For an upcoming campaign I'll be running, I have an unorthodox starting town in mind, but I'd like some help with ideas and technical realism:
Barring significant spoilers, the back story is that a kingdom (ruled and populated by mostly Humans) was forced on a massive scale exodus. Their only means of travel was by sea. They had a little over a year to prepare for this exodus, and used that time (with the help of magic) to construct a fleet of hundreds of ships - maybe even a thousand. The reason for so many is that they have no destination; their only course of action is to sail the seas until they find a new home. This could potentially take generations, so their city of ships is designed for long-term self-sufficiency. This takes me to what I'm looking for from this thread:
Clerics will be able to remove some of the food/water burden with the Create Food and Water spell. Low-level Wizards will be trained as sailors, and their ability to communicate between ships at will with Message will make uniform ship movement possible. One or two ships might be designated as prisons, more will be designated as barracks, and will have combat capabilities (most ships will not), and each church will likely have its own ship. Beyond this, I'm looking for similar ideas. Could other classes use specific skills/spells to make the city function with relative ease? What are other specialized rolls specific ships might have? How might the city handle certain threats, like storms, sea monsters, etc?
i believe the pre-last question was about "roles" not rolls. Actually most needs could very well be handled with proper engineering instead of magic.
Light signals instead of message spells (which have dastardly low ranges at low levels), or at least to communicate the need to get closer for messaging.
Above-deck structures designed to be low and sealable or quickly retractable (folding masts are the biggest issue here - not having them out in full glory helps a lot in a storm that might otherwise risk breaking them, not to mention ripping sails)
A law system probably designed to minimise jail needs - focus on punishments that make up for misdeeds instead of just keep people away from the society or the culprit goes overboard. Everything inbetween is a burden the fleet cant allow much of.
Druids having fun with greenhouse rooms on the upper floors, while most others kive most of their lives inthe darkness below decks - just because you want to also grow some food, not eat fish and divine mercy all the time.
Monsters that can emerge from below are a major issue so that might need more magic treatment - something to maximise ranges of alarm-like spells and then more stuff to be capable to get the fight to the monster before it gets to the ship. How much would a trinket capable of casting magic missile one a day or even week cost? A silly thing like that can make a kraken tremble if every dumb soldier had access to it, counting in thousands.
Deep respect for diplomacy, alliances and trade with wandering naval creatures.
..and some powerful alien being lurking in the shadows, which actually made constructing it all in such short time possible with its bizarre intellect. An abomination that's become a blessing for reasons unknown to all but itself, secretly worshipped by those who know better what their lives depend on more even than the whims of gods.
..complete with a set of holy artifacts helping the society get by its needs, the artifacts actually being bits of alient technology, and flocks of small, innocent-looking creatures running around with weird tools and performing sacred rites (actually just maintenance and experiments) on the aforementionned
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Just popping in to highly recommend you read China Miéville's The Scar, the excellent 2002 entry in his loosely-linked Bas-Lag trilogy, as it features a floating city much like the one you envision in a fantasy environment.
Also, an addiction to sushi (makeable without need of a heat source, most ingredients aquatic, rice liking water to grow as well)
Dependence on renewable energy sources for heat
Rice-farming floating terraces draggable behind ships like nets (i did mention sushi earlier after all)
Academic ships - after all diplomacy, navigation,magic, even bits of technology and engineering are very important to such a society
Have a look at games and movies that deal with similar tropes. There was this post-apoc movie about a flooded world..cant remember the name, "water world" fight with "mad max" on that, main hero was a mutant with gills. Add bits of warhammer 40k coupled with korean mmos for the strange relation to technology and tech-furries maintenance..or just straight up mass effect
In my groups home games ive actually made up a race that appears like small, more extremely feline catfolk, while actually being more akin to gnomes - outsiders from beyond the veil with a crazed fascinatiom in technology and experimenting with everything they can lay their hand on. Complete with ancient god-heroes (revered as guides and exemplars not worshipped, as opposed to goblin hero-gods) called void-dancers, fully-capable of trolling the horrors of the dark tapestry and then proceeding further to Golarion with their kin, already too insane on their own to be affected by the mind-breaking entities. A perfect motive for the alien being I mentionned - wicked, but not evil. Possibly caring even.
Note that regular maintenance is an absolute necessity for ships -- wood and ropes rot, metal rusts, weather and waves damage things -- so even with magic a lot of people are going to spend a lot of time on regular watch and work on the hulls and rigging. (Punishment details might involve doing the more unpleasant parts of this, like cleaning the heads or going overboard to scour weeds from the outside of the hull.)
