across areas where there are no stable landmarks. In this situation, celestial navigation is far safer than dead reckoning, because the sun and stars don't change position and a mistake during one day doesn't automatically affect all future navigation. During the day, celestial navigation relies on the use of the backstaff, a navigational aid consisting of a pair of jointed triangles. The larger of these triangles has a 60° arc, while the smaller has a 30° arc. By aligning the shadows cast by these triangles, the navigator is able to determine his relative latitude, using the sun as a reference point. Unlike sailors, who simply align the shadows with the horizon, aerial navigators must also account for differences in altitude, making the task a bit more challenging. One difficulty with celestial navigation is the inability to accurately determine longitude along with latitude. This makes it much simpler to chart a course along a north-south axis than it is to chart one along an east-west axis, which still requires dead reckoning and careful use of maps (as detailed above). In game terms, celestial navigation can be used to keep a ship on course with much greater accuracy, as long as the airship is traveling along a north-south axis. This requires only two Wisdom (Piloting) skill checks (DC 20) each day, only one of which must succeed to keep the airship on course. If one of the Wisdom (Piloting) skill checks fails, the airship drifts 1d10% off course, as detailed in the [[#Lost]] section. ## Combined Navigation It is very possible for a single airship journey to use all three of the above navigation methods at different times during a trip. For example, an airship might start out at a known port, head west along a mountain range for a day, then head north using celestial navigation. The navigator then checks his charts and directs the airship on another westerly course, tracking the progress with dead reckoning until the airship arrives at its destination. In these cases, it is simplest to handle navigation in full-day intervals where possible, using one type of navigation each day. If there are several changes in navigational style, however, it may be necessary to combine them all in a single day. To handle this, simply prorate the number of checks required by each navigational style. If the ship travels eight hours using geographical navigation, then the navigator must make two Piloting checks as determined by that style of navigation, for example. Always round up when determining the number of navigation checks needed – if, in the above example, the ship had travelled only six hours by geographical navigation, it would still require two Piloting checks, one for every four hours, or fraction thereof, during which geographical navigation was used. Note that a navigator still requires all of the proper equipment for each type of navigation – no backstaff means no celestial navigation, for example. ## The Distance to the Horizon One crucial application of flying technology is the creation of very detailed, very accurate maps. Some airship captains make a very good living doing nothing but ferrying cartographers from place to place, hovering while they make their maps. Using some fairly simple tools, cartographers are able to estimate the sizes of geographical features with a great deal of accuracy, resulting in maps the likes of which most medieval societies could only dream. The impact of this type of precise mapping on the world cannot be underestimated – sailors, merchants, and travellers of all types benefit immensely from accurate maps. **Table 5.1** provides information about the types of visibility available at different heights – as you can see, an airship is able to spy out a great deal of the local terrain even at a height of just 500 feet. The horizon is roughly 30 miles from the airship in every direction, or an area of approximately 2750 square miles. In contrast, the horizon for a person standing at sea level is only about 3 miles, giving them a view of a slice of their world roughly 28 square miles in area. As you can see, the benefits of aerial flight are enormous and allow for a much clearer picture of the world. Note that obstacles taller than the airship block line of sight, and certain weather conditions (haze and storms, for example) greatly limit what the navigator of an airship is able to see. ### Mapping from Altitude Mapping is normally a time-intensive process, if only because the cartographer is unable to get a clear picture of the terrain he is mapping. When the cartographer is a few hundred feet off the ground, this problem is eliminated, allowing maps to be drawn much more quickly. A cartographer on an airship can map out 200 square miles in an hour, provided he can see the entire area. This requires a successful Wisdom skill check (DC 15; add proficiency with Cartographer's Tools if applicable) and [[Cartographer's Tools]]. A failure does not indicate a botched map, but it does decrease the navigational bonus provided by the map. All [[map]]s provide a base +5 competence bonus to all Wisdom (Piloting) skill checks made by an airship navigator while using them. This assumes a map that details all the geographic features of the area and provides some small bits of information about local weather patterns. A map's bonus can be eroded by the failures of the cartographer who makes it, as determined by the following method. First, determine the total area covered by the map, in square miles. Divide this by 200 to determine the number of Wisdom crafting checks needed to create the map. If fewer than 10% of the required skill checks were failures, the map provides its full bonus. While it may have a few errors here and there, the map as a whole provides a decent overview of the area it is meant to portray, and is a boon to navigators. For every full 10% of the required skill checks that were failed, however, deduct 1 from the map's bonus. A mapmaker who fails 20% of his skill checks, for example, has created a map that provides only a +3 (5 - 2) competence bonus to Wisdom (Piloting) skill checks. It is possible, if a cartographer is particularly sloppy or incompetent (if 60% or more of the Wisdom craft checks were failed), for a map to provide a penalty instead of a bonus. A navigator who uses a bad map (that inflicts a penalty for its use) is allowed a Wisdom (Piloting) skill check (DC 15 + the magnitude of the map's penalty) to determine that the map is worthless for navigation. This check is allowed the second time the navigator makes a Wisdom (Piloting) skill check while using the map – if the check succeeds, the navigator is aware of the problem and may stop using the map. If the check fails, however, the navigator continues to trust the map, but is allowed additional checks to detect the problems with it after each further Wisdom (Piloting) skill check made using the map. ## Lost Whenever an airship becomes lost as a result of a failed navigational Piloting skill check, roll 1d10 or 2d10 as noted above under the type of navigation currently in use. This number, as a percentage, is the degree of error introduced during this leg of the journey. Simply add this percent of the total distance travelled during the time in which the check was failed to the total distance of the journey as a whole. For example, an airship traveling at 100 miles per hour is using celestial navigation and requires two checks each day to stay on course. If one of these checks fails, the airship drifts 1d10% off course during the first twelve-hour leg of the day's journey. The navigator rolls a 5 on his die, so he must add 5% of the 1,200-mile leg (or 60 miles) to the total distance required to complete the journey. If a navigator ever fails two Wisdom (Piloting) skill checks in a row, however, the airship becomes Lost. The DM should secretly roll a d6 to determine the direction the airship veered off its course – on a 1 to 3, it has travelled 45° off to port during the leg immediately following the second failed Wisdom (Piloting) skill check, while on a 4 to 6, it has travelled 45° off to starboard. When the navigator next makes a skill check for navigation, he suffers a -1 circumstance penalty to the Wisdom (Piloting) skill check for every 200 miles the airship has travelled off course. If the skill check fails, the navigator is still lost and the DM rolls a d6. On a 1 or 2, the airship turns another 45° off to port for the next leg's travel, on a 3 or 4, the airship continues straight ahead, and on a 5 or 6 the airship drifts to starboard during the next leg. The penalties for each of the Wisdom (Piloting) skill checks made are cumulative – if you travel 600 miles during the first leg during which you are lost and 400 miles during the second leg during which you are lost, the penalty for the next Wisdom (Piloting) skill check is -10. When the navigator succeeds at a skill check, he discovers the ship's position and may begin directing it back toward its proper destination. Those who travel by dead reckoning suffer a -10 circumstance penalty to all Wisdom (Piloting) skill checks made while attempting to get back to their course, while those who use celestial navigation have a -5 circumstance penalty to all such skill checks. Getting back on course simply requires moving the airship back to the course plotted by the navigator at the beginning of the journey. The airship may then resume normal navigation. Of course, distinct or famous landmarks may be able to show a navigator where he is without requiring a skill check. It is up to the DM to decide what is and isn't distinct. You may wish to allow players a Wisdom (Survival) check or something similar to spot certain features. Also, if there are settlements within sight, an airship can always land and ask for directions, assuming the natives are friendly. ## Hazards and Benefits of Weather Because airships have engines, they are less susceptible to the vagaries of the wind and the dangers of storms than sailing vessels. On the other hand, they are more likely to be blown off course by high winds and have great difficulty when attempting to fly into the wind. Without any surface to support them at all, the airships simply get pushed about and have a more difficult time maintaining their position in severe weather. The following sections contain information about various types of meteorological phenomena and how they can affect the flight of an airship. From rain to thermals, you will find enough information in the following pages to handle the majority of aerial weather situations. **Table 5.2—Random Wind Direction** | d8 | Wind direction (origin) | | :-: | ----------------------- | | 1 | north | | 2 | northeast | | 3 | east | | 4 | southeast | | 5 | south | | 6 | southwest | | 7 | west | | 8 | northwest | **Table 5.3—Random Wind Speed** | d100 | Wind speed | | :-----: | ------------------------ | | 01 – 20 | Light (0 – 10 mph) | | 21 – 60 | Moderate (11 – 20 mph) | | 61 – 80 | Strong (21 – 30 mph) | | 81 – 90 | Severe (31 – 50 mph) | | 91 – 97 | Windstorm (51 – 74 mph) | | 98 – 99 | Hurricane (75 – 175 mph) | | 100 | Tornado (175+ mph) | ### High Winds Wind is a real problem for aerial vessels, especially for smaller vessels without the mass and engine power to resist aerial tides. When flying into the wind, airships are slowed (and sometimes even stalled), preventing them from making much progress while still burning fuel. Winds that hit the airship from behind, on the other hand, can thrust the vessel forward at such a high rate of speed that the airship becomes virtually uncontrollable as it surges ahead. To determine the effects of wind on an airship, it is important to know just how strong the wind is and the direction it's blowing in relation to the airship. **Tables 5.2** and **5.3** allow random determination of wind speed