The Secrets of Siege Magic aka All About Battle Magic for Castles & Sieges by John Josten is a role playing game supplement published by Board Enterprises. This is primarily a generic supplement though there appear to be a couple of references to Legend Quest. This is part of the Small Bites series and is the “World Walker” version. The full version is only available to Patreon supporters and is about 50% larger.
The supplement is available as a 52-page PDF for free from DriveThruRPG. One page is the front cover.
The Introduction explains that this supplement is going to consider castles in a fantasy setting.
The Fletnern Wiki has a number of articles duplicated from the setting. These are all connected to sieges, and cover military units, legends, sites and wonders.
The Sounding Board duplicates several blog posts. Education as a Weapon considers how real-world education systems might translate into fantasy worlds, where mages are not the only people who need to be able to read or write.
Military Magic considers the military applications of magic, and not the obvious ones related to combat and weapons.
Behind the Castle Walls takes a look at how castle walls are constructed.
Lifestyles of the Magical and Mundane starts by considering what “castle” means and how it will be used here, before moving onto rations. Workers and Tools looks at some of the equipment available to medieval workers.
How to Play a… Besieging Force takes a look at weapons, magic, siege engines, sapping and the siege camp, including look at some specific spells.
Hoe to GM… Castle Defences takes a look at different types of castles, food and water and the different mundane parts of castles and the terrain they are built in.
News of Fletnern looks at the construction of the Citadel of Baderuic and its purpose.
The Good Life looks at living in a castle, heralds and diplomats, rules for war and the use for old castles. Terms, Slang & Superstition covers these.
Optional Rules covers fire arrows and damaging castle walls.
$ilver Sense looks at several different types of marble.
Characters with Character looks at a specific individual, a mage who specialises in constructing buildings with magic.
Small Towns and City Neighbourhoods looks at how civilians might be able to defend themselves against some attackers.
The final pages are What’s Missing, which describes everything in the full version, and In Conclusion wraps things up and gives various links.
The Secrets of Siege Magic aka All About Battle Magic for Castles & Sieges in Review
The PDF is bookmarked with major and minor sections linked. The Table of Contents isn’t as thorough but is hyperlinked. There are also a number of external links. The text maintains a two-column format and appeared to be free of errors. There are a number of black and white stock images. Presentation is okay.
Typical for this series, this supplement is a collection of, sometimes quite loosely, connected articles and material on a topic, not a coherent whole. Though it’s said to be about siege magic, a lot of the content, whilst looking at castles and sieges, doesn’t consider magic at all, though some material definitely does. It’s not supposed to be a definitive guide to castles, as there are other books for that, but does spend a lot of time looking at their mundane aspects. The Secrets of Siege Magic aka All About Battle Magic for Castles & Sieges is an erratic assortment of sometimes interesting articles and can be download for free by clicking here.
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