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For one thing, there could be dirigibles
Dec. 20th, 2006 11:00 amSo, I'm keeping current with my industry news, reading "Aerospace America"'s December 2006 year in review issue. Now, my favorite part of "Aerospace America" is the "This Month in History" section, where they look back at what was new and exciting in aviation and space technology 25, 50, 75 and 100 years ago. And, for some odd reason, the Year in Review includes a "History" article (right up there with reviews of air transportation, avionics, and the more technical stuff) that highlights some of the big anniversaries that occurred this year.
October 23, 1906 was the first airplane flight in Europe, made by Alberto Santos-Dumont. As his Wikipedia bio will inform you, some also credit him with the first heavier-than-air flight, on the grounds of supposed inadequacies in the Wright brothers' Flyer. Strange and delightful details of his life: upon winning a 100,000 franc prize for winning a dirigible race, he gave half the money to the poor of Paris, and half to his workers as a bonus. And he had his buddy Cartier, the jeweler, make him a wristwatch (a pocketwatch was hard to check with two hands on the dirigible controls) and the item suddenly became popular with men.
I don't know an awful lot about the early aviation community, but it certainly seems filled with these larger-than-life characters, like Lindbergh, Earheart, and WWI flying aces. There were the contests and competitions, the risk-taking as pilots tried to be the first to go the highest, the longest, or the fastest. Aerodynamics was a young science, and the aircraft being developed often show more art than science, it seems - strange and unlikely designs that nevertheless flew.
The flying ace is one of the archtypes that is often pressed into service in pulp RPGs, but just reading one lousy Wikipedia entry makes me wonder if you couldn't make a go out of running an early aviation game. It would be a strange thing, I think, and would have to center around the personalities and rivalries arising from the prize competitions and competing claims for new records (or else be a WWI story). There would be a lot of "society" role-playing, with PCs and NPCs leveraging their celebrity into new opportunities, interspersed with dice-heavy "flights" in which the PCs attempt to out-fly their rivals.
On the down side, if the PCs are all pilots, they'll be de facto competing with each other, and I think I may have had quite enough of that for the time being. And if they're not all pilots, the non-pilots might get fairly bored while the pilot goes off to do his or her flying ace routine. Also, it requires a set of players who also find early aviation to be kinda cool.
Perhaps the best idea would be a late Victorian/early Edwardian pulpish game set within the early aviation community. The PC party could consist of a pilot or two (the first female fliers were often the wives of pilots), an engineer or technician, and perhaps a two-fisted grease monkey or smarmy society friend or wealthy sponsor. Aviation-specific stories that highlight one PC or another - stolen design ideas, prize flights, stolen limelights, attempted sabotage - could be interspersed with more typical adventuring scenarios.
October 23, 1906 was the first airplane flight in Europe, made by Alberto Santos-Dumont. As his Wikipedia bio will inform you, some also credit him with the first heavier-than-air flight, on the grounds of supposed inadequacies in the Wright brothers' Flyer. Strange and delightful details of his life: upon winning a 100,000 franc prize for winning a dirigible race, he gave half the money to the poor of Paris, and half to his workers as a bonus. And he had his buddy Cartier, the jeweler, make him a wristwatch (a pocketwatch was hard to check with two hands on the dirigible controls) and the item suddenly became popular with men.
I don't know an awful lot about the early aviation community, but it certainly seems filled with these larger-than-life characters, like Lindbergh, Earheart, and WWI flying aces. There were the contests and competitions, the risk-taking as pilots tried to be the first to go the highest, the longest, or the fastest. Aerodynamics was a young science, and the aircraft being developed often show more art than science, it seems - strange and unlikely designs that nevertheless flew.
The flying ace is one of the archtypes that is often pressed into service in pulp RPGs, but just reading one lousy Wikipedia entry makes me wonder if you couldn't make a go out of running an early aviation game. It would be a strange thing, I think, and would have to center around the personalities and rivalries arising from the prize competitions and competing claims for new records (or else be a WWI story). There would be a lot of "society" role-playing, with PCs and NPCs leveraging their celebrity into new opportunities, interspersed with dice-heavy "flights" in which the PCs attempt to out-fly their rivals.
On the down side, if the PCs are all pilots, they'll be de facto competing with each other, and I think I may have had quite enough of that for the time being. And if they're not all pilots, the non-pilots might get fairly bored while the pilot goes off to do his or her flying ace routine. Also, it requires a set of players who also find early aviation to be kinda cool.
Perhaps the best idea would be a late Victorian/early Edwardian pulpish game set within the early aviation community. The PC party could consist of a pilot or two (the first female fliers were often the wives of pilots), an engineer or technician, and perhaps a two-fisted grease monkey or smarmy society friend or wealthy sponsor. Aviation-specific stories that highlight one PC or another - stolen design ideas, prize flights, stolen limelights, attempted sabotage - could be interspersed with more typical adventuring scenarios.
