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Post by friartook on Dec 7, 2015 16:33:43 GMT
OK, WTF is up with that intro music?! Almost threw off my headphones!
With a start like that, this better be a DARN good episode!
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Samuel Wise
Demigod
Ready to Help...
Posts: 989
Favorite D&D Class: Warlock
Favorite D&D Race: Mousefolk
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Post by Samuel Wise on Dec 8, 2015 6:17:34 GMT
Yes! Christmas came early! Since I have been building a Steampunk game (with a dash of Japanese myths) this has been an enjoyable episode. And, being a huge Steampunk fan, I've been enjoying the "culture" for quite some time. The DMnastics was done really well, glad to have DMMainprize back! I'm considering adding some of these fairy games into my next campaign. Well done!
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Post by catcharlie on Dec 8, 2015 11:37:28 GMT
I have to say the intro/outro music on the last few episode have been really awesome!
The YT video for people to be lazy and just enjoy (I know it's in the podbeans description, but still)
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tribalityshawn
Commoner
Rolling those dice.
Posts: 22
Favorite D&D Class: Rogue
Favorite D&D Race: Halfling
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Post by tribalityshawn on Dec 8, 2015 14:13:41 GMT
Since I have been building a Steampunk game (with a dash of Japanese myths) this has been an enjoyable episode. And, being a huge Steampunk fan, I've been enjoying the "culture" for quite some time. I'd love to hear about how you added in a 'dash of Japanese myths'. Sounds interesting.
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tribalityshawn
Commoner
Rolling those dice.
Posts: 22
Favorite D&D Class: Rogue
Favorite D&D Race: Halfling
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Post by tribalityshawn on Dec 8, 2015 14:16:07 GMT
Shawn from Tribality here. It's always great to be invited on the show as a guest and I'm hoping to be back on the show again in 2016.
If anyone has specific questions or wants to share a story about their own steampunk stuff I'm listening.
Thanks!
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Post by friartook on Dec 8, 2015 16:25:26 GMT
If anyone has specific questions or wants to share a story about their own steampunk stuff I'm listening. Well...since you asked... I've been working on a Steampunk world concept for a bit now. Less of a D&D-Steampunk hybrid and more of a conceptual world idea. Full disclosure: when I came up with this idea I was reading Seveneves by Neal Stephenson and playing Bioshock: Infinite. I may have stolen from been inspired by them Here's the concept: A planet whose orbit intersects with an asteroid belt every 100 years or so. This asteroid belt wasn't always there, it was originally a wayward planetoid with a very eccentric orbit. Some other celestial object impacted it and it broke apart into these asteroids. In the time before it broke apart, life evolved on the planet in question (humanoid life, naturally). Societies on this planet were just getting going on their equivalent to earth's Renaissance period when their planet passed through the asteroid belt. As a lovely twist, some of the matter contained in these asteroids was a newly formed substance that converted kinetic energy to heat. So, if you have a rock of this stuff, and you throw it against the ground, it will be hot to the touch when you pick it up. If you launch it at something at high velocity, its likely to explode. Note: I fully acknowledge the glaring pseudoscience of this concept. I am not good enough at physics or chemistry to come up with a reasonable scientific explanations as to why/how this happens. I just think its a cool idea.The result: a near total scouring of the planet. Humanity was brought to the brink of extinction. The survivors banded together, and using some of the newly discovered sciences, they came up with two solutions for maintaining their survival in future bombardments. One nation was heavy into mining, another was a nation of high learning and experimentation. The miners dug deep tunnels far enough underground to not be affected the majority of the bombardment. The experimenters built crazy new experimental engines and tried out some new theoretical designs; blimps, dirigibles, gyro-copters. They built steam engines that were powered off this new substance. After several decades of research and development, the result was two fold: A deep complex of habitable tunnels far below the earth, and a flotilla of massive airships. The airship captains' plan was to make sure they were always on the lee side of the planet; the side receiving the least bombardment. The Tunnelers stockpiled stores to ride out the bombardments and invented new practices for harvesting the celestial debris that was now the power source for the engines of their survival. The actual setting occurs centuries in the future of all this. The societies are established, and the human race has divided between those who live underground (more dwarfish) and those who dwell on huge cities of airships all strung together (more elvish). The two societies need each other to survive; the tunnelers need the food grown on the airships, and the sky dwellers need the power source for the engines driving their airships. There. I could go on all day. I'm very fond of this concept. I have plans to build it out using the Cypher System rather than D&D (easier for custom home brewing). Feel free to hit me with all the things scientifically wrong with this concept. I'd love to patch up the holes. Currently I'm stuck thinking about the "nuclear winter" problem that would result from such a heavy asteroid bombardment.
