The Steampunk Tarot is a Rider-Waite based deck shown by English artist, Aly Fell, and with a companion book composed by knowledgeable tarotist, Barbara Moore. The darkly hued cards have a realistic mix of Victoriana, magic and mechanics in the tarot scenes, with tarot cards themselves featuring in a number of cards.
Traditional titles are used for the Major Arcana, with Strength at VIII and Justice at XI. The fits are Wands, Cups, Swords, and Pentacles, with the Court Cards entitled King, Queen, Knight, and Page. I am not a gamer, nor have I ever been. Check For Updates flew method under my radar! In her introduction, Moore keeps in mind that anyone with a penchant for sci-fi, and anything in Victorian clothes, will more than most likely feel at home in this world.
I was interested to see that the seeds of the steampunk movement came from Victorian age writers such as Jules Verne, Mary Shelley, and H.G. Wells all of which bring up fantastic reading memories for me! The term steampunk was brought into use in the 1980s when writers were finding the alternative worlds that might have been.
Personally, I enjoy Victorian London and the Sherlock Holmes milieu! The deck comes packaged with a 294 buddy handbook. The one quibble that I have with the packaging is that while a white pasteboard box is consisted of to house the deck, it would have been much better if the deck had come in a box of its own.
I like the phrase that heads this section - Where The Past And Future Converge! And the notation that the Steampunk Tarot offers a look of the future through a lens to the past! This is indeed the Tarot at work! I am going to do something a little various here.