It's probably dangerous to read a review written by a game designer. I've even received emails (and seen -- less classy -- message board comments that refer to it obliquely) that suggest that as a designer I shouldn't do reviews at all. Obviously, I disagree, and have written about that fact. The danger, I think, comes from the fact that it's hard for a game designer to look at a product and not think, "I wouldn't have done it that way." Every reviewer goes into his review of a product with expectations, and a designer is no different. But a designer's expectations might be more precise (thus perhaps more narrow-minded?) than someone else's. By precise, I simply mean he would think of exactly the sort of contents, mechanics, and writing style he would put into the product if he were designing it. That's not always good, because a book deserves to be judged on its own merits. I try to take this into account in my reviews.

So take this review for what it's worth, because when I read through Stronghold Builder's Guidebook, I did say to myself, "I wouldn't have done it that way." Well, at least in part.

But first, let's just go over the contents. The first chapter deals with building a stronghold, including the site, the size, the price, and so on. The second chapter deals with the various components that go into a castle (different types of walls, rooms, etc.) presenting them like a big catalog of accessories. The third chapter deals with strongholds in the campaign, including maintenance, staff, and defense. The last chapter presents some sample strongholds of various types.

In Chapters 1 and 2, I liked the "catalog" style of picking the various parts of your stronghold, so you can build what you want. This format makes it interesting for players with a lot of cash to go "shopping" to build their strongholds and makes an interesting tool to help DMs pick and choose interesting elements to add to their adventures. Some things, like the various types of walls (adamantine, bone, living wood, etc.) are interesting aspects for the bad guys' fortress as well. Not to mention such cool things as a prismatic prison, the room of rending, or speaking stones. This is certainly the book's strength right here. Cool magical additions for a stronghold called "wondrous architecture"... great stuff.

The book's maps of things like sample gatehouses and whatnot are useful for both players and DMs, but it would have been nice for the authors to have mentioned that they were suitable only for a fantasy reality. The almost 50-foot-wide bedrooms (with the 10-foot-long beds) certainly would not fit in any castle that I have been in. The 25-foot-wide auditorium makes the gigantic bedroom seem even sillier.

Now, I'm no stickler for realism. D&D is a fantasy game, not a medieval history game. Still, in a book like this, I would like to have seen indications of some historical research. This is perhaps my main gripe with the book: There's nothing here that really gives a player or DM any idea of what a real fortress is like. The sample strongholds help a bit, but there's no discussion of things like the danger of placing the keep walls adjacent to the curtain walls, or even mention that castle walls were usually plastered and painted inside or that interior walls were sometimes made of wood. This type of material isn't a slavish devotion to realism, it's helpful information so that DMs can describe strongholds with detail and flavor. When I wrote the dungeons section of the DMG, I included a discussion even on the most basic things like doors and floors and fountains because I knew that when I first started playing the game, I had no idea what some of that stuff was really like.

This book, I think, should have taken the same approach. It assumes that you already know all about strongholds. It assumes that you just need the price for an armory, not any advice on where to put it or even why you need one. (A reader might wonder why can't the guards just keep their weapons in the barracks? This book doesn't explain one way or another.) Will the captain of the guard demand his own quarters, or can he sleep with his men? How important is a nearby source of water (and how much does a well cost)? I'm left with a lot of questions, if this book is all I have to go by.

The list of magic items and how they relate to strongholds seemed extraneous. I know I didn't need to be reminded that winged boots would be useful to someone who owned a floating castle or that a robe of eyes would be handy for someone on watch. To include a few pages of this and not cover some of the real stronghold basics, as I mentioned above, seems like a bad choice.

Likewise, reprinting the traps section from Song and Silence seemed excessive. I'm all for not requiring books to use other books, but at some point there is a diminished value for giving the customer the same stuff twice (although the traps material is good -- the best part of Song and Silence by far).

I should mention one last thing about the construction system. It deals only with the big picture -- building a whole new structure. More common in my experience is the PCs defeating a foe in her lair and adopting the lair as their own, making various changes. This book is only moderately helpful in this regard. If you want to know the price of adding a door (or replacing one that's been battered down), putting in some new statuary, or rearranging the layout, you're out of luck. It only deals with entire rooms or stronghold sections.

Chapter 3 is adequate, but it leaves me with as many questions as answers when I'm done reading it. What happens to a tower if you disintegrate part of it? How much do you have to destroy to collapse it? Does it cost more to make the barbican shaped like a huge dragon's head? Can I find guards willing to come to my fortress that's built in an active volcano?

The only quibble I have with the sample strongholds chapter is that there should have been perhaps one more example of a conventional stronghold. I like the fact that the authors included an underwater locale and a floating citadel, but as a reader I felt I wasn't ready for them at that point. I wanted to know more of the basics before I was thrown into the deep end of the stronghold pool.

Overall, it's a book worth having, if for no other reason than the wondrous architecture section. I'd have stripped out some of the more extraneous material and taken five or six pages to cover stronghold basics, including a few real-world examples. The book needs to offer a lot more guidance to people attempting to design and build a stronghold -- it gives you most of the pieces you need, but not a lot of advice on how to put it all together.

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