Review: Castle Falkenstein: High Adventure in the Age of Steam
Note: I originally submitted this review a few months ago, but due to some weird formatting thing, I had to re-submit it.
Castle Falkenstein is one of the most original and spectacularly inventive games I have ever seen. To sum up in a few sentences:
CF is a game written by a computer game designer who was kidnapped by Faerie King Auberon and brought to the fantastic land of New Europa, a parallel version of Earth in the 1890s where magick, faeries, dragons, fiendish villains, dashing heroes, beautiful heroines and amazingly anachronistic steam tech abounds. Thrust into a perilous world, Tom Olam is caught right in the middle of Prussia’s Iron Chancellor Otto Von Bismark’s attempt to unite Germany by absorbing Bavaria (or Bayern as it is called). After surviving many adventures, Tom saves the day by dint of having brought along a copy of Leonardo da Vinci’s Lost Notebooks, which turn out to have the plans for powerful magickal engines. With Bayern’s victory over Prussia, Tom spends four years in New Europa having a whole bunch more adventures, in the process introduces the idea of Role Playing to the aristocracy and finally using magick to send a copy of the RPG back to our world where his friend, Mike Pondsmith of Cyberpunk 2020 fame published it.
With the background out of the way, I’ll get a bit more detail going.
Castle Falkenstein is divided up into two parts, the setting (called Spellnapped) and the game (called The Great Game).
Spellnapped:
CF starts off unlike many RPGs, with a warning of sorts. It warns that it is organised a bit differently to other role playing games, with the setting at the front and the rules at the back. I don’t know how many RPGs in 1994 were doing this, but it was certainly an innovation compared to ADnD or RTG’s own Cyberpunk. These days however, RPGs do this all the time.
As I said (briefly) before, the book is written from the point of view of a 20th century computer game designer who was magickally transported to a parallel world. The manuscript that was sent back to our world is the record of his adventures. Described by Tom Olam as “one part Lord of the Rings and two parts Jules Verne science fiction, with a little Prisoner of Zenda thrown in for good measure” it is a world in which all the fiction of the 1890s is true. Sherlock Holmes and Captain Nemo walk side by side with dwarvish engineers, members of the Illuminati, Queen Victoria and swashbuckling heads of the Royal Secret Service. It is the historical 1890s with every fantastic element thrown in for good measure.
This complex, detailed and fabulous world is described in sweeping terms, and is integrated in a highly interesting and well-written story, narrated by Master Olam. He is our every-man, and treats writes from a perspective all of can relate too- a modern person thrust into a strange and fantastic world. As he already knows what is going to happen, he is a great service to his new friends, the Faerie King Auberon, the king of Bayern and a few others.
One of the things I should mention at this point is the artwork.
The artwork is possibly the most amazing art I’ve ever seen in a roleplaying book. Every page of “Spellnapped” is full colour an is lavishly illustrated with full-page paintings (drawn, so Mike Pondsmith tells us, by Tom Olam himself). The artwork varies from astounding to amazingly good, and I have not yet found a picture that isn’t of the highest quality.
As we go on, we are treated to the world of New Europa in the same order that Tom is exposed. We get a treatment on the ubiquitous Castle Falkenstein itself, an actual place in the game world (and our world). The kingdom of Bayern is next, a land that lives as half a faerie land and half a picturesque steam-tech integrated nation. It is a fairytale kingdom, with trolls under bridges and castles of glass and dwarves in huge mountain cities, as well as cities filled with universities and streets “thronged with a mix of horses, wagons, carriages, “automotives” (a kind of a steam vehicle) and busy city folk”.
One thing I should point out about New Europa (and this is something that Tom does about now) is that there are Eight Seas. There is a huge Inland Sea that cuts into Northern Europe and through Germany.
