Re: What is a "conventional engine"?

In <URL:news:local.spelljam> on Thu 03 Mar, Tauster wrote:
> i repeatedly stumbled across the term "conventional engine", mentioned for
> example in the entry of the elven flitter ("adventures in space" , p.15):
> "Landing craft: sometimes owners strip the spelljamming engine out of a
> flitter and replace it with a MORE CONVENTIONAL ENGINES. in this
> configuration, the flitter is useless for interplanetary voyges, but
> suitable for short hops into and out of the athmosphere or between ships.
> the elven navy follows a strict policy of only allowing ships without helms
> to make landfall, so this use of flitters as landing craft is very
> common."

I'm guessing it is something like a 'Fly' spell enchanted to
affect a whole vehicle. If that was on a removable 'engine'
(this should make the enchantment more difficult, than enchanting
the whole vehicle) then you could swap it in and out with a Minor
Helm. SJ physics still gives you the air envelope, you just don't
get Overdrive.

I'm not looked at the standard rules, but house rules make Fly's
12" move 30mph - a long, long, interplanetary run!

By my house rules for enchantment, you need a 14th level Wizard
to make a Fly spell on a removable engine, for a small vehicle:

Fly @ 12"                    = 3rd
Fly entire small vehicle +1L = 4th
Fly on removable engine +1L  = 5th
Permanent enchantment +2L    = 7th


> the term was mentioned in other entries as well, but i found no explanation
> just what these "conventional" means are! obviously it´s no other helm,
> since that would enable interplanetary voyages. while a can imagine gnomes
> using giant spacehamster- driven running wheels (...and an minor helm
> hidden among the pipes, bells and whistles *g*) or even alchemical stuff
> (smokepowder comes to mind... *shudder*), i can´t see what elves (or other
> racs, for that matter) use.
> 
> - perhaps a spell of flying could be cast on the ship?
> - or something completely unmagical. but what exactly?
> 
> ....or did i overlook something obvious? wouldn´t be the first time. ;)
> 
> another thing that bugs me: does the elven flitter move its wings when
> flying? the name implies that, but i didn´t read a description yet. the
> same goes with the dragonfly, damselfly or wasp: do their wings move or do
> they just "glide"?
> 
> i am for the moving-wings- version, because the description of the flitter
> states that it can go OUT of an atmosphere, which would be kind of
> difficult with a glider- the pilot would have to rely on upwinds that
> actually blow his ship out of (!) the athmosphere.

I'm told that in some cases it is a matter of 'fantasy style',
and that vehicles move through space, or 'sail', because they look
as though they ought to. I am not very happy about that as an
explanation.

Some people have told me that wings and sails are working on 'the
ether', and that's in space, though in planetary atmosphere other
effects over-power it, and it can be quite difficult to even
detect.

Some "conventional engines" seem to convert physical (or magical,
or psionic) effort into movement in space, by a mechanism I am
not too clear about - a Fly spell that requires flapping wings?

If you come up with a good explanation, which doesn't involve too
much magical or metaphysical hand waving (to keep you in the air,
that is [grin] ), I would certainly like to hear it! [grin]

Good luck!


> Tauster

-- 
Dreamer
dreamer@??????.?????.??.uk
http://www.romsys.demon.co.uk/