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Crowns & Castles

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Crowns & Castles (277 pages) lets you play D&D as a 4x empire strategy game.

You're no longer playing as a single character. In C&C you're in control of an entire realm that you create from scratch, making decisions for its military, economy, culture, and diplomacy. That realm gains experience, levels up, and unlocks new abilities. And you're going to do all this in a co-op, player-vs-player, or mixed environment with a DM who guides the world's narrative and lets you attempt anything you can dream.

Choose a race, pick a government and founding backstory, construct buildings, discover natural resources, create powerful artifacts, research and cast continent-spanning spells, spy on your neighbors, sign treaties, trade valuable luxuries, make history, and wage war in a turn-based tactical combat system (check out the free demo "Battle at Shallow Mountain").

C&C can be played at the table or asynchronously one turn at a time. No more worries about cancelling sessions due to schedules. You can use C&C as a setting for multiple simultaneous D&D games where the outcomes of one game affect everyone else in a shared, living world, or simply as an engine to create your own worlds. The system is setting-agnostic and easily reskinnable to your existing homebrews.

You get:

  • 27 races (37 including subraces), each with a uniquely-themed set of military units
  • 13 Governments that act as your realm's class
  • 10 Founding backgrounds to choose from that describe how your realm originated
  • 15 skills to accomplish your goals from Recruitment, Research, Sabotage, etc.
  • 50 buildings to construct in your settlements
  • 70 resources to explore, exploit, trade, and develop
  • 170 realm-level spells to cast in and out of combat
  • 100 unique artifacts for your alchemists to create
  • Over 500 military units scaled to C&C's deep mass combat system
  • Over 200 traits and reactions for those units
  • 3 battle maps with special scenario rules at the C&C scale (50 feet per square)
  • 3 storylines to threaten your world and either bring your players together or tear them apart
  • 100 random events to jumpstart narratives

This book contains everything you need - a Player's section to create and manage your realm, a DM's section to start and run the game, and a vast catalogue of NPC military units.

An editable realm sheet is available through google docs in the purchase note.

Sheet1.png

Sheet2.png

NOTE: Be sure to download the tokens and information sheets (links below). These, and any other additions we make to this game will be added as free updates. That means no paid DLC, this is a One-Time Purchase and you'll get everything we create for it, forever.

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Reviews (4)
Discussions (37)
Customer avatar
Mason T October 05, 2023 4:58 pm UTC
PURCHASER
This supplement has truly elevated my campaign. I've been running a political thriller game for about 8 months in a homebrew world I've been working on for several years. This supplement lets me turn the various factions that form the local republic into characters that take damage and react according to the events unfolding in the game. If the core of the Republic takes enough stability damage due to the infighting and other negative events the players fail to prevent, then it will mean all-out civil war, which will now be an actual mechanic superior to any other mass-battle system I've seen. All just in time for the players to have hit level 5 and start engaging with the wider world and national politics.

