So, I am DMing a World War II campaign and in one section, my players confront a series of Italian Airforce members. Knowing my players, they might just straight up kill the soldiers. After I was writing the loose script, I was wondering how my players would even FLY a plane? I couldn't find any forums on Dnd Beyond to answer my question, so I'm just making a new one. How would flying a Plane work in Dnd?
If you end up relying on the plane controls and an engine and other technology to enable it to fly then having a D&D character fly a plane would require a similar learning curve to anyone else that has no clue about how to fly a plane except that, at least, current folks have seen airplanes fly and have seen television shows that have pilots so they might have some clue.
A D&D character would have no idea since even the concepts of lift and drag, how a wing works, the need for an engine, how fast such a vehicle needs to go before it can generate any lift, never mind the angle of attack of the wing and other factors, then combine all of this with the array of controls designed to manipulate the engine and flight control surfaces (flaps, ailerons, rudder etc) needed to safely operate a plane and I would say that it would be functionally impossible for a D&D character to get in a plane and fly it.
If you had some divine source of knowledge that gave the character the information needed to fly it ... then they could probably fly it. For example, I might let a knowledge cleric use their channel divinity to obtain the information needed to fly a plane for 10 minutes ... but when the effect ends they won't know how to fly it anymore.
"Channel Divinity: Knowledge of the Ages
Starting at 2nd level, you can use your Channel Divinity to tap into a divine well of knowledge. As an action, you choose one skill or tool. For 10 minutes, you have proficiency with the chosen skill or tool."
A plane could be considered a tool or flying a plane might be considered a skill if a DM was feeling generous.
Beyond that, I don't think there would be any way characters could reasonably fly a plane. On the other hand, if you and the players think it would be fun you could create some sort of skill challenge as the characters fiddle with the controls and random things happen ... hopefully, they won't kill themselves in the process :)
P.S. In addition, unless the characters have seen one of these things fly, their initial reaction is likely to be to assume it is some weird kind of carriage with small wheels and no obvious way to hook up horses though maybe the long extensions on either side of the carriage are intended to attach teams of horses but that would make it a bit wide for roads ... except for the ones near where the carriages are stored but those roads don't seem to lead anywhere (runways).
There’s a tool proficiency for vehicles: land and for vehicles:water. Seems like you could add one for air. Both of the base ones are given from backgrounds, so if one of the PCs is playing a pilot, I’d let them have it. If they’re not playing a pilot, unless they have something like David mentions above, I’d just say they can’t. It’s not the kind of thing you can just do without training. Maybe I’d let an artificer give it a shot if the character had been rp’d in some sort of way like they’re obsessed with flying or something.
But absent all those kinds of things, saying “you have no idea how to fly a plane” is a very valid response.
I'm sorry, you're running a D&D campaign set during World War 2? Like... Real life World War 2, in our actual history? I have to know more about how this works. How have you resolved land and sea vehicles up to this point?
It's a big project I've been working on for a while now. It's a Historical Fiction type campaign. I'm altering History a little, but most of it's the raw subjects, set in the 1940s. I added my own kinds of guns to mimic the fighting style of the 1940s, along with Tanks, Submarines, Mustard Gas and bombs. The storytelling echos events in the war, like the invasion of Greece, the death of Adolf Hitler and D-day.
I included tons of spectacles, like having a part of the campaign set inside of a Concentration Camp and part of it on the grounds of battles. It's been really fun doing the research and stuff to prepare this campaign and I'd really recommend doing a campaign like this. Our first Session is going to be Monday, I hope it goes well!
It's a big project I've been working on for a while now. It's a Historical Fiction type campaign. I'm altering History a little, but most of it's the raw subjects, set in the 1940s. I added my own kinds of guns to mimic the fighting style of the 1940s, along with Tanks, Submarines, Mustard Gas and bombs. The storytelling echos events in the war, like the invasion of Greece, the death of Adolf Hitler and D-day.
I included tons of spectacles, like having a part of the campaign set inside of a Concentration Camp and part of it on the grounds of battles. It's been really fun doing the research and stuff to prepare this campaign and I'd really recommend doing a campaign like this. Our first Session is going to be Monday, I hope it goes well!
Wasn't Mustard Gas mostly a WWI and Iran-Iraq war thing? I'm not sure how widespread chemical warfare use was on the battlefield in WWII.
Yes, it was MOSTLY used in World War I, but it was still a thing during the 1940's. About 2 percent of soldiers died because of exposure to Mustard Gas.
Yeah, I highly doubt characters lacking proficiency in Air Vehicles are going to get a plane aloft. If you're researching WWII look into the training aviators got back then. American pilots for example, according to the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force had ~215 hours of primary/basic/advance flight training, initially taking place over 9 months, then expressed to 27 weeks as the program was streamlined. By comparison, American soldiers (not pilots) were put through 13 weeks of training, eventually accelerated to 8 weeks for combat arms.
