C&C = D&D?

[gideon_thorne]

Joe Mac wrote:
Very interesting point, and it leads a fella to wonder if/how C&C might have been different, had the legal issues been clearer at the time.

The issues were perfectly clear at the time, and still are. Hence C&C being the way it is. ^_^

Two of the game design goals were the ability to not only emulate nostalgic styles, but to be open to other styles as well and be simple enough in its mechanics for Gary to write CZ for.
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Peter Bradley

[Joe Mac]

gideon_thorne wrote:
Two of the game design goals were the ability to not only emulate nostalgic styles, but to be open to other styles as well and be simple enough in its mechanics for Gary to write CZ for.

Both of those goals were definitely met.

As a side note, since "nostalgia" has entered into this thread quite a bit -- am I being nostalgic if I never actually left the games of my youth, and haven't given a flying fart about the last two decades' worth of 'editions'? Can you be nostalgic for something you never left?
Indeed, I might say that C&C is the first new version of D&D I've liked since OAD&D. Never had any inclination to switch to 2E, but having recently obtained the hardbacks for the first time, I certainly wouldn't mind it, if offered a game...

What I am nostalgic for is the feeling of excitement we had in the 80s, as each new AD&D item hit the shelves. Without the glut of preview information we have today, there were a lot of wonderful surprises.

[gideon_thorne]

*chuckles* I've played all kinds of games and editions of games. I don't get hung up on 'editions', and really can't fathom those who do. Its just a game, and I have fare more important things to get hung up over.

Like girls.
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"We'll go out through the kitchen!" Tanis Half-Elven

Peter Bradley

[Galadrin]

C&C feels like Advanced Rules Compendium (or Advanced Basic D&D) lite. The ability score modifiers are straight out of RC, the differentiation between class and race (and the initiative and spell system) is more AD&D 2e, and the SIEGE engine used for every task resolution makes it "lite". It feels a lot like a early 90's version of D&D with a d20 universal mechanic.

If I want to play old-school D&D, however, then I do just that. Just because those books are long out of print doesn't mean the game doesn't work anymore.

That said, I do appreciate how self-contained C&C is (and all the newer simulacra games, for that matter). Older D&D can feel a bit all over the place, with decades worth of supplements and additional rules with confused layout and organization.

[Julian Grimm]

To me it boils down to C&C doing better what D&D tried.
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