Purchased the first printing of this book in 2004, and 17 years later the revisions keep getting better. It helps that this is my preferred way to play old school dungeons & dragons style games. This version also has a classic cover homage to the original AD&D.

Probably plenty of other sites will list what is updates; my favorite parts are the extended character classes (to level 24), the gorgeous color art and the aforementioned cover. The game system and rules are basically unchanged - and that's a good thing.

Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 edition was released at about the same time Castles & Crusades was released in a boxed set. While 3.5 improved on 3rd edition (and D20), there was a significant demand at that time for "old school" rules, a return to the 1st edition Advanced D&D. This game (and this book) scratched that itch in the perfect way for me.

First and foremost, the game was very compatible with 1st edition - a system I'd invested in since the early 1980s. This allowed me to reuse adventures and ideas my friends and I had come up with, and many of TSR's classic adventures as well. Dungeon magazine, third party adventures like Judges Guild and Role Aids were all simple to drop into this system.

Where TSR missed out, this game improved. Wizards of the Coast introduced a simpler system for rolling and calculating, all addition. This is head and shoulders over the subtraction and chart lookups required for AD&D. Castles and Crusades used these mechanics from 3rd edition (and D20) to make the game simpler to play and teach.

C&C was also ahead of the curve. D&D 3rd edition used a simpler save system, which wasn't necessarily better. The SIEGE engine of Castles & Crusades combined the original AD&D saving throws with stat checks - and Wizards of the Coast would use this mechanic in 5th edition D&D.

Enough about the system - back to the book. In the original AD&D, much of the material was missing - either in the Dungeon Master's Guide in the form of look-up charts and references, or published later in Dragon Magazine or supplemental books like Unearthed Arcana. The C&C Players Handbook contains nearly everything needed to play - in fact, this game's version of the DMG came out much later. The rules, the game mechanics, and play tips are all here. The first few printings had some complaints and errata, but these are all corrected by this 8th printing.

Perhaps the best section of the book is "The Castle Keeper and the Game". This tips section could easily have been published in external form (see Sly Flourish and others). It describes working with the players, having fun with the game, and the reasons behind the SIEGE engine. This isn't "secret, DM-only" information - it is valuable to all players, but it is especially valuable to those who step up to adjudicate the game for their friends.

This book, and this book alone, is more than enough to play Castles & Crusades. For the Castle Keeper, the book Monsters and Treasure will provide information on both the players opponents and the rewards every character dreams about. Troll Lord has published several excellent adventures for this game system, and any of the classic AD&D challenges will also fit the bill. Highly recommended!