It's weird that steampunk settings never really quite took off. I remember the huge hype for Eberron, but no-one actually played it.What were the other notable steampunk settings? The Kerebos Club? Even something like Steamboy (2004) was a huge fucking flop:>https://youtu.be/tVFkGX_zL3Q?si=LvNTutAm7IzF-K3T
>>97967160As a huge fan of Victorian stuff, the problem is that many people don't know how to approach the genre and get trapped into banal stuff that goes anywhere as a setting. Eberron was handicapped because it used DnD, a poor system always tied to dungeon crawling, an element already obsolete by any steampunk would-be setting where the focus is on urban exploration.>What were the other notable steampunk settings?Arcanum is very good and understands the genre very well.
>>97967214Not that guy, but I think it's because the whole era is kind of out-of-synch with what people sort of consider 'modern morality', if that makes sense.First, it's really white. Second, the 'scrappy rebels' are very much blue-collar workers and would be considered chuds by anyone's standards.So it's either playing nobles, or playing the non-photogenic workers.
Steampunk is a lot more than just goggles and gears. Most people only know the very base level of the setting. The original authors also wrote in a nineteenth century setting because they lived in one which is very different to a modern author/rgp creator.Read this article for a breakdown of where the setting originated and the themes that make it interesting. https://steampunkworkshop.com/nine-novels-defined-steampunk/Eberron takes a very different route and I would argue has only slight aesthetic steampunk appeal but is it's own setting. I played in a 3 year Eberron campaign shortly after it came out so it doesn't feel to me like no-one played it, but that was quite a while ago now.
>>97967236So-so. It was not so black and white. Is true you have gigantic european empires, but you also have plenty of colonies around the world. Many of them were controlled because their upper class were more than happy to serve european powers as long as they get their fair cut of money, women and drugs. You also had plenty of immigration because of these colonial policies, this time period saw the great chinese population increase in western countries, in america they were used to build railroads and other poorly paid infrastructure. Back at home you had radical socialists, evangelists, anarchists and a bit of everything being opposed to brutal labor laws for the mercury poison induced in factories. You can have a bit of everything in the setting and the only people who can be afraid are those who enjoy black/white narratives.
Steampunk doesn't have a seminal work. People are generally lazy and uncreative and need something solid to copy.
>>97967160Eberron is more magitec, which is peak fantasy
>>97967352Retard
>>97967367show me where i'm wrong
>>97967367He's right though, there's no big steampunk works to act as touchstones or to really drum up interest for the genre. It existed mostly as a vibe and then it died.
>>97967287A list like this would be great for actual period novels and books
>>97967371NTA but if you can't bother to read 2 posts above yours I would rather report your post for off-topic and shitposting.
>>97967416i've seen that list and I still maintain that there's no seminal work in the sense that there's nothing that broke through in the public sphere like the Lord of the Rings did for fantasy or Star Wars for science fiction.
>>97967444You can maintain whatever you want because after all your opinion is not based on any logic, you're just a retard. Reason why I said I would rather tell you to fuck off.
Is Space 1889 a joke to you or what? This might be bias on my part but I see a lot of stuff for it hanging around. The thing even had dedicated miniature lines which many larger settings never got.And Dystopian Wars is out there too now and as far as non-40k wargames go its certainly not dead and gone.
>>97967160>I remember the huge hype for Eberroneberron isn't steampunk>no-one actually played it.you are lying for (You)s
>>97967444I'm >>97967459 I feel like I was being too rude anon. Maybe I don't agree with your opinion but I don't like being so rude to other anons. Sorry for that and you should feel free to shitpost here like anyone else as long as is not spam or malicious.
>>97967799You don’t have to apologise to retards. He’s arguing from his opinion on what is and isn’t a seminal work. There are plenty of popular foundational novels like the Difference Engine and Morlock Night. But he will act as if his opinion is an argument.
