\e i ai | [AHItGH ADVENTUREDIN THE STEAM AGE. i 2Dramatis Dersonac ‘Game Design & Writing by Michael Alyn Pondsmith ‘Color Artwork by William C. Baken, ‘Cover by William C, Baken & Mark Schumann, Additional Artwork by Gloria Yuh Jenkins & Bik Hote ‘Computer Generated Art by Mark Schumann, ee ee & apne ty aera ‘Blo: Dack Guta, J Janice Sellers, Mark Schumann, Beajamin Wight : emer eee Se Jaffe, Sam McOobb, Jack Deth, Lance Salazar, Josh Davis, Matthew Rosen, Gary, Brown, Kevin Nunn, Floyd Wesel, Richard W. Brown, Larry Brown, Sandra Jacobs and @ host of cother Phyers at Origins & Goons 1993, Many thanks to all of yous without yout help, this project woukdn’t have Dedicated: To Cod, because you're the finest thing I've ever had a hand in creating, And to Mom (Cody's “Grandy”), because I promised, Product Ones CR 600 [Softcover] CF 6002 [Hardcore] Age”, -ereations described herein are trademarts of Ine. Castle Palkenstein is © Mike Poadsmith, 1994. All materials within are capywritten and not eects sy reve pm fon Rin Gab AR eon ce ne in USA by Ato inn, Cio Mhword of warning: Castle Falkenstein is organized a bit differently from other roleplaying games. Instead of starting off with the Rules, ‘we've organized this book so that you begin with the world its described by our hero through his stories and pictures. Background Articles and Sidebars are also xed in with the storyline to illustrate and expand on interest- ing facts about the Castle Falken stein world. This also allows you to immerse yourself in the world without distracting rules and charts, The best way to think of (Castle Falkenstein is as a novel that allows you to write your own sequels. But if you really have to know how to play the Game immediately, you can skip the story and just jump right in. The Rules of the Game are all in the parchment-style pages starting in the back of the book on page 129. Everything you'll need to plays in this section, organized by wopi This may seem a bit strange at first, but it’s actually designed to make using Caste Falkenscin cas et. Everything you'll need to run a Victorian Adventure Entertain- ‘ment will be right at hand, not scattered between bits of back- ground or buried where you have to hunt it up. In addition, this see: tion has its own detailed Index for easy reference, once again to make iteasy to get at the mechanics.Dear Mike, *m not dead. iI Now that we've gotten that cleared up. I know, I know. You're probably sitting there reading this letter and thinking, Bur what the heck happened? We thought you were kidnapped, dead or worse. Believe me, the real truth is hard for even me to believe—and I lived through it. Over two years ago, I was sorcerously shanghaied from Earth into an alternate universe that seems to be one part Lord of the Rings and two parts Jules Verne sci- ence fiction, with a little Prisoner of Zenda thrown in for good measure. It’s a place that’s everything the Victorian ‘Age should have been and more: a reality where High Magick lives side by side with weird inventions out of an Industrial Revolution on drugs. Every day, steampunk supertech meets Dwarfish engineering, and in this place, that’s normal. Since that time, I have saved nations, put kings on thrones, toppled Empires and romanced the most beau- tiful woman on four continents. My best friends are a sorceror who claims to be a member of the Illuminati, the swashbuckling head of the Royal Secret Service, and the High King of the Faerie. I have met Queen Victoria, Abraham Lincoln and Captain Nemo. Last week, I got into a long conversation with Sherlock Holmes. Tonight I had dinner with a Dragon. I was not the main course. I know you won't believe any of this. I wouldn’t either, I’m not even sure this letter will reach you, con sidering how treacherous the Faerie Ways are between Home and this place. But you gotta listen. This is for real. There’s a whole other world just this side of the door ... And the door’s a lot thinner than you’d want to think ... Th A Nutshell ne of the things that used to 2 drive us erazy about Tom i when he was working at 4) HiyperTech Games, Inc. was that he ‘ould stata story and wander around the block for hours before he got to the point. So for those who don’t want to wade through all of his nots, 4) here's wat’ going on (as far as can tel): “Tom was shanghaied by two wiz ards from an altemate Victorian workl called New Europa. The wizards, induding a Faere High Lord named Auberon, used a spell of Summona- tion to find a secret weapon to restore their Crown Prince Ludwig of J) Bayern (aka Bavaria) to bis right throne. By wording the Summons as nd us something to help us sue- ceed,” they had no idea what they ‘would getin the process So the magic ‘went out into the Faerie Veil between dimensions and retuned with Tom. ‘They didn’t know what he was good for, but they decided to keep him any- sway because he migi be usefil, Betrayed by a spy from within, the conspirators were forced (with Tom's fib) ep de is te cia, defeat all the assassins sent against them, and throw out the Evil Regent (who ran the country and was betay- ing Bayern to its hostile neighbor, Prussia). With alot of action, romance and adventure long the way. But Tom’s real reason for being Summoned was only revealed later, when it tumed out that one of the bbooks he'd brought from our word hhad mystical importance in his new Cone. Using his book, the group was able to build a secret weapon that allowed them to defeat Iron Chan- e In RE cellor Bismarck’s invading armies.&pellnapped! ‘was on vacation—the vacation T’d been talking about for months at work, driving the rest of you crazy. Two weeks away ftom the Games Division of HyperTéch, Inc, with no monitors beaming cathode rays at my face, no art directors screaming about deadlines, and best of all, two weeks of peace from my project leader and his never ending quest for video game perfection. ‘While I was travelling through Germany, I decided to atch a tour of one of the major tourist landmarks, Newsclmanstein castle. It’s the archetype for probably every romantic fairy-tale castle ever created; I mow they modeled the Disneyland castle after it, and I’m pretty sure that about half the fantasy fortresses that hit our Art Director's desk are direct steals. Besides, it’s got a romantic cachet to it that’s hard to ‘bear —the last mad king in a long line of loonies drags several mega- tons of concrete and marble up the side of a mountain, and builds himself one-man amusement park where he can listen to Wagnerian. opera all day. Then, before he can complete his dream castle, he’s declared insane by his scheming counselors, locked up, and dies tunder circumstances that could only be described as “mysterious.” So there I was, standing in the Castle’s great Meistersingers Fal, marveling at the whole rococo brilliance of the place. They don’t allow photographs, but since no one said anything about artists, I got ‘out my sketchbook and became so busy that I hardly even noticed that the tour had moyed on without me. I wasn’t worried; tours came through every few minutes, and I could always join the next ‘one. Instead, I concentrated on drawing. Big mistake. I didn’enotice the smell of ozone at first. Or the slight buildup of static electricity. Maybe my first clue was the sudden explosion of multicolored light around me. Then the floor opened up. Brillant rainbow lights shot skyward, while colorful ball lightning, crackled, fizzed and bounced around the room. A screaming wind roared in my cars like all the vacuum cleaners in the world, and my Nikes skittered and slid out from underneath me. My backpack hit the floor next to me; I scrambled to grab it—anything to stop myself from being sucked down into the howling maelstrom— Really big mistake. I really should have gone for one of the pillars along the wall. ‘The next thing I knew, I was tumbling hea 1a spinning, whirling tiinnel of light. I could hear something screaming. Me. Td been Spelinapped.