and direction, but it is recommended that DMs determine the weather for a given day as best fits their campaigns. Note that winds are generally stronger in the air than on the ground. **Light:** The winds at this speed are virtually non-existent. Though occasional breezes waft across the airship, they have no ability to affect the flight path or speed of the vessel. Airship sailors would always fly in becalmed weather if given the choice, but they are rarely able to hold out for such ideal conditions. **Moderate:** These winds are strong enough to noticeably increase or decrease the speed of the ship and make navigation more difficult. When the airship is running before the winds, add half the wind's speed to the current speed of the airship. When running into the wind, deduct half the wind's speed from the current speed of the airship. If the wind is gusting in from the sides of the vessel, reduce the vessel's speed by a quarter as it fights against the wind to maintain its position. Round down each time. More importantly, turning into winds at this speed is considerably more difficult – pilots suffer a -2 circumstance penalty when turning into the wind and every turn made counts as two turns for purposes of manoeuvrability. When turning away from the wind, these penalties are not applied, and the airship need only use one of its turns when turning away from the wind. **Strong:** When the wind is up to these speeds, airships stand a very real risk of being blown off course, as their speed fluctuates with the speed of the wind. Any airship running before these winds adds half the wind's speed to its current speed, but the pilot suffers a -2 circumstance penalty when attempting any manoeuvre other than straight flight. When running into the wind, the pilot suffers the same penalty, and the speed of the vessel is reduced by half the current wind speed. Turning into the wind at this speed is very difficult. Pilots suffer a -4 circumstance penalty when attempting to turn into the wind and every turn made counts as two turns for purposes of manoeuvrability. While geographical navigation and celestial navigation are unaffected by these winds, dead reckoning suffers greatly as the speed of the airship is so drastically altered by the force of the winds. When an airship's navigator makes any dead reckoning Wisdom (Piloting) skill checks, he suffers a -2 circumstance penalty. In addition, whenever a ship is in strong winds, the pilot must make a successful Dexterity (Piloting) skill check (DC 15) every 10 minutes or the airship loses 50 feet of altitude. Gaining altitude in these winds is very difficult and requires a successful Dexterity (Piloting) skill check (DC 15 + 5 for every 50-foot altitude band of attempted rise during a single 5-minute time period). **Severe:** Flying in winds of this power is extremely dangerous, and very few airship captains risk the skies during weather of this magnitude. Those who do find the ship's speed reduced by half of the wind's speed when running into the wind, and increased by half the wind's speed when running before the wind. All Dexterity (Piloting) skill checks suffer a -4 circumstance penalty when running before the wind and a -6 circumstance penalty when running into the wind. While navigating in wind this strong, the pilot must make a Dexterity (Piloting) skill check (DC 15) every minute to keep the ship from getting turned sideways into the wind. Turning into winds of this strength is the equivalent of making three turns for the purposes of manoeuvrability and the pilot suffers a -10 circumstance penalty on any required Profession (Airship Pilot) skill checks while turning into the wind. Turning away from the wind is nearly as dangerous and requires the equivalent of two turns for manoeuvrability purposes. Navigators hate attempting to keep the airship on course during this weather – navigation rolls are required every half hour, regardless of the type of navigation being used, and all dead reckoning Wisdom (Piloting) skill checks suffer a -8 circumstance penalty. If a Navigation roll fails, the airship drifts double the normal distance off course as it is pushed ahead of the rogue winds. In addition, the pilot must make a successful Dexterity (Piloting) skill check (DC 20) every 10 minutes when the vessel is in severe winds or the airship loses 50 feet of altitude. Gaining altitude in these winds is very difficult and requires a successful Dexterity (Piloting) skill check (DC 15 + 5 for every altitude band of attempted rise during a single 5-minute time period). **Windstorm:** Windstorms are extremely dangerous for airships, and should not be attempted except in the direst of circumstances. Those mad enough to brave one find their ships speed reduced by one-half of the wind's speed when running into the wind, and increased by one-half the wind's speed when running before the wind. All Dexterity (Piloting) skill checks suffer a -6 circumstance penalty when running before the wind and a -8 circumstance penalty when running into the wind. If the wind is gusting in from either side of the airship, all Profession (Airship Pilot) skill checks suffer a -10 circumstance penalty as the pilot struggles to keep the ship from heeling over. Turning into winds of this strength is the equivalent of making four turns for the purposes of manoeuvrability and the pilot suffers a -12 circumstance penalty on any required Dexterity (Piloting) skill checks while turning into the wind. Turning away from the wind is nearly as dangerous and requires the equivalent of three turns for manoeuvrability purposes. Navigation is nearly impossible in a windstorm – navigation rolls are required every ten minutes, regardless of the type of navigation being used, and all dead reckoning Wisdom (Piloting) skill checks suffer a -10 circumstance penalty. If a navigation roll fails, the airship drifts triple the normal distance off course as it is pushed ahead of the rogue winds. In addition, the pilot must make a successful Dexterity (Piloting) skill check (DC 20) every 5 minutes when the vessel is in a storm or the airship loses 50 feet of altitude. Gaining altitude in a windstorm is very difficult, and requires a successful Dexterity (Piloting) skill check (DC 17 + 5 for every altitude band of attempted rise during a single 5 minute time period). **Hurricane:** Any airship caught in this kind of weather is in for a rough ride, and probably a severe crash. At this speed, the wind hurls objects with such force that any character on the deck of the ship suffers 1d6 Hit Points of damage each round as bits of debris strike them. The winds are so severe that no airship can possibly run into them – any attempts to do so stalls the airship in place. Running before the wind is horribly difficult as well, and there is a good chance that attempts to do so end in tragedy. Any pilot who attempts to run his ship before winds of this strength must make a successful Dexterity (Piloting) skill check (DC 25) every minute. If the skill check succeeds, the airship's speed is increased by one-half the speed of the winds behind it. If a check fails, however, the airship stalls. Turning into winds of this strength is impossible – the wind is so strong it simply cannot be done. Any attempt to do so is treated as if the ship were attempting to run into the wind and the airship immediately stalls. Turning away from the wind is nearly as dangerous and requires the equivalent of three turns for manoeuvrability purposes. In addition, the pilot must make a successful Dexterity (Piloting) skill check (DC 25) every 5 minutes the vessel is in these winds or the airship loses 1d4 × 50 feet of altitude. Gaining altitude in these winds is very difficult and requires a successful Dexterity (Piloting) skill check (DC 20 + 5 for every altitude band of attempted rise during a single 5-minute time period). **Tornado:** If caught in winds this severe, the airship is on its way to the ground. The airship immediately suffers 1d6 Hull Points of damage per 20 mph of wind speed and is considered [[#out of control]]. ### Thermals In hotter climes, columns of rising air can be a great boon to airship pilots who wish to gain altitude without the need to burn fuel. For airships equipped with [[#glider wings]], these thermals, as they are known, are even more important, and can allow a small airship to glide a great distance without the need to use any fuel at all. During combat, airships outfitted to utilise the thermals can quickly gain advantage over ships that are not, simply by riding the thermal above their enemies and attacking from their new vantage point. Thermals form when the sun, or another source, heats the ground and this heat is then transferred to the layer of air just above the ground. The warm air then rises above the surrounding cooler air until its temperature drops to equal that of the boundary layer of air surrounding the thermal. Thermals form most frequently over areas that absorb sunlight, such as ploughed fields, rocky areas, and hillsides facing the sun. Because dark surfaces absorb sunlight, and hence heat, thermals are more often found above dark geographical features than lighter surfaces which reflect the sunlight and do not warm as rapidly. Thermals may form when the wind is blowing, but are useless unless the wind is light. The action of the wind dissipates the heat too rapidly, preventing it from reaching the point at which the air rises on convection currents to create a thermal that can be used by airships. The one exception to this is over ridgelines and mountainous areas where the wind can push warmer air up along the face of the ridge or mountains to create a line of thermals that can stretch for dozens of miles along the edge of the geographical feature. While these thermals are very useful to ships equipped with gliders, they can also be very dangerous – see [[#Turbulence]] for more information. A thermal can range in size from a few hundred feet in diameter to a few thousand feet in diameter, though the largest are only achieved at very high altitudes. Because thermals increase in size and strength as they increase in altitude, use the following rule of thumb: A thermal is shaped like an inverted [[Shapes#Cone|Cone]] – its diameter at any point is the same as its height at that point. Thus, at 300 hundred feet off the ground, the thermal is also 300 feet in diameter; at 150 feet, it is 150 feet wide; and at 500 feet it is 500 feet wide. While simplistic, this rule of thumb makes it very easy to determine the size of a thermal at any altitude band. #### Using Thermals Any airship can make use of thermals, though those equipped with [[#glider wings]] are able to get much more benefit out of the rising air than can others. See [[#Chapter I Components of an Airship| Chapter 1]] for more information about glider wings and their uses. When an airship enters a thermal, it must first pass through an area of [[#turbulence]]. This turbulence grows stronger the larger the thermal is and is therefore much more dangerous at higher elevations than near the ground. To enter a thermal without losing control of his vessel, a pilot must make a successful Dexterity (Piloting) skill check (DC 15 + 1 per elevation band at which the pilot is entering the thermal). If this skill check fails, the airship is considered [[#out of control]]; if the check succeeds, however, the airship is able to enter the thermal without incident and immediately begins rising on the winds. The thermal has differing lift capacities at different heights, growing stronger as the thermal rises toward the cloud layer. The lift capacity of the thermal is equal to the altitude band at which the airship enters its area of effect. For the following section, keep in mind that each altitude band is 50 feet high. An airship that enters the