Strongholds & Dynasties
Book of Strongholds & Dynasties (Mongoose Publishing)
Overall Impression: Very Good to Excellent
Content:
Construction system: A
Domain management system (small scale) : D
Domain management system (medium scale): A
Domain management system (large scale) : F
City/Urban Center details: F
Trade system: B
Internal Realm Politics system: B+
Inter-Realm Politics system: D
Resource Management system: C [Edit: downgraded from A]
Mass Combat system: B
Troop raising: A
Dynastic heritage system: N/A
D&D/Fantasy content: A
Arcane Magic Integration: D
Divine Magic Integration: B
The construction system is quite good. Modular enough to be useful for a-la-carte building, with some simple "one piece" buildings for common uses. Often overlooked elements like underground construction and using non-human or spell-based labor are addressed. Fantasy elememnts, such as elaborate mechanical and magical functions, are addressed as well.
The Domain management system does not scale well, I think. The DM is supposed to keep many details secret from the players, and this can rapidly become unmanageable if the number of provinces grows. Attempting to manage more than 1 or 2 NPC rival realms will quickly become impossible without extensive electronic aids. The provided sample record sheets are also insufficient for some of this; they reflect the end state, but do not have workspaces for the DM to record updates in progress.
The book goes into no detail on cities at all, other than the usefulness of some specific buildings as part of other functions, and even that is not as complete as it could be.
The trade system is more elaborate than most others, and tries to address the various risks that affect moving goods from place to place. This may get upgraded once it is seen in use.
Internal politics is represented to a degree, but more on a province-by-province basis (individual strength/influence of interest groups in each province, but no overall realm-wide presence is refleced).
Politics with other realms is lightly touched on. Much is left to the DM's discretion.
Resource Management is extensive. The variety of resources covered is excellent, and the thoroughness of how to improve/use them is good. [Edit: In my testing, the system breaks down badly once the population center becomes larger than a Large Town. I have downgraded the rating to reflect this.]
The Mass Combat system is surprisingly small. It may prove to be just very efficient use of space, but it is surprisingly short given how much the Open Mass Combat System 2 was heralded.
The resource management pieces also addresses equipping your troops, and does so nicely. Good coverage is given for raising units of various classes, levels, and unit sizes.
Dynastic heritage: For a book called "Strongholds & Dynasties", there is a surprising lack of information about passing power to successors. In that sense, half the book is missing.
The book does a good job of including the D&D races and classes into its rules. Tree-fort construction is hit upon in the construction system, as are non-human workers. Most "ministerial positions" have suggested pre-requisites in terms of skills and/or class levels, allowing most classes and races to be guided to the appropriate role.
One element I do feel is lacking is the large-scale magic integration. Birthright's realm spells is an area that no product has tackled with as much success. S&D does better with Divine magic than with Arcane, but not to the scale of representing abilities like realm spells.
