Happeh C&C 3e

[Deleted]

Picked up the somewhat overdue Castles & Crusades Kickstarter package at the post office today.

The three core books, (3rd edition, or 3rd printing, no real clue,) plus a few extra goodies - a bag of dice and other merchandise, and a small collection of extra booklets, and including charsheets.


A well-done core book collection for a well-done system. Personally, I haven't followed TLG ever since the "Castle Zagyg"-disaster, but I am pleased to see that the system's still around, and apparently doing well.

I've never made much of a secret of the fact that I think, when it comes to D&D-retrocloning, Goodman Games generally puts out the best books and booklets in the business. But when it comes to gaming systems per se (without looking at the adventures and other products attached to them), C&C still stands fairly strong.

So, in short, looking for you additional thoughts on this one, folks!

And if you haven't done so already, perhaps consider giving it a look! Solid stuff, if not particularly revolutionary.

- R

[derv]

C&C was one of the first games I picked up and played when I came back to gaming. It ran and looked close enough to 1e AD&D of my early days, that it drew me right in. But, I have long ago set it aside for other systems. I'd certainly play it if someone else was running a game, though. And, I still pick up the C&C modules on Free RPG Day, too.

I'm not sure what the deal is with TLG. At one time they seemed to be lock stepped with the OSR. Then they went their own way. I don't hear the buzz about the game anymore, even though I know people are still playing it. That and their web page always plays havoc on my computer when I go there (image heavy or something). Not sure.

[Deleted]

My understanding is that the fallout from the failed Castle Zagig project was rather immense, and since then, the Trolls have sort of been looking for their new general theme - tried a few concepts, but never quite stuck to one.

Since I am never one to pull my punches, it doesn't help that TLG's own setting, originally released in '03 as "Erde", now updated to "Aihrde", is pretty terrible. Just badly done. I understand why they stick to it, but that doesn't make the world feel any better. Ran a long campaign in Erde back in '04, even with using old 2e adventures, the setting fell short on every corner.

[kesher]

I'm curious to know more about how a setting can "fall short"...

[Deleted]

-_- Pardon my Engrish, then, I guess.

The "Erde" setting, as I came to know it back in '04, sported a pretty solid framework - sort of Greyhawk meets Glorantha; that's why I chose it for a campaign that was basically a combination of the old N4 adventure, plus their Gaxmoor campaign story arc.

Gaxmoor itself was a fairly rewarding experience - outside of the fact that the evil guys were basically Japanese; Oni, yes, but also pretty much L5R characters, presented out of context, which made it hard to fabricate a story around them that didn't revolve around "demons just happen to look like samurai". And that is symptomatic for the entire setting - stuff that might have worked on the gaming table might just not translate well into written word. And the setting was full of stuff like this - material, that was meant to come off as sandbox-y, but really felt either too sketchy, or too convoluted. The different backstories sure made sense; they were just not very coherently written.

Not saying one could not make TLG supplements work, if one put in the appropriate amount of time - but, unless you're really in love with the setting, why do so? Especially looking at the competition from back in the day - Necromancer Games, and early Goodman Games and Green Ronin, there are way more diligently written pieces out there. Like, I appreciate that the TLG group thought so highly of their homegrown gaming world that they wanted to present to bigger audiences. But I don't want to play in it.

[Punkrabbitt]

I bought four TLG modules in a bargain bin, the first was Vakhund, another was Jzunad, I forgot the rest. The actual nuts and bolts of the adventures was good, but the overall setting seemed very inconsistent and confusing. I converted them for use with my Star Wars Saga game.

Some game pics:

[Finarvyn]

I'm pretty impressed with the writing of TLG modules overall, even if their proofreading is sometimes a bit clunky. I like the C&C rules system even though I don't play it as much as I used to (since 5E has kind of taken over my gaming life) and I find it to be a pretty elegant "what AD&D could have become" alternate to 3E. For folks interested in modern-ish pulp role playing there is Amazing Adventures, which is essentially "C&C pulp" and easy to play if you know C&C. (I compare this to StarSIEGE which I had hoped to be "C&C in space" and wasn't at all like C&C in my opinion.)

[Deleted]

Ah, I remember, TLG got a lot of flack for the lack of supposedly any professional level copywriting/proofreading. In all fairness, they were not half as bad as other companies, though, especially when budgets got cut with most D&D/d20 publishers around 2007. The new books are a different animal, though - well crafted, and well edited, from what I can say so far. Now, likely not going back to "Erde", ever, but teh system, I can see myself using when I would otherwise use d20.