Steampunk in Ravenloft

[DoctorMoreau]

I've got a potential player who is obviously a big steampunk fan. He seems a LITTLE interested in the Ravenloft setting due to it's gothic nature but it's very clear where his true allegiances lie.

Since I wouldn't mind recruiting this individual for my new game, I'm wondering what other people think the best way to incorporate Steampunk into Ravenloft would be. I know there is one domain that is the most technologically advanced, and I have no problem with him being a "super scientist" of sorts. Just wondering people's opinion on integrating this into the campaign and where he'd be from.

The players are actually mostly coming from 1790s earth, but since this character sounds more Advanced, he will certainly be a Ravenloft native.

[Deewun]

I had a similar issue with a player in a campaign. Even though that campaign kind of died, at least I can pass this one:

Kits are your friend. I told him about the Pistoleer and he was all over it. Then you just add in a few more Pistoleers around, making it like a secret society, wham bam thank you ma'am, you got some steampunk anywhere you need it to be. Try to find mages or just random NPCs you can reflavor to fit in. Also, Eremite reinvisioned as an Alchemist/Grenadier can help give some more flavor to the idea, as well. Also, Gonzoron had a great sequence in Falkovnia in his campaign that you should just completely lift, as it is super steampunky.

You don't need to change the whole world. Hell, you don't need to have it in every chapter/story. But if it is referenced every now and again, through an NPC or just an interesting detail added to the background of whatever else you have going on, plus a story or two where it is integral to the plot, you can pretty easily add it in without all that much work.

In the example of my Pistoleer, I had him searching for other Pistoleers, because he made up in his backstory that his father was robbed, which is why he is traveling. Together, we made his father a gunsmith, but not Pistoleer, but he did know them, and believes that they are in danger, as his receipt book was stolen, which had all their names in it. So off goes our PC, to find 1) the guy who attacked his father, 2) figure out WHY the guy did it, and 3) meet the other Pistoleers. From there, a few reflavorings (Gondegal, Professor Arcanus, and Felkovic) and a few new NPCs (Cyril Seaboots, Gnome Illusionist/Cleric Pistoleer) and we were good to go.

[ewancummins]

He wants steampunk? How about a mechanician mage? It was a kit for the Al Qadim setting, but it adapts quite easily to Ravenloft. Instead of casting spells, the mechanician builds and controls a limited number (by level) of handmade 'mehcanicals.' These magical automata effectively cast spells on behalf of the controlling mage. He's a flexible sort of caster, but his tools are expensive to build. Yes, larger mechanicals may be steam powered. Because these devices are magical, you don't have to worry so much about the PC inventing technology that may seriously disrupt the setting. You can just say 'this steam tech is really magic+ technology", and leave it at that.

Are you running the game with AD&D or some other system? 3E?

PS- Does your version of Ravenloft include technology significantly more advanced than what was seen on 'Earth' in the 1790s? When you make that comparsion, which parts of Earth do you mean? Britain? Japan? The Ottoman Empire? The Ohio river valley? I'm curious, because my own take on the setting is much more medieval with touches of Early Modern Europe/the Americas.

[DoctorMoreau]

Well I thought one of the domains was practically Victorian. But it's not part of the core if I remember correctly, and has a pollution problem? Other than that you are just looking more at the late Renaissance type domains are where my players usually end up spending a lot of time.

And I'm going to be using True20 which is pretty infinitely flexible.

[The Giamarga]

That would be Paridon, the victorian Paris-London amalgam domain.

Another candidate is imho Victor Mordenheim's Lamordia, which can support another mad scientist or two. There are already wicked fey who build clockworks, , chirurggeons, a half-clockwork-golem, outsiders from Earth or Gothic Earth, firearms, great scienctific apparati, a Dr Jekyll/Mr Hyde analog (Sir Tristan Hiregaard/Malken) and much more victorian stuff extant in RL. D&D and Ravenloft even moreso are already patchwork settings so you can put a bit of steampunk almost anywhere imho. For example of the campaign journals on this site had the wizard PC reflavoured so that he used mad science instead of spells.

The question is what aspects of steampunk does the player want? When you use True20 you can probably let him customize his PC to his idea pretty easily.

If you don't want to make him an outsider (who could be from anywhere) it depends a bit on which steampunky stuff he wants to have. I can see a pistoleer-gunsmith-engineer being trained by a dwarven clan in Darkon (in fact there's a netbook article on dwarven guns somewhere here), or a super scientist from Lamordia, or if he is a genius from almost any other domain, a clockwork maker trained by fey or from one of the arabic domains, or even a hellraiser inspired pseudo-mage from Dementlieu. Psionics are also a bit strange-otherworldy modern and could be easily reflavored a bit more.