Tom’s story moves on, as he introduces us to more of the denizens of Castle Falkenstein. All of these characters serve to give us (the reader) examples of the types of characters and stories that can inspire our own games. Marianne is one such example: a feisty and independent (and beautiful) woman who skipped from one adventure to another until settling down in Bayern before being caught up in Tom’s saga. In New Europa, there are no restrictions on women doing whatever they want. Tom points out that there are many female engineers, Mad Scientists (and normal ones), Anarchists, Journalists, thieves and detectives (which by the way are all professions later on in the “system” part of the book).
After Marianne, we get a few more characters from Tom’s story. Each is sprinkled with interesting facts about the character, the world and just about anything that you can imagine. For example, dwarves are incredibly embarrassed about the fact that they have duck feet, which they hide by wearing big boots.
We are also introduced to some of the big names of New Europa, the King Ludwig of Bayern, the Iron Chancellor Otto, and are told of his connections to the Unseelie Court of the Faerie. You see, Otto Von Bismark has a very special desire: he wants to take over the world, and so does just about every other crazed villain in New Europa.
Talking about taking over the world ™, Tom gives us the run down of the nations of New Europa next. Most readers will notice that there are several differences between our 1890s Europe and Castle Falkenstein’s. For a start, America is divided into three separate nations, after the American Indians used some heavy-duty magick to destroy some cities. While it isn’t covered in this section, Tom does point out that Dragon Sages, who are real dragons, rule China, and the Ottoman Empire has a legion of powerful magick-wielding viziers.
Each nation of Europe is given a little half-page description, covering interesting and pertinent points of history and society. We also get a neat map, with big cities, roads and rivers that looks really pretty. It is only of Europe though, and there are some differences to New Europa and Europe. Following the nations bios, there is a timeline of events, starting from 76 million years ago, up to 1866, but it fits on a single page, so there is obviously a lot missing.
Following nation specific information, we get a run down of New Europan life in the Steam Age. The Steam Age is an age of advancement, enlightenment and expansion. The new technology betters the lives of countless people, and just about every household and industrial implement has a boiler and stack attached. This section of the text deals mainly with steam tech impacts on life, as well as crime, law and order, communications and travel, magic and the media. The Steam Age is a Golden Age of anachronistic technology and social sophistication.
I mentioned earlier that personages from fiction actually exist and live in New Europa. What follows is a list of real and fictional personages who live in New Europa, and a paragraph on their achievements. Mixed in with Charles Dickens and Alexander Bell are Count Dracula and The Invisible Man, not to mention Jules Verne and Professor Moriarty. Each of these character just screams as plot hooks: each has their own little goal and shtick. Added for good measure, if the previous helping wasn’t enough, is a list of all of the secret societies and organisations in New Europa, such as the World Crime League (a gathering of the World’s Villains), the USSS and Her Majesty’s Secret Service, not to mention a shadowy league of Anarchistic Marxists lead by the great man himself, dedicated to the overthrow of capitalism.
The goodies continue, with Mad Scientists and their inventions, and Criminal Masterminds and their Schemes. We also have a few pages on the inventions and technology of New Europa, and the three different types of invention: Anachrotech (Victorian versions of 20th century inventions), Gadgetech (everyday items with a steam engine attached- but it sounds like the Inspector should be involved somewhere), and Infernal Devices (Things Man Was Not Supposed To Know- like Mind Control Rays and Nemo’s Nautilus). Infernal Devices are big, funky things that characters and villains create if they are Mad Scientists or Masterminds, and they come in a variety of different shapes and flavours, such as vehicles, weapons, automatons (big mechanical monsters) and formulas (like sleeping drugs or invisibility potions). There are even clockwork and steam powered prosthetics.
