I had an idea I wanted to bounce off of you and share! I am planning my first run at DM'ing (gulp!). I don’t know any Eberron experts and I’m hoping for the generosity of this grand community for an opinion! Comes from a conversation I had with a friend I served with in the army who went on to lead para courses. How is this for an idea??? If you have ever gone skydiving as a civilian? You use a large wing-shaped parachute. That’s because most recreational skydivers want to get as much time in the air as possible. Military parachutes are round (and small) as the principle is quite different… most of the time, you want to get to the ground as fast as possible; drifting calmly back to earth is less desirable when you are getting shot at. I was watching a YouTuber talk about Sharn and he was saying, in the upper levels, people get issued a Feather Token to keep plebs falling off bridges onto rich folks (they have airships and trains but haven’t invented the handrail apparently!). So how does this sound for an exciting opening/hook???The players begin leaping off an airship into a battle from high above the ground. Their airships are getting lit up by fireballs. The players are jumping at night where Daylight spells and Light cantrips are being used against them for illumination (visual here is searchlights and flak from anti-aircraft guns in WWII… or the invasion of Klendathu in Starship Troopers if you are a sci-fi buff and old enough for the reference)....
... The players’ first task is to leap off of their airship into a hailstorm of arrows and combat spells, etc. They each have one army-issued Feather Token (grants Feather Fall) to get to the ground BUT the particular type of token makes them fall slowly (product of every military ever buying from the lowest bidder lol!). So the trick is to either ditch the token at some safe-ish distance above the ground or activate it just before thundering in (euphemism for a hard landing). Do you think that would work in the classic Eberon environment???? I know airships are supposed to be rare and the world no longer at war, so perhaps a full scale Saving Private Ryan/Normandy style airdrop opening might not fit entirely. The other question I had was about falling mechanics…Can you think of a good way to work in the falling rules to make a fun challenge to give the players about getting to the ground without getting smashed like a bowl of eggs????Keeping the level of play at a first or second tier might make blowing a spell slot less attractive if there’s a better option… but what might work beyond that to encourage creative decisions? I’d appreciate any of your thoughts (oh… and please feel free to borrow any of these silly ideas, although I doubt they are worth much or are terribly original lol!). THANK YOU!!!!
As a writer and a long time (2.0) DM, I think the idea is fun. Whether you decide to allow a full plate knight dive off the deck of a flying galleon and how the mechanics of him plummeting to the earth at 60 mph will work that's up to you. I personally don't like to play that mature of a setting yet, I'm very much swords and sorcery and steer away from the renaissance era technology, but, the idea can work as most light spells have range limits. Also, I might shape it so that instead of a full out invasion, maybe there's only one ship, hence the rarity of the encounter, also would explain who employed them to do what they are doing, maybe they are sent by a rival kingdom to infiltrate and sabotage ahead of an invasion? Maybe they are a suicide squad situation where if they are captured they are dead and disavowed? This would make the most sense to me anyway. Maybe they have all been blessed/cursed so that they can't speak the name of their employer , like a tongue tie spell or something. Perhaps they are retrieving an item/items from a hard to reach place high up in the mountains?
Why was the party picked for this assignment? were they coerced into coming here? Kind of French foreign legion kind of stuff? Maybe they are bound and gagged and pushed out of the ship witht he ring or token of feather fall in place so they drift quietly to the ground.? perhaps its a "the running Man 1987" situation and this is their redemption.
Maybe the terrain that they are dropping into is too inhospitable to walk/march to. Sort of a Dark Sun setting kind of thing.
Thank y so much Sir Darrius! Those are great questions to chew on! The Russians once tried an experiment with dropping a manned tank from an airplane... it didn't turn out that well for the crew. Brilliant! I appreciate the help my friend!
What level are the characters going to be? I ask because story-wise it sounds cool, but when you start bumping into game mechanics, it gets dicey. I know this is in story and lore, and from that side, again, it sounds pretty cool. But at some point, if you try to do it, there’s going to be dice. Fireballs have a 150 foot range, then a 20 foot radius, so it seems like the ships would want to be about 175’ or higher (even more if some folks on the ground have distant spell metamagic).
Falling is d6 per 10 feet, so if they drop the whole way that’s 17 d6. But even if they only drop part way, level 1 characters, with probably 7-15 hp aren’t going to be able to free fall very far. And if they do live, they won’t be in much fighting shape when they hit bottom.
You could encourage them to use the feather token at the end (technically falls of 500’ happen instantly, but if you house rule that part away). Have them make a dex check or something to activate the token let them choose to activate it at, idk 10 or 20 or 30 feet. If they succeed, they are hanging up in the sky for a round or two as they descend. But the check is progressively harder the closer they are to the ground, and if they fail, well, there’s the falling damage. So take the easy check at 30 feet, but then take 3 rounds to hit the ground, or the really hard check at 10 feet, but only be a floating target for one round. Though that feels pretty close to a save or die situation. Maybe they give the Cleric a revivify scroll, just in case.
As far as the eberron lore, it’s easy enough to say there’s some kind of skirmish, or a new war has started. It’s your campaign, you can do what you like with it.
Also, an idea, light has a range of touch, but you could have it cast on something like a crossbow bolt, kind of like a tracer round. And if the bolt sticks in the hull of the airship, so much the better.
Wonderful ideas! Thank you very much! I was thinking of a one-shot at level 5 or 6. I'm still green and things get complicated after that but players get some fun sub-class features at that level. I may do some homebrewing, such as magnification crystals to compliment the light cantrips... but I thoroughly LOVE the idea of tracers! Fantastic! Flares would be fun as well. It might have been sleep deprivation but recall how eerie the the light from parachute flares appeared on my first excise with the army. Thank you so much again Xalthu!!!!
