These ships are as massive as battleships and suffer the same -1 Defence penalty, which is already factored in the stats below. Fleet carriers always hang back from combat if they can because they are vulnerable to both fighters and other airships. While the Guild uses small carriers, nations prefer large fleet carriers that can launch dozens of aircraft. It has fighter pilots, pirates, a pirate shanty, a pirate mum, ghost ship, Mayan temples, Nazi mad science, giant animals, a native tribe mistakenly worshipping the PCs, a lusty native prince/princess, a femme fatale, a ditsy groupie, a Cuban Pope, possibly a second Pope (Pope Veronique), airships and massive air battles - all in a single session The PDF came with an additional PDF of WW2 planes for a historical game and the rules would work pretty much as written for that.Īnyway, I am currently writing a scenario for it called "Ghost Ship v the Pope". Though a fantasy world with magic based on various beliefs and mad science, the publisher knows his real world dogfighting stuff. There are Nazis, Catholic Churches, sky pirates, Mayan priests, hi-tech Guild and Voudoun. As with Remnants the setting is full of ideas and flavour, but the publisher leaves lots of blank spaces on the map. It has quite a lot of Laputa Castle in the Sky and Last Exile in the mix. The world is the Carribean that was ripped from our world in 1804 into a realm where gravity is such that the islands now float in the sky. there is an alternate campaign structure for all PCs being a crew of a single large B-52 style cargo plane. There are fame, scandals, air shows, product endorsements, air aces, parties and drunken fist fights outside of the pilot's bar. in addition to dogfighting, there is also support on the fighter pilots as celebrities. Rather than a complex points buy and weight balance, each option is balanced and excludes certain other options. There is a lot of options but the system is simple to use. each PC makes and customises their own Warbird. It includes duels, clusters and a cool strafing of larger target mechanic (perfect for Star Wars). the dogfighting combat system is simple yet filled with tactics and real world knowledge. Where the RPG shines mechanically though is: The system is a d6 + Attribute + Skill vs a difficulty with an Exalted style stunt mechanic. It shows how to make something look great with just a discerning eye and not a lot of money. The book is full colour and very attractive. All the good stuff from that RPG can be seen in Warbirds and many parts are improved on. The publisher is Outrider Studio who also did the not that well known but well received Remnants RPG (about post-apocalyptic tribal mecha). It's a Dieselpunk RPG of WW2 style fighter pilots set in an alternate history world. I trust players to manage my fairly minimal sheets without digital aids.Warbirds RPG ( ) has just been made available in PDF to the Indiegogo backers. It actively wasn't, and if you decide you want a tool, then you should probably make it.īut my character sheets are much more like OD&D than 5E (for comparison) so obviously if you have a 2 page, very fiddly character sheet, then the above advice is probably sound. I don't want to tell players (implicitly by including a form fillable character sheet) that the game was designed with their use in mind. I don't think they're bad, they're just a tool same as any other - but I also don't think they should be used simply because they can be. While acknowledging again the obvious present circumstances, if the point is to guide players who don't know better towards an optimal experience, I hesitate to encourage the use of having a screen at the table. I can also (again anecdotally) attest that a group of people with tablets and laptops at the table lowers general "fun". Then as designers, we should be deliberate with our choices. So I think it could be argued that form fillable documents are beyond a simple crutch, but actively put the new player at a disadvantage for participating. There is tons of data that backs up the fact that handwriting is much better for memory and internalization, which I can anecdotally agree with. However, I don't believe new players benefit from a form fillable PDF. To be fair, I get it, the world is digitizing, people use multimedia, and Covid isn't helping, so I acknowledge their use. I want to pushback on this, and the digitization in general. It's one less barrier between new players and your game and, if you want players to come to your game
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