Author Topic: Thoughts on Castles & Crusades?  (Read 2323 times)

Offline Libertad

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Thoughts on Castles & Crusades?
« on: November 17, 2011, 04:32:47 PM »
Due to jobs and college, my next game won't be until a few weeks later.  During this time, I'm looking at online houserules, other settings, and various methods to bring something new to my games.

I recently heard of Castles and Crusades, a pseudo-d20 game based off of the older editions of Dungeons & Dragons (pre-3rd edition).  The official site at Troll Lord Games advertises it as a "rules-lite variant to the d20 system."

Has anyone had any experience with the game?  How does it stand in terms of balance between classes, races, and levels?  Does the feel and style of the game support traditional "dungeon-crawling elements?"

From what little I know of the game, Castles and Crusades appears more restrictive than the d20 system: greater emphasis is placed on classes and their powers, with less customization than the feat/class/skill system.  There is less emphasis on "tactical" play.

I posted this question back in Brilliant Gameologists, but the forum got hit with spam before anybody could respond.

Offline JohnnyMayHymn

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Re: Thoughts on Castles & Crusades?
« Reply #1 on: December 30, 2011, 08:20:33 AM »
Hrm, I just found out about this myself, and from what I have gathered from here, it looks like fun, in a simplified-but-not-the-way-4th-edition-did-it way.

That link has the quick start rules, that cover Fighter, Cleric, Rouge and Wizard to 6th level(except spell details)

also the "Why Play Castles & Crusades?" section has compiled a bunch of forum posts about it; that being said, I didn't see any optimization on those forums at first glance either.

It looks like you pick a class, pick a race, pick your "prime" stats then go play... there are no skills, at all, everything is based off of your stats.  As far as doing what we are used to skills and feats allowing in game, you can try to do anything, and it's more likely to work if that action is determined by one of your "prime" stats.

As far as balance between casters/non casters, the classes level up at different rates, so it's hard to tell just by looking at the quick start guide.  I did see alter self and polymorph mentioned though...

one more thing, they claim that you can use all the old AD&D stuff with it, by determining most C&C stats from the HD, and 3.X allegedly requires only a little more work to be compatible with C&C.
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