Category: RPG Ideas and Projects (Page 10 of 42)

    I worked on two things last night:

• My ongoing project to convert The Fantasy Trip spells to The Black Hack
• The Spelljammer idea that took hold in my brain yesterday.

As far as the Spelljammer idea, I came up with a psuedo-scientific way to explain how the engine would work and followed it up with a thoroughly D&D method to make the engine work. In short, ether (from the Ethereal plane) is converted into a substance that can be manipulated by magnets and electricity. That substance shoots out the other end of the tube to provide thrust. Once out of the tube, it turns back into ether.

The device that converts the ether is psionic. As a result, the engineer is either psionic or has someone in their crew that is so the conversion of ether can happen manually if the devices fail.

Last night, I did calculations to determine the thrust for these tubes to get a rough idea of how fast a given ship can accelerate through space.

Then began work to make an engine rating system similar to BattleTech or Centurion Legion. In essence, an engine will have a number rating. Once the calculations for the ship being built are completed, the mass of the ship divided by the engine rating will determine the acceleration for the ship.

The goal is have a single number to determine adjustments to dice rolls for the ship to do the things it does.

    Keith J Davies has pointed out to me that every post here usually builds on the one before. Even when I change the subject, I usually reference earlier posts here.

I'll try to provide a bit more explanation. As someone that studied The Cantos (Ezra Pound) for a grade, I understand that having some kind of map is helpful.

    Whilst noodling about other things, my brain wandered to travel between the stars in a fantasy universe. tl;dr version, change the substance of the etheral plane into a liquid, apply magnets and current, generate thrust.

Yes, there is Starfinder. Yes, there is Spelljammer. (I love Spelljammer).

I don't want helm and NPC magic-users to be the engine. I need a system that a Thief can drive.

I thought that maybe a Magnetohydrodynamic drive would fit the bill, assuming a few things.

One, the ethereal plane exists and works in typical D&D fashion.
Two, that stuff is very conductive under the right conditions, but not all the time.
Three, reverse works easily.

So, the engine is essentially a jet powered by a completely inert, non-detectable substance (ether) being manipulated to produce thrust.

If a psionicist can give shape to ether in the form of protoplasm, there is a way to remove the non-electromagnetic pressure that makes ether inert and undetectable.

The engine, then, uses a device (because magic) that doesn't give physical shape to ether, it merely strips away the non-magnetic pressure on it. When this denatured ether interacts with magnets and electricity, it produces thrust.

The device that converts ether would need to be available to both ends of the tube to have reverse. In non-magical places, a psionic character could serve in place of the device to slowly limp the ship along to a place where magic will work.

Now, I'm thinking about psionic engineers.
I know what you're going to say, Captain, and I've already made the adjustment.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorentz_ether_theory