Bringing In 2025 With "AD&D"

That is, AD&D, as in Adventures Dark and Deep by Joseph Bloch. Not new, just the newest form (originally three core books, now two.) One of the stalwart stewards of all things 1st Edition, Greyhawk in particular, Bloch created "AD&D" with the goal of doing what Gary would've done had he revised the game himself. As we know, Gary was booted before any such revision and the anti-Gygax 2nd Edition followed. Bloch brings new classes, like the Jester, Savant, Mystic, and Mountebank and new race choices including Centaurs, and of course, new spells and magic items, etc. Similar attempts have been made, such as, Trent Smith's Heroic Legendarium (a fine book) and OSRIC (more of an SRD) but I've seen nothing as comprehensive as what Bloch has done here.

Behold the size of these! Both are 500 page behemoths. Will the print-on-demand binding hold up? Such binding is weak enough on small books. My two original TSR books shown above are 40+ years old and the bindings are still perfect. I would've almost preferred soft-cover perfectly bound for these colossal tomes. I wonder what the cost would be to get them professionally bound?

The formatting is in the style of the later AD&D hardcovers (think Monster Manual II and Unearthed Arcana.) The art is mostly good and reminiscent of how it once was (black and white is best in life! Yes, color can be great, but look to companies like WoTC for what NOT to do! Jesus, WoTC sucks.) Anyhow, this bestiary has over 1000 entries, more than you'll ever need. It's like Monster Manuals I, II, and Fiend Folio all under one cover... and then some! Here, there are plenty of demons and devils and... angels (hell yeah!) and of course plenty of dragons. Curiously, no gold dragon -- replaced by the electrum? -- what is the story here?

Very nice Amazon. A level of boldness missing these days. Bold is good.

Add in the Book of Lost Tables and you have every random encounter table possible, mostly in the D1000 format. The best collection of random encounter tables that I've seen anywhere. And to simulate truly random, I've created a random table of these random tables. So I can randomly roll any monster in the game! I'm beginning to think that dungeons shouldn't be any more stratified than the wilderness. While traveling, you can encounter a dragon or a dryad regardless of your level. Although I'm as guilty as any one, there should be no "Dungeon for levels 3-5" there should simply be dungeons... enter at your own risk, anything is possible. The secret to explaining this... lots of empty spaces in between, plenty of empty (though not meaningless) rooms and long twisting corridors. No one will hear you scream... and no one will hear you fight! Nothing in reality is stratified for your safety and convenience. Although, yes, a certain logic does exist for the more dangerous foes being found the deeper you go. Still, I'm for much more randomized danger. I think I'll roll up a truly random dungeon and see what happens...

Pages upon pages of this!

It is (almost) exactly the game you think it is, though some subsystems have changed and there are more races and classes (the more classes the better!)  A small nitpick I have: The Assassin is presented as an "optional" class. Why? In a game where you can be chaotic-evil, murder, steal, raid, and ravage, where you can play a blackguard (the classic anti-paladin) the paragon of all things evil --which is not presented as "optional." Is an assassin worse than a blackguard? Castles & Crusades has also done this to assassins with their recent printings and they knew Gary well. Is this something he had in mind? Otherwise, I just don't get it. It's akin to making Greedo shoot first. Don't soften things up. Ever. That's a 2nd Edition sin.

Anyhow, these two massive tomes, with a side helping of random tables, are literally all you'd ever need to play this classic game... FOREVER.

Well done Joseph! 

Now people, ENTER DUNGEONS, LOOT AND SLAY!!!

 

Signal Boost: Castles & Crusades Reforged!

This is going to be the 10th printing of the Castles & Crusades Players Handbook! (Along with reprints of the Castle Keepers Guide and Monsters & Treasure.)

You can thank the OGL debacle from last year. 

The Troll Lords are removing all content relating to the OGL. Mostly, things are being renamed, for example, alignment is now disposition. You might still be lawful good, but you'll either be LAWFULgood or lawfulGOOD, meaning you'll trend one way or the other. Many spells are being renamed, basically using synonymous terms, and/or rewritten/tweaked. And of course, certain monsters are getting a slight redesign with new, but similar, names.

