100 Steampunk Writing Prompts

Here are 100 steampunk writing prompts to ignite your creativity; the gears are turning and the imaginative pistons are pumping as we prepare to set your creativity aloft to soar on wings of brass and steam! Today we’re spotlighting a list of 100 fascinating steampunk writing prompts to launch story ideas bursting with speculative history, retro-futuristic technology, and daring characters who aren’t afraid to challenge conventions.

Get ready to explore airships sailing high above alternate skylines where groundbreaking inventions shift the tide of cultural conflicts and social change. Or perhaps you’ll unveil hidden worlds where steam-driven robots walk among us as state of the art machinery reshapes life in unexpected ways.

With historical backdrops like pioneer-era American West, Victorian London, or 19th century India as potential leaping off points, these dynamic prompts traverse the landscape of science fiction while awakening that innately human compulsion to tinker and improve with innovative tools and mechanisms.

The prompts range in scope from slice-of-life vignettes to high-adventure serials prime for multi-episode sagas. You’ll discover seed ideas for stalwart but imperfect protagonists – from intrepid aviators and outlaw inventors to mad scientists, detective technologists, and other colorful personalities. The story possibilities await!

Now let your imagination take flight and grab a prompt that ignites a spark. Our high-octane blog crew is standing by to fuel the fire and forge visions of past, present, or future where creative minds meld magic and machine into marvelous tomorrows your readers will adore! Full steam ahead!

100 steampunk writing prompts to ignite your creativity:

1. An aspiring inventor accidentally opens up a rift in space-time, connecting 19th century London with the 23rd century. Explore how people from two different eras interact with and react to each other’s worlds.
2. An airship engineer stumbles upon an illegal smuggling ring transporting rare clockwork automatons. Should they report it or join the adventure?
3. Mad scientists in a steampunk metropolis compete to build the most advanced cybernetic enhancements. However, their dangerous human experiments cross serious ethical boundaries.
4. Explorers find a secret Mayan workshop deep in the Amazon still building steam-powered behemoths, protecting tech forgotten to history. Have they found a marvel or a threat?
5. A headstrong Tamara Edison defies convention by competing against men to become a renowned airship inventor in early 1900s San Francisco.
6. A Victorian coal miner discovers an underground civilization powered by geomagnetic energy, hiding steam-driven wonders that could revolutionize surface society.
7. As WWI rages, an elite team of steampunk superspies & assassins deploy cutting-edge technology for high stakes undercover missions that could alter history.
8. An intrepid but sheltered young heir ventures into the gritty underworld of industrial London, enthralled by the marvels and dangers of emerging steampunk tech. Will they find friendly allies or life-threatening enemies?
9. Energetic 15-year old Celeste disguises herself as a cabin boy to join an airship crew searching for the legendary lost city of Atlantis.
10. Rescuing a broken automaton opens up a Pandora’s box, drawing a buttoned-up widow into a criminal conspiracy threatening London’s entire technocratic hierarchy.
11. An idealistic worker bee from the grim, industrialized undercity dreams of escaping to the literally higher strata where the wealthy elite enjoy crystal palaces, clean air, and endless possibility powered by technological wonder.
12. Donning a cutting-edge pneumatic exosuit, a disgruntled factory worker turned vigilante disrupts the grand opening of the Great Exhibition, determined to sabotage the glamorization of an unfair system.
13. A Victorian scientist’s consciousness is transferred into a clockwork android after their human body dies. Thrilled by their powerful new form at first, existential angst sets in as they grapple with no longer having legal rights or status as a person.
14. When their best friend is killed in a factory accident, an intrepid machinist creates a mechanical wonder horse to enter and win Europe’s most prestigious and dangerous airship race as an act of revenge against the negligent industrial tycoons.
15. A college student walks home at night through a forest. Taking a wrong turn, she suddenly finds herself transported back to 1894 London in the body of a steam-powered robot engineer caught up in a thrilling and dangerous conspiracy.
16. An indigenous shaman leads a rebellion against European colonists, empowered by a alliance with technologically advanced Maji able to manipulate time and space through mystical bronze masks.
