For all your off-topic discussion needs.

Cowboys & Aliens, the movie, anyone see the Superbowl ad? :)

Some people can be just plain evil...

So everyone knows, I've lost all connectivity at my shelter, so my presence will be sporadic at best until.. *Shrugs*

Man, that's though. Sorry to hear that.

Huhzah, I has bought and installed/setup a new Linksys E2000 wireless router wif gigabit switches and nows I is back'ish. :)

Good job. Good luck with it.

It's not as stable as it previously was, but at least it works after basic setup.  Some additional tweaks might help it with the little infrequent disconnects it does.

Is it steam-powered, vril-powered, or clockwork?

It's powered by the ground-up souls of Cisco experts.

Growing antsy, twins are due in 3 days :|

If one glows red and the other blue yer in for an epic tale.

Temporary hiatus begins, twins are coming 2 days early.

Fellow GM, you have the reigns.

whooohooo. Good luck and enjoy the chaos thats next.

Good luck and congratulations!

All is well!  I finally got my laptop here so I'm able to do a more indepth update.

7:54, Annalina Therese, 19.1", 6 pounds 2 ounces.
7:55, Ian Alexander, 20", 6 pounds 4 ounces.

Wide eyed, strong grips, huge yawns, long stretches, WIDE EYES.  My daughter is looking all over the place all the time :)  It's a good thing I have that notoriously famous endurance and don't need sleep for days.. because I haven't.  Today's nutrition has consisted of teryaki beef jerky.  The procession of grandparents is endless today, the mother's family is ludicrously huge.  What a ridiculous Saturday morning; C section was scheduled for Monday, I get a text at 6-7am saturday morning and suddenly I have to pack my life into the one bag I own, shave, shower, and do 85mph for an hour and a half to get to the regional metropolis' to get to the hospital.  *Sighs with exasperation* What else can I say right now?  Ian's back from a feeding in the nursery :)

So she has a big brother. Big by 2 ounces. ^_^

Congratulations =)

grats mate.

Double congratulations are in order.

Congratsulutzia on the new twins :D
It is amazing how life is, isnt it?

Contrats on the twins. You will need it. I had two close but its still not like having twins. It really is a blessing. Good luck.

Aww, c'mon, not even a couple of complementary screams, make me feel like i need a bigger gun T.T

*Considers, during the course of figuring out which degrees and majors to go after to plan a future, History focused around the Victorian era, if only to fuel his steampunk interests* :P

What about airships. Every one love a good airship, right?

I'm pretty sure that's one of the #1 marveling features for this community :)

A couple folks have been added, and requested removals have been processed :)

Woah new people that are actually posting :-)

Well on thing about history is that once its written its known. The function of this "game" is more about providing that information than running role play.

So sitting around being read without posting is still working. :)

Odd as that sounds.

Yeah but the mods will not agree with you on that. Inactive 'games' are to be archived and deleted.

This is a discussion forum, not a game, THOUGH, we do in fact have a section for potential freelance gameplay if anybody wanted to delve into it.  I think the last setting was a Victorian bar of some sort, just so folks could socialize, flesh out a character, etc.

Discussion only games exist on RPOL. This is one of them. There are others on RPOL handling things not allowed in community chat.

Inactive also has a pretty generous allowance. Though Mortixx does have a point this is far from the inactive must delete level. In fact even this OOC posting counts to RPOL conditions as activity.

Id discuss further but its not all that productive.

Does anyone have a link to the games players-wanted thread?

Having joined as a co GM here its now valid for me to post and bump that to encourage participation.

One of the big purposes of this forum was to catalog content for this genre.  So if ya'll see truly pimpin' steampunk'ish goodness out there, feel free to link it up in the appropriate category for us all to gawk appreciatively at.

Oh.. and yes...

Ive joined Automaton as a GM here. Largely to help do administration to keep new information and new people flowing in.

One of the first things I've done is set up a Sticky thread that gives you links to all the threads we have. Found that to be a great idea and alot easier to get around the group.

Part of the administration allowance includes being able to add new persons to the group. So if you know those interested in the topic do invite them to swing by.

Indeed, we had a secondary GM a long time back but must've gone away when I did as well to tend to starting college life and having twins to handle.  I don't abandon whatnots, so when I returned I gussied up this shibang.  We should probably update the players wanted ad, wherever that may be.

Just make a new players wanted post. And if the original is still around RP0L automatically directs you there.

Already done.  As best could be searched, the old one was no longer present.  Possibly due to a former GM's step-down.

Seems they get deleted after a certain time to. I tried to bump an add for one of my games once but it was gone. Been a solid half yeear sincde its last bump though.

And it's been a year since ours'.

This thread started:

link to a message in this game

I encourage you all to read it as it contains our very mild rule. Most importantly it reminds why we are here.
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:04, Sat 14 July 2012.

Some basic reminders:

The group works by asking questions and sharing your own information finds.

