WW Inphobia - Feature Review

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Feature Review: Castle Falkenstein
Rating: ****
Publisher: R. Talsorian Games, Inc., P.O. Box 7356, Berkeley, CA 94707
Author: Michael Alyn Pondsmith
Price: $25
Reviewed by Rich Warren
Castle Falkenstein is a high-adventure game set in the Victorian age.
Well, not our Victorian age; rather, the Victorian age as envisioned by
the authors and artists of that time. This world combines faeries,
dragons, wizards, secret societies and mad scientists. Here, Sherlock
Holmes and Captain Nemo rub shoulders with Jules Verne and Lewis Carroll.
It's an age of possibilities. Steamtech flourishes, resulting in machines
that sail through the air, burrow through the ground and cruise
underwater. Dwarvish craftsmanship has made Babbage's calculating engine a
reality, and clockwork prosthetics are available to those who have lost
arms or legs.
It's also an age of darkness. The Prussians are massing their
landfortresses. The dark faeries of the Unseelie Court manipulate humans
toward their own destruction. And the World Crime League lurks in the
background, waiting for its chance to strike. Professor Moriarty, Count
Vlad Dracula and Dr. Victor Frankenstein are just a few of the masterminds
plotting infernal schemes.
It's an age of melodrama. Every mastermind has a fiendish plot. Villains
drag off defeated heroes, toss them into death traps or lock them away to
await fates worse than death. Sword fights on top of trains, duels to the
death and hairsbreadth escapes make up an average day's work. And of
course there's plenty of high-romance.
The gamebook is divided into two parts. The first section, composed mainly
of full-color plates, describes the world of Castle Falkenstein. Presented
as the notes of Thomas Olam, a computer programmer "spellnapped" from our
time, the first section offers a rich description of the society and
atmosphere of New Europa, the setting of the game.
The second half of the book provides the actual rules, such as they are.
This is a game that strongly favors roleplaying over mechanics, preferring
to leave fiddly details the GM (called the Host). While not bad in
themselves, the rules are largely undefined and leave too many questions
unanswered for fake realism junkies.
The game's mechanics are simple but unique; it can take a while to adjust.
Character creation resembles the process that an author goes through in
writing a story, rather than a number-crunching system. You only have a
few traits, rated from poor to extraordinary. The rest is all background
information.
Since no Victorian gentleman or lady would touch dice, the game uses a
card-based resolution system. Each player has a four-card hand that she
uses to help her character succeed. This gives you more control over your
character, and forces you to think and plan.
Unfortunately, the system still devolves into number crunching. A
character with a good physique tries to break free from steel manacles.
The character's player begins with a 6 and plays a card for 8 points,
giving him a total of 14. The Host begins with an 8 and adds a card for 3
points for a total of 11. The player's total is more than the Host's, but
less than 1.5 x the Host's (11 x 1.5 = 17), resulting in a partial
success. Quite a bit of math for a game that focuses on story.
Besides basic combat and skill resolution, the rules provide for
one-on-one dueling, magic and tinkering. The dueling system is practically
a game in itself. One part rocks-paper-scissors and one part combat
mechanics, the system relies on guessing and planning as much as character
skill.
The magic system is based on scholastic tradition (emphasizing mystic
temples, secret brotherhoods and ancient priesthoods), as opposed to more
"traditional" hermetic magic (which emphasizes personal power). In Castle
Falkenstein, all wizards belong to secret orders; this defines their
magical power and provides them with instant allies and enemies.
Casting spells is a slow, dangerous process. A wizard must collect
sufficient magical energy before releasing a spell. Using improperly
aligned energies taints the spell, and there is always the risk of
uncontrollable magical surges. Unlike most fantasy wizards, these folks
aren't likely to throw balls of fire during combat. However, they can
spend a half-hour performing rituals that rain fire upon an entire city.
Finally, tinkering rules cover the creation of steamtech devices, magical
engines (a combination of magical power and steamtech) and gadgetech
(small gadgets and enhancements). Gadget shops are the Falkenstein
equivalent of modern electronic specialty shops - places where you can buy
a night-scope for your four-iron.
Overall, this is a great game. It encourages larger-than-life roleplaying.
The mechanics support its atmosphere and are (usually) fast paced. You can
choose from a wide variety of characters, ranging from dwarven mechanics
and faerie sprites to consulting detectives and mad scientists. You might
even be allowed to play a dragon, depending on your Host's style.
The game also allows for a wide variety of scenarios, ranging from the
melodramatic (outwitting an evil mastermind or saving the world from
science-gone-wrong) to the subtle (a diplomatic trip involving a ball or a
mission for the secret service). Just reading the book fills the
imagination with images of royal finery, romantic entanglements,
steam-powered behemoths and wild-eyed scientists.
The game does have its problems, though. Combat seems excessively
dangerous. Not deadly - you really have to work to get killed - but two
poor saber thrusts are enough to incapacitate most characters.
Also, in the attempt to create a high-adventure feel, the game forces you
into moral absolutes. There are no gray characters or antiheroes. You're
either good or bad, and you had better wear a hat of the appropriate
color.
Though this approach does follow the general style of Victorian
literature, it's not entirely realistic. Captain Nemo and the Frankenstein
Monster were both "villains," but they were hardly evil (they were
misunderstood or confused). Even Sherlock Holmes let a murderer escape.
The existence of faeries also seems contrary to black-and-white morality -
they are the embodiment of moral ambiguity, after all.
Perhaps it's personal preference, but this stereotyping is the only aspect
of the game that I actively dislike. Admittedly, it's a problem that can
be overcome. Given the game's several good points, I give it four paws.
Castle Falkenstein is a copyright of R. Talsorian Games.