Icebound Equipment and Vehicles

[Corjay]

Along with the Special Icebound Race, Icebound Monsters and New Icebound Classes threads, I want to add this one last thread.

This thread is meant to cover all the special items in Icebound unique to a frozen world. Now, I just learned that there is a book called Frostburn that provides a lot of details for a frozen environment. So if there's anything repeated here that can be found there, just say so and it can be removed. Below is a list of items that appear in this thread. The first thing that comes to my mind is a contribution from Michael Moorcock: the ice schooner.

New Icebound Equipment and Vehicles
Ice Schooner

[Skip_Williams]

I like the idea of an ice schooner. Smaller iceboats are more feasible. "Schooners" are a fraily late development in maritime technology, and modern iceboats (like the kind you see on frozen lakes in the winter) are even more high tech.

Still, some sort of "wind sled" would be cool and practical. Perhaps something that glide along on fairly wide skis and uses square or lanteen sails.

[Ascendant]

The question becomes how would large shipments of goods be shipped across an ice sea.

[Vance]

Depends on how frozen the sea is... the Vikings managed, after all.

As for the technology of the setting, that's something that really has to be hashed out. I would personally like a little bit of 'steam' tech or something to bring it up a little from typical D&D.

[Phoenix]

Depends on how frozen the sea is... the Vikings managed, after all.

As for the technology of the setting, that's something that really has to be hashed out. I would personally like a little bit of 'steam' tech or something to bring it up a little from typical D&D.

Though remember a lot shipments would be across the land masses not having to cross the actual sea.  There are also the land bridges between the larger continents.

[Ascendant]

Depends on how frozen the sea is... the Vikings managed, after all.

As for the technology of the setting, that's something that really has to be hashed out. I would personally like a little bit of 'steam' tech or something to bring it up a little from typical D&D.

Though remember a lot shipments would be across the land masses not having to cross the actual sea.  There are also the land bridges between the larber continents.

Yeah, I saw a program on how the vikings spread around. Whenever they traveled over ice, they did it the same way as traveling over land. They hefted the materials. Most of the time, though, they followed the ice pack along in boats. So it doesn't translate unless there's a lot of water, which being "Icebound", I don't see that coming up frequently. So, since everything is covered in ice, they would likely use sleds across the frozen oceans. Since you can't expect beasts of burden to cover 2000 miles of ice, and there are strong winds to be taken advantage of, ice sails are the best way to go for travel, but are they the best way to go for heavy shipments? Would they use more barge-style sleds, being flat and wide, distributing the weight more? Could large paddle-wheels be used to move major shipments?

[Skip_Williams]

Depends on how frozen the sea is... the Vikings managed, after all.

As for the technology of the setting, that's something that really has to be hashed out. I would personally like a little bit of 'steam' tech or something to bring it up a little from typical D&D.

Though remember a lot shipments would be across the land masses not having to cross the actual sea.  There are also the land bridges between the larber continents.

Yeah, I saw a program on how the vikings spread around. Whenever they traveled over ice, they did it the same way as traveling over land. They hefted the materials. Most of the time, though, they followed the ice pack along in boats. So it doesn't translate unless there's a lot of water, which being "Icebound", I don't see that coming up frequently. So, since everything is covered in ice, they would likely use sleds across the frozen oceans. Since you can't expect beasts of burden to cover 2000 miles of ice, and there are strong winds to be taken advantage of, ice sails are the best way to go for travel, but are they the best way to go for heavy shipments? Would they use more barge-style sleds, being flat and wide, distributing the weight more? Could large paddle-wheels be used to move major shipments?
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An iceboat that sits up on runners (as 20th century iceboats do) is very fast, but also unstable and hard to control (I could tell you some stories about that). An iceboat on runners doesn't do well in snow.

A toboggan type "sled" would be far easier to handle and much less likely to tip over. Such a vehicle could move over soft snow as well as ice or snow with a hard crust. It would need a great deal of sail area to move. It might, however, simply use sails for extra push. I could see such a vehicle fitted with masts and sails along with  a couple of pairs of spiked wheels. The wheels could be steam powered, I suppose, but I favor either magical animation or perhaps just a couple of golems cranking away like galley slaves.