I'm huge on rules and game systems that integrate well into worldbuilding, and so engineering the governments to basically be classed characters was a stroke of genius. Republics being bards is so hilariously spot-on and worked extremely well to characterize the republic in my setting. I've seen...See more
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Customer avatar
John R October 05, 2023 8:36 pm UTC
CREATOR
We're going to do just that based on your suggestion - rules for advanced realms. Keep an eye out for it.
And thanks for the glowing review!
If you haven't already, join us on Discord: https://discord.gg/6T9HgfpZ
Customer avatar
Daniel C September 07, 2023 12:26 am UTC
PURCHASER
nice! grabbing a print copy!
Customer avatar
JOHN S August 10, 2023 9:38 pm UTC
yeah, we want it all.......... PDF, print on demand, other VTT's supported........... now, how about that Roll20 conversion? This year? In the works?
Reply
Customer avatar
John R August 10, 2023 11:00 pm UTC
CREATOR
We have a Fantasy Grounds module (found on DMsGuild), but for Roll20, I believe that's a big bar to hurdle to get supported integration.
Customer avatar
Thane K February 12, 2023 12:46 am UTC
PURCHASER
Hey John! I got this book for Christmas and I'm excited about it. If the discord is still active, I would love to join. Could you send me a link?
Reply
Customer avatar
John R February 12, 2023 1:45 am UTC
CREATOR
Sure thing.
https://discord.gg/fVs9DuBB
Reply
Customer avatar
Ray C February 28, 2023 3:52 am UTC
PURCHASER
Link expired. I would like to join, too.
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Customer avatar
John R February 28, 2023 2:03 pm UTC
CREATOR
Hop on in:
https://discord.gg/P7JJBNncRn
Customer avatar
marc F February 11, 2023 8:33 am UTC
PURCHASER
Hi John, I've been playing realm rigs for a long time, and this is the best I've encountered. Quick question about undead though. In the magocracy, it allows you to reduce concentration slots required by 1, but it seems unclear to me which indeed units require concentration slots (there are some spells for zombies and skeletons, clearly, but do the more advanced units require them?) and whether this is a per unit reduction or a army wide reduction. It also feels odd that these armies need supply, but that's a balancing issue.
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Customer avatar
John R February 12, 2023 12:02 am UTC
CREATOR
Good question - an undead player's regular units don't require concentration. They're recruited like other units - but the spells that raise skeletons and zombies *do* require concentration, and that's a per unit reduction. So an undead magocracy can make skeleton militia with a Recruitment check and if they take the necromancy school mastery, they could also cast the skeleton spell any number of times and not require concentration to maintain those summoned units.
And you're spot on about supply as balance, it's weird for a Lich to need "food," but on balance, we can imagine it's less about Vecna eating fresh loaves of bread and moreso the peasants and mages necessary to maintain a phylactery vault.
Customer avatar
Andrew D December 13, 2022 12:47 am UTC
PURCHASER
I've been running this for my friends via Discord and Worldographer for a couple months now and it has been an absolute blast! Love this idea and think the rules have been executed really well.

I was curious as to why the founding of new settlements seems more on the restrictive side? - just within a province or splitting a province. I was considering homebrewing something but was wondering what your thoughts were for making it that way. Probably something I'm not considering :)

Anyway - hands down best thing I've ever gotten off DMs Guild - I would definitely endorse more rules!
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Customer avatar
John R December 13, 2022 2:38 pm UTC
CREATOR
Glad you're enjoying it.

Good question - it seems to go against the "feel" of a 4x-ish game to limit expansion to those level bumps, but at the C&C scale (one month per turn), we're covering maybe 10 to 20 years worth of history. So any expansion that would affect a map would probably be rare. This also let us keep a balance where everyone should feel hungry from level 1 to 20 - we want you to have 10 good choices each turn and agonize over which to do with your limited resources. Some people are homebrewing expansion rules in our discord, I'd be interested in those (and your) results.

Thanks! Check out the naval rules, advisors, and kismet options.
Reply
Customer avatar
John R August 10, 2023 3:22 pm UTC
CREATOR
Check out the Supplemental Rules if you haven't, we added a method for players to increase the size of their realms based on the kind of settlement they want to add.
Customer avatar
Jason T December 10, 2022 10:47 pm UTC
Had a friend get this for me, and we were looking to do an online game of it, probably using Roll20. Was wondering if you might have a form fillable version of your civilization sheet?

We're trying to make it form fillable, but it's been pain, lol.
Reply
Customer avatar
John R December 11, 2022 2:44 am UTC
CREATOR
The best we have at the moment (and I imagine for quite a while), is the google sheet, whose link is included in the purchase note.
Customer avatar
Igneous C November 05, 2022 1:14 am UTC
What are the 13 government types?
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Customer avatar
John R November 05, 2022 2:17 am UTC
CREATOR
Anarchy, Collective, Dictatorship, Gerontocracy, Kleptocracy, Magocracy, Monarchy, Monastic, Nomadic, Republic, Technocracy, Theocracy, and Tribal. Each has unique features and benefits across 20 levels and these act as your realm’s class.
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Customer avatar
Igneous C November 05, 2022 2:56 am UTC
Thank you
Customer avatar
Vapora L October 29, 2022 9:41 am UTC
PURCHASER
Congratulations that C&C reached Gold tier! What are your plans for this new milestone?
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Customer avatar
John R October 29, 2022 2:38 pm UTC
CREATOR
We're going to add Aarakocra and Warforged as playable races. And then we'll wait to hear from players to know what the system needs next. In the meantime - we'll be playing in our Amalgum setting.
Customer avatar
Sean H October 22, 2022 6:55 pm UTC
PURCHASER
I think this is incredible. I enjoyed reading the rules and think you have done an exceptional job translating heroic fantasy to 4x fantasy civilization gameplay. I am in the process of setting up a game using these rules. I am hoping to make a world spanning war that will be used to define the lore and history of a homebrew world. This can be a great tool for collaborative and emergent world building.
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Customer avatar
John R October 22, 2022 9:23 pm UTC
CREATOR
Thanks! Let us know how it goes.
Customer avatar
Lee W October 16, 2022 11:31 pm UTC
Here's the obligatory, "When can we expect a POD?" question.