From here, after a brief interlude from Tom’s story, we get (to shorten things a bit) Steam Age weapons, and a page on Steam Age crime, from rogues in London to the World Crime League. Of course, nothing would be complete without detailing the faerie folk who inhabit New Europa, and several pages are devoted to them. There are two types of fae (apart from their Unseelie/Seelie division), Lesser and Greater. Mike Pondsmith interjects here, to point out that most of this seems to have come from A Field Guide to the Little People by Nancy Arrowsmith, as we are invited to get a more complete picture from her. It is unfortunately revealed here that there doesn’t seem to be a Queen Titania for King Auberon.
Given that I’ve already gone for three pages (on my computer, font size 11) and I’m only 71 pages in, I’ll really quickly deal with the next 58 pages.
What follows is a brief but concise guide to Victorian life and society in New Europa. The role of Women, a short lexicon of common terms, a list of noble titles, an exposition on honour and virtue, duels and etiquette, magick and magickal orders (magick in Castle Falkenstein is really really good, simple and evocative, as well as being mysterious and occult), dragons, sorcerous engines, mythological creatures, dwarf cities, warfare, navies and soldiers, and more miscellaneous information about New Europa. Since every man and his dog has a secret plot or scheme, only a few are mentioned, but there is a hoard of secret magickal societies, as well as corporations of British Industrial Steam Lords and other such nastiness.
Interspersed through this is the continuing story of Tom and Bayern. Not only is this story interesting, it is yet another avenue of information and inspiration for games. It finishes with Bayern’s pyrric victory over Prussia, and a new tense calm falling over New Eurpa, a world ripe with opportunity and adventure.
Whew. Now on to a brief review of the Great Game part of the book. Hopefully, I don’t get carried away. Kudos to people who made it this far.
The Great Game
The most noticeable part of The Great Game is that it is black and white. The beautiful colour art of the first half of the book, which is one of the most enchanting things of Castle Falkenstein, is no longer present. Despite this, the artwork continues to be of the highest standard, and I can’t say I found anything I didn’t like. Like the first half of the book, all of the art is by the same artist. This lends continuity to the book, as most of the pictures are single figure portraits of people. Some may not like the style of the art, and it is clearly one of the main artists from Cyberpunk and Cybergeneration.
Like the first half of the book, The Great Game assumes that Tom Olam has written it. This section is the roleplaying game that he created in New Europa to be played by aristocrats across the lands, and sent to Mike Pondsmith in our world.
What follows is complete advice as to what is needed to run a Castle Falkenstein game. The Game Master’s (called a Host) advice comes first, but is sprinkled throughout the section. This advice is sound and is mainly pertinent to running a Victorian style game in the tradition of 1890s literature, involving True Love, Death Traps, Hairsbreadth Escapes and Fates Worse Than Death. In Castle Falkenstein we are told, Villains don’t kill heroes, they imprison them to gloat over, or entrap them in a inescapable death trap, or duel to the death.
This almost reads like a Storyteller book, as the game is divided into scenes and locations, but it is on the whole similar to movie directions. This comparison is fairly misleading though, as obviously the mood and style of the games are very different.
There are three types of important characters (or Dramatis Personae) in CF, Heroes, Heroines and Villains, and several subsets within each. Players obviously play the Heroes (Heroic Heroes, Tragic Heroes and Flawed Heroes) and Heroines (The Innocent, The Clever Heroine and the Tragic and Fallen Heroine). Everyone else is a supporting character, and they too are divided into subsets, such as Henchmen, The Lady in Peril, the Stalwart Friend or Assorted Thugs and Criminal Riffraff.
What follows is some possible Dramatic Characters, all of which are entertaining and are purely suggestions. There are no classes or occupations in Castle Falkenstein: what your character can do is entirely up to you. That said, the suggestions are a good example of what kinds of characters are suitable for a CF game. Sample Dramatic Character include:
Adventuress (A woman who bucks tradition to seek adventure)
Consulting Detective (Of the tradition of Sherlock and Watson)
Dragon Lord (A hundreds-of-years-old dragon, generally NPC material though)
Inventor (You made A Better Mouse Trap and added a steam engine on it to see what would happen)
Mastermind (Builders of Infernal Devices - more on that later)
That’s not all of course, and with your Host’s permission, you can even play characters or personages from Victorian history or literature (such as Frankenstein or Prince Albert).
