Thanks to Christopher Allen, I no longer have to.
Steam & Steel is a 124 page PDF with everything you need to drag your fantasy setting into the industrial revolution. It's also one of the most comprehensive, well thought-out RPG books I've seen in a long time.
Before I talk about the contents, I'll mention the last page of the PDF, which notes that not only will there be a follow-up book to this from the same author, but Ronin Arts will also be producing material that is based on Steam & Steel. This last development, I think, is one of the best things to happen to e-publishing. It's good to see a quality PDF product get the same kind of support that has previously been reserved for print products (and only a select few of those).
Broadly speaking, Steam & Steel can be divided into three main sections, plus an introduction. These sections are first, the rules for creating and using steamworks; second, a massive 50 pages of pre-generated machines; and third, new prestige classes and spells.
Reading the introduction, the amount of effort that has gone into this work becomes clear. It offers a comprehensive discussion of how and why steamworks might be introduced into a setting (or be part of a new one), as well as the implications of introducing them, across topics such as industrialisation, warfare, religion and magic. It also covers different styles of play (such as steampunk, Victoriana or 'high steam power') and offers examples of each. Most tellingly, there is also a section on how steam engines actually *work*, which is a very useful and elementary piece of information that would often be overlooked. There are also sidebars sprinkled through the book that suggest how specific races should react to steam power. Personally, I would have preferred to see these all in one place, but that's a minor complaint.
The first main section of the book is then the rules for creating and maintaining steam devices. In terms of 'crunch', this includes the introduction of a new craft (steamworks) skill, a new bonus type (machine), and lots of new technology-related feats. Steam & Steel requires those who wish to manufacture steam powered items (as opposed to simply using them) to invest both skill ranks and feats, which is a good method of balancing the power of technology against magic.
All told, these rules run to about 50 pages. In addition to creating steamworks, they also cover identifying, using and maintaining steam powered devices, as well as the malfunctions they can suffer and how to repair them. There are also rules for sabotage - something that the average group of PCs are likely to want to do at least once :-). By far the lion's share of this section relates to the creation of new items, however, and once again, this is where the amount of work done by the author becomes clear. There are rules not only for conventional engines (such as oil or coal burners) but also engines powered by alchemical, arcane, 'essence' (elemental or spirit) and necromantic (blood or souls) sources. There are rules for the use of different construction materials, for different levels of sophistication of the device (from crude to highly advanced) and a vast number of new items of equipment, from tools to weapons and protective items, which lead us smoothly into the second main section of the book: examples of the more advanced steamworks that can be created.
This section covers not only the immediately obvious RPG-friendly items, such as constructs and vehicles, but also more mundane but important items, such as elevators, cranes and the printing press: the kind of items which can change a fantasy setting far more than a new kind of monster. Steam-powered or magical, an iron golem is an iron golem. Seeing cranes unload steamships, on the other hand, underlines just how different a steam-powered society may become. There are also rules for steam-powered prosthetics, which some PCs will doubtless find an interesting alternative to more traditional options for replacing lost limbs and body parts. The prosthetics section also includes notes on how to intermingle technological body parts and different levels of magical healing within your game.
More traditional RPG-staple though they may be, the constructs presented in Steam & Steel cover the gamut of challenge ratings, monster types and concepts. Many of these obviously take their inspiration from popular media, or represent technological versions of traditional fantasy opponents, but they are no less interesting an well thought-out for all that.
The vehicles too are comprehensive, ranging from dirigibles to submersibles and all points in between. Even a quick browse through this section produces many ideas for adventures, where it be aloft, afloat or deep underground.
Finally, we have the prestige classes and spells, which range from the obvious-but-necessary (the Inspired Inventor PrC; the awaken machine spell) to the more avant garde: the balloonist is a dirigible-using sharpshooter, the mechanist is a steam-powered cyborg and the metalworker is a divine master of metallurgy.
Comprehensive, generally well-organised, and showing a real depth of thought and effort, Steam & Steel is a superior work. If you have any interest in adding steam technology to your d20 fantasy game, you should pick this up.
