Re: Ship atmospheres and canon material

I have always had questions about the basic spelljammer concepts.  For
instance, how is a ship "thrusted" forward.  Galleons are supposed use their
sails, but then how does a viper get forward movement.  If the sails are
pushing it forward, shouldn't there be sails on the bottom (otherwise it
would pitch over and just spin).  The air envelope would have to be held in
place until a very low speed, or the crew and anything else not tied down
would be blown off the deck.  What if the gravity plane didn't extend beyond
the ship itself.  Thus if a object was "dropped" off the deck, it would
immediately be affected by the external gravity(water would drip from the
bottom of the ship).  If there is no gravity, they could float just off deck
(until the ship changed course, then the object would fly off on the
original course and speed).  The things on the ship must be under the
influence of a (borrowed from Star Trek) Inertial Dampener, or else the
first time you jump to spelljammer speed the crew would be about an inch
thick on the back wall.

Sorry if I'm getting SciFi-ish but they take into consideration a lot of
real world issues.  But to DM this campaign setting properly you have to
know how and why things work.

Anyone got the answers ?

-----Original Message-----
From: Discussion list for the Spelljammer campaign setting
[mailto:SPELLJAMMER-L@??????.???????.com]On Behalf Of Invoker
Sent: Friday, May 05, 2000 6:14 PM
To: SPELLJAMMER-L@??????.???????.com
Subject: Re: [SPELLJAMMER] Ship atmospheres and canon material


I believe the rules state that it would bleed out. the only way it could
really affect the air envelope is if large amount of water were summoned
almost instantaneously. other wise it would be like tring to flood a strre
with a garden hose. as the gravity plane filled with water, the waters
weight would pushthe water neares to the edge out. as more water poured in,
the faster it would bleed out. but i believe this question has answered one
of my questions. the gravity plane must be formed once outside the presence
of any other gravity plane. now this is flimsey proof at best but if any of
you have the first spelljammer compendium. you might remember the picture of
the galleon lifting up of the ocean. the water was dripping down of the
hull.

does any one remember that. i think i have enough to write a convincing
article on the subject. other examples and opinions welcomed.
-----
Keep Your Cloaks Up!
----- Original Message -----
From: Sebastian Lucier <sebastianlucier@???????.com>

> I remember that too.  That's one of the things I was thiking about when I
> questioned how everyone else handled gravity.
>
> The whole discussion brings up a question for me though.  What would
happen
> if you had a ship in space and somehow (conjuring for example) a large
> volume of water appeared in the envelope.  Would it settle in a layer in
the
> middle of the gravity plane with half the volume on either side?  Would it
> bleed out as it's pulled toward the edge of the envelope?  I assume it
must,
> cause if it didn't, it would be an easy way to transport a large volume of
> water (of course, you're trading air for it.)  Which brings up another
> question, what happens to the displaced air?  Is it forced out when the
> water is created and then when the water leaves the air envelope is
smaller
> by that amount?
>

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