Steampunk Inspiration Sources

GhostBear

GhostBear

Explorer
I'm having some old friends visiting at the end of next month, and I'd like to run a short game to test the Savage Worlds system. I was originally going to run it in a low-ish magic fantasy setting, but after having played through Thief: The Metal Age I thought it would be more fun to try something more steampunk-ish in nature.

However: I'm not particularly familiar with Steampunk as a genre. It's something that my gaming group hasn't delved into and I love to try different things!

I would appreciate any books, movies, art, music, anything that you have enjoyed that could provide some inspiration and insight.

Yes, I can use Google, but I'm sure that there are some Really Cool Things that people can point out that I wouldn't find otherwise.
 

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Umbran

Umbran

Mod Squad
Staff member
Supporter
The end of next month? Well, then you have time to read and watch stuff...

Girl Genius Online Comics! - The Girl Genius webcomic. There's a lot of this, and the artwork should give you lots of inspiration. Also happens to be by Phil Foglio, of Dragon Magazine's "What's New with Phil and Dixie" fame, and an all around nice guy.

Boneshaker, a novel by Cherie Priest

Leviathan, a novel by Scott Westerfield

(Those two novels run close to YA - I suggest them because they are fast reads, and you don't have huge amounts of time.)

Steamboy, a steampunk-themed anime film

H.G. Wells' classic "The Time Machine" and Jules Verne's "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" are precursors to steampunk, and do inform the genre as a whole. Mary Shelley's classic "Frankenstein" would also fit in pretty well.

"The Difference Engine", a novel by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling - Gibson is, in many ways, the father of modern cyberpunk, from which steampunk is derived.

"The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" - either the graphic novel or the movie - while folks will argue that the movie stinks, I'd argue that as an action piece on its own, it is okay. either way, for purposes of inspiration, either will do.

The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne" - a short lived but kinda cool TV series

There are also some nice anthologies of short works - like, the appropriately named "Steampunk" and "Steampunk II" edited by Jeff VanderMeer.

Should I keep going? or do you want to just look at Wikipedia's list of steampunk works
 
Last edited:


R

rkwoodard

First Post
music

Hello,

If you are inspired by music pull up Abney Park.

While London and the Old West seem to get a lot of play in terms of Steampunk settings, I would advise reading up on the history of Mexico and Cuba Those places circa 1850-1900 just drip inspiration for me.

RK
 



FickleGM

FickleGM

Explorer
rkwoodard said:
Hello,

If you are inspired by music pull up Abney Park.

While London and the Old West seem to get a lot of play in terms of Steampunk settings, I would advise reading up on the history of Mexico and Cuba Those places circa 1850-1900 just drip inspiration for me.

RK
Click to expand...
I have Abney Park's last three albums and listen to them a lot. I can't believe that I didn't think about mentioning them, but good call.
 

GhostBear

GhostBear

Explorer
Thank you for the input, everyone! I have some time to read and draw up some plans, all of these recommendations will help a lot.
 


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