What makes the difference between age of steam vehicles and
steampunk vehicles? I'm thinking of 'background' vehicles,
not the one-of-a-kind vehicles by inventor protagonists or
antagonists.
Cutting corners for profit? Check.
Rigid class differences in accommodations? Check.
Exploding steam engines? Check.
Insufficient lifeboats? Check.
Regards,
Onno
I was just reading about two up and coming steampunk board games and
they got me thinking about what it is.
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/123499/city-of-iron
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/131416/c-o-a-l-combat-oriented-armored-league
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/137269/spyrium
The "Steam-" part sets the stage with the attitude of exploration and
colonization (using the technology to claim X land, mine, resource,
country, allies). Victorian attitudes of haves and have-nots stratify
who can have what, as well as what rules and responsibilities exist for
persons and inventions (like safety regulations, ("what are
patents?")). If the rich control the papers, and something goes wrong,
what incentive for change is there unless as an assurance to /rich/
passengers, or for their cargo?
The "-Punk" setting encourages investment in "the latest thing",
encourages friendly (and sometimes not so friendly) competitions, often
in public (as is the victorian way -- remember lost world and around the
world in 80 days). From these Attitudes spring the science, the
adoption of new and radical by The People. Adoption of Change by the
masses is only really happening in the last 30-50 years in the real
world. Before that, many peoples still did things exactly how their
ancestors did for centuries. It is also possible to out-race regulations
with new technology, but judges can adapt...
In the old Pyramid, I had written a series of articles about "Punk" from
0+8 to 6+4 and it generally revolved around finding, exploiting, and
publicly adopting some form of energy that was not present in the real
world, and then exploring the consequences.
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