I'm really curious.
got kinda busy a while back, and had to leave it be for a while... should hopefully be able to get it finished up soon-ish...
alas, such pondering seldom comes complete with names for anything except the major stuff, and after spending 5 minutes staring at my computer to come up with 1 gnomish name that sounded even remotely gnomish (i'm still not satisfied with the name, really), i gave up and proceeded to not specify any other NPC names =P
also, as often seems to happen with my method of designing, i had a nifty idea that didn't really fit in with the original core idea; as such, i now have 2 locations, only 1 of which is purely a phlogiston location. i still may yet come up with a few more (i have tentatively dubbed one location 'waypoint' as a location set up between distant crystal spheres which nevertheless have a fair amount of travel between them, another one is an IEN training academy designed to train crews up to expert and crack crew levels, and a third one is a location where either 1 person or a small group are hiding from powerful extraplanar entities, and they are probably more likely to get at least some sort of writeup if you remind me ;) )
anyways, to get back to the point (sort of) i have deliberately not given specific stats to several things, specifically to keep them edition neutral; it shouldn't be too hard to figure out where i was going with most of them (i think in second edition terms for spelljammer, if anyone was wondering) but if you feel i'm too unclear on something, let me know.
so, without further rambling, here we go:
Hitthedeck Station
Originally just an asteroid drifting through the phlogiston with little more than moss and rocks on it, Hitthedeck is now a bustling gnomish research station located out in the flow, about 1 day's travel from the closest sphere. It started off as the site of a crash-landing site of a gnomish sidewheeler full of gnomes researching various phlogiston-powered devices. The gnomes were unable to repair the sidewheeler, but they have since turned it into various buildings and devices in their neverending quest to create new machines to fill every need you might have imagined (and many that you probably haven't). In the year and a half before it was found by another gnomish vessel, the asteroid was rapidly changed in many ways by the gnomes who crash-landed on it, through the use of various gnomish devices. Since becoming gnome-inhabited, the asteroid has gained numerous craters as the result of failed (or successful) experiments performed on it's surface, including the use of flow bombs to blast into the interior of the asteroid to increase living space and to allow for safe experimentation zones. Additionally, a number of buildings have sprung up on the surface, most of them gathered together at the asteroid's only port (also named Hitthedeck).
The asteroid still has a surprising amount of moss on it of various varieties, but the air almost always has a hazy fog in it, with air quality typically being poor (naturally, a number of gnomes are working on improving the situation, which does little to reassure the asteroid's few non-gnomish visitors). The asteroid itself looks roughly like a mace, with a large circular end and a longer thin section extending out from it, with the port being located on the 'haft' right near the 'head' of the mace, along the gravity plane. The haze is thicker the closer you get to the gravity plane, but this doesn't seem to keep the gnomes from locating there. Filtration masks, helmets, and even suits are available, but the phrase 'buyer beware' don't even begin to describe the situation when buying from gnomes, and most people seem to prefer taking their chances with the poor air quality.
The station has 2 main research groups on it: weapons, and engines. The gnomes here insist that they had nothing to do with the spark dart (going so far as calling it boring, in fact, and suggesting numerous improvements that could be made ranging from flow-rocket propulsion to gravity-seeking guided darts), but eagerly point out the many benefits and 'features' of their own weaponry (all of which is, naturally, being constantly improved upon in many different ways). Notwithstanding their dislike for the spark dart, many of their own devices operate using the same principle.
