The Steampunk User's Manual

Desirina Boskovich writes on the immediacy of Steampunk for the Huffington Post. 

In the short story “An Officer and a Gentleman,” set in the world of The Chronicles of the Pneumatic Zeppelin steampunk adventure series, the young Lieutenant Romulus Buckle faces his first great test under fire when his armed trader airship Bromhead is attacked and boarded by pirates.

The Chronicles of the Pneumatic Zeppelin steampunk series follows the adventures of a war zeppelin crew across the skies of a post-apocalyptic California. Humanity has barely survived total extinction during a brutal alien invasion and has built a new Victorian-based, steam-powered civilization out of the frozen ashes of the old world. With war imminent, Captain Romulus Buckle and the crew of the Pneumatic Zeppelin must navigate a perilous, unknown landscape filled with treacherous enemies and alien beasts on a quest to defeat an evil power so profound it defies the imagination.

We know how it is.

Some prefer to invent astonishing Steampunk contraptions, usually laboring by candlelight in the dim, dusty recesses of their cluttered workshops.

Others prefer to play Astonishing!, a game of Steampunk contraptions, where the possibilities are endless... and a card table will suffice in lieu of a mad scientist's lair.

We present to you Astonishing!, a freely downloadable game created by noted game designer Will Hindmarch as an exclusive add-on to The Steampunk User's Manual. 

Aston­ish­ing!

A game of steam­punk con­trap­tions designed and exhib­ited, for 2 – 4 players.

Ver­sion 1.9.12 — 2014 by Will Hindmarch

The year is 1899. The World’s Design & Inven­tion Fair draws near. Across the globe, inven­tors and artists lead design houses in the craft­ing of new tech­nolo­gies to exhibit at the fair. Soon, you shall debut your con­trap­tion, hop­ing it oper­ates cor­rectly on the fair’s dais, and see which inven­tion elic­its the most mar­velous recep­tion from peers and pub­lic alike. A grant from Queen Vic­to­ria and the ado­ra­tion of the audi­ence await the inven­tion deemed most astonishing!

Overview

Each player con­trols one of four inven­tors in charge of a fab­ri­ca­tion work­shop some­where on the Earth at the end of the nine­teenth cen­tury. By draw­ing, trad­ing, and play­ing num­bered cards, each player shall con­struct a pro­to­type steam­punk con­trap­tion for exhi­bi­tion at the World’s Design & Inven­tion Fair in London.

This is a cut­throat affair. The dif­fer­ent work­shops squab­ble and scheme in pur­suit of the final prize: a com­mis­sion from Queen Vic­to­ria to pro­duce a final, fully func­tional ver­sion of the win­ning prototype.

Depend­ing on the contraption’s qual­ity of con­struc­tion — and a bit of luck — the device may have a good show­ing at the fair … or it may mal­func­tion on stage. It may earn acclaim … or it may fail spark the audience’s imagination.

The more the audi­ence mar­vels — and the more peo­ple that are aston­ished! — the more Acclaim play­ers earn. The inven­tor with the most Acclaim wins.

 The Steampunk User’s Manual, due October 7, is not a novel but a combination reference guide and how-to manual. VanderMeer and co-editor Desirina Boskovich have packed their book with hands-on exercises and practical tips to help readers—steampunk fanatics and utter newbies alike—be more than passive consumers. Everything from designing your own steampunk cosplay to crafting your own steampunk musical instruments is covered in the User’s Manual‘s lavishly illustrated chapters. The genre’s deeper themes—everything from biotechnology to the beauty of anachronism—are examined as well. But generally, VanderMeer and Boskovich keep things grounded in a simple, basic truth: Steampunk is not only beautiful and useful. It’s also fun. And at heart, it’s as relevant to the here-and-now as it is to any imaginary, clockwork world.

I've been looking forward to the release of The Steampunk User's Manual: An Illustrated Practical and Whimsical Guide to Creating Retro-futurist Dreams by Jeff VanderMeer and Desirina Boskovich eve...

The Steampunk User's Manual by Jeff VanderMeer and Desirina Boskovich is available now!

Drawing on the expertise and creativity of dozens of high-profile contributors, The Steampunk User's Manual offers a visual tour of some of the most innovative, interesting, and beautiful work happening across the Steampunk scene today. Plus, the book offers an spiring call to readers to explore their own creativity and discover their Steampunk side, by embracing the Steampunk ethic: Do It Yourself. Projects range from the concrete and doable to the fantastically ambitious, to delight the novice and the big dreamer alike.