Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/17/84; site mhuxt.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxt!js2j From: js2j@mhuxt.UUCP (sonntag) Newsgroups: net.games.frp Subject: net.games.frp.physics - flying with a tail wind Message-ID: <868@mhuxt.UUCP> Date: Wed, 15-May-85 14:56:39 EDT Article-I.D.: mhuxt.868 Posted: Wed May 15 14:56:39 1985 Date-Received: Thu, 16-May-85 05:46:12 EDT Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill Lines: 37 Keywords: unladen swallows, loaded hippogriffs A situation came up recently in a campaign I run in which seems to be common enough to warrant discussion in this forum. Our party needed to travel a very long distance, and as we had accumulated enough magic and abilities to airlift the entire party in various ways, we decided to save time by traveling by air. As I recall, we had two members on a carpet of flying, one member being towed behind them with a rope and a ring of levitation, two members with the druidical form changing abilities, and two members riding two hippogriffs. Our speed was limited at by the two members on the hippogriffs, as the DM ruled that they could not maintain their full flying speed while carrying people. Fair enough, but we wanted to go faster. I decided to have my druid character use a Control Winds spell to give us a 30 mph tail wind. Working through the conversions, I found that 30 mph works out to be 68"/rnd; adding in our flying speed, we should have been moving at around 90"/rnd, about 5 times the speed we could have gone on horseback. Unfortunately, the DM ruled that wind speed and flying speeds are not additive. I guess there may be some justification for this in the case of the carpet, since it doesn't use aerodynamics to fly. Our DM said that we could only go at 30"/rnd, not much faster than we had been going before the tail wind. (Don't ask me why.) The effect, however, was that we ended up flying 38"/rnd *slower* than the wind! It wasn't a total loss, however, as I was able to use the winds to *seriously* screw up a red dragon, so that we were able to take him out in the air without being toasted. Know what happens to a dragon when the wind suddenly changes so that his airspeed is less than zero? (Don't ask why the DM ruled reasonably on this when he already had *us* flying slower than the wind.) How do other DM's treat flying with a tail wind? Are carpets of flying affected by tail winds? And do you allow carpets to tow levitating people? And what is the average flying speed of a laden hippogriff? -- Jeff Sonntag ihnp4!mhuxt!js2j "Time has passed, and now it seems that everybody's having those dreams. Everybody sees himself walking around with no one else." - Dylan