White Boxes, Homage Covers and the 8th Printing

To the best of my recollection, we debuted Castles & Crusades at Gencon 2004. This would have been sometime during the summer months. The main book, the Players Handbook, wasn’t scheduled to come out for some time (eventually it came out in December of ’04) but we wanted to set ourselves clearly on the path. With that in mind, we put together the C&C White Box. Our roots as a company and with that game are deeply entwined with Dungeons & Dragons and we have never forgotten that, and the white box was a homage to the original release of D&D. We printed 1100 of them, 300 were signed and numbered, 700 were regular, and 100 (those that appeared at Gencon) did not have a wrap on the lid, but rather a sticker. Those last were hand-assembled in our soon-to-be operational print shop. The art on the cover was done by Peter Bradley, who still works for TLG to this day.

The box set sold very well at Gencon. I could pull the reports if I was inclined (I’m not) but if I recall the number was about 24-30. The number 24 is stuck in my memory banks but I don’t know why, probably my birthday, which is the 24^th, (so many people in my family were born on the 24^th it is a little weird, so the number sticks with me). The “Spartan 300” as we called them sold even better. We were out in a few months. But I vaguely remember the game debuting at Gencon. I remember Mark Sandy pitching it hard to folks, introducing it to everyone who would listen. I’m pretty sure it was just him and me at that con. We had a small booth and little help.

It consisted of 3 books, some zocchi dice from GameScience, and a crayon and the box. It was a wonderfully simple product. The books had sparse art in them, the dice were uncolored (that is what the crayon was for) and the crayon was just plain. We tried to match the color of the latter with the dice, for some contrast, but who knows if we did or not.

The Players Handbook, 1st printing, finally came out in December of 2004 (I have no pictures from these days, the closest I have is this from 2006 (it was in a folder for 2005, but I think it is 2006), from Lake Geneva Gaming Convention. You can see the PHB behind Jim Ward there.

The product was a lot of fun. It has come a long way since then. We have a new version of the old white box set in the Classic Box set, but now we are set to release our 8^th printing of the Players Handbook and the evolution of the book is nothing short of extraordinary. What was a 128 page, packed back to back with text, hardcover with not a lot of art has become a 250 page beautifully illustrated book with a TOC and index, designed for easy reading and quick access to info. The art and look have made the greatest change. Some of the pictures in the 7^th printing dated to that white box. They were finally replaced (removed to the NPC Almanac) with new, dynamic, color art. Male and Female depictions of all the classes and races, highlighted spell data, the index, and other design features shine through, showing an evolution of a game that few can rival….particularly considering this is still the first edition of the game!

It is that reason that made me decide to do a homage cover for the 8^th printing. It seemed fitting to cast back to the woebegone of the late 70s when I was 12 or so and looking through the newly bought (by Davis, I didn’t spend my money on games, only comics) AD&D Players Handbook. Our homage, by Jason Walton, recasts that iconic scene as he sees it and places it squarely in the world of the modern gamer.

The Castles & Crusades Players Handbook, 8^th printing, should be available this December (16 years to the month after the first printing). Keep an eye out!