This is totally going to be my description for my character's luxurious lifestyle from now on.

If this actually comes off, we will know we live in an alternate universe (which of course always have airships).

I wonder what universe 1 me is doing now?

yeah but they get real strict on that wholew non-smoking thing.

Acutally, I imagine all the flammable parts are kept fairly secure, so smoking in your own room wouldn't be much of a problem. And there's always the balcony, and e-cigarrette (see how much I smoke? I can't even spell ciggarette), or not smoking.

Yeah, right, there was also a smoking room on the Hindenburg too. Seriously there was. It used electric lighters not open flames BUT well. We all know how that worked out.

Aww, you totally beat me to a Hindenburg reference.



Didn't the titanic say something like that about their hull and ice bergs and not sinking?

I was hinting at it in the 3rd post of the thread. actually the Hindenburg was pretty much luxery travel back then too.

Yeah, true, but like I said, you beat me.

Of course, interestingly enough, I'm fairly sure that it wasn't the smoking room that caused the Hindenburg to go up in flames. The fire doesn't seem to start near the basket or anything.

Need more passenger trains and airships. Slow but comfortable, that's the way to travel.


Nothing in the sky is immune to being brought down, just like nothing in the water can't be sunk. The modular lift system isn't meant to make this impossible to bring down, just less likely to be a catastrophic crash.
If a helicopter accidentally clips this thing and creates a 20 foot gash, it won't violently deflate like a cartoon balloon and crash into the hillside. It can either keep aloft long enough to make it to a safe airport for repairs, or make a controlled emergency landing that doesn't leave a crater.

Not to forget the obvious Paranormal Critter attack scenario. After all, i don't think it would survive an attack by a dragon.

Thunderstorms and hydrogen are a bad match. --> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFptgQ8GA_U On the other hand helium did neither save the Akron nor the Macon after all.

But Helium is a bit safer than Hydrogen. On the other hand, anyone who is able to afford such a vessel will also be able to add a bit of magical security.
And when it comes to dragons, pretty much everything is fair game, isn't it ?

and it's rumored the paint of the silk was flamable-elements that potentially could for thermite. ooops how could this possibly be an issue?

My players have spent so much money on having a base of operations, establishing a black market pipeline, bribes, false front companies, trucks, etc, to build up their arms dealing empire. Yet, nobody sat down to crunch the sums otherwise they would have realised they would have got a Luxury lifestyle (well... at least a permanent High lifestyle).

- J.

Forget dragons, thunderbirds are fairly territorial. That would be bad enough.

I can think of nothing more awesome than an airship-house, Nano Flower style. I can think of nothing more terrifying than a Shadowrun character in possession of it, as it'd turn into a hideous dread fortress, raining death from its armoured airbags.

Eh, most Shadowrunners would try to armor the airbags to the point that it could no longer fly. Then, after a ridiculous amount of effort to get more lift while keeping the armor they'd find a new shiny toy and abondon this one.

No, they'd strap extra engines to it until it looks like something Orky. Red ones go faster.

How about a smaller version, just big enough to house one person.  Coat it in ruthenium polymers, and the best in stealth mods. Conceal it with a spirit service.  Install the best non-digital optics money can buy.  Then the resident mage reigns down spells from a kilometer up in the sky.

Sure. For about five minutes until the local military sends up a flight of interceptors with spirit support and possibly projecting mages to shoot him down.

That assumes that the spells can be easily traced back to the mage above, and that all the methods for hiding are easy to see through.

No different than snipers:

• smart sniper → dead targets
• stupid sniper → dead sniper

Throw enough resources at a problem, it becomes easy. And if people start dropping dead in the middle of a major city, the government is going to throw lots of resources at finding the source. Sure, you might be able to hide from one mage and one sensor operator, but five? Ten? Twenty? Plus a dozen spirits? Statistically, it's a (very brief) matter of time before somebody accumulates enough successes to penetrate your stealth/camouflage/spirit concealment/whatever. Then you're toast.

If anybody attracts enough attention, they will eventually get caught. That is true of any plan by any person. That does not mean it would not work really well, it just means don't overuse it (like anything and everything).

the best in stealth mods... so is it assumed that a big country like UCAS or the south or a AAA or specialised AA is helping the mage? Or is it the best stealth availible to civilians or the black market, in which case the top of the line radar(from one of the previously mentioned bigboys) would spot em right off.

Or the character's home is an official advertisement blimp (It doesn't have to look as flashy as it's interior, right ?).
Those are flying around in spades, seldom shot down and don't tend to be targeted by Critters that much...

This is basically what my AI is having.

The GTS Tower with Ruthenium Polymers, an extra mini drone rack as command module, a drone shop and 10 support drones ranging from carry-all transport drones (limited since they are still mini-drones) and refuelling drones, distraction drones and suchlike.

All of them have ruthenium polymers and spoof chips. Within a city of millions and filled with drones no-one will bat an eyelid when another commercial drone, traffic drone or weather ballon saunters by in the air.

The point is not to have something immensely luxurious and powerful, but something that is simply inconspicuous.

BUT…

If we are talking about luxury lifestyles a civilian owned luxury zeppelin with the attendant support drones and legally owned home defence might not be a bad thing – for a retired runner.

The problem with a zeppelin is that they are freaking huge. I imagine that the GTS Tower from arsenal is more like a huge van like the bulldog regardless of the body statistic giving it an average size of a small car – gasbags make it bigger.