James read last week’s post and offered a thought:
What about magic carpets for high [social] class, and wooden barges for low class/poor people? The barges are always falling apart.
I replied with some comment that I’d never heard of flying wood before, but as soon as I said it I realized that it wasn’t true. In 1988, Frank Chadwick wrote Space: 1889. That game features “liftwood.” Liftwood is an anti-gravity wood used to make steampunk spaceships in the year 1889.
This got me thinking…
More Fire, Less Lands
What if we take the Firelands and crank up the fire and crank down the lands?
The region would now be a huge sea of lava. The settlements would now be on little islands.
There would be a special wood–from the Teesha tree–that can survive lava. Better yet, it forms a magical levitation field when exposed to lava. So it floats in the air just an inch or so above the lava. That means boats will be flat bottomed barges. Due to stability issues they must be at least twice as long/wide as the are tall.
Ship Construction
I thought that this would allow me to have lava-ships that that more closely mimic the starships of Traveller. But ships in that game are comprised mainly of six systems, and not all of these apply to lava-ships:
“Maneuver Drive” Engines: Instead of engines, a lava-ship will either have sails or a “lava-board.” It seems to me that if you angle a piece of Teesha wood just right near the lava at the back of the ship, the “repulsive force” that normally causes it to levitate will push the vessel forward.
Interstellar drive (“jump” drive): A lava ship wouldn’t have an equivalent of this kind of engine. In essence this is the propulsion used for great distances rather than for tight maneuvers. I think a planet bound lava-ship only needs the one type.
Computer: In Traveller the computer is used for navigation, interstellar “jumps”, and general operations. There’s no equivalent, unless I make up some magical Mumbo Jumbo.
Weapon Systems: We would still have weapons!
Power Generators: This system generates the electricity needed for the other systems. Lava-ships and their crews don’t know about electricity, so we won’t have this system.
Fuel: Nope. Don’t see the need for fuel, either.
So a bit of work would need to be done here. If I’m still in love with this idea next week, I’ll work on it.
That’s it
That’s it for this week. This is definitely more “high fantasy” than “swords & sorcery.”
Do you like this idea? Or do you think that the Firelands should stay a desert?
Oooh, I really like this! It could give the players some non-combative self-made challenges (building their own barge), and could lead to some very interesting combat opportunities (having to fight from the barge).
ReplyDeleteI have two main thoughts about execution:
1) Go with exactly as you describe! It's a very interesting prospect, and I like the approach.
2) Going off of your comment at the end about this being more 'high fantasy', it could probably be toned down a little by removing the magic from the wood itself, and instead having it be normal wood (and with the predominant desert vs. all lava sea). The float-y part could be an enchantment that would be applied (i.e., 'fuel' of sorts), that would allow it to float for X amount of miles, where X depends on potency of the spell applied. And for a small extra fee, the caster could apply a failsafe enchantment so landing on lava isn't an insta-TPK. Just a thought.
Thanks for your encouragement! Even though I didn't reply right away, it encouraged me to develop the idea further in the next couple of posts!
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