What rooms to put in a Castle?

[DireSickFish]

I'm planning on giving the players a Castle for them to run. Going to be multi leveled. What rooms would typically go into a castle? I don't want to map it all out and figure out that there aren't any bathrooms or something!

Are there any good resources for seeing the blueprints to actual castles that I can draw inspiration from?

[ZorroGames]

I'm planning on giving the players a Castle for them to run. Going to be multi leveled. What rooms would typically go into a castle? I don't want to map it all out and figure out that there aren't any bathrooms or something!

Are there any good resources for seeing the blueprints to actual castles that I can draw inspiration from?

LOL, I believe early bathrooms sometimes were niches in the wall with drains to the outside or ground below.

Great hall, sleeping quarters, depending on era/location animal pens/stables, storage, underground cells.

[ZorroGames]

https://www.exploring-castles.com/castle_designs/

http://medievalcastles.stormthecastle.com/essays/design-secrets-of-medieval-castles.htm

Quick search pulled these.

[nickl_2000]

Here's a diagram someone made of Winterfell from Game of Thrones

http://i.imgur.com/ac3xK.jpg

I think Game of Thrones castles may be your best bet for finding something pre-made

[Unoriginal]

What kind of castle are we talking about, here? There's a lot of different ones.

You can easily find layouts of historical castles, if you search for them.

[Tanarii]

Small ones. Much smaller than you'd expect. A 20' x 30' room is a great hall. The master bedroom might be 12'x12'.

This generally holds true for all building, but you'd never know it from module maps of inns and the like. :smallamused:

[smcmike]

Small ones. Much smaller than you'd expect. A 20' x 30' room is a great hall. The master bedroom might be 12'x12'.

This generally holds true for all building, but you'd never know it from module maps of inns and the like. :smallamused:

Hard to fit a battle grid (the only actual purpose for mapping structures) in realistically-sized rooms.

[DireSickFish]

What kind of castle are we talking about, here? There's a lot of different ones.

You can easily find layouts of historical castles, if you search for them.

I'm going with a "tall" castle that's 3 levels built into the side of a cliff. With a large courtyard at the top. There's 3 plot significant structures, so they each get a floor. But they're not going to take up the entire floor. So I have to figure out what kind of useful stuff to include, even if they end up re-purposing the rooms for other things.

Servant passageways might be the hardest thing to include. As it sounds like they're a snakeway of hidden doors that go from their quarters to the kitchen and any bedrooms.

[TheYell]

Search for "castle diagrams" to get floorplans.

Something like this might help.

http://timeref.com/castles/castpart.htm

[Tanarii]

Hard to fit a battle grid (the only actual purpose for mapping structures) in realistically-sized rooms.They are still useful with theatre of the mind, if only for the DM. But they also make useful aids to description.

Edit: Also, 1ft squares can be a thing. What gets difficult is you can't fit more than a few people fighting into a small room. Which is, IMO, a great thing that can make for fun tactical encounters.

[TheYell]

I'm going with a "tall" castle that's 3 levels built into the side of a cliff. With a large courtyard at the top. There's 3 plot significant structures, so they each get a floor. But they're not going to take up the entire floor. So I have to figure out what kind of useful stuff to include, even if they end up re-purposing the rooms for other things.

Servant passageways might be the hardest thing to include. As it sounds like they're a snakeway of hidden doors that go from their quarters to the kitchen and any bedrooms.

Sounds unique. Also later medieval.

You're not trying to draw this out as a professional draftsman, are you? Because you'd have to hire a professional draftsman to make it look that good.

Servant passageways are a totally social innovation. It bothered the well-born to see the lower classes bustle about. You could do modern and have central corridors that just bustles with servants, I don't think your table will leap up and say, "WHOA where's the servant's passages?"

Also we have the benefit of fantasy dwarves-- you can build into the cliff as deep as you like for added rooms.

One thing I'd steal from the Chateau d Coucy would be a well with a massive winch on top for taking cargo to every floor. It really existed.

[DireSickFish]

You're not trying to draw this out as a professional draftsman, are you? Because you'd have to hire a professional draftsman to make it look that good.

I do have AutoCAD... but no I was just going to sketch it out on graph paper.