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I had an idea I wanted to bounce off of you and share! I am planning my first run at DM'ing (gulp!). I don’t know any Eberron experts and I’m hoping for the generosity of this grand community for an opinion! Comes from a conversation I had with a friend I served with in the army who went on to lead para courses. How is this for an idea??? If you have ever gone skydiving as a civilian? You use a large wing-shaped parachute. That’s because most recreational skydivers want to get as much time in the air as possible. Military parachutes are round (and small) as the principle is quite different… most of the time, you want to get to the ground as fast as possible; drifting calmly back to earth is less desirable when you are getting shot at. I was watching a YouTuber talk about Sharn and he was saying, in the upper levels, people get issued a Feather Token to keep plebs falling off bridges onto rich folks (they have airships and trains but haven’t invented the handrail apparently!). So how does this sound for an exciting opening/hook??? The players begin leaping off an airship into a battle from high above the ground. Their airships are getting lit up by fireballs. The players are jumping at night where Daylight spells and Light cantrips are being used against them for illumination (visual here is searchlights and flak from anti-aircraft guns in WWII… or the invasion of Klendathu in Starship Troopers if you are a sci-fi buff and old enough for the reference)....
... The players’ first task is to leap off of their airship into a hailstorm of arrows and combat spells, etc. They each have one army-issued Feather Token (grants Feather Fall) to get to the ground BUT the particular type of token makes them fall slowly (product of every military ever buying from the lowest bidder lol!). So the trick is to either ditch the token at some safe-ish distance above the ground or activate it just before thundering in (euphemism for a hard landing). Do you think that would work in the classic Eberon environment???? I know airships are supposed to be rare and the world no longer at war, so perhaps a full scale Saving Private Ryan/Normandy style airdrop opening might not fit entirely. The other question I had was about falling mechanics… Can you think of a good way to work in the falling rules to make a fun challenge to give the players about getting to the ground without getting smashed like a bowl of eggs???? Keeping the level of play at a first or second tier might make blowing a spell slot less attractive if there’s a better option… but what might work beyond that to encourage creative decisions? I’d appreciate any of your thoughts (oh… and please feel free to borrow any of these silly ideas, although I doubt they are worth much or are terribly original lol!). THANK YOU!!!!
As a writer and a long time (2.0) DM, I think the idea is fun. Whether you decide to allow a full plate knight dive off the deck of a flying galleon and how the mechanics of him plummeting to the earth at 60 mph will work that's up to you. I personally don't like to play that mature of a setting yet, I'm very much swords and sorcery and steer away from the renaissance era technology, but, the idea can work as most light spells have range limits. Also, I might shape it so that instead of a full out invasion, maybe there's only one ship, hence the rarity of the encounter, also would explain who employed them to do what they are doing, maybe they are sent by a rival kingdom to infiltrate and sabotage ahead of an invasion? Maybe they are a suicide squad situation where if they are captured they are dead and disavowed? This would make the most sense to me anyway. Maybe they have all been blessed/cursed so that they can't speak the name of their employer , like a tongue tie spell or something. Perhaps they are retrieving an item/items from a hard to reach place high up in the mountains?
Why was the party picked for this assignment? were they coerced into coming here? Kind of French foreign legion kind of stuff? Maybe they are bound and gagged and pushed out of the ship witht he ring or token of feather fall in place so they drift quietly to the ground.? perhaps its a "the running Man 1987" situation and this is their redemption.
Maybe the terrain that they are dropping into is too inhospitable to walk/march to. Sort of a Dark Sun setting kind of thing.
Lots to think about.
Thank y so much Sir Darrius! Those are great questions to chew on! The Russians once tried an experiment with dropping a manned tank from an airplane... it didn't turn out that well for the crew. Brilliant! I appreciate the help my friend!
What level are the characters going to be? I ask because story-wise it sounds cool, but when you start bumping into game mechanics, it gets dicey. I know this is in story and lore, and from that side, again, it sounds pretty cool. But at some point, if you try to do it, there’s going to be dice.
Fireballs have a 150 foot range, then a 20 foot radius, so it seems like the ships would want to be about 175’ or higher (even more if some folks on the ground have distant spell metamagic).
Falling is d6 per 10 feet, so if they drop the whole way that’s 17 d6. But even if they only drop part way, level 1 characters, with probably 7-15 hp aren’t going to be able to free fall very far. And if they do live, they won’t be in much fighting shape when they hit bottom.
You could encourage them to use the feather token at the end (technically falls of 500’ happen instantly, but if you house rule that part away). Have them make a dex check or something to activate the token let them choose to activate it at, idk 10 or 20 or 30 feet. If they succeed, they are hanging up in the sky for a round or two as they descend. But the check is progressively harder the closer they are to the ground, and if they fail, well, there’s the falling damage. So take the easy check at 30 feet, but then take 3 rounds to hit the ground, or the really hard check at 10 feet, but only be a floating target for one round. Though that feels pretty close to a save or die situation. Maybe they give the Cleric a revivify scroll, just in case.
As far as the eberron lore, it’s easy enough to say there’s some kind of skirmish, or a new war has started. It’s your campaign, you can do what you like with it.
Also, an idea, light has a range of touch, but you could have it cast on something like a crossbow bolt, kind of like a tracer round. And if the bolt sticks in the hull of the airship, so much the better.
Wonderful ideas! Thank you very much! I was thinking of a one-shot at level 5 or 6. I'm still green and things get complicated after that but players get some fun sub-class features at that level. I may do some homebrewing, such as magnification crystals to compliment the light cantrips... but I thoroughly LOVE the idea of tracers! Fantastic! Flares would be fun as well. It might have been sleep deprivation but recall how eerie the the light from parachute flares appeared on my first excise with the army. Thank you so much again Xalthu!!!!