#steampunk

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commented on Castle Falkenstein by Michael Alyn Pondsmith

Michael Alyn Pondsmith: Castle Falkenstein (Paperback, 1994, A to Z Printing) No rating

Most #Steampunk #ttrpg settings have the problem that they tend to gloss over the evils of Imperialism and Colonialism. #CastleFalkenstein fares better than most, since it portrays Imperialism as something that ought to be opposed more often than not. It is perhaps unfortunate that the point-of-view protagonist is a white male 20th century American, but it should not be too hard to include other characters.

Still, I don't particularly care for the Castle Falkenstein rules systems, and I'm not sure what I'd use it instead. Yes, there was a #GURPS version published for it (which I recommend as a generic "World Guide" even if you don't use the rules, as well as the supplement Castle Falkenstein - The Ottoman Empire), but they'd need to be updated for 4E...

replied to Cory Doctorow's status

Content warning Long thread/29

picks of the day:

➡️ @steampunk - Steampunk news, live events, cosplay guides, fiction, RPGs etc.

➡️ @VerinEmpire - Steampunk / Fantasy / Gaslamp writer, author of the Verin Empire books set in a fictional fantasy world with Victorian-style technology.

➡️ @KeithDEdinburgh - Author of scenarios and adventures for tabletop RPGs often set in Scotland. Currently working on TTRPG The Aether Throne, featuring a pulp steampunk setting.

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JESSSS! Olen saanut vihdoin luvan paljastaa hienon jutun, jonka päällä olen istunut viime syksystä lähtien. Lukijoiden rakastamasta Gigi ja Henry-sarjastani tehdään e-kirjat! Ensimmäinen osa Kerjäläisprinsessa julkaistaan (myös äänikirjana!) ihan just, eli 25.1. Äänikirjan lukee Susanna Hyvärinen.

Tämä on sellainen juttu, josta lukijat on moneen kertaan kyselleet ja jota on paljon toivottu. ❤️ Eespäin, ihmissudet! Kohti UMBRROVIAAAA!!! 🐺

https://magdalenahai.com/gigi-ja-henry-sarjan-uusi-elama/

Kerjäläisprinsessan äänikirjan kansi, jossa Gigi, Henry ja ihmissusi Mussovits juoksevat pakoon taustalla leviävää tulipaloa. Graafikko: Anni Misinsarva

replied to Cory Doctorow's status

Content warning Long thread/6

This week I've been mainly reading, No. 94.
I've been rather disappointed by William Gibson & Bruce Sterling's The Difference Engine (1990/2011), which while presenting an immersive depiction of a world in which Babbage's 'computer' had become an equivalent of later computing (both influenced by early fiction & going on to influence later books), sacrifices plot for atmosphere; the plot such as it is really not much & offers no real pay-off. Sadly, style over substance!

@bookstodon

Indie review! OverLondon by George Penney & Tony Johnson:

"One of the most hilarious novels I have ever read. I love the quirky British humor, and the mix of politics, religion, crimes, science, pirates with steampunk, adventure and a suspenseful mystery."

https://www.queerscifi.com/review-overlondon-george-penney-tony-johnson/

@LGBTQBookstodon @diversebooks @bookstodon @georgepenney @TonyJohnson

Cover - OverLondon by George Penney & Tony Johnson - silhouette of a chicken wearing a crown and surrounded by a circular spiky design, over a map of London in oragne tones, splattered in the corners with blood.

Wasteland by Oliver Franklin-Wallis — it’s a very fine work of investigative journalism which I unfortunately found brutally depressing (especially after reading a relatively similar book some twenty years ago; things, dear reader, are worse). But it gave me a few lighter moments.

One is that incinerators were originally called destructors, and there’s something very steampunk about an 1870s steam-tram powered by the local destructor.

Flipping from steampunk to apocalyptic SF, the potential warning for nuclear waste: “This place is not a place of honour”. Like, you just know tomb raiders 10,000 years in the future are going to instantly start digging for treasure when they read the full warning. (Not to mention the glowing cat idea).

@bookstodon

It’s likely that humans have burned waste for millennia. Fuel is hard to come by; trash burns. The first municipal garbage incinerator, known as a ‘destructor’, was patented by Alfred Fryer, a sugar refiner in Nottingham, England, in 1874. At the time, burning waste was seen as both cheaper and more sanitary than the dust heaps and dung heaps that plagued cities. (This was, remember, the height of miasma theory.) In 1876, Fryer’s design was adopted by the city of Manchester, and other industrial towns and cities quickly followed. It wasn’t long before intrepid engineers realised that incinerators could be harnessed for other purposes: in Preston, a tram system ran on steam from the local destructor; in Woolwich, waste powered the town’s street lights.
Inside the berm will sit an empty room, its walls covered in a series of warnings. The message itself, the scientists suggested, should sound something like this: This place is not a place of honor... No highly esteemed deed is commemorated here... nothing valued is here. What is here was dangerous and repulsive to us. This message is a warning about danger... The danger is still present, in your time, as it was in ours. The danger is to the body, and it can kill. The form of the danger is an emanation of energy. The danger is unleashed only if you substantially disturb this place physically. This place is best shunned and left uninhabited.