Steampunk Pathfinder


Product Discussion


I've been looking over a lot of options for this including adapting pieces of IK. OK, HEAVILY borrowing from IK for my vision of a world using Pathfinder rules for play but with a Steampunk feel. Think bits of Eberron, SJ and IK in a world where the standard races do not exist but anthropomorphic animals do exist and occupy the same niches as humans, elves. etc. I'm also thinking of converting some aspects of Dragon Mech as well. My big question is thus: Has there been discussion or products that have come out for specifically the Pathfinder RPG system dealing with mechs? And by mechs I mean both the oversized robots which would fall under construct rules and vehicles, i.e. walking tanks.


FenrysStar wrote:
I've been looking over a lot of options for this including adapting pieces of IK. OK, HEAVILY borrowing from IK for my vision of a world using Pathfinder rules for play but with a Steampunk feel. Think bits of Eberron, SJ and IK in a world where the standard races do not exist but anthropomorphic animals do exist and occupy the same niches as humans, elves. etc. I'm also thinking of converting some aspects of Dragon Mech as well. My big question is thus: Has there been discussion or products that have come out for specifically the Pathfinder RPG system dealing with mechs? And by mechs I mean both the oversized robots which would fall under construct rules and vehicles, i.e. walking tanks.

Not to be snarky, but I think a steampunk / giant robots / furries / spelljammer setting might be a little too... niche for even third party production. I would start working on homebrew conversions of your own from the settings you mentioned taking inspiration from.


I, for one, applaud your efforts.

I have the Iron Kingdoms and Dragon Mech settings. Both have useful ideas that cross polinate each other nicely.

I would be interested in knowing how your experiments go.

For a possibly more conducive atmosphere, (I apologize if my tone seems rude or condescending or other wise 'snarky' of bad), here is a link to a web site where there is a Note function for simple private messages to be sent so as not to clutter up this board with 'frippery'.

Cheers and good luck!

Link: Deviant Art


Sunset wrote:

I, for one, applaud your efforts.

I have the Iron Kingdoms and Dragon Mech settings. Both have useful ideas that cross polinate each other nicely.

I would be interested in knowing how your experiments go.

For a possibly more conducive atmosphere, (I apologize if my tone seems rude or condescending or other wise 'snarky' of bad), here is a link to a web site where there is a Note function for simple private messages to be sent so as not to clutter up this board with 'frippery'.

Cheers and good luck!

Link: Deviant Art

I have most of the books of IK and Dragon Mech as well as my own notes that I have been compiling. The Spell Jammer elements are an option that I have had in the back of my mind. Of all the elements I am looking at the space travel aspects are the least important on the list of priority. But I am doing what I can as slowly as be.


For fantasy space travel using the D20 system, you can't go wrong with Dragonstar.

Also, check out Dragonstar Reloaded.


Rake wrote:
Not to be snarky, but I think a steampunk / giant robots / furries / spelljammer setting might be a little too... niche for even third party production. I would start working on homebrew conversions of your own from the settings you mentioned taking inspiration from.

I give you this. How about this? And this? Perhaps this?

We may be in the minority, but there are some of us who share the interest. ;)


Ravendragon wrote:
Also, check out Dragonstar Reloaded.

I don't think there's been any activity since March. Anyone know what's going on with that?


Urizen wrote:
Rake wrote:
Not to be snarky, but I think a steampunk / giant robots / furries / spelljammer setting might be a little too... niche for even third party production. I would start working on homebrew conversions of your own from the settings you mentioned taking inspiration from.

I give you this. How about this? And this? Perhaps this?

We may be in the minority, but there are some of us who share the interest. ;)

I, myself, took a look at this thread since I had some ideas for something along the lines of Dune flavoured steam-space or airship setting under Pathfinder. Here, Pirates of the Bronze Sky sounds interesting though!

People actually tend to want a little more niche these days; we've had plenty of generic fantasy over the years, especially OGL material, so the odd-balls stick out a bit more.


I may curtail things back a bit. I already have the furry aspect that I'm working on whose world will be steampunky in nature. The Mech and Space aspects will get mentioned but may not make it into the first book when and if it gets published. And The Zobeck book is on my wishlist to be honest. If I can make this work a race of living constructs will definitely be welcome.


Laddie wrote:

I, myself, took a look at this thread since I had some ideas for something along the lines of Dune flavoured steam-space or airship setting under Pathfinder. Here, Pirates of the Bronze Sky sounds interesting though!

People actually tend to want a little more niche these days; we've had plenty of generic fantasy over the years, especially OGL material, so the odd-balls stick out a bit more.

Agreed!


Check out Arcanum an old pc game. It might give you some ideas.

Liberty's Edge

Ravendragon wrote:

For fantasy space travel using the D20 system, you can't go wrong with Dragonstar.

