GM Quick Reference - Steampunk

🎩 Character Names (d100)

Victorian-era names for inventors, spies, nobles, and street folk

1–25

Aldous Pemberton
Cecily Vane
Jasper Croft
Millicent Holt
Cornelius Blackwood
Seraphina Marsh
Thaddeus Grime
Isadora Finch
Barnabas Quirke
Evangeline Stoke
Reginald Hawke
Prudence Bolt
Obadiah Cane
Araminta Wells
Fletcher Cross
Honoria Drax
Silas Thorn
Celestine Moor
Ignatius Fenn
Lavinia Smythe
Crispin Vault
Thomasina Gear
Absalom Pike
Verity Crane
Montgomery Ash

26–50

Portia Wren
Ezekiel Flint
Cordelia Rust
Alistair Cogg
Sophronia Lace
Desmond Valve
Rosalind Pitch
Percival Soot
Euphemia Drake
Cavendish Noyle
Wilhelmina Fuse
Horatio Sprat
Lucinda Wrench
Algernon Pip
Clementine Forge
Sylvester Coke
Arabella Piston
Lysander Boot
Octavia Plume
Cornelius Smelt
Adelaide Pump
Benedict Slag
Frederica Loom
Ambrose Clinker
Henrietta Tack

51–75

Rupert Bellows
Clotilde Rivet
Aldric Smock
Sophronia Gas
Bartholomew Crank
Isolde Sprocket
Florentine Cog
Peregrine Smoke
Magdalene Flange
Eustace Burner
Constance Gauge
Archibald Clinch
Rosalba Flock
Wilberforce Draft
Petronella Sump
Godfrey Nozzle
Arabella Clutch
Sebastian Lathe
Christabel Spoke
Clarence Mangle
Josephine Pawl
Elspeth Ratchet
Ferdinand Cotter
Hermione Shank
Leopold Gusset

76–100

Guinevere Plunger
Cyrus Mallet
Winifred Drift
Algernon Keel
Mathilda Solder
Sheridan Bore
Dorothea Cam
Hector Mandrel
Felicity Tappet
Aldous Clinker
Prudence Anvil
Lysander Hasp
Octavia Cullet
Cornelius Dross
Emmeline Flue
Peregrine Tuyere
Brunhilde Sprue
Thaddeus Spanner
Millicent Swage
Auberon Swivel
Celestine Bodkin
Ignatius Drawbar
Verity Gudgeon
Barnabas Trunnion
Lavinia Pintle

🗣️ City Rumours (2d10)

What's whispered in taverns, on factory floors, and in guild halls

2d10	Rumour
2	"The new Admiralty airship never arrived at Port Calloway. Scheduled three days ago. The docks are saying nothing. The Ministry is saying less."
3	"Patent Office clerk was found dead in his filing room. Every drawer open. Every folder empty. Nothing stolen, they say. Nothing they'll admit to, more like."
4	"A guild-mark showed up on the Meridian Bridge last night. Not any guild registered with the Crown. The symbol's been painted over twice. It keeps coming back."
5	"Blackmoor's automata factory has been running three shifts instead of two. Lights on all night. No new contracts announced. The foreman won't answer questions."
6	"Saw a woman in Ministry grey hand something to a lower-city tinker and walk away fast. Tinker burned it in the furnace without looking at it. Both looked terrified."
7	"Coal prices jumped overnight. Not rationing — but the Crown brokers are buying futures three years out. Someone knows something about the northern mines."
8	"Third inventor this month found with all their notes missing. No break-in. No struggle. Just gone in the night, notes gone with them. Or taken."
9	"Heard the Artificers' Guild rejected a patent that would've halved steam consumption. Patent holder signed something and was never seen publicly again."
10	"A child in the Copper Ward claims she saw automatons moving on their own at midnight, when the operators had gone home. Filed a report. Report was lost."
11	"The new water filtration system for the lower city keeps getting delayed. Upper-city aldermen keep voting it down. Lower-city mortality rate keeps climbing."
12	"Crown customs seized a shipment at the east docks last week. Manifest listed machine parts. Customs men won't say what was actually inside. Three of them resigned next day."
13	"Engineer from the Meridian Rail project was asking questions about tunnel routing. Different questions than you'd expect. Asked who approved the change in 1887. Someone broke his hand."
14	"Saw two Aldermen leave the same private club at the same hour on three separate nights. Neither acknowledged the other. Both represent opposing factions. Make of that what you will."
15	"There's a new society meeting in the Kessler Hotel. Invite only. No name on the door. Members arrive separately and leave together. Started the same week as the guild troubles."
16	"Aetheric signal interference across the whole eastern exchange district. Instruments going haywire. The Guild says it's atmospheric. The Guild says a lot of things that aren't true."
17	"Heard a body was pulled from the canal with no identification and no cause of death the coroner would commit to. The inquest was closed the same afternoon. No report filed."
18	"Three separate witnesses claim the same automaton was seen in three different districts at the same hour last Thursday. Identical serial plate. Ministry says it's mistaken identity."
19	"Something came through the pneumatic post network that wasn't a letter. Sorting office supervisor burned it in the furnace, filed for early retirement that afternoon, and hasn't spoken since."
20	"They're building something under the Parliament Annex. Not on any approved plan. Workers on the project are contracted from outside the city and housed separately from everyone else."