There is no posting requirement but we encourage to chat and talk.

Games can be advertised in the game thread.

We hope this forum will help improve your game or lead to you asking other members to play.

I am looking for one of two books. If you have either pm me.

http://www.rpgnow.com/product/...-Resource-Management

http://www.rpgnow.com/product/88667/Kingmaker

Allrighty found this little gem while doing some math for one of my games.

It is a section on the economics buying ower and wages in victorian England.
http://www.victorianweb.org/history/work/nelson1.html

and here are some of the average wages and expenses of the time.
http://www.victorianweb.org/economics/wages2.html

Excellent submission w byrd!

thanks, came in handy for some of my projects in the past...


Oh and for shiggles and gits....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...8&feature=relmfu


aandhow effective is a gatling gun....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vbLu5zyWs4

Admin:

Digital Mastermind has had real life activity changes. Game Ownership has transferred to myself. Everything is continuing on as always. A place to discuss our genre, ask for help, fish for ideas and enjoy a mutual interest. The lack of a required posting rate remains. Hang out here when you have something to say.

Yep yep, no worries folks, status quo continues, just under the administration of the more active and information laden guidance :)

On another topic comepletely I am RUNNING a BARBAREN! game. I need ideas on what/how to make magic work. Feel free to suggest here or pm me.

Use Ars Magica?

Probably too complicated.

Assigned each broad topic a skill and roll d8 + skill. Low is bad, high is good.

The game uses a pool of d6's and measures how many successes you have vs the other guy. There are no skills in the game.

Id have to suggest discussing it in the main RPOL forums as detailing non-victorian mechanics is a bit too much "off topic".

Not sure which RPOL form it falls under but if you get it wrong the mods just move it anyway.

Well thanks for the help anyways. I tried other forums and got squat.

Have you tried seeing if that game itself has a website/forum for such talk?

Yes,but sadly the website is in German.

In reply to Shady Joker (msg # 55):

I've seen your posts regarding BARBAREN. Normally I am against success-based rule systems, but that game is so much fun!! :D
And because I am german, feel free to mail me if you have any questions about that game. Do have the pdf of it. :)

Just a reminder this board is based on voluntary posting. There is no posting requirement but it still takes postings to keep up activity.

If you have thoughts, ideas or things you are working on be sure to let us know! We all like to cross-germinate ideas.

Everything I have to post is blatant self-promotion, so I'm trying not to overdo that. :)

Any news? Cons?

No news or cons for me. I'm in the middle of a move. I wish I could just whisk off to a con instead. I'm already packed! :)

New members added today.

By all means remind me to bump the players wanted thread.

The discussion group is voluntary so we have no required posting. It can be quiet between times when someone comes up with something new to talk about.

Hey all,

I've been working on an Android app to send push notifications whenever a game updates.  For anyone with an Android device and is intrested, I've cleaned it up a little and finally published the app to Google Play (Price=Free).

You can get the Android app here:
https://play.google.com/store/...knights.rpolnotifier

Disclaimer:  This is my first Android app.  At this point, I'm the only one to have ever used it.  There are bound to be small problems with it still.  In all reality, this is a beta (it seems stable).  If you have any problems, please send me a message instead of down-rating the app.

It basically works like this:

• The app logs into RPoL and copies your Atom feed's url from your User Prefrences page (/usermodules/profile.cgi?action=feeds)
• The app registers the Android device and Atom feed's URL to www.evilknights.com^* (my website)
• At a set interval, my website monitors the list of registered feeds for updates. (just like a news reader app)
• For games with an update, the website sends a push notification to the registered device via Google's GCM service.
• The device displays a notification that has a weblink back to the game that had posted an update.
• You click on the update, go back to RPoL, and see what's new in the game.

*-My site doesn't have anything useful yet.  I'll be updating this week.  Don't worry, your password is NEVER sent to my site, it is only used between your Android device and RPoL.

Since we work on a voluntary bring up a topic basis a reminder to all to bring up ideas or thoughts at times.

I'd also appreciate help in remembering to bump the player's wanted thread. Usually when a new person comes in they have an idea or question to ask. This in turn prompts more discussion.

Things are kinda slow so if others have ideas to operate this group please speak up.

When will they just add Steampunk already.  Its the only genre that is consistently requested.

Here is the latest request:
link to a message in another game

Why should they, though?  Steampunk seems adequately described as science fiction.

It's like demanding that splatter-punk have its own designation instead of horror.

I encourage people to add in for support of the genre Steampun listing.

Admin:

Adjusted group setting so everyone one has 0 and A

A is the in character play

4-5 people where missing A and may have had groups 1 & 2 which never got anything in them. Likely just from having joined under earlier organization rules/intents.

More joiners

Remember this is a voluntary group with no mandatory posting rate. However, for there to be things people do need to talk about things. Questions, ideas, thoughts, links are all welcome to spark conversation.

http://portlandtribune.com/pt/...full-steampunk-ahead

the Bartista folks in the news.

