When Eberron came out I wasn't
playing D&D, even though I played a fair bit of 3rd edition. When I got
back around to running D&D it was post 3.5 and I was focused on my own
world which used a hybrid of 3.x and Unearthed Arcana. I didn't much care for
the magic as technology thing that Eberron had going for it, and I'm not super
fond of it still. I specifically picked up the setting books for Eberron
recently (within the past year) because I wanted to tear things out, like the
airships and the warforged. I still haven't read all the gazetteer style stuff
in the main rule book
Right then? All this is just a
way of sticking a bunch of qualifiers to everything I will be writing here on
Spelljammer related things are for my campaign, which is not set on Eberron. My
writing is primarily informed by the materials in Spelljammer boxset and the Eberron Campaign Setting, so there
should be no assumption on prior knowledge of either setting detailed in other
sources.
Champions of Mystara (COM)
has guidelines for converting Spelljammer from AD&D to D&D. Cool right?
Problem is tactical speed in Spelljammer is 500 yards per one minute round per
Ship Rating(SR) in Wildspace or 240 yards per one minute round per SR in the
atmosphere of a planetary body; yet CoM recommends
120(40) per SR as the conversion. That is the base speed of a human, and flies
in the face of the 17 mph/ 400 miles per day per SR described in multiple
places in the Spelljammer boxset.
Before converting SJ ships and
stats to CoM stats, I need to solve the contradictions.
SR 1 = 500 yards per minutes, 17 mph and 400 miles per day. All
of these are equivalent speeds. So no problem here. However, there is also the
very small bit about MV 24 per SR in atmosphere, which would be fine as it's
roughly half Wildspace speed, but since we are first introduced to the speed of
a spelljammer is under the header of "Long-Range Movement In
Atmosphere" it begs the question of why on the same page we are given the
speed as MV 24 per SR in atmosphere. I draw two conclusions from this. The
first is that somehow this is an editorial gaff. The second is that long-range
travel in an atmosphere is the same speed as tactical movement in Wildspace,
and that we have a second tactical movement rate for atmospheric combat.
Thus we have spelljamming speed of 100 million miles per
day, Wildspace tactical of 500 yd (one hex) per round per SR, atmospheric
long-range of 17 mpg (400 miles per day) per
atmospheric tactical of 240 yd per round per SR. All of this just to get
an idea of how fast Jeff Grubb intended things to go. We need consistency, both
within this and between this and other sources so as to freely use other old
school sources with a minimum of effort.
Previously, I had decided on an elemental air ship traveling
at SR1 even within an atmosphere, even though this is slower than the stated
20mph it allows for the use of the same scale of hex.
After some digging through the old Spelljammer Mailing List I found some
tables. Pasting the link for future reference.
http://sjml.spelljammer.org/archive/mpgn/199903/12-000007.html
Wildspace
|
1 SR = 17 MPH
|
Planet Bound
|
1 SR = 8.5 MPH
|
Wildspace Combat
|
SR
|
MPH
|
mv rate
|
Dist/Rd
|
Dist/Tn
|
Dist/Hr
|
1
|
17
|
48'
|
480'
|
4,800'
|
28,800'
|
2
|
34
|
96'
|
960'
|
9,600'
|
57,600'
|
3
|
51
|
144'
|
1,440'
|
14,400'
|
86,400'
|
4
|
68
|
192'
|
1,920'
|
19,200'
|
115,200'
|
5
|
85
|
240'
|
2,400'
|
24,000'
|
144,000'
|
6
|
102
|
288'
|
2,880'
|
28,800'
|
172,800'
|
7
|
119
|
336'
|
3,360'
|
33,600'
|
201,600'
|
8
|
136
|
384'
|
3,840'
|
38,400'
|
230,400'
|
9
|
153
|
432'
|
4,320'
|
43,200'
|
259,200'
|
10
|
170
|
480'
|
4,800'
|
48,000'
|
288,000'
|
11
|
187
|
528'
|
5,280'
|
52,800'
|
316,800'
|
12
|
204
|
576'
|
5,760'
|
57,600'
|
345,600'
|
13
|
221
|
624'
|
6,240'
|
62,400'
|
374,400'
|
14
|
238
|
672'
|
6,720'
|
67,200'
|
403,200'
|
15
|
255
|
720'
|
7,200'
|
72,000'
|
432,000'
|
16
|
272
|
768'
|
7,680'
|
76,800'
|
460,800'
|
17
|
289
|
816'
|
8,160'
|
81,600'
|
489,600'
|
18
|
306
|
864'
|
8,640'
|
86,400'
|
518,400'
|
19
|
323
|
912'
|
9,120'
