Castles & Crusades Castle Keepers Guide

Join Us at the Table!

The Castles & Crusades Castle Keepers Guide physical and PDF versions can be found on the Troll Lord Games website.

Building Upon Foundations of Stone

Beneath the ground upon which the adventurer treads, lies the foundation​. Above it is the construct, walls and towers of adventure,​ which drives even more challenges, more flavor of a world's imaginings to light. It is the maelstrom of creation through whose eye the game of heroic chance plays out.

Expand Your Game!

The Castle Keepers Guide includes a host of new material for the role playing enthusiast; from world creation, to dungeon designs, managing non-player characters, character attributes at high levels, spell use and cost, equipment its use and wastage, the tumult of storms, from warfare to combat, monsters, treasure, death and more. It provides the CK and the Player with a host of new tools for their use; tools designed to enhance play, not hinder it; designed to be malleable from gaming table to gaming table.

It includes expanding the character, magic and mana, expanding equipment, NPCS, world building, cities, dungeons, air and water adventures, equipment wastage, using land as treasure with titles, going to war, monster ecology, futuristic settings, advancing the game, siege engine expansions, treasure, personal combat rules, skill packages, critical hit tables and dealing with character death!

Content Overview

What You Find In The Castles & Crusades Castle Keepers Guide:

• Magic: Digging into the magic using classes with spellbooks, starting spells, components, pricing magical components, playing without components, wands and holy symbols, illusion magic as healing, buying, selling and trading spells, scroll use, non caster scroll use and so much more.

• Expanding Equipment: A fresh look at equipment includes types of carrying items, stabling, costs of lodging and meals, a complete illustrated study of wagons with costs, speed and cargo, a similar treatment of boats and ships, general equipment and a new look at backpacks (abbreviated from the Adventurers Backpack).

• NPCs: A complete breakdown and explanation of the three types of NPCs (Adherents, Hirelings and Henchmen), how to use them, what their skills are, tracking loyalty, hiring them permanent or part time and developing their personalities.

• World Building: A guide on building your own world, beginning with planetary design and exploring everything from plate tectonics to weathering. Ten different types of climates are discussed and a host of biomes. Terrain, weather, movement charts and historical ages are all covered in this chapter. A complete how to will get you started on your world building journey.

• The City: In creating urban environments we explore populations, governments, culture, economic systems, economic systems, cost of goods and bartering, social stratification, types of religions and how to integrate them. Also it explores the types of settlements from the single dwelling to the metropolis, fully illustrated. Occupations, construction and criminal codes round out the chapter.

• Dungeons: Beginning with a study of light, temperature, humidity and movement underground it expands in to caves and types of caves (erosional, solution caves, coastal and so on), to terminology of both caves and underground structures: dungeons. A look at ecosystems, building dungeons, tunnels, gases and traps rounds the chapter out. Everything you need to know to build a complete dungeon.

• Air and Water Adventures: Chapter 8 allows you to expand you adventure into heights its never been. Movement in the air and under water as well as combat, combat maneuvers, spells, magic underwater and monsters with aerial combat ratings.

• Equipment Wastage: Role playing equipment is a wonderful tool that every CK should learn to do. From equipment wear and tear to destruction in combat, from both mundane, magical and monstrous means (what does dragon fire do to +1 armor?). This section is filled with examples and charts to help you along.

• Land as Treasure: In this chapter we explore using land as treasure, where noble titles mark the characters and NPCs with title, rank, stipends, men at arms, offerings and so much more. Broken down by class it allows for the master of the druid's grove and the king or queen of vast realms. Rank/title is assigned by level if that is the direction desired.

• Going to War: Here we explore mass combat and introduce a system fully explored in Fields of Battle that allows your table to conduct massive battles with minis, chits or home made pieces. From morale to siege engines it covers the vast array of encounters that afflict armies in the field. It touches on sea battles as well.

• Monsters: Here the most common monsters are discussed, their ecological niches, geological niches, and geographic regionalization. From arrow hawks to ogre magi the host of monsters supplies the game master with a mountain of material to enhance game play and offer a lead into other monster development. Basic encounter tables serve to get you started. For more monster goodness make sure to check out Castles & Crusades Monsters & Treasure for hundresds of monsters for FoundryVTT!

• The Future: An introduction to the Siege Engine as it applies in a host of different game genres: space age, horror fiction, pulp noir, post apocalyptical and more. It includes guidelines on how to introduce your standard classes into these genres with little effort. Also find guns, canon and laser weapons, all the tools needed to launch a game in a new genre.

• Advancing the Game: A complete break down for starting and continuing RPG sessions. This chapter is dedicate to novice and experienced game masters. Addressing such issues as game balance, leveling, mood, tone, as well as awarding experience and managing expectations.

• The Siege Engine: Here we break apart the Siege Engine. The extremely simple game mechanic is driven by a variety of processes and game design theory. Learn how to expand, change or mold the Engine to your game and table. It further explores attributes and their never end value at the table.

• Treasure: A new look at an old subject. Exploring treasure as a backdrop and role playing tool from quests to unusual coins. Here we discuss extraordinary items, precious metals, gems and more. It includes such subjects as class restrictions and hiring magical services. Scrolls, silver items, destroying and purchasing magic items, treasure is explored for top to bottom.

• Combat: Here we explore the nature of combat at the table, how to run combat and how to pace it. It also expands the idea of inter personal combat with critical hit tables, critical fumble tables and host of combat maneuvers as well as attribute checks, line of sight, ranged, damage reduction and a host of other optional elements.

• Skill Packages: In skill packages we demonstrate the versatility of the game by paving the way for the CK to allow players extraordinary skills that go beyond the class and race skills outlined in the Players Handbook. From orc hunters to elves with enhanced empathy. Furthermore it opens a world of secondary class skills such as armorer, hunter etc.

• Character Death: Lastly we explore the deaths of characters, both the loved and unloved. We look at the impact of their death and explore ways in which they day from combat to disease. It includes a system for Luck Points, Hero Points and more.

These features have been compiled into sections within a special reference manual specifically formatted for ease of play on FoundryVTT at the table or over the Internet.

Other Available Content

Complete your table with more FoundryVTT, PDF and Print products published by Troll Lord Games and our Partners!

• FoundryVTT - Castles & Crusades Castle Keepers Guide
• FoundryVTT - Castles & Crusades Monsters & Treasure
• FoundryVTT - Castles & Crusades S2 A Lion in the Ropes
• Troll Lord Games Web Store
• Troll Lord Games FoundryVTT Products
• Ripped Tabard Adventures FoundryVTT Products

*Coming Soon!*

• FoundryVTT - Castles & Crusades Beneath the Canopy Green Adventure Series

Support

• To report bugs or request features please:
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  • Email us at productsupport@trolllord.com

Licensing Information

This product's format, programming code, and presentation is copyrighted by Foundry Gaming, LLC.

This system & prodcut are used with permission granted as part of the partnership agreement between Foundry Gaming LLC and Troll Lord Games LLC. It uses the following trademarks and/or copyrights:

©2025 Troll Lord Games. All Rights Reserved. Castles & Crusades® is a registered Trademark of Chenault & Gray Publishing L.L.C., d/b/a Troll Lord Games. SIEGE Engine™ is Trademark Chenault & Gray Publishing L.L.C., d/b/a Troll Lord Games. The Troll Lord Games, Castles & Crusades, SIEGE Engine, and Troll Lord Games logos are Trademarks of Troll Lord Games. All Rights Reserved. 2025.

For inquiries on developing content for this ruleset please contact productsupport@trolllord.com