What's the lamest setting and why is it steampunk?

What's the lamest setting and why is it steampunk?

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Correction - there is always LARP

And steampunk LARP

This has been answered multiple times but IMO it's probably the disconnect from it's Victorian aesthetics but completely lacking the social aspects like the wedge between the bourgeois, noble classes and the poor, etc
No one wants to play a street wretch that gets his legs caught in a thresher
Or just add gears to everything xdd

Because it's nothing but a shitty aesthetic. Cyberpunk has themes and lessons about society.

Steampunk is just LOL COGS AND BRASS AND CORSETS XD AMI ORIGINAL YET GUYZ?

Because it became an aesthetic that people added to things without explaining why it was there.

This is my biggest gripe with the genre, it's called SteamPUNK but everyone wants to play The Right Honorable Captain Ambrose Fortyscue V, when they should be play Gaz the oppressed street urchin fighting against the factory owners who killed his sister and gave him a hook for a hand.

Bastardization is a good part of it. Not all of it, but a lot of it.

Steampunk isn't even a setting, its an aesthetic that's been used well like 5 times.

depends entirely if they have a magic crystal that powers everything so wooden blimps cars get hand waved away as just functional.

If its a hard science setting in the 1870s and they only crazy thing is foreknowledge on how things could have went if they wanted to build crazy stuff. like cattle prod swords or say a sea train, but you still had to use whale oil and black powder and the villain wasn't magic, isn't in London and you don't meet famous real people, then OK I can see it working out ok.

>with a really crafty group and a smart GM, they can try to power game by building things like doc brown in back to the future 3. they just make an ice machine in the desert and find a way to export it via railway cars that runs off of this weird black goo that comes from a weird foreign territory that you gotta check out, but these people don't speak god's tongue and don't were pants. by Jove we have to sort this mess out and secure our shipments! send those fucking weirdos and Irishmen that hang out in opium dens.

Steampunk isn't a setting, it's an aesthetic.

So what would vaporwave steampunk look like?

But that's not cyberpunk.
Worst setting that attract the worse kind of trash when play online or during game day with strangers.
With at least steampunk, you often still get fun adventures but with airships but cyberpunk remove all fun and insert a lot of whining and bitching NPCs while making most sessions become a very thinly-veiled revenge wanking session for the DM with the players served as viewers.
Perhaps it attract only the worst kind of people as DMs but I only have bad experience when encountering cyberpunk when playing tabletop.

Steampunk is not a bad choice for setting, it's just stereotypical aesthetic that makes it look bad. Steampunk can be done right if you are not trying to achieve feeling similar to what majority of LARPers and cosplayer think steampunk is.

If you will focus on social aspects (as already mentioned) in contrary to just spamming fancy machinery and wacky costumes, you can get a good type of steampunk, like Arcanum did. Trojka simply started developing setting with idea of industrial revolution in high fantasy setting and effect on society that it will cause.

Can you get a pass if halfway through your campaign, your party of Captain Ambrose Fortscue Vs discovers they've secretly been working for the Man the whole time to deliver the crushing weight of robber barony and industrialized disregard for humanity down on the proletariat?

The second half of the campaign being the players' efforts to undo all the horrors they caused.

Seems like a simple bad luck to me. My favourite campaign was when we played SLA Industries (cyberpunk inspired by Margaret Thatcher's UK). It turned out to be a good mix of action, investigation and horror without being completely grimderp.

I would say that VtM attracts more weirdos, but it's not like you can't have fun with it if you choose your players wisely.

Agreed and it's an overdone and trite one because it's an anachronistic aesthetic that needs a story to function, thought there are some capable authors out there, the Aesthetic has an appeal to a larger group of dribbling cretins than one would perhaps expect.

Cyberpunk stopped being an aesthetic when it became reality.

The PEOTUS is advertising businesses on his twitter. It's not even a well-written cyberpunk setting.

>What's the lamest setting
The one I have to play in with such faggots as you, OP.

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If they are true to being Captain Ambrose Fortscue Vs, then they will have a cup of tea and shrug it off, beause why should they care about the low-lives, the literal cattle running the industry. They are here for top hats and weirdly looking guns.