The weapons research team is headed up by a gnome named Grenn (by any humans who happen to meet him of course) and so far has had the most success with flowcannons and their related handheld versions (flowguns, which come in both pistol and arquebus models). Flowcannons have the same stats as regular cannons but can be loaded in half the time and they only work in the flow (essentially, phlogiston is compressed inside the chamber and mixed with compressed air, then fired). it requires 1 extra crewmember to operate, and there is a modified version (at extra cost) which can also be used in regular wildspace but which requires smokepowder and is no faster than a regular cannon to use. Approximately 5% of the time, these cannons will actually destroy themselves but hurl out the ball much harder, doubling the range and damage (this also does the cannon's normal damage to the ship and the weapons crew). Naturally, this has led to the development of cannons which are specifically designed to destroy themselves in order to fire more powerful shots, and a number of such weapons are located around the asteroid with remote firing locations. work is still being done to design a ship that can handle the destructive blast and still continue on, but some captains see this as an improvement over other suicide ship attacks, and have started using them in preference to ships loaded with greek fire or smokepowder. additionally, the gnomes have created what they call flow-bombs, which can be used as either mines or as ammunition for a catapult. they have sensitive heads on them which, once armed, make it so that anyone running into the device (or having the device slammed into their ship, if fired) will set it off, dealing about half as much damage as a cannon would do on a successful hit (this is in addition to the damage for a successful catapult shot, if applicable). when fired from a catapult, however, the bombs have a reputation for sometimes exploding when being fired rather than when hitting, and have therefore not caught on as much as might have been expected otherwise. As with most gnomish weapons, these devices should seldom be available as just the basic model... almost always, there will be numerous "improvements"; DMs are encouraged to be imaginative. These devices require gnomes to repair them should something go wrong, typically.
The engine research team has also had some success. Housed inside the 'head' of the asteroid, which has been hollowed out through extensive blasting leaving the walls only about 40 feet thick, is their shipyard and testing facilities (about 1 hex in size, not used for field testing of course). There is an exit leading to the port (small doors, not for ships to pass through) and ship doors on the opposite end of the asteroid which are closed most of the time, only opening to allow field-testing of their engine designs. So far, they have developed what they call 'maneuvering thrusters' which increase ship maneuverability (only in the phlogiston, of course) - though they sometimes blow up and damage the ship they are on, the gnomes have described this as a 'boarding deterrent' method (in point of fact, few crews are willing to board ships modified with gnomish technology, so it really does work). The second ship improvement they have created is a thruster engine, which propels the ship through the flow up to about 3 times as fast as a regular nonmagical engine, but taking time to get up to speed (accelerates/decelerates like a minor helm). As with the weaponry above, DMs are encouraged to get creative with improvements, and to keep in mind that only very rarely will any 2 gnomish devices be identical.
These devices (and more) can all be bought directly at Hitthedeck, but few ships seem to want to go there... possibly related to the higher than normal odds of getting hit by high-speed projectiles while in the vicinity. In fact, in traditional gnomish fashion, that's how the asteroid got it's name... a human captain had landed at the station to trade vital supplies (food, water, and plants to clean the air) with the inhabitants, not knowing they were tinker gnomes. While discussing the possibilities of trading, the gnomish leaders were telling him the name of the station when his eyes widened suddenly and he shouted 'Hit the deck!' (the gnomes still aren't sure why everyone dropped to the ground, the cannon ball went at *least* 5 feet above head level). Since then, most sales (not that there's a lot of them, mind you) are taken care of at Halfway station.
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Halfway Station
Halfway station is actually something like an addition onto Hitthedeck station. It is built half on one side of a crystal sphere, and half on the other, the intention being to study how the research done at Hitthedeck can be made useful to those within crystal spheres, as well as being a more accessible sales point for the weapons and other devices made and designed by the gnomes at Hitthedeck, and is generally viewed as being much safer than her sister station. The gnomes here have also been studying various other things, in particular crystal shells, and methods of getting phlogiston into a crystal sphere and storing and transporting it (they haven't had much success with that, much to the relief of the other spelljamming races). There is a permanent portal between the two halves, and the entire settlement is shaped something like a flattened oval, though typically only half can be seen clearly at any given time. The gnomes insist that the large ring-shaped device with whistles, pistons, gears, bells, fans, and so forth are what keep the gate open, but most people assume they had found a permanent portal that had just freshly opened while they were experimenting on it, since the portal seems to be always there (and the concept that a gnomish device could ever work consistently is simply not credible). This base is much more built-up with structures, and indeed looks like it was built one piece at a time (in fact, it was built in stages, having started off as just a ship that sat right on the portal and then growing steadily with each passing generation of gnomes. It is now about 500 spatial tons in size, if it were to be measured as such, and typically maintains it's position through the use of thruster engines on the phlogiston side).