>>97967893I agree there's a lot of cool steampunk out there. GURPS gets a special mention because they have a few manuals dedicated only to it and they have great material. But these days I feel like there's too much unneeded negativity on 4chan. I know we're all retards here and all that but it doesn't sit right with me just telling another anon to fuck off if they haven't done anything to deserve it yet. I don't want to contribute to this site becoming another shithole like many others have become.
>>97968023NTA but I honestly can't remember any that really broke into the mainstream in a big way.
Steampunk lends itself too well to communist themes
>>97968074Does it really, though? That era doesn't really resemble even proto-Communism, the workers would be deeply conservative and racist even by 1950s standards.We're talking about a time at the height of the colonial era, when (for example) the Irish weren't considered white.
>>97968023A true gentleman through and through.>>97968081I can kind of see what that guy means in the sense that the conditions of industrial labour in 19th century England are what led Mr. Marx to write his big book of stuff and such. That said, there are interesting examples like the Paris commune to draw from for adventuring.
>SteamboyNot sure how common this take is, but I think the first half is absolutely incredible. Then suspension of disbelief gets a little shaky when the arms company decides to declare war on the British empire but all the cool gadgets paper over it. But then the tower takes off and things just get too far away from where we started and the whole film begins to feel groundless.8/10 overall for the visual spectacle.
>>97968066Depends what you mean by mainstream. But Arcane was pretty mainstream and is considered steampunk officially. I don't like it and think the story was terrible, but it proves the genre has had mainstream titles under its belt>Arcane (titled onscreen as Arcane: League of Legends) is an animated steampunk action-adventure television series created by Christian Linke and Alex Yee. It was produced by the French animation studio Fortiche, under the supervision of Riot Games, and distributed by Netflix. >>97968123thanks anon
>>97967160No one cares about steampunk settings because there are no popular steampunk works. Listing a bunch of novels no one has fucking heard of does not make that any less true. Most people wouldn't even recognise the term, never mind be able to name anything that fits.
>>97968449I’m sure most people here have heard of Arcane. Comparing the average book to LoTR or Star Wars is an unfair comparison. There are very few works of fiction that come close to the juggernauts. I would argue most modern fantasy has much more in common with Dragonlance than LoTR. For example wizards casting real spells rather than being Angels or whatever Gandalf was. Most people haven’t heard of Dragons of Autumn Twilight but it’s undeniably had a huge impact on fantasy. In the same way the steampunk books mentioned have had a huge impact on the genre even if they aren’t instantly recognisable.
>>97968478>ArcaneMagitek slop, not steampunk.
>>97968502>Ignores everything but the first line
>>97967160>What were the other notable steampunk settings? The Kerebos Club?The League of Extraordinary GentlemenThe Amazing Screw-On Head (that parodies the above)
>>97968388(image contains Arcane spoiler for anyone who cares to watch that thing.)Arcane was visually stunning. But in my OPINION it's far enough removed from steampunk that i hesitate to call it steampunk. Art deco sci-fantasy maybe? There are elements of steampunk here and there It's a shame that Arcane's artstyle had to be married to the infuriating plot and the intensely dislikeable main cast. And the fact that it had to constantly remind the viewer that hey hey remember this LoL character? You're watching a LoL product so don't forget to play the game! But anyway, art deco sci-fantasy. I like the style but I also think it's visually distinct from steampunk.
>>97968478>I’m sure most people here have heard of ArcaneKey word "here". That's how niches work. Having a huge impact on the steampunk genre is like being a big deal in Tuvalu: the rest of the world doesn't give a fuck.
>>97968449>Most people wouldn't even recognise the term, never mind be able to name anything that fits.Steampunk and cyberpunk are the two most popular -punks by a country mile. Any other punk, like dieselpunk or biopunk, are table scraps by comparison. I assure you, people have heard of steampunk.
>>97968523Only relevant part of the post to respond to tbqh, the rest was just waffling
>>97968620The Piltover/Zaun twin cities - Piltover is the glamorous upper city, and Zaun is the grungy lower city - are both steampunk/gaslamp fantasy in different directions. Piltover is magitech, while Zaun is grungy with a focus on chemicals. There are indeed art nouveau/art deco influences as well.
