Wormwood - Fill the Skies

[Bill]

Looking to expand on the skelterbats and winged serpents for some good old sword and planet sky-piracy. Please suggest rideable flying creatures and flying magical vehicles already in print from any Palladium source for inclusion in Wormwood.

[Fell]

Air Ships. Techno Wizard in design. That's something big in my WW game. In Palladium Books, any Ship converted to TW to fly. In our game these Air Ship Pirates attack World Gate often.



Or maybe: ... Dragondactyl (see Rifts Conversion Book, page 118).

[Bill]

Air Ships. Techno Wizard in design. That's something big in my WW game. In Palladium Books, any Ship converted to TW to fly. In our game these Air Ship Pirates attack World Gate often.

Page references?

[Glistam]

There are dinosaurs in World Book 14 and the Dinosaur Swamp books that fly and may fit the bill. The Conversion Book 1 has Palladium Fantasy creatures like the Dragondactyl, the Pegasus and the Griffon. The After The Bomb supplement Mutants Down Under has a section for Airships that could be a lot of fun. Palladium Fantasy Library of Bletherad has notes for 4 different types of flying airships. There is a Wingrider vehicle in Rifts: Warlords of Russia (book 17). The Icarus Flight System from Rifts World Book 10 is pretty insane. It's either Atlantis or Splynn Dimensional Market which discusses some air vehicles for Atlantean air tours.

[taalismn]

Indeed..air ships! Leather-skinned blimps! War-Zeps!!!

[Fell]

Indeed..air ships! Leather-skinned blimps! War-Zeps!!!

Oh yeah lots of fun, the first time I had Pirates in airships attack World Gate at the end of the game session my players said we got to get one of those !!

[taalismn]

Look at early pre-Weight Brothers designs for various proposed flying machines for some fantastic-looking aircraft that could be the basis for TW/steampunk designs.

[say652]

Achilles republic.
Condoroid, Falconoid and Centauroid would all fit in very nicely.
Also Blood Rider and Blood Lizards.
And those nifty Armor of The Sun magic power armor pendants. Also if tech is being allowed the Solar Power Armor is a plasma field beast!!

[say652]

In heroes unlimited alien vehicle section.
Rocket boots. They only fly 60mph and I personally would keep them sdc but very cool nonconventional flting vehicle.
The antigravity suit flies 300mph with no height limit!!

[Bill]

Not really consistent with Wormwood's themes, Say. Thanks for trying though.

[say652]

The Blood Riders and Blood Lizards, since everyone is already mdc The Larholds lose some power.

[Bill]

They don't fly.

[say652]

But can run several hundred feet in the air
Sometimes its about a different approach to the same concept.

[Bill]

It's not the same concept. Several hundred is not a thousand and it's not sustained flight for many miles. Think past simplistic combat applications.

[Glistam]

But all the other suggestions have been fine so far?

[Bill]

I haven't looked at the Icarus flight system. It's higher tech than I'm interested in.

[say652]

Mach 1 flight.
120mdc
Open cockpit.

A superfast death trap, with guns n missiles.
Love it.

[Jefffar]

There are TW Harleys, so perhaps TW prop aircraft like the old WWII warbirds used in one of the rifters, or perhaps slightly older, pulp-era style.

Or maybe go for something a little more Wings of Honneamise style.

Or this http://static.zerochan.net/full/46/45/222296.jpg

[eliakon]

The Library of Bletherad has flying sky ships in it. And because the idea of flying sail ships with TW black powder cannon amuses me.......

[flatline]

There are TW Harleys, so perhaps TW prop aircraft like the old WWII warbirds used in one of the rifters, or perhaps slightly older, pulp-era style.

Or maybe go for something a little more Wings of Honneamise style.

Or this http://static.zerochan.net/full/46/45/222296.jpg

A prop plane like the one from Mad Max actually fits the Wormwood setting quite nicely, TW or not.

--flatline

[Bill]

There are TW Harleys, so perhaps TW prop aircraft like the old WWII warbirds used in one of the rifters, or perhaps slightly older, pulp-era style.

Or maybe go for something a little more Wings of Honneamise style.

Or this http://static.zerochan.net/full/46/45/222296.jpg

A prop plane like the one from Mad Max actually fits the Wormwood setting quite nicely, TW or not.

--flatline

There are some examples in WB28. I like them, but want them to be extra rare.

[taalismn]

If you could somehow get Wormwood to belch hydrogen or helium gas on demand, your LTAV program is assured.

[glitterboy2098]

The Library of Bletherad has flying sky ships in it. And because the idea of flying sail ships with TW black powder cannon amuses me.......

WB21 Splynn Dimensional market has "sky ships" as well.. magically levitated sailing ships. stats can be found on pg188-pg190
you just have to drop the bit about being powered by an eye of eylor, and insert your own mcguffin.

[eliakon]

The Library of Bletherad has flying sky ships in it. And because the idea of flying sail ships with TW black powder cannon amuses me.......

