While not everyone is aware of it, Cyberpunk started as a movement within science fiction. The members of this movement have since moved on, but the effects of Cyberpunk can be felt in science fiction literature and gaming to this very day. One major new thread in the cyberpunk tapestry is steampunk, a new style of sci-fi literature that blends Victorian history with cyberpunk morality.

The defining element of the Babbage campaign is the creation of the analytical engine, Charles Babbage's design for a digital computer using gears and punch cards. In our reality, the analytical engine, which would be the size of a football stadium, was never built. We would wait until the 1930's, a full hundred years later, until digital computers really became practical.

However, in the Babbage campaign world, the Analytical Engine is built, leading to great and rapid advances in technology. In effect, the indus, trial revolution never ends.

Huge corporations rise out of the sudden urbanization of Europe and America, and the underclass becomes a lot more dangerous. The steam engine and the steamboat bring Europe and America closer togetther, and the telegraph system is used in con, junction with the analytical engines throughout Europe and America to form an information web.

By 1855, Babbage's world is a totally different world from ours.

Timeline

The Industrial Revolution (circa 1730-1850)

The Industrial Revolution can be considered the single most important factor leading to the Victorian age of England. The Industrial Revolution led to the production of steam technology, an important part of the Victorian Age and the Steampunk campaign.

The Industrial Revolution also encouraged urbanization (the movement from small communities to cities). The increase in the population during the Industrial Revolution was phenomenal, and the prices of many goods dropped dramatically as machines took over the jobs that people once had.

The Victorian Age (circa 1850-1906)

This period of time defines an era where the working class gained some measure of power in our world. Unfortunately, in Babbage's world, the Corporations that rise from the increased use of technology force the underclass back down. The poor remain unrepresented and uncared for.

In Babbage's world, Charles Babbage started work on the Analytical Engine a full three years before he did in our world. Thus in 1830, with the full cooperation of the British Government, Babbage started construction of the Analytical Engine just outside of London.

The Analytical Engine was completed in 1833 and was the size of a football stadium. It used gears and levers rather than integrated circuits or vacuum tubes. Babbage started to sell time slots on his Analytical Engine to small companies that needed to do large calculations. Unfortunately for Babbage, he didn't realize that Britain's aid made the machine theirs. In 1835, the English government seized the Analytical Engine and made Babbage's patents their own. Babbage committed suicide in December of the same year.

England allowed copies of the difference engine design to fall into the hands of Ted Mulligan, a genius who existed in Babbage's world, but not in ours. Mulligan improved the design a thousandfold, and in 1836, he was hired as a consultant to the state, and he sold his design for the new and improved "Analyzing Machine" to England.

The new machine included magnetic based memory storage, smaller, faster gear operations, and an improved user interface. No longer were punchcards necessary. The user could command the analyzing machine through a keyboard. The users typing was copied onto paper by the machine. The machine was as small as a modernday chicken coop.

England started leasing out the design of the Analyzing Machine in 1837. France, Italy, and the United States immediately jumped on the Analyzing Machine bandwagon, and by 1840, France had eight. Unfortunately, whenever one of the machines was built, its core programming had to be placed in by hand because there was no other way to enter the code.

The telegraph, which was modified by Morse in 1844, became an obvious relayer of information. Suddenly it became possible to talk to people all over the world, especially with the invention of the relay. The telegraph relay was used to hook the machines together, allowing them to communicate to each other and send information. The net was born.

Small companies started pooling their resources in order to get access to these analyzing machines. By 1850, these conglomerates grew into huge multinational corporations, and each corporation owned at least one analyzing engine. These corporations started to yield grant political influence throughout Europe and the United States.

The year is 1855, and the world is a very different place.

Characteristics of a Steampunk Campaign

There are several charateristics that are a major part of the Babbage Campaign. The Steampunk campaign is more than just a mix of Victorian roleplaying and Cyberpunk roleplaying. It is a carefully balanced entity in its own right.

Respectability

Respectability is a large part of Victorian England, were people were classified as respectable or not respectable. Those people that were considered respectable (middle class or higher) followed a strict societal code. Etiquette was followed to the point of absurdity, and ridiculous taboos were common. Those people who resisted Etiquette or Taboo were considered not respectable. (Thus was born the dividing line between the deserving poor and the undeserving poor.)

Urbanization

The industrial revolution, by its nature, encouraged the movement of people from their rural homes to the city, where more jobs could be found. European and Amer-can society started to move away from an agricultural economy and developed a technological and trade economy.

Peaceful

The Victorian Age was a peaceful era in our world, and for the most part, Babbage's world is also peaceful. However, war has been replaced with corporate espionage.

Steam Technology

One of the major forces that moved Europe into the Victorian age was the development of steam technology, especially the Steam engine and the steamboat. These inventions brought Europe closer together, since transportation time was cut down enormously. The invention of the steam engine allowed goods to be distributed throughout Europe and the US at a much faster and cheaper rate.

Punk

The defining characteristic of the Steampunk campaign. The word punk means many things to many people, but in the steam punk campaign it has a fairly clear definition. Punk is those elements having to do with the underclass. Punk is technology in the hands of the masses, and an ever expanding counterculture beneath regular society.

A major element of steampunk is the use of drugs. Drugs play an important part in the under~ class's existence. Most of the underclass's addicts are alcoholics, since they can't afford the more expensive "snuff" (cocaine). Note that player characters are heroes in the Steampunk campaign and should transcend their fellows in the underclass. This does not mean that they can't have a drug problem however, since it makes a weakness

Babbage's World

The Steampunk Campaign
Adventuring in a Babbage Campaign
Further Readings on Steampunk