Castles & Crusades vs Werewolf: The Apocalypse
Compare Castles & Crusades and Werewolf: The Apocalypse side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| Castles & Crusades | Werewolf: The Apocalypse | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Fantasy | Horror, Modern, Fantasy |
| Tags | Heroic, Dungeon Crawl, Character Building, High-Fantasy, Theater of the Mind, Vancian Casting | Atmospheric, Base-Building, Character Building, Character-Driven, Corruption, Drama, Lore-Heavy, Strong GM Support, Superpowers, Urban Fantasy |
| Core Mechanic | SIEGE Engine: roll d20 + modifier + level vs. Challenge Class (12 for primary attributes, 18 for secondary). Primary/secondary attribute distinction replaces complex skill lists with a single unified check system. | Build a d10 dice pool, usually from an Attribute plus a Skill. Each 6 or higher is a success, and meeting the Storyteller-set Difficulty wins. Each pair of 10s counts as four successes. Rage dice replace regular dice up to current Rage and can cause Brutal outcomes. |
| Dice | d20 | d10 dice pool |
| Complexity | Low | High |
| Accessibility | Very High | Medium |
| Runnability | High | Very High |
| License | OGL 1.0a | All Rights Reserved |
| Third-Party Publishing | Not yet researched | Commercial publishing allowed — Storytellers Vault |
| Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing. | ||
| Cost | Free | $$ |
| Publisher | Troll Lord Games | Renegade Game Studios |
| Year | 2004 | 2023 |
| Languages | English | English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Polish, Portuguese |
| Best For | Groups wanting the classic AD&D feel with streamlined, unified mechanics: old-school spirit with modern ease of play. | Groups who want long-form modern horror about shapeshifter packs defending communities from ecological and spiritual threats, with violent power constrained by moral and social consequences. |
| Highlights | SIEGE Engine unifies all attribute checks, easy to convert AD&D/d20 content, 13 classes with classic archetypes, fast character creation, large back-catalog of adventures | Brutal outcomes can force destructive failures or add four successes to actions the Storyteller judges can benefit from Rage. Choosing a Garou form changes a character's capabilities, creating tactical and narrative options. Caerns give the pack an improvable spiritual home whose traits connect campaign advancement to territory and community. |
| Considerations | Primary/secondary attribute split can feel arbitrary, limited non-fantasy support | A Crinos-form Garou who did not kill in the previous turn must spend Willpower at the start of the next turn or enter frenzy, making the war form difficult to sustain outside violent scenes. Harano and Hauglosk can remove a Garou from play when despair or absolutism fills either track, making moral decline a campaign-level consequence. The game centers mature environmental and spiritual horror, including graphic violence and themes of exploitation and extremism that require deliberate table boundaries. |