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All you steampunk fans out there, I was thinking of converting my Eberron game into a Steampunk style game...
I was thinking of making dragonshards being used as the power source for steam engines and gaslamps...
Some of the conversions would be:
Firearms would be more prevalent...obviously
Warforged would be Steamforged...with House Cannith being the Steam Guild
Airships would become blimps
I was thinking of limiting magic in this world, perhaps even removing spells past 6th level...spellcasters would gain increased BAB to compensate this change.
What other conversions would you make?
I suppose it would be like an Iron Kingdoms/Eberron Game, only modified more...
7-9th level spells might be epic spells in this type of campaign...
Or they could be Grimoire style ritual spells...
Well, for the "no spells above level 6" part, you could always just have no spellcasters above level 13. Sure, it won't work if you're going to have higher-level adventures, but at least it's easy.
In any case, this is a great idea and I wish you luck.
Thanks, that's not a bad idea...
I was thinking of basically using the bards spell progression for arcane and divine classes. This would create hybrid casters for everything.
You could also control magic by baseing the level of magic by the amount of tech thats around. Lots of tech very low magic, little tech lots more magic. This would also leed to a city having low magic and small hamlets having a lot.
That is definitely an interesting idea...
You could also control magic by baseing the level of magic by the amount of tech that's around. Lots of tech very low magic, little tech lots more magic. This would also lead to a city having low magic and small hamlets having a lot.That is definitely an interesting idea...
Well, it should be. It's a major component of Arcanum: Of Steamworks And Magick Obscura. In fact, go look at that in any case. It's certainly in line with what you're trying to do.
I can't believe I'm going to type this all again after my post got eaten. Ugh.
You're speaking my language here! While I don't have a ton of experience with Eberron, I can point you in the right direction for some of the best steampunk resources out there to inspire your conversion. I have to say right off, Masque of the Red Death is at the top of the list. There is a 3.5 hardcover out that isn't too much on eBay. GREAT Victorian/Steampunk flavored base and prestige classes and a toned-down magic system (it mostly relies on increased casting times, but ultimately the DM is responsible for cutting the spell list if you don't want explosions!). Personally, I think the magic classes should be restricted to the DMG adept class -that does the trick for me and limits the top attainable spell level. Psionics also fit the flavor, and you can cut out some of the "big boom" psion specializations to keep the flavor where you want it (or just take a pencil to the power's list, after you cut out all the new-age crystal flavor!)
I've got a pretty comprehensive steampunk rpg library, and I've listed a lot of it here (not exhaustive -I DO love Space: 1889, though, and GOOD LUCK finding cheap Iron Kingdoms stuff, as good as it is!), and just because I ate some coffee ice cream I have the energy to share (again): =-)
Great Gadgets & Gizmos -d20 and Otherwise
Van Richten's Arsenal (d20): Incredible resource for nifty gadgets and alchemical items, plus some great prestige classes to go along with the MoRD sourcebook. Cheap on eBay, too!
GURPS Steamtech (non d20): the BEST of the bunch here, although in the GURPS system. GREAT fluff, awesome histories, fun read and tons of fun stuff to convert. Hard to find -very rare and $$, but the pdf is cheap.
Deadlands -Smith & Robard's (non-d20): AWESOME steam-powered doodads and geegaws, plus armored steam cars, neat inventions, etc. Great source for Artificier inspiration (like most of this list!)
Castle Falkenstein -Steam Age (non d20): this one and the one above are both set up like "Sears & Roebuck" catalogs, and are fun reads, they look great, and have killer material. Worth it!
Iron Kingdoms -Liber Mechanika: more great stuff, HUGE price tag.
Setting, Flavor & Fluff (d20 only)
Steam & Steel -core book, + supplements (pdf only): the core book pdf is only 5 bucks on RPGNow, and the supplements are only 2 bucks each here on Paizo. I just picked them up, and they look good -especially the prosthetic rules. The Prosthetic supplement looks like great Artificier material, and the Disease supplement is for prosthetic and technological diseases. Awesome! And CHEAP!
Imperial Age: I'm still waiting on my hardcover (60 bucks! Ouch!) but the cheaper, smaller pdfs I bought last week were awesome -they inspired me to take the plunge on this well-constructed material.
Open Design -Zobeck Gazetteer: of course Wolgang delivered with some great clockwork monsters and an awesome selection of clockwork spells -still available! Love these spells!!!
OGL Steampunk: pretty decent, generic OGL source. Not up to the level of the much better sculpted MoRD book, however.
Sorcery & Steam: a very redundant book to OGL listed above, but with better spells and art. I like the armor and some of the items listed here. Not up to MoRD standards, but great spells!
Etherscope: Have to mention this, although they went a little too modern for my tastes -really a cross between the Matrix and Steampunk, leaning more heavily on the modern cyberpunk stuff. I prefer the d20 Dark Matter for some of the same material. Award winning, but just a little too much crammed into one setting -they tried to have it both ways, I think.
Dragonmech: some great steam-powered armor and prosthetic rules here. It might go a little overboard on the steam-powered mechs, which turns some people off, but that might be PERFECT for your Eberron flavor. Cheap on eBay, too.
Deadlands d20: Steampunk-inspired Wild West. Great stuff here.