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Post by DM Kiado on Dec 9, 2015 19:06:19 GMT
If anyone has specific questions or wants to share a story about their own steampunk stuff I'm listening. Bunch of setting stuff.... That's a pretty awesome idea Friar! Cypher system sounds perfect for it too. I can't wait to see more. I am no science guy, but I don't know if going to the "other side" of the planet would give much benefit. Gravity is pulling in these Asteroids at all kinds of angles as it passes through the belt right, so some will come in straight on, some will come in skimming the atmosphere, slide around it and hit the ground, possibly on the side not in the direct line of fire. Now that is realistic, and of course not necessary for you world. Perhaps that leads it to be more of a challenge though. I would think if this is a recurring cataclysmic event every hundred years then I would see two ways that would go. Either it's still catastrophic everytime, and they have learned how to quickly deal with it, hide from it or whatever the case may be. That or they have have found a way to combat it and negate some of the damage in critical areas. Perhaps this new resource allows them to make defensive shields that can negate a vast majority of strikes at locations they exist. Perhaps they figured out how to use this resource to superheat it and make a weapon of sorts that will destroy incoming asteroids of this same material. Perhaps they have carved out a mountain for all the Airships to go when this event starts. You could have plot points out of that, just all the different ships in the same location, despite an differences. The live to fight another day idea. I will stop now. Fun idea for a setting though, hope you don't mind my random 2 cents. Can't help myself.
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Post by DM Kiado on Dec 9, 2015 19:24:08 GMT
Shawn from Tribality here. It's always great to be invited on the show as a guest and I'm hoping to be back on the show again in 2016. If anyone has specific questions or wants to share a story about their own steampunk stuff I'm listening. Thanks! Good input on the show. I hadn't really thought about Steampunk ideas much in the sense you guys were talking about it. The setting I am building the Gnomes will be the technological race. I hadn't put much thought into it beyond that until I heard this show. Many solid ideas for my Gnome Culture now. So here is something I am thinking about and maybe someone can give some thoughts. What about titles for technology based societies. For instance, the Gnome leader of my world needs a title, and not King of the Gnomes. I was thinking a council of Gnomes rule. Selected based off knowledge, achievement, and support of other Gnomes. This then breaks off into the society as a whole. Do these councilors govern people, or aspects of what the Gnomes do? Do they represent Clan Bubbleguts and Clan Toenails, or do they represent a school or field of research? If you have ever played Guild Wars 2, my Gnomes are somewhat inspired by them. The build cool things, they believe in knowledge and intelligence over power of strength. The construct Golems, Defensive structures, hidden traps, and many other things to protect their city (they are a city state, those Gnomes that reside there, but many spread across the land.) They are also (in the timeline my next game will run) are on the only race with active and schooled magic users. So the idea is half of it is divided by pursuit of technology, the other through magic, and even some who work to combine both. I don't want it to be a Magocracy, or Technocracy, but somewhere in the middle. Maybe even over complicated because they all think they are so smart if that makes sense. So out of all that, real question is: Titles and thoughts on Steampunk/Technology based Titles for societies?
