Which of the stronghold books & knight-focused books works best?

[Azgulor]

I'm a couple of weeks away from starting a new D&D campaign. My players are running dwarven PCs that are part of a resistance effort to keep a human kingdom from conquering a neighboring kingdom. Unfortunately for the dwarves, the route to the would-be-conquered is through the hills claimed by the dwarves. The aggressor nation is a feudal kingdom and much of the guerrilla fighting will take place within the kingdom's borders (at least that's what my players hope!).

I'm looking at some possible purchases in the next few weeks and I'm wanting to map out the major NPC opposition, the knights that are losing faith in the king and questioning his honor, and several strongholds. Of the "stronghold" books out there and the sourcebooks that deal with knights, which are the best in your opinion and why?

I'll be using Fields-of-Blood for the mass combats, but those will be relatively rare. It doesn't get granular enough for stronghold (i.e. castle) design for my tastes however.

As far as knights go, I don't mind just tweaking fighters or Soldier/Nobles from my Conan RPG for the enemy kingdom's knights but if there's a very good treatment on chivalry, knighthood, and medieval style play for d20 I'd like to check them out. I've seen a couple of reviews, but not much in the way of comparison between the products.

Thanks,

Azgulor

 

[Silveras]

Well, as far as the various Stronghold/Domain management books go, here are some links from prior discussions:

Anyone Have Strongholds & Dynasties or Empire ?
Birthright Comparison with Empire
CityWorks vs Magical Medieval Society
AEG Empire - How is it ?
Eden Studios Fields of Blood - is it good ?
Comparison - Strongholds & Dynasties - Empire - Fields of Blood - Birthright - Magical Medieval Society
Mongoose's Strongholds & Dynasties

and, for good measure, my house rules for converting Birthright to 3rd Edition

As for Knights... there are several new supplements out.

Love & War, from Atlas Games, is all about Knights and Knightly Orders, based on the main virtues from medieval lore. I have only skimmed it so far, but it seems reasonably good.

Medieval Players Manual, from Green Ronin, is all about the historical period in England from the battle of Hastings (1066 A.D.) until 1200 A.D. (or so). Not as much focused on Knights specifically, they do get some mention.

Relics & Rituals: Excalibur, from Sword & Sorcery Studios, is an Arthurian setting book that addresses Knights as they appear in, well, Arthurian literature. It has some very good treatments, but they are only a part (though a good-sized one) of the overall setting. Discussions of standard D&D fantasy races (Dwarves, Elves, Halflings) in the Arthurian campaign are covered, as well.

There are also a couple of PDFs on Knights and their orders, which were just announced recently and one of which was reviewed here within the last few days.

Forthcoming from Green Ronin is The Cavalier's Handbook, which, if based somewhat on the 1st Edition Cavalier, will likely be another treatment of Knights.

While perhaps not quite what you are looking for, WotC has produced some Knight-type prestige classes in Sword & Fist and various Forgotten Realms books (most of which classes, from both sources, are revised in Complete Warrior).

 

[Azgulor]

Silveras,

Thanks for the feedback. I had read some of those posts previously, but a few of them were new to me. Rereading them, though, reaffirmed my intent to use Fields of Blood for domain management and mass combat. It appears that Strongholds & Dynasties is really the only viable choice for castle & building construction - I just hate to buy the domain mgmt and mass combat that I don't intend to use. If I can find it reasonably cheap I may pick it up anyway and steal ideas from the domain management section for FoB.

On the knighthood side, I was leaning towards R&R: Excalibur and your comments have convinced me to try it. Since none of my PCs will be playing knights (unless they change gears if they need replacement PCs) I can probably get enough mileage out of Excalibur's other sections while waiting for GR's Cavalier book if I don't like the Excalibur treatment of the Knight class.

Thanks again,

Azgulor

 

[Silveras]

It appears that Strongholds & Dynasties is really the only viable choice for castle & building construction - I just hate to buy the domain mgmt and mass combat that I don't intend to use.

Hmmm. I would recommend A Magical Medieval Society: Western Europe over Strongholds & Dynasties. If you are going to use FoB for the "upper level" management of realms, MMS:WE does a very good job as a companion piece for the "lower level" (single manors). MMS:WE also has a building section that, while not as detailed as the one in S&D, is quite serviceable. If you are not dealing with a feudal culture, some of the materials become less valuable, but the details of the manor and building costs are probably useful with any cultural model.

Another option I left out before is the Stronghold Builder's Guidebook from WotC. Designed under 3.0 and a bit more "fast & loose" with money and time, it is not a bad book and does a superb job of making it easy to build high-magic fantasy strongholds.

 

[Derulbaskul]

(snip) On the knighthood side, I was leaning towards R&R: Excalibur and your comments have convinced me to try it. Since none of my PCs will be playing knights (unless they change gears if they need replacement PCs) I can probably get enough mileage out of Excalibur's other sections while waiting for GR's Cavalier book if I don't like the Excalibur treatment of the Knight class. (snip)

The free preview for R&R: Excalibur actually includes the full write-up for the knight class. I don't have the link with me but a quick Google and you will have it.

 

[Nightfall]

http://www.white-wolf.com/retail/RetailDownloads/2004PDFs/R&RExcaliburPreview.pdf

There. Now don't say I don't give out freebies. Cause I do.