Lanefan
Victoria Rules
What's the difference, if any, between gaslight fantasy and steampunk?Reading through the concept of "gaslight fantasy" has prompted me to give Girl Genius a closer look.
What's the difference, if any, between gaslight fantasy and steampunk?Reading through the concept of "gaslight fantasy" has prompted me to give Girl Genius a closer look.
I think the biggest difference is that Kaja Foglio prefers the term gaslight fantasy (Wiki link) over steampunk. She preferred the term, in part, because there's no punk in Girl Genius and she wanted to avoid having her work mixed up with another comic that was called Steampunk. And there's more of an emphasis on magic than your typical steampunk setting. Though, honestly, I consider most steampunk settings to be rather fantastical to begin with and most of them don't really have any punks in them either.What's the difference, if any, between gaslight fantasy and steampunk?
That's lovely, but there's no reason to use D&D as the point of comparison. Honestly Fate or Wushu or Powered by the Apocalypse or Dramasystem would be better points of comparison. Girl Genius is a high-flying action-comedy which falls very far into the cinematic tropes of pulp novels and cliffhanger style comics. Trad style games don't always replicate what one might want out of such a world. For example, there is no need to know exact jump distance in feet or a check to see if the hero jumped a chasm -- they will jump the chasm (they're the hero), the roll should be to see if they end up landing on their feet with weapon drawn to engage the enemy or hanging by their fingertips so that the enemy can gloat (which they will do).
I'm one of the people you mention.
Personally, I find that GURPS functions more intuitively than a lot of contemporary D&D.
I can't speak on behalf of Discworld, but I've run/played D&D settings using GURPS and found them to be better. I've also run Supers games, a game based on professional wrestling, and a few other things.
I do think there are things which are tough to do without better knowledge of the system, but I would also say that a lot of negative stereotypes about the system are things I found to be grossly untrue -even when I was brand new to the system.
Mostly Foglio's preference, but it denotes that the world seems to be at the point where electricity has been discovered and is well-known, but simply not at the point of houses being wired with electric lights (of course most of the electricity is used by mad scientists, but not the general public, but that's a whole 'nother knot to untie).What's the difference, if any, between gaslight fantasy and steampunk?
I think the biggest difference is that Kaja Foglio prefers the term gaslight fantasy (Wiki link) over steampunk. She preferred the term, in part, because there's no punk in Girl Genius and she wanted to avoid having her work mixed up with another comic that was called Steampunk. And there's more of an emphasis on magic than your typical steampunk setting. Though, honestly, I consider most steampunk settings to be rather fantastical to begin with and most of them don't really have any punks in them either.
You are correct, but I still think steampunk isn't a good fit for Girl Genius anyways. There's nothing related to the juxtaposition of punk attitudes and high (19th century) technology in GG. Nor much specifically urban, raw, ugly, obnoxious, disillusioned, or disenchanted about GG either. I guess there's a bit of 'rejecting the status quo and doing things your own way,' but only in that the protagonist is resisting following her ancestor's evil ways, the Baron's pragmatic despotism, marrying herself to a powerful family and uniting Europa under one of their banners, etc. She's as much punk as Daenerys Targaryen (hopefully with a better swansong)."Fantasy" is not about "fantastical", and "punk" isn't about "having punks".
You are correct, but I still think steampunk isn't a good fit for Girl Genius anyways.
Girl Genius is absolutely a fantasy, if by no other metric than it is a story of an woman from her timeframe forging her own destiny against some of the most powerful forces in the world
That's lovely, but there's no reason to use D&D as the point of comparison. Honestly Fate or Wushu or Powered by the Apocalypse or Dramasystem would be better points of comparison. Girl Genius is a high-flying action-comedy which falls very far into the cinematic tropes of pulp novels and cliffhanger style comics. Trad style games don't always replicate what one might want out of such a world. For example, there is no need to know exact jump distance in feet or a check to see if the hero jumped a chasm -- they will jump the chasm (they're the hero), the roll should be to see if they end up landing on their feet with weapon drawn to engage the enemy or hanging by their fingertips so that the enemy can gloat (which they will do).
My belief is that a lot of the negative stereotypes about GURPS stem from using the system in a manner that isn't how it's actually designed to be used.
I think a lot of the negative stereotypes about GURPS stem from how it very much has ways it is designed to be used, and that means it isn't as "generic" as it claims to be.