Dave's Rather Eclectic Attempt at a Steampunk Setting! (Long)

[Atridis]

In my opinion, a Victorian-era campaign actually makes Asian-style Monks -more- reasonable than in regular D&D. By the 1880s, there were thousands of Chinese in London, Paris, Amsterdam, New York and San Francisco. Heck, Chinese immigrants built a lot of the cross-country railroads in the USA. In "From Hell", a fun movie if you haven't seen it, and right up your alley for this campaign, Johnny Depp's character is an opium addict - opium was (and still is, probably) imported from Southeast Asia, and opium dens were a big reason that "China Towns" in the United States (maybe Europe, too) got such a bad rep.

At the same time, Shanghai and Hong Kong were lousy with us "gwailos" (the Cantonese slang for Caucasians - similar to the Japanese "gaijin" or the Mexican "gringo"). Late 19th-century Shanghai had an entire community of English, French, Dutch & Americans (I think it's still there - a clump of Victorian architecture in the center of an otherwise Chinese city). If you're a "Buffy" fan, you may remember the episode in which Spike recounts a tale of he, Angelus, Drusilla, and Darla in China, during what appeared to be the "Boxer Rebellion" (we Europeans and Americans called it the Boxer Rebellion because the Chinese were using Kung Fu - what we called "Chinese Boxing").

Of course, Asia is a big place, and Monks could be used for other nationalities. The Japanese around that time were extremely reticent to interact with foreigners, but maybe in another world they'd be a little less insular. A Monk could probably be modified to represent an Indian, a Phillippino, or a Siamese (I think it was still Siam in the 19th Century, but you'd have to check that).

 

[dave_o]

SNIP!

Excellent point! In fact, it's sparked a whole idea. In my Mythic Victoria, the Asian populace will be elves and elf sub-races. I think a while back Joshua Dyal said he always thought about elves speaking Japanese, so -

I don't think I'll go as far as making their favored class Monk, however, as I still want a sort of Elven feel - just with an Oriental flavor.

MORE! Expect some sort of document with all the crunchy bits to start making it's way into the House Rules forum.

 

[Mordane76]

ENWorld Publishing should be releasing Steam & Steel: A Guide to Fantasy Steamworks before too long; that should cover your needs

(though admittedly not for the brawler monk. That could be possibly done by removing the monk's more exotic and ki-based abilities and replacing them with fighter feats or new, dirty-fighting-style abilities. Exotic weapons should be dropped, but the brawler given proficiencies with improvised weapons so he can use chairs, bottles, anything ).

Drunken Master PrC! Just alter the monk to use some of these abilities instead of his normal abilities, and put in Dirty Fighting has a bonus feat in place of Deflect Arrows.

 

[Carnifex]

Drunken Master PrC! Just alter the monk to use some of these abilities instead of his normal abilities, and put in Dirty Fighting has a bonus feat in place of Deflect Arrows.

Only problem with this is some of the Drunken master abilities are based on rather wierd and supernatural concepts of how he metabolises the alchohol and if I were to play a European brawler-type character I wouldn't want a focus on being drunk all the time

 

[dave_o]

Only problem with this is some of the Drunken master abilities are based on rather wierd and supernatural concepts of how he metabolises the alchohol and if I were to play a European brawler-type character I wouldn't want a focus on being drunk all the time

Who're you kidding? Of course you'd want to be drunk all the time.

I've decided to get a little more specific on what I'm looking for, in terms of maps. I need a physical map of England, which would be even more rad if it had things like forests labelled. It'd also be nice to get ahold of a Victorian era map of London, or a few other cities in England. And, finally, a Victorian era map of the railways in England.

I'm familiar enough with American history to extrapolate those maps myself, I'm just hurting in the European realm.

Thanks for all the feedback, thus far, everyone!

 

[Carnifex]

Who're you kidding? Of course you'd want to be drunk all the time.

I've decided to get a little more specific on what I'm looking for, in terms of maps. I need a physical map of England, which would be even more rad if it had things like forests labelled. It'd also be nice to get ahold of a Victorian era map of London, or a few other cities in England. And, finally, a Victorian era map of the railways in England.

I'm familiar enough with American history to extrapolate those maps myself, I'm just hurting in the European realm.

Thanks for all the feedback, thus far, everyone!

Should be easy to get a map of England online, and shouldn't be too hard to get Victorian maps I would imagine.

The great thing with Victorian London is you don't need particularly concise maps, just general areas and specific landmarks. You could get away without mapping most of it by describing it as a confusing maze of streets, sidestreets, alleys, debris, slums, tenements, factories, alchemists, arcane laboratories, etc etc.