One interesting thing about CF is that there is no character sheet. Instead, it is suggested that you keep a diary for your character, in the tradition of the Victorian Age. In it, you are supposed to write up your character’s history, motivations, description and personality. This is the most important part of character creation, because it is here that plots and adventures will be generated. Each character is supposed to have goals and motivations, which drive the story and move the plot.
Finally, you give your character abilities. There are six levels of skill in Castle Falkenstein: Poor, Average, Good, Great, Exceptional and Extraordinary. Each Dramatic Character has one Great ability, four Good abilities and one Poor ability. Any ability that you haven’t selected is considered average. It is possible to start the game with Exceptional or greater abilities, but you must take additional Poor abilities.
The Abilities are described next, and it is important to point out that Abilities aren’t just skills (although they are that), but cover everything about a character, such as Charisma, Connections, Courage, Exchequer, Fencing and Social Graces. Each Ability has an associated suit (which works in with the system, below) You can also improve these Abilities, which is done by telling your Host that you are working to improve at your Ability. There are no experience points involved, but the book does provide guidelines, as well as a recommendation to use Secrete Improvement for some Abilities.
After a price-list (which is in an odd placement) and a list of NPCs in the setting (such as Auberon, Alexander Bell and Count Ferdinand Von Zepplin), there is advice on Dragon Characters (the most powerful possible in the game apparently), Dwarf (plural is dwarfs for some reason) characters and Faerie characters.
A step by step story creation guideline follows, with an example, and then finally, the mechanics.
The innovative thing about Castle Falkenstein is that it uses cards (Victorian aristocrats don’t use dice, which is amusingly explained earlier). There are two decks: the Fortune Deck and the Magic Deck.
Each Dramatic Character (DC) starts with four cards in their hand. Cards are used generally only to augment a DC’s Abilities, and don’t get used all the time as a DC’s Abilities may be all that is needed. New cards are drawn only when an old one is used.
The value of cards is determined by their face value, based on its suit and number (Jacks are 11 points, Queens are 12, Kings 13 and Aces 14- Jokers are worth 15 points and are “wild”). Abilities also have face values, determined by their rating (Poor is worth 2, Good is 6, Extraordinary is 12) and a suit, which is noted in the Ability’s description.
Complicated?
Well, when you want to do something amazing, you add the face value of the Ability you are using to any Fortune Cards you decide to play, and compare the total to the Feat’s required level of ability (which will be Poor, Good, Great or whatever). The catch is that cards that don’t follow suit with the Ability are only worth 1 point. If the card follows suit,
then it is worth its numerical value.
If that wasn’t enough, you then need to determine the Feat’s success- there are five different resolutions. Fumble, Failure, Partial, Full and High Success. The real distinction is really how badly you failed or how well you succeeded and the effects are left to the Host.
Kindly provided is a list of common heroic feats and their difficulties.
As a general guide, Hearts cover all emotional and romantic feats, Diamonds cover mental and intellectual feats, Clubs cover physical activities and Spades deal with social and status feats. Suit is also important for magick.
The combat rules follow. There are two kinds of attacks: ranged or hand to hand. Oddly for such a free flowing game, there are several charts with detailed ranges, speeds and such like. It is here though, that the different types of success come into play, as they determine how much damage a weapon does. Another oddity for such a free flowing game is that it uses a hit point or vitality system for damage, determined by the Physique and Courage Abilities (which begin as Average). Most people will therefore have only 5 hit points, with the max being 10, and the minimum being 3. There are also different types of damage, such as Shocks, Blows and Wounds, the only difference though is to determine healing times.