Having someone who can control weather would really help. If you want a "deal with storms" plot, though, you'd need to have some hostile magic overpowering the fleets magic in that regard. Could spark a lot of plots. Or maybe a kraken is secretly controlling the weather for the fleet in exchange for regular sacrifices...
Also note that even slow ships can go around the world in 2-3 years, so if you want them to have been wandering for a long time you need some reason why they couldn't just go to a known destination and all get ashore.
In the novel "Snowcrash" there's a floating city of boats surrounding a nuclear carrier carried in a generally circular path by the trans-oceanic currents. I believe it breaks up and reforms periodically with the small craft running from storms that the carrier shrugs off, as well as boats leaving and joining at whatever point on the journey they wish.
Great tips, guys! To fill in some blanks: There is no known destination. Other landmasses may exist, but who knows where they are? This will be a relatively low-level setting: most NPC's will cap at level 5, while the tippy-top of a specific class (High Priest Cleric of a given faith, or the King's Archmage and his Fighter Captain) will go up to 7th or 8th level. So unfortunately, spells like Control Weather, or Scrying spells to search for other land masses won't be available. Alter Winds will still be usable to keep sails aloft.
I really like the idea of Druids caring for greenhouses on the decks of the ships, and pulling barges of growing crops. Some ships would also house silk farms filled with spiders. The threat from below is still a pretty big hole in the concept. I like the idea of a modified Alarm spell, but that would really only be one layer in a more complex security system.
Any other ideas?
This makes me think of Battle Star Galactica (already mentioned) and the Migrant Fleet (Quarian) from the Mass Effect series.
For both, it seems like the biggest threats were always scarcity of resources. However, you have magic. I would use appropriate magical items to offset the need for scavenging food and water. A decanter of endless water on each ship isn't particularly cheap, but also not absurd either.
If there aren't scruples attached to undead, the skeleton crew spell can leave the crew of the ships to fend for themselves for food (fishing) and crafting of goods. But keep in mind, without access to extra dimensional spaces they aren't going to be able to do much with metal. No access to forges on a ship.
Speaking of resources, that reminds me of something - a problem with ranged combat. Good ammo is heavy ammo and heavy ammo like metal and stone is lost once it gors overboard. Wood is hardly any better what with being needed for ship repairs and having to fish for if it goes overboard at best if its possible to get it back at all.
Ranged combat would most likely have to rely on magic a lot or alchemy based on fishable ingredients..and the latter still means a peoblem with glass.
Forging is the least of problem - the interior of a ship could be coated with metal to prevent burning tue hull. Heat for forging is worse, but thats doable with magic and a tricky use of sunlight. Getting resources is the worst - where would you mine iron from onboard?
Maintaining illusions on ship bottoms would be funny. Many fish evolved with lighter bellies to imitate the sky above water as if there was no fish inbetween. Mages can do even better with simple illusions. +1 to the security system is attracting less trouble
If the fleet passes through shallow water with regularity, then depending on the composition of the bottom, rocks could be gathered. Thus, slings might see use as the ammunition is more replaceable.
Look into the primitive weapon rules for the use of seashells for arrowheads and fish bones for shafts.
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One thing to think about in terms of designing this (or any other) setting is that you have the luxury of determining your desired outcomes before inventing the factors that led to them.
For example, you've already determined that your NPCs will be relatively low level. This has sparked some discussion about where your constrained society will sit along a scarcity/plenty scale in terms of resources, and that's been cool and interesting.
However...
Just as the story you plan to tell wound up requiring low-powered NPCs, that story might also simultaneously require plenty (probably not, but hear me out). If that's the case, then the thing to do is to figure out how a relatively power-impoverished ruling class came to exist in a relatively resource-rich environment despite its constraints. One answer to that question is time. It's reasonable and interesting to suppose that a great deal of time has passed since this city set sail, and perhaps the founders were much more powerful and had access to much greater magic than their descendents. You could, in fact, have magic items on every ship that provide food and water even if your cast of characters couldn't have made them. They inherited them in this scenario, and perhaps part of their political power comes from the fact that they control them. Perhaps there's a clan or guild system that's grown up around controlling access to these items and their products, one that might not even fully understand how or why the items they control work.
This might sound familiar if you've read much in the way of generation-ship science fiction like Gene Wolfe's Book of the Short Sun or a couple of the Heinlein juveniles. Powerful magic or technology needn't have been created or even understood by its users to have utility for the society that controls it.
