I suddenly realized, Fallen London establishes right off the bat that Dirigibles are a thing. But for some reason references to them seem completely absent outside of the prison. I think in Sunless Sea there were some monkeys trying to build one, but my memory there is pretty hazy. Does the game ever give a reason that Dirigibles aren’t used for inter-island travel (or really, anything other than prison to ground transport)? I wonder if the Presbyterate has air defenses. Could I setup Dirigible tours of the Mountain of Light? Obviously there’d have to be a disclaimer.
Death Defying Dirigibles is not responsible for any injuries or deaths that may occur during the tour. Including cuts, scrapes, burns, lost limbs, madness, melting, dreams, decapitations, and being literally turned to wax.
However, the dirigibles do make an appearance now and then. They are used during one of the Ambitions (Light Fingers? Can’t remember…), and in one or two generic opportunity cards.
It is mostly London and the Prison that support or need the dirigible. The islands Londoner would go to tend to be too small or too hostile to justify building anything to support dirigibles - say, Mutton Island is too small, Tomb-Colonists aren’t in a rush to get to Tomb-Colonies, the Presbyterate isn’t going to agree (also the horde of aerial menaces like Blue Prophets that will tear a dirigible apart), the Cat’s Isle can’t afford the publicity via dirigible. It is not a easy task to land a dirigible; you often need a big crew on ground to help out, and plenty of flat ground.
Other places are too obscure or isolated from London, like the Uttershroom, or Frostfound, or Irem.
If Sunless Sea had reached another stretch goal, dirigibles would be available via DLC - but we were forewarned that they’d be slow and fuel-hungry, so impractical for long trips. I daresay that answers why they’re not used more often in general - not many folks can afford the materials, mooring and fuel for such an enormous and impractical way to get about.
Mr Fires owns a fleet of dirigibles for transportation of goods and observation of the roof. It probably doesn’t want anybody else to have one and get in the way… edited by phryne on 7/2/2016
How, mechanically, would you balance the “ship” of that type?
Large - to captain level? Additional costs when you go to zea? Not shipping out of the docks at ALL, so it’s your SHIP, and takes that slot, but does not count at the dock…
could then be an entirelly differnt set of mechanics in travel.
Because the dirigible got punctured by a stalactite, a menace state that simulates you falling from the sky for 40 actions, then you die when you reach the ground straight to the boat? edited by Koh Kai Ying on 7/4/2016