The station is also sometimes used by those who don't have other means of getting through the crystal sphere, and the gnomes typically charge roughly the same amount most places charge for an air tax to use it (though it's often complimentary with major purchases). While only half of the base is within the flow, the other half does benefit from most of the same devices; they may not have developed a method of bringing phlogiston over to the wildspace side yet, but they can still harness the energy from the explosions on the flow side and transfer it over to the wildspace side. As such, most of the same defensive weaponry is found on the station, making it an unappealing target, which is probably the only thing which has kept the station from being destroyed by a number of races who would like to see the gnomes dead, but don't want to find out what happens when all those gnomish devices are destroyed, particularly when it is considered that many of the devices are explosive in nature.
i do plan on getting a 'plot hook' section going, and if i can ever get my brain to think up some gnomish names, i may very well elaborate a little bit more on the stations themselves just providing more background... i think basically i just got frustrated because nothing was coming so i posted it early...
(also, i have to be in creative mode while doing it... which is the tricky part. it's why i don't think i could be an RPG writer... i can make stuff some of the time, but i can't be in that mode at will, and you can sorta see the difference between where i was in that mode and where i wasn't when i write it out...)
anyways, i do intend to expand on it as well as adding other locations. ideally, it won't take as long as it took me to get it here the first time...
well the problem is that sometimes the ideas don't come to me while i have paper & pen handy... so i might think of something and never write it down
Maybe you need to carry a dictaphone or a PDA around with you. I've got given a fairly old Palm from someone who upgraded and it is fairly useful. However, it is fairly slow to write onto a PDA and a dictaphone would be a lot faster (and therefore less disruptive to your thought process).
i do plan on getting a 'plot hook' section going, and if i can ever get my brain to think up some gnomish names, i may very well elaborate a little bit more on the stations themselves just providing more background... i think basically i just got frustrated because nothing was coming so i posted it early...
What sort of gnomish names do you need? Are you after names of people or gnomish machines?
(also, i have to be in creative mode while doing it... which is the tricky part. it's why i don't think i could be an RPG writer... i can make stuff some of the time, but i can't be in that mode at will, and you can sorta see the difference between where i was in that mode and where i wasn't when i write it out...)
I think even the pros have off days. I've seen a fair amount of your stuff on the forums and while I might not always agree with you on a nuts and bolts level*, I do think you have a lot of talent for RPG writing. If you have problems, it could be that you need more tools to help you work faster when your muse is around.
* = I'm thinking of your "everyone would fly around on rocks" thread here. :D I didn't really agree with that concept, but don't have to agree with you to respect your talent.
Maybe you could use your "bad days" for organising things that you have written on your "good days". Everyone has typos and grammar errors that slip into their work. You could probably use your off days for getting rid of stuff like that.
I often have times when I'm not in the mood (especially if I'm tired). I usually go link hunting when I can't find something that I am in the mood to do.
anyways, i do intend to expand on it as well as adding other locations. ideally, it won't take as long as it took me to get it here the first time...
Do you have a website for all of your stuff? I've not got anything for you on my links pages (see my sig).
At the moment your stuff is a bit like shovelware. But I think that you could pull a lot of your stuff together and build up something like a crystal sphere.
Static seems to be a bit busy at work, but maybe he can get some of your stuff up on Beyond the Moons.
EDIT: I've had a proper re-read of this now and it seems to me that Halfway Station means that both these locations really would work better if tied to a crystal sphere. Do you by any chance have a homebrew sphere in production? Because Halfway Station would really make a crystal sphere stand out from the crowd.
heck, that's the traditional SJ website isn't it, half-finished? :D
as far as the names, probably the gnomes themselves (but hey, you never know what a crazy machine name might trigger ;) )
as far as my "everyone would fly around on rocks" thread, i would say it was as much a commentary on the fact that spelljamming hulls cost too much (helms too, for that matter) as it was an observation that everyone should just forget about proper hulls (mechanically speaking) and just fly around in big rocks =P
but who knows, maybe i could pull together a halfway-finished sphere... i'll have to include the kreen empire i suggested to someone a while back though (it was in a thread about replacing the IEN in a sphere, i think). you can never have too many elf-eating insectoids if you ask me ;)