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Another questions for the wise ones here.

Would you agree that the Talent Air Sailing apply only to the 'propulsion' part of Air Sailing?

What I mean by that is that the Attribute used for it (Will power) makes sense only in that case. Everything else should use a more related Attribute (PER for navigating, DEX for handling the sails/rigging and repairs, TOU for drinking ).

This would make Air Sailing more in line with 'real' sailing that uses DEX as Attribute. I have difficulties with the concept of a Wizard moving through the rigging like a monkey on an airship (because of high WIL) and falling pathetically from those same rigging the moment it lands on water (because of low DEX).

Your thoughts?

The Earthdawn system really doesn't do substitutions of its Attribute+Skill/Talent pairs, so no. What's more Navigation and Climbing are their own talents which must be bought separately. An Adept with Air Sailing will know how to work the sails of an air ship, but will need Climbing to actually get up on the rigging, and Navigation to go where she's going. Fortunately, First Circle Air Sailors have access to all three.

Navigation is it's own talent, so Air Sailing per see does not include that.
Maintenance and Repair are both specifically mentioned as being part of Air Sailor and Sky Raider Half Magic, but I don't interpret that to say one way or the other if Air Sailing could also be used for those tasks. I would allow an Air Sailing test for many activities that would be important for Air Sailors to know, but that was not specifically covered by other skills. For example if there was a reason to know how well a knot was tied, I would allow an Air Sailing test to substitute for a "knots" skill.

The talent description specifically says "The adept knows how to work the rigging, tiller, and oars of airships". So working the rigging is definitely included. I personally would say that "Air Sailing" includes just about everything (except Navigation) to work the ship. In the basic rules so far published, getting the ship to maneuver requires all active crew to make an Air Sailing roll and the total of the successes determines the result. One could reasonably assume, getting it to fight (firing it's weapons) requires an Air Sailing roll. Repairing it requires an Air Sailing or Half Magic rolls (whichever is higher - for Air Sailor Adepts they will be the same, for Sky Raiders Half Magic might be higher, for non-adepts in the crew, obviously the skill will be the only thing available). So basically I interpret it is a measure of your ability to work as a team to service an airship.

Having spent some time in sailing ships... WIL is as important for working the rigging as DEX is (It is scary being up so high above the deck), and going into the rigging is just one of the many jobs a crew might be required to do. Many (the deck crew) are almost never required to. WIL is as important as PER to keep you alert on a frigid night watch. At various times working a sailing ship requires all Attributes (except CHA). When all are needed, and more importantly, need to be coordinated among dozens of crew members, WIL is probably a good choice for the catch all. There are some games (I recommend Serenity/Firefly) where the attribute changes with the task. IE: running a 50 meter dash is Running/Agility, while running a 10K is Running/Endurance, and planning the quickest route is Running/Perception. I really like that mechanic, but this game ain't that.

All that having been said, you are correct that the Talent Description does specifically say only "help propel an airship". Not everything will be Air Sailing on a ship. The lookout's roll to spot something on the horizon will be raw Perception, not Air Sailing. The cooks efforts will be his cooking skill, not Air Sailing.

Your comment about "everything else should use a more related attribute", seems to me to be just adding complexity for complexities sake. If there was a specific event that required a roll, I would usually let players make any roll that could be reasonably appropriate. If there was a shock that meant that everybody in the rigging needed to make a test to avoid falling out of the rigging, I might allow Climbing, Wound Balance or Great Leap to avoid the falling damage as they all specifically have to do with not falling down, even though some have different base attributes. Air Sailing is only tangentially related to not falling out of the rigging, so if I allowed it to be used at all, it would have a higher target number than the more appropriate talents. It is not the attribute they have that is important, it is the talent description.

I’d be interested to know who has ever actually had a game situation where having ranks in sailing contributed to a role playing story.

Slimcreeper wrote: ↑

Mon Feb 12, 2018 2:09 am

I’d be interested to know who has ever actually had a game situation where having ranks in sailing contributed to a role playing story.

Sometimes you have to push and shoehorn to get them in.
I have some plot hooks I plan on introducing into the Westmarches campaign as soon as some of the existing threads can be tied off. The scenarios can be run without any PCs knowing Air Sailing. But they should give those who have it a chance to shine and RP.