thermal 300 feet off the ground is affected by a lift capacity of 6, while one that enters at 500 feet is affected by a lift capacity of 10. Once a thermal gets to 1000 feet (lift capacity 20) it reaches its maximum intensity, regardless of how high it may extend. An airship in a thermal rises in altitude each round a number of bands equal to the difference between the thermal's current lift capacity and the size category of the airship (with a minimum rise of 1 band). This sudden increase in altitude can work to the airship's advantage, but requires a steady hand on the wheel to keep the ship under control. Each round the airship remains in the thermal, its pilot must make a successful Dexterity (Piloting) skill check (DC 10 + the number of altitude bands the ship was lifted during the previous round). Note that the lift factor of a thermal increases as one moves upward, so the ship's ascent accelerates, and the DC to remain in the thermal increases each round. If the skill check succeeds, the pilot keeps the airship in position. If the check fails, however, the pilot must immediately begin moving the vessel out of the thermal, toward its edge. Leaving the thermal requires another successful Dexterity (Piloting) skill check (DC 10 + the current lift factors of the thermal), to weather the turbulence. This skill check is necessary regardless of whether the airship is forced to leave the thermal or leaves of its own accord. When the pilot of an airship that leaves the thermal fails his skill check, the ship still leaves the thermal but is caught in the turbulence sink surrounding the thermal. This forces the airship down a number of altitude bands equal to half the lifting capacity of the thermal at the altitude that the airship exits it. Remaining within a thermal can quickly move an airship upward, but it takes a bit of skill to keep from moving out of the thermal. The pilot must continually keep at least one half of his airship within the thermal or it is assumed to have moved out of the thermal (see above). The easiest way to keep the airship within the thermal is to simply fly in circles, allowing the thermal to carry the airship higher and higher. The pilot must still make a Dexterity (Piloting) skill check each round (as above) to keep the airship in control, but this method allows for a very fast rise inside the thermal. Spotting a thermal is generally easy – savvy pilots learn to look for birds soaring on the thermal winds with their wings cupped as the birds circle through the warmer air. Pilots should also keep an eye out for the danger of 'cloud suck' – a phenomenon that results from rising too far into the thermal. The air inside a thermal cools as it rises and eventually reaches equilibrium with the temperature of the air surrounding the thermal column. When this happens, a cumulus cloud sometimes appears when the risen air and its attendant moisture condenses after it cools. Pilots who ride thermals must keep an eye on this cloud layer, because entering it always leads to a wild, sometimes fatal, ride. The DM should determine the point at which the cloud layer occurs – this is normally somewhere between 5000 and 30 000 feet in altitude. If an airship enters this cloud, it is immediately buffeted by turbulence much more severe than is found in the air surrounding the thermal. Riding this turbulence out requires a Dexterity (Piloting) skill check (DC 25). If this check succeeds, the pilot maintains control over his vessel for one round and is free to pilot the ship as normal. If the check fails, however, the airship is considered to be out of control. Gaining maximum advantage from a thermal requires carefully staying on the edge of the thermal. Most pilots prefer to circle inside the thermal, carefully spiralling around inside the column of rising air while gaining altitude. ### Ridge Lift Similar in nature to a thermal, a ridge lift occurs when air sweeps in perpendicular to a ridgeline or mountain range. As the wind flows up toward the peak of the mountain or the top of the ridge, it provides a substantial amount of lift that savvy pilots can use to their advantage. While the ridge lifts are rarely as powerful as thermals, they are generally much larger and can go on for miles on end, providing a gentle lift to airships able to glide along the currents. The pilot of an airship entering a ridge lift does not need to make any Dexterity (Piloting) skill checks, provided he is entering the lift with the wind. Each minute the airship remains in the lift (during which time at least one half of the airship must be within the ridge lift), it rises one altitude band, regardless of whether or not the pilot attempts to increase altitude. The pilot must make a Dexterity (Piloting) skill check (DC 15) every minute to avoid crashing into the ridge or mountain creating the lift, but no other Dexterity (Piloting) checks are needed. An airship which brushes against the side of a mountain or ridge immediately suffers a reduction in speed of 1d4 × 10 mph and suffers 1d6 Hull Points of damage per 10 mph of reduced speed. If the airship's speed drops below zero, it is considered [[#out of control]]. While flying within a ridge lift alongside a mountain range, an airship burns only half the normal amount of fuel, and a quarter the normal amount of fuel if the airship has [[#glider wings]]. ### Wave Lift Forming on the leeward side of mountains (the side opposite from which the wind is originating), wave lifts result from air that falls back to ground level and then bounces back up again. This rising and falling of air can iterate through several cycles, creating a lengthy pattern that a clever pilot can use to glide for a long distance. Wave lifts, unlike ridge lifts and thermals, are very smooth and can allow an airship to glide for miles while steadily gaining altitude. Wave lifts run perpendicular to the ridge, moving away from it. The flatter the land beyond the mountain, the longer the wave lift pattern persists, often for a dozen or more miles. Riding a wave lift can allow a pilot to increase the speed of the airship, but requires some skill. When entering the wave lift, the pilot must make a Dexterity (Piloting) skill check (DC 15). If this check succeeds, the pilot is able to ride the wave lift for up to an hour, provided he does not turn more than 45° from the direction the wave lift is running and does not increase or decrease the airship's altitude. Over the course of the wave lift, the airship's altitude fluctuates, bobbing a few hundred feet above and below the height of the mountains from which the wave lift is generated. The speed of a wave is equal to 1d3 × 10 miles per hour. If a ship is riding the wave, add the wind speed to the airship's current speed. Pilots who are successfully riding a wave lift do not suffer the effects of high winds while their airship is within the lift – the gentle pressure of the lift pushes the ship ahead of it easily and without turbulence. Airships that enter a wave lift unsuccessfully, however, are affected by the high winds as normal. ### Turbulence Air patterns are unpredictable things. The currents in the upper atmosphere collide and roil like the bubbles in a cauldron of boiling water. From time to time, these bubbles coalesce into a phenomenon known as turbulence. Most turbulence cells are quite minor and do nothing more than shake up a crew and keep the pilot from dozing off at the wheel. Unpredictably, though, turbulence can reach dangerous levels that threaten to throw a ship onto its side or slam it down to earth – a phenomenon known as wind shear. Generally speaking, it is impossible for a pilot to predict the location or severity of turbulence. If the DM chooses to have a ship encounter more than normal turbulence, the pilot must react quickly to keep his airship from losing altitude quickly and sometimes fatally. Turbulence comes in three general categories: minor, noticeable, and dangerous. **Minor** turbulence requires no action on the part of the airship pilot – it's unpleasant to fly through because it causes the airship to buck and dip unpredictably, but it is no real cause for concern. If an airship is involved in combat, however, minor turbulence imposes a -1 circumstance penalty to all attack and damage rolls made by ranged weapons and to all Dexterity (Piloting) skill checks. **Noticeable** turbulence is a problem. There is a 10% chance each round of a sudden gain or drop in altitude that is large enough to cause some concern. When this happens, airship crewmen must make a Dexterity (Acrobatics) check (DC 12) to retain their feet. If an airship is in combat during a bout of noticeable turbulence, all attack and damage rolls made with ranged weapons suffer a -2 circumstance penalty, as do all Dexterity (Piloting) skill checks. **Dangerous** turbulence has the potential to wreck an airship. While flying in this type of weather, the pilot must make a Dexterity (Piloting) skill check (DC 20) every minute. If this skill check fails, the airship is affected by wind shear and immediately loses 1d3 altitude bands. This sudden drop in height forces all aboard to make a Dexterity (Acrobatics) check (DC 15) to retain their feet – if the pilot loses his feet, the airship is immediately considered to be [[#out of control]]. ### Storms The weather is the airman's friend and foe. When it is clear, with a strong breeze at his back, it moves him toward his port more quickly and provides him with beautiful vistas of the lands below. But when the storms roll in and rain begins to fall in thick, blinding sheets, weather threatens the crew of the airship at every turn. Rainstorms, coupled with the winds that often accompany them, can bring a real threat to even the mightiest of airships. Storms, like winds, come in several categories, from the relatively mild up to the devastatingly powerful. While **Table 5.4** provides information for randomly determining the strength of a given storm, this detail is generally left to the decision of the DM. A storm should be a real event for the airmen, a threat they can't defeat with swords, but must navigate with skill and experience. Fortunately for airships, most storms are easy to see, as the billowing thunderheads begin forming well in advance of the actual storm. Unfortunately, most storm cells are quite large and can be dozens of miles in diameter, so navigating around a storm could send an airship far off course. Therefore, while it is nearly always possible to avoid a brewing storm, there are many times when doing so is simply unfeasible. An airship flying by geographical navigation, for example, probably does not want to divert 30 miles to go around a storm; in these cases, the captain must sometimes make the unpopular decision to push ahead and brave the weather. **Table 6.4** presents all of the relevant information about a storm and its effects on an airship. The meanings of the table headings are explained below. **Table 6.4—Storm Strength Randomiser** | d100 roll | Storm strength | Piloting modifier | Navigation modifier | Damage | Lightning | | :-------: | --------------- | :---------------: | :-----------------: | :----: | :-------: | | 01 – 25 | Drizzle | -2 | -2 | — | 5% | | 26 – 50 | Gentle | -4 | -4 | — | 5% | | 51 – 70 | Shower | -6 | -5 | — | 10% | | 71 – 80 | Thunderstorm | -8 | -5 | 1d4 | 25% | | 81 – 90 | Downpour | -9 | -6 | 1d6 | 20% | | 91 – 100 | Torrential Rain | -10 | -6 | 1d8 | 20% | _**d100 roll:** If the DM decides to randomly determine the strength of a storm, simply roll 1d100 and compare the results to this column to find the storm's strength. Note that this table is only used if the DM decides upon a storm encounter._ _**Storm strength:** This is simply the general categorisation of the storm and can easily be replaced with any campaign-specific title you would like