looking for steampunk RPG recommendation (with good scenarios)

[haqattaqq]

I've been playing Trail of Cthulhu and D&D (3.5 and 5 editions) for the past year or so and am looking to branch out into a steampunk RPG. Can anyone recommend any? My main criteria is that it have a number of well written scenarios - I don't have the time to write my own scenarios, and am looking for some premade ones that really shine (and ideally some long-ish campaigns). The Trail of Cthulhu and D&D scenarios that I've played have been top notch, and that's really made for fun at the table.

I see that there's a few hours left on the bag of holding for victoriana - does anyone have any experience with that? The setting seems pretty intriguing to me, but there doesn't seem to be much in the way of scenario support.

Re rules style - I like simpler systems, but I like I'm happy to play fast and loose with rules and adapt them to my style.

Thanks!

 

[Aegir]

Iron Kingdoms is a great setting using a so-so d20/3.5 ruleset (its kinda cumbersome even for 3.5), but doesnt have a lot in the way of published adventures.

 

[innerdude]

Definitely check out Savage Worlds; it's fantastic for steampunk. Core rules book is $10, best value in gaming.

In terms of settings for Savage worlds, there's a couple. Clockwork Dreams is very much a "fantasy mashup" steampunk setting, with elves using mechs, orcs with swords and firearms, etc. If you want something "closer to home" in terms of the real world, check out Rippers. It's a Victorian-era take on Van Helsing / Jack the Ripper with a steampunk vibe. Both come with "plot point" campaigns to guide your scenarios. Rippers also has quite a bit of both fan-made and officially supported scenario material, player add-ons, etc.

The other thing about Savage Worlds / Rippers too is once you get a handle on the ruleset, pretty much any scenario/campaign/adventure you can lay your hands on becomes fair game, because adapting material to Savage Worlds is brilliantly easy.

For a D&D 3.5/D&D 4 mashup, take a serious look at Radiance RPG. The players handbook is a free PDF download. This one is a truly unique entry in the D&D "bloodline"; it takes a very liberal dose of both 3e and 4e and works it together into a steampunk/electrotech setting that is all its own. I haven't played it, but the rules feel very tight and elegant. The author, Dario Nardi, posts on these boards fairly regularly (I forget what his handle is here though). Along with Fantasy Craft, this is one of the only d20/"D&D family" games I'd ever consider running or playing again.

There's also the obvious Iron Heroes.

I don't know a thing about it, but Cubicle 7's Victoriana is a dedicated steampunk system.

 

[haqattaqq]

thanks! I'll check out those systems to see if they've got many scenarios.

 

[Umbran]

I'll lend a recommendation for Deadlands: The Classic version is what I run - it is a tad baroque, mechanically. The Savage Words version is pretty good, so I am told. Deadlands isn't just steampunk - it is a bit "kitchen sink". There's steampunk mad science, sure. But there's magic and monsters wandering the Wild West as well.

(For those with a mind for game history - Classic Deadlands is the progenitor of Savage Worlds. So it isn't too surprising that the child does what the original was designed to do.)

And, as for scenarios - Deadlands has some. What it has more (loads and loads more) of is adventure seeds in the setting material.

 

[innerdude]

I'll lend a recommendation for Deadlands: The Classic version is what I run - it is a tad baroque, mechanically. The Savage Words version is pretty good, so I am told. Deadlands isn't just steampunk - it is a bit "kitchen sink". There's steampunk mad science, sure. But there's magic and monsters wandering the Wild West as well.

(For those with a mind for game history - Classic Deadlands is the progenitor of Savage Worlds. So it isn't too surprising that the child does what the original was designed to do.)

And, as for scenarios - Deadlands has some. What it has more (loads and loads more) of is adventure seeds in the setting material.

I didn't realize Deadlands had quite so much "steampunk" influence. This one is definitely worth checking out, [MENTION=6794999]haqattaqq[/MENTION]. The new Deadlands Reloaded setting for Savage Worlds has all kinds of adventure support, and if you want to "update" the setting beyond the Wild West, you can move ahead to the 1930s using Deadlands Noir.

 

[amerigoV]

I didn't realize Deadlands had quite so much "steampunk" influence.

You must have neglected to read through your issue of Smith and Robards.

http://mostunreadblogever.blogspot.com/2012/04/tommys-take-on-deadlands-smith-robards.html

 

[Cristian Andreu]

Frank Chadwick's Space 1889 is one of my favourites. The central theme is that space travel became a possibility in the XIX century with solar boilers and this resulted in European colonialism extending beyond planet Earth. The Solar System is based on one of the models that used to be popular, in which the other planets were thought to be similar to Earth but showing various degrees of evolution. That way, Venus is a jungle world filled with dinosaurs while Mars is a dessicated desert world inhabited by warlike bat-people.

The system has some quirks (as it is based on the battleship wargame Chadwick developed the idea originally for, before creating the RPG), but it's otherwise very simple.

The original books are nigh-impossible to find, but there are two re-editions available, one from the early 2000's by Heliograph and a more recent one from a Kickstarter, by a german company whose name I forgot.

 

[Daniel Manso]

I've been playing Trail of Cthulhu and D&D (3.5 and 5 editions) for the past year or so and am looking to branch out into a steampunk RPG. Can anyone recommend any? My main criteria is that it have a number of well written scenarios - I don't have the time to write my own scenarios, and am looking for some premade ones that really shine (and ideally some long-ish campaigns). The Trail of Cthulhu and D&D scenarios that I've played have been top notch, and that's really made for fun at the table.

I see that there's a few hours left on the bag of holding for victoriana - does anyone have any experience with that? The setting seems pretty intriguing to me, but there doesn't seem to be much in the way of scenario support.

Re rules style - I like simpler systems, but I like I'm happy to play fast and loose with rules and adapt them to my style.

Thanks!

Steampunk and even Dieselpunk RPGs that I point out to you are:
Blades in the Dark
Castle Falkenstein
Unhollowed Metropolis
7th Sea and D&D's Ravenloft could be used as steampunk scenarios with a little bit of imagination and work to adapt vapor moved things into the scenarios.

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

FWIW, of the ones mentioned Space: 1889 and Deadlands have the most published adventures by a large margin. While both have (or maybe had is the better term for it) moderately clunky rules originally, the core rules have long since been converted to Savage Worlds and the fans have done most or all of the conversion work needed to use whatever old adventures Pinnacle didn't do themselves.

There have been a few lesser-known rule sets beyond what's on thread already, but I can't think of any that had any published adventures so not worth mentioning for the OP.