Castles & Crusades Players Handbook

Join Us at the Table!

The Castles & Crusades Players Handbook physical and PDF versions can be found on the Troll Lord Games website.

With Iron Heel the World Grinds Away

Plunge into worlds of fantastic adventure where dragons lie and the undead stalk the shades of your mind’s imaginings, where creatures of legend plunder wealth through the horror of their passage. Monsters grim and foul taunt with the ecstasy of gold and glory. Upon the heels of these foes stalk heroes of great might; those who take up sword and shield, who harness eldritch might, those who traverse the narrow corridors in search of sport and those who serve a purpose greater than all the others: Heroes, Freebooters, Mercenaries, and Adventurers.

A Game That is Yours to Command!

Castles & Crusades is a fantasy role playing game with countless possibilities. The Players Handbook allows you take up the sword and shield, the staff or bow; to arm yourself as you desire and wander upon planes of your own imagination to reap the harvest of adventure.

Designed for use with multiple players, Castles & Crusades puts you in charge of the adventure path. Included within are all the rules of play, how to get started in your very own role playing game, how to run the game and play in it.

Its easy to learn attribute-based rules system allows players to choose among 13 archetypal character classes and 7 races to with which create their characters. Spells, equipment, fast-paced combat rules, and all essential information needed to play a game of Castles & Crusades are in this book.

With Castles & Crusades your imagination is the field of play. The story is one of your  own making.

Updated content removes the SRD and OGL material.

Content Overview

Foundry Features!

The C&C PHB Foundry Module contains the following for use in your games:

This module includes 1,167 top-level Foundry documents, including:

• 1 installable Adventure for importing the packaged PHB content into a world!
• 6 Journal Entry documents containing 83 readable journal pages of rules and reference material, directly in the VTT!
• 540 spell compendium entries, including 537 spell Items and 3 spell attack helper weapons!
• 8 familiars for spellcasters to use on the VTT scenes!

The character-building compendium includes drag-and-drop content for player sheets:

• 206 class ability entries!
• 71 racial ability entries!
• 335 equipment entries, including 48 armor items, 105 weapons, and 186 general items!

The spell compendium is organized for table use and includes:

• 102 Cleric spell entries
• 115 Druid spell entries
• 161 Illusionist spell entries
• 162 Wizard spell entries

Items, spells, weapons, armor, class abilities, and racial abilities can be opened directly from the compendium for reference or dragged onto compatible Castles & Crusades character sheets. The Familiars compendium provides ready-to-use familiars, including the hawk, imp, owl, pixie, quasidemon, raven, toad, and weasel!

What You Find In The C&C Players Handbook:

• Castles & Crusades.: The RPG: In the opening pages, we explain the tools you will need and how to play a game of Castles & Crusades. We explain the basics of the attribute check system, the Siege Engine, and touch on attribute modifiers and attribute checks.
• The Classes: In this second section, the PHB delves into the classes. From the Fighter to the Wizard, it presents 13 classes to choose from, as well as various customizable options, such as multi-classing, or class-and-a-half. Each class description includes all the relevant info from skills to weapons they use. Artists Peter Bradley and Zoe DeVos bring each class alive depicting both male and female versions of the class. 
• The Races: Expand your character with one of seven races. You can choose from seven different races: human, elf, dwarf, halfling, half-elf, gnome, and half-orc. Each unique race includes different mechanics, their strengths and weaknesses, and a wealth of background information that any character or player could make brilliant use of. As with the classes above, our art team depicts both male and female versions!
• Completing the Character: Here the Players Handbook delves into names, how to create background and personality, alignment, equipment, and other necessary details to help you bring the character you want to play to the table.
• Magic: Magic unleashes a whole new dimension of play at the table top and C&C has plenty of it. Here we explore the four major spellcasters, Cleric, Druid, Wizard, and Illusionist, how they cast spells, and the spells they cast. From the Cleric’s spiritual weapon to the Illusionists’ healing ability, it is all here.
• Spells: Hundreds of spells put into simple words and lists with terminology, descriptions and all the required information for your table to run smoothly; range, saving throws, casting time, duration, and anything else can be answered in this segment of the Player’s Handbook.
• The Castle Keeper & the Game: This section expands upon the Siege Engine and how to play using attribute checks. It is simple, extremely versatile, and allows for immediate resolution of conflict for expanded story development. All of this is covered as well as how to role play, what you need, expectations and a plethora of examples on how to use the attribute check system. (Don’t miss the Castle Keepers Guide for more optional rules and a mountain of material on how to play!)
• Combat: Here the book explores the painless to learn combat system. It includes how to begin and run fights, the necessary stats and rolls, surprise, initiative, non-lethal combat, melee and ranged, unarmed, situational modifiers, armor class, maneuvers, hit points, and damage. (Dive into the Monsters & Treasure for detailed entries on all manner of enemies and monsters to use in your combats!)
• Turning Undead: The cleric and paladin both have special abilities when it comes to controlling or destroying the undead. All that is covered here.
• Hit Points & Damage: Life is precious! This section explains how health works in C&C and gives heavily detailed information on the various ways that damage is encountered.
• Rewards: How to award treasure and experience points, allowing the characters and the game to advance, literally to the next level.
• Movement, Spell Resistance, Languages, Vision & Time: All of these sections discuss the various aspects of the game that come into play. Each is dealt with and explained, making deployment at the table fast and easy.
• Example of Play: The book is wrapped up by an example of play. Learn how to do it from the creators!
• Spell Reference Table: A handy chart that allows for referencing the spells in this book in a “stat block” form.

These features have been compiled into sections within a special reference manual specifically formatted for ease of play on FoundryVTT at the table or over the Internet.

Other Available Content

Complete your table with more FoundryVTT, PDF and Print products published by Troll Lord Games and our Partners!

• FoundryVTT - Castles & Crusades Castle Keepers Guide
• FoundryVTT - Castles & Crusades Monsters & Treasure
• FoundryVTT - Castles & Crusades Quickstart Guide
• FoundryVTT - Castles & Crusades S2 A Lion in the Ropes Adventure
• Troll Lord Games Web Store
• Troll Lord Games FoundryVTT Products

*Coming Soon!*

• FoundryVTT - Castles & Crusades Beneath the Canopy Green Adventure Series

Support

• To report bugs or request features please:
  • Visit our official discord and join the discussions with the developers & TLG: Troll Lord Games on Discord
  • Email us at [email protected]

Licensing Information

This product's format, programming code, and presentation is copyrighted by Foundry Gaming, LLC.

This system & prodcut are used with permission granted as part of the partnership agreement between Foundry Gaming LLC and Troll Lord Games LLC. It uses the following trademarks and/or copyrights:

©2025 Troll Lord Games. All Rights Reserved. Castles & Crusades® is a registered Trademark of Chenault & Gray Publishing L.L.C., d/b/a Troll Lord Games. SIEGE Engine™ is Trademark Chenault & Gray Publishing L.L.C., d/b/a Troll Lord Games. The Troll Lord Games, Castles & Crusades, SIEGE Engine, and Troll Lord Games logos are Trademarks of Troll Lord Games. All Rights Reserved. 2025.

For inquiries on developing content for this ruleset please contact [email protected]