D&D Rules Cyclopedia
Dungeons & Dragons Rules Cyclopedia - Dominions and War Machine (TSR)
Overall Impression: Very Good
Content:
Construction system: B
Domain management system (small scale) : B
Domain management system (medium scale): B (C if using Mystara/Known World)
Domain management system (large scale) : C (D if using Mystara/Known World)
City/Urban Center details: F
Trade system: F (A if using the content of GAZ 9 and GAZ 11)
Internal Realm Politics system: F
Inter-Realm Politics system: C
Resource Management system: D
Mass Combat system: B
Troop raising: C
Dynastic heritage system: N/A
D&D/Fantasy content: A
Arcane Magic Integration: C (B)
Divine Magic Integration: C (B)
The Construction system is abstract and simplified, but covers the basics. A collection of modular pieces are available, which the player uses to define the stronghold s/he wishes to build. The overall cost of the pieces defines how long is required. The system presumes building in a newly-cleared land, so the DM must adjudicate any discounts to the cost for discount circumstances. Some guidance is given on this point. The construction rules are integrated into the mass combat rules.
The Domain Management rules work on the basis of 24-mile hexes for Dominions (1 Barony). The system handles starting from 1 8-mile-hex of wilderness area to be made safe by the PC's presence, which is the standard situation. However, it also presumes that the wilderness area is located in or at least near a source of trained laborers and materials -- everything is based on the use of gold pieces.
The resource management system is simplified as well, condensing to a bonus to the base tax rate. Each Dominion (or, optionally, each hex within a Dominion) has a small number of resources that are generalized to basic categories. These resources define the bonuses to the tax rate, and ultimately resolve back to money.
The Dominion's population is measured in peasant families, which have a natural growth rate. Growth and loss are checked for on a monthly basis, which may become tedious in a long-running campaign.
Much like Strongholds & Dynasties, the system presented is very good for detailing the Dominions of a handful of PCs. Larger NPC Dominions can become more tedious to define and track.
There is no internal realm politics, really. Each main class is presumed to be able to establish its own Barony, so there is almost no provision for any other power center internal to the Dominion (tithing to a Church is about all there is).
Politics between realms is not codified for the most part. When establishing a new Dominion, there are some rules for how neighboring Dominions will react, but not much else. All diplomacy is pretty much up to the DM to handle. Because most of Mystara is mapped into one or another Greater Dominion, this area suffers more in that setting (which is why I reduced the rating -- there will be more opportunities for contact than in most homebrew campaigns, with little guidance on how to proceed).
One really good element in this system, which Birthright and MMS:WE also touch on, is vassalage. Owing fealty to a higher authority, and more specifically collecting from a lower authority, is represented in these rules.
The Mass Combat system is easy to use, but it is also abstract. It is not miniatures-oriented, nor is it miniatures-friendly. It is closer to a wargame level, taking place on the 24-mile campaign hexes only. It is more of what I consider a strategic level than a tactical one. The ability to raise and maintain troops is all based on the cash available. Although the statistics of a unit can be improved by training, there is not much information on the costs of providing ongoing training to those units. This probably stems from the origin of the Mass Combat Rules -- they came from an adventure module (X10: Red Arrow, Black Shield) which provided counters and army statistics for all the forces in the Known World setting. The system overall factors in terrain and most other expected elements, but in an abstract way that will not be useful to people who want to "attack from hill A to flank the archers on hill B".
There is no section of Trade rules in the book. However, the supplements on the Minrothad Guilds (GAZ 9) and the Republic of Darokin (GAZ 11) presented rules for sea-based and land-based merchants (respectively). These also offered special "extra classes" that may have been the inspiration for the Prestige Classes in D20.
Lastly, I gave average "grades" for the magic integration because the item creation system is very similar to standard D20 (invest XP and GP to make anything). There is no "institutional" magic use (no realm magic), but a lot of the areas in Mystara are very advanced in magic use (so, the parenthetical higher grades appy when using the Mystara setting).
Short & Sweet: For a short system (9 pages out of the book), the Dominion and Strongholds systems in the D&D Rules Cyclopedia are very strong. They lack detail in a lot of areas (resources are very lightly handled, the construction system is very lightweight), but many key elements are covered better than more comprehensive books (experience for rulership, natural population growth). The biggest drawbacks to using these systems in a d20 game are: 1) it is out of print, and 2) the "basic" D&D game has some different core elements (Dwarf and Elf are combined race-classes, power levels were different {36th level in basic D&D is/was similar to 20th level in AD&D and D20).