OSR Commentary The Castles & Crusades Kickstarter, the Borderlands , B2 The Keep on The Borderlands & The Spectre of War

 This morning's blog entry is going to pick right up from here on the blog. 
So I've been quietly following the latest Castles & Crusades rpg kickstarter and the Monsterous Armory is one of the latest books that has me intrigued. The book haa some possible interesting uses to it but what the Monsterous Armory about? Well according to the Troll Lords Kickstarter page; "In Monstrous Armory C&C unleashes those weapons and armor used by monsters, humanoids, fey, giants, magical beasts, and even aberrations. Chosen and preferred weapons for kobolds, gnolls, bugbears, hobgoblins, orcs and more mark the book’s beginning, but it doesn’t stop there. From the salamander’s blades to the giant's scythe we give the CK a whole new range of tools to bring mayhem to the table like never before. The Monstrous Armory marks a whole new chapter in monster development, giving them tools for war that fit their physical make up and cultural outlook. "

Really loving this Gnoll warrior with the human skull war club and it gets into something that I've been noticing with Castles & Crusades lately. That is them leaning heavily into thier monsterous forces & turning up the Chaos & evil factor with them. As we discussed in yesterday's Maximum Mayhem Dungeon commentary this is something that goes hand in hand with the classic adventures such as B2 Keep on the Borderlands. 

And I do think that this is a solid direction to take the Castles & Crusades line especially given the amount of Kickstarter money that thier pouring into the next three books on the Troll Lords docket. Why?! Because these book are settled around the adventurers & the monsters of Castles & Crusades. These are the heart and soul of the game system for me as both player and DM. 

For Castles & Crusades especially if a dungeon master (sorry, I'm never ever going to refer to myself as a referee or Castle Keeper. Gary Gygax & Dave Arneson were dungeon masters and so I'm I) are running adventures set in the Borderlands. Given that Maximum Mayhem Dungeons has seen to it with #0: Village on the Borderland. Then it makes perfect sense that C&C's Kickstarter for it's three books couldn't come at a better time.

If we take say #0: Village on the Borderlands & B2 Keep on the Borderlands at face value then the whole area is going to embroiled into a campaign spanning war. And it makes sense that adventuring parties are going to be needed to defend the human and humanoid land from the evil muraders that are threatening the whole area. Now given the fact that we've got three new reference books for C&C it comes to mind that these are going to be perfect for adventurers going up in levels. 
When it comes to classic Castles & Cruades this is a game that adapts very readily to both classic adventures of the world's most popular fantasy game and current trends in the OSR.  And one of those trends that I've come to use over the last couple of years is Adventurer, Conqueror, King's Borderlands series & the Capital of the Borderlands (revised edition) supplement. This book has for our own campaigns has been instrumental in helping to fill in some of the adventuring plots and twists. 
Because of the nature of the state of war that threatens to engulf the Borderlands the C&C Warmounts book is one that I'm especially interested in for our own upcoming games.

B2 The Keep On The Borderlands outlines the keep as a neglected trade point within the Borderlands. Once the threat that the Caves of Chaos represents all bets are really off. And it's this sense of urgency that seems to take over the module that makes it prime of the set up of  Maximum Mayhem Dungeons #0: Village on the Borderlands.