Thursday 25 November 2010

Castles and Crusades: What do I NEED to buy?

I'm at a nexus.  My mac had an update crisis at the weekend and ate my campaign world.  After a little bit of a cry, I came to the thinking that within this dark cloud lies the silver lining of opportunity.  I've been dissapointed with my experiences of DM'ing my campaign world with D&D 3.5 for a while so I'm off to Dragonmeet 2010 to buy Castles and Crusades.  I know I'll need the Players Handbook and probably Monsters and Treasure but is there anything else out there for C&C that I should definitely buy?  

7 comments:

  1. Yep, definitely the PH and the M&T. Those are the only things needed to play. The rest will come down to taste.

    I have heard great things about M&T of Aihrde, but I don't own it yet. I really like Engineering Dungeons, but it's far from necessary (it's a dungeon generator). I also really like the Haunted Highlands materials (the "DB" products). I just picked up the C&C Screen and find it quite nice.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I like M&T of Aihrde and it is simple to use with non-Aihrde worlds, so no sweat there.
    If you have your own campaign world already, just the PH and M&T are all you need need.
    Poke around the forums at http://www.freeyabb.com/trolllordgames/ to find scads of fan-made freebies to help guide you towards balanced home rule classes and such... of course it's simple enough to wing it.
    C&C is sweet! If you or your gaming group are coming from a 3.5/Pathfinder game, it might almost seen TOO simple at first, but it isn't that's whats so cool about it. The siege engine really does cover it, it is very elegant and robust while still simple enough to learn in about 10 minutes.
    If you want a good campaign to run, consider the boxed set of the Umbrage Saga, and always check out the stuff from Arcana Creations and Brave Halfling Publishing.
    http://www.arcanacreations.com/page3.html
    Welcome to the crusade!
    (sorry about your computer, though)

    ReplyDelete
  3. The Player's Handbook and Monsters & Treasure are the only two books you need.

    Engineering Dungeons is a neat little book too.

    As for adventures, I just convert classic AD&D adventures to use with C&C. That's not to say that TLG adventures are bad... I just don't own them.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks for all the comments and advice. I will take a look at M&T of Airdhe and Engineering Dungeons.

    Thankfully, The computer has recovered, and I am busy rebuilding my campaign world map in Photoshop so stay tuned.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Beyond the PHB (4th printing) and the M&T, I would say M&T of Aihrde is probably my favorite. If you want adventures, get the Umbrage Saga Box Set. The adventure box set is set in the C&C default world of Aihrde, but still of use. Umbrage Saga really has a great flavor to the mods (6 of them) inside.

    ReplyDelete
  6. C&C is sweet. My gaming group converted from 3.5e to C&C about 2 years ago (similar 3.5e burnout issues on my part). Nobody's looking back. That said, it was a bit of an adjustment at first, especially coming from 3.5e (which seemed to have a detailed rule for everything -- that was nice at first, but over time the slow pace and overly complicated nature of the game turned me off, especially running high level combats.)

    What's nice with C&C is that it's pretty easy to grab material from past editions and use it in C&C. In fact, my group is still going strong in the 3e and 3.5e Scarred Lands setting.

    Good luck with C&C!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Thanks for all the advice (and especially to Dungeoneering Dad for posting the link on the Troll Lord Forum this has boosted my stats quite a bit)

    Unfortunately getting hold of copies of the PHB and M&T here in the UK has proven quite a challenge. You'll be glad to know I managed to order a PHB (3rd Printing) and Umbrage Sage (both damaged stock and therefore bargain prices) and M&T of Airdhe this afternoon.

    Come January I'll begin playing a new campaign with C&C and updating my campaign world elsewhere online. I'll keep you posted here and on the Troll Lord Forum.

    ReplyDelete