I'm GMing Kingmaker, and the players have decided to build a castle in their city and live in it. Now, I play in maptools and put a lot of effort into my maps, especially since this is a player home. I'm running into the same problem I often run into when making big buildings. "What on earth is THIS room going to be for?"
I've already found an awesome resource for remembering which rooms go in a castle, which I'd thought I'd share with the rest of you guys! http://www.ancientfortresses.org/rooms-in-a-medieval-castle.htm However, pathfinder is a highly magical setting, so this list is far from complete.
What sort of rooms should I include in their castle?
What sort of rooms do YOU include? I thought it was their castle. Let them figure it out.
I'm including a blacksmith, a few bedrooms, some walls of course. The problem with having them figure it out is that I'm the guy who actually makes the maps on maptools. They can't, because they're players.
True but they can still dictate what sort of things they want in their castle, they just have to leave it to you to decide the specific dimensions of everything.
True but they can still dictate what sort of things they want in their castle, they just have to leave it to you to decide the specific dimensions of everything.
Quite right. If they ask for anything, I'll be sure to give it to them.
True but they can still dictate what sort of things they want in their castle, they just have to leave it to you to decide the specific dimensions of everything.
Quite right. If they ask for anything, I'll be sure to give it to them.
I think I understand a way of thinking of this: just as you, the GM and maptools user, are the one building the castle for the players, you are also the GM, agent behind all NPCs.
I mean, I somewhat doubt the PCs have craft(castles) or profession (mason). They have to hire other people to do that...and as such they must differ to others (i.e. NPCs, i.e. the GM) due to the nature of architecture and logistics involved with keeping a well defended and staffed fortress running.
So now we come down to how realistic you want to make it, versus keeping to the basics due to ease of gameplay, as well as accounting for the inclusion of high magic. For example, attaching a magical laboratory to the library so that hired wizards can make scrolls and magical items. Or maybe including an aviary/stable for hippogriffs (because...come on. It is available in an official ranger archetype, and which army wouldn't want at least a couple flying mounts for scouting and messengers. Plus, it has flavor having those buggers zipping across the skyline).
I GM a game with Maptools, and will likely be trying something similar soon... Im pretty sure you *can* have them design the map (at least in sections that they have interest in) and then have them export the map (which saves the file with a .rpmap extension)
It would likely be easiest for them to pass a single map around in this way (importing the file, and exporting the new file for the next person to update) and, after a few iterations, a castle that they have fully, personally created would be possible, with the added benefit of you only needing to import their final product/adjudicate the cost of their rooms.
They might need to update their image and background texture libraries depending on how detailed/pretty they want it (which I assume you have done and can explain, if it would matter at all), but ideally the benefit would be that the players would feel much more invested in the game/likely to defend the castle from attack
I made a silly little map with a few streak marks on it as a test, and it saved on 13 KB (stored images will almost certainly boost this quickly)... as long as they don't go wild, itll probably be passable over email, or at least by one of the many file sharing sites
Contained laboratories in case experiment go crazy, flechete bolt balista batteries for AA... aviary for flying allies? Look at WWII fortifications and buildings from fantasy kingdom simulators.
Does the site overlap any caves or mineral deposits of note? Sources of water large enough to accommodate docks?
Barracks and training yards. Gardens and groves... I love player bases, go nuts. Giant lighthouse/beacon for magical power and/or laughs.
What sort of rooms do YOU include? I thought it was their castle. Let them figure it out.
I'm including a blacksmith, a few bedrooms, some walls of course. The problem with having them figure it out is that I'm the guy who actually makes the maps on maptools. They can't, because they're players.
Hand them a sheet of graph paper and have them sketch it out then adapt it to Maptools.
As to what should be in their castle... it's their castle. They should tell you what they want and you tell them how much it would cost.
If you're feeling overwhelmed dont worry about making it just a floor-plan with the room names written in. The player's imagination will do all the work for you.
If you need to justify why the castle suddenly appears in less than a fortnight then just use a rent-a-bard with a Lyre of Building.
What I would include in a pathfinder castle?
list:
The Basics:
PC bedrooms
Barracks for guards
Walls/portcullis
Ballistas (at least 1 on each corner and 1 above the portcullis)
Aviary (for messenger birds)
Kitchen (including a well somewhere within the grounds)
Feasting hall
Dungeon
Guest rooms
Storehouse
Assuming the gold/space to spare:
Workshop/smithy/fletchery
Apothecary
Stables
Caster's lounge (for spell research, magic item creation, and treating them nicely in general)
Library
Courtyard
Many, many more ballistas
Escape tunnel
Training grounds
Hospital/medic room
Office of diplomacy
Chapel
Tavern (replaces guest rooms, possibly instead of replacing the guest rooms make them nicer and only for fancy visitors)
Debauchery Chamber (for the slow days)
Portal room
Naval Dock
Airship dock
Ballroom and/or Amphitheater
Quarry
Observatory/Calender
Garden
When in doubt, make it bigger. For most of these rooms bigger is better.
