Z is for Zeppelin

Because every hero aspires to have a friggin' air ship! Yes, I realize that Zeppelins are technically those machines invented by Ferdinand von The Same Name for the company of His Name, but to me, Zeppelins are like Kleenex or Q-tips. Get over it.

Anyway, it seems like one of the long-term goals of many a game group is to talk their GM into giving them an airship. My group is no different. As soon as I let them hitch a ride on one, they started salivating over the thought of putting it to their own use. Fortunately, I managed to keep it in the hands of its rightful owner for now, but my players have brought up the idea of calling their old buddy Gatwick Rugely to see if he could drop them off somewhere.

I'm not sure what the allure of airships is. They aren't particularly fast, and must be a pain to fly. It must be that they're big... and the whole "freedom to go anywhere thing" Plus, they work for pretty much any genre.

Fantasy:

The Jerle Shannara from Terry Brook's Shannara series

Steampunk:

WWII Alt History:

Action Serial:

The Rocketeer

Post Apocalyptic Space Opera:

Space Battleship Yamato

American kids' cartoons

The Iron Vulture from Tale Spin

Japanese kids movies

Dola's Ship from Laputa, Castle in the Sky

Spy movies

Zorn's blimp from A View to a Kill

And, of course, Sci-fi TV shows

From Doctor Who, Rise of the Cybermen

So, congratulations. For joining me on my journey from A to Z, I leave you with the above collection of Zeppelin "porn".

And of course, I would be remiss if I did not include a nod to fiction's biggest Zeppelin fan.