We gotta have some C&C fans. I've enjoyed the game as AD&D 3e.

Anyone running a campaign? Doing something kewl with the system? Or using the official Troll Lords setting?

What's everybody's experience considering the game is 16 years old now.

A guy who lives near me is running a campaign on a regular basis. Every once in a while I think about joining his game, but I have a lot to do with work and my own game group and (sometimes) playing 5E at the game store so I never get around to it.

I don't do much with C&C anymore. I playtested back in the early days and spent a lot of time playing C&C once it came out, but my group is currently more interested in 5E than C&C so my rulebooks are collecting a lot of dust at the moment. I have this desire to reintroduce OD&D to the group, so C&C may remain on the back shelf for a while longer.

Having said all that, I still think that C&C is one of the best game systems out there. It's better organized than OD&D. It's better written than AD&D. It's better mechanics than 3E. It's simpler and faster than 5E. I think it suffers from a lack of marketing, as I never see C&C stuff at my local game store and nobody runs C&C there. Even the Troll Lords seem to be moving more to 5E -- they keep creating 5E content and Amazing Adventures is about to be re-released as a 5E product.

Quote from: finarvyn;1124438A guy who lives near me is running a campaign on a regular basis. Every once in a while I think about joining his game, but I have a lot to do with work and my own game group and (sometimes) playing 5E at the game store so I never get around to it.

I don't do much with C&C anymore. I playtested back in the early days and spent a lot of time playing C&C once it came out, but my group is currently more interested in 5E than C&C so my rulebooks are collecting a lot of dust at the moment. I have this desire to reintroduce OD&D to the group, so C&C may remain on the back shelf for a while longer.

Having said all that, I still think that C&C is one of the best game systems out there. It's better organized than OD&D. It's better written than AD&D. It's better mechanics than 3E. It's simpler and faster than 5E. I think it suffers from a lack of marketing, as I never see C&C stuff at my local game store and nobody runs C&C there. Even the Troll Lords seem to be moving more to 5E -- they keep creating 5E content and Amazing Adventures is about to be re-released as a 5E product.

Quote from: finarvyn;1124438A guy who lives near me is running a campaign on a regular basis. Every once in a while I think about joining his game, but I have a lot to do with work and my own game group and (sometimes) playing 5E at the game store so I never get around to it.

I don't do much with C&C anymore. I playtested back in the early days and spent a lot of time playing C&C once it came out, but my group is currently more interested in 5E than C&C so my rulebooks are collecting a lot of dust at the moment. I have this desire to reintroduce OD&D to the group, so C&C may remain on the back shelf for a while longer.

Having said all that, I still think that C&C is one of the best game systems out there. It's better organized than OD&D. It's better written than AD&D. It's better mechanics than 3E. It's simpler and faster than 5E. I think it suffers from a lack of marketing, as I never see C&C stuff at my local game store and nobody runs C&C there. Even the Troll Lords seem to be moving more to 5E -- they keep creating 5E content and Amazing Adventures is about to be re-released as a 5E product.

I agree with you about C&C ; it's actually one of the best D&D-like systems out there. Unfortunately it just can't get much traction, for whatever reason. I do blame the trolls on their total inability to proofread when they print a new batch, which has agitated me to no end. The last game I ran was B/X, and we almost used C&C instead, but I switched at the last second to totally distance the players from anything that resembled 5th edition because they were starting to get some bad habits. I waffle between running AD&D and C&C almost weekly, but AD&D usually wins out for whatever reason. No idea why, I can run C&C while really drunk because the combat system is brain-dead easy, and it's easier for the players because they can just tell me what AC they hit instead of me having to look at the chart. I will say I use the AD&D Turn Undead tables whenever I run C&C, though, because I fucking hate how 3rd/5th/whatever did it, and C&C resembles that too much for my tastes. Also I don't really like the saving throws so much, but it does make the game more deadly at higher levels, which is nice. I prefer the martial bard, ranger, and paladin over AD&D sometimes because it makes magic more rare. Overall, C&C is grittier than AD&D, and that's a good change of pace.

Anyone back the CKG Kickstarter? I said I'd never back another one of the Trolls KS because I still haven't gotten my Gods and Monsters book they promised with the PHB KS, but I do like new books...

Also I had to edit this post because I got an error: Non-English characters are not accepted: &C ; Nice.

So what's so awesome about C&C?  Old-school grognard here, familiar with AD&D1E and 3.5E.

Never played. Always wanted to though. This thread makes me want to more.

You C&C fans -- what would be your recommended C&C starter kit for noobs? https://www.trolllord.com/tlgstore/#!/Castles-&-Crusades-Player-Books-Combo/p/116069011/category=13376122 and https://www.trolllord.com/tlgstore/#!/Castles-&-Crusades-Castle-Keepers-Guide/p/45154033/category=13376125 ? Anything else that's a can't-miss or shouldn't-miss? Any great adventures/setting content?

The C&C Bard is my favorite version of that class by a long shot.   I ran C&C for a few years (~2005-07), using the PHB and M&T, before the siren song of OD&D (via S&W White Box) lured me away.  It's a fine system, and my then-group picked it up quickly and had a lot of fun.

