3.P Spelljammer plus DragonMech -- Ideas & Questions

[unseenmage]

Am intending to run a 3.P game using what little Spelljammer stuff there is and the DragonMech rules so we can have magic-spaceships and magic-mecha in the same game. It should be glorious.

Had some questions and was wondering if anyone had suggestions for making this a memorable game.

- One of the players wants to race Spelljammers. Thoughts on how we'd go about this? Am looking for a way to make it more fun than simply comparing the speeds of different craft.
- The racing idea gave way to the idea of mech fights. Am thinking more boxing than gladiatorial fight-to-the-death. Thoughts on this one?

- Does PF have rules for spaceships or mecha?
- If such rules exist would they combine with Spelljammer or DragonMech in any meaningful way?
- Does PF have rules for vehicles and are they superior to the vehicle rules found in the old 3.0 Arms and Equipment Guide?


- Had the idea to have a DragonMech city-mech drop spear shaped mecha onto a planet from orbit. Thought son how this could be accomplished?
DragonMechs can be either magical Constructs or mundane machines if that helps.
- One supposes the spears could instead be spelljammer ships that dispense smaller mechs when they "land".
Spelljammers are simply vehicles which have been equipped with a wondrous magic item that allows them to navigate the magic-outer-space of the Spelljammer setting if that helps.

[DrMotives]

The first way to handle a race that isn't just comparing vehicle speeds would be with profession (pilot) or (sailor) checks to gain an advantage. You could also possibly work out an actual course with obstacles, make it like the Millennium Falcon dodging asteroids to escape TIE fighters. Star Wars has more in common with high fantasy than most sci-fi anyway, it's ripe for inspiring Spelljammer campaigns.

[Bronk]

A spelljammer race... sounds fun! I'd also suggest piloting checks and stuff like that.

The race could entail some ship to ship combat, befouling each other's air, boarding parties, getting as close to another ship or an asteroid turnaround point as possible to shave time off without getting too close and coming out of spelljamming speeds, or coming into contact with one of the many spelljamming monsters (like the giant spiders who spin their webs through asteroid fields to catch ships and eat the crew).

Maybe they could bribe a few people before the race, or be the first to hire a space owl navigator, or get an opposing crew blind drunk the night before to slow them up some.

Spies could poison opposing team's pilots, trick them into sitting on spelljamming helms ahead of time so they have no power left, and sending a fetching vamp or succubus/incubus over to drain their levels.

They could go on missions to try to outfit their ship with magic items that would help them out, like phantom crews or speedy keels.

Scro pirates could attack... do the PCs win, lose, help someone else out?

Plus, those DragonMech's could actually have spelljamming helms installed in them somewhere... all this could be done while flying those around.

[Tvtyrant]

This sounds like an amazing idea! I think I would only really want to do it with E6 rules, seeing as the Dragonmechs aren't a threat to high level characters and get silly huge. But a battle between a colossal IV mech and a cuddlecommand would be just about the coolest thing ever.

[Theodred theOld]

I found this site www.spelljammer.org/. Tons of material and conversions. Haven't really playtested any of it but it looks pretty good.

[unseenmage]

The first way to handle a race that isn't just comparing vehicle speeds would be with profession (pilot) or (sailor) checks to gain an advantage. You could also possibly work out an actual course with obstacles, make it like the Millennium Falcon dodging asteroids to escape TIE fighters. Star Wars has more in common with high fantasy than most sci-fi anyway, it's ripe for inspiring Spelljammer campaigns.

A spelljammer race... sounds fun! I'd also suggest piloting checks and stuff like that.

The race could entail some ship to ship combat, befouling each other's air, boarding parties, getting as close to another ship or an asteroid turnaround point as possible to shave time off without getting too close and coming out of spelljamming speeds, or coming into contact with one of the many spelljamming monsters (like the giant spiders who spin their webs through asteroid fields to catch ships and eat the crew).

Maybe they could bribe a few people before the race, or be the first to hire a space owl navigator, or get an opposing crew blind drunk the night before to slow them up some.

Spies could poison opposing team's pilots, trick them into sitting on spelljamming helms ahead of time so they have no power left, and sending a fetching vamp or succubus/incubus over to drain their levels.

They could go on missions to try to outfit their ship with magic items that would help them out, like phantom crews or speedy keels.

Scro pirates could attack... do the PCs win, lose, help someone else out?

Plus, those DragonMech's could actually have spelljamming helms installed in them somewhere... all this could be done while flying those around.
All fantastic ideas! Thanks. You both definitely got my brain up and racing with ideas.


