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Wooly Rupert
Master of Mischief
USA
36804 Posts |
 Posted - 27 May 2020 : 19:27:30
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| I'll concede the point, then, though I would question why they opted to treat it like a normal ship in the comics, and not make it look or fly like a skyship. |
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Edited by - Wooly Rupert on 27 May 2020 20:18:47 |
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newbiedm
Acolyte
USA
17 Posts |
Posted - 27 May 2020 : 19:36:26
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quote:
Originally posted by Wooly Rupert
I'll concede the point, then, though I would question why they opted to treat it like a normal ship in the comics, and not make it look like a skyship.
Especally when there was an issue where a Halruaan skyship showed up, with a blimp or something elevating it, and it looked nothing like the Master. But Ed's word is final here, so the Realms Master is a skyship.
My campaign set in 5e is a continuation of the comics, I just started it, now the PCs are about to find the Realms Master floating outside Westgate's harbor as a derelict ship. Dwalimar is still alive--as a spirit living inside the damaged Astrolabe of Nimbral. Should be a fun campaign. Only other character making an appearance is Minder, although she is silent and "shut down", standing guard next to the Astrolabe. |
Visit my D&D website at www.newbiedm.com |
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Wooly Rupert
Master of Mischief
USA
36804 Posts |
Posted - 27 May 2020 : 20:20:16
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quote:
Originally posted by newbiedm
My campaign set in 5e is a continuation of the comics, I just started it, now the PCs are about to find the Realms Master floating outside Westgate's harbor as a derelict ship. Dwalimar is still alive--as a spirit living inside the damaged Astrolabe of Nimbral. Should be a fun campaign. Only other character making an appearance is Minder, although she is silent and "shut down", standing guard next to the Astrolabe.
I like this idea! If I wasn't so firmly wed to the pre-Spellplague era, I'd contemplate doing the same thing. |
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Dalor Darden
Great Reader
USA
4211 Posts |
Posted - 27 May 2020 : 22:29:45
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| Like a staff of the magi doesn’t look like another staff that is also a staff of the magi or a +1 long sword doesn’t look like another; no two skyships are going to look the same as uniquely created magic items. Just different is all. |
The Old Grey Box and AD&D for me! |
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Wooly Rupert
Master of Mischief
USA
36804 Posts |
Posted - 27 May 2020 : 23:11:55
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quote:
Originally posted by Dalor Darden
Like a staff of the magi doesn’t look like another staff that is also a staff of the magi or a +1 long sword doesn’t look like another; no two skyships are going to look the same as uniquely created magic items. Just different is all.
I can get that the shape may be different -- but skyships are described as having plates on the hull for lifting. We never saw that with the Realms Master. Aside from having a wizard as the figurehead, the ship's appearance was the same as any standard sailing vessel.
Between that and its notable lack of flight, there was nothing to mark it as a skyship. Especially when an artifact had to be employed just to go straight up. |
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Candlekeep - The Library of Forgotten Realms Lore
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Edited by - Wooly Rupert on 27 May 2020 23:15:20 |
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Dalor Darden
Great Reader
USA
4211 Posts |
Posted - 28 May 2020 : 04:19:01
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Maybe the plates were built into the hull.
Ed said it was overloaded was the reason for its poor flying. |
The Old Grey Box and AD&D for me! |
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Stones Finder
Acolyte
Canada
30 Posts |
Posted - 28 May 2020 : 04:47:40
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| What's really odd, IIRC, is that in the storyline where the other (?) skyship appeared, after it blew up, Omen said something to the effect of "That's why I'll never use a skyship - they're deathtaps!" |
Those who do not learn from the past are doomed to repeat it - Advice for the 5e design team |
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Wooly Rupert
Master of Mischief
USA
36804 Posts |
Posted - 28 May 2020 : 05:00:14
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quote:
Originally posted by Dalor Darden
Maybe the plates were built into the hull.
Ed said it was overloaded was the reason for its poor flying.
It would have been one thing if it had been shown flying poorly -- but it only flew when a god forced it to. Again, it couldn't even lift itself out of the water. |
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Dalor Darden
Great Reader
USA
4211 Posts |
Posted - 01 Jun 2020 : 20:21:05
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| Frankly, I don’t understand Skyships. With magic what it is, you would think they would be more like the flying ships of Alphatia from Mystara. |
The Old Grey Box and AD&D for me! |
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George Krashos
Master of Realmslore
Australia
6666 Posts |
Posted - 01 Jun 2020 : 22:08:25
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They were all individual. There was no such thing as the "standard skyship". People keep thinking of Netheril as a unified, organised realm. They were nothing of the kind. They were dysfunctionally governed, paranoid and secretive about everything, the interactions between High and Low Netheril were governed by complex treaties and pacts and at their core were a disjointed magocracy. Why would you therefore think that all skyships should be top notch, A-grade, hyper efficient constructs? It's not like every car you buy is a Ferrari.
-- George Krashos |
"Because only we, contrary to the barbarians, never count the enemy in battle." -- Aeschylus |
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Wooly Rupert
Master of Mischief
USA
36804 Posts |
Posted - 01 Jun 2020 : 22:42:03
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quote:
Originally posted by George Krashos
They were all individual. There was no such thing as the "standard skyship". People keep thinking of Netheril as a unified, organised realm. They were nothing of the kind. They were dysfunctionally governed, paranoid and secretive about everything, the interactions between High and Low Netheril were governed by complex treaties and pacts and at their core were a disjointed magocracy. Why would you therefore think that all skyships should be top notch, A-grade, hyper efficient constructs? It's not like every car you buy is a Ferrari.
-- George Krashos
Because we're speaking of Halruaa, and we were given more than one matching description of their skyships -- most notably, their ability to fly, which the Realms Master was never seen doing under its own power.
And I'm pretty sure no one accused Halruaan skyships of being any kind of efficient. It seems almost like they were designed to be inefficient, really.
I'm honestly wondering, at this point, if the Realms Master was originally intended to be a skyship, but then it got changed sometime before the comic first went to print. |
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Edited by - Wooly Rupert on 01 Jun 2020 22:46:28 |
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sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist
USA
11829 Posts |
Posted - 02 Jun 2020 : 02:10:03
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| yeah, but what basically happened was Ed wrote a dragon article about generic skyships. That talked about the whole turtle hull thing. Then when the first shining south was written, they pretty much copied the article text. Which is fine, and is why they supposedly were all similar... but we can chalk it up to a batch of writer laziness. Then pretty much every picture we're given doesn't match the description until the 3rd edition shining south (and even that I'd have to check). |
Alavairthae, may your skill prevail
Phillip aka Sleyvas |
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Storyteller Hero
Learned Scribe
USA
329 Posts |
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Why no more Spelljammer for Forgotten Realms