17. A visionary conservationist from 1920 with access to immense family wealth converts a luxury airship into a mobile laboratory & sanctuary saving endangered wildlife from poachers across the globe.
18. Explore a day in the life of a 12-year-old paperboy whose beat includes hawking headlines around a flying 1890s steampunk metropolis known as the “Cloud City.”
19. An eccentric gentleman barnstormer flies his custom-built airship from town-to-town putting on spectacular airshows until he attracts the attention of hostile government agents who want his radical engine designs.
20. The discovery of a crashed alien spacecraft in 1899 sends shockwaves across the western world, inspiring both wonder and dread about what greater interplanetary connections the future may hold as humanity advances technologically.
21. A disabled Iraq war veteran receives bionic arm and eye replacements from an anachronistic underground society. He must now thwart a terrorist steampunk cult before they change history with radical new weapons.
22. An aristocrat awakens after hitting her head to find herself mysteriously trapped 100 years in future inside the mind of steam automatons. She races to rebuild her now antique robobody while figuring out how to return to the past.
23. When his family perishes in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, a vengeful survivor dons a weaponized steampunk exoskeleton to battle both the negligence of elected officials as well as the lingering supernatural entities the quake has unleashed across the city.
24. A gifted but impoverished watchmaker’s daughter disguises herself as a man to attend university and pursue degrees in engineering only open to men. But keeping her secret won’t be easy amongst high societal scrutiny and a persistent police investigator suspicious of her background.
25. The discovery of a real fairy leads a botanist to create a dazzling mechanical greenhouse garden sanctuary even as she works to keep the magical being’s existence safe in a world hostile to such whimsy.
26. As coal supplies dwindle and choking smog blankets London, feuding rivals bitterly compete to perfect and control scalable wind and tide-based energy harvesting technology to monopolize the city’s future power supply.
27. Defending an important client accused of murdering a renowned professor, a savvy female defense barrister must debunk questionable forensic autogyro & techno-spiritualist evidence in court to solve the true killer’s identity.
28. An arrogant explorer attempting to drain the Mediterranean unearths Atlantis but also releases an ancient curse that resurrects mythical hydras and harpies as judgment against his hubris. Now a band of oddball inventors are the only hope to save the Mediterranean coast from monstrous destruction.
29. A gifted but roguishly antiauthoritarian pilot gets recruited by military intelligence to fly a top secret sabotage mission. His daring and conscience are put to the test choosing between obeying orders or listening to his heart.
30. Consumed by revenge after his family dies in a disastrous blimp crash, a brooding bombardier downed over enemy terrain discovers an underground fortress where oppressed villagers are plotting a daring uprising against a mad countess’ autocratic rule. Will he help plan their escape or sacrifice them as pawns for his own vendetta?
31. A former clockmaker’s apprentice turned brilliant tinkerer is recruited into a secret Parisian alliance. Equipped with ingenious gadgets, she foils dastardly plots and heists by French aristocrats seeking power in the growing unrest leading up to the revolution.
32. Mixing cutting edge sonic wave technology with spiritualist experiments, a rebellious musician invents a resonance suit that can manipulate emotions and memories. Either a tool for utopian peace or enabling totalitarian control, factions hunt her seeking the code that operates it.
33. An intrepid zoological illustrator joins a 1872 expedition to study elusive cryptids in Africa. But she soon suspects the safari leader has a secret occult agenda for the rare creatures with ties to her family’s tragic past.
34. A former assassin turned vigilante dons a weaponized mechanical suit to violently confront the criminal elleadership of London’s most dangerous street gangs terrorizing her neighbors. Police regard her as only a slightly lesser danger than the ruthless gangs she aims to eliminate.
35. A struggling Parisian painter is committed to an asylum after obsession over visions of a beautiful woman turn out to be strikingly prophetic blueprints for fantastical but plausible inventions. Once released, he uses the innovations to gain fame and search Europe for her true identity, fearful she remains institutionalized somewhere against her will.
36. After a gifted astronomer locates a far-off Earth-like planet, a bold 1889 space voyage blasts off to reach it, facing numerous dangers to prove intergalactic travel is possible. Meanwhile those left behind debate the mission’s chances and worry for lost astronauts who may not return for 50+ years, if ever.
