SOURCEBOOK FOR CASTLE FALKENSTEIN
WRITTEN BY EDWARD BOLME, JIM PARKS, DEREK QUINTANAR, MARK SCHMAN, JAMES CAMBIAS, ERIC FLOCH, ANGELA HYATT, BARRE ROSEN, CHRIS WILLIAMS
TALSORIAN GAMES

I expected Six-Guns and Sorcery to be a sourcebook on the Wild Falkensteinian West, and I was glad to find out that it's much more than that. Like all sourcebooks for the Cas tle Falkenstein line, Six-Guns is written in a format unlike any other used in the role-playing industry. Readers are taken directly into the world through the eyes of Tom Olam, a man who was once part Of Our own world who was "Spellnapped" into a world of the 1800's where cabalistic magic and pulp science fiction are in full force. Each book chronicles his adventures through the world, with rules listed in sidebars and isolated text boxes.

Six-Guns details Tom's adventures in America, a Falkenstein America where the Freemasons secretly run the U.S.A., where Voodoo is the religious choice of the Orleans Free State, and where Sam Houston is President of the Lone Star Republic of Texas. There's cowboys and Indians (the Twenty Nations Confederation) and Norton I is the revered Emperor of the Bear Flag Empire of California.

Tom's journey begins on the East Coast where he meets up with the alternate incarnation of his hometown, New York. In the Big Apple, he discovers the iron grip the Freemasons have on America (including rules for magick and faaries in a land very unfriendly to foreign supernatural activity), and gives a whole stew of background information on the Robber Barons, the Pinkertons, American High Society, Railroads and one very big Canadian lumberjack.

Next, Tom speeds off to Washington, D. C. where he encounters the United States Secret Service (a lot like those two guys from Wild, Wild West), including a huge listing of the United States Armed Forces, and then heads down south into Voodoun controlled New Orleans.

After further adventures, Tom finally heads off West. Now, I'm not saying that all the stuff that happens before he heads out West is immaterial, because it isn't. It's fascinating, well organized material. However, only half of the book actually takes place in the west, and that's what I bought it for. The rest of it was a pleasant surprise, but I was on pins and needles waiting for information on all those guys hanging out on the frontier.

I wasn't disappointed in the quality of the work, but I was a bit disappointed in the quantity. I wanted a whole lot of Wild West stuff, and as I mentioned above, only half of the book is devoted to the American frontier.

But if I had a problem with the quantity, I certainly didn't have a problem with the quality. Like all Falkenstein books, Six-Guns is heavily researched and well thought out. Logical progressions are important when presenting "alternate history" campaigns, and when the author doesn't have a strong grasp on what actually happened, he can't present believable alternatives. The authors of Six-Guns did their homework, and it shows.

Tom Clam's passages through the Twenty Nations are written with a voice of authority. The understanding of the meanings in Native American religion and magic is present. Moving further West provides us with Tom's adventures with Wyatt Earp and his creepy buddy Doc Holliday, along with a full section on a new kind of sorcerer, "the Spellslinger" (which I can't wait to add to my own Falkenstein campaign). "Silver Fever" is the current epidemic that's spreading across the West, and Tom gives us a whole page dedicated to how prospectors changed the face of the American frontier.

And then there's Emperor Norton and his good friend Sam Clemens. Clemens is written with a dry, sardonic sense of humor that's a riot to read (kudos to whoever was in charge of this section), and the Emperor of California is both hilarious and touching.

Overall, Six-Guns and Sorcery is a must to any Castle Falkenstein GM, and definitely worth a look-see to anyone running a wild west campaign. White I would have preferred there be more Wild West, the information provided gives the reader a strong understanding of America at that time, which puts the west in a perspective that is often missing from many "wild west" campaign settings. A lot of people fled the eastern seaboard in search of a new start. Six-Guns gives some intriguing (if "alternate") reasons why.