In short - they ARE The Man. For their own big adventure(s), rather than giving a single fuck about people at the bottom.
Also, there is this great colonial campaign the GM just made for them, they they can mow down waves of natives with the great invention of Tesla gun (I will never understand how the fuck Tesla is steampunk), desacrate some holy ground and kill some wild life with large-bore hand cannons!
What a treat!

>I play with random nobodies
>It's the fault of the setting the game blows
Your logical lapses are kind of amusing

Knowing my party, that is also an acceptable outcome. Very well, it's repressing the poors with old timey machine guns and four-bores all the way down.

As long as I get to speak at least one NPC voice in a pompous accent and invent lots of fun titles for nobility.

>anons players are as morally disciplined as pre 20th century nobles
Hilarious

Generic Medieval Fantasy. Steampunk? Hah. I'd rather endure the coggiest and foppiest of cogfops than endure another incompetent attempt to rehash Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones.

>LARP
>setting

There also those pervetred socialists and "noble" communists, poisoning minds of plebs with ideas of "Unions" "fair wage" and "bathroom breaks". They not all was from lowly workers.

They're like a Tyranids crossbred with Mongols, led by Hedonismbot. I've long since realized that I can do my whole "telling a story" thing interwoven with that aim as long as the story isn't about the world, it's about THEM.

Making it about the Tyranimongols means that they're invested in the story being told, not just critting a slowed, stunned, burning child for 50,000 mega damage. Though it's also true that my worlds tend to have a lot of law and order, which cuts down a little on the murder rampages because the players want to be able to buy skooma, lockpicks, and poison when they're in town.

That's true of all aesthetics, though. Have you ever tried to read sci-fi or fantasy outside of the well-known breakaway franchises? It's a lot of sifting through shit to find a couple nuggets of gold.

Steampunk is the worst and lamest setting because, unlike what many people (especially within the steampunk community) think it's not a setting. It's an aesthetic that people mistake for a setting.

The Chartist Uprisings of 1830, that's a setting. The Europe-wide revolutions of 1848? That's a setting. The German Empire? That's a setting. Belle Époque France? That's a setting. Meiji Restoration Japan? That's a setting. The Wild West? That's a setting. And guess what, every single one of them is compatible with steampunk, except all of them work differently... because of the setting!

What we associate with "steampunk" scrapes the bottom of the barrel in terms of worldbuilding/setting because it's simply the easiest. It's always upper class England in the 1880s, no deviation from this formula. Do you know why? Because this allows them to play around with le wacky inventors and le top hats and le faux British accents. 1820's England? Fuck that, I'd have to read up on history and fuck history amirite? How about 1880s France? Fuck that, I'd have to read up on what they were doing at the time AND probably learn a language. Do you know how impossible French is? They like, pronounce words entirely differently! What a nightmare! Alright, we stick with 1880s England but we actually look at significant events going on in the UK and the effects it had on various social strata other than the upper class. How about that? FUCK THAT, because that would mean actually studying the setting, and why waste time on that when I could be sticking more cogs on my codpiece?

tl;dr: Cogfop is a combination if ignorance and the desire to be a special snowflake
tl;dr 2 - steampowered boogaloo: Steampunk.Is.Not.A.Setting.

Here's the harsh truth:

Medieval fantasy is as much a shitty aesthetic as Steampunk is. The reason why it's more acceptable is because medieval times are further removed from modern day than steampunk is.

>Be Brit
>Big family, many of whom have been in the military
>Able to trace our family tree fairly well back to around 1800 due to military records
>Invited to a '''steampunk''' campaign
>Make a dock hand who lost his hand to one of the monsters in the Thames and had it replaced by a hook
>Imagine Captain Ahab but on a smaller scale
>Everyone else is playing nobility
>One guy uses pic related as a his character art
>"Except he's got a robotic arm replacing the missing one. He lost it in the Crimean war."
>This guy is literally playing one of my ancestors
>This guy doesn't understand anything about how Victorian nobility acted, operated, or functioned
>Can feel my ancestor rolling in his grave

...

