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Vague idea...
When I was looking through the Cool Bits generator a bit earlier (see previous entry for context) I got a wild hair to do a steampunk-themed generator for the hell of it. Naturally, why should I do all the work of coming up with the content myself when I have the Internet at hand? So ... when you think of steampunk, what do you think of? Characters, character types, cliches, objects, items, themes, plots, moods, locations, settings, tropes, etc.
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clockwork men
female inventor
flying ships
person with metal wings
schools for would-be inventors
rampaging proto-robots
smoke filled skies
mechanical underground
*edits for steampunk icon*
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(The best part about adapting the generator is that lots of things it contains are perfectly useful for any genre. "Cold-eyed assassins" and "surprisingly gentle lunks" will fit into any scenario. XD I'll also bring in the non-prurient bits of the Kinkfic generator, because it's exceptionally good at producing things about interactions between people.)
Editing after your edit: have you read that book? If so, it is any good?
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Also one I've always like but don't see a lot of are mechanical bugs/spiders/etc that that have some version of little black and white reels recording things that are sent as spies.
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I finished Larklight yesterday, which was an entertaining romp through the planets of the British Empire. There was one plot point that, if it had come earlier, would have sent the book across the room into the wall, but as it was revealed late in the game, got an eye-roll instead.
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Ada Lovelace
intelligent automata
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plucky girl mechanic
alchemical student
music box
snake oil salesman
traveling show
aristocratic widow
freelance adventurer
eccentric genius
box of gears
mechanical animal
clockwork bird
difference engine
calculating machine
gentlewoman scholar
gentleman scholar
wild-eyed inventor
trusty assistant
clever street urchin
airship
eldritch inscriptions
starving but enthusiastic student
daring airship captain
dashing airship pirate
grease-stained airship mechanic
automaton with a heart of gold
attack parasol
beast-human hybrid
aether gun
bell jar containing one of the fair folk
canal
Woman of Quality with a dark secret
clockwork locket
specemin box full of uncanny things
secret compartment
secret room
hidden gateway
aethernaut
hidden key
Byzantine gateway
sewer
clocktower
...I could probably go on. :D
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Thank you!
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I have two not-quite-conflicting mental images - one is Victorian, and one is more 1920s/30s. Hm.
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....Probably not helpful.
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unintentional transformation
monster (intentional, unintentional, friendly, plant-based, carnivorous)
rampaging walking plants
intelligent buildings
unintended consequences
volatile interpersonal chemistry
explosions
gears, cogs, flywheels, pistons, meters, mirrors
infinite gears
dirigible, airship, aerostat, balloon
tentacled submarine
superhuman, subhuman
sidekick (annoying, resourceful, mysterious, intelligent, raffish, charming, one-eyed)
butler
unnatural beasts
things man was not meant to know
the secret of missing socks
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(And I suppose the secret of missing socks is one of the things man was not meant to know?)
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Sharp uniforms. Pocket watches. Brass buttons. Goggles. Quizzing glasses.
Swords. Revolvers. Gatling Guns. Steam cannons. Congreve Rockets (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congreve_Rocket). Lightning guns.
Primitive robots driven by Babbage-style programing cards.
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an ancient Eastern European city on a river, a great city, a shining city, an abandoned city, a market town, the Grand Canyon, a volcano, the ends of the Earth, the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica, the Moon, Mars, Venus
London, Edinburgh, Singapore, Cairo, Chicago, Shanghai
a Ruritanian castle, a decaying palazzo, a tenement, a hotel, a luxurious hotel, a dark and dingy hotel, a deconsecrated church, a house at the end of an unpaved road
a toll house, a workshop, a roundhouse, a locomotive shed, a hangar, a dirigible's gondola, a bicycle shop, a souk, an oasis, a jungle, a desert
a laboratory, a kitchen, a store-room, a glass-blowing workshop, a blacksmith's, a whitesmith's (=tinsmith's), a foundry, a watch-and-clock shop, an instrument-maker's shop, an engraver's workshop, a greenhouse
a warehouse, a dock, an airship-field, a post office, a department store, an arcade*, a chemist's, a tearoom, a bakery, a coffee-house, the ladies' lounge, a dining car, a caboose, a rooftop, a steeple, a tower, an aerial walkway, a floating platform, a warship
*in the Benjamin sense
By the way, in the "garments" or whatever you're calling that category, don't overlook the white laboratory coat, the duster, or the aviator's jacket!
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furthermore... misc. additions
an abandoned monastery
a wine cellar beneath the street
a hidden door
a (disgruntled, efficient, treacherous) assistant
an (irritable, benevolent, misguided) (genius, mastermind, detective)
a steam-powered (automobile, sewing machine, surfboard, abomination, telectroscope, digging machine, three-legged dog)
Re: furthermore... misc. additions
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Reclusive genius inventors
Titled spies
Armored corsets
Steam-powered automatic machine guns
Railroads
Robotic prosthetics
Imperialism
Expansionism
Lost cities
Engineering mystics
Lost civilizations
Packet steamers
Riverboats
Travelling circuses
Flying apparatus/climbing rig hidden in/under a crinoline frame
Gentlemen's clubs staffed by automatons
Museums
Zoos
Cursed artifacts
Hermetic magic
A division of Scotland Yard given to paranormal or supernatural investigations
Steam-powered horseless carriages
Turn-of-the-century boarding schools, universities, and libraries
Politicking between nobles behind closed doors
Adventure societies
Lady adventurers
Treks across Asia, Africa, and South America
Secret bases beneath the polar ice caps
Copper tubing
Goggles
Monocles
Swords hidden in ornate walking canes
Silver flasks of gunpowder, explosive liquid, or holy water
Vampires
Werewolves
Ghosts
The black dog of death
Gentlemen murderers
Gaslight
Decadent brothels
Absinthe cafes
Opium dens
Suffrage
Mills and mines full of automated machines, but people still have to be there to tend the machines
Railroads built by machines
The American South after the Civil War
Queen Victoria
Mechanical pets
Super-competent personal servants
Broadsheets
Eccentric recluses
Country manors
Houses in the "ton"
Billowy white nightgowns
Men's dressing gowns
Cravats
Top hats
Formal military uniforms
Automated giant squid and whales
Edited because my vocabulary has passed in lieu of my kidney stone
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Maxwell Parrish landscapes
Belle Epoque
Roaring Twenties
World War I veteran
Gibson girl
Stage actress
Daring female aviator
Art Nouveau
Art Deco
Silent movie
Daguerrotype
Manual typewriter
Jeweled brooch
Cameo
Riding skirt
Ellis Island
1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire
Whitechapel
Union organizer
Millworker
Arts and crafts movement
Pre-Raphaelite
Irish Renaissance
Speakeasy (might be too late for the period)
Jazz Age (again, might be later than you want)
Penny dreadfuls
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Trans Siberian railroad
Meiji Era Japan (very broad, I know, but it covers the relevant time period)
Buffalo Soldiers
The Golden Spike
Chinese railroad workers
Irish railroad workers
Kikapu joy juice (I see you already got a suggestion for snake oil salesmen)
Boxer Rebellion
The forced opening of Japan's ports to trade from the West
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