Author: Edward Bolme, Mark Schumann, Michael Pondsmith and Michael MacDonald
Category: game
Company/Publisher: R. Talsorian Games
Line: Castle Falkenstein
Cost: $17.00
Page count: 128
ISBN: 0-937279-61-7
SKU: CF6041
Playtest Review by The Metallian on 08/30/00.
Genre tags: Fantasy Historical Horror Old West Asian/Far East

"The Book of Sigils: Also Known AsThe Savile Manuscript A Discourse on Magickal Practice and Organization in the World of New Europa with notes on its application to the Adventure Entertainment Castle Falkenstein"

Overview

The Book of Sigils is, as stated above in the complete title, Castle Falkenstein's guide to magick and sorcerous orders. I used to have a relatively low opinion of this book, but as I re-read it for the purposes of writing this review, I noticed that there was a lot of good setting information tucked away within the narrative prose which accounts for a good portion of the book. While I still would not consider it a necessary book for any but the most sorcerer-intensive Falkenstein campaigns, there is more to be found here than new orders and Lorebooks. I will not address the "parts" of the book in the order in which they appear, because different types of content are mixed together (for example, a few pages of narrative followed by a page about a new order and a page of discussion about some aspect of magickal society that was touched upon in the preceding narrative) in typical Falkensteinian fashion.

The Narrative

The book is framed as the memoirs of Anthony Savile, a child actor-turned sorcerer and "international man of mystery." Savile travels around the world under various names and guises, joining multiple Orders, which is not thought well of by many in the sorcerous community, and learning more about magick than most in his line of work. During his travels, he encounters many famous people, including Victor Wolfram Frankenstein (a cousin of "the" Frankenstein), a young Sherlock Holmes, and Auberon himself (who teaches us that using magick to read a Faerie's mind is ineffective and ill-advised). Savile makes many friends, many enemies, and discovers previously unknown sorcerous orders and spells. (I'll discuss the new orders and magick later, as they are explored in more detail outside of the narrative.) The first time I read this book, the fact that it consisted largely of fiction bothered me…I wanted more game information and less prose. On my most recent reading, I came to enjoy the narrative for two reasons. First of all, it was a good example of "showing, not telling" us about the world of sorcery. Second, Anthony Savile travels to or discusses many parts of the world not described in the main book. In fact, this book is our only window into the state of the world outside of New Europa and North America, aside from a little information about Asia that is scattered elsewhere. Through Anthony Savile, we learn fun facts such as these:

- The Yucatan peninsula is ruled by Mayans, who were warned of the Spanish invasion by their Rain God and reorganized their society and economy in order to become strong enough to deal with it.

- The Djinn of the Middle East are "powerful Faerie renegades who terrorized the region until Solomon bound them to the will of human masters."

- "Feng Shui"-style kung fu action is alive and well in China, where magick is used to enhance the human body and permit martial artists to do amazing things. Dragons have a much stronger presence there than they do in New Europa.

- Australian aborigines are the masters of dream magick.

While not exactly a comprehensive guide to the world of Castle Falkenstein, The Book of Sigils is full of interesting hints about a wide variety of places. There is plenty there to spark the imagination of a clever Host.

Sorcerous Orders

The Book of Sigils also provides the reader with information about Sorcerous Orders in general and several new ones in particular. While the generic information is nothing that a Host or player couldn't just make up on their own, it is nice to have handy "official" answers to such inevitable questions as "What do wizards do for a living?" and "What are the attitudes of the major religions towards magick?" Readers will also learn how to join an Order, what is expected of members, and how to gain status and influence within the sorcerous community. This sort of thing is particularly handy for any Host that intends to make the Orders an important part of his campaign. It also points out a few things that are obvious but easily overlooked…such as the fact that people do not like it when Orders build Chapterhouses in their neighborhoods and require them to buy insurance against magickal mishaps. The new Orders and other schools of magick are, in general, very interesting. Each one of them comes with its own new Lore, which will of course tempt PCs to try and follow in Savile's footsteps, joining multiple Orders and learning all sorts of tricks. Some of the non-New Europan magick is very interesting and unique. For example, the Chinese "Way of Liquid Breath" involves the creation of powerful alchemical potions, and The Great Pipestone Lodge of North America receives its Lore from native spirits (supernatural beings made of living thaumic energy). I do have one problem with the new Orders, however, and that is that some of them wield very powerful magick that should have drastically changed the face of society. The Grand Chamber of the Eleusinian Mysteries, for example, is an Order of sorcerers dedicated to solving mysteries…and they possess Lore that should, quite frankly, make it impossible to get away with a crime without using some form of counter-magick. I once ran an adventure where the party hired an Eleusinian to track a mysterious foe for them. With one spell, he was able to lead them from London to the madman's hideout in the Alps. Fortunately, it was late at night and I was getting tired, so I didn't really mind speeding things along this way. However, I imagine that this Lore could quite easily wreck many adventures…in fact, the Eleusinians should have rendered most adventurers and detectives obsolete long ago. I'd like to see how Jack the Ripper eludes their grasp. The Order of Prospero presents a similar dilemma. This Order's Lore is concerned with travel, and includes many extremely effective spells to aid in navigation and seafaring. Given that the Order has apparently existed since the time of ancient Greece, it is odd that the great age of New Europan exploration did not happen much earlier than it did, since these spells would have eliminated many of the problems that plagued early explorers. (Maybe the kraken mentioned "Six Guns and Sorcery" had something to do with it…) While adding new Orders and Lore is a lot of fun, Hosts should take note that some seemingly-innocuous spells can really mess up a campaign. Castle Falkenstein is probably the only game where spells that make one bulletproof are not a cause for great concern, but spells for predicting the weather are.

