Character Creation

• The number of non-humans and sorcerers will be limited, on a first-come-first-served basis.
• All characters must be approved by the Host.
• No Americans.  Characters may come from anywhere but the territories covered by current-day United States of America.  However, it would be (much) preferable to stick to New Europa.
• The action will start aboard the Bavarian airship Parsifal, of the Koeniglich Luftschwansa, which shuttles between Brussels, London, Paris, Marseilles, Geneva, Rome, Sofia, Buda-Pest, Prague, Vienna, and Friedrichshafen (Bayern terminal) in a continuous loop.  This gives your character a chance to board from a variety of points over New Europa.

From  The Original, Unofficial Castle Falkenstein Home Page :

• R. Talsorian's Character Creation Errata
• The Psychedelic Goblin's New Abilities
• The Psychedelic Goblin's New Archetypes

From Comme Il Faut (CIF):

• The new Skills and Abilities on pp. 73-74, but we'll have the following changes:
• Invention: Good Invention means you come up with varied inventions, mostly simple and useful, or far-fetched and wacky, but all in all can occasionally bring in money with them.
• Mesmerism: Move everything by one notch up:
• With Poor Mesmerism, you are extremely susceptible to hypnotic commands from others (one difficulty level lower);
• with Average Mesmerism, you can use self-hypnosis if you are in a conducive environment.
• With Good Mesmerism [not Average], you can make people dizzy or even swoon;
• with Great [not Good], you can put them in a light trance and get them to answer simple, unthreatening questons; etc.
• At Exceptional [not Great], they will do the usual parlor tricks - bark like a dog, etc.
• Extraordinary Mesmerism [not Exceptional] will get ladies to remove their garments or cause people to do other things that they would rather not, as long as the actions are not life-threatening.
• Natural Sciences: Great means you are on par with the average editor of "Popular Zoology Quarterly" or "The Monthly Magnetism Journal", etc. (i.e., a little better than what is in CIF.)
• Please note the change made in CIF to Etherealness, now a Physical skill rather than Social
• The list of skills is included in Jonathan Mazur's Comprehensive Skill List but be careful to use only abilities from Castle Falkenstein or Comme Il Faut.
• The new Roles and Professions on p.75

From The Book of Sigils (BOS):

• Sorcerous Orders from the Book of Sigils can be used if adequately justified in the character's background and history, and only with specific approval from the Host.

Action

• The cards will be drawn by the Host.
• We'll use the "Fearful Harm & Great Danger" rules for damage on pp. 78-81 of Comme Il Faut, as expanded and reviewed on the R. Talsorian Web page under Fearful Harm & Great Danger .
• We will also employ a variation of Jay Gray's  Tarot Deck rules for magic, but only when (using the regular deck) strong Harmonics are produced, particularly if a Joker shows up.  In that case, I will use the Tarot deck to describe the effects produced by the Harmonics.  Again, I will draw the cards.
• We'll use the Spell Definitions table from Comme Il Faut.

Etiquette and Atmosphere

• No power gamers, please.  This is a collective endeavour, and the only players welcome are those who acknowledge this and are willing to cooperate with the rest of the group.
• Courtesy and cooperation between Dramatic Characters is encouraged.  The aim is to have one well-balanced, dynamic group of interesting characters, not to write a series of parallel stories about several loners.
• You must have access to a copy of Castle Falkenstein.
• Players must commit to checking their e-mail at least three times a week.
• Use of HTML and Web pages is encouraged.
• I have a quirk about French: it's my native language, so I really hate to see it butchered.  If you use any French, please use it correctly (unless it's in character to bungle it, of course.)  No "Entrez-vous", "La pettit chien", etc.  They drive me up the walls.

Posting Protocol

• The title of each message should start with 'Castle F:', then a brief description.  For example:

'Castle F: Lady Philippa answers the challenge'.
• Include in your post all the players whose Dramatic Characters would see or hear the action; always include the Host in all posts; lurkers are optional (but recommended).
• Write all posts in the present tense, unless your Dramatic Character is recounting a past event.
• Write your Dramatic Character's action in the third person.  For example, "Lady Philippa, hearing the footsteps, ducks promptly behind a bookshelf."
• Do not take for granted the reaction of any Host Characters, even minor ones.  Do not describe their reactions to your Dramatic Character's actions and words.
• When responding to other people's posts, please quote only the portions that are absolutely needed.  No long string of addresses and dialogue from a previous post only to add "I agree" at the end.
• People who post chain letters or other spam on the mailing list will be ritually killed (although GOOD jokes are all right.)