|
91,200'
|
547,200'
|
20
|
340
|
960'
|
9,600'
|
96,000'
|
576,000'
|
Planet Fall Travel and Combat Speeds
|
SR
|
MPH
|
mv rate
|
Round
|
Turn
|
Hour
|
1
|
8.5
|
24'
|
240'
|
2,400'
|
14,400'
|
2
|
17
|
48'
|
480'
|
4,800'
|
28,800'
|
3
|
25.5
|
72'
|
720'
|
7,200'
|
43,200'
|
4
|
34
|
96'
|
960'
|
9,600'
|
57,600'
|
5
|
42.5
|
120'
|
1,200'
|
12,000'
|
72,000'
|
6
|
51
|
144'
|
1,440'
|
14,400'
|
86,400'
|
7
|
59.5
|
168'
|
1,680'
|
16,800'
|
100,800'
|
8
|
68
|
192'
|
1,920'
|
19,200'
|
115,200'
|
9
|
76.5
|
216'
|
2,160'
|
21,600'
|
129,600'
|
10
|
85
|
240'
|
2,400'
|
24,000'
|
144,000'
|
11
|
93.5
|
264'
|
2,640'
|
26,400'
|
158,400'
|
12
|
102
|
288'
|
2,880'
|
28,800'
|
172,800'
|
13
|
110.5
|
312'
|
3,120'
|
31,200'
|
187,200'
|
14
|
119
|
336'
|
3,360'
|
33,600'
|
201,600'
|
15
|
127.5
|
360'
|
3,600'
|
36,000'
|
216,000'
|
16
|
136
|
384'
|
3,840'
|
38,400'
|
230,400'
|
17
|
144.5
|
408'
|
4,080'
|
40,800'
|
244,800'
|
18
|
153
|
432'
|
4,320'
|
43,200'
|
259,200'
|
19
|
161.5
|
456'
|
4,560'
|
45,600'
|
273,600'
|
20
|
170
|
480'
|
4,800'
|
48,000'
|
288,000'
|
Also more discussion about SR and MV on the SJML, in which I
discovered I am not the only person to note the discrepancy on tactical speed
in an atmosphere.
http://sjml.spelljammer.org/archive/mpgn/199806/12-000013.html
I am
going to use Exploration (Encounter) movement BD&D and not the Movement
Rate of 2e AD&D. This allows me to maintain the granularity of the
difference of speed between an elemental airship, 20mph, and spelljamming at
SR1, 17mph. Furthermore, I am going to stick with the divide of Wildspace
tactical and atmospheric flight for helms, but elemental airships have the same
speed in or out of the atmosphere. You will note that my movement rates diverge
from these tables and the Spelljammer rules, that's partly due to the time
scale difference between BD&D and 2e, and also due to the recommended way
CoM gives for determining overland travel speed of two-thirds of exploration
speed as miles per day.
Name
|
Speed
|
Miles
per day
|
Eberron
Elemental Airship
|
720'(240')
|
480
|
Space
SR1
|
600'(200')
|
400
|
Atmospheric
SR1
|
240'(80')
|
160
|
A quick sanity check is needed to make sure that these match
the speeds of other flying craft in BD&D.
The bi-/tri-planes of the skygnomes of Serraine vary from
360' to 480'. As these craft are given only one speed, have a limited flight
time, and the examples in PC2 for aerial combat use these speeds, I am assuming
that these are the encounter speeds, and that these are intended to read as yards not feet as all aerial combat takes place outdoors. Both Dawn of the Emperors and Top Ballista describe movement in terms
of feet, but I am taking the later publication of Champions of Mystara as taking precedence and clarifying the units
of measure to be yards. It is possible that these are accidental errors as
these craft would fly circles around dragons and other flying monsters, but I
rather like the greater speed they have over an elemental airship. Note that I
am not detailing exploration or daily movement as they have an limited flight
time (distance really).
Name
|
Encounter
Speed
|
Range
|
F3F
Cloud-Clipper
|
(400')
|
500,000'
|
Mk
IIa Tomcat
|
(450')
|
220,000'
|
Mk
VI Polecat
|
(480')
|
190,000'
|
Mk
VII Fighter-Bomber
|
(360')
|
360,000'
|
The skyships in CoM
Name
|
Speed
|
Miles
per day
|
The
Flying Barge
|
360'(120')
|
240
|
Alphatian
Yacht
|
160'(80')
|
100
|
Elven
Swan Ship
|
240'(120')
|
160
|
Oostdock
Airship
|
360'(120')
|
240
|
The
Princess Ark
|
360'(120')
|
120-240
|
The
Princess Ark (Wind only)
|
180'(60')
|
|
There is an interesting discrepancy with the exploration and
encounter speeds on several of the ships, but overall it looks like these are
what would be considered reasonable skyship speeds. As these are enchanted ships
and not pseudo artifacts like spelljamming helms, speed at low SR is comparable,
and I am perfectly comfortable with an elemental airship be clearly superior to
these other vessels because this may be a plot point in my campaign.
Part Six: Air Elementals Don't Clean the Air