This past weekend I had the opportunity to attend some of Troll Lord Games Troll-Con East 2011 held at All Things Fun comic shop. It was a fun time that delivered on what was promised, Dungeons and Dragons type game play with a lighter rule set.

We were run through an adventure by Stephen Chenault, author of the Castle Keepers Guide (their DMG). We had a fun and boisterous group and Steve let us go with the flow. He didn’t bat an eye when our bard announced his lute was reinforced on the back with iron and he wanted to use that as a club. For some reason the halfling druid I played carried a didgeridoo. Personally I know I’m going to love any gaming system that has didgeridoo in the core books equipment list.

Since everyone was familiar with RPGs we had characters rolled up in just a few minutes. With the simplicity of the system I’m confident anyone who has at least seen a fantasy movie could be up and playing within an hour.

We ran through a couple situations to show off their skill system, well I guess really non-existent skill system. If you want to try and see some footprints in the mud, roll a 20 sider and add your level and Wisdom ability modifier. The only other thing you need to know is if the ability you are using for a check is one of your  prime abilities.

Each class has a prime ability (and I think some have a suggested second prime, but my druid didn’t) by default and you get to pick a second or third prime ability based on your race. If something you are trying to do falls in the realm of one of your prime abilities it’s easier to do, so you have a lower number to beat. If it’s not prime it’s a little tougher, and a higher target number. The CK gets to add or subtract from the target number based on the situation like trying to listen in on a conversation you are not involved in a mostly empty barroom is much easier than out on the street during a thunderstorm.

Unfortunately the real world pulled me away from the table for a few hours in the middle of gaming, but it was all for the best, when I returned I rolled up a new character to have fun with. This time I played a half-orc barbarian. I eased back to the table around midnight and inspected my character sheet. They had blank ones that were geared towards similar groupings of characters Cleric/Druid and Monk/Barbarian were the ones I got to see. At the bottom of the sheet they had all the nifty things that made your class special. Earlier in the day my druid could move through thick underbrush unimpeded and my new barbarian had several abilities listed. The one that drew my eye was “may attempt a herculean task”. Yes please!

My opportunity to test out my new ability came when we found ourselves in need of a rest. Technically we found ourselves in need of more healing but our cleric was fresh out of spells. We were in a  cave chamber with many stalactite and stalagmites, one human sized entrance where we came from, one small tunnel passage, and bunch of rocks that were strangely rounded. Everyone was afraid to disturb the rocks, but they also wanted the small tunnel passage blocked up so we could be more secure. I believe I saw a tiny bit of a smile from Steve when I announced, “I want to attempt a herculean task and break off a stalagmite and use it to block up the small passage.” He said I did that the right way cause the when he attempts things like this the barbarian would not get the +4 bonus if he sat around and thought about it and debated what would be the best way to do something. Roleplaying a rash character is something I can handle.

The system made enough of an impact that a regular weekly game has been added to the schedule Monday nights at All Things Fun. The game was a fun time and is recommended if you have players that prefer a faster looser game versus intricate character sheets with rules for every permutation. If you’d like to check out Castles and Crusades you can download a free pdf of the quick stat rules here.