Game Inspiration: Sung in Blood - Airships & Sorcery

I recently re-read one of Glen Cook's lesser known books - Sung in Blood. It's a Doc Savage-like setup - an extremely talented and powerful main character with a cast of interesting sidekicks along for the adventure. It's not a great book. The various sidekicks are pretty vanilla, with only a couple - Chaz, Su Cha, and the Preacher - having enough character to make them stand out. It is vague on details even more than usual for a Glen Cook book. And it's book one of a series that never got a second book.

But it does have a setting that seems potentially fun to game in, and a setup for adventurers that suits how most adventurers behave.


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The Setting

- it's a magical world, with spellcasters, demons, imps, killing spells, and magical divination and sensing providing a strong role. In either GURPS or a D&D-like system, you could just chuck in your magic system of choice and not do the basic setting concept much damage. Spells are much less buff and more enchantment, information, and area attack, though, so GURPS Magic would probably not work as well as a modified ritual magic system might.

- airships. There are airships, with demons piloting them in some not-well explained way, armed with weapons never quite defined. They have gas bladders full of magical gas - explosive gas, of course - that is enchanted by a magical process.

- airships. I'm going to say that twice.

- a powerful, important city in a nominal kingdom - actually, more of an empire - to adventure in.

- weird semi-human creatures, trained or enchanted animals, and consumable magic items galore.

The Setup
- tough laws on weapons that get ignored on the main characters.

- the main characters are outside the legal and rulership system . . . but have outsized influence and freedom of actions. Kings come and go, but can basically be overruled by the main character whenever he needs to. The king is an ally but a bit reluctant yet not a scheming foe . . . but easily could be. Thus the players could do adventuring stuff, call on help (but not alwasy get it), and suffer few (if any) repercussions for doing as they please during emergencies so long as they aren't murderous thugs.

- plenty of access to interesting gear for the main characters, but they still need the power of the state to really get stuff done.

- main characters with some de facto law enforcement powers, without actually being law enforcement.

I won't say that Sung in Blood is worth reading and meticulously converting; too many details are vague for easy conversion. But it's a setting look and feel that could make for a fun setting. It's a short read, and worth it if you find the idea of an adventuring setting containing the above attractive.