Ancalagon
Dusty Dragon
Hello
I haven't done a full read of the book yet, but here are my initial impressions:
The book is made for D&D, not realism. And that, ultimately, may be a good thing.
The writers have basicaly assumed that a lot of things are available to "D&D" builders that were not for historical medieval artisans. This is in part to be consistant with the somewhat high magic "default level", and also for pure "gamism" reasons. If it takes you five years to build your little keep, by the time it is finished it is almost useless to you, because you've gained 8 levels in the meantime and your needs are much greater.
There is an example of a neat little keep shown, with 3 towers, and 2 larger buildings, forming a sort of pentagon. Total cost: 73 000 gp. Total building time: 8 weeks.
That is very fast. However, more ambitious construction could easily take years (basicaly, 1 week per 10 000 gp. There is an example of a nearly 3 million gp castle given... this would take 6 years). If you want to save time you can speed things up even more, but it will cost you a lot.
Another important guidelines is to the DMs: "how often should the stronghold play a part in the adventures of the PCs?"
answer: 10-30% wich is very reasonable, and very important advice. I've played in a high level campain were the high level priest had just finished his keep. We then spent the next 9 months playing a siege of the place. Ugh... the priest's player was pretty disgusted at the end.
The basic system relies on the use of "stronghold space"... kitchen, library, stables, you name it. They've been pretty complete too. So you basicaly assemple your "keep" like a lego construction, saying "ok, I need stables for 12 horse, that requires 2 stable unit, I want a simple library, simple bath, baracks for the gards..." and then add everything togeter, and voila. A lot the units have multiple "grades", ie do you want a simple bedroom or one fit for a king? A grand throne room can cost as much as a small keep!
Even better, the system tells you how much STAFF you need. That is almost invaluable, because those things are very hard to figure out. They also tell you "this kitchen can feed x amount of people" and things like that, wich again is invaluable. I've tried doing this by myself a few years back, and it is very, very difficult.
Finaly, the book has all sorts of fantasy components to make a castle more "fantasy" worthy... walls of iron, magical traps, areas were you can't be scried upon, all sort of usefull stuff high level adventurers, cautious nobles or paranoid wizards would want in their keep.
Now, I might spend the next week doing number crunching and come back here and say "darn it, those rules make no sense!!!", but until I do, I think this is a pretty nifty book!
Ancalagon
I haven't done a full read of the book yet, but here are my initial impressions:
The book is made for D&D, not realism. And that, ultimately, may be a good thing.
The writers have basicaly assumed that a lot of things are available to "D&D" builders that were not for historical medieval artisans. This is in part to be consistant with the somewhat high magic "default level", and also for pure "gamism" reasons. If it takes you five years to build your little keep, by the time it is finished it is almost useless to you, because you've gained 8 levels in the meantime and your needs are much greater.
There is an example of a neat little keep shown, with 3 towers, and 2 larger buildings, forming a sort of pentagon. Total cost: 73 000 gp. Total building time: 8 weeks.
That is very fast. However, more ambitious construction could easily take years (basicaly, 1 week per 10 000 gp. There is an example of a nearly 3 million gp castle given... this would take 6 years). If you want to save time you can speed things up even more, but it will cost you a lot.
Another important guidelines is to the DMs: "how often should the stronghold play a part in the adventures of the PCs?"
answer: 10-30% wich is very reasonable, and very important advice. I've played in a high level campain were the high level priest had just finished his keep. We then spent the next 9 months playing a siege of the place. Ugh... the priest's player was pretty disgusted at the end.
The basic system relies on the use of "stronghold space"... kitchen, library, stables, you name it. They've been pretty complete too. So you basicaly assemple your "keep" like a lego construction, saying "ok, I need stables for 12 horse, that requires 2 stable unit, I want a simple library, simple bath, baracks for the gards..." and then add everything togeter, and voila. A lot the units have multiple "grades", ie do you want a simple bedroom or one fit for a king? A grand throne room can cost as much as a small keep!
Even better, the system tells you how much STAFF you need. That is almost invaluable, because those things are very hard to figure out. They also tell you "this kitchen can feed x amount of people" and things like that, wich again is invaluable. I've tried doing this by myself a few years back, and it is very, very difficult.
Finaly, the book has all sorts of fantasy components to make a castle more "fantasy" worthy... walls of iron, magical traps, areas were you can't be scried upon, all sort of usefull stuff high level adventurers, cautious nobles or paranoid wizards would want in their keep.
Now, I might spend the next week doing number crunching and come back here and say "darn it, those rules make no sense!!!", but until I do, I think this is a pretty nifty book!
Ancalagon
--but this was beyond the pale. The sheer number of missing words, typos, punctuation and grammar errors were simply appalling, to say nothing of the fact that, in many cases, the charts/maps don't match the text.
