Steam and Steel - A Guide to Fantasy Steamworks - extra teaser posted 4/27/04

[Maldur]

WHEN O WHEN IS THE PUBLISHING DATE?
HOUND, DEXTRA: GET IT PUBLISHED ALLREADY!

(and yes I am yelling!)

 

[Carnifex]

Ok Im back and I some questions. Cranifex, can you give a sample or a preview what we find in in the book? I hoping to be information like the crystalburner engine and/or a wierd science chapter.

Thanks

Sure, here's a little preview - both the list of engine types in Steam & Steel, as well as the text for the Crystalburner engine. Hope Hellhound doesn't mind me putting this up!

Engine
Conventional Furnace
Coal Burner
Crystalburner
Oil Burner
Alchemical Engine
Alchemical Mixer
Arcane Engine
Arcane Source
Dweomerburner
Energy Trap Engine
Divine Source
Solar Trap
Essence Engine
Elemental Essence
Spirit Essence
Necromantic Engine
Blood Drinker
Corpseburner
Dragonsblood
Soulburner
Soul Drinker

Crystalburner: Crystalburner engines are an exotic form of conventional furnace that does not burn any fossil fuel, but instead combusts specially treated crystals. These crystals are only found in growths that occur in odd locations such as deep underground and near active volcanoes, but they only create a very thin smoke from their furnaces and thus a minimum of pollution and grime. They also have exceptionally efficient boilers. Since only a few crystals, shards a foot in length, are needed to power the engine for quite a long time, it does not have the same kinds of problems of transporting fuel as coal burners suffer from.

Crystalburners also have a strange and inexplicable side effect, in that any sentient steamwork creation with a crystalburner engine benefits from increased cognitive abilities – the crystals have some strange magical quality that affects the delicate mechanisms for the machine consciousness of such devices. Steamwork constructs with crystalburner engines possess a +2 inherent bonus to their Intelligence and Wisdom scores.

In the case of a Catastrophic Breakdown the crystalburner’s firebox explodes. As well as venting hot steam it quickly burns the rest of the crystals in a lightning-fast reaction, pulsing out a wave of blue-white energy like the flash of a detonation. This energy deals no physical damage but hits the mind and psyche of anyone nearby like a hammer, dealing d6 temporary Wisdom damage to all within a radius of 5ft. per increasing size category of the device.

 

[tecnowraith]

Sure, here's a little preview - both the list of engine types in Steam & Steel, as well as the text for the Crystalburner engine. Hope Hellhound doesn't mind me putting this up!

Crystalburner: Crystalburner engines are an exotic form of conventional furnace that does not burn any fossil fuel, but instead combusts specially treated crystals. These crystals are only found in growths that occur in odd locations such as deep underground and near active volcanoes, but they only create a very thin smoke from their furnaces and thus a minimum of pollution and grime. They also have exceptionally efficient boilers. Since only a few crystals, shards a foot in length, are needed to power the engine for quite a long time, it does not have the same kinds of problems of transporting fuel as coal burners suffer from.

How far is this from fact than fiction? Just Curious. Never thought about the volocano aspect.

 

[ledded]

Damn you Carnifex... now I'm *really* jonesing for this thing.

Man, I hope they get this fella in circulation soon, I've been salivating over it for
months, and now thanks to Carnifex I have to go change my shirt.

(seriously, though, thanks for the teaser. Very intersting stuff)

 

[Broccli_Head]

Me Too! Me Too!

 

[tecnowraith]

Carnifex, here is an odd question. Are there any flying vehicles in the sourcebook or is mostly land and water? I know steampunk has very few types of air vehicles and most uses the propllers. Im hoping there could be other "exotic" types as well.

 

[Carnifex]

Carnifex, here is an odd question. Are there any flying vehicles in the sourcebook or is mostly land and water? I know steampunk has very few types of air vehicles and most uses the propllers. Im hoping there could be other "exotic" types as well.

The vehicle 'templates' in the book are:

Copter - with 'Skyrunner Scout' sample copter build.
Copter, Dragonfly - with Elven Cloudhawk sample dragonfly copter build. (Think ornithopter!)
Dirigible - with Hurdellian War Eagle sample dirigible build.
Dirigible, Personal - with Pirate Scout sample personal dirigible build.
Steam Train - with Shadow Wood route freight train sample train build.
Steam Ship - basically adding steam-base engines to a normal form of ship.
Steam Ship, Ironclad - with "Fearless" sample ironclad build.
Steam Wagon - with Dr. Almacroft’s Amazing Horseless Carriage sample wagon build.
Submersible - with Iron Shark sample submersible build.
Tunneller - with kobold Rockripper sample tunneller build.

Basically, the reason I refer to 'em as vehicle 'templates' is that each vehicle type comes with a base form, which you can then add things like extra armour, HD, special abilities like spell resistance, improved manoeuverability etc to, for an increase in GP cost.

As you can see, there are qutie a few aircraft! And as well as vehicles going over sea and land, there's the tunneller going *underground* and the submersible going underwater

 

[Suldulin]

would like for this to come out soon, there is a character in the game I'm in that could make much use of this

 

[beverson]

Over the past couple of months due to personal issues, I dropped the ball and lost touch with the art team working on the project. I'm working on contacting them and getting the complete art by the end of the month (with any luck). Hound is off for the first week of March, so I'm hoping to get all the materials together by then.

Dextra, you mention the first week of March in this post - can we get an update on
where things stand at this point, if possible?

thanks!

 

[Ashy]

Dextra,
Additionally, and related, is that I have recently emailed him about a possible product interlink-style thing with something I'm working on for Enkwell Press - ie putting a little preview from it at the end of Steam & Steel, and putting an excerpt from Steam & Steel at the end of the Enkwell product when that eventually gets finished and released. Now, as I mentioned above, I haven't been receiving replies to emails I've sent to HH, so I might as well ask here - would such an interlink be possible? If so, please email me so we can discuss it further.

Thanks,

Chris / Carnifex

Just thought I would bump this back into current consciousness in addition to adding my own personal electronic "john handcock" - Hound, Dextra, I just wanted to let ya know that Enkwell is 150% behind this idea. Let us know, please...