to use. Dwarves, for instance, often refer to Gentle storms as 'elf washers' while gnomes often call Thunderstorms 'potential energy'._ _**Piloting modifier:** As the storm kicks up, it begins to create problems of its own. Rain and the concussion of thunder is enough to rock even very large ships and the circumstance penalty listed in this column must be applied anytime the pilot makes a Dexterity (Piloting) skill check, no matter the reason. While an airship can normally weather a storm much better than a sailing vessel (which has the very real risk of being swamped), attempting to fly through a severe storm can have horrible consequences._ _**Navigation modifier:** Navigating in a thunderstorm is very difficult. Not only does the rain and flashing lightning make it nearly impossible to take accurate sightings of geographical features, but the clouds also block out most of the stars and other heavenly bodies used for celestial navigation. The penalty in this column is applied to all geographical navigation or dead reckoning navigation skill checks made while within the storm. This penalty is not applied to celestial navigation, however. Instead, celestial navigation is impossible while within a storm, as the sky simply cannot be seen with any clarity._ _**Damage:** The stresses a storm places upon an airship can cause damage each and every round the airship remains within the storm cell. During each round, an airship must make a Constitution save (DC 15) or suffer the damage listed in this column. Note that damage inflicted in this way is considered subdual damage for the ship in question and is mainly the result of soaked balloon envelopes, snapped lines, and other damage that can be repaired while the airship is in the air. The damage only begins healing after the airship leaves the storm cell, however. This damage can be repaired at the rate of 1d4 Hull Points per hour, as long as there are enough crew members aboard to still keep the ship flying._ _**Lightning:** Lightning poses a rare, but deadly, threat to airships. Though airships are rarely hit by natural lightning, if such a strike does occur, the results are never good. The percentage listed in this column is the hourly chance an airship within the storm cell is hit. If an airship is struck by lightning, it is allowed a Dexterity save (DC 15) for half damage. A lightning strike causes 10d6 Hull Points of damage to airships, plus an additional 3d6 Hit Points of damage to each creature on deck when the lightning strikes. The power of natural lightning is not to be underestimated._ _**Hail:** Rain can be a problem for airships, and thunderstorms are nothing for a captain to ignore. Hailstorms, on the other hand, can destroy airships as the icy chunks shatter masts, break through decks, and injure the crew. If the DM decides a storm generates hail (which can happen even in the height of summer if conditions are right), then the damage caused by the storm is double what is shown in Table 5.4. In addition, hail damage is real damage and cannot be repaired in flight as can the damage from standard storms. Hail occurs in roughly 10% of all storms of Thunderstorm strength or greater._ _Hail is also dangerous to the crew on deck. Every round a crewman is on deck during a hailstorm, he must make a successful Dexterity save (DC 15) or suffer half the damage the ship takes during the round. This damage is real Hit Point damage and is fully capable of killing crew members who do not take cover during the storm._ _**Wind:** Wind often accompanies storms and can add to already dangerous situations. The DM should determine the wind accompanying a storm and apply all modifiers. Any penalties or required skill checks necessitated by a storm stack and are applied in addition to any penalties or required skill checks brought on by rough winds._ ### Haze and Fog For pilots and navigators, visibility is crucial while flying. A navigator must be able to see the sky and geographical features if he is to instruct the pilot as to the proper course to follow, and a pilot who cannot see a looming mountain is a pilot who cannot avoid a deadly crash at high altitudes. There are two types of visibility problems that plague pilots and navigators: haze, which causes confusion about the orientation of the airship in relation to the ground, and fog, which simply restricts visibility to a fraction of its normal range. #### Haze Flying high above the earth affords a pilot exhilarating sights and breathtaking vistas, but it also creates a number of hazardous optical illusions that can bring his career to a sudden, shrieking, halt. Haze is the deadliest of these illusions and is normally only encountered over large bodies of water, such as great lakes, seas, or oceans. The optical illusion forms when the horizon line becomes indistinguishable and the pilot is no longer able to determine his ship's current relationship to the earth. In short, the pilot cannot tell where the sky ends and the ground (or water) begins, leading to dangerous flight miscalculations. In general, haze occurs during overcast days over large bodies of water and is a common phenomenon. Airship pilots experience haze roughly every 1d8 hours when flying over large bodies of water, and may encounter this optical illusion when flying over snowy terrain or other areas of monotonous colour that do not contrast against the sky. Recovering from haze requires a successful Wisdom (Piloting) skill check (DC 20) – note that this is a Wisdom check. If this skill check succeeds, the pilot is immediately aware of what is happening and gets his bearings without further mishap. If the pilot fails his skill check, however, the airship is in serious trouble. For every five minutes during which the pilot suffers from haze, the DM should roll on **Table 5.5**. Whenever an airship loses or gains more than a single altitude band (50 feet), the pilot is allowed another Wisdom (Piloting) skill check (DC 15) to determine what is happening. If this skill check succeeds, the pilot recovers his bearings and is not affected by the haze for another 1d8 hours. Ships that drop to zero altitude impact with the ground. For obvious reasons, pilots hate flying through haze and charge double their normal rate for any flight during which they must spend an extended (more than 4 hours) period of time flying through areas where haze is possible. **Table 5.5—Effects of Haze** | d20 roll | Result | | :------: | ------------------------------ | | 1 – 5 | No change in altitude | | 6 – 10 | Lose 1 altitude band (50 feet) | | 11 – 15 | Gain 1 altitude band (50 feet) | | 16 – 18 | Lose 1d3 altitude bands | | 19 – 20 | Gain 1d3 altitude bands | #### Fog While not as dangerous as haze, fog still poses a hazard to navigation and piloting. Fog is nothing more than moisture condensing out of the air and does little outside of obscuring the vision of those aboard the airship. Fog banks can be up to several miles in diameter, especially in areas where there is little wind and storms are frequent. The DM is the final arbiter of when and where fog occurs; these rules provide guidelines for the effect of fog, but not its occurrence. In general, fog forms in areas where moisture-laden air rises and cools, releasing droplets of water into the air and creating banks of fog. This occurs often near lakes or other bodies of water, and also in valleys or other sheltered locales. The less wind there is in an area, the longer banks of fog linger and the thicker they will be. Fog does not normally persist when the wind is blowing at more than 10 mph, and any winds above 20 mph automatically disperse all fog in the area. **Table 5.6** illustrates the different densities of fog and how they affect navigation and piloting of an airship. **Table 5.6—Effects of Fog** | Fog density | Piloting modifier | Navigation modifier | Visibility | Concealment | | ------------ | :---------------: | :-----------------: | :-------------: | :---------------------------------------------------------: | | Light | -2 | -2 | 1d10 × 10 yards | None | | Moderate | -3 | -4 | 1d10 ×10 feet | [[Cover and Perception#Lightly Obscured\|Lightly Obscured]] | | Heavy | -4 | -8 | 2d4 × 5 feet | [[Cover and Perception#Heavily Obscured\|Heavily Obscured]] | | Impenetrable | -5 | Impossible (-10) | 5 feet | [[Cover and Perception#Heavily Obscured\|Heavily Obscured]] | _**Fog Density:** These are general categorisations of fog and may be replaced by more campaign-specific titles._ **_Piloting modifier:** This is the circumstance modifier applied to any Dexterity (Piloting) skill check made while the pilot of the vessel is within the fog._ **_Navigation modifier:** These modifiers are applied to any Wisdom (Piloting) skill checks made while the navigator is within the fog. In impenetrable fog, only dead reckoning navigation is possible, and all these navigation skill checks suffer a -10 circumstance penalty._ **_Visibility:** As the fog swirls through the area, visibility can change from round to round. During each round, the DM should roll the appropriate dice to determine the maximum visibility range during that round. Creatures inside the fog can only see that far during that round, and all targets outside of that distance are considered invisible._ _Note that creatures outside of the fog bank, but looking into it, suffer the same visibility limits as those within the fog._ **_Concealment:** This is the amount of concealment the fog provides to those creatures visible to one another within the fog. Creatures beyond the maximum visibility for the round are treated as if they were [[Conditions#Invisible|Invisible]], and so receive total concealment._ ## Geographical Features The shape of the land is as important as the weather in the air. Dust devils of deserts and dry plains create turbulence strong enough to foul rigging and rip through sails. Ridge lifts billow up on the windward side of ridges and mountains, while wind shear pours down on the leeward side, threatening airships with a sudden drop in altitude. Pilots and navigators must keep an eye on the ground, as well as the sky, to avoid potentially fatal weather conditions caused by geography. ### Mountains A long line of mountains can create very powerful up and down-drafts, ranging from the relatively benign [[#ridge lift]] to the much more hazardous leeward shears, to stable and easy to ride [[#wave lift]]s. Whenever moderate or stronger wind blows into a mountain, it always creates a ridge lift along the face of the mountains. This lift allows pilots to cruise along the edges of mountains, often staying aloft for hundreds of miles based on the strength of the lift alone. ### Deserts While deserts certainly heat the air above them, [[#thermals]] only rarely form over the desert. When they do form, they bring with them the threat of one of the desert's greatest threats – the sandstorm. In essence, the sandstorm is a thermal that forms in the desert and is strong enough to pick up sand and fling it around. While those who are on the ground often perish in a sandstorm (every minute spent exposed in the sandstorm requires a Constitution save at DC 20 – if the save is failed, the target suffers 1d4 points of Constitution damage), those in the air have a much better chance of survival. An airship in a sandstorm suffers 1 Hull Point of damage every round per category of the wind speed. This damage is also inflicted upon any crewman on the deck in Hit Point damage. Few sailors wish to repeat their sandstorm experiences, and professional airmen regard airships that are known to travel across deserts as unlucky. In addition to the damage caused by a sandstorm, the pilot must contend with the winds themselves. The lack of visibility further exacerbates the difficulties of the wind, and all Dexterity (Piloting) skill checks made to pilot or