Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
D&D Older Editions
Castles & Crusades vs. Old School Essentials vs. Low Fantasy Gaming
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="deganawida" data-source="post: 8651777" data-attributes="member: 67836"><p>I recently got the 8th printing of the Castles & Crusades Players Handbook, and love it. I still need to do some more reading, but I'll try to sum up my thoughts thus far, below.</p><p></p><p>I like OSE, having bought the books for Classic Fantasy, Advanced Fantasy, and the really well done DM screen. However, what I found when I tried running a session is that my appreciation for it is less for how it plays and its default assumptions, but more in how the rules (remember, this is B/X) reinforce and encourage that play style. It's like appreciating the design behind a race car while still preferring horse races and finding car races boring (guilty).</p><p></p><p>What I have found with Castles & Crusades, is that, while I like the rules, the <em>feel</em> is what I really appreciate. I started with AD&D Second Edition, and that type of fantasy where it's on the border of heroic and high fantasy was what the game system seemed aimed at, whether it captured that or not. C&C does feel that it captures that type of fantasy. The classes aren't designed to be killing machines; each class has major abilities that don't play in combat. Instead, they seem to capture the archetypes that I love in fantasy fiction, and give you abilities that mimic them. I mean, I can think of a mechanical benefit for the Knight class to be able to knight NPCs and thus give them the class, but the real benefit that I glean from this is that is something knights do in the fiction, when they find someone worthy. The mechanical benefit would only be reinforcing the fiction. Deer Stalker allows Barbarians to be superior athletes. Rangers are your expert trackers. The Bard is like that one dude from <em>The Black Cauldron </em>with the brooch whose name I can never remember, instead of being straight Fflewdyr Fflamm, what with the emphasis on persuasion and legend lore and combat and no magic. These elements are most important to me, because they help me to feel that I am like these characters from fantasy fiction and movies that I wanted to be when a young child. </p><p></p><p>Essentially, it boils down to this for me: For a straight up game, where you just want to play as a fun pastime, OSE is great. I'm sure there's lots of emergent gameplay from it that's not expected, similar to what will happen in a Risk or Monopoly session. However, if you want to emulate the literature and movies and cartoons that may have inspired your preference for fantasy (assuming you started as I did), then C&C all the way.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="deganawida, post: 8651777, member: 67836"] I recently got the 8th printing of the Castles & Crusades Players Handbook, and love it. I still need to do some more reading, but I'll try to sum up my thoughts thus far, below. I like OSE, having bought the books for Classic Fantasy, Advanced Fantasy, and the really well done DM screen. However, what I found when I tried running a session is that my appreciation for it is less for how it plays and its default assumptions, but more in how the rules (remember, this is B/X) reinforce and encourage that play style. It's like appreciating the design behind a race car while still preferring horse races and finding car races boring (guilty). What I have found with Castles & Crusades, is that, while I like the rules, the [I]feel[/I] is what I really appreciate. I started with AD&D Second Edition, and that type of fantasy where it's on the border of heroic and high fantasy was what the game system seemed aimed at, whether it captured that or not. C&C does feel that it captures that type of fantasy. The classes aren't designed to be killing machines; each class has major abilities that don't play in combat. Instead, they seem to capture the archetypes that I love in fantasy fiction, and give you abilities that mimic them. I mean, I can think of a mechanical benefit for the Knight class to be able to knight NPCs and thus give them the class, but the real benefit that I glean from this is that is something knights do in the fiction, when they find someone worthy. The mechanical benefit would only be reinforcing the fiction. Deer Stalker allows Barbarians to be superior athletes. Rangers are your expert trackers. The Bard is like that one dude from [I]The Black Cauldron [/I]with the brooch whose name I can never remember, instead of being straight Fflewdyr Fflamm, what with the emphasis on persuasion and legend lore and combat and no magic. These elements are most important to me, because they help me to feel that I am like these characters from fantasy fiction and movies that I wanted to be when a young child. Essentially, it boils down to this for me: For a straight up game, where you just want to play as a fun pastime, OSE is great. I'm sure there's lots of emergent gameplay from it that's not expected, similar to what will happen in a Risk or Monopoly session. However, if you want to emulate the literature and movies and cartoons that may have inspired your preference for fantasy (assuming you started as I did), then C&C all the way. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
D&D Older Editions
Castles & Crusades vs. Old School Essentials vs. Low Fantasy Gaming
Top