This sounds like an amazing idea! I think I would only really want to do it with E6 rules, seeing as the Dragonmechs aren't a threat to high level characters and get silly huge. But a battle between a colossal IV mech and a cuddlecommand would be just about the coolest thing ever.
We're not doing E6 but we are definitely starting at 6th level. Tier 3 builds too as even the DragonMech classes are kinda lackluster.


I found this site www.spelljammer.org/. Tons of material and conversions. Haven't really playtested any of it but it looks pretty good.
I already have this one perma-bookmarked. :smallsmile: But thanks anyway.

I found this site of DragonMech converted to PF (http://pf-dragonmech.wikispaces.com/) but it looks like someone forgot to pay the bills. Which is a shame as I thought they'd done a fair job with their conversion.

[Tvtyrant]

Doing some calculations between ship tonnes from Spelljammer and PUs from Dragonmech, a ton is filled by about 38 PUs (38.111_) which means that the weight metric in Dragonmech is tremendously off (it should be 13,000 pounds to a PU, not 1,000). By area though you get the following stats.

Large mech: .157 tons/10 ft tall
Huge mech: .264 tons/15 ft tall
gargantuan mech: .526 tons/25 ft. tall
colossal mech: .842 tons/35 ft. tall
colossal II mech: 1.68 tons/50 ft. tall
colossal III mech: 3.368 tons/75 ft. tall
Colossal IV mech: 6.736 tons/110 ft. tall
Colossal V mech: 13.473 tons/165 ft. tall

Increase by half again when fully loaded. Some of the smaller city mechs are movable or you can put a helm in them, but they are unlikely to be available except as artifacts.

[unseenmage]

Doing some calculations between ship tonnes from Spelljammer and PUs from Dragonmech, a ton is filled by about 38 PUs (38.111_) which means that the weight metric in Dragonmech is tremendously off (it should be 13,000 pounds to a PU, not 1,000). By area though you get the following stats.

Large mech: .157 tons/10 ft tall
Huge mech: .264 tons/15 ft tall
gargantuan mech: .526 tons/25 ft. tall
colossal mech: .842 tons/35 ft. tall
colossal II mech: 1.68 tons/50 ft. tall
colossal III mech: 3.368 tons/75 ft. tall
Colossal IV mech: 6.736 tons/110 ft. tall
Colossal V mech: 13.473 tons/165 ft. tall

Increase by half again when fully loaded. Some of the smaller city mechs are movable or you can put a helm in them, but they are unlikely to be available except as artifacts.


Thank you! (http://www.troll.me/images/joseph-ducreux/hot-damn-you-da-man.jpg)

[atemu1234]

Thank you! (http://www.troll.me/images/joseph-ducreux/hot-damn-you-da-man.jpg)


The Wayback Machine is our friend. (http://web.archive.org/web/20130421210425/http://pf-dragonmech.wikispaces.com)

[unseenmage]

The Wayback Machine is our friend. (http://web.archive.org/web/20130421210425/http://pf-dragonmech.wikispaces.com)

Hrm, when I try the links to the wiki-ed material I get this, "Page cannot be crawled or displayed due to robots.txt."
Which sucks.

This is my sadface. (http://www.quickmeme.com/img/f8/f8e6897e8a43facb012572ed3daa5ac46af230f42e172925ae e3d52d014ed435.jpg)

[Bronk]

I saw your question over on Afroakuma's page...

I don't know what his answer would be, but a lot of existing spelljammer ships are like half mech already. Locust ships and mantis ships have insectile grasping arms, and there are ship add-ons for 'grappling arms', making a lot of ship on ship action very 'Outlaw Star'.

[unseenmage]

I saw your question over on Afroakuma's page...

I don't know what his answer would be, but a lot of existing spelljammer ships are like half mech already. Locust ships and mantis ships have insectile grasping arms, and there are ship add-ons for 'grappling arms', making a lot of ship on ship action very 'Outlaw Star'.

Which is completely awesome. I had no idea and I do love me some 'Outlaw Star'. Making a note to add researching that to my to-do list.

[Tvtyrant]

- Had the idea to have a DragonMech city-mech drop spear shaped mecha onto a planet from orbit. Thought son how this could be accomplished?
DragonMechs can be either magical Constructs or mundane machines if that helps.
- One supposes the spears could instead be spelljammer ships that dispense smaller mechs when they "land".
Spelljammers are simply vehicles which have been equipped with a wondrous magic item that allows them to navigate the magic-outer-space of the Spelljammer setting if that helps.
City mech sizes A-C can use a major helm to fly, so you could have them drop under their own power. There is also using Combine Magic to put a permanent Glide effect on them and featherfall to Earth. For the drop pod effect, there is a dwarven Citadel with dozens of mechs inside as an attack strategy.