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Dungeon Master's Guide Rules Supplement #DMGR2
Dungeon Master's Guide Rules Supplement: The Castle Guide
In this book you'll find a wealth of information designed to allow any DM to create a campaign world based on feudal Europe. Sections address life in a feudal culture, the duties of the nobility, and the true meaning of knighthood. You'll find a complete system for the design and construction of castles, new BATTLESYSTEM rules for the resolution of sieges, a quick resolution system for massive military campaigns, and an assortment of generic castles to spark your imagination.
128 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 1990
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
October 11, 2007
A lot more should have been written on the role of magic in attacking and defending castles.
March 12, 2020
I was hoping that this would be a good sourcebook for domain management, but it's really not (taxation is touched on very briefly, but without any solid rules to back it up). It is exactly what it says: A guide to castles.
The first part of the book has a lot of detail about how feudal society worked. We learn about serfs, knights & being knighted, the church, celebrations, etc. Sprinkled in here and there are bits about how magic and wizards would fit into this society. This part was really interesting, if not a bit light on actual game mechanics.
The middle section of the book is all about castles. We learn how to get some land and build the stronghold of our dreams. The rules here are actually very detailed, taking into account things like climate & weather, terrain, costs, manpower, the use magic of magic and heroic characters during builds, and even random events that can screw with you during construction. Again, if you are looking for general "domain rules", this part suffers a bit from its laser-focus on castles. For example, we are told about the types of castles rogues, druids, and rangers build, rather than the guilds, circles, and outposts that these character types would normally construct.
Next, we get battle and siege rules. Most of this is integrated with the AD&D Battlesystem, so if you aren't into miniature wargaming most of this section might be a bit useless. Still, there are a few bits here and there that are handy, such as using giants in a siege and the effects of starving out a besieged castle.
Lastly, we get a few sample castles to look at.
If you really want to have some castle building rules, or you want some feudal era history, this book might be handy. If you want general domain management rules (like those found in Birthright, The Rules Cyclopedia, or Adventurer, Conqueror, King), you will have to look elsewhere.
The first part of the book has a lot of detail about how feudal society worked. We learn about serfs, knights & being knighted, the church, celebrations, etc. Sprinkled in here and there are bits about how magic and wizards would fit into this society. This part was really interesting, if not a bit light on actual game mechanics.
The middle section of the book is all about castles. We learn how to get some land and build the stronghold of our dreams. The rules here are actually very detailed, taking into account things like climate & weather, terrain, costs, manpower, the use magic of magic and heroic characters during builds, and even random events that can screw with you during construction. Again, if you are looking for general "domain rules", this part suffers a bit from its laser-focus on castles. For example, we are told about the types of castles rogues, druids, and rangers build, rather than the guilds, circles, and outposts that these character types would normally construct.
Next, we get battle and siege rules. Most of this is integrated with the AD&D Battlesystem, so if you aren't into miniature wargaming most of this section might be a bit useless. Still, there are a few bits here and there that are handy, such as using giants in a siege and the effects of starving out a besieged castle.
Lastly, we get a few sample castles to look at.
If you really want to have some castle building rules, or you want some feudal era history, this book might be handy. If you want general domain management rules (like those found in Birthright, The Rules Cyclopedia, or Adventurer, Conqueror, King), you will have to look elsewhere.
March 22, 2015
Probably should be 2.5 stars, but I rounded up just because I wanted to be more generous to this, in part because of all the really lousy stuff I've been reading lately (and this was supposed to be the year I read mostly good stuff; oh well). Coming at a time when AD&D 2E was flooding the market with seemingly non-stop manuals, worlds, modules, accessories, and everything else, we see with this part of the problems of so much content being generated so quickly by so few. The first 75% of it (or more) features at least 1 typo per page. It gives us the impression "proofreading" was not a high priority. I don't want to be too harsh on this point, having published more than my share of accidents and oopsies, but I wasn't charging $15 for my hastily-edited material. The tone at the beginning, likewise, gives us the sense we aren't supposed to be taking this all that seriously. And while that is certainly true, we shouldn't take RPGs very seriously, indeed, the tone at times dances between "yeah, it's just a fun game, take it easy" and "you are into this? you weirdo." I know that's not the intention, certainly, but even with the HQ mandates of getting things out quickly, the creative staff should certainly be respectful enough to the audience and consumer. Still, it's not terribly frequent, and it gets much better a couple of chapters in.