WB21 Splynn Dimensional market has "sky ships" as well.. magically levitated sailing ships. stats can be found on pg188-pg190
you just have to drop the bit about being powered by an eye of eylor, and insert your own mcguffin.

Like oh say.....Wormwood crystals......

[ShadowLogan]

Ride-able Creatures that haven't been mentioned (that's a bit tough):
-custom created Gene Splicer/Tech creations of non-ridable/expected, by Custom I don't mean limited in number, but home brew
-use one of the Random Monster Tables (like in RMB or Underseas) to create a flying/ridable mount, though you might have to play a little lose with the various tables possibly
-Siege on Tolkeen 6 IIRC might have a few creatures in the book
-Giant Insects via Spell, Super Power (HU2E), or Mutation by reallocating the BIO-E for size but not humanoid features (HU2E and MiO, etc)
-off hand I don't recall any Bio-Borg/Wizard options, but could be wrong might be worth looking at to
-Giant Bat in SA1 (might not be rideable)
-Necrol (Phaseworld, one of the later SB) might have something, as all their "tech" is more creature
-Splicer creations (from Splicers line)

I can think of a few more flyers, but they aren't rideable mounts, but either at the "character level" or size precludes them (aside from Faries or maybe Pixies), like the BloodHawk (Psycape), Flying Tiger (SA1), several mutant birds (SA2), Lyn-Syral (sp, NW/DBoNA), one I can't think of the name in SB3 (it has 3 forms, one of which is a flyer), Atlantis has a few more.

Magical Vehicles:
-Some of the TW Ley Line Powered flyers found in the Rifts Main Book (not RUE) or BoM (IINM)
-Spell Invocation: Fly to enchant a carpet or broom (toss in a Permanency Ward)
-Fed of Magic has one or two vehicles in it (also in BoM), one reminds me of the "Phantom Cruiser" (only w/forward sweeping wings instead of the actual rear sweeping wing) from the 60s, and the other is a basic platform
-Fed of Magic also has the piloted Golem-esque Ice Drake (also in BoM), though being exclusive operators might put a crimp in being included
-Tolkeen has a few Iron Juggernauts that are flyers (Siege on Tolkeen Series/BoM), as the Ice Drake its inclusion comes from an exclusive source that might put a crimp in being included
-Farie Bot (Canada/DBoNA) technically use a magic flying pod, though size would be an issue

[Bill]

The Library of Bletherad has flying sky ships in it. And because the idea of flying sail ships with TW black powder cannon amuses me.......

WB21 Splynn Dimensional market has "sky ships" as well.. magically levitated sailing ships. stats can be found on pg188-pg190
you just have to drop the bit about being powered by an eye of eylor, and insert your own mcguffin.

Like oh say.....Wormwood crystals......

Precisely.

[Bill]

-Some of the TW Ley Line Powered flyers found in the Rifts Main Book (not RUE) or BoM (IINM)
-Fed of Magic has one or two vehicles in it (also in BoM), one reminds me of the "Phantom Cruiser" (only w/forward sweeping wings instead of the actual rear sweeping wing) from the 60s, and the other is a basic platform

I've looked at these. The lack of ley lines on Wormwood makes the LLFs unusable, though the stats could be used as a basis for some custom material.

[DhAkael]

Looking to expand on the skelterbats and winged serpents for some good old sword and planet sky-piracy. Please suggest rideable flying creatures and flying magical vehicles already in print from any Palladium source for inclusion in Wormwood.

The Leather wings from New West 1.
You can use the warmounts from 'Splicers' for variety. Um... Imported Gryphons & Pegasi? Seriously, just go and arcive dive through the PBooks material.

[say652]

Gromeks.
A rogue splugorth giving biowizard wings.

[Bill]

Seriously, just go and arcive dive through the PBooks material.

You've completely missed the point of asking for suggestions with page references; to avoid digging through the vast catalog of Palladium material.

[eliakon]

Seriously, just go and arcive dive through the PBooks material.

You've completely missed the point of asking for suggestions with page references; to avoid digging through the vast catalog of Palladium material.

My bad on my part....
Air Ships are in the Library of Bletherad page 155. Stats for three sizes of flying sailing ship.

And because the idea of giant riding flies amuses me...
Rock Buzzers page 57 of Ballagor Wastelands

[Bill]

And because the idea of giant riding flies amuses me...
Rock Buzzers page 57 of Ballagor Wastelands

I am equally amused. They were the first ones I added and they really seem like the most natural fit for Wormwood.

[Tor]

Air Ships. Techno Wizard in design. That's something big in my WW game. In Palladium Books, any Ship converted to TW to fly. In our game these Air Ship Pirates attack World Gate often.

Page references?

RMBp94 does sadly say under TK-Flyer that "the techno-wizard's magic is ot normally sufficient to power aircraft"

Although oddly, if someone hadn't read that far (say they had no interest in ley line magic) and just looked at RMBp92, I don't actually see anything under ( 9 Electric / 10 Combustion / 11 TK ) Engine Conversion rules that prohibit doing it for aircraft.

