Someone over on Reddit mentioned running a steampunk-style game using DW. I referred him over to Inverse World, with perhaps adding in the Artificer on top. However, I realize that I don’t really know enough about the steampunk tropes and aesthetics to offer more helpful advice.
Are there any steampunk fans here who could offer their insights on how to add more steampunk aesthetics to Inverse World?
I’m not that big a steampunk fan, but we did just record a “What is ‘punk’?” episode for our podcast (it’ll be up some time tomorrow).
In my opinion, to really make something “punk”, the protagonists have to be intentionally and aggressively rebelling against a society they feel has failed them. You say, do, and wear things specifically to shock and disgust the “normal” people. You live on the fringes of, or completely outside of, “normal” society because you reject the rules it has in place. You don’t work a “normal” job because that’s selling out, so you need to make do by building/repairing your own stuff instead of buying things. That, to me, is punk.
Just add Victorian-era sensibilities and societal elements to that, and you should have steampunk.
The clockpunk playbook would fit in well in a steampunk environment if you gave him a pistol instead of his flintlock…
The punk punk genre is typified by nihilistic dystopias dominated by tech that changes humanity. There is in all the genres tech that turns humans into tech-human hybrids or transhumans. For example: The clockpunk has access to prosthetic clockwork bodyparts, like a mechanical eye.