Rathan said:
heh... gotta love having a well placed sig.. and yes dave_o.. I remember you... I'm trying to resurect the game from it's ashes once more.... check out the link if you want to...
as for steampunkish rp.. can you give me an quick overview of timeframe?.... ummm... tech levels?... what the concept is all about..... as well I need to know how to make a chara... is it done with core 3.5 books?.. or is it it's own system? if so can you point me in the direction of some refrence docs to I can review them?
- Rathan
If you want a sort of general idea about steampunk, check out the Wikipedia article for it.
http://www.wikipedia.org/Steampunk That said, essentially steampunk is a setting in which technology is roughly that of our Victorian era, that is, steam powered devices, zeppelins, rudimentary firearms (we're talking flintlocks and muskets here). Magic also usually plays a role, typically with a sort of technology flavor -- using batteries and wires to complete spells, etc. Although some settings play up the divide between magic and technology, and in that case magic would be a huge departure from technological devices.
The -punk, most people don't realize, comes from a sort of ubiquitious distrust of government or large organizations. Just as in cyberpunk where there are large corporations and governments working against each over (and often times the common man), so too are there large organizations and governments bumping shoulders.
There's not a system, per se: you've got GURPS Steampunk (not running that), Iron Kingdoms (a published D&D 3.5 setting), Sorcery & Steam (a Sword and Sorcery Studios sourcebook for D&D which I really dig), and I'm sure various other supplements. Steampunk is a genre, not so much a set of gaming mechanics.
If you'd like to do some homework, read China Mieville's works (in the same world, but not technically a series): Perdido Street Station, Iron Council, and The Scar.
