Discussion: Steam & Sorcery World

Threadbare · Post by **Threadbare** » Wed Oct 08, 2003 4:22 am

Say, I was reading through the old sheboygan thread, and it got me thinking about sheet music, and by extension, the rigors of traveling; before the automobile (big time) and the train (sometimes) travel had its own sort of wealth attached to it. Travelling "medicine shows" (they put on a show and then sell their elixir) were big in the south, in fact, that's where Jimmy Rogers got his start. Travelling Salesmen, think about it. (Professor Harold Hill for the new age, maybe?) Also, sheet music and travelling bards would probably be the most common method of transmitting music. I could see a Tin Pan Alley-type place, bubbling with salaried creativity.

Cazmonster · Post by **Cazmonster** » Wed Oct 08, 2003 9:38 pm

Threadbare wrote:say, there are powerful telekinesis spells, right? How much would it run someone to rig up a gun with a one-direction push-type spell embedded into it?

I just did remember one of the spells I was going to use for guns.

Jumper - uses the Jump spell to sling a grenade or grenade-like weapon. I'm thinking it has a 100' rank.

Cazmonster · Post by **Cazmonster** » Wed Oct 08, 2003 9:41 pm

Threadbare wrote:Say, I was reading through the old sheboygan thread, and it got me thinking about sheet music, and by extension, the rigors of traveling; before the automobile (big time) and the train (sometimes) travel had its own sort of wealth attached to it. Travelling "medicine shows" (they put on a show and then sell their elixir) were big in the south, in fact, that's where Jimmy Rogers got his start. Travelling Salesmen, think about it. (Professor Harold Hill for the new age, maybe?) Also, sheet music and travelling bards would probably be the most common method of transmitting music. I could see a Tin Pan Alley-type place, bubbling with salaried creativity.

While I hadn't gotten around to writing it, yes, traveling shows of all kinds are going to be a great way to earn a living, so long as while you're on the road you can keep the bandits at bay. In addition to Bards and other performers, there could easily be mendicant priests traveling to provide to the weak and helpless, or wandering technomancers, willing to trade theories for more raw materials.

Martayak's most developped culture was based on a vast Archipelago, traveling was seen as a way of life among the islands.

Bethyaga · Post by **Bethyaga** » Thu Oct 09, 2003 2:54 am

I also went back to BDv0.1 and have been reading the original S&S thread, and it captures well (for me) the setting and tone of this game world. I recommend that anyone who is interested in the S&S setting go review at least the first page or two of this as reference.

In the development stuff here, those of us who aren't Caz (and that's most of us, really) can get caught up in all the mechanics and cool possibilities and forget what the world is supposed to feel like.

It's a post-apocalyptic world of sorts, but a happy one... a hopeful one. There are dangers out there, but there's good stuff too.

FlameBlade · Post by **FlameBlade** » Thu Oct 09, 2003 3:14 am

I can vouch for what Bethyaga is saying. I went back there too...(before Bethyaga posted this

) and yes, Bethyaga is correct in saying for that.

Bethyaga · Post by **Bethyaga** » Thu Oct 09, 2003 3:15 am

I just finished reading it. Wow. This world kicks ass.

[And I'm sorry it didn't go farther, but I can see how GMing a budding romance would make a muppet uncomfortable. Karen and Kardon had quite the heat going there. I was just waiting for Karen to notice Shayla wearing Kardon's broach. Then she would have been cold and distant to Kardon and he would have no idea why. It would have been so fun.]

FlameBlade · Post by **FlameBlade** » Thu Oct 09, 2003 3:16 am

Also, Bethyaga, if you're curious what was coming after the fireworks...It's in my thread, Shots in the Dark. I consulted with Cazmonster, and Cazmonster gave me an okay.

Cazmonster · Post by **Cazmonster** » Thu Oct 09, 2003 5:01 am

Bethyaga wrote:It's a post-apocalyptic world of sorts, but a happy one... a hopeful one. There are dangers out there, but there's good stuff too.

Cazmonster dances in joy and hugs Bethyaga.

That's exactly what I want this game world to be!

Threadbare · Post by **Threadbare** » Thu Oct 09, 2003 5:17 am

Hey, where did Steam and Sorcery come from? I know Caz originated it, but from what impetus?

Bethyaga · Post by **Bethyaga** » Thu Oct 09, 2003 5:20 am

[edit: this post replies to Caz]

Well, when first this game came to my attention, I got "Post-Apoc Steampunk" in my head. It felt dark, because I focused on the whole shattered world thing. But then, you started everything in the midst of preparations for an Independence Day Festival in Sheboygan Michigan, of all places. That's what really shaped it for me and made it real.

Serious Paul · Post by **Serious Paul** » Thu Oct 09, 2003 5:43 am

Okay as I am preparing my list of stores a few more questions.

