Eberron isn't Steampunk

[Nightfall]

So what to call Eberron, then?

Cause "Damn Kick Ass World where Dms and Players Collide" just doesn't have the same ring to it.

 

[Gez]

Yep. It can be likened to steampunk, but you need to find something else than punk.

It's rather Jules Vernian in look. With magic instead of science.

Call it magical utopia. Which all D&D settings are, anyway.

 

[Wormwood]

Eberron seems to have it's feet planted firmly in the pulps.

Less Gibson, more Gernsback.

Me likey.

 

[Hand of Evil]

It's splitting hairs. Everyone *knows* what we're talking about, they're just using different words.

So what to call Eberron, then?

"Flappertech."

No punk. No steam. But the same type of imagery (high technology and a working class + modern sensitbility).

I would rather call it PULP FANTASY! It 'appears' to be a fantasy game set in a pulp world, mystic, forgotten temples and tech.

 

[Numion]

But I mean, really, what all the fuss? Why is "steampunk" such a bad label here? "Noo!! We mustn't be associated with them." It's a style just as Forgotten Realms is often labelled as a high magic fantasy setting... What's the big deal?

A'koss.

I guess it's because people needed some reason to gripe about the contest, because obviously they'd won if they'd known WotC is looking for a steampunk setting. The fuss is that it's just sore losers - and 'we' need to point it out to them.

So, Eberron is not teampunk, and you didn't win because your setting wasn't steampunk, but because your setting was inferior. There.

 

[Viktyr Gehrig]

Hell, I just wish I'd been aware of the Setting Search, so I would've had the chance to submit my idea and be a sore loser, too.

 

[Piratecat]

All right. I promise I won't call Eberron steam punk.

Eberron is elf pr0n!

 

[Viktyr Gehrig]

Eberron is elf pr0n!

I reserve the term "elf pr0n" for books that invent new subraces of elf for no good reason. (Or, more typically, for specifically bad reason, like to give them Int bonuses for their Wizard favored class... or give a small, light-framed race a Str bonus to make them better Rangers. Kill.)

Besides, the concept behind elf pr0n only amuses me in Shadowrun.

edit: And I want your permission to sig this line. It is morally imperative.

 

[rounser]

Eberron is elf pr0n!

lol

Actually...given that the porn industry gathers more dough than Hollywood, I wonder if that would have been a better marketing angle...but then we'd have to endure cries of, "My setting submission had elf pr0n too!"

 

[WizarDru]

For one thing, the label "fill-in-the-blank"-punk is massively overused. It's like listening to someone flog the same tired catch phrase and it's umpteen derivations, and acting as if they were clever for thinking of it. Such as all the nonsense derivations from the Information Superhighway clap-trap a few years ago.

If anything, I would label Eberron as Burroughs-esque. It reminds me of much of the John Carter cities, or evokes images of the ancient cities Tarzan was always stumbling across...but when they were actually thriving and alive. Pulp Fantasy is more accurate, I think.

The other problem is that the -punk qualifier implies certain setting connotations that Eberron just doesn't seem to have. Usually these include a bleak outlook and shades of technology run amok. The first -punk name was Cyberpunk, from the late 70s and early 80s, and dealt primarily with near future stories, where characters existed in a dark urban setting of decay, with technology allowing for unprecedented advances, but at the cost of society's soul. Most characters are fatalist to some degree, and the genre incorporated elements of film noir.

Steampunk is basically the cyberpunk conceit moved to Victorian-era Europe, usually, or at some point during the Industrial revolution, when many of the cyberpunk tropes were present (rampant urban expansion and blight mixed with new technologies that promised to improve the quality of life, but usually failed to do so). Steampunk has evolved to incorporate more whimsical devices, with radical tech being steam powered. The Castle Falkenstein setting may be considered Steampunk, on one level, but it is altogether too optimistic in practice, despite having all the trappings. A better example is GURPS Goblins, a darkly humourous setting that's an interesting read, but I can't imagine actually playing a game in.