god i miss what Steampunk could have been. i hate the whole "everything is brown and covered in brass gears that do nothing" angle. no! NO! make your gears FUNCTIONAL!
like, look at the Alofs reloading system for break action shotguns. it exists and it's still steampunk as hell. an autoloader! for a break action shotgun!
look at the 1886 Joselyn! a chain fed reolver!!! you could make that thing SO LONG
and yet it's mostly someone who's got goggles covered in so many gears they don't function in any way any more. and a TOP HAT WITH GEARS ON IT. WHY.
@PsyChuan (Also I think Dieselpunk is better at doing this, see Bioshock)