For Castle Falkenstein
R. Talsorian Games
$17 each

The two most challenging aspects of making a good gaming supplement are: 1) Making it fun to read, and 2) Making it fun to look at. Castle Falkenstein books perform both of these tasks admirably. Every book is written in a narrative format (that means 'story,' folks). The story shows the effects and sidebars show you how to do it in the game. It's a great format that's both entertaining and easy to follow. And of course, RTG always makes the layout exciting and innovative. Two new books for the Castle Falkenstein line reflect this dedication to quality: The Book of Sigils and The Lost Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci.

On the back of The Book of Sigils is the proud declamation: "The Banned Book." Once again, RTG has presented the sourcebook as an actual book from the world of CF. The Book of Sigils details the sorcerous orders of New Europa, telling their secrets, listing the books of Sorcerous Lore that lie in their libraries, talks about sympathetic magick, voodoo (called 'voudon' in New Europa), blood magick, curses, magickal foci and a whole lot more. "A wealth of information for the curious and the students of sorcery" is right. This one's got it all.

The narrative tells the tale of "Anthony Saville," a sorcerer who traveled the countryside gathering information about the different sorcerous orders of New Europa. He travels to America, Egypt, Greece and China (just to mention a few) to record their practices and rites and magickal tomes.

Of course, many of these Orders don't want their secrets getting out into the public eye, hence the sudden disappearance of the author. However, was able to hide the book before his mysterious death (even the famous Sherlock Homes has had difficulty solving the case), and now you can make full use of its forbidden information. All of the rules you need to convert the information in the narrative are included in the sidebars, making gamemaster-friendly and a great read.

The Lost Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci uses much the same format. Presented as the actual notebooks, the editor then tells you how to use the books in "The Great Game" (see the sidebar for details on said Game). I'm a stickler for "Historical Correctness" (being a history major makes it difficult to read RPG source material sometimes), and RTG never disappoints me. All of the politics that were affecting da Vinci's writing during the Renaissance are present in The Lost Notebooks, reflected by da Vinci's careful comments to make certain the reader would not construe his experiments with black magic.

The book contains new rules for using Magickal Engines (something that was missing from the first book and is a welcome addition), sorcerous devices and boy are they comprehensive. There's Draining Engines, Auditorial Illusion Engines, Inferno Engines, Glacial Engines, Invisibility Engines, Dimensional Engines and that's just mentioning a few of them. There's also a complete section on "Star Iron", which translates into "Cold Iron" for those of you who have Seerte Lore.

When you read this one, you have to keep reminding yourself that it's a sourcebook for a role,playing game. But then again, just about all of the Falkenstein books are written that way. It makes CF one of the most intriguing RPG a player could hope for.

The Great Game

CASTLE FALKENSTEIN USES THE MOST ORIGINAL FORMAT I'VE EVER SEEN FOR THE PRESENTATION OF GAME MATERIAL. WHEN YOU READ THE CF BOOK, YOU ARE READING A NOVEL. THE STORY TELLS THE TALE OF QPG DESIGNER TOM OLAM GETTING SUMMONED TO THE WORLD OF NEW EUROPA AND HIS ADVENTURES THERE. WHEN HE COMPLETED HIS ADVENTURES, HE PUBLISHED "THE GREAT GAME" FOR THE NEW EUROPEANS TO PLAY. IT WAS A HIT IN THE WORLD OF FALKENSTEIN AND WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM THE SORCERERS OF NEW EUROPA, HE WAS ABLE TO SEND HIS NOTES TO MIKE PONDSMITH OVER HERE ON EARTH. MR. PONDSMITH KNEW A GOOD GAME WHEN HE SAW ONE, SO HE PUBLISHED "THE GREAT GAME" UNDER THE TITLE CAST'LE FALKENSTEIN. THERE MUST BE SOME TRUTH IN SYNCHRONICITY BECAUSE IT WAS A HIT OVER HERE, TOO. NOW WHEN TOM SENDS MIKE NEW MANUSCRIPTS THROUGH THE VEIL, THEY CONTAIN SOURCE MATERIAL F0R NEW EUROPA ALONG WITH HIS RULES FOR PLAYING "THE GREAT GAME."