Assuming that you have buoyancy taken care of through some sort of magical McGuffin, how does one actually propel a fantasy airship without using another magical McGuffin
Do you use propellors/wings spun by galley slaves? I don't think sails would work because sailboats require both mediums of air currents and ocean currents to do things like tack, while an airship with sails would be at the mercy of the wind. What do?
>Assuming that you have buoyancy taken care of through some sort of magical McGuffin, how does one actually propel a fantasy airship without using another magical McGuffin
use the same one again, point to backwards instead of down
I was thinking that it didn't generate a force per se, that it just controlled buoyancy to let it sink or float, like a submarine or blimp.
See, you put a water elemental in a tank.
Then you put a fire elemental in there, too, and they fight like rabid dogs. Pressure gets built up, and you let it turn your crankshaft with near-mindblowing power, which is then handled by a bunch of terrified engineers and/or peasants you paid to handle this crap for you.
Propellers turn. Sometimes, your pilot slaps a stick connected to a prototype transmission box, and propellers in the back start turning to move you forward. Sometimes, you just wanna go backwards, so you slap it in the other direction and it happens.
Don't think about it too much. The elementals will make it happen for you.
Summon flocks of birds to tow it.
large rear propeller with a troop of ogres to turn the crankshaft.
Option 1: Hot air balloon: Different altitudes have winds going at different directions, change your altitude and hope for the best. Alternately, there's leylines they ride (like rivers)
Option 2: Rocket: You fire something out one direction, this propels you in the other.
Option 3: Beast: Your ship is pulls by gryphons or something, or alternatively is just carried by/on top of one directly.
Option 4: Big wheel: Yeah, you covered a galley hold, but if you put a steam engine in there, eh why not.
1,000 slaves wielding palm fronds just waving them in the opposite direction of where you want to go.
Why do they avoid the ground in this world?
Do they have floating islands and that sort of thing, so ruling the air makes sense? Is the surface just a ruined, inhospitable waste, maybe choked with poisonous gasses like Venus?
Ground is dangerous. Not in the sence floor is lava, but maybe in the sence of swarm of devouring insectoid beast everything alive down there.
My giant flying galleon/aircraft carrier is powered by steam engines. Anyone who asks about how they're powered is told it's a combination of clockwork, magic, and tech. The kingdom that produces them likes their monopoly and capability for force projection. This is really pissing the Dwarves off though as the majority of the ship is built by regular workers and artisans but the final touches such as the diversionary mechanisms, are built under cover by a team of very dedicated artisans. To really ensure these final steps are kept secret only married workers with children are allowed to learn the secrets. If anyone slip up and the secret gets out everyone's family gets disappeared.
Gyro-Copters and Gyro-Chinooks are straight up clockwork though. They're very light and agile compared to the lumbering Galleons and of course excel at dropping troops off when and where they're needed. You wind em with a great big key and take off. I haven't quite figured out how to throttle the engines down.
I've built a pretty large world and I want to make sure my PCs get to see as much of it as possible.
Magical McGuffin No.1 cast levitate 24/7 (important), keeps afloat. Magical McGuffin No.2 cast telekinesis on command. Moves ship
Or (this one is my favorite) magical McGuffin doesn't move the ship trough space but moves the universe around the ship.
What are the military ramifications of airships, either in an otherwise normal medieval/renaissance fantasy world or a floating islands/surface is too dangerous world?
Sails combined with altitude changes to get wind currents going in the direction you want.
This depends on a lot of factors, like how many you can make, how big they have to be and how sturdy and well-armed they can be before they become too heavy to fly.
Logistics are easier and ground forces can't fight them well/at all. Air power is huge these days because of its suppressive effect on ground forces but that's all it is.
Sails. Your in the sky, you have wind.
Mobility, the ability to attack from above or drop strike troops in behind enemy lines or at vital points in a battle, the ability to ignore any terrain when moving your forces.
>Sails. Your in the sky, you have wind.
You can't tack because there isn't water which really messes up your maneuvering options.
Wind rudders of some sought. It should not be too hard to fix.
It's literally impossible without a separate magical MacGuffin because tacking relies on the part of the hull being in a different medium which exerts a different force.
I'm trying to make this work here, but your right :/
I think that locomotion depends on the team using it. Airship are for sky people, so a ship with wings will be nice.
You need some form of magical propulsion like a bound elemental or something like a jet engine made out of an Everburning Torch and an Eversmoking Bottle
The muscles of a massive creature are harvested and carefully preserved within a tank of a potion. These muscles are then grafted to the framework of the ship and its wings, and encased in a thick leather cover. The potion maintains the muscles, requiring only the occasional potion change. A small box at the helm, containing a bundle of neurons, can be stimulated to increase or decrease the speed of the wings.
Truly massive ships require muscles from centuries old titans, limited their number. Smaller vessels can use multiple pairs of wings, allowing them to move much quicker than the behemoths
Ironically we are working on "soft robot" tech like this in the real world. Protiens and folded shape which will "flex" when a charge is applied or temperature is changed. We will have very lifelike animal robots very soon if the software can catch up, but right now we could build your exact idea, albeit prohibitively expensive.
yeah, I blantantly stole the idea from the monster blood tattoo series.
Shame there's not a lot of art for this kind of fantasy
IMW, aircraft ages come and go in varying strengths, and the methods differ
some use bound elementals for both, which is easier but more dangerous both to create and to use
some just use powerful enchantments (like a big wondrous item, basically), but these are the weakest and most expensive
the best use aetherium crystals (air crystals, basically), which are artifacts
a crystal big enough for a ring could give you a permanent feather fall effect
for a necklace would allow you to fly
the size of your fist can power an airship (using lighter than air gas in a balloon for extra lift and sails to catch wind)
size of your head can make a castle fly
size of your body fetal position can make an entire island fly
the larger they are the rarer
there are other elemental crystals, of course, used for different purposes
>monster blood tattoo series.
Underrated YA gem right there
Always felt like there should've been another book where we learn more about the MC
>Option 1: Hot air balloon: Different altitudes have winds going at different directions,
I think most people don't understand this one. Hot air balloons have "more" control than people think.
>We will have very lifelike animal robots very soon if the software can catch up
Oh man, you give a self-learning algorithm a model that more or less matches the characteristics of the soft robots and they will DEVOUR that PID loop.
Now, there's a big difference between a model and the real thing, but it'll be a good first step. Additional training with the real thing will probably do wonders.
In short, the software team is totally prepped and stoked about this once you hardware guys get off your ass and deliver the goods.
>I don't think sails would work because sailboats require both mediums of air currents and ocean currents to do things like tack, while an airship with sails would be at the mercy of the wind.
Players WILL NOT CARE. Seriously, you're getting into a physics lesson when you've already got Buoyancy Mcguffins.
But the GM cares.
airship bump
Main method of buoyancy would be helium/hydrogen zeppelin thingymajigs, with rockets and/or steam powered rotors for thrust. That would just about cover all bases.