My C&C campaign is kicking some major butt

[Akrasia]

Our game may have been slightly weak last night ...
The paladin has decided to unite the fragmented kingdoms and feudal areas of the South against an evil demigod whose power is rising in the north - in this session, they consolidated their hold on a wilderness stronghold taken from giants, did a bit of diplomacy with the good giants, met the Abbot of a monastery that focuses on a Regimen of Twelve Increments to reform evil monsters and humanoids, then extracted the paladin's sister from a problematic marriage and established the paladin as a count. The paladin now dislikes the abbot, the ranger now dislikes the paladin's sister. The wizard has overcome a phobia of teleportation. For the next session, they've got dungeoneering plans, so I've got a more structured plan for next time.
...

I actually find those sessions quite satisfying -- they are pivotal in helping the campaign move forward, and are often more memorable than the "we killed 30 orcs and a giant" sessions.

 

[S'mon]

I probably swap over quite happily even though clerics may not be so powerful in C&C as in 3.5. I think that avoiding rigid use of battlemats for encounters has helped, though we have needed it for a few. It'll be interesting to see if the party can avoid a TPK before 7-8th level given the odd times our dice rolling can turn bad though.

If we converted to C&C at the end of Barakus campaign, characters' levels would be adjusted to take account of C&C differential XP - eg the Rogues would go up a lot of levels (& Amando would likely become an Assassin), Cleric probably up 1 level, Fighters stay the same, Wizard go down a level or 2.
Re 3e, I was a bit concerned by the amount of time taken square-counting in the battle with the orc & his dogs last night (especially Amando trying to decide whether to Tumble), but since you were in desperate straits I decided not to worry much about it. Fate Points have worked well since without them you might be on your 3rd PC - I'd retain them in C&C of course.

 

[Aus_Snow]

In short, C&C made me happy to be a GM again.

Nice to hear.

I'll have to check it out some time, just for a change of pace. I tend to house rule and wing things a helluva, so new is fine. . . except it's "old-school", isn't it?

Incidentally, is there a blow-by-blow combat account, or perhaps some other classically 'A/D&D'-type situation you could post (in C&C format)?

Always curious to read "actual play" snippets and such, and to see comparisons, not in hysterical terms of 'edition war xyz'; just in practical terms.

 

[MonsterMash]

If we converted to C&C at the end of Barakus campaign, characters' levels would be adjusted to take account of C&C differential XP - eg the Rogues would go up a lot of levels (& Amando would likely become an Assassin), Cleric probably up 1 level, Fighters stay the same, Wizard go down a level or 2.
Re 3e, I was a bit concerned by the amount of time taken square-counting in the battle with the orc & his dogs last night (especially Amando trying to decide whether to Tumble), but since you were in desperate straits I decided not to worry much about it. Fate Points have worked well since without them you might be on your 3rd PC - I'd retain them in C&C of course.

Fate points are definitely something I'll be adding to my 3.5 campaign house rules as in practice they prevent bad dice rolling suddenly turning a relatively simple encounter into a TPK without the GM having to fudge things (as I use a screen when GMing this is an option, but not one I like to use).

I am also tempted to convert my campaign over to C&C at some point, but probably not till all three of the books are out.

 

[S'mon]

I am also tempted to convert my campaign over to C&C at some point, but probably not till all three of the books are out.

My feeling also - I can use my 1e books with C&C at a pinch (especially 1e DMG & MM1), but I'll probably want to get the C&C versions if they're as reasonably priced as the C&C PHB. I'd also like to take a look at the Castle Zagy stuff (or at least read a review) & see if it's the kind of thing I'd like to run, although C&C would work pretty well in my current campaign area as-is; the C&C level of magic seems a lot closer to my campaign world than default 3e's is - eg C&C has far smaller proportion of spellcasting classes, and not many Buff spells on the lists.

Also been considering Hall of Many Panes (which is for 8th level PCs) - it might make a good follow-on to Barakus (maybe even using C&C!) , I'm wary in case it's a meatgrinder or railroad though, after my unpleasant experience with Necropolis. And it has a "you are trapped" plot which I'm very wary of for long-term play unless the players are all onboard with the idea, I like players to enjoy a scenario, not be desperate to escape it!

