[Game] Work Up a Steampunk Setting

[Daigoro]

Originally Posted by (E)

Question 9
Where are the great unexplored corners of the world that explorers seek out to plant the flags of their nations?

Answer to Q9
Actually, the Age of Sail and the Age of Exploration came to a close some 30-50 years earlier than OTL, due to three innovations in particular.

There were the Napoleonic steamers, based on the Niepce Brothers' Pyréolophore, fleets of which quickly pushed to every corner of the globe and mapped out every last remaining coastline.

(Incidentally, photography is significantly retarded compared to OTL, as Napoleon forced Nicéphore Niépce to continue work on high-speed steamers, and thus his OTL discoveries in photography never occurred.)

By no means did Napoleonic France dominate this exploration, but they set the pace for other powers to keep up with.

Terrestrial discovery, exploring the inlands of Australia, crossing the Andes, etc, was greatly accelerated by the use of Crimean Crawlers, great Magalhães-Watt steam wagons mounted on dreadnaught wheels and later caterpillar tracks. The surplus of power meant they could be equipped with circular saws on articulators, to make crossing heavily wooded terrain much easier.

Finally, the frontiers of Arctic and Antarctic exploration were conquered in the 1890's with the aid of Enthermalised Holland Walkers, all-encompassing environmental dress containing a miniature power plant to circulate heated air around the wearer. Produced at the Cork Brassworks, in the Celtic Federacy, by John Phillip Holland, similar Enfridgerated Holland Walkers are a common sight amongst European explorers and merchants venturing into hot tropical or desert areas.

What remains for exploration lies more in the vertical realm. Bathyphilic Holland Walkers and Fenian Diving Yachts are being deployed by many world powers, in a race to colonise useful deep sea territories. High altitude mountain ranges also pose a final frontier for exploration, but teams of Holland Walker equipped explorers, accompanied by Celtic engineers who keep these machines running, are on the verge of conquering this realm as well.

Question 10:
What are the physical properties of the tar coral? i.e. How does it burn? Does it need to be refined? Can it be used as explosive or as an alternative to gunpowder?