37. An irreverent airship crew of misfits barely make ends meet hauling odd cargo and passengers across picturesque 19th century South Pacific islands. But a mysterious parcel inadvertently plunges them into the middle of a colonial war they wanted no part in.
38. Escaping violent destruction of her home by foreign invaders as a girl, a Native prophetess grows up to lead a scrappy multiethnic air cavalry unit that harasses colonizers with daring sky raids from secret jungle strongholds.
39. A gentleman scientist develops identity struggles after experiments accidentally duplicate then overlay his consciousness between an automaton and biological clone replica when lightning strikes his lab. Are either still him, both, or someone entirely new?
40. A sheltered farmboy stumbles upon a crash-landed time machine from 2136 with an arrogant occupant.. Stranded but leveraging future knowledge, the traveler maneuvers the awestruck local into aiding their secret plans to reshape the town’s coming industrial revolution.
41. When their island kingdom is threatened by American business tycoons exploiting rare minerals for weapons manufacturing, an exiled coming-of-age princess reluctantly embraces her warrior heritage and high-tech allies to overthrow the colonial coup.
42. Barely surviving an assassination attempt, an African president discovers a proto-steampunk flying apparatus hidden by ancestors centuries ago. With its discovery, she gains technology and insight to defeat tribal warmongers vying to replace her.
43. When anti-immigrant isolationists sabotage the Statue of Liberty under construction in 1882, an immigrant riveter dons a jetpack to rapidly repair damage across the massive statue before its centennial inauguration can be cancelled over safety concerns.
44. Escaping a forced marriage to a depraved English aristocrat nearly old as her father, a 17-year old Italian heiress joins a women’s experimental air corps test piloting bullet fast rockets in 1887 Sicily.
45. After locomotives on her family’s railroad are sabotaged, a shrewd Creole heiress investigates. But when she uncovers a abolitionist secret society using stealth railcars to shepherd escaping slaves north, who is in the right?
46. Dismissed by traditional medical schools, an Indian woman immigrates to study body enhancing cybernetics. Returning home outraged by poor prosthetics hampering laborers, she uses advanced training to open accessible clinics upgrading quality of life.
47. When a gifted 14-year-old Guatemalan girl invents earthquake proof housing utilizing recycled scrap metal, local officials threaten her family to suppress the threatening microenterprise until international backers intervene.
48. A former architect horribly disfigured thwarting an assassination becomes both masked street vigilante and anonymous cutting edge airship designer, scourging violent corruption from the cities whose buildings he once crafted more idealistically.
49. Deliciously absurd tales dramatizing the culture clash when conservative early Victorian era minds encounter radical ideas, technology, food, music, and fashion from an outrageously anachronistic 1990s Blockbuster Video that accidentally gets teleported back via freak wormhole accident.
50. Bankrupting her family polishing a “perpetual motion” machine, a disinherited aristocrat joins a rambunctious airship circus, using her useless invention to propel daring trapeze stunt artists. Reconnecting with her estranged father, she hopes her newfound community and optimism helps their reconciliation.
51. Tasked with preparing Queen Victoria’s procession route with newfangled festive lights, electric engineers race to perfect the necessary technology after confused maintenance almost causes a fiery disaster.
52. When his family perishes from poisoned water, a young muckraker incites reform by publishing flaming exposés on negligent officials and factory runoff contaminating public water supplies to nonviolently force change.
53. A West Indian Polemist pens biting editorials via steam-powered press against colonial powers exploiting her people, fueled by traveling undercover amongst the oppressed to document their plight firsthand.
54. Apprenticed to a toymaker crafting wondrous clockwork amusements, a homesick Irish girl uses creativity and burgeoning engineering skills to secretly build an automaton avatar of the wise-cracking aunt she misses.
