There comes a time when every great hero (or villain) feels the need to make their mark on the world with the construction of, or overtaking of, a stronghold of some sort.
Until this book came out, it was possible to design such, but it was a bit of a headache, and there was no 'set' system for doing so. That's why this little beauty should be in every GM's collection.
Hardbound and well stocked, this title is just as luxuriously illustrated and well presented as the other Wizards' publications.
Clearly and sensibly laid out, it covers every aspect of building, maintaining and staffing a keep in your D&D campaigns, ensuring that you can design everything from a border guardpost, to a grand palace, and ensure that you have the correct folk living there to keep it in one piece.
Lists of building materials, costs and construction times expand on the rules for such presented in the Players handbook, and take the hard work out of the bare bones groundwork. Then there are chapters that detail the various (and numerous) magical bits and pieces that can be added to your new home, everything from rooms that prevent lies being told, to walls that poison those that try to scale them.
There are even rules for designing fantastical buildings, which can do things like fly, travel between dimensions, or which crawl across the landscape!
To illustrate how all the information comes together, there are several examples of keeps built using them - some mundane, some magical.
Yep, this is a great little book; useful and fun to flick through. Obviously, if you don't make much use of castles or their like in your campaigns, then it's of limited use - otherwise...well you had better get it before the armies arrive and you are overrun! ^_^