PDA

View Full Version : Looking For a Stempunk Based System



Beeba17
2018-03-26, 12:24 AM
Recently besides D&D my friends and I have played some games with PbtA systems. Monster of the Week and Urban Shadows to be specific. It’s been great and allowed us to take turns GMing.

As my turn is coming I wanted to create a Steampunk story.
But can’t find a system.

Here’s what I’ve been imagining from a story standpoint
The party are a group of... "fixers" called The Smith's. And they get hired on by people to essentially be whatever they need you to be. Bodyguards, bounty hunters. Etc. The world the Smiths work in is one where technology has all but replaced the need for magic. However the world feels lawless. Security depends on if you can build it. And the rich have a huge advantage as they can afford better machines and defenses of what they want to keep hidden. My plan is for the party to come into contact with a cabal of sorts keeping the authority for themselves and having to take them down. I’m kinda inspired by the Bioshock series storywise, but also the look of the “Epic Mickey” games for anyone remembers those lol.


As I said my friends experience with tabletop is mostly PbtA games like Urban Shadows and Monster of the Week. So while I would like a system like that. I also want a focus on mystery and possibly more invested combat. Preferably something with character sheets since that’s a big sell for my party for some reason lol. Tell me what you think of the story and If there’s a system I should check out. Thank you!:smallbiggrin:

Wraith
2018-03-26, 06:40 AM
Sounds like Savage Worlds might be for you.

While the main rulebook has everything from Dinosaurs to Cyborgs, one of the sourcebooks is called Rippers, which is set in the era of classic Victorian literature - you get to fight Jack the Ripper, Dracula, Frankenstein's monster and the likes, whereas the PC's are anything from Alan Quartermaine to Dr.Frankenstein or Captain Nemo.

The Rippers themselves are a secret organisation who fight monsters - think League of Extra-Ordinary Gentlemen or the Order of St.Michael from Van Helsing and you're not too far off. Repurposing that style to become your game's Smiths agency, or maybe their shadowy antagonists, wouldn't take much in the way of revision.

Beeba17
2018-03-26, 06:50 AM
Sounds like Savage Worlds might be for you.

While the main rulebook has everything from Dinosaurs to Cyborgs, one of the sourcebooks is called Rippers, which is set in the era of classic Victorian literature - you get to fight Jack the Ripper, Dracula, Frankenstein's monster and the likes, whereas the PC's are anything from Alan Quartermaine to Dr.Frankenstein or Captain Nemo.

The Rippers themselves are a secret organisation who fight monsters - think League of Extra-Ordinary Gentlemen or the Order of St.Michael from Van Helsing and you're not too far off. Repurposing that style to become your game's Smiths agency, or maybe their shadowy antagonists, wouldn't take much in the way of revision.


Sounds worth a look!
Thanks so much!
I saw a hack of the PbtA game system with steampunk elements but all the classes are done in google docs and stuff and it makes me leery to try it especially since until now we’ve only done like full game systems so this helps a ton

ZenoForce88
2018-03-27, 08:42 AM
Im not really sure what PbtA is, but if you are open to different systems, I'll throw Victoriana in there, just to have something other than the usual genetics that tend to be tossed out in threads like this.

It's a steamlink system which has magic combating and losing to technology, as the Victorian middle class gains ground with their supertech on the upper who maintained their status by controlling the knowledge of magic.

There's also Airship Pirates, uses a lite version of the Heresey Engine that Victoriana uses, and honestly you can use aspects of both with each other with minimal effort.

Arkain
2018-03-31, 05:32 PM
Private Eye is a system focusing on the detectives aspect, i.e. Sherlock Holmes: The Roleplaying Game. It's very much trying to stay "realistic" and "historical" though, so that's probably out of the picture for your particular idea.
Wolsung is a rather strange one, though quite tongue-in-cheek and might be interesting to you. There's magic, there's steampunk, there's zombie nazis... err, it's pulpy, let's put it at that. Think League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. I've found it quite nice for short adventures inbetween longer campaigns, though it's probably not well-suited as a system to use for said longer campaigns themselves, as the novelty and quirkiness usually wear off after a while.

Anonymouswizard
2018-03-31, 06:02 PM
Im not really sure what PbtA is, but if you are open to different systems, I'll throw Victoriana in there, just to have something other than the usual genetics that tend to be tossed out in threads like this.

It's a steamlink system which has magic combating and losing to technology, as the Victorian middle class gains ground with their supertech on the upper who maintained their status by controlling the knowledge of magic.

There's also Airship Pirates, uses a lite version of the Heresey Engine that Victoriana uses, and honestly you can use aspects of both with each other with minimal effort.

I love Victoriana. The Heresy Engine has the nice touch of modifiers always adding to the number of dice you roll.