There are several good D20 products for steampunk available (see also this thread and this thread on enworld), but only one True20 product that i could find.

There are also several firearms rules available most notably those from the Iron Kingdoms setting and Monte Cook's web enhancement to Chaositech.

D20 Past has a Hyde template.

There were a few free Masque of the Red Death conversions available on the net (which i now can't find anymore) and there is of course the 3E MotRD hardcover, all of which may be useful too.

Also check out the excellent Ravenloft Renaissance website, which sadly is now only available on the wayback machine.

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

Also, Gonzoron had a great sequence in Falkovnia in his campaign that you should just completely lift, as it is super steampunky.

Aw shucks, you're making me blush.

If interested, journal here, brainstorming thread here.

I had quite a bit of steam-punkish elements in my campaign. A clockwork man as a major villain, "Lumley House" from CotN: The Created, The Gears, and a mysterious clockmaker NPC who left behind all sorts of odd inventions. All driven by a Player who wanted to play a gunsmith.

You don't need to change the whole world. Hell, you don't need to have it in every chapter/story. But if it is referenced every now and again, through an NPC or just an interesting detail added to the background of whatever else you have going on, plus a story or two where it is integral to the plot, you can pretty easily add it in without all that much work.

This. When the focus turns to the steampunk character, everything gets a little more steampunky. When focus turns to the other characters, the steampunk elements fade to the background. In the advanced domains, the steampunk PC is in his element and gets to enjoy that. In the backwaters he's a fish out of water and gets to enjoy that.

Well I thought one of the domains was practically Victorian. But it's not part of the core if I remember correctly, and has a pollution problem?

You're thinking either of Paridon or Nosos. But in the core, you can fit pockets of steampunk in Lamordia, Dementlieu, or even Mordent or Dementlieu.

[DoctorMoreau]

I wonder about clustering Nosos and Paridon and centering the Victorian and tech typish movement there... thoughts?

Being familiar with of course the fact that Paridon is already a cluster.

Imperial Age just brings a lot of ideas with it.

[ewancummins]

I wonder about clustering Nosos and Paridon and centering the Victorian and tech typish movement there... thoughts?

Being familiar with of course the fact that Paridon is already a cluster.

Imperial Age just brings a lot of ideas with it.

I'd keep in mind the propensity of technology to spread by diffusion. If revolvers, steam trains, telegraphy, dynamite, etc exist in Nosos or Paridon and either domain has even limited contact with the outside world- expect these things to begin cropping up in the Core.
These advances are way too useful to be ignored for very long.

That's fine if you want a world like 'Masque of the Read Death', or one rapidly heading in that direction.

Guns, of course , are not automatically 'steampunk.' Gunpowder itself is a medieval technology. Handgonnes were used in the late Middle Ages in Christendom. The great age of gunpowder empires in Europe, the Near East, and India occurs well before the 'Industrial Revolution.' What kind of firearms tech do you want to use? Are we talking about matchlocks, flintlocks, percussion guns?


How I handle some of this stuff- YMMV:

IMC, I limit gunpowder technlogy with the tried and true AD&D 'smokepowder' approach, making the stuff the semi-magical creation of alchemists.

I don't make it ridiculously expensive, though! Early guns weren't all that great, so if the powder is too expensive, it makes no sense for guns to be developed past the experimental stage. It would be a waste of money and resources. Close to centers of alchemical learning and materials, gunpowder is relatively cheap, but not cheap enough for everyone to have firearms and cannon. In backward areas, its a rare curiousty of the alchemists' trade, or else largely unknown.

Steam power IMC is mostly at the experimental of development- and that only in the advanced domains. Think of the tricks of Hero of Alexandria. You might see something like a Newcommen vacuum engine, in a really sopisticated mining operation.

The only powerful and practical steam engines are those built and used by a very small number of specialized magicians. These devices will not function without magic! They are not just machines, but magical items, as well. Each is unique- they cannot be mass produced. This is where Arkandale gets its 'dragonboats' IMC. Think of the magic steam boat from Dance of the Dead. Again, these things are not everday sights, even in advanced domains.

[DoctorMoreau]

I'd keep in mind the propensity of technology to spread by diffusion. If revolvers, steam trains, telegraphy, dynamite, etc exist in Nosos or Paridon and either domain has even limited contact with the outside world- expect these things to begin cropping up in the Core.
These advances are way too useful to be ignored for very long.