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Post by friartook on Dec 9, 2015 19:28:53 GMT
I am no science guy, but I don't know if going to the "other side" of the planet would give much benefit. Gravity is pulling in these Asteroids at all kinds of angles as it passes through the belt right, so some will come in straight on, some will come in skimming the atmosphere, slide around it and hit the ground, possibly on the side not in the direct line of fire. Now that is realistic, and of course not necessary for you world. Perhaps that leads it to be more of a challenge though. This has crossed my mind, and I've been mulling it over. Haven't found a good solution though. Part of the whole concept that I like is the duality of humanity; the "sky dwellers" vs. the "miners". Had a lot of ideas around political intrigue and even potential wars between these two factions. They need each other, but hate each other. Because of that, I'm reluctant to "ground" the airship dwellers. I was toying with the idea of inserting a sort of "difference engine"; a setting appropriate computer capable of calculating the safest areas of the planet in each bombardment. Not all the asteroids coming in would be dangerous. The smaller ones would all burn up in the atmosphere. Adding in a predictive computer and a scientist class capable of tracking and observing incoming asteroids is a big technological leap, but necessity is the mother of invention. Specialized machines and skilled individuals could make that idea work and fill in that logical gap. My biggest pause point has been the nuclear winter problem. It is theorized that life was nearly wiped out on earth a couple of times due to a single large asteroid impact. What would periodic bombardments do to a planet's atmosphere over time? Nothing good, that's for sure. I've been toying with the idea of making the airships domed, so they are discreet encapsulated biospheres suspended in air by gyros and inflated air bladders. I'm also thinking the 100 years time gap may need to be longer to give time for the world to recover and make continued habitation plausible.
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tribalityshawn
Commoner
Rolling those dice.
Posts: 22
Favorite D&D Class: Rogue
Favorite D&D Race: Halfling
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Post by tribalityshawn on Dec 9, 2015 19:57:46 GMT
Bunch of setting stuff.... That's a pretty awesome idea Friar! Cypher system sounds perfect for it too. I can't wait to see more. I am no science guy, but I don't know if going to the "other side" of the planet would give much benefit. Gravity is pulling in these Asteroids at all kinds of angles as it passes through the belt right, so some will come in straight on, some will come in skimming the atmosphere, slide around it and hit the ground, possibly on the side not in the direct line of fire. Now that is realistic, and of course not necessary for you world. Perhaps that leads it to be more of a challenge though. I would think if this is a recurring cataclysmic event every hundred years then I would see two ways that would go. Either it's still catastrophic everytime, and they have learned how to quickly deal with it, hide from it or whatever the case may be. That or they have have found a way to combat it and negate some of the damage in critical areas. Perhaps this new resource allows them to make defensive shields that can negate a vast majority of strikes at locations they exist. Perhaps they figured out how to use this resource to superheat it and make a weapon of sorts that will destroy incoming asteroids of this same material. Perhaps they have carved out a mountain for all the Airships to go when this event starts. You could have plot points out of that, just all the different ships in the same location, despite an differences. The live to fight another day idea. I will stop now. Fun idea for a setting though, hope you don't mind my random 2 cents. Can't help myself. I really like this. First thing I thought of was what about the people on the surface. Is there a scattered, sorry lot of humans who end up between the two groups that are expendable? The poor suckers who can't get on a "lifeboat". Every 100 yrs. surface overpopulation is solved.
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Post by friartook on Dec 9, 2015 20:17:57 GMT
I really like this. First thing I thought of was what about the people on the surface. Is there a scattered, sorry lot of humans who end up between the two groups that are expendable? The poor suckers who can't get on a "lifeboat". Every 100 yrs. surface overpopulation is solved. My thought is that the surface is pretty much uninhabited. The Miners venture forth to harvest the asteroid debris needed to power everyone's society, and they may set up temporary camps, but in general there's no standing population on the surface. I could take a leaf out of the Pern books and make the intervals between bombardments variable. Perhaps the orbits are so erratic that the planet travels through them at irregular intervals. During really long (>1,000 years) intervals, the planet may start to be habitable again. Some may even believe that the bombardments are over and that the Miners and Airships are obsolete. Likely the "element" from the asteroids would become very, very valuable and scarce during such intervals, as the supply gets used up and more obscure deposits need to be sought out.
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tribalityshawn
Commoner
Rolling those dice.
