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

[Corinnguard]

I don't think D&D counts as Steampunk if you were to compare it to an actual RPG setting that fits the genre, like Iron Kingdoms from Privateer Press.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

It’s not even Steampunk adjacent.

Airships in D&D are Either “here’s a boat what flies” or “here’s a vessel shaped like a bird/fish/other creature”, nothing remotely like a dirigible.

D&D has no actual Steampunk or Victorian elements, esthetically or technologically.

Muskets are pre-Victorian.

Clockwork magical devices as a fantastical concept is pre-Victorian, and actual complex clockworks date back to Ancient Rome, at least.

The aesthetics are late medieval or renaissance.

Even Eberron is closer to Aetherpunk or simply Gaslamp Fantasy.

D&D does not grapple with any sociopolitical issues at all, and thus cannot be “punk” of any kind.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Dropping what used to be known as pseudo-medieval, despite having no similarity to real world history, does not make something Steampunk. There are a great many other options.

 

[Cap'n Kobold]

Yeah Solarpunk and Hopepunk are the two big offenders, at least earlier variations could lean in to the dystopian, anti-establisment vibe of "punk" aesthetic - solarpunk takes it to utopianism abd a complete inversion of the Punk label

I believe those are more leaning into the vibe of "punk" being about rebellion against the establishment.

I think at the time when the establishment and current culture was more into "realistic", "grim and gritty", "dark" and "edgy" Hopepunk was an aesthetic in direct defiance of it.
When much of the prevailing narrative was about bleak dystopias, no-win situations, and the dominance of self-interest, Hopepunk and solarpunk were a refreshing change, named partly after their rebellion against and rejection of the current genres.

 

[TiQuinn]

Pinning down what is D&D’s fantasy is a Rorschach test.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Lord of the Rings roots

You mean the story where Georgian hobbits meet dark age horse lords and Arthurian knights led by a descendent of magitech Atlantis?

 

[Corinnguard]

Pinning down what is D&D’s fantasy is a Rorschach test.

Not sure if using a Rorschach test is the right analogy for figuring out what D&D is nowadays. It has had 50 years to give most people an idea as to what it is and how it works.

 

[Reynard]

Not sure if using a Rorschach test is the right analogy for figuring out what D&D is nowadays. It has had 50 years to give most people an idea as to what it is and how it works.

What any given person says what D&D is tells you more about them than D&D.

 

[CreamCloud0]

How many words are we going to add to the suffix -punk to before the concept loses all meaning? Are we already there?

it's all this suffix-punk that's been trending recently that's causing all the -punk to be around

 

[TiQuinn]

Not sure if using a Rorschach test is the right analogy for figuring out what D&D is nowadays. It has had 50 years to give most people an idea as to what it is and how it works.

I think D&D has presented enough faces to show it’s not trying to be any one thing and even then, it’s changed over those 50 years.