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

[Micah Sweet]

I don't understand why people make an issue of this one. Why is this assumed to be an in-game term? It's a rules term. People aren't saying "Character Class", "Background", "Feat", or "Ability Scores" in-game. Why are we assuming that everyone in the fiction is suddenly saying "Species"?

What do you think people are saying in-setting? I like "folk" or "people" myself.

 

[Charlaquin]

Since D&D went officially multiverse,

You mean 1974?

 

[Charlaquin]

Does steampunk lean to the dystopian?

It’s typically set in Victorian England or a fictional setting heavily inspired by Victorian England. Of course it’s dystopian.

 

[Reynard]

What do you think people are saying in-setting? I like "folk" or "people" myself.

Probably "race." Long ago the term was much more closely analogous to "nationality" before "nations" were a thing.

 

[Corinnguard]

What do you think people are saying in-setting? I like "folk" or "people" myself.

Heritage or Linage also works for me.

 

[Charlaquin]

Superman as punk because it is about hope is a real thing right now.

Exactly!

 

[James Gasik]

Modrons aren't steampunk.

Rogue Modrons are!

 

[Tonguez]

Does steampunk lean to the dystopian?

This gets into the debate about Steampunk v Victoriana Fantasy which exist in that community. But I think Steampunk gets into the smog of Industrialisation, Victorian classism: urban dispossession vs entitled elitism, Corporatism (robber Barons), Imperialism and resource colonisation, and Resistance in the form of Anarchist, free-thinkers, luddites and occultist

A steampunk character could fit into D&D just fine. But so could a Conan-esque barbarian, a snarky Locke Lamora-style rogue from not-Venice, or a dwarf straight out of Tolkien. At this point, I kinda think of D&D as being its own genre. To some extent, it's always been a mishmash of influences, but increasingly, I feel like its main influence is itself.

I dont think a good Conan-esque Setting can be done in core DnD even is an individual Conan character could join a party

Probably "race." Long ago the term was much more closely analogous to "nationality" before "nations" were a thing.

funnily enough Race only dates to the 16th century from Italian Razza, which makes Species the older term

On Species
The term was first used in 1387 by John Trevisa when translating the Polychronicon from latin, specifically:“Of the maner, kynde, and specyes of bestes.”

Solarpunk is probably the most genuinely punk of the punkpunks since cyberpunk. Punk doesn’t mean pessimistic, it means anti-authoritarian and critical of mainstream society. Solarpunk is absolutely that, and its optimism is a part of what makes it punk, because mainstream society is giving into authoritarianism out of an overwhelming sense of pessimism. It is, however, a new wave of punk, critiquing postmodern sentiment in the same way the previous wave critiqued the then-dominant modernist sentiment. We are post-postmodern now.

Thats a nice definition - thanks
I will retract my previous statement

 

[TheSword]

Isn’t steam a pretty vital component of Steampunk?

 

[James Gasik]

Isn’t steam a pretty vital component of Steampunk?

Not necessarily. It's more about the aesthetic of neo-Victorianism and 19th-century industrial steam-powered machinery, but all sorts of anachronistic and retro-futurist inventions populate the genre, from primitive versions of nuclear power to made-up discoveries like anti-gravity metal (Cavorite).