+1 Extra AC
A vehicle with this upgrade has its AC increased by one. A vehicle can have this upgrade multiple times, with the limit to which its AC can be increased being indicated in its entry.
+1 Extra Hit Die
A vehicle with this upgrade has its number of hit dice increased by 1. A vehicle can have this upgrade multiple times, with the limit to which its total Hit Dice can be increased being indicated in its entry.
Advanced Sensor Array
This upgrade installs the vehicle with an advanced array of arcane sensors and distant per-ception devices. It is highly advanced and usually
only found in exotic aircraft such as dragonfly copters, aiding the pilots to scan ground and air while moving at high speed. A pilot in a vehicle with an advanced sensor array benefits from hav-ing darkvision up to 150 feet and gainhav-ing a +4 machine bonus to Spot checks.
Arcane Warding
A vehicle with this upgrade benefits from lim-ited protection against hostile spells, gaining Spell Resistance 10. A vehicle with arcane warding usu-ally appears to have been heavily encrusted with spell runes, sigils and suchlike, and may have written prayers or powerful runic scripts stuck to it in various places. IT may also be constructed from slightly unusual materials in places, featur-ing crystal conductors or blued steel surfaces.
Arcane Warding, Heavy
A vehicle with this upgrade benefits from more potent magical protections, gaining Spell Resistance 15.
Arcane Warding, Unyielding
The most powerful form of arcane warding, this upgrade gives a vehicle Spell Resistance 20.
Arcanomech Lights
This upgrade is designed for use on sub-mersibles that intend to travel deep beneath the surface of the ocean, delving down into murky trenches and far waters. The vehicle has arcane lights able to penetrate the gloom out to 60 feet around the submersible.
Drop Cords
Military dirigibles that are to be used to carry troops often have this upgrade. By using har-nesses and drop cords that can be dangled down beneath the bulk of the vehicle, troops can disembark from a maxi-mum height of 120 feet in one
Beasts of S
Beasts of S t t ee ee l l
V V e e hicles hicles
round. This allows for rapid deployment of war-riors from the air, right into battle or strategic locations such as defensive positions during a siege.
Elemental Machinery
This upgrade adds a powerful arcane machine to a sea-going vehicle, whether a ship or sub-mersible. When activated, the whirring cogs and emitters build up a powerful elemental charge, and after 3 rounds it summons up a Large water elemental within 60 feet. The elemental is under the control of the machinery, and remains for 20 rounds before lapsing back into normal water again. Elemental machinery can be used once per day.
Fireproof
Vehicles such as dirigibles that are carried aloft by flammable gases can be vulnerable to flames and fire-based attacks. This upgrade represents either the treating of component materials with flammable chemicals, or the use on non-flammable gases instead. A dirigible with the fire-proof upgrade loses its Fire Vulnerability.
Heavy Armouring
This upgrade gives a vehicle hardness 10.
Heavy Fortification
A steam train with this upgrade has its cover bonus for defenders doubled to a +8 AC bonus and +4 Reflex bonus, providing excellent protec-tion for them.
Homing Compass
A homing compass is a piece of delicate navi-gational equipment attuned to a specific homing beacon (See Edifices of Might). The compass always indicates the direction of the homing bea-con relative to the vehicle.
Hull-Breaker
This upgrade gives a submersible a weapon with which to attack sea craft. Usually a set of blades along its top used to make attack runs against a ship’s hull, a hull-breaker is normally used by military
sub-mersibles. The weapon deals 4d6 damage on a successful hit, with an attack bonus as a construct of the submersible’s hit dice.
Improved Air Supplies
This upgrade doubles the air supplies of a sub-mersible.
Improved Manoeuvrability
Through improved design and machinery, a flying vehicle with this upgrade has its flight cat-egory improved by one factor.
Light Armouring
This upgrade gives a vehicle hardness 5.
Luxury Interior
Although of little practical value, this upgrade allows for travel in style, usually found in royal or luxury dirigibles and steam trains.
Plating, Crystal
This magical enhancement allows the pilot of a craft with crystal plating to cast mirror image once per day as a 6th level caster, targeting the craft itself with the spell.
Plating, Emerald
This magical enhancement allows the pilot of a craft with emerald plating to cast invisibility once per day as a 6th level caster, targeting the craft itself with the spell.
Plating, Ruby
This magical enhancement allows the pilot of a craft with ruby plating to cast fireball once per day as a 6th level caster, emitting the fireball from the front of the craft.