navigate in a sandstorm suffer a -1 circumstance penalty for every 10 mph of the wind's speed. Sandstorms normally have wind speeds between strong and windstorm, though a few reach into the higher categories, and a handful of storms actually come about due to strange circumstances at very low wind speeds. ### Oceans and Seas While seas are often traversed, airships almost never fly over an ocean. The difficulties inherent in keeping enough fuel aboard to keep the engines stoked is one issue, but a more significant difficulty lies in the severe weather that plagues the oceans of the world. Storms spring up without warning and the winds quickly rise to unmanageable levels. Even worse, there are no landing areas unless the ship is specifically built for water travel, and an airship forced into the ocean is certain to be in a great deal of trouble since they are rarely equipped for true naval operation. It can be difficult to find airship crews who agree to regularly travel over large bodies of open water. Many airmen are superstitious enough about water that they even prefer to fly around large lakes. ### Glaciers Flying over a glacier isn't much fun for airmen. The cold weather and great possibility of hail and high winds makes glacier flights loathed almost as much as ocean flights. There are no thermals to be found over a glacier, but plenty of [[#turbulence]], as any air that heats up is constantly churned and cooled by the low surface temperatures. ### Swamps Flying over a swamp is not something that gives most airmen much pause. The air above a swamp tends to be still and warm, giving rise to impressive [[#thermals]] that swirl around the swamp area for hours at a time. While a crash landing in a swamp is unpleasant, airmen do not equate these semiaquatic touch downs with the same dread as they do with splashing down in the ocean. # Chapter VI: Aerial Equipment Airmen do not spend most of their time fighting, but must always be ready to work, and therefore have a great need for their own types of equipment. This chapter contains information on the many different types of specialised pieces of equipment used by airship crewmen. The tools found here are those most commonly utilised by the crew of an airship. While most of these items are utilitarian in nature, many adventurers may find them quite useful in their more dramatic escapades. ### Airman's Harness _5 lbs, 50 GP_ This simple leather harness fits snugly across the torso of an airman and is fastened around his arms and legs as well. The harness is studded with rings that are used for securing safety lines. The harness is normally worn by airmen who work on the balloon of an airship, allowing them to walk along the outer envelope without worrying about plummeting to their dooms. The harness does restrict movement somewhat, reducing the Speed of the airman wearing it by 5 feet, as he has to carefully manoeuvre his safety lines around the ropes while still keeping it attached to his harness. The harness provides a +10 circumstance bonus to any Dexterity (Acrobatics) checks made while moving along the elevated portions of the ship. If, despite this bonus, the airman still falls, the safety line stops his fall after a mere 5-foot drop. Airmen also wear harnesses during heavy weather, when they might unexpectedly find themselves face-down on the deck. Any airman wearing a harness may automatically regain his feet during the next round by using all their movement speed to do so, as long as that harness is attached to a safety line. A harnessed airman also cannot fall to his death if knocked out of the ship. Virtually all airships have safety lines running the length of the ship's deck along their edges, along with other safety lines that can be hooked to a harness from a capstan or winch on the main deck – these ropes have a 20-foot reach and are only used during combat or the most severe weather. ### Airman Wings _2 lbs, 500 GP_ For military airships, it is not sufficient to harness a soldier to a safety line and keep him secure aboard his airship. When boarding actions are needed, it is necessary to move soldiers from the safety of their own airship, across the open air, and onto the deck of the enemy. This can be very dangerous and, should a gangplank fall or a boarding ramp be destroyed, might end the lives of dozens of soldiers. This problem has been alleviated, to some extent, by the invention of airman wings. These extremely light wings are actually flaps of woven silk that are strung between the wrists and ankles of the airmen who wear them. While they are useless on the ground, they provide a perfect means for gliding men from one location to another, provided they don't have to cover a great distance. For every 10 feet a soldier wearing these wings moves through the air, he also descends by 5 feet. Gliding soldiers have a [[Travel and Movement#Fly Speed|Fly Speed]] of 50 feet per round and must use all of that movement each round as they glide through the air, but are treated as if they were flying creatures with average manoeuvrability. Note that anyone wearing these wings may take no other actions during the round save staying aloft and steering the wings – a character may not attack or undertake any other equivalent action while airborne. ### Cling Hooks _2 lbs, 75 GP_ Originally pioneered by rogues for use during jobs that require hanging around for extended periods or a considerable amount of climbing, cling hooks attach to the knees and elbows of the user with several leather straps. While in place, the straps slow [[Travel and Movement#Climbing|Climbing]] movement by one-half, but provide a +20 circumstance bonus to any Strength (Athletics) skill checks to climb up a wooden surface. By digging the blades into the wood (or any similar surface, as judged by the DM), the wearer is able to slowly crawl up the sides of an airship. By reducing movement speed to a mere 5 feet per round, the wearer can even crawl across the bottom of an airship (Athletics DC 30). If the wearer chooses, he can also cling to the side of the airship or similar structure by digging the blades in and simply relaxing. The wearer can hang indefinitely like this, though the DM may require a Strength saving throw if the airship begins taking extreme manoeuvres or is moving at more than 60 mph. ### Drop Line Gear _1 lb, 100 GP_ Used with the [[#Airman's Harness]], Drop Line Gears are simple tools designed to allow an airman or soldier to quickly and safely slide down a drop line. The gear is actually a set of grooved wheels through which the drop line is threaded. These wheels allow the airman to descend at rates of 50 feet to 5 feet per round and are encased in a steel housing. The housing itself is then attached to the rings of the Airman's Harness, allowing the wearer to descend the drop-line without using his hands at all, if he so chooses. The gear can also be locked into place, holding the airman at a certain position along the drop line. During normal use, the Drop Line Gear can support up to 500 pounds in weight. It can only support 300 pounds if the weight is parked at a specific point on the drop line for more than a round, however. After that time, the Gear's safety kicks in and releases the brake, safely lowering the wearer at 5 feet per round. ### Portable Auger _10 lbs, 65 GP_ Commandos sometimes need to knock a hole in the side of an airship without using explosives. The portable auger is a simple solution. This drill has a hollow circle bit on it, and the hole it creates is roughly 2 feet across (large enough for a Medium-sized creature to squeeze through, though those in Heavy armour do not fit in most cases). The auger uses a complex system of gears to increase the power generated through the hand crank, allowing a single user of average strength to quickly burrow through the side of an airship. It takes five minutes to drill through wood that is three inches thick, which is roughly the thickness of the side of a wooden airship. This time is decreased by 5 rounds × the user's Strength modifier, or increased appropriately if the modifier is negative. Strength modifiers above +10 do not offer any additional decreases in time. For each additional inch of thickness of the wood being drilled through, time is increased by one minute. The user needs a firm hold on the side of the ship in order for the drill to work, [[#Cling Hooks]] usually being sufficient. ### Signal Plume _15 GP, no weight_ Few things are more frightening than getting knocked overboard while serving on an airship. Even if one manages to land safely somehow, after a heated battle your airship might drift off without you. The signal plume is a self-igniting bundle of powder that, when broken open, creates a brilliant red cloud of smoke. This smoke is not thick (it does not obscure vision) but can automatically be seen by any airship within 500 yards of your present location, and provides a +4 circumstance bonus to any attempts to spot you at greater distances. Officers always wear Signal Plumes, and most crewmen save their silver pieces up to purchase one. ### Signalling Mirrors _2 lbs, 200 GP_ Used to communicate between airships, Signalling Mirrors use a set of rotating louvres to start and stop reflecting light. The length of bursts of reflected sunlight and the spaces between these bursts is a crude code used to convey different signals between two points. When the sky is not overcast and the sun is above the horizon and visible from the Signalling Mirror's location, the mirror can be seen up to 5 miles distant. When the sky is overcast, or during the dawn and dusk hours, this distance is reduced to roughly a mile. It requires a full-round action to transmit a message of up to 20 words, and receiving a message takes a full-round action as well. Learning the code for the Signalling Mirrors is just like learning a language, and a new language must be taken for each different code you wish to learn. Those who know how to use the Signalling Mirrors can almost always get a job aboard an airship, especially working for mercenary units, which make frequent use of Signalling Mirrors to coordinate their actions. ### Spring Quiver _2 lbs, 150 GP_ Designed by a veteran archer after his first trip out on a combat airship, the Spring Quiver looks like a large, leather tube with a pair of wooden disks capping its ends. A thin flap of treated leather covers a small hole in the bottom disk of the tube, keeping water or other fluids from entering the [[quiver]], while allowing arrows to slide out when the disk is rotated by the tip of the wearer's finger. No matter how the quiver is turned or tossed, or whether the wearer is upright or upside down, no arrows fall out and, with a simple twist of his arm to the bottom of the quiver, the archer can retrieve an arrow just as quickly and easily as with a standard quiver. The Spring Quiver can hold 20 [[Arrow|Arrows]], and takes one minute to preload. ### Tool Tether _1 lb, 50 GP_ These lengths of lightweight chain are designed to prevent tools from flying overboard if an airman loses his balance or his grip on an item in his hand. The tether is a small spool, upon which five lightweight chains are wound. Each chain is from five to seven feet long, allowing it to stretch across the user's body easily, without restricting his movements. A tool or weapon is attached to the end of each of these tethers, preventing it from falling away if the airman drops it. No tool attached to a tether can weigh more than five pounds. In lieu of their movement for the turn, the airman can use a small crank on the side of the Tool Tether to wind up all the chains on the spool, bringing all the tools up to the spool where they can be easily grabbed. A simple locking mechanism keeps the spool from unwinding, and the chains can be locked down all together or