Castles & Crusades
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| Castles & Crusades | |
|---|---|
| Designer(s) | Davis Chenault, Mac Golden, Robert Doyel |
| Publisher(s) | Troll Lord Games |
| Publication date | 2004 |
| Genre(s) | Fantasy |
| System | Siege Engine (adjusted d20 System) |
Castles & Crusades is a role-playing game published by Troll Lord Games in 2004. It was conceived as a reimagining of Basic and Advanced Dungeons and Dragons using streamlined mechanics from third edition Dungeons and Dragons. The game uses many of the d20 System mechanics, but eliminates skills and feats and expands the number of character classes to 13. The minimalistic approach to the rules gives both the players and the game master, in this game called the Castle Keeper, wide lassitude to act on the imagination, unhindered by codified mechanics. Another feature is the reversion of some rules to the original versions seen in Basic or first edition Advanced Dungeons and Dragons.
The most innovative new mechanic in Castles & Crusades is the Prime mechanic, whereby characters designate some of their attributes as Prime. Prime attributes use a difficulty class of 12, while non-Prime attributes use a difficulty class of 18. A difficulty class is the amount over which a character must roll his d20 to succeed, after the base difficulty class has been modified by whatever conditions pertain. In general, this is viewed to be a simple and elegant system, but the use of different difficulty classes instead of modifiers makes it harder to adjudicate opposed rolls. A slightly more intuitive way use of this mechanic is to grant a +6 bonus to the character's roll when using a prime attribute.
Three products have been produced for Castles & Crusades: an introductory boxed set, the Players Handbook, and Monsters & Treasure, a list of creatures and magic items for the game. An updaded products list can be found here, Troll Lord Games including many new products written and/or overseen by Gary Gygax. Also, small press publisher Goodman Games has published two adventures for Castles & Crusades, Palace of Shadows and the Mysterious Tower.
Forthcoming products, still in production can be found on this listing. Anvil
The name of the game derives from the Castle & Crusade Society, founded in the pre-Dungeons & Dragons era, by Gary Gygax. The title is in homage to the roleplaying industry's birth.
Many people find converting between classic D&D, AD&D, HackMaster, and C&C trivial. Therefore, C&C can leverage modules written for those games, and fans of those games might be interested in C&C products even if they don't play C&C itself.