This general conceit—decide how you want things to be before you figure out how things got that way—is a powerful and useful world-building device and has many things to speak for it. One thing is that its simply fun to figure out how a sixth level adept wound up in charge of a centuries-old floating city that has somehow managed to survive (if not thrive) under her leadership. Another thing is that it saves you time, if you're limited on time.
Anyway, I encourage you to think about it in those terms and see if it works for you. This is a great idea, and I envy your players the fun they'll have in exploring your creation.
I would also like to bring up why they literally didn't just separate the city from the land and make it float. If they had years to prepare for this event, seems like it could have been a thing. Or literally built a floating city in the sense of having something like a Nimitz class aircraft carrier (which can hold over 6000 personel). Now...structurally wood would not cut it. But you've got magic and years.
Maybe there is a terrible monster that is following them so they have to keep moving to stay ahead.
One of things that always bugged me most for the Migrant Fleet in Mass Effect was why they didn't colonize a planet instead of simply hanging out in their space ships all day. Now, Mass Effect attempts to resolve this somewhat but they do a poor job in my opinion. They make the Quarians say that they really want to take back their home planet, so they're refusing to colonize another. Except they don't have the strength to fight the enemy, and there is nothing that prevents them from settling a planet, rebuilding civilization and then returning to retake their home. They do also mention that finding easily habitable planets is difficult, but the Quarians already wear environmental suits all the time. It should be easier for them to find a temporary planet to settle down for a while before retaking their home. They also don't do a good job in game explaining why they don't try to make a deal with any of the other space races in game to co-settle or colonize a planet.
And it just bugs the crap out of me.
These same sorts of issue apply to your scenario. So please try to come up with good reasons for it. I'm not sure what such a reason would be, I really don't know. It's a neat idea, but it's so hard to pull off without hard question being raised that don't have good answers.
As a result, there aren't any tombs to raid, ruins to plunder, or neighboring barbarian tribes to fight.
Maybe it's a drowned world and those tombs to raid are passing under your keels now. Better raid them before the fleet moves on.
Thanks, guys, for all your ideas. Having powerful, left over items that are still used by less powerful people is a good idea, and might just be necessary. Glyphs of Warding on weighted ropes works really well as a defensive measure too.
A couple things I still wanted to bring up:
What might be a reasonable means of transit from ship-to-ship? Would there be a way to accomplish this on an individual scale? Or would there need to be a couple airborne vehicles (like hot air balloons) that act like ferries?
Also, and this was brought up fleetingly, the political infrastructure. While each ship has its own Captain, there would also be Commodores, who would have command of, say, the western flotilla, and all captains within that flotilla would report to him/her. Then there would be the Admiral, who commands all Commodores. This civilization, though, comes from a Monarchy government, ruled by a King and Queen, with a royal family, Surfs, and so on. How would these two groups coexist?
Also, and this was brought up fleetingly, the political infrastructure. While each ship has its own Captain, there would also be Commodores, who would have command of, say, the western flotilla, and all captains within that flotilla would report to him/her. Then there would be the Admiral, who commands all Commodores. This civilization, though, comes from a Monarchy government, ruled by a King and Queen, with a royal family, Surfs, and so on. How would these two groups coexist?
So, integrating a royal family could be difficult. Especially since any one individual making decrees doesn't work so well when any ship that wants out can just sail away. Chancing death could be preferable to the yoke of a monarchy. If anything, I think you monarchy would be much like that of the UK. Superficial figureheads with no actual power.
Otherwise, I would model your government like that of the Quarian Migrant Fleet, because that was one thing that did make sense. Each Captain is in complete control of their individual vessel. But, each vessel also sends representatives to a council to vote on issues that affect the whole fleet of ships. Captains generally abide by these group decision, but they could choose to leave the flotilla if they disagreed strongly enough. Though that would most likely mean certain death. There is also an elected military council which can over rule decision made by the civilian government, but in doing so the entire military council must step down from their positions. It helps to prevent abuse of power by any single individual.
In such a setting as this it is nigh impossible to force a group to do something they don't want to. You cannot easily oppress them when all they need to do is leave (with their house and all their possession and their means of transport all rolled into one it is very easy to do.)
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What role do intelligent aquatic races play in your world?
boring7 mentioned "no neighboring barbarian tribes", but Adaro or Sauhagin could serve that purpose well enough. Merfolk "caravanserai" could help the fleet resupply if the fleet has something worth trading-- which might be debatable. Perhaps the fleet's success is in part a result of healthy relations with Merfolk diplomats, and certain vessels are built with some means of allowing Merfolk to easily come aboard.
