What is Steampunk and how do we define it?

Full disclosure: Steampunk is on the top of the list of games I want to create. But is it a genre? Is it a subgenre of fantasy, science fiction, somewhat modern gaming, or all of the above?

I see it much as I see the anime/manga category. It’s a skin we put over other games to make them sound cooler. We’re casting spells, but because it’s coming out of some strange gadget that fused alchemy and science- it’s steampunk! Cybernetic arm? Mechanical master crafted steampunk prosthetic. Need a car? It’s a late 1800’s horseless carriage souped up like a steam engine had a baby with the Batmobile.

What Steampunk means to me.

I’ve always had a fascination with the Steam age. I know it’s mostly fantasy, but it harkens back to a somewhat simpler creative renaissance of mankind. It’s a fictional golden age where fictional science collides with real world principles and magic. I’ve always taken inspiration from the Wild, Wild West movie with Will Smith. (*Don’t mock me. It’s a good film.)

The character of Arliss Loveless in his steam powered wheelchair. Wild Wild West, 1999.

Wild, Wild West showcased what steampunk is capable of as a movie genre. I feel the same way about it in TTRPGs. Dr Arliss Loveless built himself a steampunk wheelchair and a giant robot tarantula that spewed fire and bullets. That movie’s trope was all of the crazy gadgets. I want to replicate that in a TTRPG form.

The other thing I love about most steampunk games is that the world is usually still ripe for exploration. There are entire unconquered, unsettled, wild continents and oceans to explore. That’s the kind of fantasy game I want to be a part of. There’s no pre-written map, just empty terrain the way the Earth was before maps were created. Because steampunk tech is so flexible (like magic,) we can have dirigibles and other aircraft flying the dangerous skies to find an island of dinosaurs or moon men. I want to bring all kinds of weird wacky things to life in a steampunk game.

The competition.

Barring someone else presenting the same concepts to Chaosium for this BRP Design Challenge, there aren’t a lot of steampunk games on the market at DriveThruRPG these days. I see a lot of Dieselpunk games, but that’s the new hotness. Dieselpunk is similar to steampunk only with WW2 era tech instead of mid 1800s-early 1900s technology. Dieselpunk is cool and all, it’s just a slightly different skin and attitude.

The Aether Throne by Keith DEdinburgh.

I discovered this little steampunk gem on DriveThruRPG while I was researching this article. I’m going to check it out and give it a thorough review someday. It looks pretty sweet. Lots of professions, gear, magic, and building your own airship. The only downer for me is the Midjourney art.

Freelancer: Skies Over Tolindia by Jacob Hampton and Brian Moseley.

I was backer number 3 for this game on Kickstarter. I believed in this project and still do. Airships, guns, dragons and elves all have a place in this game. It’s a lot of what I’m looking for in a steampunk game, but, as far as I know it’s only available from SafeHaven games.com. Somehow I thought I reviewed this, but apparently not. I’ll have to fix that sometime in the future. It’s a good game.

If Freelancer was on DriveThruRPG or even Itch.io, I might be concerned about the competition. As it is only on SafeHaven Games, I’m less concerned. I do wonder how much they sell, though. If the genre isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, that’s okay. If no one is into it, that’s another problem entirely.

Deadlands: Savage Worlds Editionby Pinnacle Entertainment.

This is probably the biggest elephant in the room when it comes to steampunk games, not including Dungeons & Dragons 5E. At least Pinnacle is a slightly more scrupulous company. I ran Deadlands for a lot of years out of the orange books. It’s a fun game. It has a keen mix of gunslingers, magic, and steampunk. I miss the expansiveness of the orange books and I want to replicate that phenomenon if I do it for BRP. Again, the main concern is money.

Deadlands runs off of the Savage Worlds Adventure Deluxe Edition, a direct competitor to BRP. While Chaosium has generously allowed writers to keep the rights to their games, there’s still a definite competition there.

Will it sell?

That’s always the big concern when making anything for public consumption unless it’s free. I want the “Wow!” factor for the judges to be there and I want to be able to sell the book after the contest is over just to share it with the world. I’m a little anxious about using a subgenre of TTRPGs that maybe doesn’t get a lot of love. There’s also the rare possibility if everything goes well to put that little subgenre in the limelight and really generate revenue as well as notoriety.

Kelsey Dionne of Shadowdark RPG fame, whom I admire to no end, got her name out there first by making top notch horror D&D adventures and then with a million dollar Kickstarter. Shadowdark was considered to by kind of a niche OSR subgenre, horror/fantasy game until it made $1.34 Million. All of the sudden one small game became a TTRPG household name. From what I understand, it’s still selling quite well.

Releasing a Steampunk game into the wild is a big-risk-big-reward situation. On the other hand, I hear there’s an entire steampunk town in New Zealand, so maybe I’m onto something. I mean, it does sound pretty cool. We’ll see what happens or if I chicken out and go with a different (pair of) project(s.)

Thanks for stopping by. I appreciate you all so very much. Please embrace the things that bring you joy today.