Steampunk Board Games
I've never been entirely clear on the meaning of "steampunk", but Randy over at Growing Up Gamers provides a pretty approachable definition:
Steampunk is usually represented as Victorian futurism... that is to say, mostly contemporary people trying to imagine a future that Victorian-era people might have foreseen. Clear as mud? Okay, okay... think of heroes in top hats and/or corsets riding dirigibles, fighting mad scientists with death rays. Or in steam powered exoskeletons. Not all steampunk is necessarily Victorian-based... a lot can take place in a fantasy setting, with the primary steampunkiness coming in technology having the flavor of that era but generations ahead in function and complexity.
OK, so old-timey but industrial ... like the steam-powered mechanical spider in the Wild Wild West movie (a rather awful film, but interesting technology ideas and special effects, if you're into that sort of thing).
To further illustrate, Randy provides a list of board and card games that, to one degree or another, embody the steampunk ethos:
- Girl Genius: The Works – A strategy card game based on a webcomic and graphic novel series
- Red November – A cooperative game with a steampunk-ish theme
- Around The World In 80 Days – A board game based on Jules Verne's classic novel
- Ascension – Steampunk in a fantasy setting
- 011 – A "competitive cooperative" steampunk game
- Etherscope – A roleplaying game based on series of cyberpunk novels
- Iron Kingdoms – Combines sword-and-sorcery fantasy with steampunk
- Warmachine – A game played with miniatures
- Grind – Another game based on the Warmachine universe
- Infernal Contraption – A card game of mechanical mayhem
For more complete descriptions, follow the links, or read the original post: Playing with Steam! (which also includes some book and site links if you want to delve further into the steampunk realm).