Also, check out Dragonstar Reloaded.

this groups appears as non existant... I did remember another yahoo group... I am still there i just don't use yahoo as I once did, they still discuss the setting

try this Dragonstar group instead it has been up since Dragonstar began and many senses its the more official you will egt this days


Montalve,

Did you or others had a posting site for Alkenstar ideas? How is that even going anyway?


There was one RPG supplement for mechs called Doom Striders. It did not handle things well in play (and it was written for 3.0) and the costs were internally inconsistent. (Compared to a Battletech sheet it really felt hastily slapped together and unplaytested.) I would be tempted to just handle steampunk mechs as constructs, but that wouldn't work well in play since you need a way to price out armor and weapons.

Dragonstar is good stuff. I hope to score some Iron Kingdoms stuff someday.

I recommend the Zobeck materials from Open Design if you would like some clockpunk as opposed to steampunk. Also, EN Publishing had a decent pdf line with Mechamancy and Mechamancy II. (Again, a little more clockpunk than steampunk, but still quite decent.)


varianor wrote:
I recommend the Zobeck materials from Open Design if you would like some clockpunk as opposed to steampunk. Also, EN Publishing had a decent pdf line with Mechamancy and Mechamancy II. (Again, a little more clockpunk than steampunk, but still quite decent.)

I picked up the Gazzetter during the Cyber fire sale at DriveThruRPG after Thanksgiving. Good stuff. Wish I had known about the patronage project earlier to get access to the other goodies, though.

Liberty's Edge

Urizen wrote:

Montalve,

Did you or others had a posting site for Alkenstar ideas? How is that even going anyway?

in stand by for the moment, we all put some ideas, but we haven't organiced ourselves... beginning with me :S

but if anyone want to give it a look ad throw a few ideas this is the Alkenstar's address

Liberty's Edge

had to buy Zoebeck... Natalia requieres clockwork toys to cause chaos and dissaray...


Rake wrote:
Not to be snarky, but I think a steampunk / giant robots / furries / spelljammer setting might be a little too... niche for even third party production. I would start working on homebrew conversions of your own from the settings you mentioned taking inspiration from.

I can say with confindence that Pirates of the Bronze Sky will cover Steampunk, spelljamer and SMALL robots and a couple of furries (Well 4-armed Rhino-men may not be techincally furries, I see where you are going. Plus flying ape men too). A mash-up of a genre while lots of fun can come of wrong if not done right, for example Matrix and Matrix 2.

Liberty's Edge

so true so true

Scarab Sages

Montalve wrote:
had to buy Zoebeck... Natalia requieres clockwork toys...

Too much information!

What you do in private, stays private, Ernesto!

Sovereign Court

Maybe I'm just reading the wrong Steampunk... but where do furries come into it LOL!

--Jingle Bell Vrock!


King of Vrock wrote:

Maybe I'm just reading the wrong Steampunk... but where do furries come into it LOL!

--Jingle Bell Vrock!

There were furries (kinda) in China Mieville's Perdido Street Station...

Liberty's Edge

Snorter wrote:
Montalve wrote:
had to buy Zoebeck... Natalia requieres clockwork toys...

Too much information!

What you do in private, stays private, Ernesto!

¬¬ she will send a clockwork spider with a timed bomb to your desk... controlled explosion so only you know what kind of games she likes to play :P

Sovereign Court

Well yeah I guess the termite/ant chick would push it into being a Furry... forgot about that. I'm more of a Nomad of the Timestreams, Jules Verne-esque reader. The old TV show Voyagers... Or my favorite new Steampunk outfit, The League of STEAM!!!

--Vrockin' around the Christmas Tree!

Liberty's Edge

King of Vrock wrote:
Jules Verne-esque

The Island of Dr. Moreau technically included furries.


The problem I have when I hear the term "furries" is that I think of people running around wearing school mascot type of outfits. I guess it is a bit of a mouthful to be calling them anthropomorphic, intelligent animal races. We just need a better word to describe these fantasy races if there is one.

There is also this thread that I went and found in the archives where someone was working on their own steampunk setting, but a bunch of us also suggested various source material for steampunk settings.


Keep an eye on Rite Publishing's Questhaven line. From my impression, they're going to take an interesting templated fantasy style spin on steampunk/clockpunk. LPJ's doing a Spelljammer-Eberron mashup called Pirates of the Bronze Sky that will have steampunk involved as well. There are 3PPs that are listening..


I've always lumped literary furries in with pulp era stories. Exotic jungle panthermen, Beastmen from Mars; that sort of thing. You have a lot of pulp influence in contemporary steampunk though and it's always been pretty anachronistic. Steampunk settings seem to be pretty popular for a lot of furry stories these days too.


I have to concur. The beastmen from Island of Doctor Moreau bear little resemblence to the folks in faux fur having freaky fun at conventions.


varianor wrote:
I have to concur. The beastmen from Island of Doctor Moreau bear little resemblence to the folks in faux fur having freaky fun at conventions.

