House Rules

[DoNotFearToTread]

Castles and Crusades does a lot of good work emulating the style of older fantasy games but the systems could use a bit of refinement to match my personal tastes. Here is a list of those adjustments, updated as needed during play. Many of these are pulled as options from the Castle Keeper's Guide.

 

Difficulty Numbers

If you are rolling with a Prime Attribute, your DC is always base 12. If you are using a class ability that is tied to a Secondary Attribute, the DC is base 15. If you are rolling against a Secondary Attribute for something unrelated to your abilities, the DC is base 18.

 

Adding Level to Rolls

To limit the amount of back-and-forth needed as to what qualifies for this, and to keep heroes heroic, you can always add your level to a roll you are making.

 

Hit Point Calculation

While you take full HP at 1st level, when you advance you are given the option to take 3/4 max on the dice OR roll for HP. If you roll, you will count anything below half on the die as half, so as to provide a proper buffer and avoid people suffering through those awful 1 HP gains.

 

Multiclassing

We will be making use of the Class and a Half rules for multiclassing in this campaign. This allows players to dip into another class and utilize the benefits of both classes more freely than the standard multiclassing rules.

 

Encumbrance

Modify your character's encumbrance value to be 1.5 times your strength score. Strength and/or constitution as a prime adds 5 each to your value. Burdened covers your E.V. up to your E.V. x 3 and overburdened applies at higher than that.

 

Critical Hits/Fumbles

Roadhouse rules are by definition more brutal in nature. On a natural 20 roll, the attacker rolls double the attack dice and doubles any bonus damage. Thus a natural 20 with a +1 longsword and +2 strength bonus would deal 2d8+6 points of damage to the opponent! If the attacker rolls a natural 1 they drop their weapon or break their bowstring/arrow as in Option 1.

 

Disengaging

Hasty Disengagement: The character or monster attempts to leave combat and expends all effort to do so. A character disengaging hastily may move as far as possible up to their maximum running distance, but they suffer a -2 to armor class and their opponent gets an attack against them as they run away. This is a free attack and does not count against the opponent’s other action in the round, although the opponent may not make a second attack against the fleeing character. The armor class adjustment lasts throughout the combat round and applies to every attack against the fleeing character.

Fighting Disengagement: A more carefully executed withdrawal from combat. By performing a fighting disengagement, the character moves one-half their movement rate or less away from their opponent and they can disengage from combat. The character suffers no penalty to armor class, but they cannot take any other action in the round. In the round following the disengagement the character or monster has put distance between themselves and their opponent.

Edited October 22, 2023 by DoNotFearToTread (see edit history)