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, welcome to Clockworks Commons Forum: Victorian & Steampunk Discussion

12:07, 29th March 2024 (GMT+0)

Gaming.

Posted by The AutomatonFor group 0
Tortuga
player, 24 posts
Fri 1 Nov 2013
at 13:20
  • msg #117

Re: Gaming

Gameplay trailer for Clockwork Empire:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2x1iLpQjULA
Kakihara
player, 2 posts
Sat 19 Jul 2014
at 23:21
  • msg #118

Re: Gaming

I was wondering if anyone who had Victoriana second ed picked up the third edition and could advise if the rules have been majorly overhauled and if its a tighter game. I had the first edition and the setting was great but the rules were not the greatest. I picked up the second edition at GenCon when they had just put it out and I'm a little hesitant to grab the third so just trying to figure that out.
Alyse
player, 1 post
Pretty, witty, and gay
(married since 2011!)
Sun 20 Jul 2014
at 20:43
  • msg #119

Re: Gaming

Only just picked it up, have yet to read it.
Tortuga
player, 27 posts
Tue 22 Jul 2014
at 03:29
  • msg #120

Re: Gaming

Clockwork Empires has been released as a super early release, if you're into that sort of thing.

http://clockworkempires.com/
Brygun
GM, 201 posts
Tue 22 Jul 2014
at 06:07
  • msg #121

Re: Gaming

dats.... whacky

May get into it. Gonna think about it.
Alyse
player, 2 posts
Pretty, witty, and gay
(married since 2011!)
Tue 22 Jul 2014
at 13:35
  • msg #122

Re: Gaming

In reply to Kakihara (msg # 118):

The following is from the game's Afterword...

quote:
Once more unto the breach!

When I eagerly accepted the Victoriana Line Developer’s position back in March 2011, I never thought that within a year
we’d be preparing the Third Edition. It’s sometimes hard to believe that Victoriana is already a decade old. Still, the
dwindling stock of Second Edition offered an opportunity to get down to brass tacks and re-evaluate the basic elements
of the game. After six years of rules development, playtesting, and actual play with the Second Edition, we wanted to
incorporate our experiences into a new rules set. While most of the rules contained in the Third Edition are unchanged or
mere tweaks or clarifications, there are four main areas where we took a bit more liberty.

The first area is the war between Entropy and Order. We wanted to bring this struggle more to the fore and thus created
the Celestial Engine. Now adventurers can not only choose whether to ally themselves with freedom and magic or faith
and industry, but they have a new tool to directly aid their efforts. We’ve looked at several monsters and celestial beings
through this lens as well in order to tighten their place in this universe.

The second area is the Encyclopaedia Victoriana. We wanted to create a cohesive alternate historical world that incorporated
all of the interesting ‘Victoriana-isms’ of the previous editions but also enabled Gamesmasters to more easily incorporate
historical research into their campaigns. Thus the Crimean War, while still going badly for the Allies, is moved back to
its historical date, while the Tsarina still rules Russia and Quebec has broken with Canada. In short, we’ve designed a
cohesive alternate world while ensuring that all of the published Second Edition supplements and adventures could be
seamlessly integrated.

The third area is magic. We changed the nomenclature to give magic a more Victorian flavour, but we also went a bit
deeper than that. Extensive playtesting proved that spell-casting was very expensive and difficult; in many cases the cost
simply wasn’t worth the risk. We scrutinised the magic rules in both editions and tweaked the system to incorporate the
best bits of both.

Finally, the fourth area is steam. The earlier editions of Victoriana teased steampunk elements that weren’t fully realised
until the supplements, most notably Faulkner’s Millinery and Miscellanea and Marvels of Science and Steampunk. With
Third Edition, we wanted to bring the steam to the core rulebook. While the previous two supplements still contain many
more options, this book is all you need to create steam-flavoured adventurers.

In the end, we strove to bring you the definitive Victoriana, one that was built over the course of a decade. Have no fear;
this is Victoriana as it has always been. Eldren aristocrats ride magically-lit carriages in their evening dress while Dwarven
engineers drive their steam velocipedes over the cobblestoned streets. Vampires lurk in the shadows while wyvern riders
circle aerostats in the sky. It is a world of adventure, and I’m thrilled to be part of its continuing development.

Walt Ciechanowski
Victoriana Line Developer, January 2013

Alyse
player, 4 posts
Pretty, witty, and gay
(married since 2011!)
Tue 12 Aug 2014
at 15:47
  • msg #123

Re: Gaming

Am currently gauging interest in an Iron Tsar series using Robin Laws' new DramaSystem rules.

Follow this link to a message in another game and scroll down to read a partial pitch (msg #11).
knight37
player, 5 posts
Tue 19 Apr 2016
at 01:36
  • msg #124

Re: Gaming

Forgive if this has been mentioned, but I just found this, a free D20-style game player's handbook chock full of Steampunk ideas for a fantasy/steampunk crossover setting.

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/pr...e-Age-of-Electrotech

Lot of good material and the price is right.
Azraile
player, 5 posts
Mon 24 Oct 2016
at 19:39
  • msg #125

Re: Gaming

It is an absolute crime!!!

Ark has a steam punk mod AND a castle mod...... but no sever I can find runs BOTH.
Brygun
GM, 260 posts
Tue 25 Oct 2016
at 06:32
  • msg #126

Re: Gaming

Is that Ark the game normally with the dinosaurs? Ark Survival IIRC
Azraile
player, 6 posts
Tue 25 Oct 2016
at 13:58
  • msg #127

Re: Gaming

Yes.

They have a mod that lets you build steam-punk style buildings, equipment, and tools (like a steam punk crafting table/grinder/furness and the like) to give your home a whole steam punk look.

