Steampunk?? HELP!!!
- Thread starter Angelsboi
- Start date
Limper
First Post
Read William Gibsons "Difference Engine" for starters, If you've seen Wild Wild West, the Batman cartoon episode with RajaGhul(sp) in it these thing have some of teh essence of Steampunk.
As a genre its a "what if?" centered around Steam Technology (which for those interested the Ancient Greeks had) as well as gears pullys etc... It points out that one can do an awful lot with these "primitive" techs. and runs with them.
Guns, Steam Gurneys, Repeating Crossbows giant water wheels, anything not electrical is part of the concept. Charles Babage created the plans and some rough prototypes for a mechanical computer in the 1830's it was very cool (try a search on Analytical Engine, theres many cool sites on it) I think there were adding machines as early as the 1600's. Steampunk plays with what if these took off.
Hope this helps.
As a genre its a "what if?" centered around Steam Technology (which for those interested the Ancient Greeks had) as well as gears pullys etc... It points out that one can do an awful lot with these "primitive" techs. and runs with them.
Guns, Steam Gurneys, Repeating Crossbows giant water wheels, anything not electrical is part of the concept. Charles Babage created the plans and some rough prototypes for a mechanical computer in the 1830's it was very cool (try a search on Analytical Engine, theres many cool sites on it) I think there were adding machines as early as the 1600's. Steampunk plays with what if these took off.
Hope this helps.
Utrecht
First Post
Also consider looking at the PC Game Arcanum for how Magic and Technology mix..... (or do not as the case may be)
Fundamentally SteamPunk is applying the dysotopian future of Cyberpunk in a Victorian setting - think Industrial Revolution gone awry.
Additionally, there is a great (YMMV) GURPS supplement that provides alot of information about the subject.
Fundamentally SteamPunk is applying the dysotopian future of Cyberpunk in a Victorian setting - think Industrial Revolution gone awry.
Additionally, there is a great (YMMV) GURPS supplement that provides alot of information about the subject.
The Allamistako
First Post
Oh, and use the Scientist from "Pulp Heros" (Dungeon/poly 91) - fits in wonderfully...
-Alla
-Alla
Although there is a lot of room for variation within it, Steampunk is basically a genre which emphasizes the technology of the industrial revolution and offshoots of it- either things that could have been discovered in that timeframe but weren't for some reason, or which follow scientific theories which were believed at the time but were later disproven. The best existing resources have already been mentioned, but if you want more, let me know and I will dig out some of the things I found while doing research.
Limper-I disagree that electricity is mutually exclusive with steampunk. As long as it is just a strange, experimental technology, rather than the significant part of life that it became in the 20th century, it fits right in with the atmosphere of innovation that the genre tries to foster.
Now-on to the shameless self-promotion: I am co-writing a d20 steampunk supplement, Steam-trains & Sorcery. The focus is on incorporating steampunk elements such as technological environments and technology-using characters into any campaign, but the material is valuable for any campaign within the genre, including a more traditional pseudo-historical, magicless setting. If you're interested, it will probably released as a PDF sometime this summer, with a print version following later if the PDF raises enough money.
Limper-I disagree that electricity is mutually exclusive with steampunk. As long as it is just a strange, experimental technology, rather than the significant part of life that it became in the 20th century, it fits right in with the atmosphere of innovation that the genre tries to foster.
Now-on to the shameless self-promotion: I am co-writing a d20 steampunk supplement, Steam-trains & Sorcery. The focus is on incorporating steampunk elements such as technological environments and technology-using characters into any campaign, but the material is valuable for any campaign within the genre, including a more traditional pseudo-historical, magicless setting. If you're interested, it will probably released as a PDF sometime this summer, with a print version following later if the PDF raises enough money.
Kugar
First Post
SteamPUNK
Steampunk has some other things going for it besides the technology.
Setting: Put the punk in steampunk! Players are living on the fringes of society. Not fully accepted - and able to see past the lies normal people accept as everyday life. Dark sweatshops abuse thier workers, technology progesses unchecked and any in the way get trampled! All this evil in the world, but for who and why? This type of genere would be good for investigative type adventures.
Characters Being outside society can ware doen a person. Being behind the curtain is stressful.
Ideas
Sanity rules from CoC would be appropriate.
Guns are nasty - I suggest the WP/VP System.
True magik would be rare - but someone could be dealing "spells" cheep
Strange science permiates society - wonderdrugs, new elements, and steam machines all promise vast wealth and suck money out of the everyday man.
Kugar
Steampunk has some other things going for it besides the technology.
Setting: Put the punk in steampunk! Players are living on the fringes of society. Not fully accepted - and able to see past the lies normal people accept as everyday life. Dark sweatshops abuse thier workers, technology progesses unchecked and any in the way get trampled! All this evil in the world, but for who and why? This type of genere would be good for investigative type adventures.
