Re: Steampunk Jammer

At 09:03 AM 8/22/2005, you wrote:
>They've got a (crude) copy of their master's mind - though the
>more intelligent ones might claim to have an improved copy of
>their master's mind! [grin]

Ooo...I can see how that can get nasty.

>There are likely to be _some_ operating costs. You will probably
>have to feed them, give them somewhere to rest when off-shift,
>and unless their minds are built to be dedicated to comms,
>something to keep them from getting bored.
>
>You might find it adds up to more than you'd pay a junior clerk!
>[grin]

Well...I suppose it depends entirely on the quality of their life. If
you treat them no better than a homing pigeon I imagine itll be
vastly cheaper. Then again junior clerks can't send messages instantly.

>Current name for this sub-class is "Moulder", but they still need
>the Manikin Creation potions, and currently one of the few sources
>of these is an Alchemist.
>
>I know there has been speculation on whether you could have a
>manikin, which is designed to make Manikin Creation potions,
>maybe using something the various Healing Skill special
>abilities, letting them make healing potions.
>
>But, maybe that is a bit too much like manikin reproduction,
>which is explicitely banned! [grin]
>
>(All manikin and homonculi are sterile. Getting this fixed has
>been a long term game objective of a number of PC manikins.)

I can see why, if they were allowed to reproduce, with all those neat
abilities, you'd have quite a problem very quickly. Ever thought of
what it would be like to have a group of these manikins run away and
start their own colony on an asteroid or something? Maybe toss in
some extra factors like the asteroid their on is in a crucial area of
space for some reason or another? It might just end up being like a
alchemical Waco!

>We have currently 'acquired' the High Priest of Tiamat, and so
>far his god seems to be just stopping anything we do to him
>killing him. So, we are keeping him deeply unconscious, and
>trying to figure out what to do next, while 'waiting for the
>other shoe to drop'.

Do I even want to know how you "acquire" a priest? Specially a high
priest of Tiamat? I imagine shes not pleased.

>I am familiar with a set of add-on rules for DnD called "Robot
>Building for Fun, Pleasure, and Bankrupcy". Messing with
>manikins/homonculi isn't that bad, but a lot of wealth can be
>involved.

That sounds terribly cool! lol


> > >Carrying people around in shrunken form could be fun! In
> > >particular if you are afraid the enemy have some way of detecting
> > >instant travel, or, maybe even grabbing people in mid transit!
> >
> > Could replace jumbo jets! Just think about it you make a really big
> > bird type manikin and build a miniature cabin for the tiny
> > passengers. You could probably transport a fair amount of people that way.
>
>Maybe even application for spelljamming. "You encounter a small
>ship, about row boat size. Using your spyglass, you see lots of
>tiny passengers moving around on a number of decks. The name on
>the front is 'Titanic'..."

That would be great for short trips. But longer ones I imagine you'd
need an actual helm. Wonder if helms can be shrunk?

>You can't quite do that with the current manikin abilities, but
>maybe you could do something with indefinite duration Diminution
>potion, maybe in gas form, or something... Maybe produced by some
>sort of alchemical Bottle...

That sounds like some pretty high level stuff though.

>Some thought has gone into issues of human rights for manikins -
>if you have a manikin with emotions, creativity and mental
>capacity comparable to human, not thinking about human rights is
>a really bad idea. Homonculi are different, as they are really
>just extensions of their master, and it is the master's right not
>to have bits of them injured, or even cut off, that needs to be
>considered.

Ya, unless they're that bound to their creators that they would
freely ignore their own situation. But I doubt every manikin would do that.

>You can also be pretty sure some religions will consider manikins
>"monstrous abominations", and will do their best to wipe them
>out. "True living things are created by the Gods, not by alchemy."

Which also demonizes alchemy in general. You know, that's a good
premise for my setting.

>You could have quite a well coordinated spelljamming crew, made
>up from homonculi, maybe even micro-manikin homonculi. And, they
>could get on with their work pretty independently, as long as
>they had their own spacemanship skills, and didn't need to draw
>these from their master (the bosun? the captain?).

How micro? Lol I can just imagine manikins starting fights with
dwarves and halfings.

>If you got into trouble with foul air, and they had Feign Death,
>you could even put them under, so they weren't using up any more
>air.

Visiting your idea of combat manikins, it would be awesome to put a
bunch of them under Feign Death and use them when you needed them,
say when you're boarded? It would give pirates quite a shock. Since
their not awake and consuming air you could have a bunch of them on
the ship and deploy them when needed.

>If one or more of them get killed, though, the death shock damage
>might be enough to kill their master, at which point you have
>likely lost your entire crew.

Not to state the obvious, but that would suck!

>You could create independent free-willed manikins to be crew, but
>these would not be that different from normal crew, except you
>get to customise them, and they have all sorts of interesting
>abilities. Expense is a definate issue, as each will likely cost
>you 10-50,000gp; really good ones could cost a lot more.
>
>The crew of a (really) rich merchant, maybe?

