Has anyone played Castles & Crusades? What was your experience?
I recently downloaded the free PHB (7th printing, 2017) and upon looking through it, the system just looks like a mess. The basic mechanics are your standard d20 Ascending vs static Armor Class, but the issues lie with the details. Most combat actions (including spellcasting) must be declared BEFORE initiative is rolled, which seems like it would severely hamper any tactical roleplay. Unless the players are good at guessing, they would generally be resigned to reacting to what happened in the LAST round rather than what's happening in the CURRENT round. "Locking in" actions might be more "realistic" considering that events in a round are supposed to be happening simultaneously, but from a gameplay perspective, it just doesn't sound fun.
Spellcasting is also gimped, IMHO, unnecessarily. A character cannot move while casting a spell, and getting hit in the same round causes the spell to automatically fail (unless the GM is magnanimous as fuck and allows a Concentration check). Combine this with the "declare before rolling initiative" rule and you can begin to see the concerns I'm having. And let's hope your Cleric didn't take a vow of chastity, because she's get fucked; healing spells are a range of Touch, meaning she'd need to Move to the target in one round, then cast heal in the next. Alternatively, she declares healing and hopes her target comes to her, like a child running to mommy after he fell down and scraped his knee.
There's also a whole slough of minor issues, such as a punishing Encumbrance system, unbalanced classes, a too-long list of weapons and armor (without any real meaningful distinction between them), and a god-awful confusing layout.
Are my concerns unfounded and the system plays better than it sounds?