Posts: 22
Favorite D&D Class: Rogue
Favorite D&D Race: Halfling
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Post by tribalityshawn on Dec 9, 2015 20:19:52 GMT
So here is something I am thinking about and maybe someone can give some thoughts. What about titles for technology based societies. For instance, the Gnome leader of my world needs a title, and not King of the Gnomes. I was thinking a council of Gnomes rule. Selected based off knowledge, achievement, and support of other Gnomes. This then breaks off into the society as a whole. Do these councilors govern people, or aspects of what the Gnomes do? Do they represent Clan Bubbleguts and Clan Toenails, or do they represent a school or field of research? If you have ever played Guild Wars 2, my Gnomes are somewhat inspired by them. The build cool things, they believe in knowledge and intelligence over power of strength. The construct Golems, Defensive structures, hidden traps, and many other things to protect their city (they are a city state, those Gnomes that reside there, but many spread across the land.) They are also (in the timeline my next game will run) are on the only race with active and schooled magic users. So the idea is half of it is divided by pursuit of technology, the other through magic, and even some who work to combine both. I don't want it to be a Magocracy, or Technocracy, but somewhere in the middle. Maybe even over complicated because they all think they are so smart if that makes sense. So out of all that, real question is: Titles and thoughts on Steampunk/Technology based Titles for societies? This is mostly in my head, but here goes putting it to paper (still very rough)...The gnomes in my Vodari homebrew are a technocracy with some hints of their old tribal structure left over from when they lived in forest villages. Most gnomes live on the island of Xolen in a mountain city called Mt. Xolen or in a cosmopolitan city called Xoleni on the other side of the island. They have a council of elders whose biggest responsibility is patent management and taxation. The elders are elected once every 20 years from each precinct and once elected they can just stay on until they get bored and quit or die. Elections had very low turnouts until they made them mandatory and election days are now big festivals as many people are locked out of work and have nothing else to do. The elders choose a Chief Elder from their group who is the head of gnome society and lives in a palace. Many elders are former guild leaders. Being the leader of a guild is a much more prestigious post. Guild Chancellors control gnome society running transportation, the military, food production, education and health care. Each year the guild selects a leader democratically via a vote from its guild members and they are are hotly contested posts. There is no overall leader of the guilds, but they do work together continuously led by the guild of Transport, Interoperations & Transfers. A big political issue is that most gnomes are not interested in power or administration, but they love creating systems. So the running of the guilds and government is highly automated, but really bad things happen can happen when no one is at the wheel. They leave the governance to low level engineers who feed numbers into a difference engines. Gnome society can be somewhat cruel as numbers make many decisions. Participation in the military and mass transportation is popular for those who like to operate machines more than invent them. A number of gnomes find positions as pilots, navigators and engineers. Poverty among gnomes that can work is rare and those who can't work due to illness or injury are usually covered by an invention called insurance. Overall, gnome life is urbanized, career focused and society is relatively safe with low crime and few enemies.
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Post by DM Kiado on Dec 9, 2015 22:15:12 GMT
I really like this. First thing I thought of was what about the people on the surface. Is there a scattered, sorry lot of humans who end up between the two groups that are expendable? The poor suckers who can't get on a "lifeboat". Every 100 yrs. surface overpopulation is solved. My thought is that the surface is pretty much uninhabited. The Miners venture forth to harvest the asteroid debris needed to power everyone's society, and they may set up temporary camps, but in general there's no standing population on the surface. I could take a leaf out of the Pern books and make the intervals between bombardments variable. Perhaps the orbits are so erratic that the planet travels through them at irregular intervals. During really long (>1,000 years) intervals, the planet may start to be habitable again. Some may even believe that the bombardments are over and that the Miners and Airships are obsolete. Likely the "element" from the asteroids would become very, very valuable and scarce during such intervals, as the supply gets used up and more obscure deposits need to be sought out. Interesting thought. A cycle of a thousand years, with normal human life spans is nearly 10 generations. Those alive at the end of that thousand year mark may not even believe it ever happened, or had concocted some of story to explain it. (This is could be fun with weird, hokey Religions.) This could be interesting even every 100 years. It would never happen more than once in a normal human's life time, so the would have to teach each generation the survival techniques that brought them through. My original thought on your asteroid resource would be that it was very valuable, and in some way was absolutely needed for defense from the next round of strikes. That way you could tie it in. This is going to be an interesting thing to figure out for your setting. As far as nuclear winter, you probably need to decide the scale of bombardment that the planet will face. Here is a sciencey thought on it. Let's say you have this belt of a broken world that rains down on your world as it passes by. Maybe the first pass was devastating and nearly wiped out the planet. Large chunks of this broken world rained down and caused a nuclear winter, firestorms, large scale food and resource depletion. (They say modern humans are descendants of about 8000 humans that survived an ice age (or something to that effect) in Africa. See "Cosmos".) Now say it's been a thousand years, and 10 passes through this belt. By this time, perhaps through the sheer violence at which the rocks move around in this belt they have been smashed to much smaller pieces, most that wouldn't even make it to the surface. Not to mention any large pieces could be dragged off by gravity from other large objects in your worlds immediate solar system. So you could say over time that the impacts lessen. Maybe only one or two get through that are on the megaton power scale after some amount of time. I don't know man, that's a tough one.
