First I would like to say hello to everyone. To introduce myself, my name is Santiago Mendez aka Sgmendez on the forums here, and I am starting up a design and development company called Good Gear Games. GGG has aspirations to become great and provide inexpensive good quality products to each and everyone of you.
So my first question for everyone is:
Thank you all for your feedback.
First off, I would like rules for firearms different than those in Ultimate Combat. Secondly, comprehensive vehicle and air combat rules.
Third, and most importantly, advice on how magic and technology should interact in such a setting. I'm working on my own steampunk homebrew, and one of my first design decisions was that magic should be used to bolster science and technology, not compete with it. You should make your own decision on how you want magic and technology to interact with each other, and support it.
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What do you want in your Steampunk games?
What kind of races, classes, technology, spells, religion, society, etc.?
What kind of mechanics, crunch, flavor, and fluff would you like to be included in a Steampunk setting?
Deep down, what do you want your Steampunk games to encompass and include?
A rich flavorful setting is the top of my list! Inclusive should be your keyword. I dislike settings that remove or make my favorite races, classes, etc unplayable.
I'd like to see variant racial options and archetypes more than new races and classes.
Technology in the form of miscellaneous gear. I'm actually fairly content with the firearms as is. More vehicles.
New religions and organizations are a must.
Thank you for the feedback. I will keep those things in mind.
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First I would like to say hello to everyone. To introduce myself, my name is Santiago Mendez aka Sgmendez on the forums here, and I am starting up a design and development company called Good Gear Games. GGG has aspirations to become great and provide inexpensive good quality products to each and everyone of you.
So my first question for everyone is:
What do you want in your Steampunk games?
What kind of races, classes, technology, spells, religion, society, etc.?
What kind of mechanics, crunch, flavor, and fluff would you like to be included in a Steampunk setting?
Deep down, what do you want your Steampunk games to encompass and include? Thank you all for your feedback.
1) I think more of the classics that inspired it all. Victorian romance, clockwork, steamtech, and a bit of punk thrown in and mixed well.
2a) Races to matter less since you can remove or add them as a GM.2b)I wouldn't mind seeing all the classes. Though some would need to be tweaked depending on how close to reality the setting was. Plus I think a true tech mage would be needed. Plus a gun archetype for most melee classes.
2c) For tech I would say copy some modern tech but make it clockwork or steampowered instead. Obviously leaving out some of the newest stuff like computers and phones. Plus a few fantastical devices, such as subs that use batteries to run just like the old ones but when on the surface use a steam engine to repower the batteries. Perhaps a steam powered air ship. not a plane. Or the weird spinning saw things in the Van Helsing movie.
2d) Spells would be harder. Most I think would be fine, some I think need to go but others needed to be added especially ones that deal with tech.
2e) Religion, you can go real world or more standard DnD. I don't have a strong opinion either way. Perhaps default like the real world with some notes on the option to use DnD gods.
2f) More fictional romantic version of the victorian age with a healthy dose of punk mixed in with a bit of industrial revolution.
3) There is a tech mage in the Great City players guide. Also open design has a book on it, plus Iron Kingdom. I would look at them for mechanical idea's. Just don't skimp on flavor. Knowing the whys of it existing how it effects society and is seen, is every bit as important to a good setting as the mechanical aspects of it.
4) When i think steam punk I think of the classics Jule Verne's, H.G. Wells. With Sherlock Holmes, Dracula(the book setting), Carmilla, peoms by Lord Byron and Edgar Allen Poe. With a nice bit of Call of Cuthulu to give it a nice dark aspect.
Ok number 4 likely isn't very helpful but I honestly never really thought to much about it. I just know when i think about the setting I think about those things all kinda combined.
DM your comments are very helpful. Everything you mentioned is what I hope to achieve, more or less. Glad to see that others wish to have a true Steampunk setting. And I really hope that I can provide one.
Another thing I think that needs to be mentioned is the concept of the unknown, unsettled lands. Like the Journey to the Center of the Earth, by Jules Verne, and Tarzan of the Apes, by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Civilization encroaching on the untamed.
So, with this mentioned, another question I have would be:
By "small" I mean not the whole world but maybe a quarter or third of it.
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I think of that as more pulp fantasy than steam punk. I mean there is no reason the two can't be mixed. But that is not really the thing I think of when i think steam punk. Now with that said. I think it would make a great location/adventure setting follow up book though. For a true steampunk i think i would focus more on say Londonish type starting place and expand out.
I like the two things you mentioned. I just think they fit better in expansion and or adventure books to support the core setting. I would personally focus on what most people think of when they think steam punk to get establish and then expand it. But that is of course just my own personal opinion. :)
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Also you might want to take a look at the SGG products I forget what it is called of the top of my head but enforcer is in the name. It is classes more geared for more modern games.
Another class I think would be something like a scholar and or Indian Jones type of class. Perhaps a rogue Archetype losing some rogue abilities for knowledge's.
Oh, that is what I was meaning. Starting with the main city or nation and having the rest of the area unexplored. The city would be the focus of the setting but the area outside would be a great adventuring point.
The uncharted area could also act as the hiding places for things like cultists, airship pirates, and shamanistic societies.
Now for the classes, I was planning on creating one or two archetypes for each class that help to establish the Steampunk theme within each class. Expanding on more archetypes at a later time. So far I plan on making things like:
Feral Child (Barbarian)
Private Eye (Ranger)
Tomb Raider (Rogue)
Since Archaeologist and Detective are both Bard archetypes I didn't want to step on their toes, so I chose different names and their flavor will be a little different.
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I would like to see more crazy mechanical weapons rather a complete focus on fireams to define the steampunk setting. things like crossbows using springs and multiple barrels, or advanced gearing, springs, cables, ect for a crossbow with greater kinetic force(damage). these are usually missing in steampunk games at least the d20 variety.
if you do include magi-tech, weapons and devices that blend the two in more logical ways such as magical energy compressing springs, fire magic boilers, ect.
rules for frankenstienian creature modifications as a PC would really be nice. flesh grafting, clockwork implants, ect.
and I never play a mad scientist type charactor at all ;)