 

[Mythmere1]

Fate points are definitely something I'll be adding to my 3.5 campaign house rules as in practice they prevent bad dice rolling suddenly turning a relatively simple encounter into a TPK without the GM having to fudge things (as I use a screen when GMing this is an option, but not one I like to use).

I am also tempted to convert my campaign over to C&C at some point, but probably not till all three of the books are out.

You can probably get by with only the CCPHB and M&T - the CKG is going to be all optional rules. Caveat: I'd like to see multiclassing rules BEFORE the CKG comes out at GenCon. I hope that happens - I consider multiclassing rules to be pretty important, even if the players choose not to use them.

 

[Turanil]

Always curious to read "actual play" snippets and such, and to see comparisons, not in hysterical terms of 'edition war xyz'; just in practical terms.

Well, this thead eventually enticed me to buy Castles & Crusades PHB (I already have the boxed set, but don't find it much usable, it's too short on classes). Only 15 euros, and no shipping cost, and I will get it Saturday.

Well, I have no intent to discard all my D&D 3.5 and d20 Stuff to convert to C&C. However, I am curious about the game and want to give it a one shot try:
-- First of all, I have heard all about how easy it is to use 1e and 2e stuff with it. So, I will take my 1e DMG, 2e Monster Manual, and some 1e or 2e module and wil see how it works with minimal preparation.
-- Then, I always had difficulties running adventurers above 10th-12th level. I plan to make play 15th-16th adventurers (maybe using the Throne of Bloodstone module I still have), and see how it work.
-- My players all know about AD&D 1e and 2e, and D&D 3e, but none of them heard of C&C as of yet. I want to see how easy and fast it is to create characters for that game, even when you don't know anything about it.

When I have run this one-shot adventure with C&C, I will tell on this forum...

 

[Angel Tarragon]

Akrasia, any chanc of seeing a story hour thread for this campaign? Sounds awesome so far!

 

[Dragonhelm]

Well, I have no intent to discard all my D&D 3.5 and d20 Stuff to convert to C&C. However, I am curious about the game and want to give it a one shot try:
-- First of all, I have heard all about how easy it is to use 1e and 2e stuff with it. So, I will take my 1e DMG, 2e Monster Manual, and some 1e or 2e module and wil see how it works with minimal preparation.

I'm like you in these regards. I don't have any plans to do a mass conversion either. I can run d20 in a way that works for me. Yet I still have a ton of 1e/2e materials, which can see new light with C&C.

 

[Mythmere1]

Well, this thead eventually enticed me to buy Castles & Crusades PHB (I already have the boxed set, but don't find it much usable, it's too short on classes). Only 15 euros, and no shipping cost, and I will get it Saturday.

Well, I have no intent to discard all my D&D 3.5 and d20 Stuff to convert to C&C. However, I am curious about the game and want to give it a one shot try:
-- First of all, I have heard all about how easy it is to use 1e and 2e stuff with it. So, I will take my 1e DMG, 2e Monster Manual, and some 1e or 2e module and wil see how it works with minimal preparation.
-- Then, I always had difficulties running adventurers above 10th-12th level. I plan to make play 15th-16th adventurers (maybe using the Throne of Bloodstone module I still have), and see how it work.
-- My players all know about AD&D 1e and 2e, and D&D 3e, but none of them heard of C&C as of yet. I want to see how easy and fast it is to create characters for that game, even when you don't know anything about it.

When I have run this one-shot adventure with C&C, I will tell on this forum...

This is how I introduced my group, only I used fifth level characters. If your players have played early editions of D&D, it will work well. I'd make one suggestion for a rule to clarify ahead of time (using one of the many methods from old D&D) - the rules leave it open whether and how a wizard can cast spells while in melee - this is left up to the CK. This is the only thing that interrupted our play for a rules discussion in our one-shot, because I hadn't nailed down an exact rule. Other than that - well, it was fun enough to make us quit 3E (although two of my players do still prefer 3E).

*chuckle* if you're skeptical about the time required to generate characters, you'll be amazed. With one PHB between five people, we made characters in 30 minutes with no familiarity with the rules. Don't forget to download the character sheet from the TLG site, though. http://www.castlesandcrusades.com/candc.htm It speeds things up.