Castle Falkenstein is a Talsorian game. This game is a bit different from the usual roleplaying games. First, there are no dice, you use an ordinary deck of cards when you really want to succeed. There is one for magicusers and one for action/social related tasks.
In Falkenstein you have steam powered computers, magic, dragons and fairies in the late 1800s. Swashbuckling, adventure and royal balls, that´s Falkenstein! The villains are the typical megalomaniacs who tell their victims all their grand plans before the spectacular rescues... The heroes are dashing hussars, gentle ladies or maybe a Sherlock Holmes-wannabe. You can meet almost anyone or anything from a book covering that period; Sherlock Holmes, Rudolf Rassendyl, Abraham van Helsing, Phileas Fogg or martian tripods.

The Victorian Age permeates every level of the game. Queen Victoria is the ruler, she got more influence on the world of CF than the dragon emperors in Japan and China, Bismarck in Prussia and the emperor Norton in California... Social life is one of the major forces in the game.And social graces (etiquette) is a very important skill.
Castle Falkenstein is also a castle in Bayern that was magically made by Auberon the fairie king and a magician named Morrolan. In Castle Falkenstein Bayern (Bavaria) is a nation of great importance, especially as the good nation attacked by "evil" Prussia that is ruled by the iron chancellor Bismarck. Bismarck is supported by the major villain; the Adversary, Auberons brother and a fairie with great power. They are the leaders of the two factions within the fairie, the seelie and the unseelie.
This is also the age of insulting people as a gentleman. Duels are fought for sometimes very trivial reasons, like the Black Bottle Affair, when Captain Reynolds put claret (red wine) in a black bottle instead of a decanter.

My house rules for Castle Falkenstein
Sometimes you need a name and an occupation quickly...