Castles And Crusades Players Handbook

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Summary: The Golden Age of Gaming Begins Anew!
Review: I have been in this hobby for over a decade. I began with AD&D and played it for most of my time gaming. I always liked how the older rules were so friendly to what the players wanted.

Unfortunately current editions of certain games are not that way anymore and I thought the older style would slip away. I'm glad I was wrong.

Castles and Crusades uses the best parts of the OGL stripping the D&D SRD to it's core and rebuilding it to be like a RPG should be. Fast, exciting and above all fun.

At 128 pages it may not seem like much but I had the rules down in one evening. I also taught my nephew the game in 20 minutes. It is of note that he has limited gaming experience.

Above all else C&C is easily compatable with older AD&D editions as well as the new editions making it the most versitle game in existance.

This is the best $20 you'll ever spend on a gaming product!!!!

Rating:
Summary: The Heart of the Game!
Review: I have to divide this review into two parts - one dealing with the game, and one dealing with the product (layout, ease of use, organization, etc).

The game. It's brilliant. Castles and Crusades is designed to recreate the "old school" feel of original D&D, but with more streamlined rules. It succeeds extraordinarily well at this task.

The authors' premise is that the current edition of Dungeons & Dragons has so many rules that it restricts the free-form, imaginative environment that characterized early D&D. They also acknowledged that the early editions of D&D contained some clunky rules and several gaps. Using the Open Gaming License promulgated by Wizards of the Coast (the publishers of D&D), Troll Lords took the framework of First Edition D&D and recreated it with d20 rules (and some new ones).

The resulting product bears an uncanny resemblance to the First Edition, but without the characteristic flaws of the earlier system. It moves more quickly than the more modern versions of D&D, allowing for more excitement and more time for roleplaying.

The character generation system does not permit the tremendous latitude of D&D 3E - classes are limited to eleven, with no prestige classes, and there are neither skill points nor feats with which to personalize characters.

However, it is worthy of note that the way 3E permits personalization of characters also causes the rules complexity which slows down the game. To experience a completely new feel to D&D - the original, almost hypnotic feel - or to return to it, you must try this game.

Now, on to the layout and organization. There are flaws here. While the game is phenomenal, the book itself could have stood with a second round of editing. I mention this so that the reader doesn't get a bad first impression. Ignore the fact that the character classes aren't alphabetized. Ignore a few floating semicolons and several typos. Play the game.

Get this product - if you have only played third edition D&D, you should know that there's another game, a different game, buried in D&D's past which is resurrected by Castles & Crusades. It has a faster feel, with more drama and excitement in it, and it pulls you into the magical feel of clashing swords and powerful wizardry.

This is the game you can feel beating in the heart of later editions, trapped inside the rules. It's the real thing.

Rating:
Summary: C&C Players Handbook
Review: I started playing rpgs in 1980 with the old red box Basic/blue box Expert D&D sets and have played every incarnation of the D&D game since. Castles & Crusades captures the feel of early D&D but revises the rules for the modern gamer. It is a wonderful hybrid of the best of the past and the present with smooth mechanics that make game mastering on the fly a snap. Character creation is a breeze, usually taking less than 15 minutes. If you are looking for a clean, simple rules set with an "old school" feel, I strongly recommend Castles & Crusades!

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Product !
Review: Really takes me back to the simpler days of the "red box" era. When the detail was in your own mind instead of confining rules. I hope this brings more players back to the game. Simple play mechanics uncluttered with needless detail.