Forgot pic

Same could be said about every genre with defined aesthetic. Special snowflakes are always special snowflakes no matter what setting we're talking about.

>The reason why it's more acceptable is because medieval times are further removed from modern day than steampunk is.
Here's some perfect examples
Meanwhile, your generic medieval fantasy setting grossly combines several post-ancient settings into a hodgepodge of nonsensical concurrent technologies/lifestyles and misses all of the social aspects of those times.

>Medieval fantasy is as much a shitty aesthetic
Unlike steampunk, medieval fantasy is an actual setting style, not an aesthetic. There are tons of variations on the aesthetic of medieval fantasy that are still recognizable because of the swords and wizards. I don't think you really thought your opinion through at all.

No, it's acceptable because a medieval world requires more worldbuilding. It has to do with it being futher removed from us, but not only in time but in mindset. You can't just play an excentric rich guy, because that means you're either a noble (which confers you certain rights and obligations) or high bourgeois (which means you DON'T have certain rights).

Both are generally horribly thought out and horribly fleshed out, but at least some thought goes even into the blandest medieval setting. Even if that's just ripping off Tolkien and Arthurian tales.

True, but steampunk somehow appears to be a very easy target for these snowflakes.

>Unlike steampunk, medieval fantasy is an actual setting style, not an aesthetic
That's bunk. Medieval fantasy is exclusively Tolkien aesthetic settings.
>still recognizable because of the swords and wizards
Which is exactly the same as cogs and airships in terms of depth and function.

>it's acceptable because a medieval world requires more worldbuilding.
No, it doesn't. There's nothing inherent about it that requires more world building. Medieval fantasy is "there are knights, kings, magic and no guns" full stop.
>You can't just play an excentric rich guy, because that means you're either a noble (which confers you certain rights and obligations) or high bourgeois (which means you DON'T have certain rights).
That's bullshit. The limits you put on this mode of fantasy don't exist outside of your mind.

Polite reminder that the -punk in steampunk never meant anything and was pure marketing.

>There's nothing inherent about it that requires more world building
Oh?
>Medieval fantasy is "there are knights, kings, magic and no guns"
>knights
You've proven yourself wrong. The very existence of knights already implies something about how politics and society works. As does the existence of kings justified by means other than popular sovereignity.

>The limits you put on this mode of fantasy don't exist outside of your mind.
Except they exist, you double nigger. Of course you can deviate from that formula, but that's... worldbuilding! If your knights work differently from knights in a 'standard' faux-Western Europe medieval setting, you're building up the word.

reminder that post civil war america makes a better steampunk setting than england during the same time period

reminder the cyberpunk and steampunk are both retarded because there's nothing punk about either

reminder that punk lifestyle and ethos is fucking shit

So what medievalpunk would look like? Peasant uprisings and protestant leagues against Spanish papacycracy?

> So what medievalpunk would look like?
French Revolution.

...

>Oh?
This sums up the quality of your stance.
>You've proven yourself wrong. The very existence of knights already implies something about how politics and society works.
No, it means "dudes in full plate armor with swords 'n sheeit".
>Except they exist
In your head.

>ACTUAL history
Yeah...nah. Medievalpunk would be girls wearing lavish dresses and men in armor speaking faux-shakespearian to eachother and challenging eachother to duels all the time. Oh, and sometimes the princesses challenge knights to duel because muh strong independent womyn because why fucking read up on medieval history?

>Medieval fantasy is exclusively Tolkien aesthetic settings.
Does pic related look like Tolkien to you? Think before you post.

for

>This sums up the quality of your stance.
Inquisitive curiosity?

>No, it means "dudes in full plate armor with swords 'n sheeit".
I've never really seen that, but if that is truly the case then it's as much armorfop as steampunk is cogfop.

Though now that you mention this, it does sound vaguely remeniscent of LindyBeige's reasoning in some of his videos. "This didn't work for my LARP group ergo it wasn't real"

Or rather, years immediately leading up to French Revolution.

Robespierre knew what was up when he removed filthy royalists from the premises.

