What game do you think captures best the overall feel and style inherent to steampunk?
I know that “feel and style” can be a bit subjective, and I am open to most interpretations, but I mostly mean the generic/cliché feel of airships, giant steam engines powering giant clockwork automatons and bizarre inventions. They don’t need to be strictly tied to a “realistic” setting, and so some more gaslight fantasy games could fall in this category.
Some Steampunk games I know would be:
- Space 1889 (more toned down steampunk, alternate history, but ticks most of the boxes. Also the one I have the most experience with)
- Airship Pirates (Read it, but never played it)
- Castle Falkenstein (Read it, does have magic and Steampunk, unusual card mechanics, never played it)
- Tephra (fantasy and steampunk, I don’t know much about it) - Victoriana (steam fantasy, like above: don’t know much)
- Thyria (quite old and only in German, again steam fantasy, played it once and it was fun)
- Victoriana (steam fantasy)
Those are the ones I run/played/found that would fit the bill. Honorable mentions could be Deadlands or Cthulhu by gaslight, which may count if you are willing to stretch the term steampunk a bit (in case of Cthulhu you would need to stretch it big bit, but nevertheless)
Alright. Now that I have rambled on for way too long: What do you think is the best one, included in my list or not, steampunk game? Not just by setting, but also by rules and how flawless they match with their specific flavor of steampunk.
Preferably games that aren’t too hard on the DM work-wise, but that’s just a bonus.
The only I know (and roughly, like played 2 one-shots) is castle Falkenstein.
The card mechanic is really interesting as it mixes randomness and choice. If you have bad cards in hand you’ll still have to accept to fail some action at a point. The lore is also kinda interesting, like all the invention from Vernes book are real, Napoleon IV sits on the french throne, so a kind of history branching-out.
So it is actually fun to play? I was never really sure what to think of it, but maybe I need to give it a chance at the table (even so the rule book is a bit …unusual structured… if I remember correctly).
From a player perspective, yes it’s fun. I am a nice public though.
That said, I am more a Sci fi /WOD lover, so I wouldn’t join a campaign if I have other options but it’s more an agenda thing