The Book of Sigils

Castle Falkenstein

Reviewed by Simon English


R. Talsorian Games
128pp £ 9.99

This supplement for R. Talsorian's Victorian fantasy/steampunk RPG deals with magick and Sorcerous Orders. In the Castle Falkenstein world, magickal lore is developed by magical societies, such as The Hermetetic Order of The Golden Dawn, The Bavarian Illuminati or The Sisters of Sekhmet. Each Sorcerous Order has its' own rules and traditions, as well as its' own particular body of magickal knowledge.

As with previous Falkenstein supplements, The Book of Sigils is written in the first person, describing the globe-travelling experiences of one 'Anthony Saville'. In the course of his adventures travelling around the world, Saville encounters every conceivable form of magick.

To this end, The Book of Sigils covers a lot of ground: Native American, Celtic, Oriental, Aztec and Egyptian forms of magick are detailed. In addition to this are descriptions of other European and American orders as well as new rules for Sorcerous Duels, Potions, the Undead, Curses and Mgickal Foci. As if that wasn't enough, there are notes on Sorcerous Orders in general (30 orders and 36 Lorebooks)notes on cleating one's own, relationships between the various orders, the story of Anthony Saville's journey, plenty of neat artwork, and the kitchen sink thrown in for good measure.

The sheervolume of information that R. Talsorian manage to cram into their Falkenstein products can sometimes be a bit daunting. Mind you, this does mean that one supplement on each subject will provide you with enough material to fill your campaign for a long time. Sometimes I feel that the sheer quantity oF information results in a slight lack of detail. The Falkenstein ethos is, however, to place the onus onto the Host when it comes to bringing the gameworld to life.

As usual, Falkenstein manages to put a slightly different spin on magick, with such Ideas as Freemasons being the legal practitioners of magick in the New World. Yet they also manage to be to the historical beliefs of other cultures, provi deblood magic rules for Aztec magick' notes on the spirits for the Native American magick and similar details for the other Orders. Rarely have I seen such an intelligent or well-researched supplement on magic outside of Ars Magical The Book of Sigils draws all sorts of useful distinctions, detailing the practical and cultural differences between varying traditions of magick (scholastic, hermetic, shamanistic, sympathetic, voudon, Chibased and tantric). This attention to detail permeates the whole supplement, even down to the copyright information being presented as "Humbly, Our Solicitor's Particulars."

Much as with The Lost Notebooks, Falkenstein Hosts will only require this supplement if magick is featuring in their campaign. Saying that, if any of their players have magus characters, then the Book Sigils is both indispensable and exhaustive. The only criticism I could possibly level is at the somewhat cursory descriptions of the various spells, but this is part and parcel of the Falken system and is a minor quibble at worst.

Overall: Few rivals and sets standard. Exceptional.

More Reviews

Back to Valkyrie 14 Table of Contents
Back to Valkyrie List of Issues
Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List
© Copyright 1997 by Partizan Press.
This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web.
Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com