D&D General D&D is now Steampunk (poll)

[Micah Sweet]

voted NO. while i think DnD is moved out of the medieval aesthetic a good bit steampunk is a specific aesthetic all it's own which DnD does not check most of the boxes for and is not just the following step in the fantasy timeline of tech progession. DnD is more magitech than steampunk.

that said i do wish warforged was a default species

It doesn't matter what the default options are so long as other options exist.

 

[Professor Murder]

YMMV.
I would say "no". I think the point I disagree with is how the OP frames the content of the PHB in the wider world. It's always been my assumption that adventurers, what the PCs are, are outliers. Unusual. Eberron is a setting that specifically says otherwise, but in most other settings, magic isn't commonplace, ie a part of everyday life for the average person. For example, in most settings, most clergy of a given temple have no caster levels.

But to touch on larger issues, it really depends on what steampunk means. If it i just a checklist of aesthetic elements, then possibly. But steampunk isn't just a "look". It is a narrative genre or subgenre if on wants to really get technical. Is the baseline D&D setting put forward in 5e PHB steampunk thematically? I don't feel so, but I would be happy to hear the case for such.

 

[Scribe]

No.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Steampunk is an aesthetic borne out of retro-futuristic technology during the Victorian era. As Dungeons & Dragons is by no means Victorian in its aesthetic, it therefore cannot be steampunk.

 

[Charlaquin]

Not all speculative fiction involving anachronistic technologies in historical periods is steampunk. Steampunk pretty specifically employs steam power and sometimes clockwork (though that can arguably blur the line into cogpunk) to introduce such anachronistic technology, usually to Victorian England or a setting heavily aesthetically inspired by the same. D&D, and particularly Eberron takes some aesthetic inspirations from steampunk, but it is by and large not a steampunk setting. Eberron could be argued to be magipunk, but the rest of D&D is pretty much just generic high fantasy. It’s not medieval, but it never really has been. Thematically it’s Wild West with some late medieval set dressing, and technologically it’s all over the place. As generic fantasy settings tend to be, in large part due to the influence of D&D.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Steampunk is an aesthetic borne out of retro-futuristic technology during the Victorian era. As Dungeons & Dragons is by no means Victorian in its aesthetic, it therefore cannot be steampunk.

It sometimes seems a little Victorian, IMO. And the clockwork vibe is getting pretty normalized.

 

[Reynard]

It sometimes seems a little Victorian, IMO. And the clockwork vibe is getting pretty normalized.

"Steampunk" is a specific genre, with specific elements that make it what it is. No, D&D is not Steampunk. Some of the art in Von Richtens and Eberron lean toward the aesthetic slightly (although Eberron is more aetherpunk/magitech), but even given that, art is not the extent of a genre.

 

[James Gasik]

It's not Steampunk until these guys are in the PHB.

 

[Reynard]

It's not Steampunk until these guys are in the PHB.

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Modrons aren't steampunk.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

Steampunk is an aesthetic borne out of retro-futuristic technology during the Victorian era. As Dungeons & Dragons is by no means Victorian in its aesthetic, it therefore cannot be steampunk.

The most Victorian D&D settings are Ravenloft with certain domains and Planescape with specifically how Sigil is (such as The Cant which is heavily based on Cockney Rhyming Slang). But I wouldn't consider Ravenloft at least to be Steampunk, the Victorian domains are just "Gothic Horror". Planescape, and by this I referring to a setting where Sigil is front and centre before the rest of the multiverse, could be "Steampunk" in a few places, but in general could be considered something else like "New Weird".