For bonus points put in a large stained glass window with a lens as it's centerpiece. Normally it is nothing but some well cut glass, but if you look at the room during the witching hour on the eve of the winter solstice you see that a point of light appears on a certain brick high on the far wall. Upon close inspection it can be read the motto of the noble house that originally built the castle. Speaking the motto suppresses the Arcane Lock and Non-Detection spells woven into the brick itself. Removing the brick and looking inside reveals a lead lined chamber which holds [maguffin].
I think that at the very beginning of RRR, any castle should be a basic one, with nearly zero magical defenses suggested here. Why? Because a kingdom of five hexes can't afford the latest magical technology. The main castle, IMO, should grow over time along with the kingdom, particularly as you absorb more territory from Drelev, Varnhold, and Pitax.
WOTC had a Stronghold Builder's guide that might be of use.
Best book on the subject, in fact. Still used heavily by my group to this day. (More accurately: used even more these days than when it first came out.)
Sadly neither that nor the ultimate campagin rules actually tell you how many people you can feed from a farm/standard farm of 60-100 5 foot squares which makes planning that a little difficult.
I'd go with have them tell you what they want and then your designers build it.
That said I'd probably run it in a series of buildings (unless they state they want to future proof it). . .
Phase 1 Stronghold
PC Rooms
Toilets
War room
Alchemy lab for mage
Kitchen
Laundry
Phase 2 Expanded to Keep (probably around when they take the 2nd kigndom)
Add
Ballistae
Guest Rooms
Stable
Courtyard
Barracks
Armory
Walls
Dungeon
Storehouse
Phase 3 Expanded to Castle (probably around when they take the 3rd kingdom)
Add
Ballroom
Throne Room
Outer Wall
Ballistae
Magical effects/defenses (see stronghold builders guide for ideas)
Garden
Escape Tunnel
Training grounds (dojo)
Some more rooms for servants and the like
Possibly a second or third barracks/armory
More toilets
Larger Kitchen/Laundry
custom rooms for party e.g summoning chamber, private quarters
Vault
Guardpost
Gauntlet
Drawbridge
basically first phase is just living quarters, stores and basic defenses. Phase 2 is a fortified stronghold they can run their kingdom from it but its primarily meant to offer better protection. Phase 3 increases the strength of their stronghold but also expands it to cover other functions making it easier to administer, entertain guests/nobles, more self contained in event of a siege etc.
As far as highly magical goes it doesn't really affect the castle rooms that much. The functions are going to remain largely the same with a few exceptions like a summoning chamber/alchemy lab and some older castles may have had quarters for the kings magician/oracle/sooth sayer.
Where the difference will come in is the content of those rooms e.g. a guest room may be designed for an aquatic, avian, tiny guest rather than straight human. You'll still have a war room but it'll be protected by spells against scrying. If they have the power/a party wizard the escape tunnel might lead to an empty chamber that is the ONLY place technically part of the keep not warded/protected against teleportation with an item/scrolls to allow the royal family to teleport to safety but no outside access at all. In addition to ballistae/catapaults/boiling oil you may have magical defenses like a prismatic wall, cannons of frost, items that can aim up into the sky to deal with arial attacks. The library could be a great huge room filled with general reference books and a picture that if you touch it and say the passphrase teleports you to the small private demi-plane holding all the magical books/research of the party wizard e.g. Library - General and Library - Arcane (or in a kingdom where the mage is less powerful a hidden door leading to the magical library). Water will come from a well in the inner ward AND they'll have a magical decanter of water for back up in case of sieges.
There's a Castle Guide that was published for 2nd edition AD&D-- most of the information is settings neutral and to date it is still by and far the best product I've seen about castles, castle life, ect.
There's a Castle Guide that was published for 2nd edition AD&D-- most of the information is settings neutral and to date it is still by and far the best product I've seen about castles, castle life, ect.
There's a Castle Guide that was published for 2nd edition AD&D-- most of the information is settings neutral and to date it is still by and far the best product I've seen about castles, castle life, ect.
Do you have a name please?
It was literally "The Castle Guide" had a blue cover; I'm sure its available in pdf format somewhere if you google "the Castle Guide" and AD&D 2nd edition.
There's a Castle Guide that was published for 2nd edition AD&D-- most of the information is settings neutral and to date it is still by and far the best product I've seen about castles, castle life, ect.
Do you have a name please?
It was literally "The Castle Guide" had a blue cover; I'm sure its available in pdf format somewhere if you google "the Castle Guide" and AD&D 2nd edition.
Thank you and yes it is interesting if chauvenistic, even when talking about female players.