Also of note, if you're familiar with the last printing of Monsters & Treasure, you know that it had what seems like a hundred different faerie creatures (all compiled from the various cultural codices) most of these are being removed and replaced with more mainstream monsters. I loved all of these faerie foes myself (their stat-blocks are vicious!) but I still have them, and they're reportedly being moved to future volumes more suited to their themes.

The rules are the same.

They even gave away a free PDF of the (in progress) Players Handbook.

I also believe they are switching to a less glossy white paper which is amazing news for our aging eyes!

So, do you need these new printings? No. If you're a C&C fan, do you want these? ABSOLUTELY. Also, if you're new to C&C or just curious, this is the perfect jumping on point.

Castles & Crusades is the closest thing I've seen to a modernized 1st edition AD&D, in play and esthetics.

Click the link below for the Kickstarter...

Castles & Crusades Reforged

Castles & Crusades: Saving Throws... Focusing On Death

In the earliest editions of D&D, death, along with poison was your best save.

In Castles & Crusades, the death save is a charisma save. 

Also under the purview of charisma are charm and fear. 

This has consequences.

For example, in C&C, half-orcs suffer a -2 penalty to their charisma stat, thus, they are less personable (of course) but also, more suspectable to death, charm, and fear than any other race. Does that make sense to you?

Also in C&C, bards have charisma as their prime stat. This makes sense for their profession, charming and all that, but, this also makes bards very resistant to fear and death, right up there with knights and paladins. Does that make sense to you?

So, in C&C, saving throws are based off your main stats. You have prime and secondary stats where you roll a 12 or higher for prime and an 18 or higher for secondary. Those are just the base numbers to which you add your level (unless you're stepping on another class's toes, such as a cleric trying to pick a lock) and your ability bonus. So, assuming average stats at 1st level, you're actually rolling over 11 and 17 respectively. Then you calculate in the challenge level, a spell -- the spell caster's level, a monster -- its hit die, for a trap it's the level of the trap setter, and so on. 

• For example: A medusa is a 6HD creature. Here are what various PCs would have to roll (on a d20) to avoid petrification. This assumes an average wisdom score.

• PC level 1, wisdom prime: 17
• PC level 1, wisdom secondary: 23

• PC level 5, wisdom prime: 13
• PC level 5, wisdom secondary: 19

• PC level 10, wisdom prime: 8
• PC level 10, wisdom secondary: 14

• PC level 15, wisdom prime: 3
• PC level 15, wisdom secondary: 9

• PC level 20, wisdom prime: -2
• PC level 20, wisdom secondary: 4

Characters start with 2 primes and 4 secondaries, 1 prime from race, 1 prime from class. Humans are the exception getting 2 primes, thus starting with 3 (other races get other perks, dark-vision and such.)

Here are the C&C classes by prime stat...

• STR: Fighter, Ranger
• DEX: Rogue, Assassin
• CON: Barbarian, Monk
• INT: Illusionist, Wizard
• WIS: Cleric, Druid
• CHA: Bard, Knight, Paladin

Most, but not all, of a class's abilities will function off their prime stat. Class ability rolls are essentially saving throws. So, charisma is crucial for all of the bard's performance and influencing skills, likewise, charisma is crucial for the successful use of a knight's and paladin's battlefield leadership abilities.

Anyhow, bards, knights, and paladins are, by default of this system, the hardest to kill by death attack.   These classes are also the most resistant to fear and charm. Charm makes sense for bards and the other two make sense for knights and paladins, but all three classes  inherently have an advantage in situations specifically calling for death. Now, you can choose charisma as your second or third prime, but you're probably sacrificing some class abilities in doing so. 

Charm makes sense for charisma to some degree, but fear and death do not. Look at those around you, impersonable grouches are usually quite resistant to charm and those who think they're slick often fall prey to other slicksters. Of course, the smart-ass might say, impersonable grouches can be charismatic in their own way, but now we're muddying the waters.

Of the six abilities, the charisma saves make the least sense. This is probably a case of trying to spread the saves evenly among six stats so as to avoid the game having a dump stat. How better to give charisma some weight than by linking it to death? And this is not necessary. You see, charisma is the social save.

Should there even be a death save?

