Thanks for your interest! I addressed your first couple of questions in above comments, I think, but I should explain the character death thing. Sorry if I wasn't clear about that!
The "no re-apping dead characters" rule is mostly to equalize things for AU and OU characters. AU characters are tailored to the game world, so if one dies, there's no convenient "replacement" from a parallel dimension. Because a character's AU history is a semi-original story written by the player, it couldn't be reused by a different player. Whereas a canon, OU character could theoretically be replaced by a copy who has exactly the same canon backstory. It doesn't seem fair to have completely different rules for AU and OU players, though. You might notice that this effectively prohibits "doubles" and "canon AUs" of characters as well. (I might allow doubles in the case where one version is in-universe AU and one is OU.)
So death is a pretty big deal in this game, because it does effectively render that character unplayable forever. That's why any deaths would have to be cleared with the mods. If deaths happen at all, they'll be part of major plots with serious consequences.
Dropped OU characters, on the other hand, can be picked up by new players, because the character is still "alive" somewhere in the game. They're just not being actively played. If a character is dropped or on hiatus, I would prefer that that character's player helps come up with a plausible reason for their absence. Maybe their character decided to take a trip, or maybe they've been sick, or maybe they've been in jail. If the dropped/hiatused player doesn't come up with a reason for the character's absence, then I'll allow other affected players to handwave some kind of explanation so the loss of one character doesn't mess up anyone's plots.
This does mean that dropped AU characters are probably not re-appable, unless either 1.) the new player is willing to work with the previous player's AU history and existing CR (with some minor retconning allowed), or 2.) the dropped AU character was played for such a short time that re-apping them with a new AU backstory and a clean CR slate won't affect anyone else's plots.
I know this seems horribly complicated, but issues with deaths and drops do tend to get hairy in AU games...
I'm no expect on all the various types of steampunk, but I don't see why clockpunk devices wouldn't be allowed. But there would also be more advanced technology, like tanks and such, so I guess it would be dieselpunk? Sheesh, there are so many different types of punk now!
OP
The "no re-apping dead characters" rule is mostly to equalize things for AU and OU characters. AU characters are tailored to the game world, so if one dies, there's no convenient "replacement" from a parallel dimension. Because a character's AU history is a semi-original story written by the player, it couldn't be reused by a different player. Whereas a canon, OU character could theoretically be replaced by a copy who has exactly the same canon backstory. It doesn't seem fair to have completely different rules for AU and OU players, though. You might notice that this effectively prohibits "doubles" and "canon AUs" of characters as well. (I might allow doubles in the case where one version is in-universe AU and one is OU.)
So death is a pretty big deal in this game, because it does effectively render that character unplayable forever. That's why any deaths would have to be cleared with the mods. If deaths happen at all, they'll be part of major plots with serious consequences.
Dropped OU characters, on the other hand, can be picked up by new players, because the character is still "alive" somewhere in the game. They're just not being actively played. If a character is dropped or on hiatus, I would prefer that that character's player helps come up with a plausible reason for their absence. Maybe their character decided to take a trip, or maybe they've been sick, or maybe they've been in jail. If the dropped/hiatused player doesn't come up with a reason for the character's absence, then I'll allow other affected players to handwave some kind of explanation so the loss of one character doesn't mess up anyone's plots.
This does mean that dropped AU characters are probably not re-appable, unless either 1.) the new player is willing to work with the previous player's AU history and existing CR (with some minor retconning allowed), or 2.) the dropped AU character was played for such a short time that re-apping them with a new AU backstory and a clean CR slate won't affect anyone else's plots.
I know this seems horribly complicated, but issues with deaths and drops do tend to get hairy in AU games...
I'm no expect on all the various types of steampunk, but I don't see why clockpunk devices wouldn't be allowed. But there would also be more advanced technology, like tanks and such, so I guess it would be dieselpunk? Sheesh, there are so many different types of punk now!