History TabletopGame / CastleFalkenstein

* EmperorScientist: Lord Yoshikazu Tomino, one of the setting's most successful Masterminds, who rules the northern Japanese islands with the aid of his HumongousMecha.

* Ruritania: The setting features many of these, includung the [[Literature/ThePrisonerOfZenda Trope Namer]].

* BombThrowingAnarchist: The Marxist character type, and members of the World Crime League.

* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Every sourcebook has a appendix with scores of real historical figures and how they live in this universe.

* RomanticismVsEnlightenment: A huge theme, with the metaplot coming down heavily on the side of Romanticism. The Second Compact consists of Bayern, literally described as a real life Disney kingdom, ruled by [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_II_of_Bavaria Ludwig the Swan King]], The Bear Empire, a fiercely egalitarian mercantile powerhouse under the leadership of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emperor_Norton Emperor Norton the First]], all the First Nations who are not under the thumb of the US yet, and the most cartoonishly romanticized version of 19th century France in any medium ever, along with the Seelie Court, and it's stated ambition is to slow or halt the progress of industrialization. They are the good guys. The bad guys are the heavily industrialized and authoritarian Prussians under Otto von Bismarck, The British Empire formally ruled by Queen Victoria but in practice ruled by a cabal of shady industrialists and super-criminals, The United States ruled by another cabal of expansionist politicians and captains of industry (closely allied with the one in Britain), who are setting President Grant up as a fall guy, and the figurative and literal hellhole of Imperial Russia, all backed by the Unseelie Court.

* CrapsackWorld: The books don't scruple to remind us how messed and screwed our world and our society is at every opportunity.
* CreateYourOwnVillain: Adolf von Schrakenberg used to a loyal officer in the Austrian army, who got the idea to create an armoured artillery vehicle. Prussian officers approached him and asked him to work for them. He refused the offer, however, the Austrian Secret Police found about it, and started to harass his family, then they arrested them. Sadly, during the arrest, his mother and father were killed trying to escape. After hearing this, Adolf contacted the Prussian military, and their agents rescued his wife and brother, and helped him escape Austria. He now works with the Prussians to create the [[{{TankGoodness}} LandFortresses]].

* DeliberateValuesDissonance: Auberon created a new sea, and threw his not inconsiderable power behind the Second Compace to halt German expansion, thus stopping "future blitzkrieg" in France. Any suggestion that he might want to protect Poland and Russia, where the majority of the fighting and dying happened, is met with blank incomprehension or insinuations that Eastern Europe is too crapsack to be worth saving.

''Castle Falkenstein'' is a GaslampFantasy tabletop RPG published in 1994 by Creator/RTalsorianGames. A handful of supplements followed, and a TabletopGame/{{GURPS}} adaptation of the setting was published in 2000. Fat Goblin Games acquired the license to put out additional supplements in 2016, but it reverted to R. Talisorian after a few years. R. Talsorian announced a 25th-anniversary edition in 2018 for release in 2019, though as of yet nothing has appeared.

The final chapter details the rules; true to form, they're designed to be played in the context of Victorian-era aristocratic life. Therefore, action resolution is through playing cards (which are a wholesome pastime), not dice (which are for [[ValuesDissonance uncouth knaves]]), while characters are detailed using diaries, because Xerox machines for character sheets weren't available in the 1870's (Charles Babbage, however, invented data forms in the 1830s... so some kind of datasheet wasn't entirely out of timeframe).

* CreateYourOwnVillain: Adolf von Schrakenberg used to a loyal officer in the Austrian army, who got the idea to create an armoured artillery vehicle. Prussian officers approached him and asked him to work for them. He refused the offer, however, the Austrian Secret Police found about it, and started to harass his his family, then they arrested them. Sadly, during the arrest, his mother and father were killed trying to escape. After hearing this, Adolf contacted the Prussian military, and their agents rescued his wife and brother, and helped him escape Austria. He now works with the Prussians to create the [[{{TankGoodness}} LandFortresses]].

* CreateYourOwnVillain: Adolf von Schrakenberg used to a loyal officer in the Austrian army, who got the idea to create an armoured artillery vehicle. Prussian officers approached him and asked him to work for them. He refused the offer, however, the Austrian Secret Police found about it, and started to harras his his family, then they arrested them. Sadly, during the arrest, his mother and father were killed trying to escape. After hearing this, Adolf contacted the Prussian military, and their agents rescued his wife and brother, and helped him escape Austria. He now works with the Prussians to create the [[{{TankGoodness}} LandFortresses]].

* DividedStatesOfAmerica: There's the United States of America, which is ruled by the Freemasons and essentially stops at the Mississippi; the Republic of Texas, which also includes New Mexico and Arizona; the Free State of Orleans, a WretchedHive run by piracy and voodoo; the Twenty Nations Confederation, made up of Native Americans and covering everything between the Mississippi and Nevada; and the Bear Flag Empire, which encompasses California, Oregon, and Washington and is ruled by Emperor Norton I in partnership with Kit Carson and Mark Twain.

* ShoutOut: Lord Tomino and his Steampunk mecha are a nod to Creator/YoshiyukiTomino, creator of ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam''.