Castles & Crusades

One of the things I lurk is blogs of people who are part of the Old School Revival (OSR). I don't play older versions of D&D. I started on 2nd edition AD&D. I have pdf copies of the older stuff and it looks cool and all, but I hate racial classes. They bug me to no end. That's really not my only issue with them, but it's a big one for me. I want to run a session of OD&D at some point.

Because it's cool.

I respect and follow the concept of returning to basics in terms of roleplaying games. New is not always "better" so much as "different." I started on 2nd ed. AD&D but that is a far cry from my favorite version. I honestly would likely enjoy OD&D more. I read through the Moldvay red box rules recently and laughed through the whole thing. It was fantastic to read and likely a ton of fun to play. 

Personally, I like any version of 3e as the "best" version of D&D to date. I like parts of 4e, but as a whole I dislike it as an RPG. Fun game, but not a favored roleplaying game. 

Sorry. 

But even 3e has a ton of things I just hate. I don't like feats. I did at first, but now they bug me terribly. I dislike skill ranks. I dislike the whole challenge rating mechanic in monsters. I prefer set xp for monsters. The rules are grossly over complicated. I think Pathfinder made the classes more interesting and cleaned up a bunch of the class mechanics, but either made the sub-systems more complex or left them alone. (and I really like Pathfinder too btw). 

It's 'constructive' criticism, I still love you. 

Since starting to read blogs and stuff from people who started or follow the OSR I've been exposed to lots of interesting ideas and games. I learned about Savage Worlds. I love Savage Worlds. I don't like everything and it has some really wonky parts (I'm looking at you damage system). It's still a good game though and exceedingly well priced. I also learned about a long list of "retro-clones". 

Retro-clones are essentially versions of SRD (d20) that revises the rules (much like pathfinder did) to make a game much like an older version of D&D. For example, Labyrinth Lord has a real OD&D vibe going on. Lamentations of the Flame Princess is a long name for another (weird) one that attempts to emulate B/X (sorta). None of this is new, just new to me. I stumbled upon Castles & Crusades. 

C&C is very familiar to people who play 3e of any kinda. It's just rules like and more of a 2e vibe going on. However, it is more rules-light than normal. It does not rely on feats, does not have racial classes, uses xp per monster, all the little irritating bits of 3e are gone. 

It's not perfect, of course. I don't like much of what they did with monsters. They made them very 2e. I won't get into what that means, but I think they took their goals too far on that part. Most of it is invisible from the player's point of view, but bugs me a little. But, from a game-play and player end of the system. It's really nice. I would like to play it in the future some time.