I started running Castles & Crusades module U1: Shadows of the Halfling Hall last night for my group. They love RP and it took them a while to make it to Newbriar and longer still to hit the manor house. They managed to clear the main room of zombies and the spider lurking in the ceiling then discovered the Reeve’s body in the rafters. All in all, a great session.
Most of the group really enjoyed the system. It runs fast, the resolution mechanic is easy, and we can make adjustments to things we don’t like without messing up the system.
Unfortunately, my wife is not a huge fan. She prefers something heavier, with more options. She usually plays rogues and likes 3.x games like D&D or Pathfinder, with lots of fiddly bits. She also doesn’t like switching systems and gets confused about the rules and options. That’s fair, we have tried different games and even I have trouble with that at times.
Reluctantly, I’m pulling C&C from my list of games to run after I finish the current Pathfinder adventure path. I really liked only having to have one or two books ready, counting the adventure module. With Pathfinder, I need a ton of extra resources and monster stats aren’t listed in the modules. I have to rely on a message board post someone did on the Paizo forums to beef up the challenge for that game, which is yet one more reference I have to have available.
I’ll talk with her to see if I might be able to salvage things by bolting on some rule changes, but I think I may be running another Pathfinder 1e module or 13th Age 1e after this. Good options, and I like the systems well enough. But they both take more work. At least the 13th Age books are so much fun to read and run quickly with exciting combat at our table.