For example: Poison is damage (and pain.) When you're stung by an insect or bitten by a snake, the amount of damage you take depends on the strength of the poison/venom/toxin. If that particular beast (whatever it is) hits you, you've been poisoned. What exactly, are you then saving against? It's like you have a free, vague, parry maneuver to reverse reality, saying -- no, actually, I was not bitten. 

Larger animals with poisonous bites, due to their sheer size, also do damage with their bite/sting/claw. This is where modern versions of D&D might have it correct in the fact that they might state damage as 1d6 (+2d6 poison damage.) If you do not have the hit points to survive this, have you not then, by default, suffered a death attack?

Going back, death should not be linked to any one particular stat. Perhaps the only death save that should exist in any game should come into play if your hit points happen to fall to exactly zero and you are making a save every round to see if you fall negative and die. In such a case, you could argue for a con-based save or a will-based save (wisdom.)

Going back to C&C. I believe fear should be covered by wisdom. Charisma should only handle social interactions, bard stuff, the knight's/paladin's warlord stuff, the assassin's disguise ability, bribing a guard, etc. I would also shift confusion from wisdom to intelligence, with, charm and fear going to wisdom. This leaves charisma to dominate the social realm. 

So the abilities and their saves in C&C, rules as written are...

• STR: Paralysis, Constriction
• DEX: Breath Weapon, Traps 
• CON: Energy Drain, Disease, Poison, 
• INT: Arcane Magic, Illusions
• WIS: Divine Magic, Confusion, Gaze, Petrification, Polymorph
• CHA: Death Attack, Fear, Charm

My changes...

• STR: Paralysis, Constriction
• DEX: Breath Weapon, Traps 
• CON: Energy Drain, Disease, Poison, Polymorph*
• INT: Arcane Magic, Illusions, Confusion
• WIS: Divine Magic, Gaze, Fear, Charm, Petrification
• CHA: Loyalty, Morale, all things Social

*Polymorph was originally attached to wisdom, but I moved it to constitution because of its archaic ties to system shock. Though petrify/polymorph are also classically linked, petrification is usually caused by gaze attacks which seem to be, at their core, an assault upon your will, where as polymorph is battling the structure and health of your physical body.

Now those pesky half-orcs aren't so shit-on by fate. Not that their existence is pleasant.

As for death attacks (not counting death specifically linked to things like poison) the best way to handle this is to allow the PC to use their BEST saving throw. This way, death favors no single class and with saving throws scaling as the threat-level rises, success is no guarantee.

 And so it's full circle with death becoming your best save.

And if your best save can't save you, then to Hell with you!

Tweaking The Castles & Crusades Assassin

This is regarding the Assassin as presented in the Castles & Crusades Player's Handbook 8th Printing as seen on the right below...

In this printing, the Assassin (which alphabetically should, and has up until now, been first) is presented at the end of the class section, as an optional class(?) that "turns the idea of a hero on its head." 

Do not dis the Assassin!

Anyhow, this Assassin is a pretty good version of the concept. Most of their classes are. And I like the fact that C&C classes go up to 24th level. 

The Assassin...

• Prime Attribute: Dexterity
• Hit Die: d6
• Alignment: Any non-good
• Weapons: Any
• Armor: Leather, Leather Coat, Padded

Abilities...

Only those given at 1st level, more come at 13th, but I'm not concerned about those at the moment.

Anyhow, these abilities are good, exactly what you'd think they'd be, but a couple could be tweaked and made mechanically more interesting, at least to me.

• Armor Allowed: As above, but they can wear any armor above AC:12 with a -1 penalty to their abilities per point above AC:12. I like this, nothing to tweak here. As the Assassin levels up, you can begin to weigh the risk/reward of better armor. Also, this could easily be ported over to Wizards -- any armor above 10 could give a -1 penalty to the casting strength level of their spell, hence an easier saving throw for the target. This idea could actually be applied to any class with armor restrictions. Basically, a -1 to all rolls for every point of AC you normally can't have.

• Case Target (Wisdom): Basically, if they spend 1d3x10 minutes observing a target, the CK (Castle Keeper -- "DM") gives them some sort of useful information. Too vague for me, and clearly designed for non-dungeon use.
• Tweak: Spend the first round of combat casing a specific target and receive a to-hit/damage bonus equal to +1/+2 at 1st level, +2/+4 at 6th, +3 /+6 at 12th, +4/+8 at 18th, and +5/+10 at 24th.  An Intelligence check must be made to gain these bonuses, the CC (Challenge Class) is modified by the target's HD. You can not even attempt this if you take damage before your turn. These bonuses last that entire encounter against that particular target.