TK-Engine conversion explicitly mentions you can do it for hover vehicles, but then says only those designed to float a few feet off the ground, not hover aircraft. I guess we're supposed to assume these restrictions under 11. TK-Engine Conversion also apply to 9. Electric engine conversion and 10. Combustion engine conversion as well.

So I think you could TK-convert an ATV Speedster Hover Cycle but not a Coalition Sky Cycle.

One option open to Techno-Wizards on Wormwood would be to build Mystic Power Armor. These all have built-in indefinite fly-as-the-eagle which has a 6000ft altitude cap (Rifter 15 page 19 errata) putting you out of range of most ranged weapons unless the Unholy's minions happen to get ahold of Gargoyle Railguns via Phoenix Empire trading (possible).

Tiamat (babylonian snake goddess, consort to Apsu the badass shadow-engulfing AI) is also sending minions to Wormwood so she might be able to hook enemies up with flying stuff.

WB21 (Splynn Dimensional Market) page 176 also details that Skyborne Excursions has a trade agreement with the Brodkil Empire. I believe the evil millenium tree is in the Brodkil Empire and it has a portal to Wormwood, so that (along with Atlantis trading with the Phoenix Empire, which is near enough with Lalibela, as another trading port) could mean that some aircraft from Atlantis could make its way to Wormwood.

Skyborne Excursions has a TW Aviator (optional OCC Rifter 2 page 74) who can build TW aircraft in half time/cost so he can come up with some oddities.

We're told SE is dealing with a couple (unspecified) "alien worlds", that might include Wormwood for all we know. This could be a gateway for Kittani vehicles to make their way into Wormwood hands via private business without the Splugorth necessarily being made aware of the planet's existence.

WB21p178 gives stats for a Tech-Flying Platform which can be bought with a TW fuel source instead of conventioanl fuel or nuclear. It gets a speed boost on ley lines (and being on one removes an hourly PPE/ISP cost) but does not require them to move if you expend energy.

WP21p179 continues with Seaside Hover Platform, which is a "Boat" and comes in the form of "Techno-Wizard Flying Boat". It too gets a speed boost on a ley line but like the previous, requires PPE/ISP every hour to keep it aloft if you don't have it on a ley line.

[ShadowLogan]

-Some of the TW Ley Line Powered flyers found in the Rifts Main Book (not RUE) or BoM (IINM)
-Fed of Magic has one or two vehicles in it (also in BoM), one reminds me of the "Phantom Cruiser" (only w/forward sweeping wings instead of the actual rear sweeping wing) from the 60s, and the other is a basic platform

I've looked at these. The lack of ley lines on Wormwood makes the LLFs unusable, though the stats could be used as a basis for some custom material.

I agree customization on some level will be required:
-provide an alternate energy source (Wormwood crystal as someone suggested, Bio-Wizardry/Rune, etc) or just make them "chariots" being pulled through the air by non-mount creatures.
-add in weak Ley Lines (not strong enough to do much else), that would be practically ignored except for TW LLF/devices (sort of a low magic setting). Then again maybe someone has setup some artificial ley lines that don't provide the full benefit of a normal Ley Line/Nexus.
-just consider the setting's metaphyscial laws to be tweaked to allow for TW LLFs to be useable and leave it at that (though if a quest is done to figure out why...) or maybe put in some restrictions on just who can use a TW LLF under these circumstances here
-while TW can't normally power an aircraft's flight ability directly, there is nothing to prevent it from making technological flight easier. So they use a conventional tech engine that under normal circumstances wouldn't be powerful enough without the TW modifications elsewhere.

[Nox Equites]

One concern for imported creatures is what do they eat? Who can afford to keep even an herbivore fed on Wormwood?

[Bill]

Each other, people, waste, worms and grubs like people do. There are limited agricultural resources on Wormwood, see the Greenery, but sustaining a large herbivore would definitely not be a good plan.

[say652]

Underseas.
Page ?? Dragon Ray.

South America book 1.
Vampire Bats, Flying Tiger.

South America book two.
True Inca, Falconoids, Condoroids, Neo Human, Megaversal Legion.

Juicer Uprising.
Icarus Flight System.

Heroes Unlimited.
Alien vehicle table.
Most fly or hover, decent speed and I personally would keep the vehicles sdc.

Conversion Book.
Gromek, Gargoyles, Dragon Wolf, Yema, Air Elemental, Spirits of Light.

Atlantis.
Splugorth Slaver.
Bio Wizard Wings.
Tattoo magic.
Living Mountain.
Metzla.

CS War Campaign.
All Samas types.
Cs Flight assualt system.
Rocket Bike.


And I'm tapped out.

Sidenote**
I liked that Centripede Arm Vambrace a bunch.
For an sdc character would the limb mdc count towards the main body??

[Bill]

Sidenote**
I liked that Centripede Arm Vambrace a bunch.
For an sdc character would the limb mdc count towards the main body??

In an SDC environment, I'd treat it like a shield with 1D4x10+20 SDC (see PFRPG p.60; reduce damage from a blocked attack before applying it to the shield by 10%).