Pirates In The Sky

Q

 * Dare says, “Ooh, actually, there is one thing that I wanted to do the opposite of:”

"In the default Infinite Worlds campaign, like tend to fight like. Infinity battles its ideological opposite Centrum using nearly identical parachronics. The Cabal has magic, but tends to attract magical foes from the cracks in reality."
 * Dare says, “It would be neat to have a setting where one faction has tech, one faction has magic, one faction has superpowers, etc. That way we can get some major upgrades by capturing enemy gear, even if their gear isn't more powerful overall :J”
 * Anti says, “I'd like to start with a single world and build that up. That, and I don't write supers very well :P It could always move into infinite worlds at a later date”

Q

 * Dare says, “Perhaps the nature of the phlebotinum. Supers is out, magic is diverse, tech mostly fits into either hard tech, soft tech, magic-as-tech, and CrystalSpiresAndTogas. We won't be using paratime up front, though we can add it later.”

Q

 * Anti says, “My area of expertise is in stuff like an anachronistic age of sail”
 * Dare says, “TL4-like also provides a nice balance between melee and ranged. Although, TheSkyIsAnOcean might be neat...”

Q

 * Anti says, “Alright, let's say you have an airship. Why, and how would you have it?”
 * Dare says, “Sky pirates? :J I was thinking less zeppelin and more flying galleon.”
 * Dare says, “Hm, I think we need a central "do"... But yeah, sky pirates is an obvious possibility, for free action with an airship. I've been trying to avoid settling on sky pirates because it was just an example, but I do like the idea. Do you guys like it?”

Q

 * Anti says, “I'll be interested to see if an airship can be made into more than just a set piece to get you from A to B, if we go for that Ok, I meant it being explored as a location as itself Plus if we're working with a collaborative approach, building a bit of history into the vessel is part & parcel of it”

Q

 * Zemyla says, “Well, if it's TL4 + magic, what's the actual equivalent TL?”
 * Anti says, “Probably a comfortable five?”
 * Dare says, “So more like clockpunk, interesting.”
 * Anti ran the last thing with a feudal social structure
 * Anti says, “Nobility makes for a great villain or limiting factor in an urban adventure”

Q

 * Dare says, “Presumably, lift enchantments would be needed, and they may put the ship on a proverbial rail in order to provide a second vector for sails... (Or the ability to accelerate the whole ship upward at 1G may imply OldSchoolDogfighting meets capital ships.)”
 * Zemyla says, “Now I'm imagining they're on flying islands.”
 * Dare says, “There's an idea... Flying islands, that basically just drift around. They are, of course, polities, except for the balkanized ones. You'd then need something more like flying motorcycles, or maybe a Winnebago, but the nations both have strong physical borders and /shuffle/ in a way unlike our world.”
 * Anti says, “I'm kind of reminded of Anachronox, which had entire city blocks shifting about as it was built on an unknowable alien station One take I might like with floating cities is that their creation was intentional because the ground is just too darn dangerous, being prime natural resource territory, but also dangerous as all get out”
 * Dare says, “Heh, yeah, the "lost surface" is a common and fertile meme :J”
 * Anti says, “Especially fits where I ran earlier games as having, well lets just say adventure-rich wilderness Provides a great way to scale adventures. Cities->largely social, towns->investigative w/danger, wilderness->DANGER WILL ROBINSON!”

Q

 * Zemyla says, “Actually, I had a dream about floating cities with flying ships going between them, a while back. It was on a gas giant, and one of the enemies was "dragons" which were basically living fusion-powered rockets. They just flew around on fire and wrecked anything they ran into. Pretty much the only defense was shooting them with lead, which disrupted their fusion cycle. And pretty much everything was made through fusion, so elements heavier than iron cost a whole lot more than lighter ones. Also, I had a second dream in that universe, where the plot was there was a floating city in one of the Great Spots, a massive hurricane bigger than Earth. How I got through was with a special ship that flew without fans, instead using magnets to deflect charged compounds.  So it could only really fly near storms. Which was perfect for getting through this. Inside the city, we found a rocket, and I got in and launched to get back in touch with Earth.”

Q

 * Dare says, “Hm, Ryth Kuna's postapoc use of the Flying Spire might be neat in that way...”

"The sorcerer who called herself Ryth built a library without words and a temple without gods. Those who read and those who pray tore it down in a night and a day."
 * Dare says, “It was derived from that. (The Flying Spire is a recurring theme I use.) After the fall of the Combine, she found the crashed Spire, and got it working again. She built, on the ruins of the palace, a "wizard tower" and a weather manipulator. She uses the new Spire as a GlobalAirship to go searching for other artifacts of the Combine.”

