Creating a Steampunk Domain- a Good Idea?

[Hell_Born]

Now, I know "Steampunk" and "Horror" don't really go together -certainly not in D&D- but being a fan of the various branches of Deadlands I got to wondering: would it be possible to design a Ravenloft Domain -an Island of Terror, naturally- with a Steampunk level of tech as compared to the Renaissance level of the most "sophisticated" domains (please don't lynch me if I got the tech level wrong)?

I have two "sourcebooks" that I think would be useful: Steampunk & Sorcery, by Legends & Lairs, and Deadlands D20- this being useful mainly for its horror-based background and its Mad Scientist character class. However, I need to know if this idea is welcome here before I begin trying to put it together, especially seeing as how I would require assistance from my superiors here.

I have an extremely rudimentary background for the domain already prepared, if anyone wants to "hear" it, and before you ask I intend to have the Domain as an Island of Terror floating somewhere in the mists, with my players either starting play there in the first place (and then wandering out into the rest of Ravenloft) or possibly as more experienced Ravenlofters who wander in, with the campaign possibly developing to cover the Domain being "discovered" by the Core, with the attendant chaos that would result.

So what do you all think? Is this idea worth running with?

[mistshadow2k4]

I find the idea an interesting one. Steampunk may sound hokey to some people -- and sometimes steampunk stuff is hokey -- but if done right the tech elements contribute to a sense of weirdness rather than detracting from the horror of the story. With that in mind, there would definitely have to be some element of horror to the domain itself, not just the darklord or the fact that it's on Ravenloft. Just my $0.02.

[Hell_Born]

Naturally. When I try thinking steampunk, I see imagery that I think could be considered horror. For example:

*A scientist becomes famous for his best-selling line of "Automatons"; clockwork robots that can tirelessly perform any task they have been designed to perform. Unbeknownst to their owners however, the scientist was unable to design a true form of artificial intelligence, instead resorting to a far easier method- each Automaton contains the brain of living human (or demihuman) who was kidnapped and then had their living brain extracted. Though the cranial tissue was mutilated as part of the implantation process, leaving the creature incapable of rebelling, enough remains that a core of the creature's true self remains, hideously aware of what has happened to it, fully conscious and screaming inside it's mechanical body.

*Machines are designed that are literally fuelled by souls; a special device that serves as the engine tears the spirits of the newly dead from their deserved afterlife and imprisons them within the machine, torturously extracting "necroplasma" from them as fuel. Perhaps the spirits only last so long before they are utterly obliterated, which means that the machine requires a constant source of new fuel.

But then I don't exactly consider myself normal, so could these actually be considered horrific? And how else could Steampunk and Horror be merged? Come to think of it, "Frankenstein" (the original by Mary Shelly) is actually a Steampunk/Horror (Frankenstein's Monster is created by "Weird Science" after all)...

[ScS of the Fraternity]

That idea of a soul-fueled machien is a neat one.
I think deadlands had the best steam-punk setting, what with ghost rock. All steampunk needs a maguffin - soemthing that expalins why their "science" flys in the face of all scientific rules, yet still functions.

I especially liked the bit about Dr. Hellstrome's railway - the third rail channels the force of fear from whereever it runs, sending the energy down the track to the switiching stations where the tracks converge - and where the energy currents converge - horrors are born!

Personally, I think it would be a neat idea - somethign like a city set up where the wealthy and powerful drain cheap power by channeling the fear and terror from the outside slums and boonies.

On a side note:
I once had this idea for a place which was struck by a zombie plauge, ala Dawn of the Dead, where the surviovers used the brains of zombies to create a massive electrical generator. Kind of like the matrix, with the heads of thousands of undead linked into a parralell circuit, drawing on the same energies that allow the zombies to animate after death.

[wolfgang_fener]

I can imagine an army of animated squeletons/zombies pedaling to activate a huge dynamo to power a mad scientist's electrical machine of doom.

We can then go on with metaphysical question like how much electrical power a single human squeleton can produce before crumbling to dust... Can you picture our mad scientist putting oil everyday on the joints of his undeads ?

Of course Ravenloft already accept many anachronisms while depicting mad scientists like the famous Dr. Mordeinheim and his laboratory which looks more like an early 19th century setup (definitively past renaissance).

For a real life exemple, the first dynamo was built in 1832 and the first electromagnetic telegraph was created in the same year... But then again, there was no magic to help in its discovery and developpment.

[Ronia Sun]

Another excellent steampunk sourcebook is Iron Kingdoms by Privateer press. It always struck me as having enough grittiness to it that you could easily work in horror elements. And the book(s) are extremely well-written! (They had so much material they had to split the players guide into two!)