individually, allowing the airman to pull out the one tool he needs while keeping the others secure on his belt. Most airmen carry a Tool Tether on each belt and would not go on duty without their tethers to keep their tools safe. The Tool Tether may also be used as a [[Whip]] (without the Reach property, though it still operates the same as a Whip otherwise), provided the wielder has the proper weapon proficiency. # Chapter VII: Aerial Trade Airships are expensive, which guarantees they'll begin plying the trade routes as soon as they enter the air. With the ability to travel very quickly, often circumventing dangerous creatures or treacherous terrain, an airship merchant can bridge the gap between two communities in a matter of hours, rather than days. This gives him the opportunity to reap great rewards even on simple ventures. Imagine how much, for example, alchemists would pay for a steady supply of rare chemical components, or local inns would cough up for a selection of fine wines and ales from a distant community of famed vintners and brewers. When one looks further afield, the potential for profit becomes even greater. Travelling for days, rather than hours, allows a capable pilot to steer his airship potentially thousands of miles. This allows for the import of goods that local merchants have never before seen, and increases the possibility of finding something (such as gold) that is very rare in one area but common in an isolated or distant area. Imagine if the Spanish had been able to travel to and from the New World in days instead of weeks, and quickly load their airships with as much as gold as they could carry. The same opportunity exists for airship captains, who may find themselves wealthy beyond their wildest imaginings if they play their cards right. For the aerial trader, then, there are several important factors to consider. First, one must find a market for one's goods. If this market is one's home port, things are greatly simplified, but often greater profit can be made by opening a new market. Though opening a market might be as simple as lowering the rope ladder from an airship and showing your wares to the locals, clever DMs should construct elaborate adventures around these endeavours. After all, when a group of heavily armed, nasty-looking fellows land their airship in your village, it's a time-honoured tradition to ask them to please head out and slay some local beast that has been terrorising the area. Once a market is secured, the trader then needs something to trade. Although in some cases, these two steps may be reversed. Whatever the case, a trader needs a significant supply of goods if he wishes to make any sort of steady income and keep his customers happy. Most traders do their best to diversify their offerings, bringing several types of items to market, rather than focusing on a single commodity. This helps mitigate the potential for catastrophic loss when you find out, for example, that the locals no longer like the red leather you have been providing to them and would prefer purple leather for their crafting needs. The path between where a trader acquires his goods and where he brings them to market is known as a trade route. Most trade routes are zealously guarded by the merchants who have founded them, often with deadly force. Since discovering new trade routes is one of the riskiest parts of the aerial trading business, those merchants who have mapped out their courses go to great pains to keep them secure from anyone who might be horning in on their business. Though alliances are sometimes formed between different merchant companies or airship captains to forestall conflicts over competition and to prevent unnecessary bloodshed, violence and acrimony are more common in this business. With the stakes in the airship industry as high as they get, captains are willing to kill (or worse) to keep their trade routes secure. This brings a would-be trader to his next concern. In addition to needing a competent crew for the airship, he needs guards for the cargo. Guards can be hired for a silver piece or two per day, and are necessary not only to deter pirates from attempting to board and scuttle the airship, but also to keep the airship crew from getting ideas about mutiny and making themselves rich. While the [[#master-at-arms]] is often placed in charge of mercenary guards aboard the airship, this is not always the case, particularly on airships whose captains have reason to doubt the loyalty and trustworthiness of their crews. Even with all of these elements in place, a smart airship captain must always be investigating new trade routes and working out plans for new ways to increase his profit and reduce his risk. Most airship captains, for example, allocate a little extra fuel for each journey, allowing them to travel a bit out of their way in the hopes of finding a new market or source of goods. Yearly expeditions in search of markets or commodities are also common practices, and offer a DM the additional advantage of a ready-made introduction to new and exotic areas of his campaign setting. As an airship merchant learns his markets, he also learns how to predict their needs and wants, and may be able to find something new he can begin importing to guard against changing public opinion. Wise captains supplement their high-profit, exotic items with staples, for which there is always at least some demand and chance of returning a profit. The following sections provide detailed information for all of the above factors as well as other necessary rules and systems for running an aerial trade route in a standard d20 campaign. ## The Market A city's value as a trade market is based, in part, on its size, its wealth, and the availability of trade goods in the area. If a city can meet all of its needs by commerce with nearby areas, it is hardly a good investment as a market because the competition is fierce and local competitors do not have to pay the exorbitant upkeep on an airship. A market's value to an air trader is judged by the following attributes: 1. **Size:** Everyone living in a city is a potential customer, so larger cities tend to be targeted by merchants before smaller villages. 2. **Needs:** Towns have several needs, ranging from the simple necessities such as food and drink to the need for alchemical components, certain botanicals, or other, more exotic goods. Each of these needs is rated from 1 to 10 – the higher the town's need for an item, the more its people are willing to pay for it. 3. **Commerce:** Towns with a high commerce rating receive a great number of goods from other areas and have no difficulty meeting their own needs. Commerce actually counteracts the needs of a town, to a certain extent, as they are already being taken care of by the natural flow of trade through the town. 4. **Salesmanship:** A merchant's skill is also important when determining the value of a market. While a skilful salesman might be able to turn a poor market into a good one, a particularly incompetent spokesman can also do the opposite, transforming a city hungry for exotic goods into a closed market. **Table 7.1—Market Size** | Population | Purchasing Power | \# of needs | Surplus Categories | | ----------------- | :--------------: | :---------: | :----------------: | | Up to 100 | 2 GP per person | 1d3/1 | 1d3/1 | | Up to 500 | 2 GP per person | 1d4/1 | 1d3/1 | | Up to 1000 | 3 GP per person | 1d6/2 | 1d6/2 | | Up to 5000 | 4 GP per person | 2d3/2 | 1d8/2 | | Up to 10 000 | 5 GP per person | 1d8/2 | 2d4/2 | | Up to 30 000 | 10 GP per person | 2d4/3 | 2d4/3 | | Up to 50 000 | 15 GP per person | 2d4/3 | 2d6/5 | | additional 20 000 | +2 GP per person | +1 | +1/+1 | _**Population:** The number of able-bodied adults in the market who are gainfully employed or have enough wealth to make discretionary purchases for themselves or their family._ _**Purchasing Power:** This is the amount, in gold pieces, that each member of the town's population has available for spending each month, on average. Note that this does not mean that every peasant in a city of 50 000 has 6 GP to spend on himself each month. This represents the average distribution of wealth in the city, not the actual per-person financial standing. Note that commerce requires resources; a town full of poor people isn't going to be able to provide much in the way of trade. DMs should bump a town up or down on this chart if it is particularly impoverished or wealthy._ _**\# of Needs:** This column indicates how many needs a market has and the average size of those needs. Note that the numerical rating of the size of a need varies based on the type of need – if the need is normally purchased or sold in pounds, for example, this number indicates how many pounds the town is looking to buy, and if the item is normally moved in tons, this indicates the number of tons. This number may also represent barrels, bushels, or so on, depending on the material. A market's needs are normally refreshed every month – that is, the number of needs is rerolled and the full number of units of goods are again needed._ _**Surplus Categories:** This column shows how many extra categories of goods the market produces every month and the size of the categories that are produced. As with the # of Needs column, the indication of size is expressed based on how the need is normally bought and sold. Note that the DM is responsible for determining what categories each town needs, and which categories of goods the town has in surplus. The wise trader searches out towns with surpluses and then matches the items he can purchase in those markets with the needs of other markets._ The topics below detail how each of these factors interact with one another to determine the overall value of a market to a particular merchant. It is important to point out that this system does not pretend to be an economic model, but is merely a simple means for the DM and players to work out the benefits and risks of trade in their campaign. If the DM uses this system to measure the markets of the towns in his campaign, it is then relatively easy for the characters to begin buying, shipping, and selling goods. Tips for expanding several sections of the system are provided in the appropriate places, allowing it to grow with the needs of the campaign. ### Market Size and Needs Towns vary in size quite a bit, from tiny burghs of 20 people to thriving urban centres packed with tens of thousands of citizens, at least some of whom make valid targets for sales. The size of the town determines the number of needs it has, but not how severe those needs are, which is a function of the wealth in the town and its commerce rating. In general, all cities have a need for the following: **Staples:** All towns need food and drink, whether they need anything else or not. **Basic Supplies:** Things like wagon wheels, ropes, and shoes never go out of style, no matter how big the town or how poor the populace. **Medical Supplies:** Items as simple as a few bandages or basic surgical instruments can work wonders, and areas that are knowledgeable in the healing arts pay well for the tools and medicines needed to keep their people healthy. **Weapons, Simple:** In a world where monsters can appear on the doorstep at any time, and even many wild prey animals are much more vicious than they seem on the surface, weapons are needed everywhere. Farmers need bows to keep wolves off their land, while hunters need bows and spears to help them bring down the deer, elk, or other creatures from which they make their living. Other needs vary from town to town and should be determined by the DM (or by using **Table 7.1**) as fits the campaign and the nature of a city. Where possible, the DM should do his best to ensure the needs of a town make some sort of sense (see [[#Trade Goods]]) and