[Phoenix]

An iceboat that sits up on runners (as 20th century iceboats do) is very fast, but also unstable and hard to control (I could tell you some stories about that). An iceboat on runners doesn't do well in snow.

A toboggan type "sled" would be far easier to handle and much less likely to tip over. Such a vehicle could move over soft snow as well as ice or snow with a hard crust. It would need a great deal of sail area to move. It might, however, simply use sails for extra push. I could see such a vehicle fitted with masts and sails along with  a couple of pairs of spiked wheels. The wheels could be steam powered, I suppose, but I favor either magical animation or perhaps just a couple of golems cranking away like galley slaves.

Maybe we could have some sort of automations that are purely mechanical that have been developed to help cope with the new conditions since the ice age?

[Vance]

My only issue with that relying on golems and magic would be... close to impossible with the setup (most of the magical knowledge was LEFT BEHIND), and also create a setting that, once again, becomes the 'Forgotten Realms' on a really really cold day.

I'm not asking for 'Wild Arms' level tech (I already have that setting), but I do think that renaissance level technology is something to look more into.

[Phoenix]

My only issue with that relying on golems and magic would be... close to impossible with the setup (most of the magical knowledge was LEFT BEHIND), and also create a setting that, once again, becomes the 'Forgotten Realms' on a really really cold day.

I was saying purely mechanical not magical, new technology developed since the ice age.  I don't see Icebound as being a high magic setting.

[Giomanach]

I might meet some resistance to this suggestion but why not keep the idea of golems and such as lost technological relics from early times. One no longer knows how to build them but the setting still knows how they work and how to use them. Icesleds can be used for the lighter loads that need to be transported or for fast delivery and larger "freightsleds" pulled by mechanical catapillars (golems) that have survived time in such large numbers that they are still used to this day.

[Phoenix]

I might meet some resistance to this suggestion but why not keep the idea of golems and such as lost technological relics from early times. One no longer knows how to build them but the setting still knows how they work and how to use them. Icesleds can be used for the lighter loads that need to be transported or for fast delivery and larger "freightsleds" pulled by mechanical catapillars (golems) that have survived time in such large numbers that they are still used to this day.

Long lost relics might work but what happens when they start breaking down?  With the lost knowledge chances are they couldn't be replaced.  While this could work it could also cause problems if the supply system relied heavily on this.

[Giomanach]

It opens possible adventures. Long lost tomes on how to build these at one time everyday tools that could cause a nation with little resources, and therefore power, shoot upwards. You now no longer have just a power struggle to control fuel resources but also the know-how for transportation. Before the tomes are discovered, the golems are coveted like a Rolls Royce yet as numerable as semi-trucks. As to breaking down, I'd say if they survived so many years that the technology to build them has been lost they could easily last another 100-500 years before breaking down.

[Phoenix]

It opens possible adventures. Long lost tomes on how to build these at one time everyday tools that could cause a nation with little resources, and therefore power, shoot upwards. You now no longer have just a power struggle to control fuel resources but also the know-how for transportation. Before the tomes are discovered, the golems are coveted like a Rolls Royce yet as numerable as semi-trucks. As to breaking down, I'd say if they survived so many years that the technology to build them has been lost they could easily last another 100-500 years before breaking down.

They could be made to last of course, just throwing out possibilities.  Even breakdowns could lead to adventure.  Adventurers could be set out to help a repair or recovery team to reach the site of the breakdown for example.

[DarkSkrypter]

How many years since the ice age began?  Should be enough for people of the world to adapt tech to the frozen conditions and temperatures.  Wreckages of older ice runners(my name for ice schooners, or whatever you're calling them) litter the landscape in some areas.

Was there a war in the history, I'm pretty sure there was mention at one point?  Maybe mechanized vehicles/weapons from the last wars prior to the age of ice could have been discovered, or a workshop hidden beneath the ice and snow was discovered - or has yet to be discovered(good idea for a module just popped into my mind) and rumors of the destructive power these weapons were capable of seem to float around in taverns and around campfires.