The Inside Scoop on Gaming

How can I describe Castle Falkenstein?

Well, first I could remember the period when CF was published: it was after the White Wolf publishing amazing RPGs, changing the face of the market forever with games wich were strong in background and role-playing, denoting also the True Importance of us, graphic designers, and freeing from guilt all rule-lazy folks everywhere. It was so amazing that everybody started to copy the White Wolf Games when publishing their own. Not only in design and background-depth, but also in mood. Almost every RPGs edited had his own grim pont of view of what a hopeless and dark world could be. It was all imersed in dark hues of shade. But, IMHO, this was also the begining of a golden age in RPGs. And then...

The year was 1994; the place, the gothic-punk world. And Castle Falkenstein came as a beacon of light and hope among the shadows and darkness. For every player a little tired of years in a run of PCs struggling and struggling apparently for a lost cause since the very beggining; someone at R. Talsorian Games had a brilliant idea: that concepts as Hope, Justice and the Right Things could be popular and sell, even in a moment where the exact opposite was the big hit - and at R. Talsorian, they knew that very well, as their Cyberpunk 2020 RPG can show us.

Castle Falkenstein (CF) is settled in an alternative universe, more precisely in the european continent at the time of the Industrial Revolution, more precisely in 1870. But in this universe, things went a little bit different of our own world. Well, quite different, to be truly honest. This is a world not only of coal and iron, bult also, of magic and fantasy. A world where historic and real characters lived side by side with fantastic and fictional people from books and plays. Then, At the so-called New Europa, they had their own Arthur Conan Doyle - but also, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. Jules Verne also was there - alas, Minister of Science Jules Verne, at the Napoleon III french government -, but also Captain Nemo, Robur the Conqueror, Philleas Fogg; Bram Stoker and Dracula; and so on (H.P. Lovecraft was not born yet. Of course, I don't care. But this is another story. Aaaah, the possibilities...).

And the fantasy at CF goes further: you'll meet (and create pcs!) faeries, dwarves and even dragons. This is other good aspect I found here: the faerie stuff seemed to me inspired more directly from european folklore rather than some kind of "post-Tolkien" origin, as most fantasy rpgs do.

And, of course, Engine Magick. But I am detailing too much...

A good thing about this "golden age" of RPGs is that they estimule - or try to - the habit of reading to their players. CF is built quite of the victorian romances and 19th Century european "way of life". The High way of life, I must say. The way of life of the gentlemen, of the patriot soldier, sweet and lovely ladies, grand balls in the presence of the King. And also, the virtues and values of victorian society are expected in the player-characters made in this game; we are talking about Heroes and Heroines, with capital H. Not the old mister "I-don't-compromisse-with-no-one-or-nothing" type of player-character. More than any other game, CF is a RPG where the final goal is see the efforts to Right the Wrong, to Bring Justice To The World. Something as to try the best of us, even if in an imaginary way. It's a good feeling, but this is my opinion, of course. A player of mine in "Vampire: Dark Ages" wants to make a Nosferatu who sacrifices virgins to the devil. He is in his right, about making his PC. I think.

The player-character you can create in this game is quite proper to the victorian times. For example, my players are a Gentleman Thief (in the best Arsene Lupin style), a Faerie Lord, an Explorer, a brave swordsman under Her Majesty's service, and a lovely young spanish señorita who is the devil with a sword.

All this in a high adventure package, with chases across the roofs of Paris, struggling for life in a torment in the Seas of South aboard a ragged clipper, or trying to catch a rope before falling ten thousand feet from the Mastermind's zeppelin above the ocean. In the few sessions I hosted for my players, I saw action scenes quite remarkable, the kind of scenes that could be easily in the movies. As roleplaying-gamers, you must know what I am talking about...

CF has a very easy and - why not? - charismatic system. It's not a tradicional system, you use no kind of dice - but cards instead. Normal cards, of the kind your mother play with her friends (why? Because only the riff-raff play dices! Proper gentlemen *always* play cards!). Basically, every card has its own value, from 2 to 10, and 11 for Jacks, 12 for Queens, 13 for Kings and 14 for Aces, and 15 for Jokers. You add the value of the cards to the value of an required attribute (rated as Poor, Average, Good, Great, Excepcional and Extraordinaire - all with its own rating, from 2 to 12). The suits of the cards have their own meaning: Hearts are for skills and situations envolving romantic activities, Clubs for physical prowess feats, Diamonds for intelectual and mental tasks, and Spades for social and status-related activities. So, you must have the right card for the right occasion (if you are trying to leap a chasm you must have a card of clubs, or its own value will be only 1, instead the printed one. The only exception is the Joker, always 15 in any occasion); against the score of the feat (also rated in Great, Good, etc.), wich also draw a card. You must match or win the feat's result, or you'll be in a big or not-so-big trouble, depending of the final result. That's it. And, of course, the "Host" - GM - is encouraged to describe the results, especially in combat, not being just a mechanical correlation between numbers and action. I mean, do you know all those swashbuckling movies with long and thrilling scenes? Well, strictly, combats in my game sessions never lasted more than four or five hits-and-dodges.