Characters Being outside society can ware doen a person. Being behind the curtain is stressful.
Ideas
Sanity rules from CoC would be appropriate.
Guns are nasty - I suggest the WP/VP System.
True magik would be rare - but someone could be dealing "spells" cheep
Strange science permiates society - wonderdrugs, new elements, and steam machines all promise vast wealth and suck money out of the everyday man.
Kugar
Just thought I would let you all know that after responding to this thread, I finally got around to updating the site, so if you went and looked at it within the last couple hours, there is new stuff there. I'm having some trouble getting the first two polls to work, but that should be straightened out soon.
Steampunk is a misnomer to a degree.
Originaly it was called punk more as a marketing tie in to ride on the coat tales of cyberpunk (which was about gleaming tech which contrasted with a dystopian future and those who couldn't even fit in such a world)
Steampunk was sort of a rebellion in the opposite sense as well as an attempt by Gibson not to be pigeon holed by the cyberpunk movement he started. Steampunk was old technology (or old theories of science that eventaly never worked out) set in a more upbeat setting.
The term has sort of grown too generic and now includes any sort of old or disproven tech (sorry Telsa) that works in a sort of alternate reality from ours where the laws of physics are more forgiving. A lot of old Pulp and Jules Verne has ironicly been given this name.
Some game resources for Steampunk. Most are set in a variety of background worlds that may or not ingore the "punk" version of the game. As an aside, though the 1930s are considered late for steampunk there are two things to consider. 1.) Mark Twain, the writer of Huck Finn had died only 20 years earlier, so the Old West was not so Old then. 2.) Sure people had running water and electrcity ... in the big city. Lots of rural communities still sat squarely in the mid 1800s as far as tech went for decades to come.
d20 Deadlands (gritty but also toungencheek)
Dragon Issue 277 (great primer for generic DND steampunk)
Castle Falkenstein (Victorian and very gentel, yet some fast paced adventures as well)
Space 1889 (Edison joins the steampunk world and flys to Mars)
Crimson Skies (a board game that brings steampunk to the 1930s through air pirates and a second Civil War that is not North/South based)
Adventure! (Pulp heroes with skads of gadget rules)
Iron Kingdom (cool pics of "steamjacks" but the publishers admit the setting runs on a lite tech setting so as to not scare away the fantasy purists)
And for upcoming projects, there is Forgotten Kingdoms which will have a 1800s, 1930s and another setting for steampunk and pulp.
Originaly it was called punk more as a marketing tie in to ride on the coat tales of cyberpunk (which was about gleaming tech which contrasted with a dystopian future and those who couldn't even fit in such a world)
Steampunk was sort of a rebellion in the opposite sense as well as an attempt by Gibson not to be pigeon holed by the cyberpunk movement he started. Steampunk was old technology (or old theories of science that eventaly never worked out) set in a more upbeat setting.
The term has sort of grown too generic and now includes any sort of old or disproven tech (sorry Telsa) that works in a sort of alternate reality from ours where the laws of physics are more forgiving. A lot of old Pulp and Jules Verne has ironicly been given this name.
Some game resources for Steampunk. Most are set in a variety of background worlds that may or not ingore the "punk" version of the game. As an aside, though the 1930s are considered late for steampunk there are two things to consider. 1.) Mark Twain, the writer of Huck Finn had died only 20 years earlier, so the Old West was not so Old then. 2.) Sure people had running water and electrcity ... in the big city. Lots of rural communities still sat squarely in the mid 1800s as far as tech went for decades to come.
d20 Deadlands (gritty but also toungencheek)
Dragon Issue 277 (great primer for generic DND steampunk)
Castle Falkenstein (Victorian and very gentel, yet some fast paced adventures as well)
Space 1889 (Edison joins the steampunk world and flys to Mars)
Crimson Skies (a board game that brings steampunk to the 1930s through air pirates and a second Civil War that is not North/South based)
Adventure! (Pulp heroes with skads of gadget rules)
Iron Kingdom (cool pics of "steamjacks" but the publishers admit the setting runs on a lite tech setting so as to not scare away the fantasy purists)
And for upcoming projects, there is Forgotten Kingdoms which will have a 1800s, 1930s and another setting for steampunk and pulp.
Last edited:
gothwalk
Explorer
And, of course:
GURPS: Steampunk
GURPS: Steam Tech
Both of which are excellent, excellent books.
Drew
http://www.badgerofthelord.net/
GURPS: Steampunk
GURPS: Steam Tech
Both of which are excellent, excellent books.
Drew
http://www.badgerofthelord.net/
