dieselpunk games ?

[SaxonHalfling]

hi does any one know of steampunk wargames ?
and yes i now it over laps with pulp and www2 and crimson sky
also websites and info would be nice
ta
SH

[Stavros Banjo]

Maybe Wolsung, perhaps? It's a steampunk skirmish game based on their popular RPG rules. I bought the rulebook a while ago but sadly can't tell you how it plays yet as it's still languishing in the depths of my unfinished projects pile. Has it's own range of figures too.

http://www.wolsung-ssg.com/

You may be better asking for info on the VSF board on here, that's where most of the steampunk fans hang out

[fastolfrus]

How about the new Osprey "In Her Majesty's Name"

http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=50335.0

[SaxonHalfling]

hhhuuuummm
i thought that was steam then agains DP does over lap a bit during WW1

[fastolfrus]

You looking for steampunk or dieselpunk?

The thread title says diesel, but your post says steampunk.

For diesel I'd just look through the pulp & interwar stuff.

[Red Orc]

Also, 'dieselpunk' (if by that you mean more or less 1900-1920, a sort of industrial follow on to steampunk) pretty much overlaps with 'Weird World War One'. So maybe check the Weird Wars forum?

I merge my steampunk gaming into dieselpunk, extending my VSF Martian Wars into an alternative WWI where the Astro-Hungarians are fighting the British Space Empire both in space and on Mars in the early 20th, and using the Warzone Imperials and Bauhaus as the basic troops. But I just kinda make it up.

[SaxonHalfling]

arr i see sorry i mean diesel not steam spelling mistake on my behalf.
hhuuumm i have checked both forum but wondering if there was anything else

[SBRPearce]

To me, "Dieselpunk" is more "1920-1930s" than earlier. Flight jackets, streamlined Art Deco everything, the works.

I don't know any games out there that are specifically Deiselpunk - but if you can find  copy of the system-neutral RPG sourcebook "Rocketship Empires: 1938", I highly recommend it.

[Red Orc]

I guess all these terms are kinda loose. To me, Art Deco = Pulp.

[SBRPearce]

To me, Pulp is an ethos, while Deiselpunk is more about the Technology (and Technology that's stylistically in the period while actually achieving far more than actual 1920s-30s stuff could do.) Let me offer two examples: Raiders of the Lost Ark is clearly Pulp, since it's about two-fisted Adventure!, while Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow was Deiselpunk, since the emblematic vehicles and devices are clearly science-fiction (or rather "scientifiction", to use Hugo Gernsback's original word).

A lot of Deiselpunk is Pulp-ish, but the great majority of Pulp has no Deiselpunk elements (or need of them).

It's very similar to the distinction between Steampunk/VSF and the era-specific tales of thrilling adventure, probably typified as "Boys' Own Stories".

And, since this is starting to sound a lot too much like a literary thesis, I'll sign off.

[Red Orc]

Aye, discussions of terminology are ultimately just about opinions (and I have grave disagreements with almost everyone over on 'VSF' about what the differences between VSF and Steampunk - if any - are anyway).

But before we go, I have two words for you: Flash Gordon 

[Arlequín]

For me, the difference is what forms the base or majority of the the technology used... Steam/Clockwork = Steampunk, Combustion Engines = Dieselpunk and obviously endings and beginnings blur to quite an extent. We haven't mentioned 'Atompunk' yet either.

I really dislike the '-punk' thing though and it's become very over-used and abused in any case. Just copying the past slightly differently is not actually anything new, which is the point.

It was supposed to be about imposing modern values and innovation on a past time and level of technology, not 'throw a cog on it' and call it Steampunk... form and function and all that. 

'Pulp' to me is both different and the same, depending on the context and type, and of course that it's in fact a multi-genre broad heading... you can have pulp romance, pulp westerns and so on.

I do struggle to see the difference between VSF and Steampunk though, in a broader sense at least... where does '20,000 Leagues' fit in for example.

I'm tempted to say though that categories invariably tend to be about what people don't wish to include in their gaming. 

But before we go, I have two words for you: Flash Gordon 

Easy... it's Retro-Future...   

[SaxonHalfling]

wow er i didn't mean to spark a debate.
i was hoping for games rules

[Cypher226]

Warzone? It was always very deco/dieselpunk, before dieselpunk was a 'thing' 

[Arlequín]

wow er i didn't mean to spark a debate.
i was hoping for games rules

Who knows? Someone might mention some... 


What elements are you looking to include in the games? I would be surprised if nobody here can't come with a set or two that would incorporate at least part of what you're looking for... even the weird stuff!