• Climb (Dexterity): This is your basic, almost supernatural, ability to climb pretty much anything you want without equipment. Doesn't really need tweaking.

• Death Attack: You must be hidden while studying your target for 3 rounds, then make a Sneak Attack (see below, not the same as the Rogue's classic Back-Attack.) If you succeed, the target must make a constitution save or die instantly. All well and good, but I will always prefer a Death Attack that's triggered by a natural 20. Either way, in this game, Death Attack saves are made with charisma. Monsters only have two saves, physical & mental. It seems to me that this would be a physical save for monsters.
• Tweak: Death Attack triggered on a natural 20, then 19-20 at 12th level, and 18-20 at 24th.

• Disguise (Charisma): You need props, make-up, and 1d3x10 minutes of prep, with some penalties for age, race, sex, etc. Then the CK rolls secretly for you and reveals if you succeeded at the appropriate time. Usual disguise rules stuff. 
• Tweak: An almost supernatural ability to fit in where you don't belong. I've said it before, it's like stealth out in the open. The roll is made by YOU when the moment of truth comes. CC modifier equal the highest HD present.

• Hide (Dexterity): The classic Hide in Shadows. There's really not much to tweak here. At 3rd level the Assassin can attempt to hide and move silently at the same time -- this requires two rolls, both at -5. I would require no such thing. Stealth is one of the hallmarks of thieves/rogues/assassins!

• Listen (Wisdom): "Hear Noise." Pretty standard here, however, in SIEGE, since this is a class ability, classes that don't have it do not get to add their level to the ability roll (SIEGE check.) Here, I'll bring up one of the criticisms of SIEGE, and it really goes back to the origins of D&D itself. Why does wisdom represent awareness? Wisdom, more accurately stated, is willpower/faith. I would argue that all observation/perception type abilities/skills should be under the purview of intelligence. I know, you can have absent minded professors and such, but should clerics be the most observant members of a party? In C&C, clerics kick-ass in this department because wisdom is their prime stat. Trust me, I love clerics, but, I think not.

• Move Silently (Dexterity): See Hide, above.

• Poisons (Intelligence): With the aid of some alchemical equipment, the Assassin can identify and manufacture poisons and antitoxins at 1/3 the market price. The handling of poison makes Assassins a bit resistant to them (+1 vs poison at 3rd level.) Pretty vague here. No time table is given nor are alchemy kits listed in the book.
• Tweak: You can harvest poison/toxins (actually, this would be venom, not poison) from slain monsters. An intelligence roll vs. the monster's level (HD) must be made as well as 1 turn of time (that's an old-school turn, C&C does not have 10 minute turns). Failure means you either botched it or the source was destroyed when the creature was killed. A natural "1" results in poisoning yourself. Vials are needed for storage. A vial of poison/toxin can be turned into 1d4 antitoxins with a full days work -- and another roll, failure means no antitoxin and the poison is destroyed.
• Tweak: Your +1 save vs. poison/venom at 3rd level continues to increase with levels, it becomes +2 at 7th, +3 at 12th, +4 at 18th, and +5 at 24th. 

• Sneak Attack: In C&C, Rogues have a back attack and a sneak attack. Assassins don't have the back attack because they have their death attack. With Sneak Attack, you can surprise attack someone walking by or even standing face to face. You get a +2/+4 attack/damage bonus and the target can't roll for initiative until the following round. But, you basically need the CK's permission to pull this off and the CK may require you make a Hide and/or Move Silently check anyway, at which point it becomes a weaker form of back attack. In this form it's more of a role-playing ability.
• Tweak: After initiative is determined, in the first round of combat, the Assassin can use Sneak Attack on anyone who acts after him. Thus, he gets the jump on that particular target.

• Traps (Intelligence): Finally a game that bases traps on intelligence instead of dexterity. And it's interesting that finding traps requires intelligence yet listening at doors requires wisdom. Nothing to tweak here though. One roll to find, another roll to disarm. And if you wish, a roll to set a trap of your own. Obviously setting your own trap would take time and it's not something I've ever seen come up in any game or system.

