Troll Lord Games

Well, we started up a new gaming group ("Dragon Slayers Anonymous") on Wednesdays at our local game shop (Little Shoppe of Games in OKC) and yesterday was our first game. We all had a FREAK'N GREAT TIME. The play was fast and despite the fact that we did not finish the adventure, we got a lot done in two hours (which is a contrast to the D&D encounters games we had been playing before now).

The CK was the only one who knew the full rules (I'm still learning) and two of the other players only read the quick start rules, but since we all had 3.5, Pathfinder & 4th edition experience it took no time to catch on. In fact, the game shop had to cancel their D&D encounters game last night, so we nabbed one of their players and did not miss a beat (we just described it as "Pathfinder without feats & skills").

So far, so good! Especially good to have fast, yet kick ass combat (which was only one small scene as opposed to the rest of the night). I kept getting thrown off guard every time it was my turn because I am used to it taking 8 to 10 minutes for one round to go by (lol)

It gets better when you realize that you don't even have to roll all the time... only when the outcome would be dramatic and entertaining. Then, when you put the books away and just play, it is a whole new experience.

Plus, if your group ever wants it, the SIEGE engine can be used to allow you to do "feat like" things.

Plus, to be clear, you still have skills. Not just class skills either. The Prime versus non Prime system, add level if it is NOT a class skill, defines how good each character is at doing what. Just no lists are needed. So everyone has a chance at performing any kind of skill in C&C. Even a class skill like Pick Pockets. Just unless your a Rogue, you won't get to add your level.

So in reality you still have skills, and you can even do many of the things Feats allowed you to do, just you can do it like I do, require a SIEGE roll to make it happen. No lists, just roll when you want to try and do it. For now, though, play the system as is. Give it a full work out before you guys start modifying it. Really find out if the TN 18's are really so horrible, etc...

So game on, continue to have fun! You may never want to modify the system.

Glad to hear you had fun, man! Hope your good times continue!

One of the great things about C&C, to me, are the quick combats. Not having the evening dominated by 2-3 battles is quite refreshing!

Coop

OKC too bad you are there in the middle of OK, 3 1/2 hours away from the good part of OK

I'd love to find a good local group, but OKC is too far to drive

Fast and fun is the key to C&C. Glad you all had fun and stole away a D&Der

thanks for the support and advice, guys! I am happy to have a pulp fantasy action game back in my life. And I am also proud that the guy who is running this game came out of retirement of GMing for me. The game he ran last night had a lot of investigation and roleplaying with a dash of combat, which is fine with me (his pacing was great). All of the characters we play are odd balls in their classes and it really works well since we are going for a humorous game (short elven barbarian with a high charisma, pacifist half orc cleric who actually gets us out of trouble a lot, a fighter with an unusually high intelligence who keeps questioning why we are adventuring and a monk that seems to be the leader of the group.. but only because we think he is so wise that we agree to all his wacky plans).

Hopefully after I get this down (which should not take long), I plan on trading off and on with him since he also seems he wants to play too.

Welcome to the Crusade, Cooper!

And a big Hell Yeah, man! You sound exactly like me when I first started reading over the game books and launched into my first foray into C&C.

I had GM'd 3.5 and played in a PF game for a few months, more than enough to get used to the (sometimes) snail's pace of combat, so when I first ran C&C, I got all sorts of excited when our first "big" combat-- a ten round behemoth against an ogre, ten orcs and a pair of worgs-- lasted only twenty minutes. I stopped dreading combat and feeling half a gaming session could be lost to a big battle, and worrying about huge stat blocks, and suddenly, I started enjoying GMing again.

C&C employs a beautiful "less is more" approach that I really like... it makes for a very smooth and easy game to learn, play and run. It is most definitely my game of choice for FRPG's nowadays. And plus, what Treebore said is right on, too. You can use the SIEGE Engine and adapt bits and pieces from other systems, if the gamers at the table want something a little more in-depth: I've heard of people adding in Proficiency, Secondary Skills and Casting rules from 2E, Skills, Feats and Combat Options from 3.5 and 4E, and even bringing in mechanics from other games to work in seamlessly in C&C.

Once you have a handle on the basics (like you said, it is not at all a difficult thing!), you can begin to see how simple and yet how elegant C&C is, when it's run... and on top of that, you can see how easily other rules could be adapted to fit in. Great to have you along for the ride!