So, my tabletop party has finished a campaign in a ruined castle and made a decision that "hey, why don't we build a castle here as a home base?"

Well they will have to deal with the monsters in the forest, the drow in the basement and the mindflayers in the secret area they have yet to discover - but assuming they survive that....

How much does it cost to build a castle? Does anyone know of any good source material on the topic - doesn't matter what edition of rules. I remember there was a chapter or article I read a long time ago but I don't remember where. First edition AD&D? Dragon magazine? White Dwarf?

Anyway - would love to hear thoughts on the matter. I mean the foundation is still there but there is a 40 foot hole in the floor leading to a cavern they may want to patch up.

3e had a book like that... I did some googling and think it was the Stronghold builder's guide.

Also you might want to check out dungeonscape and cityscape if you can still find them. They weren't exactly but I remember one guy in our group had them and they might have some useful stuff (traps, etc.)

Page 106 of the Advanced Dungeon and Dragons DMG has details pertaining to construction and sieges. It provides some general costs and times.

Otherwise, I can confirm that the Strondhold Builder's Guide from the later version may help.

Additionally, I may have a Dragon Magazine somewhere with some extra information.

I have all the old Dragons on PDF so if you know the #, I can look it up. Thanks

Dragon # 295 Castles from May 2002

..., you'd think I'd remember it a bit easier, eh?

plenty of traps and castle elements, with costs mentioned.
worth looking into.

Also the Siege Golem is a fun little treat in this issue, among other things.

Cheers!

-T_O

If you were strapped for sources, I'd maybe point you at the Kingmaker Adventure Path, Chapter 2, but really, those rules are more focused on building and running a kingdom with little concern for the considerations of castle building, so they'd make a pretty flimsy point of reference.

Of course, you're not actually strapped for sources so I won't point you there.

I totally forgot about the Stronghold Builder book, which is indeed pretty sweet stuff. I'll have to remember that for when my players get to the point where they want to start building a capital city. See if they'd like to detail and customize their castle a li'l.

Wiki put the time to build at about 2 years and cost at about $30,000 in the 1100s. That would come to about $14 million today. So figure about that in GP for game. They are not cheap to build or maintain.

If you are into the 4shared items; you can find the Stronghold Builders Guide on .pdf

Guide

No matter what the costs will be, you should encourage them to do this. This is the kind of stuff they will remember, if you do it right.

I fully intend to encourage this project. I also plan to have the neighbouring "lords" suddenly becoming interested in the land since there is no major monster threat to them anymore. Perhaps the King will decide that they don't have claim to the land and award the deed to a hedge knight looking to prove himself. They may even attract knights who want to serve a good lord in this land of self-serving knights and robber barons.

But they got to build a castle and that requires gold.

thanks for the link. There will be a point in my chat game campaign that the PCs will be awarded some land to do with what they want. So if they wanna build a keep or hero's guild, I now have the pdf with the info needed to help make it happen.