Funny thing is, it originally did. Gibson wrote a cyberpunk novel in the Victorian age, it got snowcloned into steampunk, and shortly thereafter the term -punk lost all meaning when people jumped on the Victorian bandwagon rather than the high-tech low-life focus it originally meant.

That's a common misconception. Steampunk was coined in the 80's, before the difference engine was published.

I suppose more focused stereotypical theme would work better.

If we talk about ladies and men in armour, how about chivalry-punk? There are already a ton of chivalric literature like "Parcival", "Tristan and Isolde", "Quentin Durward". It's focused and all about aesthetic.

Chivalric romance? Like the sort of thing de Cervantes was mocking when he wrote Don Quixote?

Wait, that's how people are playing their Steampunk games? But it's incredibly fun to be leading factory strikes and getting into street rumbles with rival gangs over turf. Sure, the occasional jaunt into a skyship is fun too, but doing grimy back alley work is what made my current campaign so enjoyable.

Yes, like romances.
A lot of people mock steampunk too (Just like now). There are a lot of space for stereotypical special snowflakes. It's easy to come up with content. Plus a lot of romances has made up geography despite having a real world as a base.
It's like a poetry, it rhymes!

>Chivalrypunk
>Everyone walking around in armor
>15th century suit of mail with a Crusader Greathelmet
>Chainmail with just a tabard combined with a bascinet
>They all waggle around like gigantic geese, as if their suits weigh a metric ton
>Random interjections of "Lo", "hark" and "m'lady" in conversation
>Fucking indoors on-foot jousting matches

See, it works!

It's honestly boring to play as the dirty unterfolk. I'd really rather play as a gentleman explorer, soldier or Flashman type.

I mean, the poor don't even have costumes. I rather play the oppressor than the victim.

No more coal for their machines until we secure bread for our sons
[the internationale intensifies]

>setting has ~15th century plate armor
>but no cannons or gunpowder at all

> Also, there is this great colonial campaign the GM just made for them, they they can mow down waves of natives with the great invention of Tesla gun (I will never understand how the fuck Tesla is steampunk), desacrate some holy ground and kill some wild life with large-bore hand cannons!

Those are great, actually. My favorite campaign was about a group of explorers to the New World, and it ended in a desperate, greed-crazed flight into the jungles with all the cash we could grab.

I played a bio-augmented Mary Shelley seeking revenge on the wealthy businessmen and nobles who had her husband murdered. Does that count?

...

>Anyone who hates steampunk must play D&D clones with cuttie-cutter setting based on it or being a heatbreaker of it
This is yet another reason why cogfop fags are so videly hated.

>how dare you insult and broadly generalize my preferred aesthetic!?
>that's my job!!

Are you unironically accusing him of doing what you're doing literally right now? Do you have ANY self-awareness at all? Or am I being rused?

The Reformation. Literally.

No, you are just being retarded

Ah, so it's that you have
>no self-awareness

There are still much lamer settings.

>Vampires exist in secret, nothing changes whatsoever urban fantasy
>Zelda
>Slice of life, I live with a mean robot and a kangaroo person webcomic
>gritty Hollywood Alice in Wonderland or fairytale reboot

>Zelda
>American McGee's Alice
>lame
I'll cut you, bitch.

It's only bad in the minds of the people who are compelled to shitpost about it on Veeky Forums once per month.

uuugghhh

It can be and was done well.

could be cool. In fact, I kinda want to do this now. A game where the players make LARPers with 8s and 10s for ability scores and all have shitty foam weapons. Maybe they've got to fight off some cool dudes who show up to make fun of their LARP.

Well, what's the biggest societal conflict we can pin down there? I can think of two.
>the role of religion and religious fragmentation on day to day life
>class structures you can do nothing about
So a good Medivalpunk story would probably involve one or both of these themes. So yeah, the French revolution.

>Flashman
And the fifth time you betray the rest of the party to their doom I think the other players would have words with you. Lots and lots of words.

>French Revolution
>medieval times

???

Anyone heard of Age of Aether?

While I agree with you that steampunk is lame, it's not a setting. It's a fashion/aesthetic.

This. This right here. Steampunk isn't a setting at all, it's just fashion.