Have also picked up pdfs for Arneson's Clock & Steam, the True 20 Gearcraft, Mechamancy, Steamworks and Fantastic Science, but haven't gone through them yet. I think you have enough suggestions already!
NON d20 But Great Nonetheless:
Castle Falkenstein: ANYTHING. These books are awesome works of fiction, and fun to read in their own right -you hardly realize they've hidden rules in there!!! I highly recommend Comme Il Faut -the sourcebook on behavior, customs and manners in a steampunk setting. Very cool -get it cheap and hand it to players to learn how to act in your new setting.
Cthulhu by Gaslight: one of the seminal books on the subject, covers 1890's London. Expensive.
GURPS Steampunk: Some of the best in the flavor/fluff lot. Rules are so strange to my D&D mindset, but still great material to inspire your mind!
Broken Gears (FREE pdf): haven't cracked it open yet, but it is a free steampunk game system on RPGNow -get it!
Wow -did I FORGET anything? Hahaha...one of my favorite subjects, so I'm happy to share my personal sources of inspiration on the subject -wanna hear how this goes!!!
Brandon
In case the point got lost in the mess of my manuscript suggestions:
If you limited all spellcasters to the adept class out of the DMG, you set a cap on available magic that ends with 5th level spells, and even those come pretty late in the game. They get d6 hit dice to make them a bit more hardy for the pulpy adventure stuff, and you'll find that if you lower the magic item level of the campaign (where, say, a +1 sword cane or ring of protection +2 is kind of a big deal, and fireballs aren't exploding on every street corner) then their power level holds up pretty well. You can use the Wilder psionic class for the same purpose...
If you use the adept, I'd give them the feat progression of a regular wizard, though. You could check out the generic "spellcaster" class out of Unearthed Arcana, too.
In Masque of the Red Death, you have to make knowledge (forbidden lore) checks to cast any spell, and spells pretty much take a round plus 1 round per spell level to cast. Failure results in a sort of powers check, and rolling a 1 warps you a bit.
If you REALLY want to take the sting out of magic, the d20 Call of Cthulhu has a magic system that allows anyone with a high enough knowledge (forbidden lore) check to cast a spell, but the cost is ability damage, like 1d4 Wisdom or 2d4 Str. Crazy...
B.
Thanks for the link of info Fleece...
I have some of that stuff, Especially the Deadlands stuff...I LOVE Deadlands...great system...
The Cthulhu system sounds interesting, And a skill based magic system might be the way to go...I might also look at Thieves World's magic system...
I was actually looking at the 6th level spells, and the adept spell progression might be a great idea...
Reducing the base magic level also makes dragonmarks much more interesting and powerful...what if the only way to teleport is via dragonmark or 17th level caster...huge difference.
I love my Zobeck Gazeteer btw...great purchase...
Steam & Steel looks GREAT! I'll need to locate that...
Yeah, I love Steampunk stuff, Reading Sterling & Gibson's The Difference Engine right now, I was reading Perdido Street Station, but the way Mieville wrote that is...wow, chock full and I had to return it before I could finish it...Soon as I finish Differnece Engine, I'm jumping to Moorcock's Nomad of the Timestreams.
Introduced my kids to Full Metal Alchemist recently, and I'm going to get Steamboy for them to watch soon.
Oh, and by the way fleece, You rule!
So here's my plan, I have to start slow in this conversion...time is a super commodity in my life...I'm always doing too many things...and with mission architect for City of Heroes just out...wooo...that's a major timesink currently...
Hehe, I remmeber the first time I saw Space 1889...At the old old location of Comic Gallery Escondido, 1989..I was a Senior in High School...
It's not Steampunk however, more of a Edgar Rice Burrough's Barsoomian type game. (started reading those recently)
Well, I'm in a similar place as Xaaon right now. After playing through a few years worth of various high marks in the fantasy genre; Shackled City, a TWO YEAR Greyhawk campaign and, most recently, Rise of the Runelords, my group is ready to take a little breather from both the 3.5 ruleset and medieval fantasy in general. Since steampunk is my thing, we're going to step into that genre for a while and let our batteries recharge with some pulp-style play.
One of our issues is magic level. We've gotten to the point in 3.5 that we feel there's a magical solution for everything. And learning from my experiences in the most recent Open Design project, it can be HARD to design compelling adventure points that can't be circumvented by a clever player and the right purchased scroll. Sickness, disease and even privileged information can become pretty pointless after a while, so dialing back access to spells and magic items in a more atmospheric setting is important.
So, I've been cobbling up all of these resources over the past few years and have been doing lots of conversion stuff and rules comparisons to find the best fit. I finally settled on more historical version without too many fantasy elements, a low-magic setting that is more supernatural and hermetic than high arcana, and the classless, skill-based system of Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu game system (not too foreign to D&D players). We're revving up to get started shortly (just as soon as we off Karzoug!), so I hope to compare notes with Xaaon!
Brandon
PS: my Imperial Age Omnibus came in yesterday, and HOLY CRAP is it awesome -incredibly comprehensive, 750 page volume of Victoriana/Steampunk goodness. Well worth (I think) the $60 price tag!
Like I said, I'm planning to tweak Eberron into a Steampunk Setting...
I'll take existing characters into it through a portal, take the one where you can see a similar location, only different...
I apologize for the true resurrection on this post, but I would really like to hear what you have done with magic users in your Eberron campaign. (Details)
Thanks!