Tell me about your Castles and Crusades adventures!

[Charles Dunwoody]

I just purchased Castles and Crusades two weeks ago. I'm writing up a game world now. I hope to play for the first time this Friday, Feb 25.

Can anyone share some C&C adventure and/or world building stories with me?

 

[Mythmere1]

I just purchased Castles and Crusades two weeks ago. I'm writing up a game world now. I hope to play for the first time this Friday, Feb 25.

Can anyone share some C&C adventure and/or world building stories with me?

I got my copy of the Players Handbook, I guess, six weeks ago. We've run five sessions with it so far. We were originally playing D&D 3.5, and had just started a new homebrew campaign I'd been working on for a couple of months before.

I won't compare the two editions, for fear of starting a flame war. However, in order for the story to make sense, I have to say that as a DM I was having trouble co-ordinating all the 3.5 rules - things were moving slowly and there was a lot of rulebook page turning not only on my part but on the players. Enough about that.

I've found the going much easier with Castles & Crusades - I've been able to turn my time and creative energy toward building NPC personalities and plotlines, and the results are showing.

The campaign switched over while the characters were in the Shadow Plane, rescuing an associate from an evil demigod's prison (they were 9th level). In that first adventure, we had a few incidences of having to figure out a rule here and there, but these were all first-time-with-a-new-ruleset sorts of things. We've barely had to look at the rulebook since, except for spells or equipment details.

I've actually been keeping a log of the plotline on the Troll Lords Message Board, if anyone's interested in reading it - but it's plotline, so it's no different than a D&D story time, really.

I became a serious convert to the game - started a fan website, have posted a lot both here and on Troll Lords, etc. For whatever reason, I've definitely gotten back the same level of excitement I had about D&D back in the late 70's.

Really looking forward to when M&T and Castle Zagyg come out.

 

[Charles Dunwoody]

I planned on actually starting a new campaign with C&C but now I'll have to consider converting. Hmmm....

I understand about keeping hold of all the threads of a D&D 3.5 campaign. I did well with my group until they hit 10th level. They have an artificer from Eberron in the group and the math is involved. He creates great magic items but the math, oh man the math. I used the write ups for NPCs from Dungeon and other books to keep things going on my end but I have only a small amount of time to work on D&D.

We'll playtest C&C this Friday and I'll see how my players react. I'm thinking a one shot, maybe Expedition to the Barrier Peaks. Many of my players are 2nd or 3rd edition gamers so this plast from the past might really blow their minds! Vegepygmies cool.

 

[Mythmere1]

If it were out now, I'd seriously be considering starting a party in Castle Zagyg - the Yggsburgh area looks very cool, very Greyhawky.

The world we're using now was designed to be the springboard for planar adventuring (it doesn't take long to get from 9th to really-high in 3.5, and that was the plan). The pace of level-gain has slowed down, reflecting the C&C rules. I've used the extra leeway to hand out massive xp awards for roleplaying, which has made quite a change from the overall state of things as well.

Instead of blasting off into planar space, the slower level advancement has led to a different development in the plotline. The players are digging in for a long-term battle against evil (the aforementioned demigod), pulling political strings as well as planning out-and-out mayhem. There's already lots and lots of depth building in the characters' relationships with the world and its people.

It's going very nicely - I know that I couldn't have juggled the storyline's requirements (country-scale politics involving marriages and feudal alliances) with improving roleplaying with lots of high-level combats, etc. I don't have the mental wherewithal or the time to play 3E at this level of richness.

 

[Nomad4life]

Please forgive my extreme ignorance- I really do live in a deep dark hole where I do graduate work and never see the light of day.



I thought that C&C was like a “campaign setting” for 3.5? Is it a separate ruleset? Could someone please tell me what some of the differences are? I have a number of “problems” with 3.5 myself, so anything you could tell me would be great.

 

[gideon_thorne]

Please forgive my extreme ignorance- I really do live in a deep dark hole where I do graduate work and never see the light of day.



I thought that C&C was like a “campaign setting” for 3.5? Is it a separate ruleset? Could someone please tell me what some of the differences are? I have a number of “problems” with 3.5 myself, so anything you could tell me would be great.

Castles and Crusades is an OGL game that is a system on its own. Stylisticly its similar to the early years of dungeons and dragons in its simple flexability. The game is class archtype based, has an intuitive mechancs system that can be used to subsume many of the functions that feats and skills serve in the more recient editions of D&D.

More information can be found here:

http://trolllord.com/specials.htm

http://www.trolllord.com/candc.htm

Peter

 

[Charles Dunwoody]

Please forgive my extreme ignorance- I really do live in a deep dark hole where I do graduate work and never see the light of day.



I thought that C&C was like a “campaign setting” for 3.5? Is it a separate ruleset? Could someone please tell me what some of the differences are? I have a number of “problems” with 3.5 myself, so anything you could tell me would be great.

I do not hold it against you. I'm busier than a one armed wallpaper hanger myself.

Castles and Crusades is an Open Game License fantasy roleplaying game from Troll Lord Games (www.trolllord.com). It pulls rules from the OGL for D&D 3.5 (the Standard Reference Document at www.wizards.com) to create a new RPG with the trappings of D&D but uniquely different.

For in depth understanding I'd read some of the reviews here and at www.rpg.net. Also, you can visit the Troll website above for free downloads including Gary Gygax's latest and greatest work since D&D (my opinion) using the Castle and Crusades rules. You can also cruise the forums for feedback. Ask any question on the Troll forum and you're bound to get a quick and helpful response.

C&C does not use AoO, prestige classes, feats, or skills (uses attribute checks with a system called the SIEGE Engine). Monsters are built with HD but not attributes which means you can convert from all D&D sources pretty easy and create your own monsters fairly quickly.

The spells are D&D standard but with changes from 3.5. Monsters will include the classics plus new ones the Trolls have invented. Magic items similar to 3.5 but much less prevalent in the default rules of C&C.

The classes have standard abilities based on level rather than a variety of choices. While this change can seem limiting it serves two purposes. One, the player who wants to make his character different from NPCs with the same class will need to concentrate on his roleplaying more than his game abilities. Two, the CK (Castle Keeper or DM in D&D) can make NPCs really quickly (hit points, Prime stat which goes with SIEGE, equipment, spells, and you're done).

 

[Treebore]

You know I should sign up for the TLG messageboards, since I am going to switch to C&C as a DM.

 

[gideon_thorne]

You know I should sign up for the TLG messageboards, since I am going to switch to C&C as a DM.

The more the merrier. Your more than welcome.

 

[Breakdaddy]

We have only had time to play 2 complete sessions since we switched to C&C so there isnt much to tell other than we are enjoying the speedier combats and rules resolution with a lot less rulebook lookup. The SIEGE engine is brilliant IMO, and I love the attributes-as-saves feature (avoiding the dump stat syndrome that plagues many games). I am looking forward to the M&T guide big time and will get my hands on a copy ASAP.