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

[Carnifex]

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 !

Well, some material of this kind is covered in Steam & Steel: A Guide to Fantasy Steamworks if you want more, though I'm now tempted to write a Victorian fantasy steampunk Britain setting as well, to further explore the topic in that direction. Now I just need to decide on the name of the new Oxford college I need to add, that specialises tts studies in thaumaturgical sciences

 

[dave_o]

Well, some material of this kind is covered in Steam & Steel: A Guide to Fantasy Steamworks if you want more, though I'm now tempted to write a Victorian fantasy steampunk Britain setting as well, to further explore the topic in that direction. Now I just need to decide on the name of the new Oxford college I need to add, that specialises tts studies in thaumaturgical sciences

You'd better share it all here! Maybe we should rock a UK/America alliance on this setting! You'll obviously be more well-versed in Britain than I am.

 

[Carnifex]

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!

Lessee... exploring this avenue further...

So, arcane spellcaster as prestige class. Easy way to do this is to just add prerequisites to the sorcerer and wizard classes. Lets say Knowledge (Arcana) 6 ranks for wizard and Knowledge (Occult) 6 ranks for sorcerer, if you want a little bit of differentation between the two (scholars who study thaumaturgy as a rigid science following laws, ala maths or physics or engineering, become wizards with their formulaic spell channeling techniques, while those who study the 'social' side of the occult, the power of emotion and the self in the arcane, and with the expanding empire who study the witchcraft and shamanism of primitive cultures, become the more intuitve spellcasting sorcerers.). An alternative that is tempting me as a good line to follow would be just one Mage advanced class with a slightly different approach to magic.

I've got lots of ideas now about how you could take the line of academic magic, but I'm not sure exactly how to order them up

I'm tempted to do a Mage advanced class with different schools of magic assigned to different mental ability scores.

But I can't detail it right now, because I need to get off the internet to let someone else use it

 

[dave_o]

SNIP!

Here's the route I'm taking, since I'm keeping this DnD3E. I plan on having a feat called something like The Art, or whatever. It'll be a prerequisite for becoming either a Wizard, or a Sorcerer.

After that, spellcaster levels must be alternated. While any class is game, most straight spellcasters will probably take levels in Expert for their off levels, for those yummy, yummy skill points.

Though, Rogue ain't a bad choice, either.

 

[Lola]

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

As for that bit of history, even KIDS were getting drunk in Victorian-era London. I kid you not. Drunkeness was rampant, and there were no age limits or blood-alcohol level laws. The extreme lower and higher classes were the worst offenders. Not only did people want to drink away the bad times (or boredom, in the case of the rich), but would you want to drink that water? It's food for thought as you write this up...

 

[Carnifex]

Here's the route I'm taking, since I'm keeping this DnD3E. I plan on having a feat called something like The Art, or whatever. It'll be a prerequisite for becoming either a Wizard, or a Sorcerer.

After that, spellcaster levels must be alternated. While any class is game, most straight spellcasters will probably take levels in Expert for their off levels, for those yummy, yummy skill points.

Though, Rogue ain't a bad choice, either.

Sounds good. With time I should be able to put together a more detailed system. Definitely arcane casting only being available as a prc/advanced class is the way to go, but I'm thinking of making certain schools of magic associated with certain lines of physical thought.

Eg, a professor of applied alchemy being skilled at transmutation, students in the course of Empirical Manipulation being skilled at evocation (it's taught kinda like maths/physics, very scientific and formulaic form of magic), things like necromancy and enchantment being associated with wierder lines of thought in the science of thaumaturgy, with the knowledge base being expanded by the new discoveries about witchcraft and shamanistic lore due to contact with primitive societies as the Empire expands. Possibly also some feats etc to make it easy for non-spellcasters who pick up some occult lore from various sources to pick up one or two charms or hexes, without being anywhere near as powerful as the Chancellor Thaumaturgical of my new Oxford college

 

[Carnifex]

You'd better share it all here! Maybe we should rock a UK/America alliance on this setting! You'll obviously be more well-versed in Britain than I am.

I'll see how ideas develop...

 

[Carnifex]

As for that bit of history, even KIDS were getting drunk in Victorian-era London. I kid you not. Drunkeness was rampant, and there were no age limits or blood-alcohol level laws. The extreme lower and higher classes were the worst offenders. Not only did people want to drink away the bad times (or boredom, in the case of the rich), but would you want to drink that water? It's food for thought as you write this up...

This is to an extent true for many cultures prior to having access to good sources of clean water, and certainly there would be high alchohol consumption, though plenty of diseases were still passed through water consumption on the part of those who could barely even afford alcoholic beverages. However, this doesn't change my point; a Western-style brawler is quite different in concept to a Drunken Master, and if you don't possess the incredible qualities of a Drunken Master then you *don't* want to be drunk during a fight, since it hampers your capabilities.

(Admittedly plenty of brawls occurred when both sides were drunk )

 

[Piratecat]

I'm sorta iffy on if this'll get moved - I hope not.

House rules, baby! It's all about the house rules.

Alternatively, this could also be in the d20 forum. I'll scoot it over to house rules, but let me know if you'd like it to be moved.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

A note on the forests in England thing: By victorian times, most of the forests in England had been cut down for use in building naval vessels, I believe.

You could probably introduce the idea of forest "preserves" for the elves - maybe they have been shunted off into preserves much like american indians were in the west. This would build in some nice opportunities for conflict.