Steampunk Minimus

[Decoy Lockbox]

So my group just finished a longrunning D&D game, and we decided to have a change of pace. Our DM is a big fan of rules-light system, and so we are using a system called Minimus. I won't go into the details of the system, but one intriguing part of it is that the game world is created by both the players and the GM. So this sunday, the six players and GM will sit down and essentially design an entire campaign setting by committee. The party will be a ragtag group of freelancers on a boat doing work for money (think a naval version of Firefly, but in a steampunk setting). Of course, this work could easily include piracy, smuggling and assassination in addition to legal activities like shipping, errand running, message carrying and passenger trips.

For our first meeting, I am expected to come in a with a list of cool things to propose for the campaign setting. Trouble is, I am having a very hard time coming up with anything. Our group has so far agreed that the setting will be ultra-capitalistic, with corporations running some islands and countries, and that the major force of malevolence in the world is going to the "Stazis" (Steam Nazis). However, everything beyond that is completely up in the air.

So I was wondering if you guys had any cool ideas for a steampunk setting? Honestly, it could be anything, as this setting (and for that matter, the entire campaign) are completely a blank slate right now. Or at least, an ultra-capitalistic blank slate with the occasional Stazi.

[Limos]

You need to stat out lots of different Firearms. And Chainsaw swords. You absolutely must have steam powered Chainswords. Better yet, Chainsaw Bayonets on your steam powered Firearms.

In terms of style I think it would be a cool change of pace to make the setting incredibly lethal. Resurrection should be difficult, and weapons should hurt like a sonofabitch.

[FamishedPaladin]

You should totally have cool steam-powered robot walkers. Like a huge walking weapons platform with multiple people inside controlling it. Now that I think about it, a sort of steampunk mecha.

Yeah, I agree with Limos on the Chainswords. Possibly also "steam armor" with an engine that makes the user much stronger (steampunk Iron Man, anyone?).

That sounds like a really cool, setting! Have fun with it!:smallsmile:

[Limos]

Basically pick any super awesome piece of technology that we can't make, and have it be steam powered. Especially robots. Sentient Robots. They have Steam Powered brains. (How does boiled water form allegiences?!)

[Decoy Lockbox]

You need to stat out lots of different Firearms. And Chainsaw swords. You absolutely must have steam powered Chainswords. Better yet, Chainsaw Bayonets on your steam powered Firearms.

In terms of style I think it would be a cool change of pace to make the setting incredibly lethal. Resurrection should be difficult, and weapons should hurt like a sonofabitch.

When I said ultra rules lite, I meant it. Weapon stats are more along the lines of "revolver, level 2 weapon" than "revolver, 2d8+2 damage, crit mod 19-20x3, range 250/2500". This system is basically freeform roleplaying with a few added rules for conflict resolution, skills and character development. Unfortunately, I cannot in good conscience suggest that we have steam chainswords; the idea works in WH40k due to how ridiculous (and ridiculously awesome) that game's setting is, but chainswords would never make sense in any kind of realistic setting like the one we are trying to develop. Okay, not a strictly realistic setting, but more like "more realistic".

Resurrection will actually not be possible, since magic does not currently exist in the setting. Whether or not magic exists will definately be something that our committee will end up debating; I'm currently leaning towards "no", but perhaps there could be something like ritual magic from D&D 4e which is potent but takes forever to cast (and possibly needs multiple people involved), to prevent wizards from running around fireballing people.

The existence of God/Gods is also another sticking point in the setting. Currently we are leaning towards "there are a lot of religions in world, the one in the vaguely European countries is vaguely JudeoChristian, but the existence of god/gods/miracles/etc cannot be proven or disproven currently." In the end of course, this decision will primarily be up to our GM, since he is the only one who should actually know the answer. But either way, priests resurrecting or healing people with magic will not be happening. So when a character gets killed, that's the end of that character. Mundane healing will probably be made a bit more effective in order to make the setting less lethal than it otherwise would be. For example, historically appropriate doctoring will probably be a lot more effective in this setting than it was in real life; we are currently leaning towards giving the setting a real world tech level of around 1840's or so I believe, with the steampunk stuff of course being a fantasy element.

One issue with an incredibly lethal/realistic system is that characters don't tend to last long, which is really really bad for long-term gameplay continuity, something that we are going for here. Example: I played in a D&D game where we all tacitly agreed to just make new chars should our current ones die, and each week the party would be composed of a different group of people, with the old ones telling the new ones of the party's mission and then frequently dying soon after due to the incredibly lethal combats. We lost half of our party during an infamous session that came to be known as "escape from hydra island". Have you ever seen a necromancer's vargouille familiar get hit outta the park like a baseball by a cloud giant's club? It ain't pretty. Also, our blind bard got stepped on by a giant, which ended his life rather tragically. By the end of the campaign, the party was like 4 or 5 generations removed from the original party. The roleplaying wasn't great, since you had no real incentive to become attached to your character, since he/she would likely be taking a dirt nap every other session.



Basically pick any super awesome piece of technology that we can't make, and have it be steam powered. Especially robots. Sentient Robots. They have Steam Powered brains. (How does boiled water form allegiences?!)

How does carbon form allegiances? Did I just blow your mind? :smallbiggrin:

Yeah, we have talked about it and we are planning on the setting featuring steampowered battlemechs, along the lines of the ones in the game Warmachine (http://www.privateerpress.com/WARMACHINE/default.php).


Thanks for the advice guys, keep it up. But the kind of stuff I am really looking for is advice about the setting's topography (islands/continents), political stuff, etc. For example, "what if there was an agrarian kingdom that didn't want to modernize?"

But speaking of steam-powered brains, one of my ideas was to have the Stazi's ultimate mission be to convert everyone into Stazis by applying a dreaded Steam Helmet of Doom! This helmet, when placed on someone's head, forces that person to accept Stazism as their preferred political doctrine. So defeating Stazi Stormtroopers is as easy as knocking off their helmets...which would be easy, if they weren't grafted into their skulls!

[Seonor]

Try to read a few pages of Girl Genius for the technology (war stompers (http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20071109), clanks (http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20021209), mechs (http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20080523) and airships (http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20030630))


People to see, places to go in a European steampunk setting:
Venice with all the canals, big trade port, steam gondolas. Currently in conflict with most of the other city states over some trade routes.

Arabien pirates in airships. Not realy bad guys, since the other nations do just the same, but they suck at PR and get all the bad rep.

If you use (christian) religion, at least one antipope would be nice. Maybe he wants to baptise robots?