One crew size. How many people am I feeding? Another question I have is are there any new types of flora and fauna beyond traditional D&D and real world creatures. I was just wondering about any new taste sensations....

Cazmonster · Post by **Cazmonster** » Thu Oct 09, 2003 3:02 pm

Threadbare wrote:Hey, where did Steam and Sorcery come from? I know Caz originated it, but from what impetus?

A great while ago (I think this was the first 3.5 campaign he ran) one of my RL friends ran what he called the Collision Campaign where he had a magical world interact with our world. Lots of things changed, but it was primarily a world where you knew the address, but a wizard might be there. He's had a lot of poorly implemented ideas over the years and this was one where I went, "Damn, this would kick ass if Pink Tights wasn't running it." So I took the core kernal of the two worlds interacting and rebuilt it from the ground up. Even he agrees that I've done a better job with it.

Oh, the other impetus was from the 3.0 DMG - the picture of the dwarf with the rifle. I wanted me guns in my adventures and Steam and Sorcery is so the way to do it.

Cazmonster · Post by **Cazmonster** » Thu Oct 09, 2003 5:37 pm

Serious Paul wrote:Okay as I am preparing my list of stores a few more questions.

One crew size. How many people am I feeding? Another question I have is are there any new types of flora and fauna beyond traditional D&D and real world creatures. I was just wondering about any new taste sensations....

Okay, I've been thinking about this for about a year and a half, what kinds of foods did Martayans eat?

In order to keep my brain from destroying itself (or from doing a huge-ass amount of research) and because I like to steal from Geniuses, I'm going with two things.

One - Martayans, by and large, are not agrarian people. Most of the humans depended on fishing and gathering to provide the bulk of their food. Their relatively small islands did not have the acreage for grain products. Farming, and Land Ownership for that matter, are not as important in the Martayan Human psyche as it is in the Terran Westerner psyche.

Of course there are exceptions to this. The Dwarves spent thousands of years deep in their tunnels, domesticating mushrooms and nightshade-based plants (and remember, the tomato and the potato are both nightshade) to use as food. The Elves had their huge forests full of fruiting trees. The Races of Evil, after being banished south of the Soul Drinker desert, had to adapt and yes, there were orc and goblin grain harvesters in the southern portion of the Great Continent, and most of that grain was fed directly to lower castes of orcs and goblins. I'm imagining it to be mostly rye, oats and spelt, lots of high-fat high-protien grain. The higher ups saw themselves as hunter-warriors and were not above eating the flesh of other sentient beings.

They also used magic, as everyone did, to create food out of nothing more than spellpower. And with the proper application of spices and illusions it could be anything a chef wanted it to be.

Two - while the laws of nature work in different modes between the two worlds, their products are not completely dissimilar. Martayak had a great deal of the food that we have, however, except for a few cultures that stayed somewhat remote, they did not domesticate nearly as many foodstuffs. No corn, very few white-flesh potatoes (yams and sweets are a little different), no tomatoes, nor any other highly cultivated food. You can assume that all the normal animals exist on both worlds. There are camels (although there's a dwarf Martayan Camel - the biggest inhabited desert from Martayak was the home of the gnomes and the halflings), there are racoons, there are horses, but in far smaller populations than here on Earth. There are probably not marsupials (sucks to be Crucible).

I have been envisioning Martayan Haute Cuisine to be very similar to Pacific Islander Food - lots of meat and fish combined with spices, nutmeats (or drupe seeds) fruits and some small amounts of grains. (There was a significant shift in power on Martayak about two to three hundred years before modern times where the Orcs came up out of their exile and were well on their way to dominating things).

Threadbare · Post by **Threadbare** » Fri Oct 10, 2003 4:14 am

Fun. Polynesian style. I could see southeast asia and oceania getting really enmeshed with Martayak.

There was a significant shift in power on Martayak about two to three hundred years before modern times where the Orcs came up out of their exile and were well on their way to dominating things

Sorta like the germans in the 1870s or the europeans in general after about 1500?

Cazmonster · Post by **Cazmonster** » Fri Oct 10, 2003 2:34 pm

Threadbare wrote:
There was a significant shift in power on Martayak about two to three hundred years before modern times where the Orcs came up out of their exile and were well on their way to dominating things
Sorta like the germans in the 1870s or the europeans in general after about 1500?

That isn't a bad analogy, however, they get beaten back down by a strong alliance of all the other races. These wars lead to the Archipelago Union becoming the closest thing to a world government Martayak had.

Threadbare · Post by **Threadbare** » Sat Oct 11, 2003 4:10 pm

So basically they were like the germans back in the day, and led to a US-UN hegemony in '45.

*ponders an Orc Nietzsche*