Game Idea - Skyward Sword meets D&D

[Meltheim]

So I'm itching to run another 5e game, but this time to do something homebrewed instead of one of the existing modules. I've been playing a lot of Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword with my daughter lately, and it dawned on me - that could actually make a relatively cool game world.

Concept: For hundreds (thousands?) of years, people have lived in the floating islands above the clouds. Travel between islands is done on mounted birds, or on massive airships. The general populace has not seen surface in generations, though some daring souls claim to have flown down below. Rumor has it that the islands were lifted into the sky by the gods, in an attempt to save the mortal races from a horrible catastrophe that befell the surface. The surface itself could be wild and untamed, unexplored landscape with relics from ancient civilizations and clues to the original conflict.

Players: Player characters can be knights in training at the academy, or they can work at their trade on the various island villages that dot the skyline. Players could start doing routine missions at the 'sky' level, until something pushes them to explore the surface below. Part of the tension could be in the uncertainty that they would be able to return to the sky, which could be balanced with the limitless potential of exploration and artifacts that lie on the surface.

It has all the options of a traditional 'naval' setting, but also allows for the surface mission idea as well. I wouldn't try to tie it to the Zelda world other than in concept - so there wouldn't be Moblins or Ganon or a Triforce or anything like that.

Thoughts?

[Grand Warchief]

Would be hard due to teleport/plane shift being mid range spells. Couple that with the fact that 5e has no dimension lock/anchor. But I purpose a house rule or just rule 0 would work. Keep in mind that once you have high level casters in your game, things will start to get out of hand And things that work with low level characters no longer do.

[Envyus]

It should be noted that in Skyward Sword. Ghirahim was stated to not be the only Demon Lord on the surface. So another idea for a setting like this. Is that parts of it are ruled by Demon Lords and other monstrous rulers.

[Meltheim]

I have no idea why teleport and plane shift would impact this - are you thinking of that as the way players get from sky to surface?

With respect to high level casters being problematic ... That would mean the game had survived long enough to get to high level. That is a problem worth enduring :smallbiggrin:

[Meltheim]

It should be noted that in Skyward Sword. Ghirahim was stated to not be the only Demon Lord on the surface. So another idea for a setting like this. Is that parts of it are ruled by Demon Lords and other monstrous rulers.

That is kind of what enticed me - the surface that we see in the game seems to be such a small part of the world - surely there are other Demon Lord domains worth exploring

[Grand Warchief]

That is kind of what enticed me - the surface that we see in the game seems to be such a small part of the world - surely there are other Demon Lord domains worth exploring

Make sure you give your players a reason to go exploring. You know, the whole, trying to take over/destroy the work bit, or the unleashing of an ancient evil hook :) one of the characters at the moment is a Paladin of the ancients who's goal is to find the sword of evils bane so he can banish the great evil back into the abyss from whence it came lol

[Submortimer]

So I'm itching to run another 5e game, but this time to do something homebrewed instead of one of the existing modules. I've been playing a lot of Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword with my daughter lately, and it dawned on me - that could actually make a relatively cool game world.

Concept: For hundreds (thousands?) of years, people have lived in the floating islands above the clouds. Travel between islands is done on mounted birds, or on massive airships. The general populace has not seen surface in generations, though some daring souls claim to have flown down below. Rumor has it that the islands were lifted into the sky by the gods, in an attempt to save the mortal races from a horrible catastrophe that befell the surface. The surface itself could be wild and untamed, unexplored landscape with relics from ancient civilizations and clues to the original conflict.

Players: Player characters can be knights in training at the academy, or they can work at their trade on the various island villages that dot the skyline. Players could start doing routine missions at the 'sky' level, until something pushes them to explore the surface below. Part of the tension could be in the uncertainty that they would be able to return to the sky, which could be balanced with the limitless potential of exploration and artifacts that lie on the surface.

It has all the options of a traditional 'naval' setting, but also allows for the surface mission idea as well. I wouldn't try to tie it to the Zelda world other than in concept - so there wouldn't be Moblins or Ganon or a Triforce or anything like that.

Thoughts?

Inception them. They go down to the surface, explore around, have a big adventure with whatever resides there, only to find out that....its just another floating island. Continent sized, but still floating.

[Yakk]

So, a problem with air-based games is that ground-based travel is more than a bit too easy.

In Skyward Sword, you aren't allowed to fly "near the surface". We can use magic-physics to make this more clear.

Proposal:
Gravity does not work like it does in our world.

Instead, Earth pulls things above it down. ("above" is an absolute direction), and for a shorter distance repels things "below" (makes them fall), but the repelling under is more chaotic.

Both Air and Water shield you from this effect in different ways. Water weakens it (so gravity above a body of water is weaker than gravity above ground) in a "horizontal" way, while Air reduces gravity with height.

Fire shields you from Gravity in complicated ways. You can find low-gravity channels near active Volcanoes (for example) usually, but they don't lead you directly down to the magma. Such channels are harder to navigate and flow over time. When a low-gravity channel does intersect with a volcano opening, lava shoots up into the air (and an eruption occurs).

Wood, being made of elemental Earth, also produces a local gravity field above it.

Momentum doesn't work like it does in our world either. If you fall off a world, you fall down faster and faster -- but once you leave the gravity field, you start slowing down, and eventually you float.

If you have airships:

Shooting down is hard (as your shots are buffeted by your own "under" gravity field), as is shooting up (as they are both repelled and buffeted by their gravity field). Being relatively "in the same plane" is the easiest way to hit a target.

Birds can carry things high up in the air by flying off the side, as gravity stops making the carried creature a burden.

Flying down the the surface requires that you land on reasonably large bodies of water, or near other ways to reduce gravity. Taking off is a bit harder than landing, requiring more shielding, as going down you only need to slow down, but up you need to push off.

Falling off an island makes you fall for a short bit, then float. Falling off an airship, if you jump far enough over the side you float, if you don't you fall a bit then float. Falling off a bird, you just float. This makes combat in the air a bit less deadly.

This also means that the floating islands don't need magic to keep themselves aloft. Once a chunk of ground leaves the planet far enough, it will float in the sky all by itself with no active support. Pieces that break off can float on their own. Smaller islands that float close enough above may crash into the top of the chunk of ground however: but the distance gravity extends over relatively small islands could be pretty short (even a short tower might be enough to mostly pull away, allowing the sky-folk to have docks in the middle of floating islands).

Harvesting floating dust, dirt and debris and using it to shore up your island is a valid activity. There could be dirt farms in the sky.