To kill someone is a deliberate act in Castle Falkenstein- there are no accidental deaths here. To be killed, you need to be reduced to unconsciousness, and then the DC or Villain must then make the decision to do so. This adds to the heroic feel of the game, which seems at odds with the needlessly detailed (but still reasonably free-flowing) combat system.
A two-page vehicles combat system precedes the Dueling system, which is incredibly novel. Essentially, the Dueling system succeeds at being very tactical, but also very flashy and fast moving. Duels are made up of Rounds and Exchanges, with a Round being made of 3 Exchanges. An Exchange is a single clash of blades. Each duelist starts with six cards, with at least two black (defence) and two red (attack), with the rest being either Jokers or Face cards (resting- catching your breath). With those cards, you then face off with your opponent. Cards are then compared to each other to determine the result of the duel. Luckily there is an example of play, to guide you through what at first glance looks like a complicated system.
After working through it a few times though, it works very smoothly, and works with an evocative style of play. Sorcerous Duels can also be conducted in a similar manner, as can all forms of one-on-one conflict, such as debating, chess or anything else.
Sorcery is next, towards the end of the book (we are at page 197 by now). To cast magick, you need the Sorcery Ability at a level of Good, and you also need to know spells. Since all Sorcerers belong to magickal colleges or societies, those organisations provide the spells. You may also invent them. There is a host of sample magickal societies included in the book.
Each spell has a Thaumic energy requirement, which is the amount of energy needed to power the spell. The Magick Deck reflects both that energy, and the total amount of energy present in the area. When the deck runs our, the magick is temporarily depleted.
Like Feats, spells have suits, which cover a certain aspect of reality (Diamonds deal with material magick, Spades is spiritual, Clubs are elemental, and Hearts are emotional and mental). Spells also have definitions, such as range, targets, complexity and so on.
Spells are powered by drawing one card per 2 minutes of game time, with the value of the card being added together until the Thaumic requirement is reached. However, non-suit card values are only 1. You have the choice to add non-suit cards to the total, as doing so may cause spells to backfire or have strange effects.
Finally, there are rules for Gadget-tech, Infernal Devices, Astounding Inventions and Engines of Destruction. Also included are sketchy rules for Engine Magick, the revolutionary secret that Tom Olam accidentally brought from our world. The rules look comprehensive, and amusing, but I haven’t tried them out on paper.
The book ends with a sample adventure, a list of small plot/story settings and hooks and a bibliography and Index.
To Sum Up
To complete this tediously long review (longer than most of my essays for uni), I’ll say that Castle Falkenstein is perhaps one of the most original, amazingly interesting and fun roleplaying games out there. Now sadly out of print, Steve Jackson Games did a GURPS version a while back and is printing an Ottoman Empire sourcebook. With its combination of zany setting, fabulous artwork and unique concepts, it could easily be compared to a number of other games, such as White Wolf’s Changeling, SJG’s Steampunk (?) and Steam-tech, the soon-to-be-released Victorian Age: Vampire, 7th Sea, and also many other fantasy games set on earth, like Ars Magica and Pendragon, all of which could be inspiration for a CF game, or which could use CF for inspiration.
All that said, Castle Falkenstein obviously won’t be for everybody. Those who prefer hack-n-slash, gothic horror or Star Wars may not find what they are looking for in Castle Falkenstein. Historical purists may also balk at some of the historical errors, but of course, New Europa is a very different beast to our own world (which, in case you didn’t catch on, is what Castle Falkenstein is based upon). The strange lack of any information about the Christian church was odd, but one can safely assume that anything that isn’t different to our world is the same in Castle Falkenstein, so there isn’t that much of a problem.
My final comment is that Castle Falkenstein is great. It is out of print, so if you see it, grab a copy, since it is pretty much a classic cult collector’s item. I sure make sure to snatch up every CF book I see- but then, I’m a compulsive RPG collector.
I give Castle Falkenstein 5 out of 5 for both style and substance.
~Alex White
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