Does steampunk have to have steam?

[The-closet-gamer]

I started a thread about mini from Thief and Dishonoured video games as I've got quite a soft spot for steampunk and wanted to do a few ( a lot ) of games using the main characters. It got me thinking about the look and feel of the setting of a steampunk world/city. Both these game are supposed to be steampunk but are they. In Dishonoured the steam element seems to be replaced with electrical based technology and as for Thief it's more clockwork. The only confirmation of steam based tech is a few victorian style radiators and a few leaky pipes.

Looking at other elements such as anima like Castle in the Sky, Howl's Moving Castle and The Last Exile which are all under steampunk they kind of fall into the same trap. It's only the imaginatively titled Steamboy that holds onto the description quite tightly.

So what's you opinion on the definition of steampunk. Should it be all boilers and pipe work or should other elements of tech be as dominant?

[CPBelt]

Let me put it this way... Does cyberpunk need computers for it to be cyberpunk? I would argue yes. 

I want steam and gears. None of this 'tesla' fantasy stuff. I need lots of brass and iron, no use for chrome. All Victoria, no Edward.

As much as I love all the movies you mention, Steamboy is the only SP on the list IMO. Sadly, that movie gets so little love in the anime world from what my son tells me.

[Dewbakuk]

Have to agree, the other films owe more to art deco and Dieselpunk than to Steampunk.

While I have no problem with electrical items appearing in Steampunk stuff, it should be the supporting actor at best. For me electricity becomes the main player in Pulp scenarios of the early 1900's.

[The_Beast]

And clockwork TENDS to be for the very small.

That said, I still find myself sympathizing with those who consider 'steampunk' a fashion rather than period or gaming genre.

Now, if you ask, does VSF need to be steam, yes, in the main.

Doug

[CPBelt]

I should add, I'm really more VSF than modern steampunk in my gaming and painting.

[Dewbakuk]

Yes, I was talking Steampunk, not VSF

[krieghund]

Do as you see fit, put the PUNK back into steampunk.

[Grimmnar]

Yes.

[OSHIROmodels]

I would argue that the Ghibli films are a genre all of their own... Ghibli-punk 

cheers

James

[The_Beast]

Do as you see fit, put the PUNK back into steampunk.

Sounds like a bit of Aleister Crowley to me... 

Doug

[Michi]

Darkness, trains, fire, chimneys, rain, cast iron, rivets, coal, steel, miners/workers, lots of bricks, pipes, rust, sewers, canals, soot and of course steam should build the backdrop for the protagonists. The gadgets they use could as well be clockwork or (limited) electrical.

[Blofeld]

I've always tried to set my games in a world similar to that of Jules Verne or H.G. Wells and while I like there being a backdrop of industry turning the city skies black and such like I use fairly limited actual steam tech.
Of course this is just my take on it and the beauty of any imagined setting such as VSF or Steampunk is that it is what you make of it so if you want to not use steam in your imagined world then I would say you should feel free to, after all we may as well just play historical games if playing in a fictional setting doesn't afford us some freedom from classifications, rules and such like
Thanks
Blofeld

[The-closet-gamer]

Finally my interweb  is up and running.

One interesting theory have been made. Does VSF need to be steam. It has been asked before on LAF about steampunk vs VSF. I'll ponder this tonight when I get home from work.

[Dewbakuk]

Finally my interweb  is up and running.

One interesting theory have been made. Does VSF need to be steam. It has been asked before on LAF about steampunk vs VSF. I'll ponder this tonight when I get home from work.

That's a very different question and for that you need to look at the fiction of the time. If we are allowing Pellucidar, War of the Worlds, John Carter and Sherlock Holmes as influences (which I think we have to), then no, VSF does not necessarily need steam.

[Hobby Services]

That's a very different question and for that you need to look at the fiction of the time. If we are allowing Pellucidar, War of the Worlds, John Carter and Sherlock Holmes as influences (which I think we have to), then no, VSF does not necessarily need steam.

I would say VSF (as opposed to steampunk, which is a modern subgenre) absolutely does not need steam.  Real period scifi generally sees steam tech as either outdated and replaced by varyingly implausible supertech, or augmented to the point where it doesn't have any realistic drawbacks any more.  Look at everything written by George Griffith and a great deal of Verne and Wells' work.