[Eberron] Crewing an Airship

[Anonomuss]

In my Eberron game, my players have just received an airship to use in the pursuit of their employment as independant contractors for Merrix D'Cannith. They were given a certain level of expenses to pay for crewing it, so that they could be delivered to their destination quickly. They settled on a moderately sized crew, and they seem pretty happy with the situation as things are going (In particular the fact that the campaign is as much Mass Effect or Firefly as it is Conan or Lord of the Rings), but I want to make the crew of the ship as much a character as the players themselves. The ship itself already has a bit of a personality that they've attached themselves to (It's an overactive elemental that wasn't bound properly, but they calmed it down, fed it, and convinced it to work for them, and even gave it the freedom to manifest on the ship itself when they're not flying.), but I want to give them a reason to get attached to their crew as well.

I was hoping you, the wonderous, generous and creative people of the playground could help me to populate their ship (The Triumphant) with characters that are interesting, and have a few hooks that my players can latch on to. In particular, since I'm new to the setting, I was wondering what kind of people would work on an airship flying out of Sharn.
Thanks for your help in advance.

[SilverLeaf167]

I don't know whether this fits Sharn in particular (never played Eberron) but you could definitely get some nice character from some classic archetypes.

One example: maybe one member of the crew is a Good were-something, who tries to escape civilization so that he wouldn't hurt anyone when morphed involuntarily? Some crewmates might know a good way to keep him in a leash, but what happens when the leash fails?
Another: Maybe a healing/utility Cleric with a motherly personality, an old woman who treats the crew as a replacement for her own offspring? You could also get a plot hook about what happened to her real children.

Overall, an efficient way to make the players get attached to a group of people is giving them and the group a feel of unity. The group will help them and treat them as friends/overseers (whichever the players prefer), but aren't under their absolute control. It will also be much easier for the players to roleplay when the NPCs have personalities of their own, so that they aren't just nameless and brainless mooks.

[Keld Denar]

I'll just leave this right here... (http://www.angelfire.com/dragon3/captainjarlot/)
Some examples:
57. The changeling is forbidden from deliberately appearing as Earth celebrities she has no idea exist.

61. The Monk will also not use the word "WO PAW!" after every strike.

62. Shifters cannot be Catgirls.

63. Or Foxgirls.

64. OR BUNNY GIRLS.

65. Even if they were I could not make a mansion of them and sell their pictorials.

75. You will not refer to a wand of fireballs as your "Boom Stick"

86. I will not attempt to turn the Forgotten Freedom into a Pimp Mobile

90. We are not the Crew of Firefly.

93. I am to be referred to as Captain Jarlot not "Jack Sparrow" or "Keith Richards"

117. You shall not argue the merits of the attractive paladin turning tricks "for the good of the party."

130. You will not try and hum the 2001 theme when encountering Quori monoliths.

148. The proper battle cry for a female moonspeaker is not "IN THE NAME OF THE MOON, I WILL PUNISH YOU!"

237. The Changeling will not use the Warforged to break his fall.

238. Your Shifter was not an original cast member of “CATS”

262. Using the skyskiff to pick up chicks is stricktly prohibited.

263. Unless you bring back enough for everyone.

268. No, you cannot have the cleric cast Remove Disease on you now. You have to suffer for a bit. We warned you about Droaam girls, but *no*, you didn't listen.

340. There is no such thing as a Dragonmark of Caring nor does my Bear Shifter have it on his tummy.

420. Marish the Shifter Girl is to be reminded her race is terrifying and feral, not cute and fuzzy.

[Marnath]

I don't know whether this fits Sharn in particular (never played Eberron) but you could definitely get some nice character from some classic archetypes.

One example: maybe one member of the crew is a Good were-something, who tries to escape civilization so that he wouldn't hurt anyone when morphed involuntarily? Some crewmates might know a good way to keep him in a leash, but what happens when the leash fails?


That would be interesting since IIRC true lycanthropes were thought to have been hunted to extinction in Eberron centuries before you typically play there. Keeping his identity a secret from the silver flame church would be an adventure in itself.

[Kansaschaser]

My favorite non-player characters that I used for an "Airship/Spelljammer".

Captain: Stuck up Dwarf that is obsessive compulsive about cleaning.

First Mate: Alcaholic Half-Elf that never gets to drive the ship.

Deck Hands: Minoutars, Half-Orcs, Orcs, Human, etc...

Cook: Thrikeen that always trys to get the captain to purchase some "halfling" meat for the stew.

Doctor: Vegeterian Mind Flayer that uses a ring of sustenance to sustain himself and occasionaly eats steamed vegetables and fruits.

Ship: Has the mind of a 12 year old girl. Literally, the ship is intelligent because the person who made the ship killed a 12 year old girl and implanted her brain into the ship. This 12 year old girl now controls the ships functions. Oh, and she was also related to one of the player characters.

Security: Robots. Well, warforged. And they had their own repair bay.

