/pic6441746.jpg)
Publisher Blurb:
You know what they say about the best laid plans...
The Adventure Havens series continues with Lords of the Manor, a 30 page supplement packed full of locales and NPCs for use in your fantasy d20-style/3.5 games. Lords of the Manor presents 12 ready-to-use castles, keeps, and manor homes that can be dropped into almost any campaign. With NPCs ranging from CR 1 all the way up to CR 35, DM's will find plenty of side quests, plot devices, and challenges for their players!
Castles include:
Amberhurst Castle: Located on the harbor of a thriving merchant town that trades in amber. A perfect location and a congenial castellan make it ideal as a launch point for new campaigns.
Barcelton Manor: Having fallen into disrepair, a long lost heir seeks to restore it to its glory. Plotting, greedy neighboring lords have other plans.
Chelthenham Castle: A powerful archduke and his wizardly younger wife command this mountain fortress. Political intrigue abounds within the walls.
Flemming House: Once a private plantation, now a school for druids and nature-loving clerics and wizards to work together to study the natural world. Nearby ruins and treant teachers makes this an interesting stop for nature-oriented players.
Howling Hall: An abandoned tower deep in the forest, it is now home to a pack of werewolves and a ghost that still believes it is fighting off a vampire horde.
Icewing Hall: A frozen mountain castle that serves as home to a great wyrm dragon that is revered as a "dragon-god" by the barbaric tribes and loathed by other dragons...mostly because they didn’t come up with this scam first.
Lodentar Castle: Like some indestructible remnant of old wars, Lodentar castle stands as a gateway between two once rival nations.
Meadowbrook: A gnomish concentric castle...we need say more?
Stonetalon Keep: A solitary bastion of civilization in the middle of a desolate wasteland, stonetalon offers a welcome respite to weary adventurers.
Trelorforge Keep: This dwarven keep sits atop a rich iron mine, making it a source of steady income for the dwarves but also a potential target of greedy nobles that want to claim it for themselves.
Vesterdrew Manor: A pleasant farming community thrives thanks to the work of the Vesterdrew clan. But all is not well as a son’s new wife brings political maneuverings to the once peaceful manor.
Willow Keep Hill: Once known as Hangman’s Hill, the hill is now the home of a peculiar wizard and his ogre butler. A quiet neighbor according to the locals, except for the occasional "pet" escape.
Each Castle includes a detailed description along with history, important NPCs, and story seeds that can be used as plot devices or side quests. These locales provide you with quick and easy information that allows you to offer a players a new level of detail and depth to your campaign without extra effort.
- Building out different buildings and then building on top of them is very helpful.
- Workers with once per season activations are very helpful.
- Family abilities provide different bonuses.
- Strategic choices based on starting cards and market.
- Discounting system for future buildings is beneficial.
- Keeping victory points from previously built cards when upgrading.
- Intrigue cards can be used offensively or defensively.
- Extra workers are hungry and cost additional food.
- Begging tokens (negative victory points) are a detriment if workers are not fed.
- Running estates and constructing buildings.
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- action selection — Players choose actions from their player board or card abilities.
- Card Drafting — Players can draft cards from a common market or their hand.
- Engine Building — Constructing buildings that provide ongoing benefits or discounts.
- event cards — Fate cards (good and bad fortune) are drawn each season.
- Hand Management — Players must discard down to a hand limit at the end of each year.
- Intrigue cards — Cards that can affect other players or provide personal benefits.
- Resource Management — Players need to manage resources to play cards and perform actions.
- Set Collection — Discounting for future buildings based on previously built ones.
- Tableau Building — Players play cards into their personal area to gain abilities and points.
- Worker Placement — Players place workers to perform actions.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- This is a sponsored preview and this is a prototype copy in front of me. So all rules, components, things like that are subject to change.
- Players are going to be running each of their estates hopefully very efficiently, where ultimately you're trying to construct buildings.
- Throughout the game, players are going to be playing through seasons over the course of four years.
- So, you're going to use this to place out your different workers to perform actions for you.
- Ultimately, players are going to be constructing buildings, and you're going to be doing that either from cards from your hand or from the common market.
- So, it is going to be a victory point at the end of the game. And we now have a worker placement spot that we're able to go to on future turns to produce uh an apple as well as the stones.
- So, for example, this one is nothing happens. So there are some in here where nothing is going to happen and players don't have to worry about it.
- But you may have noticed there is also a darker deck over here. So that was a good fortune card. And there are going to be bad fortune cards as well.
- So, the plague is really going to affect players.
- So, you're going to have to go through the harvest when this happens. And there's going to be both good and bad things that are going to affect players.
- So, for your two starting workers, you'll have to pay a food each. So, a total of two food.
- So, your extra workers are going to be very useful, but they'll also be hungry as well.
- So, you are limited to how many cards you can carry over between the different years.
- So, you're no longer going to have that worker placement spot available. And you also will be able to provide a discount for future cards that you're playing unless you gain another cliffside farm.
- So, where the previous one for us was one victory point and the large farm is now three, we have a total of four victory points for this area of cards here, plus the three for our master carpenter.
- So, for any begging tokens that you have at the end of the game, they're going to be worth negative two victory points for you.
- So, Lords of the Manor is going to be a game where players are very focused on building out their tableau, but also the different resources that they are able to produce.
- Building out these different buildings and then building on top of them is going to be very helpful.
- But also having these different workers that you're able to activate once per season are going to be very helpful as well.
- So, you are going to have the different bonuses based on the family that you have chosen as well.
- So, this has been a preview of Lords of the Manor by Midmax Games.
References (from this video)
- Appeals to fans of popular Euro games
- Combines familiar mechanics with unique elements
- Artwork has an 'AI look' that diminishes wonder for some
- Building an estate
- Seven Wonders
- Tokaido
- Agricola
- Everdell
- Race for the Galaxy
- Avidell
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Hand Management — Intrigue cards in your hand.
- Tableau Building — Placing cards down.
- Worker Placement — Worker placement. The cards are going to create new locations for your workers.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- Number one is these are the upcoming crowdfunding campaigns that I have as of right now.
- The things will change, things get cancelceled, things get added, things get pushed off, all of that will happen.
- I try to focus on those that seem to have the most interest or attention.
- So, this usually is going to be campaigns that have 500 or,000 followers or more.
- And I'll admit artifacts did have that. The problem is like what used to be like, oh my gosh, that's so incredible, that's so cute. That's so great. Now is colored with like that's good, but like is it real though?
- It removes some of the magic and wonder of artwork.
- That said, they do have a specific specific little tag over here saying no AI was used in the making of the game.
- I really I really hate like AI has I have mixed thoughts on AI.
- I think it ruins our sense of wonder.