are in keeping with the campaign information the players already know. A warlike border fortress, for example, is probably a good spot for delivering food, weapons, and artefacts, but may not be the best destination for musical instruments or perfume. ### Commerce While matching surpluses to needs is an admirable plan, and the one most likely to end in success, most traders find themselves competing with other merchants and traders. Every town should be assigned a Commerce rating by the DM that measures how much established trade flows through it. This rating runs from 1 to 20 and functions to decrease the amount of goods a market needs and generates. The Commerce rating reduces the needs and surpluses in the market in the following order: number of needs, number of surpluses, size of one need, and size of one surplus. Each point in the rating reduces one of the above numbers by one (one point at a time and in order). If the market's Commerce rating is higher than the total of its needs, surpluses, and the sizes of both, it is completely saturated with traders and is unable to sustain any further commerce. These markets are very rare, however, and more typical markets have a Commerce rating of somewhere between 5 and 7. > [!abstract] The Value of Distance > Because areas that are geographically isolated from one another often develop foods and other trade goods quite different from one another, distance can provide a bonus to airship traders, at the discretion of the DM. If this system is used, the trader gains a +1 circumstance bonus for every 500 miles separating the market in which he purchased an item and the market in which he is trying to sell it. This bonus applies to all Charisma (Persuasion) skill checks made for the purpose of selling goods from a far-off land. ### Salesmanship The basic tenet by which all traders live, buying low and selling high, is the only way to make money. This means finding one market or area from which trade goods can be purchased at a reasonable price and then another market where the same goods can be sold for an exorbitant fee. This is normally accomplished by buying goods that are basic in one area and then travelling to an area in which those same goods are rare, or even exotic, to sell them. While this may seem like a something-for-nothing proposition to many DMs, keep in mind that the travel between two locations is where your adventures occur. Just by getting your players to move from one area to another, you are opening the doors to adventures in new areas and interactions with different NPCs. As an adventure generator, the trading business works very well. #### Buying Low Once markets are identified and the trade goods available in the markets are determined, it's time for the prospective trader to get down to business. Purchasing goods is a relatively straightforward affair. The trader first states the category of goods he is searching for and then the DM decides whether that category of goods is available in the current market, either randomly or by choice. It normally takes a trader but a few hours to find out what is available for sale in the town. The trader then makes an Intelligence (Investigation) skill check (DC 10) to determine the local market value of the item. This check normally requires a couple of hours as the trader wanders around the bazaar and merchant's quarter to examine what others are buying and selling. While the trader could forgo this step, doing so prevents him from getting an accurate gauge of the value of certain goods in this market, imposing a -4 penalty to any Charisma (Persuasion) skill checks made to purchase goods in the town. The trader then meets with the seller of the goods he wishes to purchase and the two engage in an opposed Charisma (Persuasion) skill check. The winner of the skill check comes out on the better end of the deal – if the trader wins, the goods are reduced in price by their variance plus 1% per point by which he beat the opposing merchant (though this may never reduce the price to less than 50%), but if he loses, the goods increase in price by their variance +1% per point by which the trader was beaten by the merchant (though this may never increase the price by more than 50%). This can be a cutthroat business, and any trader who isn't prepared to lose his shirt shouldn't be in it at all. Skilful traders make their fortunes from the misfortunes of the less skilled, and the best trader can radically alter the price of goods by his salesmanship alone. Generally, a trader can purchase all of the surplus in one category from a market with a single negotiation, but some DMs may prefer to spread the wealth a bit, forcing the traders to move around the city (potentially getting involved in all manner of adventures) to deal with many merchants in order to fill the hold of their airship. #### Selling High When the trader is ready to sell his goods, he sails his airship to the next market and sets down to unload his wares. An Intelligence (Investigation) check (DC 10) determines the types of goods that are sought after in the town, as well as the average price of those goods at the moment. If the trader has any of the goods that are currently sought after, he may negotiate with a local merchant to sell them. This is handled with a Charisma (Persuasion) skill contest. If the trader wins, he is able to unload the goods at a favourable price equal to its market value plus its variance plus the amount by which he beat the merchant. If he loses, however, the value of the goods is only equal to its market value minus its variance minus the amount by which the trader lost the opposed skill check. While the trader does not have to sell his goods to the merchant to whom he lost the check, he suffers a cumulative -2 circumstance penalty when attempting to sell the same goods to another merchant in the same market. Word gets around, and other traders do their best to take advantage of a trader down on his luck. A single merchant can buy enough goods to fill the market's needs for the particular category of the negotiation. This is limited by the purchasing power of the market, however, as no market buys more trade goods than allowed by its size and wealth. Once a trader has sold off the goods in the cargo hold of his airship, he's ready to start the process all over again, travelling to another market to buy up some cheap goods to ship off to another community. ## Trade Goods People want and need a great many things, and cities are no different. This section provides information about several general classes of trade goods and their values, as well as the needs to which those trade goods are applicable. Note that the categories provided below are very broad and comprise a great many individual items. Example items are presented for each category of trade good, but do not feel restricted only to those mentioned. Rice can be a simple substitute for many other types of grain, for instance, while rubies could take the place of diamonds. What is important is not an accurate accounting of every type of item aboard a merchant airship, but general information about the types of goods on the airship and their overall value. ### Trade Good Categories Descriptions This section explains what sorts of items are in each of the trade good categories. The categories should serve as a handy starting point for a trading campaign. While the DM is the ultimate arbiter of which items fall into which categories, allowing players to do some of the categorisation work can be a boon – all those involved in the trading business should work together to determine a list of goods and the categories to which they belong. Similarly, be sure to add categories native to your campaign to this list, personalising it for your game. **Alcohol:** Including everything from ale to rotgut whisky to the finest liqueurs, this category is a steady and reasonably profitable seller. While most taverns sell local brews, imports tend to catch on quickly, and drinking is one hobby of fantasy worlds that doesn't ever seem to die down. **Armour, Light:** Light armours made from leather and other natural materials is very common in small villages threatened by bandits, and amongst irregular troops stationed in frontier areas. Barbarian tribes, especially, pay well for expertly crafted suits of light armour. **Armour, Medium:** Most of this armour is sold to mercenaries and other military organisations without a government or other backer to keep them supplied with armour. **Armour, Heavy:** Almost always sold to very wealthy mercenary units or elite military units, sales of heavy armour can be very high during times of war. Unfortunately, the armour's durability and the care taken in maintaining it generally means there are few repeat customers. **Beverages:** This category includes all non-alcoholic beverages, particularly those made from fruit juices. While beverages are not necessary for survival, most cities provide a reliable (if not terribly profitable) market for such items. **Cloth, Common:** Any material worn by the common folk of the area falls into this category. Linen and cotton are the best examples, but this category could also include silk or other materials based on how common they are in a given market area. **Cloth, Rare:** Rare cloths can be produced in the market area, but are quite expensive or difficult to obtain. Silk usually falls into this category, as does velvet and other fine materials typically reserved for nobility. **Cloth, Exotic:** These materials cannot be found in the market area at any price and are generally rare, even in the markets where they originate. Spider silk rendered useful for clothing falls into this category, as do cloth-of-gold and other extremely costly materials. **Construction Materials:** Items such as wood and plaster are used just about everywhere cities are constructed, and even good quality stone can find a market in places. These materials are available locally, but perhaps not in the quantities needed or not in ready-to-use format (trees instead of planks or beams, for example). **Gems, Ornamental:** These gems tend to have relatively low values, and include such stones as agates, bloodstones, carnelians, and sard. **Gems, Semiprecious:** Ranging from amber to aquamarines, these gemstones are used quite often in jewellery, and are highly sought after by jewellers and other craftsmen. Because they are often difficult to obtain in bulk, merchants can make a good profit from these items, though the risks (as with precious metals) can be great. **Gems, Precious:** Jewels in this category are the flashy, well-known types seen in exquisite ornamentation and priceless jewellery. Diamonds, rubies, emeralds, and jacinths all fit into this category, which is one of the most dangerous to transport. Pirates pay very well for information about shipments of precious gems and spare no expense in taking airships known to transport such high-value items. **Meats, Rare:** Of better quality and perhaps from different creatures than the meat found in staple foods, rare meats include fine steaks as well as the flesh of game animals not native to the market area. Ostrich meat, for example, is rare in most of the modern United States, and a fine porterhouse steak aged to perfection costs enough to qualify for this category, as well. **Metals, Common:** Iron, bronze, lead, and other metals that are used for common ornamentation and the creation of tools are found in this category. Most common metals are available in any given area, though perhaps not in the same quantity or purity as imported metals. **Metals, Refined:** Metals such as silver, steel, and electrum fall into this category. Most of these metals are used by the common people in both jewellery and tools, and are familiar to most smiths in the