[Kol Korran]

well, in order to appeal to the players, we need to know a little bit more about who they are and their tastes. a few ideas that come to mind though:

1) ship engineer: a young, enthusiastic but socially inept goblin, who always solves the ships problems by unconventional and seemingly dangerous methods. he vies for recognition, but his methods keep him being turned down. you can even develop a small side ruling for him:
improvements: the goblin comes to the PCs with his latest idea! "i can make it go twice as fast in storms/ make it disappear for 2 minutes a day/ make it stop and go in reverse/ make it appear as a cloud pouring rain/ make it able to shoot fire from it's catapults!" or other ideas, for quite a bit of money. (not for himself, rather for research and... "trial and error"). then you roll the dice, with 5 possible outcomes: it succeeds, it fails but nothing happens, it succeeds beyond expectation, it fails horribly and does some damage, or... the invention comes out as something usefull, only not quite as planned...
magic item creator he can try the same things with creating simple magic items, probably for less money then they usually cost. basically, you can use the same dice roll idea.

2) one of the group should be a changling that has a different gal/ guy in every port, many times disappearing for a day or two on leaves (if they have them), and coming back in a hurry. their romantic partners might seek the ship when it docks, looking for a sailor the party just doesn't know...

3) since they take shifts, i suggest you have 2-3 pilots. they should have different personalities. one could be a daredevil "speed car racer" kind of guy, while the other might be a very calm and relaxed older experienced pilot, who isn't fizzled by a thing, with a pipe s/he never lits, but is always in his/her mouth. most likely they are half elves, but you could put in another race as well.

4) 3 warforged who came from the same platoon, now trying to live life after the war. they are partially crew hands, partially security, and deal with trouble. make them decent back ups, but definetly not up to the party's skill. um.. yeah, i don't know much how to evolve this one.

5) i second the lycanthrope/ shifter idea, nice one.

6) a halfling or two who used to ride the flying dinosaurs (forgot their name- glidewings?) and for some reason (you decide the dirty secret), he isn't allowed to ride one, or be with his tribe no more. so he does the closest thing, though he mourns and bemoans his fate, always talking about how "this is not like the real thing". has all kind of exotic behaviors and customs as befitting a talenta halfling.

i hope this helped. best i could do.
Kol.

[Tvtyrant]

Breed a Whale with a Dragon so you can have a gargantuan flying mount to pull the ship :D

[avr]

Delegate. Let the players each roll up (yes, roll) stats for a few of the crew and ask them what these crew members should be like. Ownership will help keep the players interested.

[AtlanteanTroll]

Breed a Whale with a Dragon so you can have a gargantuan flying mount to pull the ship :D

Best part is that you could call it a Wagon.

[Kansaschaser]

Delegate. Let the players each roll up (yes, roll) stats for a few of the crew and ask them what these crew members should be like. Ownership will help keep the players interested.

Oh, that's a good idea. I think the next time I run an "Airship/Spelljammer" game I'll have the players each make a few of the crew members.

[bloodtide]

Well......a fun thing to do is simply take anyone of the famous fictional crews and adapt it to your sky ship. Star Trek alone gives you five crews. Plus you can use characters from any show, really.


The typical, generic ships crew is running from something. This can be the law, or responsibility, but also things like boredom. A lot of the crew will simply have no other place to go.

[Bayar]

I'll just leave this right here... (http://www.angelfire.com/dragon3/captainjarlot/)
Some examples:
57. The changeling is forbidden from deliberately appearing as Earth celebrities she has no idea exist.

61. The Monk will also not use the word "WO PAW!" after every strike.

62. Shifters cannot be Catgirls.

63. Or Foxgirls.

64. OR BUNNY GIRLS.

65. Even if they were I could not make a mansion of them and sell their pictorials.

75. You will not refer to a wand of fireballs as your "Boom Stick"

86. I will not attempt to turn the Forgotten Freedom into a Pimp Mobile

90. We are not the Crew of Firefly.

93. I am to be referred to as Captain Jarlot not "Jack Sparrow" or "Keith Richards"

117. You shall not argue the merits of the attractive paladin turning tricks "for the good of the party."

130. You will not try and hum the 2001 theme when encountering Quori monoliths.

148. The proper battle cry for a female moonspeaker is not "IN THE NAME OF THE MOON, I WILL PUNISH YOU!"

237. The Changeling will not use the Warforged to break his fall.

238. Your Shifter was not an original cast member of “CATS”

262. Using the skyskiff to pick up chicks is stricktly prohibited.

263. Unless you bring back enough for everyone.

268. No, you cannot have the cleric cast Remove Disease on you now. You have to suffer for a bit. We warned you about Droaam girls, but *no*, you didn't listen.

340. There is no such thing as a Dragonmark of Caring nor does my Bear Shifter have it on his tummy.

420. Marish the Shifter Girl is to be reminded her race is terrifying and feral, not cute and fuzzy.

Better Index of the rules here (http://wiki.rpg.net/index.php/Forgotten_Freedom:Rules). Also has crew profiles and stories.

[Anonomuss]

Thanks for all the suggestions guys. I'm definately going to be using some of these ideas. I'll let you know what I end up with and what my players think.