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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 6031860" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Issue 295: May 2002part 4/10Fit for a king: As is often the case at the moment, they start off the themed section with a basic system light recounting of the historical details. Now that's something that's very rehashed indeed. Just a brief search reveals articles on this topic in issues 45, 80, 121 & 201 plus part of the previous full special in issue 145. Curiously, this is one area where the busier and more colourful format of the 3e issues is less useful than the old line drawings that give you a nice clean image of the various castles out there. Like the old ones, this does a good job of reminding us that castle building was very much an evolutionary process, as they were built to deal with attackers, and both sides had to change tactics along with the technology to stay competitive, until castles were made mostly pointless by explosives and artillery outpacing the ability to build stronger, thicker walls. Unlike the old ones, it covers both eastern and western fortresses, and also points out the cross-pollination between them, making it a more well-rounded introduction than the old articles, if not with the same depth. So it looks like they're quite aware that they have a whole issue to play with and are pacing things accordingly. That's always pleasing to see, and hopefully means we'll be comprehensively done by the end of this, and good to go on this topic for an edition or so. Every home a castle: Another way this is very similar to issue 145 is this article, which gives us three sample stronghold layouts for you to use in your game. So we have a perfect opportunity to do a like for like comparison. Instantly noticeable, of course is the fact that the newer maps are gridded, and considerably closer scale, so they can be used with minis much more easily. Combine that with the fact that the newer buildings only have 2-3 levels, while the old ones go up to 7, and the overall size difference between them is huge. Of course, this is made up for by the newer ones having greater detail, with what's in each room keyed in individually, and a lot more D&D specific setting information. Also very noticeable is that the new stuff has detailed information on how much everything costs, which definitely makes it more accessible from a players point of view, especially if they take over a place after killing the current inhabitants, and want to do some renovation. Overall, it illustrates that they're now far more interested in working out the fine details of rules and tactics, and focussed exclusively on D&D games, rather than catering to other RPG'S, and the idea of generic fantasy stuff as well. So if you want to play D&D, the new stuff is massively superior. If you want to play anything else, stick with the old issues. Pretty easy to make the decision, when you look at it like that. Mortar & Stone: We continue to price up all the upgrades you can get for your castle. These have high costs commensurate with their scale, which means low level characters are pretty much out of the market, and higher level ones will have to think hard about if they want to upgrade their crib, or their personal gear. If you're not planning on going out anymore, then a moat filled with everlasting fire, plus walls enchanted with a fear spell (so even if they make it over the moat one way, they fall in anyway when they panic and run away) might be a worthwhile investment to get some peace and quiet. Of course, for a DM who has an unlimited budget, the sadistic tricks in this article could fill up your dungeons quite nicely. Dungeons like the tomb of horrors, where the traps outnumber the actual adversaries, may be rare and getting rarer, but that means they'll be more of a shock when you do pull them out. There's still some old school in there, amongst the careful attention to pricing and what you need to construct these things.</blockquote>

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