I was born in the early '70s. I don't do pdfs but want to do this game!

(Wow.. that could have worded that better...)
Reply
Customer avatar
John R October 17, 2022 1:48 am UTC
CREATOR
I hear you on the pdf vs. book thing. We're looking into POD now, but it's a long process.
In the meantime, tell your friends about it - the faster we get to Gold the faster it moves along.
Reply
Customer avatar
Lee W October 17, 2022 2:13 am UTC
Done! Thanks for responding to everyone here. It's worth a lot.
Reply
Customer avatar
John R August 10, 2023 3:24 pm UTC
CREATOR
Check it out - POD is now ready to go. It includes a host of rule balances, rules for naval power, advisors, and kismet.
Customer avatar
Vapora L October 12, 2022 7:09 am UTC
PURCHASER
How many purchases do you need for this product to reach Gold tier?
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Customer avatar
John R October 12, 2022 12:56 pm UTC
CREATOR
We'll be one step closer with your purchase.
Reply
Customer avatar
Vapora L October 13, 2022 8:42 am UTC
PURCHASER
Done purchasing. Thanks for the product!
Customer avatar
Vapora L October 11, 2022 5:40 am UTC
PURCHASER
Question? What plans do you have once this product reaches sales of Gold tier?
Reply
Customer avatar
John R October 11, 2022 1:42 pm UTC
CREATOR
Assuming that happens, I've been thinking of adding a warforged and aarakocra set of units.

Until then, we're currently setting up the Amalgum game that combines 5 continents/5 DMs, and 24 players into one collaborative C&C game. And then we're going to open the doors of that setting to any D&D groups to adventure there so that both games run asynchronously and feed each other.
Reply
Customer avatar
Vapora L October 11, 2022 4:30 pm UTC
PURCHASER
What do you mean by "Amalgum game that combines 5 continents/5 DMs, and 24 players into one collaborative C&C game"?
Reply
Customer avatar
John R October 11, 2022 4:43 pm UTC
CREATOR
Come join us here and we'll fill you in on the details:
https://discord.gg/x42kyevX
Reply
Customer avatar
Vapora L October 11, 2022 4:49 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Oh sure thing!
Reply
Customer avatar
Vapora L October 13, 2022 3:28 am UTC
PURCHASER
Ok, I joined the Discord group. Now what?
Reply
Customer avatar
John R October 13, 2022 1:35 pm UTC
CREATOR
Check out the pinned messages and let us know if you have any questions. Spaces for Amalgum have filled up but in case a player drops out, we'll have need for alternates to take over their realm.
Customer avatar
Vapora L October 05, 2022 6:02 am UTC
PURCHASER
Are advisors similar to governors in Civ 6 that they give bonuses and effects to a city they govern? or like the Great People mechanic in Civ 5-6 where you earn them enough thru certain buildings like universities and art centers, and grants you special bonuses for your kingdom?
Reply
Customer avatar
John R October 05, 2022 12:22 pm UTC
CREATOR
The advisors system is currently being developed and will be out by the end of the month if not sooner.
Customer avatar
Vapora L October 05, 2022 5:31 am UTC
PURCHASER
Are you planning to include a religion system in C&C?
Reply
Customer avatar
John R October 05, 2022 12:21 pm UTC
CREATOR
We have religious buildings, a theocracy government, and a number of units and spells that reference the D&D pantheon. No plans for a religion system beyond that.
Customer avatar
Vapora L October 05, 2022 12:38 am UTC
PURCHASER
Is it possible for the players to control a kingdom like this and their own individual characters simultaneously? Could they still go on having adventures while managing a kingdom?
Reply
Customer avatar
John R October 05, 2022 12:45 am UTC
CREATOR
You could do that. There's nothing incompatible between C&C's and D&D's game systems.
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File Last Updated:
August 14, 2023
This title was added to our catalog on August 31, 2022.