Having PC had watched a newsreel or even a training film is just putting someone in the cockpit to create a disaster or more likely simply stall their plane on the runway. So lacking divine intervention or magic, you're left with pulp genre breaks from realism as seen in the most recent Indiana Jones movie. Or you give everyone the civilian aviator background or something, but that would probably significantly shake up the back story of a group of ongoing characters (and having pilot skills would have put them in a different position in WWII than they probably are now).
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
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So, I am DMing a World War II campaign and in one section, my players confront a series of Italian Airforce members. Knowing my players, they might just straight up kill the soldiers. After I was writing the loose script, I was wondering how my players would even FLY a plane? I couldn't find any forums on Dnd Beyond to answer my question, so I'm just making a new one. How would flying a Plane work in Dnd?
It wouldn't?
If you end up relying on the plane controls and an engine and other technology to enable it to fly then having a D&D character fly a plane would require a similar learning curve to anyone else that has no clue about how to fly a plane except that, at least, current folks have seen airplanes fly and have seen television shows that have pilots so they might have some clue.
A D&D character would have no idea since even the concepts of lift and drag, how a wing works, the need for an engine, how fast such a vehicle needs to go before it can generate any lift, never mind the angle of attack of the wing and other factors, then combine all of this with the array of controls designed to manipulate the engine and flight control surfaces (flaps, ailerons, rudder etc) needed to safely operate a plane and I would say that it would be functionally impossible for a D&D character to get in a plane and fly it.
If you had some divine source of knowledge that gave the character the information needed to fly it ... then they could probably fly it. For example, I might let a knowledge cleric use their channel divinity to obtain the information needed to fly a plane for 10 minutes ... but when the effect ends they won't know how to fly it anymore.
"Channel Divinity: Knowledge of the Ages
Starting at 2nd level, you can use your Channel Divinity to tap into a divine well of knowledge. As an action, you choose one skill or tool. For 10 minutes, you have proficiency with the chosen skill or tool."
A plane could be considered a tool or flying a plane might be considered a skill if a DM was feeling generous.
Beyond that, I don't think there would be any way characters could reasonably fly a plane. On the other hand, if you and the players think it would be fun you could create some sort of skill challenge as the characters fiddle with the controls and random things happen ... hopefully, they won't kill themselves in the process :)
P.S. In addition, unless the characters have seen one of these things fly, their initial reaction is likely to be to assume it is some weird kind of carriage with small wheels and no obvious way to hook up horses though maybe the long extensions on either side of the carriage are intended to attach teams of horses but that would make it a bit wide for roads ... except for the ones near where the carriages are stored but those roads don't seem to lead anywhere (runways).
There’s a tool proficiency for vehicles: land and for vehicles:water. Seems like you could add one for air.
Both of the base ones are given from backgrounds, so if one of the PCs is playing a pilot, I’d let them have it. If they’re not playing a pilot, unless they have something like David mentions above, I’d just say they can’t. It’s not the kind of thing you can just do without training. Maybe I’d let an artificer give it a shot if the character had been rp’d in some sort of way like they’re obsessed with flying or something.
But absent all those kinds of things, saying “you have no idea how to fly a plane” is a very valid response.
I'm sorry, you're running a D&D campaign set during World War 2? Like... Real life World War 2, in our actual history? I have to know more about how this works. How have you resolved land and sea vehicles up to this point?
It's a big project I've been working on for a while now. It's a Historical Fiction type campaign. I'm altering History a little, but most of it's the raw subjects, set in the 1940s. I added my own kinds of guns to mimic the fighting style of the 1940s, along with Tanks, Submarines, Mustard Gas and bombs. The storytelling echos events in the war, like the invasion of Greece, the death of Adolf Hitler and D-day.
I included tons of spectacles, like having a part of the campaign set inside of a Concentration Camp and part of it on the grounds of battles. It's been really fun doing the research and stuff to prepare this campaign and I'd really recommend doing a campaign like this. Our first Session is going to be Monday, I hope it goes well!
Thanks!
Wasn't Mustard Gas mostly a WWI and Iran-Iraq war thing? I'm not sure how widespread chemical warfare use was on the battlefield in WWII.
Yes, it was MOSTLY used in World War I, but it was still a thing during the 1940's. About 2 percent of soldiers died because of exposure to Mustard Gas.
They need a proficiency in Air Vehicles. Either they have it, or they don't. If they don't, then just tell them they don't know how to fly a plane.
Yeah, I highly doubt characters lacking proficiency in Air Vehicles are going to get a plane aloft. If you're researching WWII look into the training aviators got back then. American pilots for example, according to the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force had ~215 hours of primary/basic/advance flight training, initially taking place over 9 months, then expressed to 27 weeks as the program was streamlined. By comparison, American soldiers (not pilots) were put through 13 weeks of training, eventually accelerated to 8 weeks for combat arms.
Having PC had watched a newsreel or even a training film is just putting someone in the cockpit to create a disaster or more likely simply stall their plane on the runway. So lacking divine intervention or magic, you're left with pulp genre breaks from realism as seen in the most recent Indiana Jones movie. Or you give everyone the civilian aviator background or something, but that would probably significantly shake up the back story of a group of ongoing characters (and having pilot skills would have put them in a different position in WWII than they probably are now).
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.