As a further thing for those who *are* interested in steam punk and steam technology, here's the little bit o' blurb I wrote up for the beginning of Steam & Steel: A Guide to Fantasy Steamworks:
Imagine a world where the magic of fantasy and the power of science is thrown together to create and exciting new mixture of the eldritch and the mechanical. Industrializing cities spread and grow, becoming cityscapes of roofs and chimneys, vents and smokestacks, smoke pluming upwards from the incessant toil of hundreds of smithies and alchemists and factories. Mechanics and arcane engineers assemble mighty beasts of steel, designing armoured constructs to take to the field of battle and ironclad vehicles to travel far and wide. Elves seek to defend the boundaries of their ancestral lands from the burgeoning cultures around them, bringing their advanced technology, magic and skill to bear against their foes, fighting from graceful flying airships and wielding blades and armour augmented by steamwork power. Dwarves delve deeper than ever before in their mines with massive drilling machines, their fortresses sporting massive chimneys to gout forth the fumes of a thousand machines forging weapons of war. Evil goblin necromancers craft sinister and deadly war machines that feed off the souls of the dead to fuel their engines, darkening the skies above their hordes with the smoke of burning corpses. The clergy of a machine cult spread their word far and wide, bringing with them new technologies and crafting steel prosthetics to replace weak flesh and blood. Turmoil and change grips a land that is undergoing the transition from feudal and ancient cultures to dynamic and powerful industrial nations.
This guide is aimed to allow a Dungeon Master to take a more conventional fantasy setting, a campaign rich with fantastic beasts and exotic magic, and to integrate the marvels of steam technology into it to create a world like that described above – one made exciting from the opportunities to be had from the power and possibilities of steamworks.
Steam & Steel presents rules and ideas for a DM wishing to incorporate steam technology into their campaign setting, however much or little they may desire. From small everyday steamwork devices to the massive machines employed by heavy industries, to steamwork prosthetics and deadly constructs, this guide presents a framework of rules that cover many different forms of steam technology, and explores the possibilities of meshing magic with machinery to get a unique feel for a fantasy world. As well as rules, Steam & Steel covers the impact that steam technology has in a setting, on a wider scale than just the items that adventurers can get their hands on, delving into the effects and ramifications of the changes that advancing technology brings about and the advance of industrialization.
