What steampunk/gaslight fantasy/Victoriana fantasy game to choose?

[A Fiery Flying Roll]

Also, if you like the idea of Victorian superheroes, the Kerebos Club supplement is very good indeed and comes in both Savage Worlds and Wild Talents.

 

[Gringnr]

Also, if you like the idea of Victorian superheroes, the Kerebos Club supplement is very good indeed and comes in both Savage Worlds and Wild Talents.

There's also Victorious, a steampunk supers game using the SIEGE engine from Castles & Crusades.

And let's not forget the not strictly steampunk but still very awesome (and free) Forgotten Futures, by the esteemed Marcus Rowland.

 

[Fenris-77]

I'd be very tempted to hack Ghastly Affair for steampunk play. I don't need another project right this moment, but I'll still it on the backburner and see if it comes to a boil.

 

[NinjaWeasel]

There’s also Leagues of Adventure although you’ll need the Leagues of Gothic Horror supplement for supernatural stuff.

This would be my recommendation. It's a good game. Also, it's got plenty of support and you can easily use material from Hollow Earth Expedition and Space: 1889 (the Clockwork Publishing version) to supplement it if you need/want.

 

[Kardinal Tabbe]

Also my recommendation. It certainly has fantastical elements but it feels a lot more alt history Victorian then some games. It's sort of steampunk but much more at the dark end rather than airships and shouts of "huzzah". It works great for fighting zombies, but you can also use that as a backdrop and use it for very different types of campaigns. (I was in one where we were all part of the Criminal Underworld).

A very cool game with a very bleak setting and harsh rules. The swinginess of the rules in combination with the reroll for damnation points really brings home the grit.

And it must be said that it is very much on the "horses with gas masks" end of the steampunk genre spectrum.

 

[A Fiery Flying Roll]

A very cool game with a very bleak setting and harsh rules. The swinginess of the rules in combination with the reroll for damnation points really brings home the grit.

And it must be said that it is very much on the "horses with gas masks" end of the steampunk genre.

Definitely. Much less "we wear goggles because they're cool" and more "we wear full gas masks because the London smog will blind you over time".

 

[AppleJax]

I'm a big fan of Castle Falkenstein, OneDice Airship Pirates and Space 1889 (don't know the others, sorry). But these three games are very different, if you look beyond the outer trappings.. Airship Pirates is a pretty bleak post apocalyptic setting running on the very bare bones OneDice-mechanic. Use this if you want to contrast the oppressive neo victorians and the rebellious airship pirates. Castle Falkenstein is a wild, almost psychedelic mash up of fairy tales, victorian (or more correctly Edwardian, isn't it?) fashion and sensibilities, and mad science. Run this if you want to have a wizards, dragons and elfs and evil masterminds in your steampunk game. Space 1889 is much more straight faced than the others. Here you have victorian tropes like white man's burden, colonialism, exploration, colony wars, mixed with some steamtech. Run this if you want your pretty grounded explorers going to mars.

This is a very helpful comparison. Thank you.

It would be great if there was a single overarching game for steampunk adventures that had these as campaign settings. Similar to how D&D is a single overarching game for medieval fantasy with a bunch of first and third part campaign settings. As it stands, the steampunk fandom is fractured between a bunch of incompatible games and thus has little power.

 

[A Fiery Flying Roll]

This site has done an extensive list of Victorian/Steampunk RPGs including the very obscure - https://www.ageofravensgames.com/blog/history-of-steampunk-amp-victoriana-rpgs-part-1-1983-1996