Grumbling Dwarf

Castles and Crusades Review

I picked up Castles and Crusades – Players Handbook 4th printing, published by Troll Lord Games, from my friendly local game store the other day.  The role-playing game has been out for some time, but I passed it over for other tabletop role-playing games.  I had heard what some may call ‘old school gamers’ play the game. Old school referring to game types that are very similar to either original Dungeons and Dragons box sets, or 1st Edition Advanced Dungeons and Dragons when armor class went from 10 to negative 10 and negative 10 being best, saving throws vs certain properties, and skills were only really part of the thief class.

I want to tell you about the Player’s Handbook and some more about the Castles and Crusades game.

The book starts out with character generation that includes rolling up stats, choosing a class, choosing a race, equipment lists, spells and their descriptions, and then goes into some things the Castle Keeper needs to know when running a game of C&C. The Castle Keeper is the same as Game Master or Dungeon Master.

Attributes

Rolling up a character is done the 3d6 way, though if you recall other methods from 1st edition AD&D I’m sure you can go that route. Whatever way, you abilities range from 3-18 and are assigned to the following attributes:

• Strength
• Intelligence
• Dexterity
• Wisdom
• Constitution
• Charisma

Sound familiar?  Depending on your score, you may get a modifier.

Classes

You choose from the following list of classes:

• Fighter
• Wizard
• Illusionist
• Rogue
• Knight
• Paladin
• Monk
• Assassin
• Ranger
• Druid
• Cleric
• Bard

Each class has a primary and a secondary attribute.  This is key and will come in later when we talk about rolling dice and modifiers. Many follow the archetype from years ago.

Races

The following races are available to choose for your player character

• Elf
• Human
• Half-elf
• Gnome
• Dwarf
• Half Orc

Again, these are typical races often found in the earlier editions of D&D.

Alignment is still used in the game and consist of

• Neutral
• Neutral Good
• Neutral Evil
• Chaotic Neutral
• Chaotic Good
• Chaotic Evil
• Lawful Neutral
• Lawful Good
• Lawful Evil

The ongoing debate of alignment can go on forever, but it does take you back to the days of protection from evil or detect evil.

Each class has a set of abilities. These may be similar to skills in some of the more recent releases of RPG games. However, since the skills are centered around each class, characters cannot just choose to use an ability if it’s not part of their class.

Combat

I’ll try and save you on elaborate details. Here they are.

Initiative – a d10 is used. Ties are broken by dex. That’s it.

Actions are:

• Move - Normal, Jog – up to double your Normal rate, or Run – up to four times Normal rate
• Attack – single attack action
• Cast spell

Everything is still measured in rounds.

AC can be 10-20. You still have target AC, exceed it and you hit.

PC’s NPC’s ‘to hit’  - PC’s base attack bonus + STR mod for melee or DEX mod for missile weapons + d20 roll = result vs AC .  Simple

For NPC’s ‘to hit’ – Hit Die + d20 roll = result vs AC. Simple

Missile weapons – thrown weapons use STR modifier, powered (eg crossbow) uses DEX modifier. Range increments are used. Nothing to elaborate. If something is thrown or shot, it continues in straight line. So even if you miss a guy, it goes on for a chance to hit someone behind him. Makes sense.

Saving Throws – many of the 1st Ed AD&D are used to include Spells, Breath Weapon, Poison, Paralyzation, etc.

No attacks of opportunity unless someone has a reach weapon. You may charge someone and have won initiative, but they can attack you first if  they have reach. Again, makes sense.

Charge – you have to at least Jog or Run to accomplish a charge which gives you a +2 on damage, but -4 on AC for the round.

Challenges – If the challenge is a primary attribute then the difficulty class is 12. If the challenge falls under the character’s secondary attribute the difficulty class is 18.  In order to succeed you roll a d20, add your attribute modifier and your level.  The Castle Keeper can modify the difficulty class based if the task is easy or hard, but it is usually based on the opposition’s level or hit die. This makes it easy and keeps things on a level playing field. An example  in the book outlines a rock that a pc wants to move. Moving the rock requires strength. The fighter’s primary attribute is strength, so the base DC 12. If the wizard wanted to push it, he has strength as a secondary which would be base DC as 18 for him. It’s moving a rock and does not require anything special. We’ll give the task a level 1 scenario. If it was countering a spell, then the modifier would be the spell caster’s level. Back to the rock, the target number to push the rock for the fighter would be 13. Simple. Spells and saving throws are treated this way, though spells may have their own details. This method may sound similar to today’s skill checks, but it’s not. This is merely after the player states what they want to do. Noticing something is not the GM stating, “give me a perception roll” and then spoon feeding to the players. The rules are to be handled with kit gloves. It’s not necessary to have checks every time a character tries to do something.

Those are some of the details of the system and the Castles and Crusades game. There are some details of the game that we didn’t go into. It’s a role-playing game that I’d certainly play and recommend to those that want to get back to making characters that have to think. Lets get back to the days when you had 3 torches, a pole to detect pit traps, and the 1 week of iron rations.