Say you have a regular vanilla type fantasy setting and your players hear a rumor of a mysterious island shrouded in mist and go exploring and they wander smack into a steampunk type setting confined only to this secret island. What types of problems could arise from this?

Quote from: Ragnarok N RollSay you have a regular vanilla type fantasy setting and your players hear a rumor of a mysterious island shrouded in mist and go exploring and they wander smack into a steampunk type setting confined only to this secret island. What types of problems could arise from this?

Do your players know this can happen?  If not this is a bait and switch, and may turn some of your players off.  It's not so bad if it's localized or just that one adventure, but if they thought they were signing up for high fantasy and you spring steampunk on them they may be put out.  I find this kind of thing rather distasteful myself.  I want to make a character for the campaign, don't go switching styles on me out of nowhere.  It'll probably make my character irrelevent.

Quote from: MaddmanDo your players know this can happen?  If not this is a bait and switch, and may turn some of your players off.  It's not so bad if it's localized or just that one adventure, but if they thought they were signing up for high fantasy and you spring steampunk on them they may be put out.  I find this kind of thing rather distasteful myself.  I want to make a character for the campaign, don't go switching styles on me out of nowhere.  It'll probably make my character irrelevent.

Well, I'm looking to provoke a more "where the hell are we and what the hell is this place?" type of reaction rather than piss off my players.

Quote from: Ragnarok N RollWell, I'm looking to provoke a more "where the hell are we and what the hell is this place?" type of reaction rather than piss off my players.

Right, and that could be cool.  You just want to make sure you didn't sell them on game type A and then spring game type B on them.  But having an adventure or location where everything is different could be very cool.

It's kind of like "Expedition to the Barrier Peaks" (or whatever it was called) in which characters come across a crashed spacecraft that includes all sorts of hi-tech weaponary. Thing with that one was all those toys needed batteries, so once they ran out, they ran out.

With steampunk, that isnt necessarily going to happen. I can't think of anything that would alter the balance of a game, even firearms--as long as there are ammunition restrictions--wouldn't be unbalancing in small numbers. Anyone remember the old DC "Warlord" comics with Travis Morgan and his .44 Automag?

In any case, there is always the possibility of what Maddman points out, that players might not like the change of pace. If so, just leave an emergency exit--if they really hate the game, there is a narrative mechanism to get them back to the "old world." Not like teleportation to get them out of a sticky situation, but points in the story where they stumble across others from the old world, maybe smugglers or merchants, who offer them a chance of getting "home" if they don't like the steampunk setting.

I'd love to play in such a game.

Quote from: MaddmanDo your players know this can happen?  If not this is a bait and switch, and may turn some of your players off.

Personally I'd only call bait 'n' switch shens if it happend in one of the first few sessions.  If it's a diversion in a long running campaign I don't see the harm.

This has actually been used in many supplements/settings/adventures.  The whole fish out of water thing is a time honored tradition in RPG's.  You had Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, there was the OD&D Blackmoor modules Adventures in Blackmoor, Temple of the Frog, and City of the Gods that all dealt with time travel and advanced technologies.  Hell there was even a gazeteer from OD&D that detailed a secret society that got its abilities from a converted nuclear reactor.

You can always couch everything in terms of magic.  Because to most people technology way beyond their experience would seem like magic.  You shouldn't have any problems as long as you let your players know that it is a temprary situation and that there are ways of getting out of it.  If they don't like it them speed up the timeline and get them back to a normal campaign.

Quote from: FraserRonaldIn any case, there is always the possibility of what Maddman points out, that players might not like the change of pace. If so, just leave an emergency exit--if they really hate the game, there is a narrative mechanism to get them back to the "old world." Not like teleportation to get them out of a sticky situation, but points in the story where they stumble across others from the old world, maybe smugglers or merchants, who offer them a chance of getting "home" if they don't like the steampunk setting.

Very good idea, leave an out in case it all goes wrong.

I think it's dandy, as long as there's a plausible explanation for the situation - is the knowledge to create these steampunk devices long lost, too advanced for people of today to recreate, or why hasn't the technology spread to other parts of the world?

I agree that I think it is a very cool idea, but I do also agree with Dr_Avalanche that there has to be some sort of plausible reason as to why the technology hasn't spread.  There also has to be some sort of limiting factor to deal with the technology leaving the island with the players if/when they leave, along the lines of the batteries mentioned from Exp. to the Barrier Peaks.

Overall it is a very cool idea though and if I were playing I think my first response after picking up my jaw from the floor would be "This is so cool!"

Make sure you work on an a great opening description to maximize the wow factor.

having a reason that the tech didn't spread (as said above) is very important.


If you have been playing witht the same people for a while you will have an idea if such a thing would cause  a revolt. If the group is relatively new I would ask them in idle conversation if they like iron Kingdoms and those kind of things to get an idea if they might like something like that be fore I tried it.

Sounds like a cool idea to me though.

This is one of the few things that would prompt me to ponder walking on a game.  Seriously.  I hate lasers, etc. in my sword-and-sorcery/D&D.
 
If the GM states, in advance (of the campaign or adventure), that he's wanting to do something a bit different and unexpected, I'd at least sit it out if he's a good GM.  If it was just sprung on me, though, I'd react about the same way I would if the GM rewrote the rules for spells, sneak attacks, etc. right in the middle of combat.
 
Whatever you and your players enjoy, IMO.  It's worth knowing, however, that there are at least a few of us out here that would consider it a Very Bad Thing.

As for why this technology did not spread, perhaps it is from a geographically remote area that some recent cataclysm has opened up. It was surrounded by a dense quarmire of marine vegetation (think Sargasso Sea) on its seaward side (or surrounding it if its an island) and by a really, really big desert on its landward side. A cataclysm has destroyed the vegetation and only just opened up the area to maritime exploration/contact.

Perhaps it is reachable, but the distance is enormous, such as the Orient and Europe in the High Middle Ages and Renaissance. Perhaps trinkets have appeared--toys or other portable goods--which lead the characters to consider travelling to this fabled area. Perhaps weapons have begun to appear and the characters need to find the source in order to arm their people/nation/culture.

And, of course, there's magic! A wizards cast an impenetrable barrier around the island which has only recently been breached, using the highest of steampunk tech and armaments.

All in all, I agree that the lack of proliferation must be plausible. However, that should not be too difficult.

We like the idea, but we like steampunk, so we may be biased.

A change of genre can range from fun and interesting to bait and switch.  Expedition to Barrier Peaks was great fun and we have never heard anyone who thought it was a bad thing.  On the other hand, we once had a bad DM who made us roll up a Forgotten Realms character, outfit them with all kinds of magic items -- and then dumped us through a gate, sans magic items, into Dark Sun.  We did not come back to that game.

So, in our experience, what matter is how you do it, not what you do.  If you make it fun and don't screw over the characters (or players), it can be a great change of pace.