I’ve know for quite some time that my thinking is a little too straight-jacketed for me to be truly creative. I describe myself as a “destructor” rather than a “constructor” (ie. I’m better at evaluating others’ ideas than I am at creating my own).

But it’s nice to know that there’s value in being the one with the critical eye
.-= Colmarr´s last blog ..SoW: Tracking the Goblins =-.

In the Fire & Water episodes, the LEXX is floating adrift between the two planets and is out of fuel. Refueling the LEXX pretty much requires destroying one of the two planets so LEXX can eat the remains. The crew decides to visit the planets to see what they discover. They first go to the Fire planet and find that it is a horrible desert world with a constant power struggle over just about everything, but especially any water.

I certainly do recommend checking it out, especially the 3rd season, since its somewhat inline with your topic. But do so when your kids aren’t around. LEXX is a pretty naughty show and was clearly edited for graphic content whenever it was shown on SciFi in the past (it was shown in the Friday night 10pm time slot for quite awhile).

@Colmarr: I won’t try to answer your questions here… but know that they will play a big part in me defining what the world becomes. Thanks for bringing this up… after the explorer and artists are done with an idea, the judge steps in and evaluates its credibility. You were a good judge of the initial idea.

@Johenius: Discworld and Girl Genius are also going to be HUGE inspiration to this campaign. And the idea of a gun ranger WAS your idea… pity my players find the ranger as exciting as filing taxes.

@Tiorn: I have to look for that. LEXX you say huh? What is it, a comic, a TV show?

@Gary: I like the ‘After the Bomb’ appellation. That’s exactly what I’m going for. A World that was Nuked before it developed civilization.

I call plagiarism! You totally stole my idea (Not that that’s a bad thing…)

And as I pointed out, there’s a lot more clock/steam settings than people actually think of. Pratchett’s Discworld is full of out-of-place tech (Gonne, Clacks, etc.), Warcraft (and by extension WoW, etc.) has guns and gnomish/goblin engineering, Warhammer Fantasy has a lot of clockwork too.
This is leaving out a lot of other more explicit sources of Steampunk. The Red Star, for instance, is a GREAT comic book/graphic novel series (published by Image comics, I think) that is loaded with the greatest magic/technology hybrids I’ve ever come across…
.-= Johenius´s last blog ..Oh Wow =-.

Having said that; some constructive comments?

How exactly are all these machines forged in a low-water environment? Quenching molten metal is I believe very water-intensive.

If planar water is the lifeblood of this material plane, then you can expect a very wide gap between the “haves” and the “have nots”. You’ll have some people living on their skycraper airships and others will be like the settlements in Mad Max.

Exactly how free would machines be if disabling them made them explode? How would you treat a co-worker if you knew that they could blow up at any time?
.-= Colmarr´s last blog ..SoW: Interrogating Morrik =-.

As far as sapient warforged/automatons and their dangers, the backstory of Dune resides in a vein of strong anti-machine paranoia as advanced Thinking Machines revolted against their masters in the past. The human backlash was a religious fight more than political one (Butlerian Jihad), and technological restrictions were part of the religio-cultural fabric. In your world, having Colour of Magic-like anti-automaton religious fanatics running around would be great for flavor and potential plot hooks (especially with a Warforged in the party).

I’m giddy at the thought of purple worms in the deep desert and zeppelins used as carryalls. Marrying Girl Genius and Dune… you know, I think that will be my first campaign world once I cut my teeth on some modules.

@Doom: I feel that re-skinning will only do so much to bring the feel of a setting. I’m not saying create gun rules. As you saw X-bows work fine. But the mechanical aspects could be tweaked (Brutal? High Crit? Changing damage type like Judge Dredd’s gun?)

@Kevin: The great thing about “What ifs” is that you can discard before crystalizing on your campaign concept. The Machine rebellion is an easy trope to enact for a short campaign and as you say, so easy to subvert…

Thanks for the kudos!

What if Machine sentience appeared after the necromancer’s experiment?

I would play one of those. Or a guy augmented by geartech.

What if some power sources are radioactive, so living creatures get sick and die if they hang round too long? (I’m thinking about the Spelljammer Radiant Golem here).

What if the machines rebelled?

No offense intended, but I’m getting a little tired of this trope. I’d like to see it subverted, or twisted, or something original. But, that would not stop me from playing this awesome-looking campaign.

I hope you have room for another player, I’m packing my bags.

For other steampunk ideas, don’t forget the Artificer! Making clockwork horrors as an encounter is kind of a must.

Also, toss out humans. Pick like 4 races that happen to be native, make sure they are not PCs, and have everyone else be strip mining the Plane. You could have good old eco terrorism themes. I would suggest mining TORG for ideas on this one.

But again, as 4e’s philosophy requires, I don’t plan to impose mechanical restrictions to PCs unless the restriction increases fun levels, or are attached to benefits that make the restriction worth it.

But starting a lvl 1 game in that world… I’d totally have the 1st adventure being about breaking out of such restraints.

esentialy keeping you as slaves.. to the non-mecanical. the winding key is for air/ life support to liveing quaters or some such..
day to day drone clock works will recharge in borg like stations.. some people will have there own key.. ..is key pysical? magical or a code or something?

Thanks Wrath.

http://wrathofzombie.wordpress.com/2009/09/10/sharing-firearms-in-eberron-ideas/
.-= wrathofzombie´s last blog ..Having Fun With Curses! =-.