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

[Kobold Avenger]

Since Victoria died 22 Jan 1901 her era does definitionally get a teeny-tiny bit of the 20th century.

Anyway, I was thinking that it wasn't like a light was switched on and everything changed at once, and was trying to see what the slide from Victorian to Edwardian was like. Came across this in terms of the changeover from 1890-1914:

Brief Timeline of the Late Victorian and Edwardian Eras

1890s Women’s clothing becomes less voluminous, lawn tennis takes place of croquet as means of meeting opposite sex, bicycle becomes fashionable. Agricultural depression as cheaper frozen meat from…

www.edwardianpromenade.com

The weirdest thing I realized is that I lived most of my life in the Second Elizabethan Era.

 

[James Gasik]

As a semi-tangent;

There should be steam engines. I mean, summon a fire elemental (even a minor one) bind it into a furnace, add water.

I always figured that canonically, the adventurers failed to bring The Miramar (an elemental powered riverboat) to it's final destination (Dungeon #43's Moving Day), so the idea was scrapped.

 

[Tonguez]

The weirdest thing I realized is that I lived most of my life in the Second Elizabethan Era.

Weirder still is that we are currently in the third Carolean era - and its nothing like the first or second (and remarkably close to Eluzabethan )

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Is "the Americas" more common than just America if one wanted to go beyond the US and didn't want to specify North, South or maybe Central? Or does that just identify me as being a USAian?

In my case, it’s just that I don’t know where this particular “Victoria” is, there being a lot of places with that name, and I don’t know what BA stands for either.

 

[Charlaquin]

Is "the Americas" more common than just America if one wanted to go beyond the US and didn't want to specify North, South or maybe Central? Or does that just identify me as being a USAian?

Well, as a fellow Eaglelander I can’t answer that from an outside perspective, but in my experience “the Americas” is a pretty common turn of phrase to refer to both continents together, yes.

 

[Charlaquin]

I for one have never use 'The Americas' and instead use America to mean both North and Central America.

That’s a bit odd, since “central” America is part of the continent North America. Like, there are reasons to refer to Central America independently from the rest of North America, but you don’t need a special term to refer to it collectively along with the US and Canada, because that term already exists and it’s North America.

But South America gets its own tag (specifically Chile, Brazil, Argentina)

Well, South America is a different continent then North America, so yeah it ought to get its own term, just as Europe and Asia both get their own terms.

Strangely enough Americans refers specifically to USAians - so North America is occupied by Canadians, Mexicans and Americanos

Well, yeah, of the countries in North America, the United States of America is the only one with America in its name. But you don’t say USAans or United Statesman, any more than you would say United Kindomans. You might say US Citizans, but if you want a one-word collective noun, Americans is the most linguistically appropriate option. If you want a collective noun for people from anywhere on the continent you’d say North Americans.

 

[Charlaquin]

In my case, it’s just that I don’t know where this particular “Victoria” is, there being a lot of places with that name, and I don’t know what BA stands for either.

It’s BC, not BA. Stands for British Columbia.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Now if we can get past the shock-horror that fantasy art styles have changed over the last 40 years, maybe we can look at where steampunk has actually intersected with D&D.

The first callout is Ravenloft. Not so much the original module, which owes more to the Universal and Hammer movie series', but the 2nd edition boxed set. Many of the stories that inspired domains are Victorian (Frankenstein and a few others are earlier). Not only is this reflected in the costumes and societies depicted, but the art style is reminiscent of the illustrations in Strand magazine and similar Victorian periodicals. And, of course, the whole domain is distopian, and the PCs are expected to be anti--establishment (the establishment being the Dark Lords). We can single out Lamordia in particular as being very Steampunk. The most recent update, VGR has moved away from aping Victorian art, but we still see it in some of the costumes.

The second callout is gnomes. The tinker gnomes of Krynn are an obvious early point of reference, but they are cursed and their machines largely don't work. However, a better, earlier example is When a Star Falls (UK4, published 1984). In this module we encounter gnomes using actual steam powered robots for defence. By the time of Baldur's Gate 2 the trope is well established, and we get a steampunk gnome companion.

Which brings us to my third callout: The Baldur's Gate series. In BG1 we see mines with steal rails for mine carts (but no steam engines) and a very Bazalgette style sewer system under the city. However, PCs dress in genericfantasy style, and the nobles wear Tudor-ish fashions. In the second game there is a Victorian style asylum as well as Jan Jansen. So, come BG3, it's not surprising that we see a lot more steampunk, including an actual locomotive on the docks (and submarines etc). But Larian largely confine the steampunk to the city of Baldur's Gate itself, other regions are still very much classic Genericfantasyland.

My fourth would be Planescape, but I never owned the original boxed set, so I can't really say much about the Victorian Londonisms, other to observe that they were present.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

It’s BC, not BA. Stands for British Columbia.

That, I know is in Canada (although not where in Canada).

 

[Tonguez]

Now if we can get past the shock-horror that fantasy art styles have changed over the last 40 years, maybe we can look at where steampunk has actually intersected with D&D.

The first callout is Ravenloft. Not so much the original module, which owes more to the Universal and Hammer movie series', but the 2nd edition boxed set. Many of the stories that inspired domains are Victorian (Frankenstein and a few others are earlier). Not only is this reflected in the costumes and societies depicted, but the art style is reminiscent of the illustrations in Strand magazine and similar Victorian periodicals. And, of course, the whole domain is distopian, and the PCs are expected to be anti--establishment (the establishment being the Dark Lords). We can single out Lamordia in particular as being very Steampunk. The most recent update, VGR has moved away from aping Victorian art, but we still see it in some of the costumes.

The second callout is gnomes. The tinker gnomes of Krynn are an obvious early point of reference, but they are cursed and their machines largely don't work. However, a better, earlier example is When a Star Falls (UK4, published 1984). In this module we encounter gnomes using actual steam powered robots for defence. By the time of Baldur's Gate 2 the trope is well established, and we get a steampunk gnome companion.
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Which brings us to my third callout: The Baldur's Gate series. In BG1 we see mines with steal rails for mine carts (but no steam engines) and a very Bazalgette style sewer system under the city. However, PCs dress in genericfantasy style, and the nobles wear Tudor-ish fashions. In the second game there is a Victorian style asylum as well as Jan Jansen. So, come BG3, it's not surprising that we see a lot more steampunk, including an actual locomotive on the docks (and submarines etc). But Larian largely confine the steampunk to the city of Baldur's Gate itself, other regions are still very much classic Genericfantasyland.

My fourth would be Planescape, but I never owned the original boxed set, so I can't really say much about the Victorian Londonisms, other to observe that they were present.

I'm not sure what this thread is about anymore but your post reminded me of the 1985 Earthshaker! module for BECMI Companion Level which featured a giant, steam-powered iron robot terrorizing the PCs barony. So a 40 year old example of actual steampunk gnomes