OSR Castles&Crusades Interview with Luke Gygax

[GothmogIV]

Super interesting interview with Stephen Chenault of Troll Lord's Games and Luke Gygax about their current Backerkit project. If you are interested old school gaming and the early days of the hobby, well worth a watch!

 

[Jahydin]

Pretty neat conversation. I'm listening to it in chunks.

 

[TerraDave]

Big emphasis that this IS Castle Greyhawk. Or at least the closest to it that we are ever going to get.

 

[GothmogIV]

I pulled the trigger and backed the all-in option. Cry Havoc!

 

[TerraDave]

I was reading things about this project (castle zagyg)…from 20 years ago. They said it was never going to happen. Looks like it just might.

 

[GothmogIV]

Good things come to those who wait…

 

[Argyle King]

Those of you who play, can you explain a little more of what C&C is like from your perspective?

I got a free copy of the C&C rulebook due to a Backerkit collaboration between Goodman Games and Troll Lord Games.

Google says,"Castles & Crusades (C&C) is a fast-paced, "old-school" tabletop RPG (TTRPG) released by Troll Lord Games in 2004 that blends the feel of early D&D with a modern, streamlined d20 system. It uses a core mechanic called the Siege Engine to resolve all actions, offering high customization and compatibility with older adventures without needing frequent edition updates."

But I would rather hear from actual people than AI.

 

[GothmogIV]

If you have played older version of the game--OD&D or 2nd Ed.--you will be in familiar territory. If you are coming from 5e, you'll be into a completely different vibe. It has a roll high d20 mechanic, and uses a thing called the Siege Engine to adjudicate things that characters wish to do (whereas something like 5e uses skill checks). Most importantly, your characters will be far, far less robust than in a any 5e games. You are very weak at the beginning, and remain of moderate abilities until you get up there in levels. It's a great game, but I think--again, depending on what your base line is--you'll find it to be modernized version of the oldest games, or a terrifying departure from modern power gaming.

 

[Argyle King]

If you have played older version of the game--OD&D or 2nd Ed.--you will be in familiar territory. If you are coming from 5e, you'll be into a completely different vibe. It has a roll high d20 mechanic, and uses a thing called the Siege Engine to adjudicate things that characters wish to do (whereas something like 5e uses skill checks). Most importantly, your characters will be far, far less robust than in a any 5e games. You are very weak at the beginning, and remain of moderate abilities until you get up there in levels. It's a great game, but I think--again, depending on what your base line is--you'll find it to be modernized version of the oldest games, or a terrifying departure from modern power gaming.

For D&D, I started kinda in the middle: 3.0 & 3.5.

OSR and OSRish games I play: A lot of Dungeon Crawl Classics; OSRIC (just started)
Other RPGs I play: GURPS 4th Edition and Edge of the Empire (Star Wars).

I prefer a departure from 'modern power gaming.'

How well does C&C handle things like mounts and vehicles? I ask because it is often odd to me that modern D&D struggles with the classic knight on horseback archetype.

 

[GothmogIV]

I haven't done mounts or vehicles, so I can't really say. I know the rules are in there, though. The Castle's Keepers Guide is one of the best DMs books I've read. After playing a few 5e campaigns and not loving the new system, C&C hits my sweet spot. I've read (but not experienced) that it kind of breaks down at higher levels, but that's true of many games, and we seldom play past 10th level in general. I hope you enjoy it!