(I wrote this both to have more #GURPS content on Lemmy, and to help drive community engagement. So, there's a wall of text for content, and there's a TL;DR at the end for engagement! :D)
I've become enamoured with running Eberron in GURPS lately, and I recently came across this scene from Arcane, where the Firelights board a drug smuggling airship (first minute or so; mild spoilers): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ew4SLG_XR-Q. I love how they portray the Firelights gang fighting in close quarters, and I'd like to come up with a similar martial arts style (or more than one, depending on what I find) that centers around using the Flying Carpet spell or enchantment. But before I can do that, I'd like to nail down some more details about how flying carpets might work.
The Flying Carpet spell is defined in GURPS Magic p146 (and is reviewed at https://gurps4e.fandom.com/wiki/Flying_Carpet). It transforms any object a person could reasonably stand or sit on or in (carpet, broom, cauldron, towel, chair...) into a flying vehicle with Move equal to the caster's effective level (so at least Move 15 for an enchanted version). It uses the Pilot (Contragravity) spell to pilot it, but can handle up to 1G turns without skill rolls. A combination of magic and automatic maneuvering keeps the occupants on board normally, though fighting or other strenuous activity requires a DX roll to stay aboard (modified at GM's discretion). Aside from this roll, combatants are otherwise treated as being on the ground - Flying Carpet specifically provides a stable platform, without sharp banking, folding, etc. Flying Carpet costs 1 point per square foot, which supports "about" 25 pounds; and half that cost to maintain. It takes 5 seconds to cast and lasts 10 minutes - you can cast the spell easily before combat, but that becomes a long casting time in combat! The spell may also be made permanent for 200 times the casting cost.
In a broad-magic world like Eberron, it seems completely reasonable that items with these enchantments would be accessible enough to accomodate fighting styles built around them - and in fact, Aundaire in particular is known to have used Skystaff squadrons throughout most of the Last War. Just from the list of example items the spell might be applied to, I can think of three form factors that might have very different styles:
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The broom, which in Eberron has had its bristles removed and is renamed into a Skystaff. It also presumably gains a seat and handles, and the user rides it like a bicycle. This lets the user keep a lower profile, granting a defensive posture bonus but also penalizing normal attacks (without training). The most interesting thing here though is that it's a staff - which seems like it would pair nicely with an Eberron wandslinger's staff enchantment! Combining these would make the Skystaff into an airborne fighter - a flying vehicle whose pilot can cast offensive spells out of the front as if from a mounted weapon.
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The cauldron. By itself, this would let an occupant sit inside a well protected space and zip about the battlefield. But if you add in a Hideaway enchantment to allow a little more internal space, an Earth Vision or Wizard Eye enchantment for visibility, and poke a wand with a Staff enchantment out through the lid; you've now got a flying mage-tank! For bonus points, carve a face into the front of the cauldron for a mini-MODOK! Or, y'know, use an illusion shell to look like a beholder or something.
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A towel, rug, or other open platform. This trades off the more protected profile for a full range of combat movement for the user, as in the video above. The carpet flyer will be using speed for protection; and therefore wants a high spell level along with the ability to use acrobatic feats, elevated dodge, etc. This option best fits more of a Swashbuckler style of character.
However, before I start building Flying Carpet fighting styles, I think the following needs explored and clarified:
Say you're zipping through a busy battlefield, spot a troll, and decide to smack them in the face with your cauldron. Say they're sturdier than you thought - what happens? Ramming uses the Slam calculation to determine damage to the target and the vehicle. If the target rolls less damage, it needs to make a DX roll to stay up; if it rolls less than half the damage the vehicle did, it falls down automatically. But what happens if the vehicle rolls less damage than the target? It can't easily fall as long as the pilot stays aboard. Should the check to stay aboard be penalized as the vehicle tumbles for a moment, or even failed automatically if the target rolls a lot of damage? It seems reasonable that certain techniques could help with these rolls, but I'm not clear what the consequences of failure to slam are yet. I'd also really like a way to streamline this whole process - there's easily six rolls that need to be made if you try to knock someone over (to-hit, dodge, damage vs damage, loser's DX roll to not fall, occupant roll to stay aboard). I'm tempted to at least declare a flat damage value (3.5 times the dice count).
I'm also still trying to resolve a few seemingly contradictory statements in the spell description: The Flying Carpet "does not bank sharply, fold, or bend", but "specifically provides a stable, level platform". This seems at odds with the earlier statement that "the carpet keeps its riders safe through a combination of magic and deft maneuvering". It ALSO "can handle 1G turns without skill rolls being necessary". 1G of acceleration from a standstill moves you about 5 yards in 1 second - this would look rather odd without any banking, to say nothing of broomstick riders not leaning into turns! I'm thinking these statements together suggest that the vehicle does gently sway and shift to keep occupants comfortably in place, but cannot be made to change its profile for gameplay impacting reasons - it can't tilt on its side to maneuver through a narrow gap, it can't kick up an edge to smack a too-close foe, and it can't roll to put itself between you and wandfire (though you can hang off the side). How do you envision the Flying Carpet enchantment maneuvering?
This leads into my third question - why are there DX rolls to stay mounted in combat? I don't recall any other 4th edition mechanic that works like this; usually there's a penalty or cap to other rolls instead (maybe it's a leftover from 3rd edition? Magic has a lot of these). At the moment I'm debating between treating it more like ordinary mounted combat (penalties to skills, with techniques to buy them off); or just providing a technique to boost the DX roll, and allowing it to be ignored altogether with a perk if it's over SL 16 (Supers defines such a perk). I could also treat it as a variable "bad footing", which might also be reduced with a technique.
TL;DR:
- What other objects would be interesting to have Flying Carpet cast on them?
- What happens when a hoverboard, flying cauldron, etc. rams something heavy enough to take the hit? How might this be handled?
- How do you resolve the tension between it shifting to keep you aboard, and not being able to sharply bank?
- Do we really need the DX roll each combat turn, or is there a better way?
GURPS has a specific disadvantage that is essentially this.