CF comes in one basic rulebook, very well done, with a great design, and I am not only telling about the pictures themselves. It can teach lessons of organization for any RPG publisher: the first half of the book is in couche paper and printed in four colours - backround section, as the second half is with other kind of paper and all in B&W - the rules section. A beautiful result.

Well, Castle Falkenstein, as far as I can see, follows another trend, the one called "Steampunk". Some authors, in the past decade, had been writing about adventures and characters situated in the 19th Century, maybe because we will be turning the calendary again. I can mention "The List of 7", by Mark Frost, "The Hollow Earth", by Rudy Rucker and "Lord Kelvin's Machine", by James P. Blaylock. In comics, recently, Alan Moore (Master! Master!) has giving us "The League of The Extraordinaire Gentlemen". I wonder if, in twenty years, the "cliffhang" (Mandrake,The Phantom, Doc Savage) genre will be the hit. And, untill now, CF is the only RPG I know wich follows this trail, aside an Internet RPG called "Forgotten Futures", wich can be found in http://www.ffutures.demon.co.uk/ff.htm Talking about homepages, CF's official one is http://www.best.com:80/~rtg1/falk.html but had no been updated in a while. But you can find an errata there, even so.

Last words? It's a hell of a game, for all reasons above and even more. I'd buying the sourcebooks of CF in the last years and I hope come back here soon and write about them. All of them worth of attention and purchase. The last I bought was "The Book of Sigils", the magic companion for CF. By the early pages, I can say I'll not be disappointed...

Style: 5 (Excellent!)
Substance: 5 (Excellent!)