Servant passageways are a totally social innovation. It bothered the well-born to see the lower classes bustle about. You could do modern and have central corridors that just bustles with servants, I don't think your table will leap up and say, "WHOA where's the servant's passages?"


Servant passages are also a great way to include "secret doors". For example I cover one up with a tapestry. Well when the PCs first explore the place the tapestry is gone. So they can find all the back passages while clearing it out of monsters. Then when they take over if they want they can make it even more hidden by putting other stuff in front of it.

[TheYell]

Let's see. You need an outer wall, and a barbican to guard the gate. Might as well put the stables out there in the enclosed yard, called the outer ward. You have men on duty but the reinforcements sleep in guardhouses, and their weapons are stored in storerooms. Couple of wells for getting water in a hurry. If you must give them bathrooms, but as late as WWII England the men had to make do with an external latrine.

Then you have the inner wall, and the inner ward. You again want some guardhouses for men stationed here, and storerooms for their arms. Might as well have the smithy in here, and some more wells.

Then we have the keep. Lots of store rooms, more guard houses, a dungeon block with cells if you're so inclined, vertical latrines. We're not Saxons, so we have an audience hall for visiting the guy on the throne, and a separate dining hall for everybody of importance to sit down and chow. Massive kitchens. Servants quarters. You don't have elevators so this social stuff is ground floor.

We have that central well with winches for moving cargo to every floor. A storeroom for just magic, and a vault for the castle valuables. At least one of everything.

Now here is where I get fancy. You have your dwarves delve corridors in the cliff fifteen feet high by sixty feet wide, and then you have modular wooden housing ten feet high by twenty-five feet wide, connected by a central bridge five foot off the ground between the two housing units. That gives you a five-foot crawl space under the bridge and under the modular housing for heating and plumbing, and you can decorate the wood housing as comfy as you can afford. Definitely not medieval but your dwarves and gnomes would do no less. How long these corridors are depends on how many housing units you want to fit in.

Central furnace and cistern somewhere, or maybe one on each floor.

Oh and the ancient Greeks figured out how to ventilate a underground cavern. Dig a vertical shaft and light a bunch of torches on the bottom, and the air rises out the vertical shaft and flows in from the entrance to the cavern. Bellows not required.

[TheYell]

Servant passages are also a great way to include "secret doors". For example I cover one up with a tapestry. Well when the PCs first explore the place the tapestry is gone. So they can find all the back passages while clearing it out of monsters. Then when they take over if they want they can make it even more hidden by putting other stuff in front of it.

Then you have a real use for them. Give yourself at least five feet between an outside wall and the interior wall of rooms.

[smcmike]

Don’t forget the dungeon. You can’t forget the dungeon.

[Unoriginal]

The basics are variations of "room to hold/keep/lodge X thing".

Some that you will always find in a castle:

-Rooms to keep various kind of food

-Rooms to keep servants/guards/etc

-Rooms to keep the VIP

-Rooms to keep the riches (can be combined with other rooms).

-Rooms to keep the tools/weapons/equipment used in the other rooms

Then what is also more than likely to be there:

-Rooms to keep the animals (farm animals or mounts)

-Rooms to keep important documents (archives, etc)

-Rooms to keep prisoners

Now, the question would be: who made this castle?

Because not everyone is going to arrange it the same way.

[FelineArchmage]

3.0e has a book called Stronghold Builder's Guidebook. If you're just using it for designing purposes, you could ignore all the mechanics in it and just use it to design your castle.

[JackPhoenix]

If you want to know more about castles and don't like reading, I suggest you check Shadiversity on Youtube.

[GloatingSwine]

I'm going with a "tall" castle that's 3 levels built into the side of a cliff. With a large courtyard at the top. There's 3 plot significant structures, so they each get a floor. But they're not going to take up the entire floor. So I have to figure out what kind of useful stuff to include, even if they end up re-purposing the rooms for other things.

Servant passageways might be the hardest thing to include. As it sounds like they're a snakeway of hidden doors that go from their quarters to the kitchen and any bedrooms.

Ack!

Build the castle on top of the cliff not where people can approach from above and drop things on you!

[smcmike]

Ack!

Build the castle on top of the cliff not where people can approach from above and drop things on you!

