Re: MAGIC: Spelljamming

Howdy folks who are still following this,

In our last episode, steve swenson said:
>>>  I don't have the rules here but I believe the helm itself (in the sense
>>>of normal helms minor and major) must be attached to the vessel in order
>>>to be active. Merely putting a helm on the deck without anchoring it will
>>>not work.  (Let me know if you can find this... I believe it to be true.
>>>And if it is it is further corrobative evidence from the text.)
>> 
>> No, this is quite true, a helm must be bolted to a vessel for it to work,
>> this is in the text (sorry, no time to hunt for the quote).  But that
>> doesn't really affect my problems here.
>
>  Well I extrapolate my understanding from this requirement and the nearly
>identical wording on towing.  Thats why I mentioned it.  I believe the
>helm is providing both the tower and the towee with a unified
>propulsive/bouyancy force.  In static's words an isolated inertial frame.

	If touching doesn't create an inertial frame, then a person who's
standing on the "bottom" of a ship near the ground would fall off, since
they're not attached.  And two squidships (with minor helms) who ram each
other and get stuck (creating a rigid bond, probably stronger than rope)
are now dead in space because they're attached and neither helm can "tow"
the combined mass.

	If that's all true, then this system is far too complicated for
my campaign.  I use GAE for gravity and a "wet rock" analogy for air
envelope interaction.  These two simple rules solve all my problems,
and keep terrestrial physics pretty much as they were. :)

-Static

--
         May His Shadow fall upon you.

    --==<< http://www.gwr.com/~eshum >>==--