Now that IHW: Pigboats has gone out to betatesters, I can start blocking out my next project. Right now, I'm calling it Avian Knights, but that's a codename that will most likely change if I can think of anything better.

AK is set in a world of floating skylands and no mountains. When a hill range gets too big, it rips away from the land and floats up into the sky. The land below is full of monsters, so the people live in the skylands. When they can, people capture new skylands and tie them onto their own, to make their skylands bigger. The largest skylands are the size of France, includng their captured territory, but most are much smaller. All are mountainous, and over time become terraced.

People travel through the air in one of two ways. One way is by shuttlecock ships. these are long, decked vessels with a keel of Shipstone. Shipstone is a straight-grained stone that floats, but wants to go in the direction of the grain, and resists moving in other directions. The keel is jointed about two thirds of the way back to form a rudder, but the deck continues on straight over the rudder. There are six or eight pole masts arranged radially around the nose of the ship, hinged so that they can fold back along the keel. They each have a vane sail flaring out each side to the end, then rounded over, so that the ship looks like a shuttlecock. Beneath the rudder stone is a big spined fin reaching down. The shuttlecock ships have a limited altitude range, and cannot do down to he surface.

The second way is by riding big birds. These riders are the Avian Knights. They are equipped with a limited number of weapons - lances, javelins, swords, crossbows, daggers, and maces. These weapons can be of several different ranks of quality. Normal weapons are just that - normal. Ancestral weapons draw strength from association with a family, and only members of that family can wield them as anything more than normal weapons. Holy weapons have been consecrated by a particular religion, and only members of that religion can wield them as anything more than normal weapons. If wielded spectacularly enough, for long enough, Ancestral and Holy weapons can become Legendary weapons, which are more powerful than either.

The birds are large and varied, belonging to different species and breeds of those species. Each has different qualities, and the breeds can refine these qualities. They are non-sapient, but intelligent, like a parrot or raven. They can carry one heavily armed and armored knight each, or two lightly armed and armored knight. The air combat system will be adapted from In Harm's Way: Dragons!

The people of each skyland will be different - like a nationality or ethnicity on earth. Some will tend to be larger, some smaller, some stronger, some more dexterous, and all will have different cultures. Individuals will - of course - vary. All the people will be human.

The game will use the StarCluster 3 system, with a short, broad skill list. The only magic will be that inherent in the setting - the big birds, the floating stone, etc. - and no-one will have any spells or magical powers. Chargen and advancement will be by training packages & background templates only - Mod your culture's average stat's, pick a background template and a training package, and you are good to go. you earn access to different training packages using a variant of the IHW Notice system. You put your Notice into two pools - one to buy skill packages, and one which accumulates, called Renown. Renown can be used in game as well - you get famous, songs and poems are written about you, impressionable members of the public will swoon... you become a celebrity.

Any comments?

-clash

Wow. The setting is simple but unique, it is exciting as a palette to throw stories upon. What's the general tech level outside of flying? Clockwork? Straight up middle ages? What do the AK do? Fight other AKs? Hunt for floating mountains? Protect their home from flying monsters?

Well, the emphasis is on the PCs being the Knights, but the shuttlecock ship crews might also be fun to play, and I may open that up as well. Clockwork tech - by which I mean real, actual clockwork, not clockwork punk - would be appropriate.

The Knights have a number of duties - the Lands Underneath, though teeming with monsters, also supply various herbs, fruits and other products needed or desirable in the skylands, and only the knights can land down there. There are always new Skylands out there as well. So exploration is a big yes. They also function as fighters in the air, against flying monsters as well as other knights. They serve as messengers, and as escorts for the shuttlecock ships.

-clash

This does sound neat. A few questions immediate spring to mind.

How do they adjust altitude on a shuttlecock ship?

I wonder if there are other, less obvious, applications of Shipstone?

• Would there be a swarm of small two- or three-person craft buzzing around a Skyland?
• A small bit of Skystone used in commercial lifting
• or fantastic archgitecture?

What about gliding technologies? Parachutes? If civilization has been in the sky for long, advances in these areas seem likely to me. So even if you're looking at a Rennaisance era tech, I can see gliders that look like very early airplanes.

Also, I can see a variety of creative uses for kites. Delivering small parcels, for example.

That is why the masts are radially placed. By raising the upper masts, you push the nose of the ship down, gradually lowering the altitude, and by raising the lower masts, you push the nose up. Raising the masts on one lateral side can also steer the ship, but the rudder stone is much faster.



I'm sure there would be!



Oh, most definitely!



Yes - that is one use I thought of. Wheels would not be needed.



Great suggestions! All those things are probable. Because Shipstone, as opposed to Skystone, is expensive - anything rare is expensive - gliders could do a lot of work around the skylands, and you even could use them to land on the Lands Beneath. Getting them back to the skyland is another problem entirely!

-clash

The Skylands part of the setting definitely appeals to me. Pretty neat.

What's the altitude of the lowest point on a typical Skyland?

Thanks, Paul!

-clash

Somewhat higher than the summit of the highest hill...

I'm not totally sure yet - something like 2 kilometers/1.25 miles. This would necessitate a thicker atmosphere than the earth, with a smaller partial pressure of oxygen and a lower pressure gradient, but that is not a big problem. We have floating stone.

-clash

I hope she can float.