My Crusader Kings II Manual

[Drinking with Skeletons]

For a grad school project, I created a complete manual for Crusader Kings II. I didn't know at the time that Paradox actually made one of their own (and have made a new one for The Old Gods), but mine is certainly different. My ambition was to make something approaching the glory of Microprose's manuals. I freely admit that I fell short, but I'm still proud of my accomplishment and would like to share.

This manual is over 3 MB in size and is nearly 100 pages long. It is up-to-date as of the 1.10 patch and includes all of the major DLC (Sword of Islam, Legacy of Rome, The Republic, and The Old Gods). Cosmetic DLC and Sunset Invasion are not included, as they have no mechanical impact on the game (please correct me if I'm wrong). It is not approved by or associated with Paradox Interactive, and is not intended to replace or compete with any work they have produced. It is made freely available by me, the sole creator, and will be removed if Paradox deems it a conflict with their products.

To view:

http://www.mediafire.com/view/dgunp8ut6yj9cyi/ck2_manual.pdf


To download:

http://www.mediafire.com/download/dg...ck2_manual.pdf

To download a printer-friendly version:
http://www.mediafire.com/download/c8...t_friendly.pdf

There are definitely ways I could improve this manual, but I think it is basically functional. It is structured so that the most critical gameplay concepts are described first, with the more specialized information coming later. I have refrained from doing play-by-play instructions, and instead have focused on giving enough information so that a new player could (theoretically) understand what each mechanic does and why, but still have lots of opportunity to be surprised as he or she plays.

Constructive criticism is always welcome! And thanks to Kelron for pointing me towards mediafire!

EDIT: Updated as of 6/7.

[pakoito]

What an incredible dump of well structured information.

Thank you.

[Drinking with Skeletons]

What an incredible dump of well structured information.

Thank you.

Not at all! I've wanted to make a video game manual since I was a kid and encountered Master of Orion 2's manual. I've actually tried to format this one so that, if it were printed, it would function as a book, beginning with the front cover and ending with the back cover.

[Fanbuoy]

Awesome! I look forward to giving this a good read after my finals! If you don't mind me asking, what course did you do this for?

[pakoito]

Not at all! I've wanted to make a video game manual since I was a kid and encountered Master of Orion 2's manual. I've actually tried to format this one so that, if it were printed, it would function as a book, beginning with the front cover and ending with the back cover.

It was a compliment. I failed at english.

[Sakkura]

Awesome! I look forward to giving this a good read after my finals! If you don't mind me asking, what course did you do this for?

Guessing this is him:

I'm in a Technical Communication program (I won't graduate for a while yet). The assignment was to create an instructional document of 30-50 pages (or equivalent; it didn't have to be something intended for physical publication). My initial version, which didn't cover any DLC, was 74 pages. Admittedly, I've tried to format it so that, if printed, it would actually function as a book, but I doubt anyone would actually want to do that.

[Drinking with Skeletons]

Guessing this is him:

Yes, that is me! There's a little more information in the Afterword of the manual.

EDIT: To be more specific, the course was a project management course. In addition to the actual document, I had to produce a project plan and other documents that would be used in a professional setting, all of which were probably...I dunno, an additional 30 or so pages. Other topics from my fellow students ranged from software help systems to instructions on how to restring a guitar.

@Pakoito:

I knew it was a compliment, I just meant that it wasn't something I felt I should really be "thanked" for. I wanted to do it, and actually really enjoyed putting it all together!

[Fanbuoy]

Oh, okay, cool! Sounds way better than what I'm doing now. But then again, what I'm doing now is just what I've put off doing previously, because I didn't want to deal with it. Short term reasoning is awesome until it isn't.

[Cosm]

Well done man, you oughta share this over at the Paradox Plaza forums, and maybe /r/crusaderkings on Reddit. I'm sure it would find a lot of readers there that could make use of it.

[Stellar Duck]

Excellent work!

I'm still baffled that Paradox made such a bad manual for CK2. It's basically worthless. Unless there is one that's been hiding from me.

When you compare it to the stack of manuals I have for all their other games that run into the hundreds of pages not counting all the strategy guides, quick start guides and what not their effort for CK2 really stands out as a failure.

I mean, it's probably the only of their games where I don't actually need the manual due to prior experience with the first game, but still, I often hear from new players that they have a hard time getting into the game.

[Drinking with Skeletons]

Well done man, you oughta share this over at the Paradox Plaza forums, and maybe /r/crusaderkings on Reddit. I'm sure it would find a lot of readers there that could make use of it.

I had already posted it over at Paradox, and I've just reposted at Reddit. There's something like 6,000 people at /r/crusaderkings, so hopefully a few people will find it useful.

[pakoito]

Link for free karma?

[Drinking with Skeletons]

Link for free karma?

Sure, you can link to this. Or do you mean a link to the Reddit post? I'm completely clueless about Reddit, which I think means I fail at the Internet, but here you go:

http://www.reddit.com/r/CrusaderKings/comments/1fopic/unofficial_crusader_kings_ii_manual/

[pakoito]

Wrong subreddit, post to /r/paradoxplaza because that's where everyone is. Or let me do it and get that sweet sweet link karma.

[Oak]

You are a wonderful man.

Wrong subreddit, post to /r/paradoxplaza because that's where everyone is. Or let me do it and get that sweet sweet link karma.

Visiting that subreddit reminded me that EU4 is real and will be coming out relatively soon. And it uses Steamworks? What strange future is this?

[Drinking with Skeletons]

Wrong subreddit, post to /r/paradoxplaza because that's where everyone is. Or let me do it and get that sweet sweet link karma.

Link to your heart's content!

[Kaira-]

Visiting that subreddit reminded me that EU4 is real and will be coming out relatively soon. And it uses Steamworks? What strange future is this?

I hope there'll be a DRM-free version also.

[Matzerath]

That was actually a really good manual, and taught me some new things! I may have glossed over it on my first reading, but did you cover economic issues directly?

[Sparkasaurusmex]

Thank you for this!
I still play CKII by just putting it on fast mode and choosing things in the pop ups. Have no idea how to actually play, but that has been fun for a while.

[Drinking with Skeletons]

That was actually a really good manual, and taught me some new things! I may have glossed over it on my first reading, but did you cover economic issues directly?

I've tried to cover all the major areas of economics, though there isn't a specific "economic" chapter. That might be something I should look into. Also, I freely admit I don't understand the new Loot system at all, and I need to figure out how Loot is calculated so that it can be addressed.