Meanwhile, Aboleths and Gillmen might fulfill the role that demons and devils fill in more traditional campaigns-- a powerful malevolence from below and its emissaries, seeking to corrupt and conquer, but not below bargaining with. The difficulties aquatic creatures have above water might even parallel the way outsiders interact with the Material Plane-- what we see on the surface are agents of a larger, more powerful force that can't exist up here, and casting its agents back down doesn't kill them, it only repels them temporarily.
Crossing between ships? In calm weather, ships can get close to each other and lay gangplanks or something across.
More likely, they'll have small boats that can pass from ship to ship. (This is usually how it was done in the old days.) No real need for flying taxis, though it would be cool to have some.
If the King isn't the Lord High Admiral, you may want to explain why the King is still around at all (or why he appointed a Lord High Admiral in the first place.) Survival situations tend to collapse multiple social hierarchies into single ones (the judge _is_ the general _is_ the lawgiver _is_ the mayor, etc.) There might be a political plot with someone trying to overthrow or replace the King, or get the King to appoint a new Admiral, or something like that.
The big question is: do you want to go underwater for adventures?
Two ideas:
1.Azlant/Sunken Empires:
Check out these two threads:
Absalom and Azlant (with lots of links to bonus material for Kobold Press Sunken Empire)
Aquatic Elves and Azlant (lots of Azlanti adventures)
Also check out Alluria Publishing's products for loads of underwater goodness.
2. Pirates! How do they figure in? How can the city defend against them? Or is the floating city (becoming) a pirate haven itself? Even if neither is true you can probably pillage from many pirate adventures, so here's links with pirate material:
good modules for a pirate campaign
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Speaking of resources, that reminds me of something - a problem with ranged combat. Good ammo is heavy ammo and heavy ammo like metal and stone is lost once it gors overboard. Wood is hardly any better what with being needed for ship repairs and having to fish for if it goes overboard at best if its possible to get it back at all.
They could easily make arrowheads from bone. Let's be honest, they must have at least a few fishing ships among their fleet, which means they'd have plenty of fish bones. Seagull bones would likely also be obtainable for them.
I believe Ultimate Combat has stats for making weapons out of bone. Just make that the default assumption when the characters are buying their starting equipment.
Addressing all the posts about lack of adventuring hooks/locations:
I'm planning on this campaign to be a more roleplay-heavy one. There are many campaigns that take place primarily in one city, where political intrigue is the driving force. As for dungeons: maybe scouts reported that one of the ships fell behind last night and hasn't moved since. The PC's are now part of a search party to go back and figure out what happened to this ship, only to find out that it's been taken over by a rebel group of ____ for ____ purposes.
The ammunition issue is a significant one, and one I hadn't thought of. I will definitely like to figure out a solution to how to forge things on a ship, and where to get the materials.
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Check out the anime Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet.
It is basically what your original post is about, but set in a future earth and uses technology.
The fleets in the anime are basically raised old ships repaired for use. The ships are linked to each other with gigantic clamps, making the ships once massive city, with fleets joining up and breaking apart as needed.
Addressing all the posts about lack of adventuring hooks/locations:
I'm planning on this campaign to be a more roleplay-heavy one. There are many campaigns that take place primarily in one city, where political intrigue is the driving force. As for dungeons: maybe scouts reported that one of the ships fell behind last night and hasn't moved since. The PC's are now part of a search party to go back and figure out what happened to this ship, only to find out that it's been taken over by a rebel group of ____ for ____ purposes.The ammunition issue is a significant one, and one I hadn't thought of. I will definitely like to figure out a solution to how to forge things on a ship, and where to get the materials.
Technically speaking, ANY urban adventure/quest can work with a series of ships. An uprising sect? A rigged election? An arcane experiment gone haywire? A theft? There's a ship for it...
Dungeon crawling can be reserved to underwater scavenging hunts, exploring sunken cities and ships and fighting aquatic monsters.
Transport between ships can be done with Teleportation Circles.
My 2 cents on the subject
Just popping in to highly recommend you read China Miéville's The Scar, the excellent 2002 entry in his loosely-linked Bas-Lag trilogy, as it features a floating city much like the one you envision in a fantasy environment.
I will go one better, read the whole Trilogy followed by everything else you can find by China Mieville. Whether you are planning this campaign or not. He is that good.
More on topic, historical Chinese fleets sailed long distances under an admiral Dheng. Amongst other things, they grew sprouts in order to avoid scurvy. You can look up historical sources on how it was done if you want realism. Its not a city, but a substantial long distance fleet. If you want actual history, avoid anything by a twerp named Menzies, who is not a historian and talks about a lot of things that are colourful, entertaining, dramatic and... did not happen.