Not really my cup'o'tea, but if it's a convention of consent, then who am I to judge. No harm, no fowl. :P


Good point. I'm not opposed to furries (some people seem to be so, even violently). Just to the comparison in the thread in question. :)


Urizen wrote:
No harm, no fowl. :P

You got something against feathers?


The Red Raven wrote:
Urizen wrote:
No harm, no fowl. :P
You got something against feathers?

At this time of year? Nope! The more down feathers in my comforter and winter jacket, the better! brrr! ;-)


H.G.Wells's tale of Dr. Moreau is the main reason I think to incorporate humanoid, humanized animals into the genre. Of course GR had a spell or three in their 3E products that serve as an explanation of how they get in, as well as were[insert animal name here] that is somehow locked into their hybrid form.


What about Shelley's version of Frankenstein? I've always thought it had a good steampunk feel to it.

Liberty's Edge

Urizen wrote:
Keep an eye on Rite Publishing's Questhaven line. From my impression, they're going to take an interesting templated fantasy style spin on steampunk/clockpunk. LPJ's doing a Spelljammer-Eberron mashup called Pirates of the Bronze Sky that will have steampunk involved as well. There are 3PPs that are listening..

Good suggestions. I plan to pick up some of that material for my Ptolus game.

I just introduced my gaming group to the solar system around the world of Praemal so I think I could even use Pirates of the Bronze Sky when it comes out.

Zobeck always intrigued me but I have never picked it up. I am not sure why. I have no doubt it would lend tons of material for Ptolus as well.

Liberty's Edge

I always thought The Steampunk Trilogy by Paul DiFilippo was interesting.


FenrysStar wrote:
I've been looking over a lot of options for this including adapting pieces of IK. OK, HEAVILY borrowing from IK for my vision of a world using Pathfinder rules for play but with a Steampunk feel. Think bits of Eberron, SJ and IK in a world where the standard races do not exist but anthropomorphic animals do exist and occupy the same niches as humans, elves. etc. I'm also thinking of converting some aspects of Dragon Mech as well. My big question is thus: Has there been discussion or products that have come out for specifically the Pathfinder RPG system dealing with mechs? And by mechs I mean both the oversized robots which would fall under construct rules and vehicles, i.e. walking tanks.

There is a Pathfinder Compatible Campaign Setting available here that has already pre-generated Mech's and two prestige classes made specifically for piloting one of these Mech's. Both prestige classes are opposite sides of the alignment spectrum, one evil class vs. one good class. This setting is an entire setting complete with whole write-ups on planets, civiliations, items, equipment, new bloodlines, everything. Check it out. We have been developing and playtesting this setting for 6 years and produced a Pathfinder version as well as a standard 3.5 version.

Regards,
The Metal & Myth Team
Contact author@dredan.com


Another product you might want to check out is Fantasy Flight's Sorcery & Steam. It was written for 3.0, but most of it should convert over to Pathfinder easily.


Twin Agate Dragons wrote:
Another product you might want to check out is Fantasy Flight's Sorcery & Steam. It was written for 3.0, but most of it should convert over to Pathfinder easily.

Well, you should get crackin' and put up the results on the homebrew, TAD. *wink* *nudge*

<jedi mind trick> You need this for your PbP campaign </jedi mind trick>

Liberty's Edge

Twin Agate Dragons wrote:
Another product you might want to check out is Fantasy Flight's Sorcery & Steam. It was written for 3.0, but most of it should convert over to Pathfinder easily.

I had nearly forgotten about this book. I seem to remember hearing good things about it. I need to take care of that particular hole in my library.

ENWorld released a steampunk book called Steam and Steel. It was good, for the most part. One of the more interesting parts were the rules for clockwork implants.


Urizen wrote:
Ravendragon wrote:
Also, check out Dragonstar Reloaded.
I don't think there's been any activity since March. Anyone know what's going on with that?

I took it down due to lack of time working on the idea.


xorial wrote:
Urizen wrote:
Ravendragon wrote:
Also, check out Dragonstar Reloaded.
I don't think there's been any activity since March. Anyone know what's going on with that?
I took it down due to lack of time working on the idea.

I can understand the enormity of the task trying to do it on your own and lacking the time necessary to do so. Maybe this will get you interested if there are a community of others that want to see contents that would help make things a bit easier for them to launch their own sci-fi homebrew.


xorial wrote:
Urizen wrote:
Ravendragon wrote:
Also, check out Dragonstar Reloaded.
I don't think there's been any activity since March. Anyone know what's going on with that?
I took it down due to lack of time working on the idea.

If you still have your notes, would you mind emailing them my way?


Twin Agate Dragons wrote:
xorial wrote:
Urizen wrote:
Ravendragon wrote:
Also, check out Dragonstar Reloaded.
I don't think there's been any activity since March. Anyone know what's going on with that?
I took it down due to lack of time working on the idea.

If you still have your notes, would you mind emailing them my way?

** spoiler omitted **

Sorry to say there was little on the site. Mainly references to material I was going to use. Not much in the way in real conversions or rules. Really didn't need them at the time.

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