To quote Charles Fort "Steam Engines get built when it is Steam Engine Time."

And it looks like this year has been Steam Engine Time in the RPG industry. I have collected a few of the most recent books and PDFs, and have been enjoying the heck out of all of them.

Right now my favorites are: Steam & Steel, very, very good as a 'drop in' for a D20 game.
Iron Kingdoms Character Guide, nifty if complicated rules for 'mechanikal' magic items.
and OGL Steampunk, a stand alone game with rules for creating steam powered widgets.

Of these Steam & Steel has seen the most use, both because it is the easiest to use and because it came out before the others. IKCG is next, since the game that I run is set in the Iron Kingdoms, but my the book is chewy (and crunchy!). It would work very well for anyone trying to set up a game based on the computer game Arcanum. (I have wasted I don't know how many hours playing that thing!)

OGL Steampunk waits for its own campaign, but I have some ideas... But other games are already going, so... it waits.

I also have Sorcery & Steam, but while it has some good ideas it completely skipped having any rules for making steam powered widgets. However it has some decent prestige classes, and the gunpowder weapon rules that I use. (Iron kingdoms has the stupidest prices for guns - one shot costing upwards of 2 gold pieces, with a rifle shot costing 8 or 9 gp!)

So what have been other peoples takes on these and other steam games in RPGs?

The Auld Grump[quote][/quote]

Ah, but which Castle Falkenstien? The original that used playing cards (true gentlemmen never touch dice!) or the GURPD version, which is I believe the only one available right now. In case you can't tell, I prefer the original.

And I would guess that Deadlands would count as well, though they never did come out with the European book the wrote about a couple of times.)

And Space: 1889, possibley the first great steam tech game.

The Auld Grump