Customer Reviews

Gurps Steampunk

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I've been dying for this book for months, and let me tell you... it lives up to the expectations. It doesn't matter if you want to play a Jules Verne-esque Romantic Fiction romp or a James Blaylock Steam meets Spells dark comedy, this book will help it come true.

Essentially, this book makes the assumption that Victorian-era culture, morality, and society would not change much had the technological marvels been possible, and I tend to agree. The setting gives players and GMs a terrific overview of a mis-understood culture that is chock-a-block with gaming possibilities.

As an example, my playing group is using this book to re-create the Battle of Rourke's Drift... but the Prussian government has secretly armed the Zulus with advanced weaponry, in order to win an ally in the region. Is it plausible? Probably not. But is it fun? HECK, YEAH!

Never mind those "more-anarchist-than-thou" cyberpunks or "more-gothic-than-thou" Vampire gamers. Pick up GURPS Steampunk. Pick it up NOW. Trust me.

Ever since the demise of the Game Design Work Shop. I have been looking for a conversion for my Victorian roleplaying. This book fills the gap. I, being an old fart roleplayer, have little time to do conversions. The original rules for 1889 where very simplistic. I wanted more meat. GURPS gives me that extra detail that I crave. The history and color supplied is very good, but of little use to me. The characters and tables were what I needed. Very well written, and to the point. many of these suppliments tend to lean to generalities, but this one focuses on the salient points.

I highly recommend this book, even if you don't find the genre compelling. I may never run a victorian game, but I read the book from cover to cover. The writing is excellent and really captured my imagination. Stoddard evokes a marvelous setting, chock full of gaming potential.

Do you love the novels of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells? Have you ever dreamt of becoming the hero of one of their novels? This is a source book for the GURPS roleplaying system which will allow you to do exactly that. It provides lots of information on building a world, characters, and a story for your campaign. Actually this book has a lot of background information on the age and I really enjoyed reading it. This is my favorite GURPS source book and I recommend you pick it up.

The best one sentence characterization of Steampunk I've ever seen is "an excess of odd enthusiasms combined with the almost was."

It is a marriage of the almost possible with mad science and an over-the-top enthusiasm outlook that is odd, and even annoying, by modern standard. Imagine a steam-powered dirigible with a heavy load of coal on board. Impossible! Ridiculous! Now "all" you have to do is invent a partial anti-gravity device and suddenly it becomes quite reasonable. Sounds impossible? Perhaps, but it didn't seem so to inventors in the Victorian era who were constantly challenging and changing every aspect of society.

History does things that writers wouldn't dare put in their books because they are so implausible. Steampunk takes advantage of that and then pushes it to the nth degree while still seeming half reasonable. It's like a pleasant daydream during a fairly good history lesson.

Now that I'm done defining Steampunk I'll describe how the book meshes Steampunk and GURPS. The one word version is: Superbly!!!

The much longer version is that the author (William Stoddard, my absolutely favorite GURPS author, if you hadn't guessed) has done a superb job of luring people into the Steampunk genre and then showing them the amazing roleplaying possibilities it contains.

He starts with a dash of history, don't worry, it's brief, to the point, and very interesting. For example, when was the first vibrator invented and what was the reaction of the stodgy Victorian doctors to it? You will be amazed!

Imagine people who are giants in their fields of endeavor (political, scientific, business, etc.), striding intellectually and physically across the continents, changing the course of history to fit their whims and clashing with each other in memorable ways. They make brilliant discoveries and create empires but their mistakes will haunt the world for generations to come. Sound like an implausible sci-fi story? No, it all happened, just as I've described.

Now throw in a mad-science element. This can be anything from magic as technology to sentient steam computers to tiny little changes that have huge ripple effects.

I ran a Steampunk campaign for multiple years that had only two little twists, magic exists (but works very slowly and with limitations) and steam-powered computers and robots. You wouldn't believe how much fun the players had with this. The player's favorite session was a duel between the characters and a bunch of steam-powered mecha using improvised lightning cannons on a volcanic island that was about to erupt.

The second favorite episode was a sad, sweet story involving machine gun-toting, man-eating semi-evolved dinosaurs in the mountains of Somalia on the edges of the British Empire.

The third favorite involved voodoo rites and inter-dimensional travel in New Orleans. And I didn't even get to send them to Mars! Oh boy would they have had fun there!

But back to the book. I couldn't have done ANYTHING without Mr. Stoddard's information and advice. He seems to have somehow swiped some TARDIS technology because this book contains far more material than should be able to fit in a book of this size.

Another advantage of Steampunk is that you can harness television shows, history lessons, and many other sources to help the players imagine this new, and yet strikingly familiar, world. Have them cross wits with Sherlock Holmes. Have them cross swords with Allen Quartermain (warning, he cheats!). How about a submarine duel with Captain Nemo? Rewrite Dracula or Frankenstein to your preferences! Explore the ancient mysteries of China and/or India with completely insufficient preparation!

Excited yet? If not, go to the Emergency Room because there's something seriously wrong with you.