I considered a few different game systems for this campaign: my old trusty AD&D (1e) from TSR (now Wizards of the Coast), Old School Essentials (Advanced) from Necrotic Gnome, and Castles & Crusades from Troll Lord Games. The final decision came down to Castles & Crusades due to many factors.
Back in the OSR heyday, I was super fascinated by all the retro-clones and simulacrum games. I own too many of them and have played or GM: ed most of them as well: Labyrinth Lord (AEC), Swords & Wizardry, Lamentations of the Flame Princess, Blood & Treasure (1e and 2e), Basic Fantasy, OSRIC, and Fantastic Heroes & Witchery (plus a few more in PDF format). After the initial fascination, I discarded most of them based on the fact that I already own the originals. The main win with these, however, was that they allowed you to write and publish new material for those venerable game systems, which is super cool and led to an upswing in new old-school compatible materials.
On a personal level, the OSR games that really added something new to the mix for me were Blood & Treasure and Fantastic Heroes & Witchery. Not true retro-clones but rather constructed using a more modern rule set, but dialed back to old-school aesthetics, power levels, and above all old-school feel. During this period I got interested in Castles & Crusades but the books were not available where I live and the cost of importing them from the US was all too steep, so I finally went with Blood & Treasure which I used for my Lost Lands (by Frog God Games) game.
Fast forward a few years and the OSR movement had gone in a direction that did not sit well with me. Google Plus was discontinued and the earlier free-sharing spirit of the OSR was replaced with endless Kickstarters, Patreons and what have you. And since both my favorite OSR flavors were one-man print-on-demand shows with little support in the OSR community, I decided that I would henceforth go with professionally produced game systems from actual publishers, like in the olden days.
Today, I have settled with three different game systems:
- Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (1e)
- Old School Essentials (Advanced)
- Castles & Crusades
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons
I have owned AD&D since back in the day when I bought the books as they came out. The books I did not get back then, I have collected as an adult. I have the original covers as well as all the orange spined ones and also the 2016 reprint edition, along with a metric ton of old modules, boxes, and supplements. AD&D is sheer nostalgia and I love those books, but reading them now with the intent to play is a mixed bag. Too many complex sub-systems and many unnecessary special rules about just anything. These days I mostly use the books for information (especially the Dungeon Masters Guide) or maybe I might use them for a special nostalgia game with my old gaming buddies. For me, the rule set feels overly complicated these days, but who knows in the future…
Verdict: To be used as reading material and for nostalgia games
Old School Essentials
Old School Essentials (OSE) is a very close adaptation to Moldway-Cook b/x D&D, which is the game version that I started with back in the early 1980s, and because of that it automatically has a special place in my heart. These days I’m not too fond of race-as-class and some other b/x things, so for me the Advanced Options version of OSE is the right one. OSE is great for those shorter spur-of-the-moment adventures or one-shots, but for me it falls short in a few departments. One is the adherence to some outdated rules from earlier times. Others are the limited selection of spells, gear, and monsters. Also, at the moment I only have the base book. I sold the advanced expansion books to get the newest collected basic plus advanced books, but my FLGS is still waiting for the new books to arrive.
Verdict: To be used for one-shots and shorter adventures
Castles & Crusades
Over the last five years or so, I have collected Castles & Crusades and have GM: ed some games and played in others. The game feels like a modernized version of AD&D 1e, but it is built from the 3E OGL and was one of the first D&D-derived alternatives. For me, the most important features are that it plays pretty close to how AD&D played back in the day, but it is achieving this with a much sleeker game engine. I also like that there are tons of classes, races, spells, monsters, weapons, gear, and so on. The Castle Keepers Guide (CKG, akin to the DMG) is also very good, second only to the AD&D Dungeon Masters Guide, providing optional solutions to things like advanced combat, critical hits, hero points, talents (a bit like 3e feats), and even alternative spell casting systems and several multi-class options if that floats your boat. The base rules are easy to grasp but it is also easy to add mechanics to the base engine thanks to the toolbox approach of the CKG, allowing GM: s to create the game and the complexity they want for their particular campaigns.
I also like the fact that it is very easy to run other games’ modules with Castles & Crusades. Conversion is simple, especially from pre-3e versions of the game including most OSR games, but it is perfectly possible to run 3e and even 5e adventures using Castles & Crusades.
I could continue with many other cool features of Castles & Crusades, but I think that I will stop here as I think that I have made my point.
Verdict: My go to game system when it comes to D&D-style gaming
If I captured your interest with these thoughts, please keep your eyes open for the next post in this series, which will discuss choice of setting!
Nerd-O-Mancer of Dork 