Originaly posted on the TSR online message board (www.tsr.com) by various.
The ship's gravity centers on its heaviest, single part,
Ok which race/culture is going to be the most intelligent and make a ship that is basically a giant ball with one flat surface, and a giant weighted object dead in the center of the ship? it might not be a perfect ball (more or less the shape of a die 20), so that you have something that feels flat to someone what ever side of the ship they are on...utilizing surface area per volume of ship. Be interesting to see some of these ships...
But the question I have then is which side is up? If all the outer deck surfaces are used this way then the ship had better stay away from planets & skyshields. But I do like the idea, perhaps some sort of insect (ie queen in the middle) or maybe even the aranea, that way they don't really care if they are in a skyshield or not, especially if the outer hull is covered in webbing!
Just some thoughts
Advanced technology (all made out of wood)! I love it! I thought of beholders, but then they don't really care about gravity at all! The problem with this design is that it can't really be used within the confines of a planet's Skyshield because its gravitational trick would no longer work.
The opposite construction, an enclosed, spherical -- like a WWII marine mine for example -- or ring-like ship -- like 2001: A Space Odyssey -- with weighted masts on the outside would allow people to stand on the inside of the ship's outer bulkheads. But they still can't fly within a planet's atmosphere, thus the advantage of flat, boat-like vessels. :o)
But I do like the idea, perhaps some sort of insect (ie queen in the middle) or maybe even the aranea,
That would be cool. You could also fill the *inside* of the voidship with webs, pretty much ignoring all gravitational effects. Webs are so much lighter than wood, I wonder if araneas could spin the kind of webs that would make up the vast majority of their voidships' structure? A ship entirely made of solidified and fresh webs...
There could be one of the sides thats designated as "up" and one designated as "down" if it be neccesary to enter a sky sheild. That way the crew could gather on that deck and below it (depending on the internal structure) and be safe when in the sky sheild. Also if you contiue with the Aranean idea, they could merely web themselves in place on the deck they are on, and have just one deck as a bottom. The idea of having the whole ship web based is a neat idea. Im wondering is their currently an explenation where the aranea came from...if not maybe we could throw a giant ancient sphereical ship on Mystara somewhere...
Im wondering is their currently an explenation where the aranea came from...if not maybe we could throw a giant ancient sphereical ship on Mystara somewhere...
No, no explanation as of yet. We just said they were an ancient race.