Re: SJ Issues: Sj ships and Groundling Civs

Sebastian wrote...
How does everyone handle the effect sj ships can have on a groundling civ?
For example, someone once pointed out to me that having an interplanetary
trade route is rather silly since the most lucrative routes would be
intraplanetary, ie trading from one nation far away from the other. Take FR
for example. An sj ship could fly over to Kara-Tur, get loaded up with
silks/spices/other goods for low prices, and then dump those goods on
markets in Waterdeep. The whole thing would take a handful of days at most,
much faster than any ground based transportation or than transporting
between planets of any meaningful distance. I don't buy a flooding the
market idea because whoever owns the ship(s) could easily form a cartel and
restrict prices to a degree that such a trade route would still be
profitable. Even if it was an open dog-eat-dog world in which traders ran
roughshod dumping goods in markets, an equalibrium would form in which all
major trading cities would have goods from all over the groundling world,
all at about an equal price.>>

First off.  Like several others have stated, there is the interaction with
winds, weather (imagine flying through a storm front, or even worse a
lightning storm)..  Second off, many major cities (like waterdeep) have made
rules governing spelljamming ships, and with all their high level mages can
enforce them rather well..  Then you also have to take into consideration
other critters.


<<The other major problem w/a groundling sj interaction is warfare. I know
there have been articles in dragon magazine about how seige warfare gets
changed in a world with magic (being a function of how common magic is) but
throwing sj ships into the mix changes it even further. Using one, you have
the ability to bring to bear large seige weapons quickly and easily against
a target. Even if the groundling empire doesn't have such a ship, profiteers
from the stars could make a lot of cash hiring out to attack an enemy of the
empire. If the warring empire has their own sj ships, there are also changes
in supply lines. An army marches on its stomach, and if a long carefully
supply train can be easily moved over the air and effectively out of the
reach of one's enemies, an army can move much farther and expend less effort
guarding its path. In an equilibrium, it seems to me that groundling empires
would all have to take up sj tech, if for no other reason than to fight off
their opponents ships.>>

Well, while there is a great advantage to using SJ ships in ground warfare,
that can easily be thwarted if the 'groundlings' know of SJ ships and tech.
 Imagine for example a 6th level mage.  Casts invisibility on himself, then
fly.  uses the flyto get to the ship, then using what knowledge he has of
the SJ ship, moves to where the helm would be and then hits it with dispel
magic.  Can you say ouch!!!!
Or a slightly higher level mage using all sorts of monster summonings
into/onto the ship?!?!


<<I don't like either of these scenarios, and I have my ways of taking care
of them, but am curious to hear how everyone else deals with them (assuming
others have had to confront these issues in their games.) Is there a
generally agreed upon/enforced prime directive for spacefarers? Do you
ignore groundling nations for the most part by making your crystal sphere
mostly small asteroids and uninhabitable planets? I generally use the EIF as
an enforcer, reasoning that their facist-paternalism (I lean very heavily on
the EIF as the controling faction of space, and not a very sympathetic one
at that) stands against interfering with groundling worlds directly like that.>>

As others have mentioned.  yes Sj ships can be overwhelming in a groundling
battle, but only if the other force does not have one of their own, or a
high level mage (6th or higher) who has knowledge of Sj ships...