A Castle for a Vampire

[ByOdin'sBeard]

As the title states, I need a badass castle for the BBEG/NPC (depending how they work it yenno) in my campaign, and I'm wondering if anyone had any good links or anything to anything if the like. Kinda like the castle in the Castlevania series on Netflix? Love me some unnecessarily grand rooms.

Thanks for any and all input guys!

[Venger]

the 3.5 module "expedition to castle ravenloft" is an offshoot of the traditional dracula story and has a lot of maps of strahd's castle. it's a good place to start and is deservedly very popular, if fairly challenging.

[MisterKaws]

Also the Stronghold Builder's Guide. It's partially obsolete but still usable.

[ByOdin'sBeard]

the 3.5 module "expedition to castle ravenloft" is an offshoot of the traditional dracula story and has a lot of maps of strahd's castle. it's a good place to start and is deservedly very popular, if fairly challenging.

I have been using this module so far, and I love amount of rooms that it details, I have a couple rough drafts drawn up using these premade as a go-to.


Also the Stronghold Builder's Guide. It's partially obsolete but still usable.

THIS IS THE BOOK I COULDNT REMEMBER! Ive been wondering what I was looking through awhile ago and this was it! Thanks a bunch for this one, though not the inspiration I was looking for for designs, i can actually price out keeps and stuff for my players again. Last campaign their castle was dirt cheap compared to what the module says...

[Squire Doodad]

As the title states, I need a badass castle for the BBEG/NPC (depending how they work it yenno) in my campaign, and I'm wondering if anyone had any good links or anything to anything if the like. Kinda like the castle in the Castlevania series on Netflix? Love me some unnecessarily grand rooms.

Thanks for any and all input guys!

I mean...if you want to talk about the Castlevania Anime, why not take some cues from Castlevania? (That is the castle's name by the way. "Dracula's Castle" is a description, not a name. It's also sentient...) Anyways, looking in the Castlevania game series you can get an idea of how to make a castle. Okay, no, its a relatively bad idea becasue of mixing video game level structure with roleplaying game level structure, but they do know how to build atmosphere. If you are the sort of person who's good at taking aesthetic detail and converting it into descriptions, then you might want to play through one of them. I'd suggest the Metroidvania ones for enjoyment purposes, though Circle of the Moon is probably the best in the series for how everything looks (very grim and gothic) (the Metroidvania ones are Harmony of Dissonance, Circle of the Moon, Aria of Sorrow/Dawn of Sorrow, Symphony of the Night, Order of Ecclessia).
I don't know if you enjoy the actual gameplay or anything, but the way that all of the rooms are detailed is downright extravagant, if you are drawing out maps and such its a good idea to look at those.

Ravenloft is good stuff too, its quite the classic.

[ByOdin'sBeard]

I mean...if you want to talk about the Castlevania Anime, why not take some cues from Castlevania? (That is the castle's name by the way. "Dracula's Castle" is a description, not a name. It's also sentient...) Anyways, looking in the Castlevania game series you can get an idea of how to make a castle. Okay, no, its a relatively bad idea becasue of mixing video game level structure with roleplaying game level structure, but they do know how to build atmosphere. If you are the sort of person who's good at taking aesthetic detail and converting it into descriptions, then you might want to play through one of them. I'd suggest the Metroidvania ones for enjoyment purposes, though Circle of the Moon is probably the best in the series for how everything looks (very grim and gothic) (the Metroidvania ones are Harmony of Dissonance, Circle of the Moon, Aria of Sorrow/Dawn of Sorrow, Symphony of the Night, Order of Ecclessia).
I don't know if you enjoy the actual gameplay or anything, but the way that all of the rooms are detailed is downright extravagant, if you are drawing out maps and such its a good idea to look at those.

Ravenloft is good stuff too, its quite the classic.

I'm genuinely disappointed in myself for not realizing Castlevania was the castle, not gonna lie. I actually havent played the games since maaaaybe 2009? Absolutely loved the series though, and the grim setting that it gave is really nice. The castle has that huge room in the beginning, with a few of his scientific designs, and I thought it was awesome.

[Braininthejar2]

from the mapmaking point of view, Shadiversity made a podcast on designing fantasy castles.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJkXRDKdAcM

[Remuko]

from the mapmaking point of view, Shadiversity made a podcast on designing fantasy castles.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJkXRDKdAcM

machicolations!

I love shads videos lol