Pyramid Review
Castles & Crusades: The Fantasy Role Playing Game Players Handbook
Published by Troll Lord Games
Written by Davis Chenault & Mac Golden
Cover & Internal Illustrations by Peter "20 Dollar" Bradley
130-Page Black & White Hardback; $19.99
Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 Edition has a problem. It is too complex. Too many classes. Too many rules exceptions. Too many feats. All right, so the simple things at the heart of Dungeons & Dragons are still cool -- the easy d20 System mechanic, the Armor Class reversal, and any number of nifty settings that we have seen in the last five years. But there are still too many feats and all too often the ones selected do not change for one type of character from one game to the next. Perhaps this is one reason why Wizards of the Coast is publishing Dungeons & Dragons for Dummies?
So what do you do if you want to bash a dungeon Dungeons-&-Dragons-style? Options include any previous version of the game from Basic to Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, but then the first is too simple, too inflexible, while the second is too . . . Well, just too, okay? Step up Castles & Crusades, which offers up old-time gaming via an all-new simple game engine and back-to-basics philosophy. It first appeared in the Castles & Crusades: A Guide & Rules System for Fantasy Role Playing Collector's Edition. This was a white boxed set containing three little booklets, a set of plain polyhedral dice, and a crayon (!), all designed not just to nudge your nostalgia button, but to . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: October 14, 2005
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