Reflections of a Newbie
Posted: Sun Aug 13, 2017 4:03 am
Though I've played various RPGs since 1981 (mostly OD&D, 1st edition AD&D, MERP, and Warhammer FRP), I just got into C&C. So I bought a bunch of books and modules at the sale last Christmas, read through everything, rolled up characters and tried to find time to play as my wife gave birth to our first child in March. Finally got to play a bit over the summer so I wanted to throw my impressions of the game mechanics up here. The group ended up going through "Shadows of the Halfling Hall" as the first adventure. I set everything in my old AD&D home brew world and the initial party had 8 PCs that included mostly straight C&C classes and with a gnome rogue/illusionist (from Crusader's Companion) and a halfling swashbuckler (from Hackmaster 4th ed.).
It was a lot of fun and I have to say how much I love the simplicity of the Siege Engine and the game mechanics. Very easy to keep track of things and to do stuff without worrying about a plethora of rules, skills, etc. Having not played with low level characters in awhile, I had forgotten how much whiffing happens in combat, but that's part of the fun. And we house-ruled the challenge class numbers from 12/18 to 10/15 for prime/not prime. But everyone playing had fun and no one died, though it was close for one of the PCs in one of the fights with undead. I should note that I give all first level PCs a 20 HP "kicker" at 1st level as they do in Hackmaster. Really ups the survival rate for low level characters. But we also use critical hits, so it can even out a bit. No one advanced a level, so we played the old AD&D module "Against the Cult of the Reptile God" a month or so later. Again, it was a breeze to play and converting from 1st edition can totally be done on the fly, as many have noted. This time, the party lost a member (half-orc barbarian killed by evil monk with a roundhouse that resulted in a critical), but it was still a blast. And now the survivors are all 2nd-3rd level. Thinking about running A3: Wicked Cauldron next.
Again, as someone who never really left 1st edition and who tried and hated Pathfinder because of the deluge of rules, I really appreciate the simplicity and old school feel of the game. While I liked non-weapon proficiencies in 1st edition and we used them a lot, I never got into skills, feats, prestige classes, etc. And I remember checking out a couple of the later edition books and being shocked by monsters with 700 hp and armor clssses above 40 or whatever. It just seems that the power creep got way out of hand somewhere. And though 5th edition seems a bit better in this regard, there are lots of things I don't like about it from what I've read and seen online in posts. It seems like characters advance way too fast (300 xp to 2nd level?) and I just don't get archetypes, etc. And all the stuff about rolling up backgrounds and such seems to take away from the best part of character creation: coming up with your own backstory for your character. Once more it's too much roll playing and not enough role playing.
So the upshot is that I'm glad to have found an updated version of the game I grew up with and still love. Looking forward to playing C&C for the foreseeable future and maybe even getting involved in one of these online games as it's tough getting people together here and most play 5th edition or Pathfinder. So our players generally run multiple PCs at one time.
It was a lot of fun and I have to say how much I love the simplicity of the Siege Engine and the game mechanics. Very easy to keep track of things and to do stuff without worrying about a plethora of rules, skills, etc. Having not played with low level characters in awhile, I had forgotten how much whiffing happens in combat, but that's part of the fun. And we house-ruled the challenge class numbers from 12/18 to 10/15 for prime/not prime. But everyone playing had fun and no one died, though it was close for one of the PCs in one of the fights with undead. I should note that I give all first level PCs a 20 HP "kicker" at 1st level as they do in Hackmaster. Really ups the survival rate for low level characters. But we also use critical hits, so it can even out a bit. No one advanced a level, so we played the old AD&D module "Against the Cult of the Reptile God" a month or so later. Again, it was a breeze to play and converting from 1st edition can totally be done on the fly, as many have noted. This time, the party lost a member (half-orc barbarian killed by evil monk with a roundhouse that resulted in a critical), but it was still a blast. And now the survivors are all 2nd-3rd level. Thinking about running A3: Wicked Cauldron next.
Again, as someone who never really left 1st edition and who tried and hated Pathfinder because of the deluge of rules, I really appreciate the simplicity and old school feel of the game. While I liked non-weapon proficiencies in 1st edition and we used them a lot, I never got into skills, feats, prestige classes, etc. And I remember checking out a couple of the later edition books and being shocked by monsters with 700 hp and armor clssses above 40 or whatever. It just seems that the power creep got way out of hand somewhere. And though 5th edition seems a bit better in this regard, there are lots of things I don't like about it from what I've read and seen online in posts. It seems like characters advance way too fast (300 xp to 2nd level?) and I just don't get archetypes, etc. And all the stuff about rolling up backgrounds and such seems to take away from the best part of character creation: coming up with your own backstory for your character. Once more it's too much roll playing and not enough role playing.
So the upshot is that I'm glad to have found an updated version of the game I grew up with and still love. Looking forward to playing C&C for the foreseeable future and maybe even getting involved in one of these online games as it's tough getting people together here and most play 5th edition or Pathfinder. So our players generally run multiple PCs at one time.
