I am in a major mood for some steampunk/gaslight fantasy/Victoriana fantasy lately.

I have been reading the below games.  Some include the addition of fantasy races and some do not.  I am a bit ambivalent to the inclusion or exclusion of fantasy races.

Any thoughts on the settings and/or game mechanics of these games?

Castle Falkenstein
Through the Breach
Girl Genius (GURPS)
OneDice Airship Pirates
Tephra
Westward
Space 1889 After
Ecryme
The Aether Throne

Of the games you listed I'm familiar with three of them.

Castle Falkenstein is fun but it doesn't really have legs.  It's great for short adventures but gets a bit thin for long campaigns.  I had a GM that would use it as a one shot palate cleanser between campaigns and almost every time it was a Holmes style mystery.  The cards instead of dice is a fun gimmick.

I would describe Through the Breach as more of a realm hopping fantasy with horror and Victorian elements rather than Steam Punk.  I'm far more familiar with the war game Malifaux that it's based on so I can't comment on the system.  I like the setting; it would be a setting where Dishonored and Turok the Dinosaur Hunter would live comfortably.  Even if you don't use their system, the material is rich for inspiring fantasy play.

Space 1999 has had several iterations and it's one of the oldest settings created for RPGs.  After is a 5e adaptation so there's no surprises there; you're ether someone who likes 5e or not and the setting isn't changing that.  I personally prefer the GDW d6 system for the game.  The setting is very much the idea of a Jules Vern scifi solar system.  While we know the science of today doesn't support it, the setting treats the idea with due seriousness and respect.  If you like pre-WW1 pulp adventure and very early scifi then I say give it a go.  If you do go for this, remember there are a lot of source books for the setting going all the way back to the 70's.  Some of them take it serious while others are just gonzo and are a bit silly.

Quote from: BadApple on April 22, 2024, 03:16:52 AMOf the games you listed I'm familiar with three of them.

Castle Falkenstein is fun but it doesn't really have legs.  It's great for short adventures but gets a bit thin for long campaigns.  I had a GM that would use it as a one shot palate cleanser between campaigns and almost every time it was a Holmes style mystery.  The cards instead of dice is a fun gimmick.

I would describe Through the Breach as more of a realm hopping fantasy with horror and Victorian elements rather than Steam Punk.  I'm far more familiar with the war game Malifaux that it's based on so I can't comment on the system.  I like the setting; it would be a setting where Dishonored and Turok the Dinosaur Hunter would live comfortably.  Even if you don't use their system, the material is rich for inspiring fantasy play.

Space 1999 has had several iterations and it's one of the oldest settings created for RPGs.  After is a 5e adaptation so there's no surprises there; you're ether someone who likes 5e or not and the setting isn't changing that.  I personally prefer the GDW d6 system for the game.  The setting is very much the idea of a Jules Vern scifi solar system.  While we know the science of today doesn't support it, the setting treats the idea with due seriousness and respect.  If you like pre-WW1 pulp adventure and very early scifi then I say give it a go.  If you do go for this, remember there are a lot of source books for the setting going all the way back to the 70's.  Some of them take it serious while others are just gonzo and are a bit silly.

One correction.  Space 1899 After has a 5e conversion and there is also the Empyrean edition, which is its own rules system in which the devs describe as a best hits of the previous editions.

I played Castle Falkenstein back in the day.  I remember it as being fun but not much more.  I never tried to get a long campaign out of it.  I think I ran 5 sessions between WoD campaigns which is what I mostly ran back then.  I remember it had a card mechanic but not really how it worked.  Gentlemen don't play dice or something.  I have the GDW version of Space 1889 around somewhere but I haven't looked at it in ages.   

I guess you could call Lady Blackbird a steampunk sort of game.  It's a very odd sort of storygame though.  It's one of those ones that is made to tell a particular story with particular characters and doesn't really do much else.

There's D20 Steampunk

Some excellent stuff for a Victorian OSR game can be found here: Victorian & Western OSR

Also White Box Gothic Adventures in Shadow & Horror

Cthulhu by Gaslight is one that was not bad.

Also there was Masque of the Red Death for 2e and 3e D&D. Victorian era Earth.