The 13th level+ abilities are mostly bonuses to surprise, initiative, dexterity, and sneak attack. At 15th level you gain a Signature Move which increases the potency of your death attack by +2 (meaning -2 to save) and at 20th level you gain an ability called Slow Kill which causes extra bleeding damage.

More to come on Castles & Crusades.

Great game.

Three Hearts And Three Lions

One of the inspirations for D&D as listed in Appendix N.

Poul Anderson, Three Hearts and Three Lions, 1953/1961.

You have:

•  a paladin and his loyal and fierce warhorse
•  a shady witch
•  a dwarf (probably a ranger)
•  the exact swanmay from monster manual II
•  the land of Faery
•  devious and seductive elves
•  Law vs. Chaos
•  a fire-breathing red dragon
•  an ogre/giant and it's cursed purse of gold
•  Morgan le Fey
•  a werewolf
•  lay on hands is mentioned
•  a magician and his invisible servant
•  a Saracen knight
•  a beautiful but treacherous nixie, monster manual accurate
•  druids mentioned.
•  cannibal barbarians 
•  flint and steel and the need of a torch-bearer
•  a roughly 10x10 passage at the back of a cave
•  a mini dungeon crawl
•  the exact troll from the monster manual
•  the wild hunt
•  and a sword of destiny.

Great cover! There shouldn't be any plate mail though and the dwarf should have white hair.

Unfortunately, this cover is much more accurate.

Cons:

• I find, Holger, unlikeable. Whines to himself too much. Can't stand protagonists that feel sorry for themselves, even a little.
• Didn't like the real world connection and Holger's scientific solutions to problems. Cursed gold coins are radioactive. Defeats a dragon by throwing water in its mouth. Would have preferred this story if it was simply about a paladin with amnesia, from wound or spell.
• Morgan le Fey and the swanmay arguing over Holger like junior high brats nearly killed my desire to keep reading. This scene was downright stupid. I expect better from Morgan le fey.
• Not really a con, but the Saracen Knight seemed pointless, or incomplete, maybe I missed something. Strictly to make Holger jealous of the swanmay?

Pros:

• Plenty of darkness and adult themes despite some silliness, even the old hag at the beginning wants the hero. Werewolves eat babies. There's human sacrifice. Combat is surprisingly brutal compared to the tone of the book. Action scenes were good.
• The nixie, troll, and swanmay are direct verbatim inspirations for their D&D counterparts. The troll fight was fierce and followed a mini dungeon-crawl. The nixie scene was awesome (except for the magnesium dagger, conveniently acquired earlier.) The swanmay, while flying, would change to human form and fall, then change back to swan just in time for the thrill of it, reminding me of a trapeze artist -- very creative and insightful of the author. 
• The werewolf scene stands out, almost too much, as if it belongs in another book, but good none-the-less. Paladin almost becomes Inquisitor here.
• No wasted space, like all older fantasy, gets right to it, unlike the thousand page epics that sprang up in the late 80s/90s that were mostly hot air.

I finally read Three Hearts and Three Lions because I've been reading Brian N. Young's, Codex Celtarum, for Castles & Crusades where Poul Anderson is briefly mentioned and I figured it was high time... BTW, The Codex Celtarum is probably the best D&D source on Faery out there. 

Castles & Crusades Monster Stats, The Riddle That Is...

Castles & Crusades again.

The Troll Lords do a great job of sifting through folklore to find obscure creatures and fairies to spice up your game. Below is the Becolaep. The Becolaep is a medium sized, spectral witch, undead, incorporeal, chaotic-evil, life-draining... thing. Nothing really new here. But...

 

How about HD: 4d20... 

And 2 claws that do 3d10 damage...!

And a Life-Draining touch that drains 1d20+4 hit points (double on a critical hit) which in turn heals the Becolaep, 1d20+4...??? (5-24... that's quite a range!)

Before I go on, let me talk about the stat blocks in general. First, C&C has the perfect balance of information, somewhere closer to B/X than AD&D. However, I don't like that the listed attacks do not include the attack bonus. I know in C&C the attack bonus is equal to the number of HD, but leaving it out creates a little bit of unnecessary work for the DM (CK) even if it is just a glance.

