Steampunk?

[thebobmaster_v1legacy]

I've been having an idea niggling in my mind lately for an RP, but I'm not sure whether to call it steampunk or what, since I don't really know what steampunk entails. Basically, it's kind of a mix of steam-powered and normal technology, with fighting done primarily with prosthetics improved by technology. Would that be steampunk still, or something entirely different?

 

[thebobmaster_v1legacy]

OK. The only thing I can think of that I can connect to steampunk with certainty is Steamboy, so I wasn't sure.

 

[poleboy]

Cogs. Lots of cogs, steam and copper pipes. Everything should also be in the style around the late 19th century or early 20th, so lots of monocles, top hats, bowlers, suit vests, big dresses, parasols, can-can dancers... you get the point. If you can pull it off, an airship driven entirely by steampower.

This crazy machine personifies the whole thing and the series is very much steampunk.

Also, did you perhaps consider Wikipedia? Their article on it is pretty good.

 

[Copter400]

This crazy machine personifies the whole thing and the series is very much steampunk.

That machine is the very definition of steampunk: over-complicated and awesome.

Try listening to some Abney Park or Korpiklaani to get into the feel of things.

 

[poleboy]

Final Fantasy always included steampunk in a lot of their games. FF7 and 9 intensely, quite a bit in 3 and 4 too.

The starting area in VI (Narshe) should also be mentioned. There's actual steam coming out of all sorts of weird places there!

Anyway, let me elaborate a bit more. Imagine the technology that was (relatively) new in the period I mentioned. The locomotive, the steam engine, big machines with lots of cogs. Now imagine that the scientific progress sort of stopped there, and became more and more refined and over the top, without anyone actually inventing any new technology, just making more and more advanced things with steam and cogs. That's one of the defining features, I think.

 

[Azhrarn-101]

If you want to look into some steampunk RP, perhaps the Iron Kingdoms role playing books by Privateer Press are something to take a look at?
(http://www.privateerpress.com/ironkingdoms/default.php?x=books)

 

[Hey Joe]

All that's really needed to qualify for the Steampunk genre is a top hat and a gun with logs of cogs on it for some reason.

 

[disfunkybob]

All that's really needed to qualify for the Steampunk genre is a top hat and a gun with logs of cogs on it for some reason.

I'm partial to the bowler hat.

 

[Stalington]

The definition of steampunk according to webster:

steampunk=bioshock

 

[Eldritch Warlord]

The definition of steampunk according to webster:

steampunk=bioshock

Bioshock is more of dieselpunk mixed with biopunk. (Well, technically dieselpunk is a type of steampunk but I don't see anything in BioShock powered by steam)

 

[Stalington]

The definition of steampunk according to webster:

steampunk=bioshock

Bioshock is more of dieselpunk mixed with biopunk. (Well, technically dieselpunk is a type of steampunk but I don't see anything in BioShock powered by steam)

its underwater, steam would be the most obvious resource

 

[Hawgh]

If steampunk is what you're after. You might want to swing by the webcomic Girl Genius, lotsa archetypical stuff in that one.

 

[Eldritch Warlord]

The definition of steampunk according to webster:

steampunk=bioshock

Bioshock is more of dieselpunk mixed with biopunk. (Well, technically dieselpunk is a type of steampunk but I don't see anything in BioShock powered by steam)

its underwater, steam would be the most obvious resource

No, steam requires heat. Being underwater makes heat hard to make. Rapture is powered by geothermal energy (which makes steam to spin a turbine like practically every economically feasible energy producing option known to man) but the autonomous machines seem to be powered by a gas motor.

And besides, dieselpunk really means it's past technology but beyond simple steam power.

 

[Stalington]

The definition of steampunk according to webster:

steampunk=bioshock

Bioshock is more of dieselpunk mixed with biopunk. (Well, technically dieselpunk is a type of steampunk but I don't see anything in BioShock powered by steam)

its underwater, steam would be the most obvious resource

No, steam requires heat. Being underwater makes heat hard to make. Rapture is powered by geothermal energy (which makes steam to spin a turbine like practically every economically feasible energy producing option known to man) but the autonomous machines seem to be powered by a gas motor.

And besides, dieselpunk really means it's past technology but beyond simple steam power.

soooo...steampunk (neo-victorian) is like industrial revolution time period? like late 1800s?

 

[Eldritch Warlord]

soooo...steampunk (neo-victorian) is like industrial revolution time period? like late 1800s?

Right, and dieselpunk is mid-1900s.

 

[Capt_Jack_Doicy]

threadbangers and Indymogul did some stuff on it.
http://www.threadbanger.com/episode/THR_20080829
http://www.indymogul.com/backyard-fx/episode/BFX_20080825

 

[BallPtPenTheif]

The cosplay picture is a bad example since that is more like the movie Wild Wild West. Ironically, the Abraham Lincoln picture is a better example.

 

[thebobmaster_v1legacy]

Thanks for the help guys. I decided my idea was closer to dieselpunk, so that's what I called it. Check it out if you are interested in the idea.

 

[BallPtPenTheif]

Anybody remember The Rocketeer? I really liked that movie and the bad videogame that followed it. Apparently I was one of the few fans since Wikipedia is telling me that the movie bombed.

 

[Jamash]

The Chaos Engine [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chaos_Engine] is the first thing that come to mind when I think Steampunk.

Also I've read a book called Pax Britannia [http://www.ookami.co.uk/html/el_sombra.html] series, which I think is modern Steampunk.

Basically it was set in Mexico & a village is invaded by Nazis with steam-powered jet packs, robots & tanks, being led from Berlin by the brain of Adolf Hitler which is kept alive in a huge steam powered machine.

Those sites & books may be worth reading for inspiration.