>>97968710They are all minuscule compared to cyberpunk; the biggest table scrap is still not relevant. And even cyberpunk is niche.
>>97968723To emphasize, Piltover/Zaun is a very small slice of the kitchen sink that is League of Legends's setting of Runeterra. It is practically the only place in the world that carries its aesthetic. It's dramatically different from, say, Ionia's faux-Asian mysticism and the pirate haven of Bilgewater.
>>97967160I feel it worthwhile to mention we had a full thread a month ago on punk aesthetics that will probably cover a lot of the points inevitably brought up in this thread.https://archive.4plebs.org/tg/thread/97682900
Still greatly saddens me that Dishonored died with such a whimper. The setting itself had such a cool vibe.
>>97968775>whalepunk
>>97968721>Your main point was just waffling>I clearly didn't understand what you were saying so I'm just going to ignore itI accept your concession.
>>97967379Yeah, absolutely no critically acclaimed steampunk works came out in recent memory.
>>97969143i dont get it, its all positive?
>>97967160>It's weird that steampunk settings never really quite took offIt's not that steampunk never "took off" it's that there isn't a sense of where the genre's boundaries are. There are things that are 100% steampunk like Steam boy or the difference engine, but also things like Arcane and Legend of Kora, there's too many edge cases so people's expectations of the genre get blurred. I'm not saying that a steampunk setting going full fantasy is bad but because of how niche "vanilla" steampunk is you could very much get a situation where a GM comes in with the expectation of running a grounded detective story set in a steampunk London and the players come in with a different expectation. It's kind of like if the definitive cyberpunk setting in people's minds was Shadow run, a game that clearly takes liberties and pushes the conventions of the genre as THE example of a genre isn't really an ideal situation.
>>97967160was never interested in the genre but this comment at least made me think i could see the appeal in it
Warmachine / Iron Kingdoms
>>97967160Anything Victorian = white people.As there are fewer and fewer whites, there are fewer people who find that era charming.
>>97969966are you kidding? Japan loves talking about the industrialization of the Mejii era and even Indians make stuff like Kesari about the Battle of Saragarhi.
>>97970615Well, Japanese people are white adjacent/basically white. Dunno about Indians.
>>97970615Sakura Wars features mech fights in steampunk Japan.
>>97969966>>97971054
>>97971320>steampunk, Japan I am unironically interested please tell me there's a translation
>>97967160eberron isn't steampunk
>>97971338Depends on the game/anime. Sakura Wars is a SEGA IP that's been running since 1996.
>>97971364Oh man, I genuinely love those games! It's such a shame Shin Sakura Taisen didn't get a good response, I think the franchise is basically on ice.The first four games were so charming.
>>97969966People that worry about time periods being "too white" don't let that stop them from filling it with non-whites, and they're commonly white woketards anyways.
>>97969459It's generally accepted that, as real-world influences and technological advancement goes, the rough hard cap on steampunk is the end of World War 1. Once you enter the interwar period, you are in the realm of dieselpunk.
>>97969093It would be a stretch to call Arcane steampunk. Sure, there's a fair amount of Victorian aesthetic, and one of the central themes of Piltover/Zaun is class warfare, but the tech is all over the place. Not to mention the previous point that the twin cities are only a small slice of a broader schizo kitchen sink fantasy setting.
>>97967160Dieselpunk has a more relatable feel
>>97972291Borrowing an old post:Dieselpunk is great too. It covers the interwar period up through and shortly after the end of WWII. It bridges the gap where steampunk ends (end of WWI) and atompunk begins (post-WWII). While dieselpunk focuses on the technology enabled by the combustion engine and more robust industrialization, it often pairs with its cultural sister genre decopunk. It's not all Nazis and noir, but it does come across as a little more hard-edged at times compared to its more upbeat and whimsical older brother steampunk, even if it can still be very pulpy.
>>97968792no, steampunk with whales.
>>97973544Close enough.
