The beginning:-
So now that we have that out of the way, we can look at the book itself. It starts off, rather splendidly, advising why the book was made. And if anyone forgot to read the title, and were looking for something with big castles, it handily points out a book that deals with large castles..which I actually got because of this book, just to have some larger castles as well!
It then gives us an explanation of castles, of the various rooms and structures in a castle and their names. It gives their proper names so a GM can sound smart, yet still keeping things simple and not overcomplicated. It even lets GM's really sound like they know what the talk about with interesting little points regarding latrines and garderobes.
Throughout the book there are interesting little tid bits such as sleeping arrangements for lords and guests and servants in these smaller castles, lighting, which is something I had not considered, simply sticking torches everywhere without remembering the smoke, defence, and how to scale a wall and where to go for loot. I suppose one minor gripe would be the Wall Strength Statistic given for each castle. I understand where it is coming from, giving a way to compare castles towards each other. However, the only way we have to quantify what the numbers mean is a person does 1-6 damage. However, not many normal people are going to be smacking a castle wall unless it is a door, and its not the best point of reference as I am not sure how much harder a catapult hits than a man. Perhaps something more similar to Palladiums handling of wall strength, giving examples of how many small catapult shots, large catapult shots and trebuchet shots would be needed to wreck a wall may have been more useful though as these castles are smaller, the answer may be one shot for many of them!
The castles-The writing:-
And then we come to the meat of the book. The castles themselves. One thing I was impressed was with the selection of castles, from a wide variety of different timelines and cultures. I had never even thought about a Japanese castle and there will be at least one small castle for where and when ever you are running a game. Some particular highlights for me were Montezuma castle, Moorland Keep and Threave castle. Even dealing with European castles, they are not 'typical' castles. They are interesting, such as Mousa Broch, a tower with two walls, Nob Biranet, a Jeruselam castle and many others. Not only are they interesting to look at, but to read about as well. The descriptions are short and concise, a page each but give all the information you would need. The reason Moorland keep was one of my favourites was its history in relation to the Marcher Lords, which gave me ideas to use in a current campaign I am running.
The castles-The plans
The castle plans are also very useful. They have a handy scale so that you know how big they are, and are drawn simply enough so that they can be quickly drawn onto a large playing mat with the correct squares of hexes, or even printed out if you so wish. Each castle coming with a GM version, showing what the rooms are, a couple of pages and easy to refer to; and a player version, the rooms bigger so if the pages are printed out models can be put on, and with less detail so PC's have to discover, what room they are in.
The writing regarding the history also does a nice job to explain more about the castles structure, which is useful in regards to more complicated sections such as a trapdoor leading to a room between floors. Pretty much giving a quick walk through complete with numbered keys to help a GM get acquainted with the castle. For some castles, such as Beldorney, it is strongly recommended you read through it to avoid any confusion.
The actual drawings are good. They are simple and stark, because as is mentioned in the beginning of the book, it is meant to be used, and if it was filled with furniture that would mean you would not be able to design it to fit your setting. A clear key is given to explain things and there was minimal flitting back and forth to make sure I knew what was going on, and it really only occurred in Mousa Broch due to its unusual construction. Putting the numbered key on the same page of the GM's floor plan may have helped, so if a player does ask, the GM only has to look down at his copy behind his screen instead of turning a page. A very minor point.
Presentation
The book itself is presented well. There are no pictures...because such pictures would be of ruined castles and not much use. The actual drawings of the castles themselves are good ad give you an example of what they look like. I am not sure it would have been feasible, but an additional page for each one, with an bigger version of the castle would have been nice, as a handout to give to players so they can see what the castle looks like without risking them seeing the precious key or history! The actual floor plans have a few pixelations on anything not at a perpendicular angle and on the fireplaces but nothing too noticeable.
Overall
When buying something, I always ask, what else could I have brought? In this case, I could have brought a sandwich (a nice sandwich mind you!) And having purchased the book and looking back and thinking...would I have preferred a sandwich? The answer is most definitely not. This book has a lot of uses, for a lot of settings, though I don't need a Japanese castle, but I know many who would...though I should probably make them buy a copy themselves to encourage the release of another book. As stated in the beginning of the book, each castle with a little adaptation can be used for a variety of purposes and it really helps players if they want to make up a castle themselves. It fixes its purpose perfectly, giving small castles, for if a PC wants to ask someone about a Lords keep, want to set up a base of operations or are looking for a small bandit outpost (the purpose set out at the beginning of the book). As my setting involves a lot of low powered and small nobles, I will be using it a lot, and hope another book is made so I have more castles to use. But at 84 pages, 15 castles and a lot of background information and helpful information relating to castles, I am happy with the amount of content I got, even if I do want more. Because people like marks and ticks and numbers out of 100, I will give it 85%...not sure why, feels right!
