Castle Falkenstein (R Talsorian Games, 1994) | Retro RPG
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- Опубліковано 16 чер 2024
- When computer game designer Tom Olam found himself sorcerously shanghaied by a rogue Wizard and a Faerie Lord, little did he suspect that he would soon become the pivotal force in the struggle to control an alternate Victorian Universe. But before the deadly game could end, he would first have to battle gigantic Landfortresses, outwit Dragons, romance a beautiful Adventuress and defeat the Evil legions of a Dark Court determined to destroy him at all costs. Then maybe, just maybe, he could find a way home again.
Enter a world of another universe just a few steps away from our own; a place where Dragons and Steampower rule the skies, Faerie Lords duel atop the battlements, and where the forces of Wizardry and Magick meet the gaslight streets of Sherlock Holmes’ London. This is a place of Swashbuckling Fantasy, High Romance and Alternate History; the world of CASTLE FALKENSTEIN!
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Castle Falkenstein is such a lovely book, fantastic art, fun story, fascinating setting. I recall struggling with it as an actual game though. Not because the rules are bad, just because it was so different from what I was used to
For doing my Rules Breakdown it took me a while to get used to it, but once I made the connections that the Cards are basically just Dice, it clicked. The actual contribution of the Players skills are pretty minor to attempts to do things, so it's a bit random (in some sample card pulls, the Player or GM ended up with cards adding up to 10-20, with the skill level only being 4 or so points. So it's a bit random, more reliant on chance that your character skills.
The use of Playing Cards in TTRPGs hit popularity spike in the 90s with Castle Frankenstein, the OG Deadlands rules, etc. It's nice to see Frankenstein win the poll and get a review. I played it quite a bit back in the day.
As I said in the video it was a game which I picked up many times, but just never got around to buying back in the 90's.And now looking through it, there's a load to love. Great system, wonderful setting.
Hadn't heard of this one before. I love faerie settings and all the way through the review I was thinking this is like Space 1889 but with added magic and monsters so it was interesting you also mentioned 1889 at the end. Just snagged an original off eBay to read in more detail.
Loads to love in here, very different to what I expected, as I'd come at it from the Steampunk side of things, but am not unhappy with what I discovered within it's covers.
The wrap around story is very fitting for the fiction of the "time period". Rhe "I found/was given this fantastical manuscript by a friend ir acquaintance kong thought lost" wss a super common framinf device
An excellent point, and now you've made me think of it, I instantly thought of HG Wells The Time Machine and it being a retold story.
It's funny how Mike Pondsmith went from Cyber-punk to Steam-punk, or _fantasy_ steampunk as it were. It's a lovely book, one that was fascinating to me in the early 90s when it came out.
I was never into the fantasy aspects of it, however, with the fairies and dragons. What I really liked was the Victorian Era stuff. And being able to interact with known fictional characters from literature and who would have their own agendas, often working with characters from History. And because of this I think Castle Falkenstein isn't just a game of swashbuckling action, but also a game of intrigue.
Did you notice that there are no character sheets? You're supposed to keep a diary of your character, and that's where you will record your abilities.
On the video about how the system works (which I'm very, very much looking forward to), would it be too troublesome to divide the screen into two, one with the PDF and a another with view of the tabletop, where you would use a real deck of cards? If you happen to have one.
He is a true pioneer. First cyber punk RPG. First Steampunk one. First "anime" one. First Giant Mecha one.
I really thought it was going to be a purer version of Steampunk, but while it's not what I expected it's a lovely Fantasy Mashup, without just being Tolkienesque fantasy.
I noticed the lack of Character sheets, but there are still Skills and Attributes of types, so it's not a completely alien system like some I've seen. It seems odd at first, but easy to get to grips with.
For the Rules Breakdown, I've used an online card shuffler as the arrangement of my workspace would involve me turning 90 degrees every time I needed to use cards. The online card dealer wasn't perfect, but worked pretty well as I needed cards for the Host and Player Character.
Interesting how the cover looks similar to the box art of Frankenstein the Monster Return for NES.
Wasn't familiar with that game, but a quick google let me see that the set up of the image looks very similar. Same artist perhaps? Or both inspired by another picture?