Castles and Crusades

I picked this up at my local game store because it intrigued me. It is one of the myriad of "classic D&D" games that are out these days. It most resembles first edition, so it's a bit of gaming nostalgia for those of us that first encountered the game decades ago. It has an advantage over it's ancestor in that the systems match up a lot better. The basic mechanic of the game (a d 20 modified roll based with success determined by either a primary or secondary statistic) is pretty easy to grasp. Character creation works a lot more like old style D&D. Yes, it lacks the nuances that are possible with fifth edition, but the ease of explaining it to newbies makes it a better "gateway drug" to role playing than D&D is.

There are two items that make this nice for both players and DMs (oh, I'm sorry, "Castle Keepers.") The Player's Handbook also contains everything you need to run the game as well. The Player's Handbook and the Monsters and Treasures book, both listed at $30, are all a Keeper needs to run the game.

The fact that the system is "D&D lite" makes for another advantage: the fact that you can easily convert commercially available adventures and supplements for D&D/Pathfinder/Dungeon Crawl Classics or whatever. Actually, you can even use those old modules from thirty years ago. Keep on the Borderlands lives!

Troll Lord Games has a variety of their own supplements for the game. Here is where I find the downside. I realize that Troll Lord is a small publisher, but I'd still like to see a bit better job of editing and quality control. I ordered a copy of the Codex Slavorum (a Slavic world book, they also make Greek/Roman, Celtic, Nordic and Germanic world books) and Gods & Monsters (their equivalent of the old Dieties & Demigods book). Codex Slavorum was fascinating (why Slavic mythology and culture hasn't been plundered more for RPG settings is beyond me), but I found it poorly organized as a game book. There is a nice section full of monsters of Slavic legend (I have thrown a few into a Savage Worlds campaign I run), but the list of deities is kind of a jumble and lacks the details that the entries in the Gods & Monsters books has. I want to know the difference between a cleric of Triglav and one that serves Perun or Svarog. The book doesn't give me much of a clue.

The list of gods also reveals another problem: many of these names begin with kreska consonants, those letters with diacritic marks that we see in Slavic languages. The trouble is, when the book was published, those capital letters came out as rectangles. Probably a technical problem with whatever publish-on-demand hardware they use, but a book with a mistake like that should not be sent to customers.

I also found that the new classes and races were way out of balance.

Gods & Monsters is better organized and has some interesting concepts for the game (granted abilities, for example), but I saw that the Aztec pantheon is missing Quetzalcoatl. Are you kidding?

I'd still recommend the game (the published adventures are nice) and I hope that some of the trouble with the supplements will be solved in future editions.

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A while back, I wrote a review of sorts of Castles & Crusades. I have finally gotten around to running a few adventures.

First off, the D&D lite aspect of the rules makes it relatively easy to explain to new players since D&D is still the gateway drug for role playing games. The ease of the so-called siege engine mechanic makes it really easy to explain to newbies who dont have much experience with D&D as well.

That all said, I found a drawback in my first game. I ran an adventure made by the games publisher, Troll Lord Games, that was ostensibly for first level characters. It ended up being a near total party kill. I had a chat with J. R., who is an RPG guru I play with, and he explained that because the characters are rolled up with 3d6 rather than some of the other methods offered in games like D&D and Pathfinder, first level characters tend to be very low powered. Successful rolls are few and far between because their ability scores are too average earn bonuses.

So, I told everyone that we were starting from scratch. I designed a new adventure that involved the characters having to meet a witch who gave them a few low powered magic items and they completed the adventure successfully.

A second session included two new people: a woman who was recently introduced to D&D by a friend and another who hadnt played since she was 13. I explained the mechanics to them and they got it. When they slipped up, the other players would help because it was simple enough that offering help didnt end up being a chore. It was nice.

My challenge has been how to make the adventures doable by a group of relatively weak first level characters, but dangerous enough that they will get the experience to move on to higher levels. Ive kept the monsters relatively low hit points and larded up the gold rewards to give them enough experience that they will move up relatively quickly.

In my last post on Castles & Crusades, I noted that the Castle Keepers Guide was not necessary to run the game. After running the second game, I bought the electronic copy and found that many of the so-called cheating methods to roll up a stronger character are listed in there. I didnt feel right throwing that in for new players after the old players had to do it the hard way. As the experienced characters are advanced I may have new characters use these methods. In the meantime, Ill just use those for the villains.

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