Swords and Supercience !
[the below huge mass o' blather is thrown here for comment. Actual mechanics and tables will be uploaded as a file later. ]
One aspect of Swords and Sorcery that needs consideration is that of the influence of the past and of ancient and lost civilizations. A key element in the mood of such tales is living in a world that was once home to vastly more powerful and or advanced civilizations, now fallen. Typically, little new is created in the younger civilizations once this is realized; creativity turns to scavenging the powers of the ancients, and seeking out their knowledge to learn in rote manner; seldom is there found the knowledge to create or improve such artefacts, or the wisdom to understand mysterious knowledge. This is typically expressed as ancient, often prehuman sorcery, or ancient superscience….or both, now indistinguishable.
Magical and superscience artefacts are typically ancient, irreproducible, and only partially understood. They have effects, which are vastly powerful, but often unrelated to their actual purpose. An example in fiction is that of a deadly weapon, which is in fact a self-powered electrical radio ; primitives discover it can be used to kill one another by hurling it into a victim’s bath, and that is its new function.
In one direction, then, is sorcery, generally non-human, often completely beyond comprehension if not apish use; in another is the science and artefacts of a lost but often human civilization of which the present users are degenerate remnants. All of this is simply a wordy way to introduce flying devices to the world. Simply put, they are optional, but easily added.
In Adventurer, the basics of starship construction is used to develop two specific kinds of technological remnants: seacraft and skycraft. In worlds where this technology exists, or remains, the common ships of low tech cannot compete, and are absent or badly retarded and primitive. Campaigns lacking this technology will require the typical historically based ships, and will be discussed later.
Skycraft and Seacraft.
All such vessels consist of up to four basic ancient components: a hull, a levitator, a motivator and a radium furnace. The radium furnace powers the levitator and motivator, and they in turn act upon the hull to produce the desired effects. They are all imperviously sealed components, which are mounted onto the hull and interconnected by contemporary, if advanced methods ; for instance, the radium furnace may transmit its energizing rays via a series of mirrored steel tubes connecting certain key points on the furnace to those of the motivator; but uses braided wire of purest gold to connect to a levitator. Similarly , the motivator may transmit its effects to the hull via a pool of salted oil in which it sits whereas the levitator may simply change vibrational frequency of the hull via inert organic substances.
In short, while the components are effectively indestructible, their connections are all contemporary, and thus all too vulnerable to disruption. In game terms, the exact details can be ignored save that they can be damaged, and are difficult to replace; actual description of the connectors is entirely for game flavour.
A radium furnace and a motivator and or Levitator are connected to each other and mounted in the hullframe, and then common currently available materials (such as wood or steel) are added to create decking, bulkheads and hull planking to allow the components to function as a ship. It is quite possible (and often common) for a ship to be reduced by combat or fire to its basic indestructible elements and still fly, (although it will not float) if they are still connected. A hull disconnected from a levitator will plummet and crash, often deforming the frame; loss of connection to a motivator will simply cause a sky or seacraft to coast to a stop. Loss of connection to the radium furnace will cause both effects.
The final component of any design is the radium gas used to fuel the furnace; this is held in large tanks of contemporary material and construction.
Note that the motivational effects generated by the hull are damped by contact with and proximity to the ground; a large amount of either water or air is required to insulate the motivators effect from the geostatic field of the planet generated, as is well known, by the radiant orgomantic inertia of a large body. Obviously, this will not affect the horizontal field effects of a levitator.
The effects of the geostatic field are most pronounced when the ship is within 10 hull diameters of solid dry land of considerable mass. Thus, a 100 dTon ship would experience geostatic shut-off of its motivator beginning at approximately 130-140 meters altitude.
A ship that has its movement field damped by proximity has its Motivation rating reduced to zero over perhaps ten minutes regardless of its original rating.. Similarly, power builds slowly over the same time when setting out. Note that operating in proximity to the geostationary field also requires much higher level of input from a radium furnace, and thus landing and launching can be major operating expenses; a levitator is also effected by this, although its potential . Ships without extenuating reasons will typically manoeuvre above a landing area, and descend directly, using the motivator only for small corrections. Similarly, launching is typically accomplished by a direct assent to the minimum altitude for that hull, at which time the motivator is powered up.
(yes, this is simply a fiddle to explain why they all ride horses and lizards or whatnot across the trackless deserts when skycraft are unavailable);
Hull:
The hull is an open frame, a spidery web of Orichalum, an indestructible metal of mysterious properties. A given hull will contain a given volume and no more, and mass is effectively irrelevant. The hull produces lift when activated by a levitator, and velocity when acted upon by a motivator. These frames can be deformed (with significant effort), and this can reduce volume, but cannot be stretched, expanded, cut, spliced or otherwise damaged. Without the action of a motivator or levitator it is simply an inert web of malleable but impervious metal wires, about as dense as aluminium.
The largest known hull still in existence has a displacement of 1000 tons of liquefied radium gas.
Motivator:
The motivator requires a connection to a radium furnace to work and a connection to a hull. When so connected, the hull is able to move, with or without inertial effects depending on the needs and design of the campaign. Basic speed is in hexes per day (about 150km/hex) , up to the rating of the motivator, modified by the levitator, if present. Note that the motivator is immobile without a hull, even with a radium furnace connection. Ships lacking a levitator are limited to functioning in water. Land vehicle construction is generally impractical (or impossible) due to geostatic issues discussed above.
Levitator
The levitator functionally allows the ship to float, and enhances the effect of the motivator. It requires a functioning connection to the hull, and to a radium furnace. The maximum altitude of a skycraft is its levitator rating, and its speed is the product of its motivator rating and levitator rating when above the geostatic limit of the ship. Each altitude band is approximately 2000 meters.
Note that the largest ships with minimum rated levitators will have a very restricted operating range for using the motivator – a 1000 dTon ship has a Geostatic floor of approximately 1500 meters, and a levitational ceiling of 2000 meters (and with motivator rating of 1, an average speed of about 6-7 km/hour –look out zeppelins and sailboats!)
Radium Furnace
The radium furnace is the heart of any ship. Burning Phlogistonated radium gas, it powers motivators and levitators; other wondrous ancient engines also rely upon Radium furnaces, from massive water pumps to tiny home lanterns. Note that a radium furnaces output is directly related to its size, although it is not necessarily a linear relationship. Also note that they do not provide electricity (a primitive, unreliable and terribly inelegant means of powering devices) but rather energizing rays of the fourth quantum (or higher). A radium furnace must have a rating at last equal to the highest rated component on board ship (in many, but not all cases, this will be the motivator or levitator)
Next part: Phlosistonized Radium Gas !
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