Miscellaneous

In addition to the stories about Savile and the descriptions of sorcerous orders, The Book of Sigils contains a fair amount of miscellaneous information about magick and the supernatural. The section on undead is much appreciated, as I never did like the idea that Dracula was a Faerie Dark Lord. The authors also win points for giving their "Vampirs" a proper Victorian vulnerability to sunlight…they can stand sunlight as well as you or I, but they cannot use their more fantastic powers during the daytime. (Fun Fact: Vampires were not thought of as being destroyed by sunlight until the silent movie "Nosferatu" portrayed Max Schreck's vampire as vanishing at dawn. Dracula operated as described above.) There are also rules for using sympathetic magick to reduce the dificulty of spells by using items that belong to the target, as well as for sorcerous duels, blessings, curses, focal objects to aid in spellcasting, and creating customized versions of spells. While these are nice, and can add flavor to the game, Falkenstein's system is so simple that one could quite easily come up with ways to deal with these things on one's own. The main book and Comme Il Faut are still all one really needs to use magick to its fullest, and the new rules in The Book of Sigils are merely minor (though good) additions to the existing magickal framework. While using them can be fun, you won't be missing out on a great deal without them.

Art and Presentation

The style of the illustrations is consistent throughout the book – they all look like slightly rough pencil sketches portraying events in the story. None of them will blow you away as magnificent examples of RPG art, (well, maybe the jaguar fighting the serpent on page 96…) but they are all pretty good, and - most importantly – they really capture the "feel" of the book as Anthony Savile's memoirs. I particularly like the pictures that portray sorcerers in the midst of casting. The layout of the book is simple and easy to follow, with headings to distinguish between pages of narrative and pages of "game info." The font used for the headings manages to look cool without sacrificing readability, and little sidebar-type comments are inserted where appropriate. There is no index, but the Table of Contents is pretty good, and adequate for a book of this length. I don't recall any glaringly obnoxious typos.

Overall This book contains a fairly interesting story, 30 new Sorcerous Orders, 36 new Lorebooks, and a smaller amount of random world information, descriptions of how Sorcerous Orders operate, and new rules for using magick in the Great Game. One could certainly run a game involving sorcerers and magick without this book. However, if one intends to make the Orders themselves an important part of the plot, this book would be very helpful for fleshing out these cornerstones of magickal society. It also contains some things, such as descriptions of exotic lands and True Undead, that may or may not be of interest to Hosts or players. Personally, I felt that those little touches were what really made the book worthwhile for me, since I don't really deal too heavily with sorcerous order politics in my Adventure Entertainments. I guess it's also nice knowing that, with this book, I could deal with them if I wanted to. All in all, The Book of Sigils is not a "must-have" supplement for Castle Falkenstein, but it's certainly not a bad book.

One Final Note: People who like their Castle Falkenstein cosmology to be nice and clean and simple (there is magick and there are Dragons and Faeries and they account for all supernatural activity) may be upset about the spirits and the undead. Personally, I don't mind the spirits much and the presence of the undead is, in my opinion, very appropriate to the genre. Besides, Vampirs and Zombis (sic) are just created by magick anyway. Not nearly as many difficult-to-account for supernatural phenomena are present in this book as are present in, say, "Six Guns and Sorcery."

Okay, Just One More Note...: This book is, like the rest of the Castle Falkenstein line, out of print. Perhaps it will be resurrected in GURPS form, or maybe R. Talsorian Games will manage to get it back in print. At any rate, if you want it, snatch up the first copy you see, because it may be the last.

Style: 3 (Average)
Substance: 3 (Average)