Castles & Crusades - just got my copy of M&T

Mythmere1

First Post
At last! My copy of M&T arrived in the mail today. I have only just started going through it (mainly checking the edits I made to the original draft - I read through A-F in an early draft). And also showing my son my name in the title credits.

So far, all I've looked through is layout and illustrations. Thus far, an A on layout (my only complaint is the font used for the monster names - a bit busy) and an A++ on art. The pictures are a bit smaller than they were intended, I think, and I've had to look closely at a couple of them to see the detail. However, I can say that some of the illustrations are classic illustrations equivalent to the Rakshasa picture in the 1e MM. Truly that good. Check out the androsphinx, the satyr, the remorhaz, mummy, homonculus, halfling, ghast, gargoyle (the gargoyle pic should have been bigger - it suffers from the small size), the green dragon and the dragon attack pic on p. 20, the cockatrice, and many others. The dragon on page 7 is beautiful.

I'm loving this. The androsphynx and the page 7 dragon are iconic pictures. I would buy the androsphynx original if I could afford it. Wow.

Editing seems good. I have spotted only one typo in the book so far, and in the PHB spotting only one typo in a page was good. This is up to the highest pro standards as far as I can tell.

This looks like a home-run product, and I'm as picky as they come.
 

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I tried to get over to Troll Lord HQ yesterday but I was too late. Steve went to Origins, so now I have to wait until he gets back before I can get my copy! OH NOES!!!!
 


Does the trasures portion look well written and do they have (much) depth?

I still haven't settled down for much of a straight-through read, but everything seems to be covered in the treasure tables, from fiefs to magic item creation. The number of items described seems at first glance to be fewer than in the 3e DMG, but not by a whole lot. There are almost no pictures in the treasure section, which might create the impression of fewer items.

As to well written, I haven't scrutinized the prose yet, but I have only seen one or two typos in the entire book.
 



der_kluge said:
Magic item creation? I'm surprised. With no feats, how did they reconcile this?

Probably the way TSR did with 1E and 2E, unless I'm mistaken. Mythmere, is it sort of XP-based a la 3E but with general guidelines, or is it more a clone of the general "DM makes it all up" rules from earlier editions?
 

Henry said:
Probably the way TSR did with 1E and 2E, unless I'm mistaken. Mythmere, is it sort of XP-based a la 3E but with general guidelines, or is it more a clone of the general "DM makes it all up" rules from earlier editions?

I didn't know there were 1e rules for magic item creation. 2e's rules in the Book of Magic were ill-conceived pieces of crap, from what I remember. They made no sense at all.
 

der_kluge said:
I didn't know there were 1e rules for magic item creation.

Please note:

...is it more a clone of the general "DM makes it all up" rules from earlier editions?

;)

The general rules in ye olden days were as follows:

1. Player Proposes a Magic Item.
2. DM tells him what he needs to spend in research costs (for a lab, library, etc.) Rough guidelines were so many thousands of g.p. based on item's cost.
3. After spending a part of that, the DM tells the character whether it's even POSSIBLE to make the item (general rule was no artifacts, etc.)
4. DM comes up with a list like "5,000 g.p. ruby, the breath of a summer dragon, and the hide of an undamaged Aurumvorax." Ingredients vary by item, and by DM preference for magic item creation.
5. PC goes and buys/quests for items requested. "Plus" weapons were made by the "magic weapon" spell, charges were made by casting a given spell in every day, item creation had to be unbroken time. "Enchant an Item" spell (6th level) was required, also for any item not a scroll or potion.

6. Item was sealed with the "Permanency" spell. To re-add charges, you cast "Enchant an Item" and you could cast spells into the item for a time period to juice it back up.

Therefore, you had to be at least 8th level for scroll and potions (I believe) and 12th level for any permanent items.

HOWEVER, you got XP for making the item (believeable, considering the requirements!) and wands, staves, and rods were mostly rechargeable, meaning you didn't have to go through all that to reload them. :)
 

Not being much of a 3e player I cant say how close it resembles that edition. But what I can say is that the methods used are largely intuitive guides with some mechanistic methodology. Like the rest of C&C its a blend of many good parts as far as I can see.

In other words, one gets to use the best method of magic item creation. *taps side of head* :)

Henry said:
Probably the way TSR did with 1E and 2E, unless I'm mistaken. Mythmere, is it sort of XP-based a la 3E but with general guidelines, or is it more a clone of the general "DM makes it all up" rules from earlier editions?
 

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