Skypunk!

[skreweded]

I was talking about tailspin (yea. the old kids show) with a friend, and it occured to me what the theme behind it was. Skypunk. And that would make one badass campaign. I was thinking privately owned flying islands, thefts are made by sky. airplanes are the staple mode of transportation. The number of cars IRL= number of plans in rpg. Planes IRL=helicopters in rpg. The evil villains base of opperations may be a giant blimp. If you are in a slow bomber, and a bunch of small attack planes attack, you would send out a guy on a rope with one of those damn cool metal disk thingies to take them out.

I was thinking present day technology, early 1900s mechanics. IE planes and vehicles and such have GPS, but a rotor style motor.
Any ideas on a way to make this work, more fun, or better?

[Rutee]

I would strongly recommend Silhouette Core as your system, as it is very much a vehicle-based system. Other then that, not much to say, except good luck! That looks like a fun concept to start with.

The kid on the disc would be a crew manned weapon, mechanically.. not sure how all I'd handle it. But that'd be my vote on a system, since I'm not sure on other games that put such a high emphasis on one's vehicles.

[Nebo_]

I played in a one shot game in a world like this. The tech level wasn't quite up to planes, but there were mechanikal (If you've played IK, you'll know what I mean) airships and floating island cities.

[Vazzaroth]

No idea about other systems, I'm a d20 product.

However, d20 past is the best d20 analogue. They have a campaign module that would be easily adaptable to this idea. I recommend looking into it.

[TheThan]

The kid’s name was Kit Cloudkicker FYI. I think his disk thingy was called an Airfoil or some such, its been along time since I’ve seen it. Tailspin was actually a pretty good show.

One thing you’re going to have to figure out is how they get the material to build the vehicles and the fuel to run them. You’re going to want it to be fairly believable. They can’t mine flying islands too much or they’ll eventually fall through the bottoms.

[hewhosaysfish]

One thing you’re going to have to figure out is how they get the material to build the vehicles and the fuel to run them. You’re going to want it to be fairly believable. They can’t mine flying islands too much or they’ll eventually fall through the bottoms.

I don't know if it would ift the setting (never seen the setting) but you could adopt a wild west, semi-gold rush sort of feel.
Once you've mined out 1 island, you'd have to pay a bunch of brave adventurers to go off into the uncharted wilderness, fight off flying monsters and sky pirate/bandits, find a suitable island to start a new mine, fight off claim-jumpers, defend the small mining communities from pirates/rivals...

[MightyIgoo]

Ever heard of Crimson Skies for the XBox? It may have some of the flavor you're talking about. Well, think less flying islands and more Indiana Jones, but still, lots of dogfighting, sort of a "What if the 1940s were full of airships" kind of thing.

[Human Paragon 3]

Check out the movie Castle in the Sky (it's a studio Gibli flick) for more inspiration. Robot design and the sky pirates sound like they'd be great for your setting. The era is similar as well.

[ColdBrew]

You should check out the Virga series by Karl Schroeder (starting with Sun of Suns). Basically, the world is a giant (and I do mean giant) air filled bag floating in space, with an artificial sun in the middle and smaller suns scattered throughout. There's atmosphere, but no gravity, so towns are rotating wooden wheels or cylinders, and people fly by means of airships, skybikes, or artificial wings. Tech level is essentially Victorian, with scattered remnants of advanced technology (someone built the bag after all).

[Redcap]

Ever heard of Crimson Skies for the XBox?

Crimson Skies was actually a FASA tabletop product in the mid to late nineties, long before said console existed. It is, however, a perfect example of the sort of material the OP seems to be looking for. If you look around, you might still be able to find copies of the books; mostly it was written for a hex map miniatures game, much like Classic Battletech.

(First post, woot!:smallbiggrin: )

[Baxbart]

Ah yes, I remember Crimson Skies (The board game, that is). I believe I have it sitting about at home somewhere... buried under a mountain of other games/books/miniatures and cleverly concealed behind a broken Television (I really need a clear-out...)

Anyway, I'd have to agree that sounds like the sort of take you might like. I vaguely remember the system being rather complex, at least in terms of bookkeeping - and probably not quite what you're looking for as an RPG (since the 'pilot' pretty much consisted of... I think it was just three stats, and nothing else).

The background/flavour for Crimson Skies might be well worth looking up.

[Storm Bringer]

I'd second Crimson Skies, as well. It was orginally a wargame, with a couple of computer games based off it. the setting is pretty neat, actaully.

it's set in the mid-late 30's, and it's not TOTALLY airboune, in that most of the population still lives on terra firma, but due to the shattered nature of the US (it's about 30 or so state sized mini-nations, which came apart during Prohibition), and the lack of road and rail connections, all cross-continent freight is done by zepplins. now, with 30 odd nation states in the area of the former US, tensions are high, to say the least. lots of skirmishs, and LOT's of old fashioned outlaws, varying form wild west cowboys in planes to old school Pirates (of the "yah, jim lad" type)....in planes. They've perfected air lauch and recovery methods, and they;ve turned the airships into flying carriers, often loaded with planes that don't actually have conventional undercarridge and cannot land

that, and the so many of the planes absolutly killer look.

A bit more here. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crimson_Skies)

[skreweded]

Wow, thanks! I did not expect so much response! I guess people are interested. So I might as well give more detail on current plans.
I am thinking very low level planes (probably bending the laws of physics a little) that fly at about 60-70 MPH, just because they cant get faster. Essentially, no jet engine. Very few, if any rockets. Essentially, any combat is going to be one on one, jumping from plane to plane. Think of bad assery. Not realism. if anyone has anything more to contribute, then I would love to hear. I am thinking fuel is a simple gas motor, and assume there are parts of the planet that are on land, to mine from. As far as flying islands, i was thinking they would be held up by helicoptor like pods attached by cables. I really wasnt planning on worrying about fuel too much.
Just running ideas past people.

[Ascension]

60-70 MPH? I know you admit you're straining the laws of physics, but you're barely going to be airborne at those speeds (if at all... it's been a while since I was last around planes). I'd kick it up to the mid-one-hundreds at least... remember, the relative speeds can still be low enough to allow movement between craft, if you really want wing-walking duels.

If you do it the way you're talking about, it sounds like it would have to be a high-magic scenario...

[skreweded]

Very valid point. I think i will take that into account, the MPH was just off the top of my head, and i have a very rudimentary knowledge of how exactly planes work. That taken into acount, speeds confuse me. Whatever. I just want it so its possible to mess around with other people while in mid air, minus some form of docking.