⚠️ Session Complications (2d10)

Drop these in when a scene needs an unexpected wrench thrown into it

2d10	Complication
2	Surveillance Sweep: Ministry inspectors are conducting a surprise identity check in the area. Valid papers required. Anyone without them has 30 seconds to disappear.
3	Equipment Failure: A key gadget, vehicle, or aetheric device fails at the worst possible moment. Jury-rig it, find a replacement, or improvise without it.
4	Strike Action: Guild workers on the planned route are striking. Picket lines, angry foremen, Crown mediators — and someone in the crowd is watching the party specifically.
5	Aetheric Discharge: Unstable aetheric energy in the area. Gadgets behave unpredictably. Roll for each device used: 1–2 on d6 means it misfires.
6	Familiar Face: Someone who knows one of the characters appears — at exactly the wrong time, in exactly the wrong place, asking awkward questions.
7	Coal Shortage: The district's steam supply is down to minimum pressure. Lifts aren't running. Certain locks won't open. Factories are shutting down floor by floor.
8	Rival Operatives: Another party is pursuing the same objective. They're not enemies — yet. But they won't share, and they have a head start.
9	Weather Turns: Dense fog, driving rain, or a coal-smoke smog event reduces visibility and makes aerial travel impossible. Ground routes take twice as long.
10	Informant Burned: A contact the party relied on has been compromised. They're being watched, arrested, or have turned. Any information they provided may now be suspect.
11	Unexpected Witness: Someone sees something they shouldn't have. Now the party has to decide: buy their silence, trust them, or remove the problem entirely.
12	Forged Documents: The papers the party is carrying are suddenly invalid — either replaced, expired, or flagged by a new directive issued this morning. Acquire new ones fast.
13	Crowd Incident: A public disturbance blocks the route — protest, brawl, or runaway steam cart. Easy to get separated. Easy for someone to use the chaos as cover.
14	Guild Lockout: The building or vessel the party needs access to is under Guild lockout dispute. No one enters, no one leaves, and both sides are watching the doors.
15	Contraband Discovered: A routine stop turns up something in the party's possession that looks very suspicious to someone who doesn't know the context — and explaining the context is worse.
16	Unexpected Shutdown: The aetheric network in the district goes dark without warning. No signals, no timed locks, no pneumatic post. Someone cut the grid deliberately.
17	Double Agent: Someone in the party's circle is passing information to a third party. They don't know they've been discovered yet. The question is what to do with that knowledge.
18	Incident Report: The party's recent activities have been summarised in an official Ministry incident report — accurate, detailed, and distributed to three separate agencies this morning.
19	Mechanical Saboteur: An automaton in the area has been reprogrammed to obstruct or expose the party at a critical moment. It doesn't know it's been tampered with. Neither did anyone else until now.
20	Aetherium Breach: A nearby device catastrophically overloads, warping aetheric fields in the area. Compasses spin. Gadgets activate on their own. And something that shouldn't be able to see the party now can.

🎭 Social Encounter Hooks (2d10)

Quick NPC openers for galas, guild halls, taverns, and chance meetings

2d10	Hook
2	A well-dressed stranger approaches and addresses one of the characters by a name that isn't theirs — and seems absolutely certain of it.
3	An inventor loudly demonstrates a device that is clearly stolen from someone else's patent. The real inventor is also in the room.
4	A guild representative offers the party a lucrative contract — verbally, with no paperwork. When asked why no contract, they simply say: "Paperwork leaves records."
5	A lower-city courier delivers an anonymous sealed letter to one party member, watches them read it, and immediately leaves. The letter says: "Don't let them see you react."
6	A noble is loudly insulting an engineer's work. The engineer is quietly furious. The noble's next airship journey is in the engineer's hands. Intervene or watch?
7	Someone at the bar is drinking alone, visibly shaken, with burn marks on their hands and soot in their hair. They haven't spoken to anyone. Then they look directly at one character.
8	A famous adventurer is telling a story about an exploit that the party knows — for certain — never happened. They have an audience, a book deal, and a very expensive publicist.
9	A Ministry official asks the party for help with something informal — off the record, no documentation. The favour sounds small. The favour clearly isn't small.
10	An automaton server pauses mid-task, turns to one character, and recites a specific address and a time. Then continues serving drinks as if nothing happened.
11	Two faction representatives are in the same room, pretending not to notice each other. Both approach the party independently within ten minutes with competing offers.
12	A journalist is taking notes nearby — legitimate press by all appearances. One of the characters catches them sketching a very accurate portrait of the party's faces.
13	An elderly woman presses a folded map into one character's hand as she passes, whispers a single street name, and disappears into the crowd before anyone can follow.
14	A heated argument breaks out between two guild representatives over a contract clause. They both turn and ask the party to arbitrate. Both are clearly lying about something.
15	Someone the party recognises from a previous job is here under a different name, in different clothes, talking to people they shouldn't know. They haven't spotted the party yet.
16	A young apprentice engineer approaches, clearly frightened, and says her employer told her to give the party an envelope if they ever showed up here — then briskly walks away.
17	An off-duty Ministry clerk, deep in their cups, starts murmuring about a classified project with enough detail to be genuinely dangerous. And someone else at the bar is listening very carefully.
18	A renowned inventor publicly offers the party a commission in front of witnesses — for a task that sounds entirely legitimate but whose specifications, on reflection, make no sense at all.
19	Three separate strangers approach over the course of an hour, each claiming to be the rightful owner of an object the party is carrying. None of them match the person who gave it to them.
20	Every clock in the room stops at the same moment. A woman in the far corner stands, looks directly at the party, and says a single word — a name that shouldn't mean anything. It does.

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