Setting the Stage

I’ve heard about Castles and Crusades for years, in the background, whispers and rumours, but never run into anyone who actually played it. Before the holidays, I was at my local gaming store ( Sentry Box ) and was going through the RPG content on their massive wall of gaming books. My eldest son was with me, watching what I was looking at, hoping to find a hint of what dad might like as a gift.

I noticed they had a copy of an old edition of Castles and Crusades’ Player Handbook, and I pointed it out to him. It’s a thin yellow book, a third printing. On Christmas Day, surprise surprise, I was the proud owner of C&C ‘s PH and read it. It had a few nuggets that intrigued me, so I went to the Troll Lord Games site and ordered the Player’s Handbook (8th printing and WAY thicker), the Castle Keeper’s Guide (aka GM’s guide), and the Monsters and Treasure book.

Side note - unfortunately due to terrible shipping circumstances, the books I ordered directly from Troll Lord Games (makers of C&C) arrived very damaged with the M&T book completely destroyed and the others warped and badly damaged but okay enough for me to read and provide this review. There was water pouring out of the box, it was just…gah… international shipping can be a nightmare. I want to say that the TLG team ended up doing right by me - which says a lot today, because I’ve had plenty of places making a shipping problem my problem. Though, TLG gang, can you align with the others out there and offer the PDF with the hardcover when people buy directly from you?

What is C&C?

Like Pathfinder, Castle and Crusaders came from the era of d20/3E Open Gaming License games. I believe it was first published in 2004, and there’s a history in the C&C Player’s Handbook (C&C PHB from here on out) that’s a fun read. While I usually skip over that type of stuff in a book, I didn’t and something really important came across. In reading it, I came away with a sense of a sense of driven passion and love for the original game, supported by a dedicated group of gamer-friends, that levelled up from home-brew to something, in many ways, their own.

I have to say that C&C really feels like a superior successor to AD&D than the official 2nd edition was. I hope when I read the Caste Keeper’s Guide next, it furthers this feeling. I say this as someone who spent many years playing AD&D (aka 1e) as a kid and teen, and then moved on to 2e for a while before adulting happened and made gaming a rare thing - though over the past few years has been loving engaging about it, and playing a bit, with his kids.

The Notable and Noteworthy

There’s a lot of “D&D Clones” that are the same, bordering on identical, with nothing to really offer. They took the Open Gaming License (OGL) content and basically rewrote existing content. And it’s easy to misread that in what C&C has to offer, but here’s a few things that really caught my eye. Note that I’m not claiming these are unique to C&C, but I don’t recall running across these in other systems, and definitely not together

Cleaned Up Mechanics

It’s clear that rather than C&C taking the lead from 3e D&D, it really comes across as taking the best from 1e and modernizing it. It’s also clear that C&C has matured over the years, but here’s a few things that I appreciated, and I’m sure this came as a result of resolving fights with players or resolving those philosophical debates that could accidentally nullify an attempted gaming session.

The armor rules are really clear and simple, and it doesn’t prevent a Wizard from wearing armor, but rather it clearly defines the impact of doing that. Same with a Rogue (Thief) who wants to wear plate mail and try to sneak across that open courtyard.

Primary and Secondary attributes (aka primary stats) have clear meaning, so if two characters have a strength of 18 but one has selected to have strength as a primary state, and the other doesn’t, they have different base challenge ratings whenever there’s a strength check (12 versus 18). This is the idea that someone may be strong but someone else may know how to use their body better.

Throughout the C&C PHB, there’s clear attempts at using simple language to explain something and it makes all the difference. The highly experienced gamer who’s gone through multiple editions will note “oh wait, that means you can’t do this… but actually, that’s a good thing.” There’s the saving throws breakdown and explanation, which I liked, that also falls into this area. Then there’s the touch of additional content to help new players and CKs (aka GMs) like the Typical Knightly Virtues and Code of Conduct on page 49.