Prismatic Cladding
This magical cladding covers the craft with iri-descent armour, granting it Fire Resistance and Electricity Resistance 15.
Quake Engine
A powerful type of magical device used in tun-neller vehicles, a quake engine consists of dynamos and circuits attuned to the elemental energy of the
Steam &
Steam & Steel Steel
stone and earth. Once per day it can be used to emit a blast of elemental energy with the effects of an earthquake spell cast as a caster of 15th level.
These engines are generally only fitted to vehicles to be used during underground sieges or to breach the walls of a castle or fortification.
Rock-Melt
A tunneller with this upgrade uses arcane machinery rather than a drill to tunnel through rock, pushing through it as if it was liquid in the manner of a xorn. This doubles the tunnelling speed of the vehicle.
Sealed Environment
A vehicle with this upgrade has internal air systems and supplies and can be completely sealed off for up to eight hours, providing immu-nity for those within from airborne attacks such as gases and some diseases.
Shocking Hull
Using steamwork machinery and energy siphoned off from the main engine, this upgrade installs dynamos that store up electrical energy.
This energy can be released up to 3 times per day into the hull surface, inflicting a blast of 2d6 elec-tricity damage to anything in contact with the hull. It is generally used by sea-going craft to ward off oceanic creatures, one blast usually being enough to scare them off.
Sonar
This upgrade installs into a submersible or ship a simple form of sonar powered by the steamwork engines, giving the pilot blindsight up to 150ft in the waters around the craft.
Steamwork Siege Weapon
Some vehicles are large enough to mount large and powerful siege weapons such as ballista in a steamwork cradle, a mechanical array that aids the crew by making it turn far faster and by semi-automating the process of reloading it. A siege weapon mounted in one of these cradles can turn without impediment through a full 360 degrees, and can turn as far as the operator wishes in a sin-gle round. In addition, the loading period is
halved in duration. Any sizeable weapon can be mounted in one of these.
The cost of adding a steamwork siege weapon hardpoint does not include the cost of the siege weapon itself.
Storm Engine
Installed in vehicles that cruise high in the skies, storm engines sift magical and elemental energies from the winds and clouds to charge up thaumic dynamoes with energy, into which spell-casters can then tap. A spellcaster aboard a craft with a storm engine benefits from a machine bonus of +1 to caster level for any spells of the Air or Electricity subtypes and any Air domain spells that they cast.
Subterranean Sonar
This upgrade installs a simple form of sonar into a tunneller, giving the pilot blindsight up to 60ft through the rock around the craft.
Transport Capacity
This upgrade grants a tunneller additional transportation capacity, allowing it to carry up to five others as well as the pilot. This is generally used in tunnellers that are to be used for travelling purposes as for those designed to carry shock troops during surprise assaults.
War Banners
This upgrade drapes huge war banners and inspirational symbols from a dirigible, turning it into an emblem of might and a reservoir of resolve for warriors far below. Any friendly char-acters that can see a dirigible with war banners gain a +1 morale bonus to Will saves.
Weathersight
This upgrade installs a piece of meteoromantic machinery into the vehicle that monitors local weather conditions and estimates future changes.
It can predict the weather up to a week in advance with 80% accuracy, benefiting from being situat-ed so high in the atmosphere in a dirigible. If a sudden weather change is impending in the next 3 hours it emits a warning klaxon, and it does the same if
a Guide to Fantasy Steamworks
a Guide to Fantasy Steamworks
weather conditions are about to change due to magical spells or effects.
Copter [Steamwork]
A copter is a flying steamwork vehicle that propels itself by the action of rotary blades.
Usually relatively small when compared to the mass of some of the larger aerial dirigibles, a copter is created from a light framework of metal and wood that holds together a complex array of gears and machinery that turns the rotors, driven by a steamwork engine. With the engine doing the work of getting the copter up in the air, the pilot merely has to fly the thing without crashing.
Copters are fragile and not particularly well designed for purposes of warfare, and are usually employed instead for scouting or exploration.
They do have the advantage of being very fast and agile in the skies, and this is put to good use when trying to escape from airborne crews. A copter’s frame does not have the strength neces-sary to mount particularly heavy weaponry though it is common for the pilot to carry a loaded crossbow or firearm by his side. Since he needs at least one hand for the controls, usually in the form of an array of sticks and dials, a shortbow or longbow is not really a viable choice.
A copter has the following base statistics: