More Than Goggles and Gears Steampunk characters are often recognized by their surface details first. Goggles. Corsets. Waistcoats. Pocket watches. Brass gears. Airships. Clockwork limbs. Steam-powered inventions. A dramatic hat with just enough nonsense attached to it to suggest danger, genius, or both. Those details are fun. They help create the visual language of the genre. But they are not enough to make a character feel alive. A good steampunk character is not simply a m