Spelljammer’s Scorpion

Slab

An antique among magical starships, the Scorpion is a hardy old design capable of generous ground clearance, and arcane spaceflight alike.  A single ballista and mangonel allow the Scorpion ship to fling damage at enemies that are beyond the reach of its metal claws.  Do not try to float it in water, however!

This ship is built to official specs, with the main exception being the cargo deck, which is supposed to be both inverted (gravitationally) and partitioned with walls.  I saw no value in either aspect of that design, within TaleSpire, but I managed to fit all of its super-tiny details on the package.  And I also managed to crank it out in a single day, unlike the Wasp or Damselfly, which took several days of suffering to produce.  I used the same iron pieces for the “jaws” as I did for the Lamprey, since they look decent for the prop budget, and a consistent visual logic is important for player readability, I think.

Hardly a “ship” by my standards, and another nightmarishly tiny floorplan, the Scorpion actually fit in quite well unlike this horrorshow, and I was happy to be able to blitz this out for my overhaul.  If D&D has waned in interest for you, or if your players are higher level, and you do not know what sort of challenge to throw at them, I heartily recommending trying out my overhaul.  It remains D&D in essential interactions, but “scales up” the game to a scope that few campaigns ever reach.  In my opinion, there has never been a better high-level D&D setting than Spelljammer, and it is a tragedy that the most recent publication was such a shallow, content-free book.  The second half of the overhaul, for DM purposes, mostly focuses on worldbuilding for gonzo magepunk star-hopping settings.

If you’re not into D&D, you can also use it as a steampunk mech, or giant bug, whatever you like.  Enjoy.