Q
http://www.kukuburi.com/v2/2007/08/21/ten/
 * Anti says, “Let's say chunks of most continents lifted up and drift about in a loose formation, linked by artificial craft and sometimes bridges. For starters, its probably bloody cold up there, even in formerly tropical nations. Import some scandinavian lore or other things from cold climates? The bits left behind on the ground would be massive pits criss-crossed with belts of land. Dangerous land. But, the pits might easily expose mineral wealth and offer a defensive position on some bits of old land. Some land-based settlements”
 * Dare says, “It may be best to leave the surface outside our perception... The same event boiled the seas, the cloud cover is solid, and the surface is home to a new branch of life?”
 * Anti says, “Might as well have an idea of what goes on down there for Adventure Stuff”
 * Dare says, “I was thinking thick, lush, deadly. The Amazon and the Bay Of Benin rolled into one almost-alien package.”
 * Anti says, “That's rather what I had in mind as well. Rich too in forgotten treasures, natural wealth, fantastic beasts and flora and terrible and strange magic”
 * Dare says, “Foreign, not quite alien, maybe a dose of Cambrian Explosion life...”

Q

 * Dare says, “But yeah. Insulation may be the best way to go, living in caves and huts of brick or stone... Or that may just be the first resort, the cheap resort, home to "troglodytes", while something akin to powered armor is the solution of the "first world" above the clouds.”
 * Anti says, “Or perhaps weather domes”
 * Dare says, “(Also, pure sun above the clouds, so mirrors heating central areas may be a good idea.)”
 * Anti says, “Ooh, could lead to some fantastic architecture, especially with a rennaissance bent to the mirrors and domes”
 * Dare nods :J “So the "first world" is all reaching buttresses, chromework, and sleek power armor that just supports its weight and provides an environmental seal. You get kind of a cyberpunk/cyberprep line, with we pirates firmly in the punk category. We wear heavier gear, 'cause it's actually armor, maybe in an armorpunk way. Emergency jetpack in case you fall over, maybe.”
 * Anti says, “Parachute and a godly number of flares heavy armour doesn't really strike me as standard gear. Metal would be pretty expensive So even with decent tech and magic backing, you'd still have wooden ships since its just too prohibitively expensive to mine and refine that much steel”
 * Dare says, “Oh, for ships, yeah.”
 * Anti says, “I was thinking for environmental gear thick furs and breastplates backed up with roughly period firearms, striking implements, and the odd bit of Talent”
 * Dare says, “Hm, light on the item magic?”
 * Anti says, “Subtle enchantments on the items, yeah. Perhaps something everyone can use, like chalking a rune on your armour warding you. How effective that is may vary”
 * Dare says, “Heh, I was specifically thinking for enviro issues... But hm. I was thinking "mountain high elves", I guess...”
 * Anti says, “I was thinking old fashioned Navy uniforms with a little bit of improv to face the new world”
 * Dare says, “Ah, wow.”

Q

 * Dare says, “Also, bringing up The Human Problem again, fur may help...”
 * Anti says, “Certainly, but even so, its cold outside”

Q

 * Dare says, “Hm, might be neat to have flintlocky beam weapons, whose slow reload combines with melee +damage to make both viable...”

Q

 * Anti says, “I quite like the idea of rune carving being a useful thing anyone can pick up. Utility stuff is something thats nice to have”
 * Dare nods :J “The problem with a lot of magical settings is that they try to set the magic aside, keep it from being a magical setting.”
 * Dare says, “It might also be useful to draw concepts from Dwarf Fortress... DF is full of magic, even if the only spells it has are fireballs and necromancy. Dragonhide is infinitely fire-resistant, unicorn horn makes great piercing weapons, etc.”
 * Anti says, “Yeah. DF is a magical setting, but there isn't much high sorcery in it. I don't think this can be anything but a magic-fuelled setting, being as that at least one flavour of magic rock keeps the world flying, another kind of magic keeps life reasonably livable and worthwhile, smooths out some problems and so on”
 * Dare nods. “It just /could/ go a DungAges cave-dwelling kinda route, and other things often take magic that way :J (Notably, D&D2.)”
 * Anti says, “Sure, but I'm working from the great evacuation happening at the height or mid-decline of an existing empire, with society quite literally being uprooted Ships have to come from somewhere! :P”

Alchemical Baroque

 * Aristocrat
 * Infantryman
 * Man Of Science
 * Master Warlock
 * Peasant Kid
 * Peddler
 * Sailor
 * Servant
 * Student
 * Hedge Witch

Elite

 * piracy
 * trade
 * military missions
 * bounty hunting
 * asteroid mining

Multispecies Empires

 * Enslavement
 * Castes
 * Enclaves
 * Equality Under The Law