A storm that a druid on an opposing ship is using to mask her Call Lightning spell with which she's attacking the other ships. (Figuring out how to stop the Druid's attacks without getting disqualified)
A Storm of Vengeance cast by an evil wizard trying to kill someone specific in the race. (skill challenges to minimize damage to the crew and the ship to keep it flying)
A Nautiloid swooping down and scooping up crew from the various ships, so the competitors have to cooperate if they're to rescue any of their allies. (mini-dungeon in the middle of the race).
Griffons attacking as the airships pass through their territory. (combat)
It sounds like this would be set up with a view to offer challenges to the competitors - as such, I would write out a series of Checkpoints, and make each of them likely to be a challenge in themselves. I would have magical gyphs which need all but 1 of the crew (designated driver) to activate.
For example:
Your first checkpoint is in the Roc's Nest, get in there and activate the magical glyph which is keyed to your crew, then get out alive.
Your next checkpoint is on a narrow pillar of rock in a place called the Spindles - expect other teams to knock into the pillars and make them fall.
Next is in a stormy region above a Blue Dragon's lair
Next is on a tower guarded by a dragon, in which there is a princess. Rescuing the princess may cause dragon-wrath.
Next is at the bottom of a ravine
Next is on the back of a great beast, and you all need to get on there at once to activate it.
Next is on a floating island populated by huge, violent birds that dive-bomb you.
Next is to take one item from a red dragon's horde.
And so on. The game is based on Who is the best adventuring party, so using teamwork and skills to get into and out of each of the situations. I would run it over more than 24 hours, so effectively it's a string of competitive dungeon crawls and speed-run travel sequences to try and complete each of the challenges. Pack in the adventuring cliches and lots of cool travel encounters and challenges (weather is a big one) and it'll be amazing.
you definitely want to bring characters' skills and abilities into this as well as involving natural/environmental phenomena. e.g. a Nature check might reveal that the cloud on the horizon that you are headed for is in fact on its way to becoming a thunderstorm. A Navigation Tools check might be necessary to determine how to avoid the worst of the storm while avoiding the know hunting territory of a certain dragon/roc/whatever while also not straying to far from the course and losing too much time in the race. Then a Vehicles check to see how well the helmsperson can stick to the route, or if they can perhaps handle actually flying directly into the thunderstorm and get through it safely (or even use its winds to advantage.) then if you do fly through the storm, maybe a mast snaps or some other damage occurs. A Carpenters Tools check combined with some Persuasion might determine how long it takes to get things fixed and underway again.
Running an Ebberon game, PC are going to be involved in an airship race.
Rules: Racers may not directly attack each others airships or crew, crews must end with the same number of crew members as they started with.
24 hour endurance rare
Looking for encounter ideas.
So far, Harpies (one of the racers is from Droam) try to lure the party off their ship in flight.
Wizard and sorcerer racers attempt to collapse a canyon wall on the PCs
Roc attacks the airship
I would like 4 or 5 encounters running about 10 to 15 minutes each.
Any other ideas I could use from the hivemind?
A storm that a druid on an opposing ship is using to mask her Call Lightning spell with which she's attacking the other ships. (Figuring out how to stop the Druid's attacks without getting disqualified)
A Storm of Vengeance cast by an evil wizard trying to kill someone specific in the race. (skill challenges to minimize damage to the crew and the ship to keep it flying)
A Nautiloid swooping down and scooping up crew from the various ships, so the competitors have to cooperate if they're to rescue any of their allies. (mini-dungeon in the middle of the race).
Griffons attacking as the airships pass through their territory. (combat)
It sounds like this would be set up with a view to offer challenges to the competitors - as such, I would write out a series of Checkpoints, and make each of them likely to be a challenge in themselves. I would have magical gyphs which need all but 1 of the crew (designated driver) to activate.
For example:
And so on. The game is based on Who is the best adventuring party, so using teamwork and skills to get into and out of each of the situations. I would run it over more than 24 hours, so effectively it's a string of competitive dungeon crawls and speed-run travel sequences to try and complete each of the challenges. Pack in the adventuring cliches and lots of cool travel encounters and challenges (weather is a big one) and it'll be amazing.
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you definitely want to bring characters' skills and abilities into this as well as involving natural/environmental phenomena. e.g. a Nature check might reveal that the cloud on the horizon that you are headed for is in fact on its way to becoming a thunderstorm. A Navigation Tools check might be necessary to determine how to avoid the worst of the storm while avoiding the know hunting territory of a certain dragon/roc/whatever while also not straying to far from the course and losing too much time in the race. Then a Vehicles check to see how well the helmsperson can stick to the route, or if they can perhaps handle actually flying directly into the thunderstorm and get through it safely (or even use its winds to advantage.) then if you do fly through the storm, maybe a mast snaps or some other damage occurs. A Carpenters Tools check combined with some Persuasion might determine how long it takes to get things fixed and underway again.
There should be at least three competitors. That way the DM can have catastrophic things happen to NPC's.
Imply (or show) the opposition trying to booby trap the other ships.
Make the crew a part of the challenges but do not rely on a full crew to finish/win. Some attrition will happen.
I second skill challenges.