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Parra
2010-04-14, 07:07 AM
I need ideas for a Mobile Fortress, currently enemy occupied but soon to be cleared subsequently occupied by the PC's

What I have so far:

Storey/theme wise: The Fortress is a massively huge Rock/steel/iron Spider (classic tarantula style), moving across the war torn cubes of Acheron. Its an absolute terror in battle. Unfortunately thanks to the fickle fortunes or war, its occupants have fallen on hard times. It was recently attack by another army and while it was successfully defended it was left severely depleted in man-power and is in hiding. Qué PC's learning of its location and moving in for the kill/take-over

Occupants: A few hundred Assorted Goblinoid

I will be drawing on the Stronghold builders guidebook for the more mundane parts

Legs:
having an overland walking speed of ~4mph.

Abdomen:
Dozens of Ballista & Catapults
Landing area for flyers
the internal parts of the abdomen contain the classic parts of the fortress i.e. living quarters, stores, armouries kitchens etc
Also contains the 'fortress control room' which controls the fortresses more interesting abilities.

Body:
Open air courtyard used as a staging area for ground forces to disembark.
Courtyard enclosed by classic style battlements with smaller number of Ballista (primarily to discourage air incursions in this area.

Head
lower able ramp to allow troops to disembark/stage ground assaults.

Im considering 2 further ideas for the fortress.
One is that is has a long ranged Web-slinging ability that would allow it to shoot nearby Acheron Cubes and thus facilitate travelling between cubes.
The Second was some sort of plane shift device. Im a little concerned how do use this one as I dont want them plane hopping all over the place so it will probably come with a control mechanism of some kind i.e. needs to be powered up or takes a long time to recharge (week/month) or some combination thereof

The party, if it matters, consists of: Monk, Rogue, Druid, Blaster themed Sorcerer, Fighter, 2 Clerics of Hextor

What are peoples thoughts and ideas on this? Is there any other funkiness I can add to this to make it that little bit more cooler for the PC's?

cssmythe3
2010-04-14, 07:39 AM
http://index.rpg.net/display-entry.phtml?mainid=8325

I'm going to be running this one soon - its a module based on a very similar concept. It's smaller than the fortress you are planning on...

http://www.goodman-games.com/WW17600preview.html

http://www.goodman-games.com/images/DMechCoverChars.jpg

This one has things BIGGER than the one you were planning on. Mobile cities. Giant hollow lances than disgorge troops into the target after piercing it, etc.

I'm running a campaign set in this world. Poke around on the website, there are lots of previews.

Both are available as PDF purchases...

Cheers,

Parra
2010-04-14, 07:52 AM
some interesting ideas there, not sure if they quite fit, but definatly quite interesting. might be able to adapt a few bits with some thought

Cuaqchi
2010-04-14, 08:02 AM
Honestly, unless you give players this sort of thing every game it should be cool enough. The easiest way to control how quickly they use it might be to associate certain aspects with magic they must activate and control: charging the Plane Shifter with associated energy might be one way to control it and its destination.

Honestly, the first group I DMed had their own M.O.P. (Mobile Oppression Palace) as well and they loved it. It allowed them world spanning freedom, while providing a plot point that didn't require player knowledge of its workings.

Parra
2010-04-14, 08:18 AM
Well I know my players, when they reach a certain level (say 8-10) they nest. The build/conquer some place and start building it up. From basic castle & towns, extra-dimensional town-houses, hollowed out mountains to multiply linked personal demi-planes. So they have done the fortress thing (almost) to death.

They haven't, however, ever had one that moves around. Im thinking I might hve the fortress have some 'damaged' sections that are non-functional when they first get the place and as they inest time/effort/money (aka level a bit) they can repair there functionality and keep the Fortress up-to-par as the game progresses in difficulty

Enguhl
2010-04-14, 08:27 AM
I second Dragonmech, actually running it right now. It has great rules for making exactly what you want (works better than Stronghold Builder's for what you want).
Has rules for how many weapons you can put on it, how many firing ports it will have, the number of people that can live/work on it. Even fuel requirements (unless just magically animated.
Good stuff.

Nodwick22
2010-04-14, 08:28 AM
you might make the planeshifter go wonky when they try to use it...either it doesnt work at all or it sends them to a random plane

cssmythe3
2010-04-14, 10:05 AM
I second Dragonmech, actually running it right now.

Wow, another Dragonmech GM! I thought we were extinct :smalltongue:

But I digress...

One cool thing from dragonmech is a 'gear forest' - the ecosystem inside the engine! Assuming your fortress isn't a golem or otherwise entirely magically animated, there is some massive chamber housing gears, chains, pistons, rivers of oil etc. Great place for a fight scene, or to sneak around inside the fortress. An encounter could occur on the classy conveyor belt with smashy-choppy things between the PCs and a goblin maintenance crew hurling sharpened gears and squirting grease guns at the PC's feet.

http://www.buccaneerbass.com/rls/images/ourmaterial/charpics/BB_characterpic_emmer.jpg

How old is the fortress? Who built it? Humans will have to be constantly ducking if built by goblins. Perhaps more interesting would be to have it built by someone who was obviously a LARGE race, but it is now currently manned by goblins (shades of Robotech...). There would be interesting 'work arounds' installed to let them operate massive controls.

I like the image of 4 goblins working together to turn a massive wheel at the 'helm' of the fortress.

Parra
2010-04-14, 12:44 PM
How old is the fortress? Who built it? Humans will have to be constantly ducking if built by goblins. Perhaps more interesting would be to have it built by someone who was obviously a LARGE race, but it is now currently manned by goblins (shades of Robotech...). There would be interesting 'work arounds' installed to let them operate massive controls.

I like the image of 4 goblins working together to turn a massive wheel at the 'helm' of the fortress.

I had figured it is pretty old, built by 'someone else' long long ago and its current owners are goblins. I'll have to say that the teams of gobbo's to operate its basic functions is quite appealing, hadn't thought about that :smallbiggrin: