I love stories,
I always have. From books and games to movies and television, the ability of a good story to transport you to another place or time can be a thing of beauty and one of the elements of steampunk that I love to play with.
A persona is one of those ways to tell a story. It is a character that you inhabit and bring to life to tell your own unique story. Are you a daring adventurer out to uncover ancient secrets? A sky pirate with a heart of gold? Or are you the local doctor? All of these and more are possible. Who are you? Where are you from? What do you do? The sky is the limit, and in some cases even beyond, fancy a romp on Mars anyone?
One of the great things about building a persona, and indeed steampunk itself, is that there are no hard and fast rules; you make of it what you want. From the simple to the elaborate the story you tell is up to you. And if you feel that you do not want to have a persona that is fine too, you do not have to have one to enjoy the genre. Think of it like a little extra frosting on the cake, not everyone will want the extra toppings but we all get to enjoy the same cake.
Recently at the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo I was able to do a workshop on building a steampunk persona with my talented friends Cali Kyhn and Stephen Wallace. We were fortunate enough to have the workshop recorded (many thanks to Alex Norrington for this) and in it we started to delve into some ideas one could use to build a persona and also gave some insight into our own personas and the shared world they inhabit. The 2 part video can be seen below.
A steampunk persona can be whatever you want to make of it, from the fun and fanciful to the serious and dour or any combination in-between, the choice is yours. Only one question remains for those interested in creating a persona and a story of their own.
In the age of steam, what part will you play?
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