Sky Pirates update

So over the weekend an anonymous commenter left this remark on an older post:

Hey I caught your post on mar 2006 of an eberron campaign with sky pirates. Curious how that went and If I could swipe some ideas or even maps off you. Thanks I'll flag your blog.

Thanks for reading the blog, mystery dude. I work on scanning in my maps. So far all I have to offer is a couple of quick-and-dirty skyship deckplans.

In the meantime, let me tell you how things are going in general. Session three of the campaign is scheduled for tonight, so things are still very new and I'm still working some kinks out. The biggest area that needs work is a set of crunchy-but-not-overwhelming mechanics for air vessels exchanging fire prior to the inevitable boarding action. Session one featured the taking of a goblin dirigible and we tried adapting the chase scene rules from Savage Worlds. That worked out okay but not great.

Most of the other changes I've made have gone over pretty well. In order to allow more buckling of swashes I'm allowing PCs to use the reserve points and defense bonus rules from Unearthed Arcana. NPCs don't normally get either of those goodies simply because I'm a lazy DM who doesn't like to incorporate new rules into stat blocks I'm ripping off from elsewhere. We've also tweaked the blackpowder weapon rules from the DMG to make them more useful.

Two big changes to the Eberron setting as written are that blackpowder weapons are uncommon but available and that various airships ply the skys besides the House Lyrandar elemental vessels. The skys are generally a busier place than in the default setting because I need plenty of airborne victims and foes. One other minor change I've made is that Warforged are not "kinda like robots". They are totally and emphatically robotic, in the grand tradition of Robbie and the Cyclons and the Boomers and Aaron Stack.

I can't take any credit for it, but the PCs are awesome-tastic. Pat is playing a Warforged Warlock. The dude shoots laser beams out of his eyes! Doug has one of those new Eberron-flavored badass elves. The fact that this setting makes elves cool again totally blows my mind. Stuart plays a gnome artificer (which I suspect will be a core class in 4e) that emphasizes pistolry and gunsmithing. He's basically elf with a gun, but in pirate drag. Jon (my DM in the World of Alidor) is running the ship's cook, Steven Seagal style. And Jonathan is playing a rogue member of House Lyrandar and is working his way towards the Dread Pirate prestige class. How can you go wrong with these guys?