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Post by DM Kiado on Dec 9, 2015 22:21:34 GMT
This is mostly in my head, but here goes putting it to paper (still very rough)...The gnomes in my Vodari homebrew are a technocracy with some hints of their old tribal structure left over from when they lived in forest villages. Most gnomes live on the island of Xolen in a mountain city called Mt. Xolen or in a cosmopolitan city called Xoleni on the other side of the island. They have a council of elders whose biggest responsibility is patent management and taxation. The elders are elected once every 20 years from each precinct and once elected they can just stay on until they get bored and quit or die. Elections had very low turnouts until they made them mandatory and election days are now big festivals as many people are locked out of work and have nothing else to do. The elders choose a Chief Elder from their group who is the head of gnome society and lives in a palace. Many elders are former guild leaders. Being the leader of a guild is a much more prestigious post. Guild Chancellors control gnome society running transportation, the military, food production, education and health care. Each year the guild selects a leader democratically via a vote from its guild members and they are are hotly contested posts. There is no overall leader of the guilds, but they do work together continuously led by the guild of Transport, Interoperations & Transfers. A big political issue is that most gnomes are not interested in power or administration, but they love creating systems. So the running of the guilds and government is highly automated, but really bad things happen can happen when no one is at the wheel. They leave the governance to low level engineers who feed numbers into a difference engines. Gnome society can be somewhat cruel as numbers make many decisions. Participation in the military and mass transportation is popular for those who like to operate machines more than invent them. A number of gnomes find positions as pilots, navigators and engineers. Poverty among gnomes that can work is rare and those who can't work due to illness or injury are usually covered by an invention called insurance. Overall, gnome life is urbanized, career focused and society is relatively safe with low crime and few enemies. Actually I really like your layout. I am still the beginning of laying it out and haven't even considered guilds yet. Maybe that is my option, family leadership, and guild (or something similar) leadership as well. You have got ideas zinging around my head right now, I am off to CityofBrass to write it out! Seems like maybe I am working backwards too. I like your overall societal layout. Maybe tackle that first, and the leadership of it will be obvious. What do my Gnomes like to do, in what ways do they do it, and why they do it may be what I need to answer first.
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Post by robosnake on Dec 10, 2015 16:04:14 GMT
Just listened to the episode. I think you guys covered the "steam" part thoroughly, but left out almost all of the "punk." The punk part of steampunk, in my view, has to do with subverting and challenging the governing worldview, in this case of the Victorian age. Without the punk aspect, the Victorian assumptions are just taken at face-value. But punk is about resistance and subversion.
The way to work the punk them into games, I think, is to make the PCs the ones who break the mold. The nobleman who becomes a union agitator. The woman who abandons the idea of finding a good marriage to go into sky-piracy. The inventor from one of the colonies who comes to the big Imperial city to make a life for himself. Or, bring in stronger dystopian themes. In a Victorian or pseudo-Victorian setting, you don't have to pretend that it's full of egalitarians - give the PCs something to fight against, and make it costly to do so.
There is also a DIY aspect to the punk ethos, which fits perfectly with PCs who are themselves inventors and steam versions of hackers. They capture a steam automaton and re-purpose it. They hijack the giant mechanical spider and turn it on their creators. They create amazing things and give them away for free as a way of upsetting the social order. Etc.
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