To Create a World

So I have taken the task upon myself to create a steampunk world for Dungeons and Dragons. Well...sort of. I went to the library and I checked out a couple fantasy novels and I realized that I'd had enough of the high fantasy realm for playing in...been at it since high school. I think we've slaughtered enough orcs to be their equivalent of Hitler.

So I browsed for some other stuff in the fiction area and ran across a series of novels by Jay Lake. His world of the "Clockwork Earth" is a very well illustrated and fleshed out place across the 3 extant novels. "Mainspring", "Escapement" and "Pinion".

I thoroughly enjoyed reading these novels for how they explore the world the characters live in. The characters are like any motley group of people thrown together by destiny that barely hold on to their lives as everything spins out of control...but they are exciting to see how they manage events within the scope of their attitudes.

So I have decided to use this world in some private games to try and do something different. Combat is more lethal and altogether certain, magic barely exists at all and those that have knowledge of any of it guard it more carefully than their own lives. Mechanical means trump everything, gun powder is king and the British Empire rules all in the west.

the world itself is divided at it's center by a great wall in which the clockwork gears track the earth along its great brass orbital ring. The earth is literally clockwork...but was it always so? Well there are a great deal of mysteries to unravel and I have decided to modify the classes one sees as standard in DnD so that they fit better with the world.

Paladins are a prestige class now and most belong to the Church of England and have been or are still cleric/priests in some way. They possess no magic, but are tougher and have a different skill set. They are one of the few classes still likely to have a sword even if it is just a badge of office.

Soldiers now instead of fighters and they now have the ability to choose either officer or enlisted. Officers get more starting gold and enlisted get an additional profession to choose as a bonus.

Rangers are similar to what they were, but they get more bonuses to skill use and to use of firearms such as rifles and dual wielding pistols...to keep some of that flavor.

However unlike most DnD games that use firearms their damage in my games will be far and above melee/bow and arrow or x-bows. There is no armor in 1910 that can protect the person from a well placed bullet, so damage is much higher. For example a 6 shot revolver with a .38 cal would do something like 4d8 damage and critical hit probably x10.

Characters will have to be smarter and not simply reply on hack and slash. As the DM I will have to create scenarios that CAN result in combat but it isn't forced. The players will have a greater chance to use skills and build a world they want to experience.

Will they travel to "The Wall" and meet the monsters said to inhabit The Wall? Who knows. however I have decided to set their starting location as a town we grew up in in New England. A few visits to the town library's archive should get me some copies of photos from that era and I can extrapolate from that what would be different under British rules.

- more posts forthcoming.