Saving Throws will either say P, M, or both. This means physical and/or mental. If they have the save it is 12 minus their HD, if not, it's 18 minus their HD. This, also, should've been pre-calculated for the reader. In the case of the Becolaep it should read: P: 8, M: 14. If you want people to play your game, make it easy for people to play your game.

The XP for defeating a Becolaep is 500, (+4 per hit point.) I have no idea how they came up with this number. In the beginning of the book there is an XP chart (like with most other versions of D&D) that helps you calculate a monster's XP. Using said chart, I can not come up with 500, even taking into consideration undead traits, which you must look elsewhere for. Which is fine, such charts are just a rough guideline. A lot of monsters in this book don't seem to match up with it though. Again, it's OK, just an observation. I find a lot of traditional monster XP to be low anyway, as I like to reward for killing and finding treasure. Fighting is fun, always has been, always will be.

About these HD... 

At first I thought a creature's HD might depend on it's type, fey, animal, undead, etc. But...

Below we have a sample page of the rather large section on fairies (this is all taken from the latest printing of Monsters & Treasure, btw) All four are small sized and similar in many ways, including XP, yet one has HD: 1d6, another has HD: 2d4, the others are HD: 1d8, and HD: 2d12. 

There's no logic here. This is not a complaint, btw, I actually like it, as well as the crazy damage, just trying to figure it out...

Now, part of the fun of the OSR, is that you can throw stats around, you can be whimsical, you know like -- how about HD: 3d12 and 8d4+7 bite damage, why? -- because.

Now I like this kind of whimsical design, to a degree, and I hope this is sort of what's going on in Castles & Crusades, because, if you are going to use this ruleset, it opens things up, liberates you to really have fun and get creative with it (not that you can't do that with any other version of our favorite game.) And it definitely makes the game more dangerous. And D&D should be dangerous. 

I like the fact that many monsters in C&C do damage like 2d10 or 3d10, but it's usually the more obscure monsters or occasionally a radically different take on an old one. Traditional monsters seem to have more traditional damage, for example, the Minotaur does damage: by weapon +4 -- that's lame as hell for such a savage beast, and the traditional, supernaturally strong Vampire only has a single 1d6 slam! A Troll's claws only do 1d4 and it's bite is 2d6, or by weapon +3 (another flaw, it lists all three attacks for the Troll but doesn't say 2 claws, 1 bite, "or" 1 weapon, it simply says claws, bite, weapon, or perhaps more logically it should say: 1 bite + ((2 claws or 1 weapon.)) And the Troll Lords really love their Valkyrie: (Valkryja in C&C) 15d8 HD, 25 AC, and this is exactly what it says for damage: Spear (8d10), Axe (12d12), Sword (10d8), Bow (6d8) as opposed to: by weapon +7, in AD&D.

So anyway, why 4d20 HD? (That's 4-80 hit points, btw)  I'll say this, no two Becolaeps will be the same as they'll run the gamut from super-weak to super-strong. And be glad that, all though they may have upwards of 80 hit points and have two claws that do 3d10 damage, their saves are mediocre and they will miss a lot in combat with only a +4 to-hit. 

Check out the Krampus...

It only has 4d6 (12 maybe 16) hit points, an average AC (14) and is only worth 55 XP (with no treasure.) But look at that damage in one round, 1d12, 1d10, and 2d20 (2-40!!!... and notice it only says claw, not claws, so 2d20...  twice???) The Krampus will either die in the first round or kill half the party!

Time to learn a new kind of fear.

Castles & Crusades Character Sheet

First let me say, I am working on something.  Since, Sision Tower, I've had several ideas.  Drawn lots of cool pictures -- art I WANT to use, but nothing really stuck.  Until recently, that is.  I'd put up a preview, but it's too soon.   Anyhow, I paused my current project because I haven't posted in a while.  So, on to the topic at hand, a game that's been on my mind more and more lately.....

I've owned the 3 Core Rule-Books for awhile now and recently purchased 8 more.  These books are beautiful to my eyes.  I love the art -- something I always pay attention to.  For me, art is integral to gaming.  It sets the mood, it inspires and feeds the imagination (and it doesn't have to be traditional.)  The art in Castles & Crusades (mainly by Peter Bradley) screams D&D, it screams Sword & Sorcery.  It's sexy.  It's BAD-ASS!