Whether you were new to the “D&D family” or moving over from another edition, you’d be in good hands with C&C.

High Level Classes

The description of every class (Barbarian, Cleric, Druid, Wizard, Illusionist, Rogue, Bard, Fighter, Ranger, Paladin, Knight, Assassin) is well laid out, with two distinct parts. The first covers levels 1 to 12, the other covers 13 through 24. The descriptions are broken into two sections, the first dealing with levels 1 to 12, and the second dealing with the more epic levels.

In going through the high level content for each class, you see intent, passion, and game-play experience showing through in order to allow players to take their characters to truly epic heights.

Illusionist

It’s easy to miss how much effort has been put in to making the Illusionist a peer of the Wizard, instead of a second rate magic user. I almost felt like there were debates over changing the name to something like a Phantasmer or something else to denote how it’s not about illusions, but rather about truly changing reality, maybe just momentarily, for whomever the spell effected - think of the Doctor Strange movie and you’ll know what I mean. Cast a spell and have a character climb a rope that others can’t see, heal a wound with the power of mind over matter, and what note.

Rather than just stating this with words but offering up the same-old same-old Illusionist spells and abilities, C&C brings it home with new spells that make all the difference. Part of me smiled at this, thinking of how it’s almost like taking the “Schools of Magic” parts of 2nd edition, boiling it down, refining that, and then filtering through the lens of a better 1st edition. Really well done. It’s the type of thing to make me want to find SOME hole in my schedule that would allow me to game again.

The Ugh and the Ignoble

While nothing’s perfect, and only a villainous savage would call out little things, there’s very little to be negative about. There’s a few descriptions here and there that deserve to be revisited, probably having lasted too many editions, and as a result feel clumsy compared to the rest of the material, but that could be said of any work. There’s one thing but it only relates to the hardcover, and I mention it below.

Thinking of the GM as the CK (Castle Keeper) gets some getting used to, and if you know your religious history, the term crusades can get under your skin a bit, but the game is not castle-centric and there’s no invading of people’s homelands to extinguish their culture. It’s a classic open fantasy game with a name that related to fun and adventure. The marketing part of my author-side wonders if the game could benefit from a branding reboot to reposition it, but that’s not what this review’s about.

Is the Hardcover worth it?

I intentionally wanted the hardcovers because I wanted to decorate my shelf, it’s unfortunate what happened and even more so that I can’t get them from my local gaming store Sentry Box. But in a word, yes, it’s worth it. Even my damaged copies were enough to make that clear.

As an author of 12 books, I have to give major kudos to anyone who goes down the road of writing and publishing a book. Regardless of what the book is, tip of the hat. A physical book? Double tip of the hat, heck, honestly, maybe giving them the hat. For the books I’ve published, I fret over every aspect of their physical manifestation - weight, feel of the cover, feel of the page, transparency, overall look, size, readability, etc. Think of Steve Jobs maniacally obsessing over a new potential product to launch in Apple’s hay day, and that’s what I think I’m like.

So when someone produces a physical RPG book that gives me a sense of quality and invokes some of the feelings from the old days of having nothing to worry about other than ordering pizza and making sure enough of my players were going to show up, it means something to me. The Castles and Crusades Player’s handbook did that.

That said, there’s a few things that made me twitchy. The main one, and it bothered me almost every page, is the header and footer. These lined up with paragraphs or sections, but it didn’t relate. Because of the size, color, and paragraph justification of the header (and footer), my brain kept going “What, what? That’s not what this is about.”

Final Word

First impressions of C&C provided by the Player’s Handbook is one that gives a big thumbs up. The mechanics are clear, the classes and races are well described and look fun, and rather than tilt toward too much complexity, it tilts away from that giving that feeling it would not overwhelm new comers and satisfy experienced gamers.

UPDATED Sept 24, 2022 - I really appreciated the comments and emails I got about this, as well as the CastleKeeper’s Guide review. It prompted me to pick up Monsters & Treasures and have an improved view of the game.