Castle Falkenstein is alive! ALIVE!

Many gamers have fond memories of Castle Falkenstein, R. Talsorian’s award winning roleplaying game which combines fact, fiction, and fantasy in an alternative Victorian age. They might wax philosophical about the game’s rules light, narrative based play which uses cards instead of dice. They might lovingly mention how one can sail aboard the Nautilus in the morning, have tea with the divine Sarah Bernhardt in the afternoon, and duel with a Faerie Lord at a ball in the evening. Or, perhaps, they will point out, with some delight, how Castle Falkenstein is one of the few roleplaying games ever to be written, rules and all, entirely in character.

For whatever, reason, gamers around the world have long listed Castle Falkenstein as one of the best RPGs of all time and lamented its seeming death in the 1990s.

Except the thing is, Castle Falkenstein isn’t dead! In 2015, Fat Goblin Games obtained a license to produce new material for the game. They have since produced quite a few products for Castle Falkenstein, ranging from sourcebooks to Adventure Entertainments to a themed deck of playing cards! Here are a few of the highlights.

Curious Creatures

From the darkest jungles of Africa to the rooftops of London, animals are everywhere in New Europa. Curious Creatures offers a glimpse into the less civilized side of Castle Falkenstein, drawing out into the light the marvelous, the monstrous, and the mythic for your edification and delight. Brought to you from across the Faerie Veil and written by one of the most knowledgeable naturalists of all time, the reader will find within these pages:

• A bestiary offering in-depth analysis of over thirty new creatures as well as statistics for their inclusion in your Adventure Entertainment.
• New and clarified rules for the use of creatures of all types in your Adventure Entertainment.
• A new Magick lorebook as well as insight into the existence of sorcerous familiars in New Europa.
• Details on Sphinxes, a potentially sinister power operating from the shadows.
• Rules on choosing a True Unicorn, Beast Folk, or wild Child as a Dramatic Character.
• Dinosaurs!
• New Dramatic and Host Characters to enliven any event set in the Age of Steam.
• A new tale of heroics and adventure set in a land where fiction, fantasy, and history collide!

Firearms and Margarine

When a prominent leader in the Faerie labor movement is struck down by an assassin’s Cold Iron bullet it falls to the Dramatic Characters to find the culprit. Who could possibly have committed such a dastardly crime?

Was it the owner of the margarine factory the labor movement was protesting?

Or perhaps the underground anarchist organization known as the Commune?

Or might it have been a head of police, frustrated at his inability to quell the demonstrations?

The investigators must work quickly to solve the case before chaos erupts upon the streets of Paris or, worse, a war between human and Faeries spreads like wildfire across New Europa.

Firearms & Margarine is an Adventure Entertainment in the form of a mystery and suitable for any Castle Falkenstein game. Also included are a new subspecies of Brownie, known as the Teuz, who are native to France and pre-created Dramatic Characters for those Hosts who wish to skip character creation and move onto solving the mystery.

Variations on the Great Game

Castle Falkenstein has delivered High Adventure in the Steam Age to gamers across the world for nearly twenty-five years.

Now, we are proud to present new options which will allow Hosts and Players of the Origin Award-winning Great Game to customize the rules to their specific style of play, including:

•  Rules which allow more precise and robust customizing of Dramatic Characters, such as the Specializations and Improvement Variations.
•  New options which refine playing cards on Feats to help prevent “hand dumping”, remove frustration due to having a “bum hand”, and a new Requirement system to designed to speed play and remove the need for a Host hand.
•  A new play system designed by the dastardly Professor Moriarty himself which replaces playing cards with dice! Please do not faint! We promise the original spirit and charm of the original game is still captured by these new rules.
•  Guidelines for using Tarot cards in both the Fortune and Sorcery Deck as a way to enhance play and add new twists to Feats, both Magickal and mundane!

All together, we are pleased to offer nine new Variations on Castle Falkenstein rules, each with multiple options, making this an indispensable companion for Hosts and Players alike!

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In addition to being available for sale via DriveThruRPG, these three books will also be available for sale at R. Talsorian’s booth at Gen Con in August. In addition, the future of Castle Falkenstein will be revealed during the appropriately titled “What’s Coming Up For Castle Falkenstein” seminar at the con! Might there be a new edition in the offing? Please do join us to find out!