There is a way to double up walls though for extra reinforcement, (or least you could) and a mod that also lets you build medieval castles with metal tier durability.

So you could build something that is an cool castle on the outside an a steam punk lab on the inside.

But I can't find anyone running both mods to do it!
Brygun
GM, 261 posts
Tue 25 Oct 2016
at 15:49
  • msg #128

Re: Gaming

Well now.

That's worthy of note. Noteworthy I say! Noteworthy!

A friend and I tried Ark Survival a while back. I have currently limited GB bandwidth and we had to abandon due to all the graphic updates, for things like high level dinosaurs well beyond our encounter range.

Might yet make another go of it.
Azraile
player, 7 posts
Tue 25 Oct 2016
at 17:11
  • msg #129

Re: Gaming

There are a few nonfunctional gears about (like a gear for a door handle?  wtf) but they didn't go crazy with it like a lot of people do.... it looks really good:

https://steamcommunity.com/sha...etails/?id=679529026
Aethulred
player, 12 posts
Wed 22 Feb 2017
at 03:16
  • msg #130

Re: Gaming

I note several messages and two links for this Qu'intela game.... but nothing more... is this open? what's the back ground.? ... is there an RTJ with guidance?
C-h Freese
player, 11 posts
What's over that hill.
What ever's in my book.
Wed 22 Feb 2017
at 04:19
  • msg #131

Re: Gaming

I am Treating it as an "orphan" clearing house where characters go between adventures.  Though since this has been quiet I figured I would practice some multi character interaction.  For some reason I do believe I ran into something that lead me to believe that it was an open gaming place for Characters to get together.  Often in the hope of starting a game.
Brygun
player, 272 posts
Wed 22 Feb 2017
at 05:24
  • msg #132

Re: Gaming

The in character section was created as a place, if people wanted, to dabble with their characters. Its not that we run stories, NPCs or plots there. Its there also if you want to practice the language of the time.

Also totally okay with folks meeting in those threads, or our other threads, and decide to hook up and enter rpol games together.
Aethulred
player, 13 posts
Wed 22 Feb 2017
at 16:20
  • msg #133

Re: Gaming

OK, That explains the lack of an RTJ or anything else normally found in a game link... Thanks.
Tortuga
player, 42 posts
Thu 6 Jul 2017
at 15:29
  • msg #134

Re: Gaming

I'm adapting my Galvanic Century steampunk series into a setting book for Fate. Anything you guys like to see in your Steampunk RPGs?

It's cool if you're not familiar with the books, I'm just talking in general.
StarMaster
player, 24 posts
Thu 6 Jul 2017
at 15:47
  • msg #135

Re: Gaming

I know that many games (and books) incorporate steam and magic, but I'm more of a sci-fi fan, so tend to prefer a straight steam game without magic and elves and such.

Also, for simplicity's sakes, magic and psionics are treated as mostly the same thing, with just a different mechanic. Never agreed with that, either.

What I've done for my Space: 1889 game is to create Mystical Careers, since mystics were quite a popular theme in the Victorian Age. I suppose, in a way, it's somewhere in between psionics and magic (any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic).

I've created 28 mystical careers, from Adept to Yogi, including Dervish, Free Mason, Guru, Houngan, Medicine Man, Monk, Seventh Son, Shaman, Swami, Vril-ya, Witch and Witch Doctor.

Both Harry Houdini and Arthur Conan Doyle went around debunking the frauds.

So I'd like to see something along those lines... mystics, with most of those mental/psychic abilities.
Tortuga
player, 43 posts
Thu 6 Jul 2017
at 16:05
  • msg #136

Re: Gaming

I've touched on spiritualism a little in the books, as a social trend, but for the most part there's nothing magical or supernatural aside from some leeway with 19th century pseudoscience like galvanic resurrection, luminous ether, N-Rays, animal magnetism, and all the weird stuff that the Victorians and Edwardians believed in that didn't actually exist.
Brygun
player, 273 posts
Thu 6 Jul 2017
at 21:50
  • msg #137

Re: Gaming

Aethulred:
OK, That explains the lack of an RTJ or anything else normally found in a game link... Thanks.


One of the things for Steampunk is the "Grandeur" and newness of things encountered. Examples are numerous:

Climbing up a mountain to discover a plateau of dinosaurs

Crashing into a mountain to discover a secret city

A new military concept based on the new thing... radio... machine gun... flying.

Attending a gala ball with royalty, monarchs and ministers of nations nearly at war

These things also tend to present that what the character (novel or game) do will affect the future of the world.

Steampunk, and Victoriana, also let us challenge the ideas of the "what if" had been slightly different. A technology we take for granted today would be wonderous if a steam punk version existed. How does that change the world? Often only one side/power has the new thing. Sometimes more.

If you include air or space travel in the setting then you have a huge expanse of exploring. Places we might know today are found earlier. Resources, like say gasoline or uranium, become politically important while most are still on whale oil lamps or coal for their ships.

The "what if" is something that turns history into steampunk.
Aethulred
player, 15 posts
Thu 6 Jul 2017
at 22:57
  • msg #138

Re: Gaming

Ah ... Liftwood and the Aether flyer!
Brygun
player, 274 posts
Thu 6 Jul 2017
at 23:19
  • msg #139

Re: Gaming

Aethulred:
Ah ... Liftwood and the Aether flyer!


Or if even Zepplins were slightly more practical used to explore remote Africa, high mountains or Fantasy World Incognito
Garrat
player, 25 posts
Fri 7 Jul 2017
at 05:42
  • msg #140

Re: Gaming

They are, no one wants to get away from the wholesale use of fossil fuels.
Brygun
player, 275 posts
Fri 7 Jul 2017
at 20:59
  • msg #141

Re: Gaming

Well there's more to Zeps then that. Maybe something for the naval thread.
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