I wanted to rate this higher, but structurally it ends up being far less helpful than it should have been. If ever a handbook/guide needed appendices of "here are all the 'how to design and build an AD&D castle' charts and diagrams we gave you" charts and diagrams, this was certainly it. But no such appendices exist. Thus, in order to find the particular kind of idea, design, material, weather, whatever you want, you have to skim and skim and flip through and flip through and dig and search and almost end up reading it again. It's not very user-friendly. The charts are sort of helpful, and it is certainly replete with ideas on castle building (morale of construction workers, weather/terrain/calendar effects, magic item assistance, and much more), but the sheer absence of helpful structure and accessibility is counterproductive and ultimately destructive to the enterprise.
The main drawback (if what I just said wasn't the main drawback, which it actually may be) is the voluminous amount of material discussing not really Castle Design and Building but "Castle Destroying." So much of this volume is a lengthy follow-up to their Battlesystem ... system, one gets the impression the design meeting went something like "Chief, we have too little Castle Design info to make it a full volume, and we have too little Siege Warfare Supplement for Battlesystem to make it a full volume," to which Chief said, "Put it 'em together, doesn't matter if they are for different audiences. They'll buy anything. It's 1992." Truly, two halves of this present guide are for two different purposes and two different audiences, but here they are combined into one less-useful than one would hope it would be volume.
The sample castles are likewise not as helpful as you might think, unless you basically copy one you like, but it does have a lot of good ideas you might not otherwise have thought about. And that's why this should get at least 2.5 stars, typos and (very lengthy) irrelevancies aside. It gives you a great deal of DM creative castle building context and ideas without giving you the sense of "you have to do this a certain way or you are doing it wrong." It still gives you, DM or player, really, a good deal of control. I would certainly have like far less Battlesystem stuff and far more "here are ideas on how to design and build a good castle," but it does give some good historical info, plenty of good (if terse) ideas, and at least one decently helpful sample castle. Could have been better, but better than nothing.
I wanted to rate this higher, but structurally it ends up being far less helpful than it should have been. If ever a handbook/guide needed appendices of "here are all the 'how to design and build an AD&D castle' charts and diagrams we gave you" charts and diagrams, this was certainly it. But no such appendices exist. Thus, in order to find the particular kind of idea, design, material, weather, whatever you want, you have to skim and skim and flip through and flip through and dig and search and almost end up reading it again. It's not very user-friendly. The charts are sort of helpful, and it is certainly replete with ideas on castle building (morale of construction workers, weather/terrain/calendar effects, magic item assistance, and much more), but the sheer absence of helpful structure and accessibility is counterproductive and ultimately destructive to the enterprise.
The main drawback (if what I just said wasn't the main drawback, which it actually may be) is the voluminous amount of material discussing not really Castle Design and Building but "Castle Destroying." So much of this volume is a lengthy follow-up to their Battlesystem ... system, one gets the impression the design meeting went something like "Chief, we have too little Castle Design info to make it a full volume, and we have too little Siege Warfare Supplement for Battlesystem to make it a full volume," to which Chief said, "Put it 'em together, doesn't matter if they are for different audiences. They'll buy anything. It's 1992." Truly, two halves of this present guide are for two different purposes and two different audiences, but here they are combined into one less-useful than one would hope it would be volume.
The sample castles are likewise not as helpful as you might think, unless you basically copy one you like, but it does have a lot of good ideas you might not otherwise have thought about. And that's why this should get at least 2.5 stars, typos and (very lengthy) irrelevancies aside. It gives you a great deal of DM creative castle building context and ideas without giving you the sense of "you have to do this a certain way or you are doing it wrong." It still gives you, DM or player, really, a good deal of control. I would certainly have like far less Battlesystem stuff and far more "here are ideas on how to design and build a good castle," but it does give some good historical info, plenty of good (if terse) ideas, and at least one decently helpful sample castle. Could have been better, but better than nothing.
July 19, 2016
Half of the book was slightly useful, The historic bits and creation sections were ok, however, in the combat section not a whole lot of mention was given in using magic to attack and take down a castle during a siege. I am glad that I picked this up used back in 1995 or so and did not pay full price.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews