Any tips for someone home brewing a steam-punkish campaign?

Any tips for someone home brewing a steam-punkish campaign?

don't

why?

Make sure it isn't cogfop. Don't just use the aesthetics, use the kinds of attitudes and themes that the Victorian era had. The masses being exploited for the gain of the rich, wars of colonization, rebellions and uprisings from freedom fighters, things like that.

Oh, and of course, the airships

Depends on the setting.

They've started as lowly pipe tighteners in the sub sewer. They'll soon learn how little they are cared about. I'll remember these suggestions for sure.

I don't come here much, but this must be a meme?

That would depend on the setting.

Don't

Why?

don't listen to them. most of the neckbeards here have convinced themselves that steampunk is only an aesthetic. and that only tumblrinas and numales like it, so they shit on it whenever they can.

why not look into the the core rulebooks of steampunk RPGs in the PDF archive? pretty sure you'll find some solid advice in the GMing tips sections. having some reference material is always good.

Hey thanks. I kinda expected a little of that i guess.
Does this board keep an archive? or you mean just find one

Very good.

It's not just about the steam. It's about the punk.

Yeah I'm thinking something like Final Fantasy 6/Adventure Time/Gangs of New York
Something that can be as wierd add it is grimy

*as weird as

It doesn’t seem hard - you just convolute present day infrastructure, weaponry, and transportation into an exaggeration of pre-electric-grid, pre-petrol dependant technology. Mass transportation is the norm, nuclear power is cutting edge and small scale, coal is the only fuel source.

So instant communication is done by tube networks, individual transportation is unheard of outside of yacht-like vehicles, wars are fought by launching projectiles with hand cranks and the calvary is still required. Science is magic, and engineering is passé.

Just remember that in steampunk the punks are scientists and academics, and imperialists and the war machine are the oppressors.

This is a good point

The transportation bits here are especially helpful to me

>don't listen to them. most of the neckbeards here have convinced themselves that steampunk is only an aesthetic. and that only tumblrinas and numales like it, so they shit on it whenever they can.

This, unfortunately. We used to be able to have good steampunk threads on Veeky Forums, but sometime around 2013 (probably just before "cogfop" was coined) the threads started collecting large amounts of shitposts.

It was really popular for a minute there. that always gets people rustled.

You're probably right; what with the steampunk-y Sherlock Holmes movie and a few others that aped the style, we had a steampunk explosion in the media that was probably the reason for the push-back.

It's too bad. Not like it lasted long.

fpbp

what does that stand for

You need to tell your ISP that you want Google included with your Internet.

wut

But steampunk was never actually punk

Most people with Internet access get Google for free. If you don't have Google with your Internet subscription, you should demand it from your ISP.

this, don't listen to the goggle wearing autists insisting it's anything but an aesthetic. Feel free to do whatever you want with it OP, just understand the genre can get really cringey really easily

I wouldn't go that far, but you do need a clear idea of what you're doing and why it had to be steampunk. Steampunk is a mishmash of different things, and you need to figure out where all of them fit or they'll feel as out of place as a cog on a tophat. Fallen London/Sunless Sea did it for the sake of being alien and otherworldly while still vaguely recognizable. Bioshock did it to make Rapture feel advanced but also old and decaying.

Anything is cringey if you're a dumb nerd about it

Instead of "hitpoints", use "Pressure" - everytime someone is hit or uses "benies" or whatever the equivalent of "fate points" is they gain (damage roll) of "pressure", which they in turn can use to power various PC abilities and magic/science shit - once pressure exceeds maximum hitpoints they go down like in 4e d&d, so need to make stabilising rolls each round until they succeed to avoid gaining even more pressure and going -10, can't move or perform actions etc...

That way every combat encounter is this constant escalation as people try to dump pressure through ability/equipment use until people start exploding.

This is an interesting creative idea.

...

Ban players from being inventors, scientists or engineers. And no goggles for anyone.

Imperialism and oppression all the way.