An Introduction to Technology and Science in the HERO Steampunk Campaign

An Introduction to Technology and Science in the HERO Steampunk campaign.

Hello and welcome to the intro on technology and science for our upcoming steampunk HERO campaign. This paper will lay down the basics of how the technology and science system will work. I intend for this to be a springboard paper, with lots of spin off papers to discuss the various particulars. To get started we will discuss the scope that technology and science will play in the upcoming campaign.

For starters, in a steampunk/lo-fi setting, technology is obviously far more important than in a classic fantasy campaign. The main concept that makes a steampunk campaign unique is that the campaign has strange and advanced technologies; in our case some very advanced versions of steam devices. These technologies are represented as a statistical way of designing equipment and powers in the campaign, and are an important focus for character creation. On the other hand, science need not play any focal point of the campaign. One can merely wave off the fantastic things that technologies in this campaign will do by giving a ‘rubber science’ sounding explanation. This isn’t to say the science is totally irrelevant, just that it isn’t a necessary component of the campaign. We could play this entire campaign without ever getting into the nitty gritty of how science in the campaign works.

When we talk about science, what we are talking about is the explanations for how things work, in game. Whether we say it is through classical Newtonian mechanics, or quantum physics, or some sort of rubbery science like higher dimensions, how we develop the science in the game is really more of an explanation for things in game. It helps to create a richer setting for us to roleplay in, and does little else. This is nicely contrasted with ‘technology’, which is specifically the sorts of devices and equipment available to characters to purchase, or manufacture, at the start of the game. While science has little to no mechanical elements and is mostly just rp flair, the technology of the game has a very precise mechanical backing but lacks rp flair.

To give an example of this, consider one of the first guns’ I designed the steam pistol. This weapon had a basic statistics block, which was a rough description, in HERO system terms, of the technology available. Essentially, by tying in specific advantages, limitations, and basic builds to the steam pistol, I declared technological limitations and advantages in the game world. Any further steam pistol designs would need to include things like the failure rate limitations, the charges limitations, the limitations on weight, etc. Now then, the weapon came complete with a description, and this description was the science to the weapon. It gave a good rationale as to why the weapon worked the way that it did, and how the components all fit together, while not giving any specific mechanical modifiers. It should be noted that the weapon didn’t need such a description in order to function in the game. I could have simply given the statistics block for a steam pistol and left it at that. The description of how the weapon works was merely for rp purposes, and it is my feeling that that’s how we should leave (for the most part) scientific descriptions in this upcoming campaign.

With all this being said, let us move forward to a brief discussion of Technology.

Essentially, we are dealing with 1880’s-1910’s level of technology in this campaign world. By and large, the goings on for the characters will deal with technologies of this sort of time period. There are exceptions of course, since we decided to add flair of lo-fi space travel into things, but ultimately the campaign we are playing in wont look all that different from earth in the 1880’s. Here is a short list of technologies that will likely be incorporated into the campaign:

Early percussion firearms, including weapons which might resemble early colts, Winchester repeaters, or even Lemat revolvers. Steampunk flair allows for incorporation of things like steam powered firearms, steam firearms, and even rockets.

Automobiles might be present in the campaign, but they would be steam powered, rare, and always a custom built model as mass manufacturing hasn’t hit full swing yet.

Factories and power plants exist, but without standardization and massive manufacturing projects, plants are tooled for specific projects, and are custom built. Some small, assembly line automation might be in use, but not on a large scale.

Medical technologies remain extremely primitive, with infections being rampant from surgeries. This is probably one of the few areas in which there will be no difference in the campaign.

Radio and communication technologies might be fairly advanced. Included in this would be some amount of electricity in certain areas.

Space travel will be incorporated and employed through a variety of means. This includes atmospheric flying vessels like dirigibles and airships.



Technologies in this campaign have to have certain things built into them to establish the steampunk flair. One of the most obvious is that equipment needs to rely on coal or wood for power. That helps to create the ‘steampunk’ flair, so almost any technology someone designs should have some sort of ‘charges’ limitation, or ‘end limitation’ to signify that it requires some amount of fuel to operate.

Another feature, this one less obvious, is imprecision of manufacturing. In today’s world, equipment is manufactured with such precision, that catastrophic failures are almost unheard of. In the late 1800’s, this was not the case. Steam boilers had the tendency to explode if not cared for with extreme diligence, and early firearms often misfired. Accidents of these types are so rare today that they make headline news when they happen, but a little over a century ago, manufacturing procedures weren’t quite what they are today and faulty equipment was not out of the ordinary. As such, almost every piece of steampunk equipment should require an activation roll and have a disaster rate. I should note that even in the 1890’s ‘disasters’ were rare. However minor malfunctions wouldn’t be out of the ordinary, like ammunition not firing, or a boiler having a leak and not being able to build up pressure. Things like this would result in a device not working and should be more common that things simply exploding, no matter how fun that is.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">Another thing to work into equipment is that steam equipment needs to be heavy. This is a day and age of iron, steel, and lead; not titanium, and super lightweight durable plastics. Things need to be heavy, both from a practical sense (because stuff needs to be durable to withstand steam pressure), and from a roleplaying sense in that we want that sort of feel to the campaign. While some super materials do exist, it still stands to reason that most pieces of equipment should contain an increased weight limitation, or a higher strength minimum.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">We can summarize this by saying that every piece of steam-tech equipment in the campaign world will require the ‘steam’ package added to it. This package includes the following:

<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;"> 1)<span style="font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;">        A ‘charges’ or ‘increased end’ with an ‘end reserve’ limitation to reflect need for coal and wood.

<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;"> 2)<span style="font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;">        An ‘activation roll’ limitation with a failure rate added on to reflect imprecision in manufacturing.

<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;"> 3)<span style="font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;">        An increased weight modifier or a higher required strength attributes to represent the sturdiness and heftiness of building materials.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">Now, in addition to this, often equipment should have, with regard to its charges or other components, a ‘difficult to obtain new one’ limitation on it, to reflect custom manufacturing of parts.

<span style="line-height: 115%; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;">You can continue reading about science in the upcoming Primer on Science, and you can continue reading about technology in the upcoming Primer on (insert tech here). For a look at how technology, science, and magic work in the campaign, read the Introduction to Technomancy