[Rotipher of the FoS]

For another "clockwork fantasy" series that approaches the concept from both directions -- automatons that incorporate human parts, and humans merged with machinery to create slave-labor -- I'd strongly recommend China Mieville's novels, primarily "Perdido Street Station" and "The Scar". Ian R. MacLeod's "The Light Ages" does a wonderful job of showing a steampunk society's endemic socioeconomic corruption, as a result of the mining of that particular world's 'ghost rock'-style macguffin.

[Hell_Born]

Okay, so it is possible to mix Steampunk with Horror. Any one want to help me figure out how to make a Steampunk Domain then? The basic "background" I have so far is that it comes from a world similar to Deadlands, where the Steampunk "super-fuel" is the creation of evil paranormal entities (whose role will be easily and casually usurped by the Dark Powers here in Ravenloft). These creatures "feed" on fear, despair, greed, hatred etc, creating creatures to spread these emotions and then using this "harvest" to design new horrors.

Of course, with this background, it still requires designing the Darklord; it can't be a Fearmonger after all, and with this background clime it's hard to figure out what sort of deeds could attract the Dark Powers' attention.

I'm not entirely sure, but I think the background "themes" to the horror of this domain would be:
*Progress Irregardless of the Cost
*Man's Inhumanity to Man
*Rampant Greed/Consumption
*Quest for Forbidden Knowledge
*Dehumanization
*Corruption/Defilement of what was once sanctified
Knowing me though I've got it wrong and/or am being redundant.

For the "Native Tech Level", I'm thinking use Deadlands as a base; gunpowder weapons are known and/or common, primitive steam engines have been unveiled, mass production techniques are becoming known etc, then add the "Steampunk" stuff, like clockwork implants, alchemical infusions etc. I also have a couple of raw-bones creature concepts if anyone wants to hear them.

[Ivana_Boritsi]

Definately Steampunk and horror mix. That's exactly what Deadlands is all about.

There's also "Unhallowed Metropolis" which is due to come out any time now. It's Gothic Horror blended with Steampunk, and they seem to do it quite nicely.

http://www.newdarkage.net/

As far as your domain, I would have an escaped subject of Mordenheim's run off and become the darklord of that doman. Maybe a mechanical golem?

[Hell_Born]

Nah, I don't think so. Nobody in Ravenloft's seen anything relating to steampunk for one, for another a Construct generally isn't suited to be a Darklord, for a third Mordenheim's a Biologist, not a Cyberneticist (or whatever the appropriate term would be).

I accept that Steampunk and Horror go together, now I need advice on how to make the mixture work in Ravenloft and on how to put this Domain together.

::EDIT::
If I want this done then I'm going to have to contribute. So far, I have the barest bones of the domain's "metagame" background: it belonged to a world where evil spirits were sealed away, taking magic with them. This lack of magic caused technology to advance, until a cosmic event broke the seal and let the spirits back into the world. As magic is virtually non-existant, they decide to use technology to their advantage instead, creating a "superfuel" and promoting the development of "New Science", thus leading to the development of Steampunk tech. The actual domain, and its Darklord, still elude me; care to throw out some theories?

The domain is thus either extremely low-magic, or totally non-magic, with mages being replaced by "Mechanicians" and/or by using the "Mystic Brand" system from Horizon's Spellslinger campaign setting.

The domain could be organized around one-to-three heavily crowded urban centers, ala Victorian London, with the rest of "civilisation" being vastly spread out, like the Wild West.

Anyone care to point out what I've missed and/or help me expand on this?

[Waldi]

The domain could be organized around one-to-three heavily crowded urban centers, ala Victorian London, with the rest of "civilisation" being vastly spread out, like the Wild West.

Perhaps you could look at the Trainmaster-Thread, we had some very similar ideas about a steampunk-domain (well, it became a steampunk-cluster )

[Hell_Born]

Yes, I know about that, but I think we have different visions... not to mention that it's apparently dead. I was considering including a "Terror Track", a fear-channeling railway that might possibly extend out into new domains as this one makes contact with the core.

[Hell_Born]

Um... hello? Where is everyone? You seemed to like the idea, so please give me a hand putting this all together- I honestly haven't a clue what I'm doing! I can probably take the gunpowder weapons rules from either Spellslinger or Deadlands D20, but there's a lot of other stuff I need help with:

*Name/Background for the Domain and its Darklord

*Figures/Places of Note

*Mechanist (aka "Mad Scientist") character class- the Steampunk Engineer who replaces the Spellcasting Classes

*Reanimator character class (this is an optional- basically a Mechanist Necromancer, with traces of Healer thrown in)

*Anything and Everything else that needs to be done.

[Moral Machivelli]

Can I get to work on Name/Background for the Domain and its Darklord ?
(I've alredy got some ideas)

If nessecary, I'll do figures/places of interest, but only if no one else voulenteers.

[Hell_Born]

I'll take help from anyone who wants to help. The very basic background to the domain was posted earlier by me. I'd appreciate it if you keep your efforts close to that.