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I would recommend something simple, and probably heavily base my interpretation off the picture in the castle tile in the players guide. I would say a small keep (3 stories) with towers and wall, and small gate house. I'd probably have a stable and great hall to round it out. If they build it on the site of the Stag Lord's fort, I would probably just extend that basic map out, with similar extras as what I listed above. Later - Joe
I'm letting my players design their own castle. These are the instructions I gave them: (They're kinda sorta based around the description of the Castle in the 3.5 SRD)
Some guidelines:
* Castle Lelarin's grounds are 750 feet by 750 feet. This goes up to the castle's outer walls. Beyond the castle walls are houses and other businesses that support the castle and town around it. As you can see, Castle Lelarin goes way beyond what the Stag Lord's fort was. The Stag Lord's fort can be thought of as the skeleton of the castle's main keep.
* The castle is currently being run by a skeleton staff of 30. You can feel free to apportion these between servants, stewards, guards, and specialists (cooks and other 'professionals'). Feel free to stat them out - though no one is allowed to go above CR 1 (that's 2nd level if they have PC classes, or 3rd level for NPC classes). (By "statting them out" I don't mean each of them has to have a stat block. You can say "we've got 4 Lelarin guardsmen" and provide a generic statblock for "Lelarin Guard".)
* Currently living in the Castle are yourselves (sanz Grimscowl) and Sofia. Up until recently, the castle was also home to Wilfred Mott, Sadron Ast'Faroth, and Kesten Garess (well, less recently, since you built the Barracks fairly early on.)
* The main keep can have up to 25 distinct areas.
* You can have up to four supporting buildings within the castle grounds. (None of these buildings count as "city buildings" for purposes of kingdom bonuses, and are considered a part of the Castle itself).
* The castle as it stands has no traps or special equipment, though in your preparations of such you might start to consider them, and list them out (with costs). You can then purchase said traps/special equipment with your character's wealth. (Exception: if your character already *has* said special equipment, like an Alchemist's Lab or somesuch, then you can assume that the equipment is there in the castle.)
Just as a couple of points of comparison...
The Stag Lord's Fort "itself gives the PCs a head start on building a castle, halving the initial cost of such a structure" and "can halve the time required to build a castle."
The Abandoned Keep (area G of RRR) is "intact enough to serve as a castle for a city founded here."