The title being a tribute how it seems everything and their mother gets described as "-punk" these days.


RPGPundit

It's usually less "punk" and more whatever the author or artist thinks is cool or sexy.

It's wholly meaningless. I see people calling any kind of Victorian sf steampunk for example, that's meaningless, steampunk meant specifically mixing Victorian sf with cyberpunk tropes to create a blend of the two, gamers just use the term incorrectly.

This isn't answering the question, but I think you could argue that early role-playing was very 'punk', in the sense of 'having an unusually weak division between producers and consumers'.

Quote from: Age of Fable;286239This isn't answering the question, but I think you could argue that early role-playing was very 'punk', in the sense of 'having an unusually weak division between producers and consumers'.

I agree with this - Punk is DIY.  When you hear people talk about "SteamPunk" or "DungeonPunk" it's more about the visuals and fashion that's inspired by 1970s/80s Punk Rock fashion.

Pretentious hype.

Punk.

As for Steam- Cyber-, Clockwork-, etc. -punk, I think it's simply become shorthand for something like "alternate history based on changing certain scientific, technological or social parameters". Which is sort of awkward to pronounce every time it comes up, so in that sense, "Whateverpunk" is a legitimate phrase.

"Dungeonpunk", meaning a style best represented by recent D&D editions, however, is pretentios bullshit. True Dungeonpunk would be alternate (17th+ century) history based on the assumption that megadungeons exist. So it would be, I don't know, the British Empire and the Spaniards duking it out with muskets and pikes in the depths of the Cimmerian Chasm; or Shermans getting blown up by Tiger tanks during the Great Cavern War of 1939-45, or somesuch.

None of it is punk. I AM PUNK. I am punker than thou.
 
WE'RE GONNA HAVE A TV PARTY TONIGHT, ALRIGHT!

I have the separate real punk from RPG/LARP -punk.

Real punk: DIY

RPG -punk: As far as RPGs go, started with Cyberpunk, which did have real punk elements to it (as a 32 year-old dirty punker, I think I've paid my dues long enough to be qualified to say this), and then BAMF! We have "Steampunk", which I believe was named so because of the weird technology, akin to a Victorian cyberpunk. Sometimes had a dystopic future thing going on like Cyberpunk. Then it became fashionable to make everything -punk. Much like music today, where you have shit like post-punk hardcore, post-punk emo, etc.. All crap.

YMMV.

-=Grim=-

Here we've seen "punk" defined as "Do it yourself", others as "alternate history" and there's the "dungeonpunk" which seems to reflect a purely aesthetic sense, and finally the "punk" of youthful rebellion and/or rebellion against "the man".

So it seems that no one can even seem to agree on what "punk" means in the context of an RPG, much less what should or should not fall under that category.

RPGPundit

Quote from: Balbinus;286231It's wholly meaningless. I see people calling any kind of Victorian sf steampunk for example, that's meaningless, steampunk meant specifically mixing Victorian sf with cyberpunk tropes to create a blend of the two, gamers just use the term incorrectly.

Yeah, but if enough gamers use the term incorrectly, then they eventually co-opt the language, and thus use it correctly.

Quote from: Sacrificial Lamb;286335Yeah, but if enough gamers use the term incorrectly, then they eventually co-opt the language, and thus use it correctly.

Exactly.

Quote from: RPGPundit;286332Here we've seen "punk" defined as "Do it yourself", others as "alternate history" and there's the "dungeonpunk" which seems to reflect a purely aesthetic sense, and finally the "punk" of youthful rebellion and/or rebellion against "the man".

So it seems that no one can even seem to agree on what "punk" means in the context of an RPG, much less what should or should not fall under that category.

RPGPundit

Much like in music.

Quote from: RPGPundit;286220The title being a tribute how it seems everything and their mother gets described as "-punk" these days.


RPGPundit

Yes, it is pretentious hype.

A punk is the recipient of male homosexual sex in a prison.