Adventure Entertainments: FIrearms and Margarine

Firearms & Margarine.

Firearms and Margarine is the first published official Adventure Entertainment (scenario) for Castle Falkenstein written by Mr. J Gray.

It is a fine Murder Mystery set in the city of Paris. The underlying plot premise is based on the point of view of Brownies, a nice touch to bring out the Faerie side of the Falkenstein Universe.

The story opens with a murder at a labour protest which the characters then investigate. The search for the culprit involves dealing with the Upper, Middle and the Working Classes and their appropriate prejudices. There are enough suspects and red herrings to keep the characters guessing. When the players have found the probable murderer, there are hints on adjusting the final denouement to suit your on campaign style.

The introduction has ideas on how to involve most types of Dramatic Characters in the storyline.

The plot line allows for different paths of inquiry, giving the players a range of freedom in their actions. Any aspects of the case that are unique to the Castle Falkenstein setting are clearly explained.

Lavishly illustrated with six pre-generated Dramatic Characters to get you started, this excellent product is well worth the price.

If you haven’t tried Castle Falkenstein, get the core rulebook and this supplement.

Not only do you gain a fun adventure, it gives plenty of guidance on play that is useful for new 

Hosts. Also, the layout of the book can act as a framework for building your own Adventure

Entertainments if you have just started to play the Great Game.

This wonderous work is available from Drivethrurpg

The Fifth Variation - The Six-Sided Variation

The Six-sided Variations

The fifth in Mr J Gray’s series on Castle Falkenstein rules variations, a shocking move for purist players as it involves the use of DICE!

In brief, there is a pot of chits representing the four card suits and jokers. Players draw four chits and then play a chit (or more) to carry out a Feat (action). If the chit is the same suit as the Ability it provides 2D6 and if it doesn’t match, it provides one point. Jokers are wild and automatically give a score of twelve! The dice are rolled and the score added to the Ability score as in normal play. There are, as in all of the Falkenstein Variations, a range of additional tweaks included in the booklet. These allow you to adapt the Six-sided variations to your own campaign style.

We decided to try it out in our group. I will admit that I was a little concerned that it might change the flavour of the game slightly.

It did not.

The Variation was quickly understood and actually speeded up play. Those who were less confident with the game’s card system made chit & dice roll decisions more quickly than they did with cards, allowing us to get on with the action.

The Six-sided Variation has been well thought out to produce similar results to the existing card rules, making them fully interchangeable. So in future games, I, as Host (GM), will allow each of my players to choose to use cards or dice according to their own preference (as long as they stick to their choice for the whole adventure).

Another useful and clearly explained set of optional rules for Castle Falkenstein. It can speed up your game and will be of particular use with existing gamers who are trying Falkenstein for the first time. As it has enhanced our game playing experience, I have to give it a full five stars.

This excellent publication is available from Drivethrurpg

The Fouth Variation book - THE FEAT VARIATIONS

The Feat Variations

                                                                      

Available as a pdf file from Drivethrurpg

The Fourth in Mr J Gray’s series on Castle Falkenstein rules variations, this booklet deals with both the use of the cards in your hand to achieve success in Feats (actions) and the range of difficulty that can be set for any particular Feat.

“The Hard Limit Variation” which helps stop “Hand Dumping” where some players always use all of their cards on one Feat.

“The Half-Off Variation” which allows more cards in your hand to give more points towards a Feat. Over use of this variation can be countered by the “Ability Harmonics Option” in which the Host (GM) can apply slightly negative effects on players who use unaligned cards

Finally, “The Dwarfish Requirement Variation” increases the range of difficulty levels the Host has available to assign to a Feat. This means that the Host can get away without having to play cards from their hand purely to make a Feat trickier. The most useful part of this section of the booklet is a list of all the Abilities with examples of the sort of result that might be achieved at each level.

As always, there are options within each Variation to adapt the new rules should you wish to.

We are using all three of these variations. The “Ability Harmonics Option” has led to some enjoyable, random sub-plots appearing based upon the results. With “The Dwarfish Requirement Variation”, I have found that as I no longer need to use my Host hand on general Feats, I now keep it purely to apply to Host Characters (NPCs) who can think about where to apply their actions. This has sped up the play. The list of examples by Ability is really helpful and the table provided makes quick reference easy.

Yet another handy addition to Castle Falkenstein and as we use all three Variations, it’s a five out of five, thank you, Mister Gray.

 

Two New "Variation" rule books for Castle Falkenstein

Two new  rules "Variation" books have been written by the Illustrious Mr. J Gray and published by those Fine Persons at Fat Goblin Games.

 

 

 The Second Tarot Variation.

The Second in Mr J Gray’s series on Castle Falkenstein rules variations, once again ,covers the use of Tarot cards instead of an ordinary pack of cards but this time as the general Fortune Cards pack rather than one for Magicians only. There is a very useful page of discussion about the effects on game balance that using a Tarot-based Fortune pack produces and suggestions of a variety of ways this can be balanced or used to enhance the wild card nature of the Major Arcana cards. Just like the previous Tarot Variation, the Minor Arcana cards simply act like slightly altered normal pack of cards. The Major Arcana produce a range of quite powerful negative and positive, but always interesting, outcomes on play.

From my strictly personal view, I won’t be using this Variation in my campaign. I really like the idea of the Tarot pack being a special set of cards just for magical purposes (as in the first Variation) and since Magick gives great power to a Dramatic Persona (or character, if you like), I love the idea of Magicians having less control over the outcome that the Major Arcana cards bring to the game system.

An ordinary pack of Fortune Cards feels better for me for use in mundane (i.e. everyday non-magical) activities. I feel that the Second Variation having, in effect, twenty-two wild cards in the pack overloads the players’ hands in terms of plot manipulation. Just having the two Jokers is enough for me.

That said, what I may do is make a small Host’s pack made up of just Major Arcana cards and use Mr.Gray’s excellent ideas on wild card effects. So, when a joker comes up in the mundane pack, I, as the Host can draw a card from my little pack and gain inspiration for the outcome the players receive.

As ever, this Fat Goblin’s Games product is beautifully laid out with clear text. Even though I am not making use of all of it myself, it scores 5/5 as this is a quality product that many Hosts of “The Great Game” will like.

This book is available as a PDF from Fat Goblin Games at  Drivethru RPG

The Ability Variations.

The Third in Mr J Gray’s series on Castle Falkenstein rules variations, this Variation deals with Ability specialisations, varying the suit of Fortune Cards played for an action and Ability improvement points.

Firstly, the Specialisations Variation allows players to gain an advantage in a specified area covered by an Ability. Secondly, the Divorce Variation gives the opportunity to apply the value of a Fortune Card of a different suit to the one normally used with that Ability, under certain circumstances. Thirdly, the Improvement Variation finally gives a clear format for acquiring new Specialisations and increasing existing Abilities with a choice of mechanics for short or long term campaigns.

In my opinion, this is the best of the variation series yet produced. The other two were nice tweaks but this one makes play easier. Unlike the original Castle Falkenstein books (much as I love them), Mr Gray’s personal Great Ability seems to be in the succinct and clear explanation of rules. These Variations fit very well into the mechanics and spirit of the game. They also clarify and improve the existing rules.

As stated in all the Variation series, the new rules are optional for each Host’s campaign, but I will definitely be opting in with these. A score of 6 out of 5 for this one!

This book is available as a PDF from Fat Goblin Games at Drivethru RPG

You can keep up with the latest on CF-related Fat Goblin Games’ products via their Castle Falkenstein Blog.