Note that both magic and technology, at least in the corebook, tends to be rather weak. It can be really really cool, but the big technological weapons are a flamethrower and a rail pistol with the damage of a high-end revolver. In my mind the system encourages you to rely on standard guns and maybe ogres wielding melee weapons for damage, instead focusing your magic and marvels on utility effects. Not that combat magic is bad, but if you can spare a few skill points an Eldritch Pepperbox does as much damage as a Aetheric Bolt (you might not be able to, but it's worth keeping in mind), if your wizard is willing to reload like a mundane person some pepperboxes and revolvers do 10 or 12 dice of damage compared to an Aetheric Bolt's 8, and rifles can go even higher. Can't beat magic and marvels for nonlethal options, but in most combat pulling your pistol is probably a better move.

There's also the subspecies available. You get the choice of Beastfolk, Dwarfs, Eldren (elves), Gnomes, Huldufolk (hobitses), Humans, Ogres, and Orcs. Some of these are as you'd expect (elves are upper and middle class and generally rather magically inclined), but sometimes not (Gnomes are nocturnal, Orcs are lower class and technologically inclined while being viewed as foreigners). An interesting fact is that Orcs and Eldren are almost direct opposites of each other, one being long lived, associated with the upper class, and possessing innate 'magnetic' (psychic) abilities, while the other is short lived, associated with the lower class and foreigners, and get an innate bonus in technological matters. Essentially the D&D races, but changed to neatly fit in the Victorian class system and fit the 'magic/Entropy versus science/Order' dynamic in quite a bit of the fluff.

It is quite rules-heavy though. I recommend looking up the Queensberry rules on the official forum if you want to simplify the subsystems, especially combat.

Blackhawk748
2018-03-31, 06:55 PM
Sounds like Savage Worlds might be for you.

While the main rulebook has everything from Dinosaurs to Cyborgs, one of the sourcebooks is called Rippers, which is set in the era of classic Victorian literature - you get to fight Jack the Ripper, Dracula, Frankenstein's monster and the likes, whereas the PC's are anything from Alan Quartermaine to Dr.Frankenstein or Captain Nemo.

The Rippers themselves are a secret organisation who fight monsters - think League of Extra-Ordinary Gentlemen or the Order of St.Michael from Van Helsing and you're not too far off. Repurposing that style to become your game's Smiths agency, or maybe their shadowy antagonists, wouldn't take much in the way of revision.

Savage World's always gets a boost from me.

If you want to use DnD there's a third party book called Sorcery and Steam that's worked out ok for me.

Khedrac
2018-04-01, 02:38 AM
Is Space 1899 still available? It's got to be the classic steampunk system...

Koo Rehtorb
2018-04-01, 02:51 AM
I can't personally vouch for it, but there's a steampunk supplement for Dungeon World if you want to keep it within PbtA. http://apocalypse-world.com/pbta/games/title/Steam_World

Anonymouswizard
2018-04-01, 03:51 AM
Is Space 1899 still available? It's got to be the classic steampunk system...

Space 1889 has a new edition using a different system which is actually pretty snazzy. I'm a bit more fond of Victoriana and it's mixture of D&D style fantasy with proper Victorian era Steampunk (because after all the primarily fantasy secondarily steampunk settings I've seen, one which focuses on the Steampunk side is refreshing), but that's partially because I've spent enough time dealing with flat earthers that I have no tolerance for the Luminiferous Ether.

2WheelsGood
2018-04-01, 03:12 PM
FATE Core?

I like Victoriana too.

Actana
2018-04-01, 03:16 PM
If you want a PbtA game to do steampunk, you could do worse than look at Uncharted Worlds. While at its core it's very much a scifi game, I don't think it'd be terribly difficult to refluff everything to work as steampunk instead.

It doesn't do tremendously involved combat (very few PbtA games do that though), but it does have an equipment system with tags and allows you to build your own weapons and armor.

RazorChain
2018-04-02, 04:04 PM
Castle Falkenstein maybe?

Then you have Gurps Steampunk and Gurps Castle Falkenstein if yo want something crunchy.

Guizonde
2018-04-03, 07:07 AM
Castle Falkenstein maybe?


that game was awesome to pick up. i played the easter bunny and punched out a bavarian prince after 20 minutes of session. 10/10 would play again. it can get pretty ridiculous.

why not deadlands? i played it western meets cthulu, but i recall a lot of steampunk elements reminiscent of "wild wild west".

Rhedyn
2018-04-03, 02:58 PM
The Widening Gyre is also a good stream punk setting for Savage Worlds.

Here is a more comprehensive list of Savage Worlds settings: Here (https://www.pegforum.com/forum/savage-worlds/savage-worlds-general-chat/8180-savage-worlds-setting-list)

Should say if the setting is Steampunk