You're right of course, what if it wasn't steam, but some sort of product of Nosos or something along those lines. Something rarer that wouldn't spread as quickly. Plus I still never meant full blown steam punk setting, just that the domains were slowly on that path and had a Victorian feel to them.

I know the Paridon Gaz already gives it a Victorian England feel.

*goes off to listen to Facade from the Jeckyl and Hyde musical.*

[ewancummins]

I'd keep in mind the propensity of technology to spread by diffusion. If revolvers, steam trains, telegraphy, dynamite, etc exist in Nosos or Paridon and either domain has even limited contact with the outside world- expect these things to begin cropping up in the Core.
These advances are way too useful to be ignored for very long.

You're right of course, what if it wasn't steam, but some sort of product of Nosos or something along those lines. Something rarer that wouldn't spread as quickly. Plus I still never meant full blown steam punk setting, just that the domains were slowly on that path and had a Victorian feel to them.

I know the Paridon Gaz already gives it a Victorian England feel.

*goes off to listen to Facade from the Jeckyl and Hyde musical.*

Indeed! I;m just asking questions because I am curious. There is , of course, no 'one true way' to handle this or any setting.

Ah, and costuming need not correlate to overall tech level. You can mix frock coats and halberds as you please. Victorian looking duds can coexist with medieval or early modern tech.

My Paridon is a higher tech city that has lost effective tech level because of isolation and lack of resources. They have trouble feeding themselves. Guns are mostly crude things of pot-iron. The city cannot make enough powder to cheaply equip all the gauards with firearms, so most carry crossbows. It's 'post-indsutrial' more than 'proto-industrial.'


My Nosos is not really steampunk, either. It is more medieval, with a few elements of Rome in the late republic (the insulae temenents and concrete). Nosos' industrial activity is mining and forging- work that's carried out entirely by hand or with a little animal power. The mines are actually beneath the city. There's no place to dump the tailings but in slums and around the edges of town.


This all raises a question: what do you mean by 'steampunk'? Are you using it as shorthand for 'includes big cities, factories, and steam power' or do you mean the sci-fi sub-genre? Are we talking 'mad science' with steampowered battle behemoths and Wild Wild West type stuff; or just paddlewheelers, locomotives, and spinning jennies? Babbage's Difference Engine?

[DoctorMoreau]

Well, let me be clear, I don't have an interest in doing a HIGHLY steampunk setting. If anything I'm fond of Victorian settings sans the steam punk settings that are popular with them (see Masque of the Red Death of course). But this isn't for my whole campaign, in fact, most of the PCs will be from the 1790s and I want to pretty much leave the Core as it is. That's why I don't want technology to deciminate too much to the core.

What I really want is a setting that could have the appropriate mood and would have the basic steam technology of the late 1800s. One that feels like it could support a few people AHEAD of the curve. I have trouble with someone being too far away from the tech level of his domain so I'd like somewhere it could be "supported" if you see what I mean.

That's what I've got in my head, my goal of course is to appeal to this potential player who is obviously very fond of Steampunk while not giving up TOO much. This isn't so much an assured player, I think he'd be a good one, but he's not sure seeing as we've only recently met. I don't think a Pistoleer alone will do it, and even if it did I actually have one different PC who already wants to play that role. I really don't want to give TOO much as I've done that before and I didn't like where it went (Good Werewolf PC).

However, this is all brain storming anyway. That's why I like discussing it here.

[Higginz]

This might be totally off from what you're thinking, but you could homebrew an Island of Terror in which steam-powered devices exist in a medieval setting. I'm thinking of a mood/style similar to that which existed in the game Thief: The Dark Project. You could use some kind of mechanized golem for a Dread lord; perhaps, one created by a mad gnome scientist or something similar. This is probably more steampunk than what you're looking for, but it's an idea.

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

I wonder about clustering Nosos and Paridon and centering the Victorian and tech typish movement there... thoughts?

Guess what? It's already been done.

See Quoth the Raven issue #2 in Our Library for the Shining Bay cluster.

[Deewun]

Highly recommend the Shining Bay cluster, by the way. I've used it in all my campaigns after I read that article. It helps not just make those domains more useful, but makes Nova Vaasa more useful as well, as it now has obvious trading purposes.

[DoctorMoreau]

]Guess what? It's already been done.

See Quoth the Raven issue #2 in Our Library for the Shining Bay cluster.

*sniffle*

I love you guys!