Fantasy RPGs with Flying ships.

[Voros]

D&D Rules Cyclopedia has complete rules for building flying ships. (Beyond the elven “light ships” which IIRC are more or less hand waved.)

I think ACKS never replicated those but I’m glad Dark Dungeons does.

Also for BECMI/RC, PC2 Top Ballista (I always cringe at the name) features a gnomish flying city, complete with an Air Force.

I'm a big fan of Top Ballista. This later Known World/Mystara book by Bruce Heard also prominently featured airships.

Champions of Mystara: The Gazetteers' Heir?

RAIDER OF THE LOST ARK Earlier this year I wrapped up my series reviewing the Gazetteers of Mystara . It ended on a somewhat down note, w...

ageofravens.blogspot.com

 

[Charlie D]

Chaosium is making good progress on Lords of the Middle Sea (The RPG not the board game). I believe playing on “airships” is the main idea. Not sure when it will be released but it’s supposed to be close. See https://www.chaosium.com/bloglords-of-the-middle-sea-update-a-nice-milestone-at-chaosium-con/

Hey, that's my adventure! I can't believe I didn't think of Lords of the Middle Sea.

 

[Ronnie Sanford]

The game is a lot of fun. The rules are fairly simple with lots of flavor based crunch. Yes, Air Pirate ships are there and there are rules for ship things. They are fairly simple, but that is the game itself.

That’s interesting, I wasn’t familiar with that one. Is it based on their Renaissance rules?

 

[opaopajr]

Forgotten Realms has airships in Halruaa (blown up in 4e timelime) and in the Ancient Age in Nethentir. Probably several more I am forgetting.
Mystara definitely, especially with Alphatia (magicocracy empire, imagination emporium).
Airships Pirates game, from Cakebread & Walton.
Talislanta again.
iirc Deadlands, at least Hell on Earth. Has a very Wild Wild West streak in it, at the very least some sort of ornithopter or zeppelin or something.
RIFTS I'm sure somewhere.
GURPS has the rules I am sure, and I guess a setting book somewhere.
That's off the top of my head... I am sure there is much more.

As for 'the best' rules in play? I haven't tried them all, but it'd depend what your priorities are too.

 

[Rob Necronomicon]

Airships Pirates game, from Cakebread & Walton.

I'd forgotten about that another great game.

 

[Mankcam]

There was one for Savage Worlds named Sundered Skies.

Yeah great suggestion here!

Sundered Skies is a 'magitech high fantasy' setting, with lots of swashbuckling elements such as flying ships and floating islands and whatnot.
This book is not only a setting, but it also comes with numerous small scenarios/scenario seeds that can be linked together for a mini-campaign, the 'plot-point adventure' concept that Savage Worlds made it's name doing. Lots of plot twists and whatnot, and having a plot-point campaign provides that great mix of sandbox and high structure, which works really well for me.

It should be no issues updating it for the current SWADE mechanics. As with all the Pinnacle's plot-point setting books, even if a GM prefers not to run them with Savage Worlds, they are a really easy port to D&D 5E, BRP/Mythras, Fate Core, Everywhen, etc, whatever.

Sundered Skies is well worth checking out if anyone is interested.

 

[rumble]

Just in case it hasn't been mentioned, and because I'd really like to play:

Upwind rpg.

Chaosium sells it, but it was designed by Biohazard Games, of Archipelago fame.

 

[Mankcam]

Just in case it hasn't been mentioned, and because of really like to play:

Upwind rpg.

Chaosium sells it, but it was designed by Biohazard Games, of Archipelago fame.

Interesting... I often check the Chaosium webpage but seem to have overlooked this.

It cites Studio Ghibili's Laputa, Castle In The Sky and Nausica, Valley Of The Wind as two major influences on it, as well as Disney's Treasure Planet and Nic's Avatar The Last Airbender. That will make it an enchanting read for me, although I'm usually not big of rpgs that replace dice with cards, but we'll see.

Chaosium has it on sale at present, so I might get this out of curiosity, it will only cost me about $60 AUD total for the printed versions of the core book & additional campaign books home-delivered to me (including complimentary pdfs emailed to me).
Hmmm random purchase may be coming up here...
Thanks for the heads up!

 

[3rik]

That’s interesting, I wasn’t familiar with that one. Is it based on their Renaissance rules?

No, it uses the Heresy system. This is also used in the Victoriana (IIRC 2nd edition) and Dark Harvest* RPG.

But they also did a OneDice version:

DriveThruRPG

www.drivethrurpg.com

I'm not sure if either Victoriana or Dark Harvest has airships in it...

* Dark Harvest is PWYW in pdf format:

DriveThruRPG

www.drivethrurpg.com

DriveThruRPG

www.drivethrurpg.com

 

[Zadmar]

Yeah great suggestion here!

Sundered Skies is a 'magitech high fantasy' setting, with lots of swashbuckling elements such as flying ships and floating islands and whatnot.
This book is not only a setting, but it also comes with numerous small scenarios/scenario seeds that can be linked together for a mini-campaign, the 'plot-point adventure' concept that Savage Worlds made it's name doing. Lots of plot twists and whatnot, and having a plot-point campaign provides that great mix of sandbox and high structure, which works really well for me.

It should be no issues updating it for the current SWADE mechanics. As with all the Pinnacle's plot-point setting books, even if a GM prefers not to run them with Savage Worlds, they are a really easy port to D&D 5E, BRP/Mythras, Fate Core, Everywhen, etc, whatever.

Sundered Skies is well worth checking out if anyone is interested.

I've played through the entire Sundered Skies campaign, and would definitely recommend it as well! In addition to flying ships and floating islands, the setting has some dark twists and surprising reveals. Note however that it's published by Triple Ace Games, not Pinnacle.

On a completely different note, I'd also recommend picking up Lady Blackbird.

 

[Mankcam]

I've played through the entire Sundered Skies campaign, and would definitely recommend it as well! In addition to flying ships and floating islands, the setting has some dark twists and surprising reveals. Note however that it's published by Triple Ace Games, not Pinnacle.

ah jeez that's right, it was one of the Triple Ace Games, I completely forgot!

 

[Torque2100]

Actually, a game that might work well for a game with Flying Ships would definitely be Sword of Cepheus. It's based on a fork of the Cepheus Engine AKA an open source version of Mongoose Traveller 1st edition. Being based on Traveller, I imagine it would handle ship combat quite well.

 

[Picaroon Jack]

The current John Carter of Mars 2D20 has lots on airships. The Dotar Sojat supplement has the most.