Hey folks, I'm trying to scratch an itch for some steampunk. I'm looking for some 3pp that have rules for airships. Also looking for anything that I can mine for steampunk and magitech goodness. Any recommendations folks could make?
Thanks!
-War Jack
If you want to get a bit serious try reading China Mieville for inspiration, the Bas-Lag novels that start with "Perdido Street Station."
Actually, this is some of the best and most original fantasy you can find, so just read it anyway.. :P
There was a specific steampunk setting published for Pathfinder by a 3pp company called ICOSA Entertainment called "Pure Steam". Might also be worth a look.
I'd also recommend Pure Steam! It can be described as "Appalachian Steampunk" in contrast to your more common "Victorian Steampunk," taking a more "North American" approach to steampunk than European; more grit, grime and moonshine, less top hats, corsets and pocket watches.
The pdf/book is available both here (on Paizo), as well as their website (purchasing from their website supports them directly). The website also has a forum section for your questions and feedback, and recently, sneak peeks of the new content in their upcoming supplement, Westbound (Wild West Steampunk).
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Interesting, I'll check it out, and the Meiville Joynt Jezebel. ;)
What I'm looking at is more magitech with a dash of steam, than true steam punk.
The home brew I'm working on is fallen empire destroyed by druid terrorists, that have left civilization clinging to the mountains where it is safe. Looking for airships as a means of transport between the mountains. I'm looking at a clockwork race similar to warforged from Eberron that was created to help carve this place of safety. Guns, investigation, and political upheaval will be the name of the game. Plus, I like the idea of my heros being more Indiana Jones, than King Arthur for a change. I've been thinking of morphing the Alchemist into a gunpowder mage, or doing the same thing with the magus.
So I'm looking for something to plunder for ideas. Especially some good rules to use with the airships. Something easy, and fun, similar to the Rogue Trader rules for space battles, and upgrading of the star ship.
-War Jack
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If u want warforge, you want to look at Ironborn from Rite Publishing.
There is Terah Project. There is also Pure Steam.
Both were just okay to me. But good for campaign ideas.
For magitech check out the Machine Smith.
Also for magitech post apoc Thunderscape
Kobold Quarterly #7 has stats for a large airship, and maps-- and stat blocks for the smaller ones are on the Kobold Press blog, here
The Zobeck Gazetteer has a steampunk bent to it, with the Gearforged race.
Additionally, there is Rhune, (Free!) which has "clockwork elves" focused on technology and automata, which are construct individuals given sentience.
-Ben.
The home brew I'm working on is fallen empire destroyed by druid terrorists, that have left civilization clinging to the mountains where it is safe. Looking for airships as a means of transport between the mountains. I'm looking at a clockwork race similar to warforged from Eberron that was created to help carve this place of safety. Guns, investigation, and political upheaval will be the name of the game. Plus, I like the idea of my heros being more Indiana Jones, than King Arthur for a change. I've been thinking of morphing the Alchemist into a gunpowder mage, or doing the same thing with the magus.
-War Jack
Your campaign ideas interest me and I would like to subscribe to your adventure newsletter.
I played in an excellent steampunk campaign that lasted a couple years. The world had emergent guns, artificial limbs, steam engines/locomotives, airships, floating citadels, etc. Obvious sources we drew from included Eberron and Iron Kingdoms RPG (for rules, items, etc.), Full Metal Alchemist (for additional inspiration), and Warmachine (for the awesome models). I even ised the Gatherer site to read the Phyrexian and Scars of Mirrodin Magic cards for quotes for my cleric (artifice and death domains, bent on "assimilating" the world).
Good times...
For ones not already mentioned, Dragon Mech. It has the best crunch I have seen for steam technology as well as mechs powered by necromancy, tension drives using windup/clockwork mechanisms, magic, or physical labor, in which you get a bunch of people or horses etc to run around on a plate to drive a piston, similar to ancient weapons of the Hellenistic era. It also has steam borgs, monk mech pilots, a prestige class in which you become part of your mech permanently, steam armor, and steam engineers, who can construct different devices based on simple combinations of devices. Sorcery and Steam by Fantasy Flight Games is a solid book for introducing steam power into a campaign setting. All of those are 3.5, but they work. For Paizo, try the Alkenstar guide. Fantasy Firearms is solid for both 15th to 19th century firearms, including semi-automatic weapons. That's by Scorched Urf studios.
For steampunk novels, Mainspring by Jay Lane, in which a young apprentice clockmaker has to rewind the mainspring powering the world, and gets a mission from God, amongst a Victorian steam powered British Empire. Mona Lisa Overdrive by William Gibson, which follows the idea of how the British Empire could have dominated the planet via the use of Babbage's computing engine, rather than abandoning it due to funding concerns. Whitechapel Gods by S.M Peters, in which the Whitechapel part of London has been taken over by the gods of time and iron, and slowly changes the inhabitants into cyborgs, clockwork organisms, and combat robots working to convert all of humanity into servants of the Great Machine.
Privateer Press but out some really nice steampunk books for 3.5. It set in their Warmachine world.
Easily adaptable to Pathfinder.
That would be d20 Iron Kingdoms, not the new RPG but the old d20 version. Good stuff
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If you're looking for a Low-Magic, High-Steampunk RPG I would recommend the Tephra RPG. Magic is very subtle (Allowing stuff like running on air for short periods of time or luck manipulation but no overt effects like Fireballs and blasts of lightning) in the setting but the steam-technology has almost magic-level effects. It also has advanced crafting rules and numerous specialties allowing you a lot of options to build your characters. You should be able to find a free copy on the web at 4shared or some other torrent website as they don't sell PDF versions of the game it seems. It uses an interesting system called the "Clockwork" system, which uses exclusively d12's. Should be a good break from the 1 ton gorilla in the corner of pathfinder gaming.
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The only problem with Pure Steam is that Firearms still follow the Pathfinder Rules and attack Touch AC. As most classes in the setting get proficiency with firearms and guns are MUCH cheaper in cost, guns become an imbalancing factor to the game as Physical and Magical armor defenses go out the window making fights against monsters pretty easy and fights against people with guns insanely deadly. Sure there is an upgrade for armor that makes it bullet-resistant allowing 1/2 your armor to be applied against firearms but still guns pretty much trump the setting.
Thunderscape fixes this problem by making firearms attack normal AC. Of course due to this change firearms also don't have a chance of misfiring and have better reload times in the setting as well. So it all in all is a better setting for Steampunk.
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Is that a problem? It looks like a deliberate design choice.