>debating aesthetics
nope. that's pointless. but thanks for your angle, user.

To be fair, French is a fucking stupid language when it comes to pronunciation. I know Latin, and grew up around hispanics. If someone is speaking Portuguese, most Italian dialects, or hell even Romanian, I can get the basic gist of what they're saying. But French is a bunch of fucking goobledygook.

>Not wanting to be 'Ironshanks' John, the factory worker who lost his legs in a machinery accident, the factory owner having an idea to test his new prototype makes him a deal, he has to go through the painful experiment for the new robotic legs but in return he can keep them for free and return to work the next day.

Your post is bad.

but i don't feel bad
czech'd

>npbp

It can be done pretty well if you go light on it. If you focus on cogs and gears everywhere it gets really screwy and stupid.

However, focusing on the actual themes of exploration and the edges of mainline society "out West," and things like Imperialism and what is and is not civilized behavior "back East," and only use the steampunk aspects to introduce things like more advanced technology either as fun or to make "back East," seem more distant and decadent, then you're good to go.

It all depends on how it's done. Don't focus on the aesthetic, focus on themes of the approximate historical eras that inspired Steampunk in the first place.

Personally I'm more a fan of the American West--in particular as a fictional pseudo-setting--than the amalgamation of European Imperialism that made up the rough Victorian Era, but they often go hand-in-hand a lot better than you think.

Given relative cost of armour and weapons compared to standard peasant/serf income levels, it does show that the social structure is very effective at concentrating wealth into hands of a ruling class, eg. Feudal system.

ITT the 18th century is medieval.

The social structure of the modern world is very effective at concentrating wealth in the hands of the ruling class. And yet I'm pretty sure there's no remaining societies organized along feudal lines.

Well "medieval" is roughly halfway between earliest civilized settlements and present day.
Now when you apply that reasoning on American continent it indeed comes to 18th century.

>To be fair, French is a fucking stupid language when it comes to pronunciation
That's English, and that's coming from someone who speaks both non-natively at at least B2 level. French pronunctuation is counterintuitive going in, but once you get the hang of it, you can pronounce anything. If you can pronounce pareille, you can automatically pronounce Marseille, veille, oreille et cetera. Compare English, where here rhymes with ear but not with there, or bear does rhymes with there but not with dear, and let's not get started on however the fuck you're supposed to pronounce Gloucester, Worcester and Thames, all three of which are downright impossible to pronounce without prior knowledge of the proper pronunctuation. Unlike a certain someone I won't call English a "fucking stupid language" or "a bunch of goobledygook" and simply state facts: French was standardized by the Académie Française since the 1600s with focus on rational grammatical rules and consistency (even recently they changed the spelling of oignon to be more consistent with how it's pronounced: ognon). English never had such a trend (there were proposals to do so somewhere in the 1700s but nothing came of it) so it developed as a highly inconsistent language.

How about you drop the francophobia?

>Given relative cost of armour and weapons compared to standard peasant/serf income levels
Only if you specifically model your setting like that. None of that is inherently tied to medieval fantasy, which is primarily a fantasy aesthetic rather than any coherent attempt at simulating actual medieval history.

>let's not get started on however the fuck you're supposed to pronounce Gloucester, Worcester and Thames, all three of which are downright impossible to pronounce without prior knowledge of the proper pronunctuation.

REEEE, Ephraimites get out

So the United States of America was, at its founding, a medieval society?

No, that's bollocks.

>Veeky Forums is THIS bad at history
Brah

If you ignore D&D and the like that there are plenty of games, stories etc that depict a fantastical but authentically medieval world.

In fact you've made me consider that there's actually nothing wrong with steampunk in principle, and I shouldn't be so prejudiced.

Not any of those anons, but honestly Medievalpunk would be like if the French revolution happened a few centuries earlier.
Or, rather, it would be set in the tense times leading up to it probable.

To be fair, the French Revolution is probably the most well known republic vs monarchy revolutions.
If you wanted to go more in depth do stuff like the Commune of Rome, if you spun it as a doomed experiment of sticking it to the (lordly) man

Either that or medievalpunk would be just post-medieval technology with medieval european values and social structures