[Art] Steam Knight

[Carnifex]

Here's a little pic of a Black Knight from my campaign setting, wearing steam-powered armour. Sketched by the talented Mr. Boris Radujko, one of the great artists over at planewalker!

http://www.enworld.org/messageboards/showthread.php?s=&postid=188075#post188075

Made some comments over in that post about my own opinion of the picture - what do you think of it? Also, what do you think of the whole idea of steam-technology (not necessarily 'steam-punk' the theme) in a game? How do you feel it would alter the classical medieval structure of a D&D game?

 

[med stud]

Too much Space Hulk IMO, and my spontaneous reaction is that the wearer of the armor would be fried.

Negatives aside, the drawing was well made, and I like the axe

 

[Anabstercorian]

The thing about medieval culture was that there were a few people (nobles and knights) who held absolute power over damn near everybody else. As long as it stays in the hands of the upper class and is sufficiently rare, objects and equipment of almost ANY power or type can be added to a setting. As long as the peasants all have farm equipment, it doesn't matter if the knights are in plate armor with swords, steampunk wargear, or DARPA stealthbattlesuits and MP5's.

 

[Carnifex]

Med Stud: Space Hulk? Why so?

Also, in terms of the wearer being fried: certainly, a steam-powered system would require insulations and suchlike. I'd like to see a pic of the armour with additional vents etc for dispersing the heat as well.

Anabstercorian: To some extent true, but can you imagine the problems if an automatic firearm ended up in the hands of peasants. Suddenly the fact that the nobles are wearing armour and carrying blades isn't nearly as important, because the mud-caked peasant can kill them easily anyway. Surely it's too easy for something like that to fall into the hadns of the non-elite?

(the suits of steam-armour that the Black Knights use requires extensive training, including the purchase of a feat, meaning that problem is somewhat reduced).