Could be the latest thing for the nobles to have. "Muffy, you got a
new ship with an old fashioned crew? Pshaw I got a new ship AND its
own manikin crew!" I imagine you could toss the word loser into that quote.

>Not sure about that, but didn't the Furnace Golem used by the
>Vodani function as some sort of Helm?

I don't know. I can't, for the life of me, find the stats.


>The manikin just acts as the Helm, you still need helmsmen.
>Though, it possible for a manikin to both be a Helm, and their
>own helmsman.
>
>In a post a while ago, I suggested a pirate captain with a bird
>which acted as his helmsman, or a monkey or a human, which acted
>as their own Helm and helmsman.

I was never too clear on how spelljammer ships are piloted by
helmsmen when the helmsman isn't powering the helm. I have no idea if
that makes sense, but I hope it does.

Sounds pretty creative. But you have to be sure you treat the pet
well otherwise it could cause some problems!

>(Incidentally, the specs for the birds were wrong, as they
>implied they would gain experience, and become better helmsmen,
>which homonculi don't. Their master might, and get better at
>using them to run a Helm; they wouldn't.)
>
>Your choice, as to whether you use bound homonculi, or free-
>willed manikins as helmsmen or Helms. If the master of a helmsman
>homonculi has spells, there is a pretty good chance that their
>homomculi stitting in a Helm will suck all their spells, as well.
>
>The captain might not want to be master of helmsman or Helm
>homonculi, preferring to hire someone who does that
>professionally, and is maybe the bosun or first mate. The captain
>might be the one who did all the navigating (you could have a
>manikin good at this), and dealt with port officials, etc.
>
>I would have thought a mutiny, which left the captain drugged or
>unconscious, and his homonculi threatened into working for the
>mutineers, on the captain's continued good health, might happen.
>
>Or, you might kill the captain, and his spirit ends up in a
>monkey helmsman/Helm! Depends on how much is understood about
>homonculi by the mutineers, or whether they realise at all, that
>advanced alchemy is the spelljamming trick being used.

Awesome plot ideas. I'll be sure to save those.

>Hunting space dragons for their blood, might make for an
>interesting spelljamming scenario. Stealing their eggs? Captive
>breeding program, anyone? [grin]

That might get nasty XD


> > > > Or how much control the living have over the afterlife. Can
> you imagine a
> > > > Spirit Guild specifically dedicated to giving your recently departed a
> > > > raise in the afterlife? "Sure your grandpaw can get out of
> shoveling coal
> > > > for the rest of his afterlife. But its gonna cost ya!" Kinda
> reminds me of
> > > > the indulgences the catholic church had early in the medieval ages.
> > >
> > >Introduces some interesting relationships with the afterlife!
> > >[grin]
> >
> > Doesn't it? I really have to write this up. Lol
>
>Good luck! [grin]

Thanks XD

>Some DMs have gods powered by belief, see Terry Pratchett's
>"Small Gods". Introduces all sorts of ideas about "stealing the
>power of a god". Steam engines and Helms driven by power stolen
>from foreign gods? [grin]
>
>If there is just one believer in the pink elephant afterlife, it
>might be just a small field, with a small, single 'real' pink
>elephant, and all the others are illusions.
>
>In the above comment, I was thinking more about how much the
>meddling of the gods, and those in the afterlife, could affect
>the real world of the living.

Ya, makes for an interesting linchpin for a campaign. Maybe some sort
of cult is going around believing that there are no gods and suddenly
gods start disappearing? You'd have to work the kinks out of the
idea, but it sounds like fun don't it?


>Me not having any players at the moment might be an issue...

Ya. I hear you there.


> > >'Engineer' used in the RW to be someone who had some respect, and
> > >who made things like trains work, or repaired things so they go
> > >on working. If the cost of making and distributing things is high
> > >in your campaign compared to the cost or repair, say due to being
> > >based on cottage industry, rather than factory assembly line mass
> > >production, repair should be a very important side of things.
> > >
> > >Knowing how to repair and operate things is, I guess, probably at
> > >least a three year apprenticeship, unless it is highly
> > >specialised. Knowing how to do it so it works well, is efficient,
> > >and gives minimum trouble to people later, might be a bit harder!
> > >[grin]
> >
> > I don't think I want to introduce much industrialisation yet. Maybe a
> > few factories in large cities. So I imagine in the countryside
> > repairwork could make a man rich!
> >
> > Isn't that how long an electricians apprenticeship is these days?
> > Gotta keep the trains running on time after all. And once you start
> > piloting airships and the like it gets kinda dangerous when your too
> > slow at raising the ships altitude before you hit a mountain. Hehe,
> > why do I suddenly see bumbling gnome conductors.
>[snip]
>
>"Smart people don't travel Gnome Airways."

LOL now thats a funny quote.