55. Unable to afford a rare lifesaving organ transplant, a dying teen agrees to join an experimental biomechanical hybridization program splicing human volunteers with animal traits so donors aren’t needed. But the risky process yields unexpected consequences…
56. When London’s beloved robotic Queen Victoria automaton begins spouting gibberish during the Diamond Jubilee, a technician and linguist race to decode if her artificial mind has achieved sentience or if anarchists have hacked her to spread anti-monarchist propaganda.
57. After domed cities protecting survivors of environmental collapse in 2115 fail, scientists temperately preserve chosen members of society. A computer glitch revives a philanthropist ahead of schedule in 1869 who then controversially exploits foreknowledge of events to build a utopian community.
58. When an ambitious stage magician uses hypnosis and manipulation to commit robberies her escaping assistant seems unable to recall, a peer mentalist takes up disguising herself as a seamstress to gather proof and take down the criminal mesmerist.
59. After scientists dismiss evidence of societal flaws as hysteria, a shrewd psychologist infiltrates an asylum to expose unethical experimentation on brilliant women confined there against their will, finding chilling connections to the field of psychology itself.
60. When the elderly curator of a prestigious museum of oddities is murdered, the chief suspect claims innocence citing the escaped beast once caged in a relic prison exhibit has reanimated a statue to kill under its own violent agenda.
61. Tasked with stealing an experimental airship prototype, rival spies must grudgingly collaborate when the sentient craft takes both hostage, flying itself towards the inventor’s private compound while bantering with them via printed ticker tape.
62. When anti-tech terrorists target tactile reading books enabling the blind, the vision impaired unite to stop their plot using ultra sonic mobility canes, GPS tread-equipped guide horses, and braille enabled typewriter communication.
63. A gifted astronomer’s paradigm shifting telescope reveals not only canals on Mars but mineral riches, igniting a period “Canals Race” as scholars vie to decipher optical telegraph messages from possible Martians.
64. A Samoan computer pioneer gridlocks parliament’s intellectual property vote with cunning hacktivism until they address her homeland’s forced data mining and online censorship by foreign developers illegally claiming credit for indigenous coding innovations.
65. When a novice nun investigating miracle healing claims surreptitiously aids the victim’s escape from a coercive psychiatric hospital, she stumbles into intrigue infiltrating the Vatican itself.
66. An extroverted Turkish translator adventures with dinosaur bone hunting paleontologists but her boundless curiosity unravels dark myths explaining the fossils and rural town’s missing populace.
67. Recruited from prison, a charming transgender spy uses acting skills to infiltrate aristocracy. But when assigned to entrap an abolitionist countess, she questions if betraying the kind noble for her freedom is right.
68. A gifted Black ballerina’s mole-like cyborg digging ensemble discovers a covert tunnel system explanations for confounding ballet hall thefts, but she must take the stage herself with wounds still fresh to reveal the true mastermind thief.
69. When his family is swindled by scam investments in ancient Mesoamerican treasures, a disillusioned archaeologist renounces his career only to get drawn into a globe-trotting race against pirates also seeking the advanced technology artifacts.
70. After railroads displace horse breeding farms needed to pull artillery, an impassioned cavalry officer champions mechanical steeds to preserve tradition, seeking approval via spectacular feats of innovative equestrianism during military exercises.
71. When his cousin dies mysteriously immediately after winning gold at the first modern Olympics, a skeptical Athenian coroner investigates foul play within the fiercely competitive event by disguise himself as an Anatolian wrestler to get behind the scenes.
72. Vigilantes recruit a metallurgist escaping servitude to utilize his innovative alloys and armored gear in daring heists stealing hoarded wealth from aristocrats to fund utopian communities for the oppressed and destitute citizens suffering in urban poverty.
73. A gifted but controversial Turkish engineer advocates revitalizing antiquated Ottoman infrastructure by strategically utilizing djinni automation avoiding the dangerous steam power dependency spreading through Europe. But is the solution too reasonable for leaders who benefit politically from scaremongering against his proposals?
74. When safecrackers foil Scotland Yard’s tightest security twice in a fortnight to redistributed hoarded diamonds amongst London’s orphanages, investigators close in on an unassuming watchmaker whose alibis somehow provide the impossible gang perfect synchronized timing.