Currently running a C&C game on Saturday nights. I've been on board since the first printing. For me it is what 3rd Edition should have been, cleaned up AD&D. By far my favorite thing to come out of the OGL.

Mark

Quote from: insubordinate polyhedral;1124474Never played. Always wanted to though. This thread makes me want to more.

You C&C fans -- what would be your recommended C&C starter kit for noobs? https://www.trolllord.com/tlgstore/#!/Castles-&-Crusades-Player-Books-Combo/p/116069011/category=13376122 and https://www.trolllord.com/tlgstore/#!/Castles-&-Crusades-Castle-Keepers-Guide/p/45154033/category=13376125 ? Anything else that's a can't-miss or shouldn't-miss? Any great adventures/setting content?

You only need the PHB, honestly. The MM is good, but if you have an old AD&D MM, you can probably convert it in your head in about five seconds per monster. The CKG is unnecessary if you're remotely familiar with running games; it has a ton of good ideas, but most of the stuff is optional rules and any DM who has been running a game for a couple years could probably come up with something just as good if not better.

That said, the best thing out there is a Conan book some fan wrote; I think he might have made a post on here before. It's free and badass.

I found C&C about 6 years ago when I was looking to get back into gaming, after 20+ years away from it.  I played AD&D from '80 thru about '89.  I looked at Pathfinder and didn't like all the rules.  Way too heavy for me.  Found C&C just by poking around on the internet.  Bought the digest versions of the core books on ebay just to try it out.  I really liked the simplicity of it.  I also got some great advice from guys on the TLG forums.  I started a one on one campaign with my son playing old D&D and 1E modules in the Greyhawk setting.  We still run the game once a month or so.  I love the way it plays.  It's easy to convert on the fly.

Quote from: Brad;1124480You only need the PHB, honestly. The MM is good, but if you have an old AD&D MM, you can probably convert it in your head in about five seconds per monster. The CKG is unnecessary if you're remotely familiar with running games; it has a ton of good ideas, but most of the stuff is optional rules and any DM who has been running a game for a couple years could probably come up with something just as good if not better.

That said, the best thing out there is a Conan book some fan wrote; I think he might have made a post on here before. It's free and badass.

Well, thanks to theRPGSite, I'm now in for yet another system to read and longingly dream of playing. You guys had better start an online game sometime or something. We're all freakin quarantined anyway.

But seriously, thanks! And thanks for pushing me off of the fence. I'm really looking forward to reading these.

Don't forget if you play online using Fantasy Grounds the full ruleset is available and works nicely.

Quote from: Brad;1124480You only need the PHB, honestly. The MM is good, but if you have an old AD&D MM, you can probably convert it in your head in about five seconds per monster. The CKG is unnecessary if you're remotely familiar with running games; it has a ton of good ideas, but most of the stuff is optional rules and any DM who has been running a game for a couple years could probably come up with something just as good if not better.

This exactly. I was in on the playtest of C&C back in 2003 and it was PH-only. We used my AD&D 2E Monster Manual for most of the critters and ran my crew through a bunch of the old "monochrome" AD&D modules (the Giants series, I think) and everything ran just fine. The monster books that TLG puts out are pretty solid but I own the CKG but honestly have never really used it.

Quote from: Brad;1124480That said, the best thing out there is a Conan book some fan wrote; I think he might have made a post on here before. It's free and badass.

You can find that stuff here: https://www.grey-elf.com/  Jason actually just posted his 3rd sourcebook in that series. You can download all 3 books and a GM screen and a character sheet for free.

C&C has been my go-to OSR game since 2004. I run all my OSR games using it exclusively.

I've been following C&C for years, though without the chance to play it--I keep coming back to it as a baseline engine for the streamlined 2E-style games I'd like to run, but haven't gotten around to yet. But they're giving away the current PHB in digital format for free at //www.trolllord.com/tlgstore/ right now.

ETA: One other upside--unlike WotC, Paizo, or Green Ronin, I don't think the Trolls hate me or would disapprove of me using their games.

Fan here- I've run it quite a bit since 2004-ish. I used the PHB and the AD&D MM and Monstrous Manual only for years until I got a copy of M&T.

It's one of my "go to'  D&D games (along with DW, and 13th Age). My players enjoy it. And the system is very amiable to all my houserules (i.e. mostly thigs I have stolen from other D20 games), and still on the fly easy peasy compatible with O/TSR material as well as 3.X.

I have run a few Siege Engine variants over the years, and the system handles it.  E.g.  during the NEXT playtest, I stole Advantage,  made all rolls a flat CC/DC of 15 and PRIME would allow Advantage on rolls. It worked fine. I have messed with Math directly (12/18) and indirectly (e.g. using modern D&D Ability bonus charts so dice roll mods are higher and PCs getting Ability Score bonuses over time ), and the whole system reacts well.

TLG is a great company and runs all kinds of sales over a year (and did so long before many others) and making it easy to procure more fun stuff ( owning their own print shop is a huge advantage here).  Good people. They even just offered up the PHB for free during recent events.

My only pet peeve- Not really a fan of Peter Bradley's cheesecake art, or his interpretations of classic D&D creatures like Gnomes, Goblins, Kobolds, etc.   I do admire his trying to do things differently, but not digging his execution.