So the books seen in the photo are dead-tree versions of several Castle and Crusades sourcebooks. I have the 7th Printing of the Castles and Crusades Players Handbook that I picked up one one of the DriveThruRPG specials. This is published by Troll Lord Games who has put out a lot of material for this D20 fantasy game. I’ve read some good reviews on other websites so I thought I’d add it to the 2022 Character Creation Challenge.
So the RAW states that 3d6 are rolled for the attributes (as used in the D20 SRD) and are assigned as desired by the player. You also selected two (possibly more) primary attributes which your character is really good at using when making non-combat checks. Primary attributes are easier to succeed with. I rolled these and the next step was to pick the class (before picking your race). The Knight was a class that I had not seen in other D20 fantasy games so I selected that one. I had to read up the differences between a Fighter and a Knight. The Knight gets some leadership abilities and seems Paladin-like without the minor Cleric powers. Like the classic games, each class has it’s own Experience Point Progression instead of using the same scale for all classes.
I was really tempted to make the character a Halfling Knight, but alas, the RAW do not allow it. I kept trying to pull away from the idea of playing this character as a Human because the image of Prince Charming from the Shrek movies kept popping into my head. I eventually gave in and made him a blond haired human but not as evil as the character in the movies. He will be quite good when it comes to actions and alignments.
All right, equipment time. Thanks to my character being a knight he already has a mount and all of the items that come with it. I didn’t roll enough starting gold pieces to get any type of plate armor, but that will be a goal for him as he travels on his quest as a Knight in the Order of the Griffon.
Afterthoughts:
I’d really like to see how C&C plays at the table. Other than the friend who gave me the books in the photo, I haven’t personally known anyone to collect or play this game.
When I picked up my digital copy of the C&C Players Handbook, it was still the 7th printing. Troll Lord Games has recently released an 8th printing of the Players Handbook. I do not know how the two printings compare.
I also tried something different with this PDF copy of the game. I took advantage of the bookmarks already in the document. I was a little frustrated that I could not make my own bookmarks. I don’t know if there was a technical or permissions issue. I’ll have to explore this further.
Additional Notes:
I’m seeing more people re-tweet posts using the hashtag #CharacterCreationChallenge. Let’s see some more.
Coming Up Next:
I AM THE LAW!!!! The Judge Dredd Roleplaying Game