(Victorian fighting art)

Here... always here...
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:41, Fri 05 July 2013.

In reply to Brygun (msg # 68):

I knew there was in character play here, but I am not certain how it goes or works, since this forum (from my understanding on perusing and joining) is that it's OOC discussion about the genre.

Not that I mind there being an IC chat, just wondering the logistics of it.

Ah the Original Founder setup group A as a general tavern sort of place. Meant to be a place to try out talking for you character. There isn't really any plot/NPC support from the staff.

Announcement:

ninthbit has now joined the forum's staff as a GM. This is to help ensure continuation of the group and its contents.

Happy to help out.  As my first GM action, I've gone and bumped the game advert.
link to a message in another game

(Granted, I could have done this as a player, but it just wouldn't have felt right)

Thanks for the help!

RPOL guidelines are that Wanted Players ads are supposed to be GM posts (or at least the thread started) and curious people posting/bumping.
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:04, Fri 05 July 2013.

I'm new to this board but love the genre.  I was in a one on one steampunk game that died out and am in a email game with a bunch of other players that is going well.  I'm glad to be here with people that love this game genre.

Hey, guys, I'm still in, but I have very little time to post. I'd like to be able to read everything in this game, though.

Thats fine.

The founder set this to one for easy reading, no posting requirements. So we don't "shoot up the charts" with posts. People can come by and check when they wish.

Happy Holidays and well wishes for your new year 2014

Happy holidays, all!

Happy New Year to all!

Well I think I figured out why it's been so quiet here lately.  My server stopped auto-bumping the forums Wanted Players ad back in January.  I suppose I should check on that thing every once in a while.

Once again the occasional reminder we are user driven here

Ask questions, ask for advice, suggest a show of get your Steam on. Its how we roll here.

Um... I'm almost done with my next steampunk book. That's about all the news I have.

Gravity still works. My concussion tells me so. :-P

Your sacrifices in the name of science are noted, and appreciated.

I am given to understand ligamental torsion still sucks; likewise barometric lressure

So say my back, knee  and ankles.

If ether of a propulsive capacity exists, or can be manipulated, then one day I may fall and not have a Newtonion concussion. Ergo, it is important to test. Afterall... the saying along the lines of... an absence of negative does not affirm the positive

All glorious to pursue in the name of science, brown and goggles!

Anyone see Doctor Snuggles? The wood and steam builder of space ships, earth drills and gizmos galore? Old cartoon show.

Here's a question for everyone:

What would you want to know better about your Victorian & Steampunk games?

I'm usually stumped on what everyday steampunk items the PCs would see. My game isn't heavy steampunk, but supposed to be Victoriana, so the whole world isn't overrun with steampunk gadgets and stuff yet. What's likely to have filtered down to remote areas that are still reasonably 'civilized'?

BBC had a show IIRC called Victorian Farm


In the Victorian days the rurual where using horse and blacksmithing to run farms.

So something like the post-to-post tractors where a big difference. If you think of a ferry boat pulling along a rope that goes to posts on each bank of the river you have an idea. The next series would be tractors more easily steered.

>A< tractor would be a big deal for a village. It might even see people trying to rent or crop share for the fella with the tractor to do work on their fields.

The transition also saw the tractor owners starting to buy up the nearby fields and that means those farm families had to leave. PCs on the roads might met some of those displaced people because of the tractor marvel. Then arrive at the farm land and see it at work.

An accurate pocket watch, say from a naval officer, might be a valued oddity. It being the only clock in the community. Seriously. No clock towers, no cell phones, no watches. Up at sunset and work till dark. The idea of counting minutes and seconds would be curious. Perhaps he folks with the watch ring the bells at 5 pm to call folks home for dinner or something. Or the medieval built church was donated the naval officer's pocket watch and use it to tell when the bell ringing hauls on the ropes

Two ideas to work with anyway

Routine reminder we are a question and answer driven group. So new posts generally come from asking questions. We function to save the answers so we can all search through the threads for ideas.

If a steam engine auto of gasses in the wilderness and there is no one around to hear it, does it make a sound?

Kachuga Kachuga Kachuga

You can tell by how the leaves vibrate.

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Our board often goes through quiet times. We save answers so as time went by a lot of questions could be looked up rather than asked. Thus we have quiet times. When a new person joins they ask questions. Any existing person can ask questions too. Then we save the answers and the quiet resumes.

Well let's see if we can liven things up shall we?

Remember to ask questions and tell what you are interested in.

We are a question & answer forum so its things like that which generate activity. Posts are saved to facilitate local research.

Though it is after our period I recommend the youtube channel "The Great War" hosted by Indy. It is doing a once per week episode on the events of WW1 which was 100 years ago. Plus they do various specials on this and that. If you see where 1889 might have gone in 1914 you can get an idea for what your mad scientists are working on in their Steampunk labs. Spoiler alert:

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Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
A lot of people die.

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