Castle Falkenstein
Author: Author: Michael Pondsmith Category: game Company/Publisher: R. Talsorian Games Line: Castle Falkenstein RPG - main rulesbook Page count: 224 ISBN: 0-937279-43-9 Playtest Review by Luiz Felipe Vasques on 05/03/99. Genre tags: Fantasy Science_fiction Historical	How can I describe Castle Falkenstein? Well, first I could remember the period when CF was published: it was after the White Wolf publishing amazing RPGs, changing the face of the market forever with games wich were strong in background and role-playing, denoting also the True Importance of us, graphic designers, and freeing from guilt all rule-lazy folks everywhere. It was so amazing that everybody started to copy the White Wolf Games when publishing their own. Not only in design and background-depth, but also in mood. Almost every RPGs edited had his own grim pont of view of what a hopeless and dark world could be. It was all imersed in dark hues of shade. But, IMHO, this was also the begining of a golden age in RPGs. And then... The year was 1994; the place, the gothic-punk world. And Castle Falkenstein came as a beacon of light and hope among the shadows and darkness. For every player a little tired of years in a run of PCs struggling and struggling apparently for a lost cause since the very beggining; someone at R. Talsorian Games had a brilliant idea: that concepts as Hope, Justice and the Right Things could be popular and sell, even in a moment where the exact opposite was the big hit - and at R. Talsorian, they knew that very well, as their Cyberpunk 2020 RPG can show us. Castle Falkenstein (CF) is settled in an alternative universe, more precisely in the european continent at the time of the Industrial Revolution, more precisely in 1870. But in this universe, things went a little bit different of our own world. Well, quite different, to be truly honest. This is a world not only of coal and iron, bult also, of magic and fantasy. A world where historic and real characters lived side by side with fantastic and fictional people from books and plays. Then, At the so-called New Europa, they had their own Arthur Conan Doyle - but also, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. Jules Verne also was there - alas, Minister of Science Jules Verne, at the Napoleon III french government -, but also Captain Nemo, Robur the Conqueror, Philleas Fogg; Bram Stoker and Dracula; and so on (H.P. Lovecraft was not born yet. Of course, I don't care. But this is another story. Aaaah, the possibilities...). And the fantasy at CF goes further: you'll meet (and create pcs!) faeries, dwarves and even dragons. This is other good aspect I found here: the faerie stuff seemed to me inspired more directly from european folklore rather than some kind of "post-Tolkien" origin, as most fantasy rpgs do. And, of course, Engine Magick. But I am detailing too much... A good thing about this "golden age" of RPGs is that they estimule - or try to - the habit of reading to their players. CF is built quite of the victorian romances and 19th Century european "way of life". The High way of life, I must say. The way of life of the gentlemen, of the patriot soldier, sweet and lovely ladies, grand balls in the presence of the King. And also, the virtues and values of victorian society are expected in the player-characters made in this game; we are talking about Heroes and Heroines, with capital H. Not the old mister "I-don't-compromisse-with-no-one-or-nothing" type of player-character. More than any other game, CF is a RPG where the final goal is see the efforts to Right the Wrong, to Bring Justice To The World. Something as to try the best of us, even if in an imaginary way. It's a good feeling, but this is my opinion, of course. A player of mine in "Vampire: Dark Ages" wants to make a Nosferatu who sacrifices virgins to the devil. He is in his right, about making his PC. I think. The player-character you can create in this game is quite proper to the victorian times. For example, my players are a Gentleman Thief (in the best Arsene Lupin style), a Faerie Lord, an Explorer, a brave swordsman under Her Majesty's service, and a lovely young spanish señorita who is the devil with a sword. All this in a high adventure package, with chases across the roofs of Paris, struggling for life in a torment in the Seas of South aboard a ragged clipper, or trying to catch a rope before falling ten thousand feet from the Mastermind's zeppelin above the ocean. In the few sessions I hosted for my players, I saw action scenes quite remarkable, the kind of scenes that could be easily in the movies. As roleplaying-gamers, you must know what I am talking about... CF has a very easy and - why not? - charismatic system. It's not a tradicional system, you use no kind of dice - but cards instead. Normal cards, of the kind your mother play with her friends (why? Because only the riff-raff play dices! Proper gentlemen always play cards!). Basically, every card has its own value, from 2 to 10, and 11 for Jacks, 12 for Queens, 13 for Kings and 14 for Aces, and 15 for Jokers. You add the value of the cards to the value of an required attribute (rated as Poor, Average, Good, Great, Excepcional and Extraordinaire - all with its own rating, from 2 to 12). The suits of the cards have their own meaning: Hearts are for skills and situations envolving romantic activities, Clubs for physical prowess feats, Diamonds for intelectual and mental tasks, and Spades for social and status-related activities. So, you must have the right card for the right occasion (if you are trying to leap a chasm you must have a card of clubs, or its own value will be only 1, instead the printed one. The only exception is the Joker, always 15 in any occasion); against the score of the feat (also rated in Great, Good, etc.), wich also draw a card. You must match or win the feat's result, or you'll be in a big or not-so-big trouble, depending of the final result. That's it. And, of course, the "Host" - GM - is encouraged to describe the results, especially in combat, not being just a mechanical correlation between numbers and action. I mean, do you know all those swashbuckling movies with long and thrilling scenes? Well, strictly, combats in my game sessions never lasted more than four or five hits-and-dodges. CF comes in one basic rulebook, very well done, with a great design, and I am not only telling about the pictures themselves. It can teach lessons of organization for any RPG publisher: the first half of the book is in couche paper and printed in four colours - backround section, as the second half is with other kind of paper and all in B&W - the rules section. A beautiful result. Well, Castle Falkenstein, as far as I can see, follows another trend, the one called "Steampunk". Some authors, in the past decade, had been writing about adventures and characters situated in the 19th Century, maybe because we will be turning the calendary again. I can mention "The List of 7", by Mark Frost, "The Hollow Earth", by Rudy Rucker and "Lord Kelvin's Machine", by James P. Blaylock. In comics, recently, Alan Moore (Master! Master!) has giving us "The League of The Extraordinaire Gentlemen". I wonder if, in twenty years, the "cliffhang" (Mandrake,The Phantom, Doc Savage) genre will be the hit. And, untill now, CF is the only RPG I know wich follows this trail, aside an Internet RPG called "Forgotten Futures", wich can be found in http://www.ffutures.demon.co.uk/ff.htm Talking about homepages, CF's official one is http://www.best.com:80/~rtg1/falk.html but had no been updated in a while. But you can find an errata there, even so. Last words? It's a hell of a game, for all reasons above and even more. I'd buying the sourcebooks of CF in the last years and I hope come back here soon and write about them. All of them worth of attention and purchase. The last I bought was "The Book of Sigils", the magic companion for CF. By the early pages, I can say I'll not be disappointed... Style: 5 (Excellent!) Substance: 5 (Excellent!)