area. **Metals, Precious:** Gold, platinum, palladium, and other metals that are either very rare or particularly valuable fit into this category. While a great deal of profit can be made in the precious metals business, the risks of piracy, crew theft, and general larceny are grave enough that most airship captains do not traffic in these metals. **Scribing Materials:** This includes inks, pens, and various types of parchment, paper, or vellum. While the demand for these supplies in rural or frontier areas is virtually nonexistent, large, lawful cities burn through reams of paper and gallons of ink each day as the laws, mercantile transactions, and legal proceedings are recorded by dutiful scribes. **Spices, Common:** Any spice available in the market area and used in day-to-day cooking falls into this category. This is a category that changes rapidly based on location – the chilies that are so common in the south are definitely more prized in the north, where they are most likely considered rare, or even exotic. **Spices, Rare:** These spices are available in the market area, but only in limited quantities. These food additives are prized by chefs for the wealthy and are one good way to turn a quick profit in a market. **Spices, Exotic:** These spices do not grow within 1,000 miles of the market and are not typically used in the area. While the demand for these spices is not high (given the lack of familiarity local chefs have with them and their uses), they do fetch a hefty price from those who do purchase them. **Staple Foods:** Grains, vegetables, and meat are the staples of life in most areas and no market can long go without them. Grains such as wheat and corn, and produce such as beans and turnips are by far the most common staple foods, but areas with domesticated livestock or plentiful game may be used to meat on their plates every day. Staple foods are not a big seller (except for in times of drought, famine, or war), but they are reliable. This category also includes potable water, but not other types of drink. **Supplies, Basic:** Ropes, simple farm implements (such as hoes), and basic crafted items (such as wagon wheels) compose this category. The majority of items in this category can be found locally, so a merchant needs to have a cheap source if he wishes to compete with the community's producers. **Supplies, Rare:** Rare supplies are either those requiring a great deal of expertise to create (such as silk rope or glass) or that are not produced locally. This category also includes items such as chemist's fire and thunderstones, which are available in many cities but require expertise to create. **Supplies, Exotic:** These supplies are not only made of materials that are rare or difficult to manufacture, they also require a great deal of expertise and skill to create. This includes things such as mirrors or lenses, as well as specialised items like lockpicks or certain alchemical reagents. **Weapons, Simple:** Any weapon in the _Player's Handbook_ that is classified as Simple falls into this category. These weapons are most commonly sold to villagers and frontiersmen who have little real weapon training but need a means to protect themselves. **Weapons, Martial:** This category is made up of weapons that are defined as Martial weapons in the _Player's Handbook_. Almost always sold to adventurers or military organisations, these weapons also see a brisk trade with revolutionaries and troublemakers of all stripes. **Weapons, Special:** Again, this category contains only those weapons that are defined as Special in the _Player's Handbook_ (or other sources). These weapons are often tied to martial arts styles or cultures that have their own techniques for battle. While most markets do not snap these weapons up, it may be possible to make a small but steady stream of profit from weapons collectors or fighters in the market area. **Table 7.2—Trade Goods Categories** | Category | Unit size or weight | Unit cost | Buy DC / Sell DC | Price variance | Availability | | ---------------------- | :-----------------: | :-------: | :--------------: | :------------: | :----------: | | Alcohol | Ton | 1000 GP | 20 / 20 | 2d6% | 60% | | Armour, Light | Ton | 1000 GP | 15 / 15 | 1d6% | 40% | | Armour, Medium | Ton | 3000 GP | 20 / 15 | 1d6% | 35% | | Armour, Heavy | Ton | 8000 GP | 25 / 15 | 1d6% | 30% | | Artefacts | By Item | By Item | By Item | By Item | By Item | | Beverages | Ton | 750 GP | 20 / 20 | 1d10% | 50% | | Cloth, Common | Ton | 700 GP | 15 / 20 | 1d8% | 70% | | Cloth, Rare | Ton | 1000 GP | 20 / 20 | 1d8% | 40% | | Cloth, Exotic | Pound | 2000 GP | 25 / 20 | 1d8% | 30% | | Construction Materials | Ton | 1000 GP | 15 / 15 | 1d4% | 60% | | Gems, Ornamental | Pound | 2000 GP | 30 / 25 | 2d10% | 25% | | Gems, Semiprecious | Pound | 5000 GP | 30 / 25 | 2d10% | 15% | | Gems, Precious | Pound | 10 000 GP | 30 / 25 | 2d10% | 10% | | Meats, Rare | Ton | 700 GP | 25 / 20 | 2d4% | 30% | | Metals, Common | Ton | 2500 GP | 20 / 20 | 1d4% | 50% | | Metals, Refined | Ton | 5000 GP | 25 / 20 | 1d4% | 25% | | Metals, Precious | Pound | 7500 GP | 30 / 20 | 1d4% | 10% | | Scribing Materials | Ton | 1000 GP | 20 / 20 | 1d4% | 30% | | Spices, Common | Ton | 500 GP | 20 / 15 | 3d4% | 40% | | Spices, Rare | Pound | 750 GP | 25 / 15 | 2d6% | 30% | | Spices, Exotic | Pound | 1200 GP | 30 / 15 | 2d6% | 15% | | Staple Foods | Ton | 500 GP | 15 / 25 | 1d10% | 60% | | Supplies, Basic | Ton | 600 GP | 20 / 25 | 2d6% | 60% | | Supplies, Rare | Ton | 1000 GP | 20 / 20 | 2d8% | 25% | | Supplies, Exotic | Ton | 2000 GP | 25 / 15 | 2d8% | 20% | | Weapons, Simple | Ton | 3000 GP | 15 / 15 | 1d6% | 50% | | Weapons, Martial | Ton | 5000 GP | 20 / 15 | 1d6% | 25% | | Weapons, Special | By Item | 8000 GP | 25 / 15 | 1d6% | 15% | _**Category:** The type of good you are purchasing or selling._ _**Unit size or weight:** Different categories of goods are measured in different ways, with the two most common measurements being pounds and tons. A ton of goods is not its weight, but rather the amount of that cargo category that can be safely loaded into one ton of cargo space on an airship. Pounds are units of weight – a pound is a pound is a pound. In general, you can put up to 500 pounds of an item measured by the pound into a single ton of cargo space. This includes the addition of any packing materials or storage vessels needed to hold the materials._ _**Buy/Sell DC:** When attempting to buy goods at less than the market value where you are purchasing the item, you must engage in a contested Charisma (Persuasion) skill check against the trader or supplier of the goods (who may choose to use an appropriate skill based on the items being purchased). The same is true when you attempt to sell goods for more than the current market value in the location in which you are selling the goods. The DCs found in this column, however, may be used in lieu of contested skill checks to reduce the amount of die rolling needed and to cut down on the number of NPC statistics needed by the DM. The first number is the DC for all Charisma (Persuasion) skill checks made while purchasing items, and the second is for selling the goods._ _**Price variance:** This is the percentage by which the price of goods is increased or decreased, based upon the success of your Charisma (Persuasion) trade checks. See [[#Salesmanship]] for more details. _**Availability:** This is the percent chance you are able to find one ton (or pound) of a good in the local area. This chance is based on a moderate-sized town of average wealth (see [[#The Market]]). Note that availability of goods should only be checked once per month, as it takes some time for the selection of saleable goods in the market to change._ ## Piracy One of the great dangers of aerial commerce is piracy. Airship pilots and navigators must stick to established trade routes (even if those routes are ones they discovered themselves and do not share) or risk becoming lost. If the route a trader follows becomes known (and all do, eventually), he must take measures to protect himself or risk having his ship raided by pirates. There are no hard and fast rules for when pirates strike, but it must generally be worth their while and the risk to their airship before they'll make an attempt. In general, it's a safe bet that any cargo worth more than 20 000 GP attracts the attention of pirates. # Chapter VIII: Aerial Feats The men and women who make their homes in the skies have developed techniques and skills necessary to thrive in a domain where mankind was not meant to dwell. The feats in this section provide aerial characters with the edge they might need to survive in the oft-times hostile domain high above the ground. These are all General feats that may be taken by any character, provided they meet the prerequisites. ### Aerial Balance Prerequisite: — You are skilled at maintaining and regaining your feet during the worst conditions while airborne. You receive a +4 bonus to any Dexterity (Acrobatics) skill check made to keep your feet as a result of extreme aerial manoeuvres or the effects of an attack aboard an airship. ### Aerial Command Prerequisites: Level 4+, Charisma 13+, Dexterity (Piloting) proficiency You know airships inside and out and are able to get the most from your crew. This feat is only effective when taken by a ship's [[#The Captain|captain]] or [[#Lieutenants|lieutenant]]. While you are on the deck, your crew receives a +2 morale bonus to any skill checks directly related to the piloting, navigation, or general operation of the airship. This bonus does not apply to attack or damage rolls made by airship weapons crews, but does apply to any skill checks made during ramming attempts. Only one officer on a given ship may use this feat at a single time. This bonus stacks with the standard Captain bonus. ### Aerial Tactics Prerequisites: Level 4+, Dexterity 13+, proficiency with airship weapons You are skilled at knowing when and where to attack airships and are able to guide others. You are able to direct a number of airship weapons crews equal to ¼ of your character level (rounded down, minimum of 1) if they are within earshot of you. During each round in which you spend a standard action coordinating these attacks, every attack made by the weapon crews under your direction receives a +2 insight bonus to attack and damage rolls. This feat can be employed by several characters at once, but it must be directed at different sets of weapons crews. This bonus stacks with the standard Captain bonus. ### Instinctive Navigation Prerequisite: Level 4+ You have an inborn skill for navigation that not only allows you to become lost less frequently, but also to find routes that are more efficient than others. You receive a +2 insight bonus to all Piloting skill checks you make to navigate an airship or chart sky routes. In addition, you reduce the fuel consumption for an airship by 10% each day, provided you spend at least one shift as the ship's navigator during that day. This bonus does not apply if you do become lost, however. ### Natural Pilot Prerequisites: Level 4+, Dexterity 13+ Your skill while piloting airships is legendary, from your ability to control the airship in a storm to your talent for helping the weapons crews to line up their shots. You receive a +2 insight bonus to any Piloting skill checks you make to pilot an airship. In addition, any round in which you succeed by 5 or more on a Piloting skill check, the airship weapons crews in one quadrant (your choice) of your airship receive a +2 circumstance bonus to any attack rolls they make against other airships. ### Weapon Proficiency (Airship Weapons) Prerequisites: Dexterity 10+ You know how to load, aim, and fire the weaponry found aboard airships. This skill provides proficiency with all of the weapon types found aboard airships.