I do think you might find my Steam & Steel quite useful, indeed Out of interest, how much will you be playing up class conflicts and stresses, unions vs wealthy business owners, etc? I often consider that this kinda friction is essential to proper steampunk (as opposed to just steamtech) games

 

[dave_o]

Should be easy to get a map of England online, and shouldn't be too hard to get Victorian maps I would imagine.

The great thing with Victorian London is you don't need particularly concise maps, just general areas and specific landmarks. You could get away without mapping most of it by describing it as a confusing maze of streets, sidestreets, alleys, debris, slums, tenements, factories, alchemists, arcane laboratories, etc etc.

I do think you might find my Steam & Steel quite useful, indeed Out of interest, how much will you be playing up class conflicts and stresses, unions vs wealthy business owners, etc? I often consider that this kinda friction is essential to proper steampunk (as opposed to just steamtech) games

I'd love to buy Steam & Steel, but I'd also love to have any money at all. Sorry man, I'd love to get it, but I barely eat most months. Anyway, I plan on heavily playing up the conflict of the "Robber-Barons" vs. the prolateriat. Though, I'm a little uncertain on if I'm going to have the PCs come from all walks of life, or what.

A short little word on spellcasting, I'm thinking I'll make spellcasters alternate levels, to keep spellcasting sorta low - though, I might not, does high magic sort of ruin steampunk?

 

[Carnifex]

I'd love to buy Steam & Steel, but I'd also love to have any money at all. Sorry man, I'd love to get it, but I barely eat most months. Anyway, I plan on heavily playing up the conflict of the "Robber-Barons" vs. the prolateriat. Though, I'm a little uncertain on if I'm going to have the PCs come from all walks of life, or what.

A short little word on spellcasting, I'm thinking I'll make spellcasters alternate levels, to keep spellcasting sorta low - though, I might not, does high magic sort of ruin steampunk?

Well... that kinda depends on how you depict magic. Magic might be a force of nature, wielded by those who are against steam technology, like druids, which plays up a nature/technology conflict and also a magic/technology conflict. You might go completely the opposite direction and tie technology and magic together really strongly, such that arcane technologists engineer wierd meldings of the two. OR an arcane/tech animosity ala Arcanum, whereby the two actually interfere with each other - a powerful mage who gets on a train is likely to cause the steam engine to break down just by his near presence. These options keep high magic and steampunk flavour by connecting them together in odd ways.

Low magic means a grittier setting quite often - which could be well done with d20 Modern rules, since there'll then be less high-level magic flying around, among other things. If you don't have d20 Modern, then fine But be careful in reducing the casting power of spellcasting classes in case they end up underpowered. Or just make Arcane spellcasting classes Prestige Classes, that can only be accessed with enough ranks in Knowledge (Arcana or Occult or something). From this, you could then say that Experts, ie sages and academics of arcane lore, are the most common people to become spellcasters, though some seasoned adventurers who travel to far and exotic lands also learn enough occult lore to pick up a few spells.

And taking that diea further, if it's the Expert class which is the easiest route to spellcasting, and you say that its mostly academics and scholars who are going to fulfil the wizard skill prereqs, then you could amke magic a 'science', one studied by budding thaumaturges at Oxford university

Hmm, I'm rapidly gaining ideas myself off this for a fantasy steampunk version of Victorian Britain, but my flow of inspiration has just been severed because dinner's ready

 

[Dirigible]

Arcane/tech animosity ala Arcanum...From this, you could then say that Experts, ie sages and academics of arcane lore, are the most common people to become spellcasters, though some seasoned adventurers who travel to far and exotic lands also learn enough occult lore to pick up a few spells.

Damn you, Carnifex ! GET OUTTA MY MIND ! Here I am, planning a PbP game using this very concept, and you moesy on and MENTION it ! The AUDACTIY !

 

[dave_o]

SNIP!

Mm, dinner. Mine consists of a burrito (you can tell Americans named these Tex-Mex foods, since it means "little donkey" in Spanish) and some water. Spartan living, indeed. Ah well, that much more money for the move to San Diego.

Anyway.

I think I'll be going the "studied art" route of the Arcane. Meaning, there are schools devoted to the persuit of the art. Yet, I'll have it be sort of an art that's looked down upon, perhaps like cryptozoology in today's world. So, under this model, we'll see bound fire elementals in factory furnaces, and earth elementals aiding construction - but only for very, very high prices.

More! MOOO-OOOO-OOORREEE!