The Siege Engine.  If you're not familiar, this is the saving throw and non-combat task resolution system that I think intimidates some people.  It's kind of like THAC0, in that you can make it sound more complicated than it actually is.  To sum it up:  Saving Throws are based on ability scores.  You will have 2 or 3 (Humans) Primary stats and the others will be Secondary stats.  Primary stat saves start at 12, Secondary stat saves start at 18.  Subtract your level.  Subtract a positive ability bonus (or a add a negative one.)  And maybe, subtract a bonus gained from your class.  That's your save.  Add the challenge level of any particular challenge to get your target number on a D20.  Challenge level is usually based on the level or hit dice of a monster, spell-caster, trap-setter, etc.

(The books go into complex examples of running Siege in a way that assumes you are hiding the challenge level from the player, kind of like hiding armor class in a THAC0 system.  I find it so much easier to have the math done on your character sheet beforehand and simply tell the players the challenge level.)

Here's an example.  A 3rd level Cleric with a 14 wisdom (which gives a +1 bonus.)  Wisdom is the primary stat for clerics, so the base number will be 12.  12 minus 3 (for 3rd level), and -1 ( for a +1 wisdom bonus) = 8.  All of this cleric's wisdom rolls are 8+, including Turn Undead (which would then be further modified by the Undead's hit dice, so turning a 5 HD undead would up this cleric's roll from 8 to 13.)  That's it, that's Siege.

Below is a sample of how to record this to speed up play.  This is a 1st level Illusionist.  Instead of just writing 12s and 18s for the saves and doing the calculations during play, I've recorded the final numbers below.  The reason for the 10/9 split for Intelligence is that Illusionists get a bonus vs. illusions that improves as they level up.  So, this Illusionist's save vs illusions is 9+.  If they were saving vs an illusion spell cast by a 4th level spell-caster, the save would jump to 13+.

It breaks down like this:

• Str (secondary) 18 (-1 for 1st level) (+1 for a -1 Str mod) = 18
• Dex (secondary) 18 (-1 for 1st level) (+1 for a -1 Dex mod) = 18
• Con (secondary) 18 (-1 for 1st level) = 17
• Int (primary) 12 (-1 for 1st level) (-1 for a +1 Int mod) = 10 (9 vs Illusions for an Illusionist)
• Wis (primary) 12 (-1 for 1st level) (-1 for a +1 Wis mod) = 10 
• Cha (primary) 12 (-1 for 1st level)  = 11

Those stats were rolled randomly, in order, switching Dex and Int.  Illusionists have Int as the primary stat and Humans get two more, where as the other races only get one.  I think it would be interesting if your other primary stat(s) had to be determined randomly.  Here, I chose them to be wisdom and charisma.

Anyhow, if this Illusionist was 15th level, the saves would read: 4,4,3,-4,-4,-3.  Seems crazy, but remember there will almost always be a challenge level added and a 15th level Illusionist will be dealing with 12, 15, 20+ level challenges.  So this 15th level Illusionist, with a Dex save of 4, springing a trap set by a 12th level Rogue, would have to roll 16+ (4 + 12.)

Also, Illusionists are cool in this game.  There are 13 core classes and 14 more in The Adventurers Backpack, not to mention the additional classes found in the various well researched historical Codexes.  All hack-able in true OSR fashion, in fact, some require hacking such as the Nekuomantis (Greek Necromancer) in the Codex Classicum.  A class where some class abilities are written in a mechanically vague way, encouraging you to interpret them as you will.  I know what I would do.....

The Codex Classicum also has an Oracle (Seer) class that is very heavy on the role-play side, recommending that it be played by experienced players.  It's cool, but I prefer mechanics and plan to share some ideas for a hack in the future.

Castles & Crusades also has one of the more user-friendly, yet realistic, encumbrance systems out there.

GREAT game that is capturing more and more of my attention, so naturally, here's a character sheet.  I borrowed thematically from my 5th Edition sheets and took away the Pathfinder-like math on the C&C official sheets.

Castles & Crusades