75. After surgeons dismiss a Bengali nurse’s patient care improvement ideas, she disguises herself as a male doctor from a far away province to infiltrate an operating theater. But her boldness unveils disturbing experimental practices instead.
76. When a widow’s lodger dies from poison shortly after causing a chemical factory explosion making it seems he was the saboteur, she investigates if he was framed to cover up damaging conspiracy truth as the secret coroner.
77. A brash aviator strives to be taken seriously as the first woman to pilot experimental rocket planes. But after a disastrous crash, she suspects industrial sabotage from men fearing progress on her aeronautical patents that might shift status quo gender roles in the field.
78. Forced into hiding to secretly continue education after a clergyman imprisons her family to suppress radical astronomical treatises counter to doctrine, an intrepid aristocrat assumes identity of mythical astronomer to distribute banned findings.
79. When his fashion model partner vanishes from an impossibly escape-proof magician’s water tank stunt, a desperate illusionist engineer dives into the criminal underworld to unravel if betrayal, sabotage or something more mystical is to blame.
80. After ministers abruptly censored them mid-lecture, two professors now use fantastical thrill show theatrics to subversively spread radical ideas about heliocentrism amongst commoners unable to afford continued university schooling
81. When a rare pink diamond is stolen despite multilayer uncrackable safety measures during exhibition transport, the guardsman engineer leading security enhancements goes rogue to investigate if a confidential weakness he invented was leaked.
82. An eccentric antiques dealer receives an mysterious invitation to a secret annual gathering of the world’s greatest tinkerers. Inside a gothic clocktower, she encounters both human and automaton inventors showcasing fantastical steam-powered gadgets before they mysteriously disappear back into obscurity. When one of the clocktower’s ancient mechanisms fails, all the reclusive geniuses must work together with her help or become trapped forever.
83. A zeppelin pilot transporting a princess must make an emergency landing on a mysterious sky island inhabited by a mad scientist and his strange creations.
84. After losing a limb in an industrial accident, a blacksmith augments himself with experimental steam-powered prosthetics to get revenge on the greedy factory owners.
85. A group of intrepid orphans discover a long-forgotten scientist’s workshop filled with wondrous gadgets and decide to become a young league of adventure scientists.
86. Deep in the Amazon, a lost empire uses powerful sonic technology to control magnificent biomechanical beasts that guard the land from intruders.
87. Awakening in the robot body of their recently deceased daughter, grieving parents must come to terms with this metallic resurrection.
88. A cabal of women scientists breeds unique plant life to subtly undermine the patriarchal establishment that denies them credibility and resources.
89. The lone survivor of a shipwrecked whaling crew discovers a strange island of robots who have developed their own post-human society without humans.
90. A rebel scientist develops a serum granting ordinary people superpowers, igniting a moral debate over making godlike power accessible for justice versus chaos.
91. A war veteran pilot seeks a rare mineral to mend her damaged airship while grappling with memories of those she left behind.
92. A Mexican revolution is sparked by an ingenious outlaw inventor whose extraordinary new weapons help overthrow a dictator.
93. While investigating a haunting at a decrepit mansion, a paranormal detective discovers the ghosts are actually holograms created by the presumed dead inventor to cover his faked death.
94. A ruthless assassin hunting Whitechapel mob targets receives an ominous warning from someone claiming to be from his own future.
95. While investigating her father’s mysterious death, a spy discovers an underground city whose inhabitants plot to eventually replace the surface dwellers.
96. A genius sculptor, believing no suitable muse exists, designs an intricate female automaton to be his perfect inspiration.
97. After scientists scoff at her free energy machine ideas, an eccentric inventor dramatically demonstrates the disruptive technology by powering an entire city during an expo.
98. A civil war medic’s consciousness is transferred into an armored steam-powered battlesuit in order to cheat death and save her husband leading a doomed convoy through hostile territory.
99. Using dangerous experimental technology, a Widow briefly speaks to her beloved deceased husband one last time across the boundary of life and death.
100. After a jealous rival scientist sabotages her Presentation, an intrepid scholar gets her revenge at the Academy Consortium Gala by showcasing radically advanced tetrode battery innovations powering intricate clockwork entertainment.

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