Easier said than done.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cliff_dwelling

[JackPhoenix]

Easier said than done.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cliff_dwelling

Different thing: not in the side of the cliff, but on top of it

https://c1.staticflickr.com/7/6061/6147799909_71f2d5c9fb_b.jpg

Also known as one of the best places to build a castle.

[DireSickFish]

Ack!

Build the castle on top of the cliff not where people can approach from above and drop things on you!

Don't worry. It extends up the cliff and the top of the Castle has a courtyard that's on top of the mountain. You can't reasonably get above the castle without flying.

[FreddyNoNose]

I'm planning on giving the players a Castle for them to run. Going to be multi leveled. What rooms would typically go into a castle? I don't want to map it all out and figure out that there aren't any bathrooms or something!

Are there any good resources for seeing the blueprints to actual castles that I can draw inspiration from?

How about:
Conservatory
Lounge
Kitchen
Library
Hall
Study
Ballroom
Dining Room
Billiard Room

[Caelic]

How about:
Conservatory
Lounge
Kitchen
Library
Hall
Study
Ballroom
Dining Room
Billiard Room

Sounds like the person who built that castle needs to get a clue! ;)

[The Jack]

As said before, building into a cliff isn't the greatest idea. Helms deep, Minas Tirith, most of the things in skyrim; bad ideas. You could Engineer rock slides or smoke em out or... some other fantasy thing that maybe'd work on a regular castle but'd be worse on a in-cliff castle (burrowing, spider climb, spells that affect earth)

At minimum, a castle is just a keep, and that could just be a single tower. By definition, a castle is a fortification that also functions as a permanent residence. You'll want, at minimum, a master bedroom for the resident, a barracks for the soldiers, and a storage area that's got everything you need to withstand a seige/winter for several months. A place to cook would be great. A place to **** might not be neccessarry since you could empty chamberpots over the walls or something, but ideally you'd some way for that **** to not stink up the entirity of the castle's perimeter.

For anything more complex, like say you've got an outer wall, you'll want a gatehouse (that'll make the main entrance a hell)

Beyond that, you could want a chapel, a stable/rookery/pen, forge,workshop, great hall,dungeon, and any number of rooms you'd want in a residence, since a castle is after all a place of residence. Though it doesn't survive for long periods, good castles often displayed their wealth of the owner and most weren't well to do with stone walls. Ideally you'd plaster the walls and have people paint elaborate designs into it.

Castles were commonly made of wood, though wooden castles don't survive hundreds of years like stone ones do. Wood castles had advantages; much quicker to build

Now if we're talking fantasy:
The Spell -Wall of Stone- would greatly aid in castle construction, look it up.
-Labratories for alchemy/spells. Storage for rare ingredients and arcane items. Hidden libraries where you keep the good stuff.
-Maybe make your castle bigger for the access of large/huge creatures... or maybe make rooms that're only easy to move in for smaller races. A castle should advantage a defender so hobbits would make hobbit-rooms that'd be awkward for humans to invade...
-Trap rooms. Go wild.
-Unless necromancy is really evil in your world and the castle wasn't for evil folks, I'd really want this storage space that's just filled with a stockpile of animated dead that I could release against attackers. Skeletons are ideal because they'd smell better and they'd take less space, but the bashing vulnerability means you can't drop them/sling them at your enemies. Undead are defenders that require no maintainence, so as long as you can segregate them from the living you want in your castle, they're awesome.


Advice on making blueprints

You'll want outer walls to be at least one meter thick, ideally two. Small cutouts to get you close to windows.
You don't want any blind spots on the exterior. Defences are always made in such a way that people won't be safe by hugging the wall, think about the angles to attack people outside. but castles aren't always designed perfectly so don't worry too much about that.
-You'll want to arange the interior to not allow easy line of sight, spells are pretty accurate and throwing a fireball through a narrow window of the keep could be extremely lethal. Consider wards of some kind though good structuring should do the trick.
Spiral staircases save space in blueprints and are a good defensive feature.
Put extra defences on important access points (gatehouses, towers that segregate the walls) chokepoints are great.
Castles are sometimes put in crazy unreachable places, but ideally they should be somewhat reachable (people live there) and close to places that are worth defending.
If there's gunpowder in your game, castles become more "palace" and less fort. Though a castle can fill all the functions of both.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkmMACUKpQeIxN9D9ARli1Q
This channel is an incredible resource when it comes to castles.