[.ca] Stronghold Builder's Guidebook: Dungeons & Dragons Accessory (ISBN 0786926554)

Heavily padded, like most 3rd Edition D & D books from WOTC:
This book has the basics of "stronghold" construction, of course, and some of the rules are quite helpful, especially the advice on how and where to build a stronghold, and how and when to defend -- or attack! -- one. However, instead of providing solid historical examples of REAL strongholds and ACTUAL sieges, the authors pad the book in the typical 3rd edition style favored by WOTC ("Wizards of the Coast" -- D & D's current publisher). For example, instead of saying that a spell is Reversible, as in 2nd edition, 3rd edition allows writers to simply rewrite the same basic paragraph over and over again. Millions of 2nd edition players were expected to be able to figure out that a reversible ward, or protection, or barrier against (e.g., Evil, Chaos, etc.) would work against the opposite alignment if the spell was simply reversed. In 3rd edition, these are ALL separate spells, not just variations on a theme, so if a spellcaster can place a Protection From Evil spell on a wall, for instance, the 3rd edition writers have the opportunity to insert three nearly identical paragraphs into the same section for the spells Protection Against Good, Protection Against Law, Protection Against Chaos, etc. This cheating of readers (and especially buyers!) is carried on in the Stronghold Builder's Guidebook and amplified. The writers, for example, describe a "Bedroom, Basic," but don't add one or two sentences that "Fancy" and "Luxurious" variants take up this much extra space, cost this much extra gold, and need these staff members. Instead, we are treated to a separate section on "Bedroom, Fancy," and "Bedroom, Luxurious." ONCE might have been tolerable as an example, but this happens over and over again: we do not REALLY need, but the writers dump on us, repeated descriptions of "Basic," "Fancy," and "Luxurious" spaces in the stronghold for everything from bathrooms (despite the fact that, as the writers describe, the Medieval toilet was a "garderobe," a room with a hole which allowed the human waste to fall outside the castle wall) to throne rooms. ONE description of the difference between the three categories of space would have sufficed, but the reader must endure numerous repetitions of this type of room and that type of room as it ranges from a dirt floor with no staff member to one with marble floors and one or more servants. All of the space wasted by repetitions could have been used for additional information about (for example) ALL of the staff needed for the stronghold and detailed descriptions of what their jobs are, or the many different types of siege equipment which might be brought in and the best ways to defend against them (there is a website for amateur siege engine makers which DOES provide that information, though -- just in case someone attacks your own, mundane home with a catapult or trebuchet!). One area where there was a huge gap was the failure to establish the "Siege Engineer" as a prestige class (a gap filled by an article in "Dragon" magazine, which allowed the company to rake in even more money by filling a gap which they themselves had created). Another huge gap which this reviewer noticed was the description of the counter-siege: an encirclement of a besieging army by allies of those besieged in a stronghold; many times in history a besieging army has been driven off or destroyed by a counter-siege, but we're talking about PC's and NPC's here, and they deserve to be told (or reminded) that one of Julius Caesar's greatest victories was in a siege directed against the Gallic King Vercingetorix and the counter-siege laid around Caesar's army by the tribes allied to Vercingetorix; although caught between the hammer and the anvil, Caesar and his men defeated the allied force AND took Vercingetorix and his fortress -- just the sort of inspirational story a player needs to know of, even if it is rephrased in Dragonlance or Forgotten Realms terms. Still another huge failing is the lack of information about the realities of BEING a castellan -- how are the farmers treated? Are they free peasants or serfs, or slaves? Are the field workers marched off with the castellan's army when s/he goes off to wage war? What is the appropriate tax level which a Lawful Good castellan may impose? What about swearing fealty to the local Lord or Monarch? Players interested in those details should skip this book and buy the game "Stronghold," available for both the Mac and (broken) Windows. At $4 or $5 --used -- this book isn't a bad buy (bearing in mind that the "Siege Engineer" and who knows what else were published separately in "Dragon"). Anyone who can afford to pay full price, however, should look instead at books on war and fighting published by AEG, Mongoose, and other D20 System publishers -- the information in their books is fully compatible with D & D, and THEY don't pad their books with endless repetitions (bad grammar and typos, maybe, but not endless repetitions!).

Week short of paper with squares nothing new here.:
I was highly disappointed not much imagination here. The fundamentals are week and this could have been done so much better. The book did not embellish on anything that can be imagined. Long time TSR fan.

Missing the most important part - combat rules:
Wizards dropped the ball on this one. This book would have been a perfect place to introduce mass combat rules - instead the book basically tells the DM to just decide on the outcome of battles and role-play the PC combat portions. Weak. The rest of the book is fairly well-done, although it does gloss over the fortress-building process. I'd recommend "Castle" by David Macaulay for a graphic presentation of the actual construction.

GREAT buy for both DMs & players:
this book has everything that a DM needs to create better dungeons and castles. as a DM, this book made it simple to make floor plans of just about every building in my realm, and i have never been able to make floor plans. I gave it to some of my players, and they all created individual castles for themselvs, complete with guards, traps and enchantments. i would reccomend this book to anyone, player or DM, who wants to make better floor plans or create a personal stronghold for your character.

Excellent rules, good instructions, clear maps:
It's now possible for even the severely map-challenged, namely yours truly, to design dungeons that are something more than an endless string of boxes connected by doors. I realize that many resources existed before, but until now I hadn't found all those resources in bascially the same place, outlined so simply. Whil agree with some critics of this book who claim that it makes building an impenetrable castle a little too affordable, I've always believed that it's the DM who's responsible for keeping the game from tipping too far in the player's favour, not the sourcebook. What I really appreciated were the simple rules for figuring out how much staff a given structure would need, and how much you ought to pay them.