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Thus Magick will be somewhat scanty because no player in his right mind will consent to spending weeks of time merely writing of the characteristics of hundreds of magical items.” (p.106) It is our feeling that each device is unique and must be designed as one of a kind by the Player-Referee. “ Chivalry & Sorcery has deliberately avoided the tendency in some games to publish extensive lists of miraculous and highly predictable magical devices. These quotes only sample the screed on page 64, explaining that if your Magick User does anything but study, you’re doing it wrong! The magical effects are too difficult and are often too dangerous to achieve to permit any Magick User, however highly placed, the luxury of blazing away with spell after spell, or of taking time off from important work to go down into a dungeon!” “ What real ‘experience’ is to be had in a dark, damp dungeon? The Arcane Arts are essentially contemplative in nature, the actual practices being done only after long preparation and research. When in doubt, use ‘over-kill!’ What these ego-trippers and uninformed players do not understand is that it is not in the nature of magicians to risk their skins unless some great treasure is to be had.” To most, it is a type of ‘weapons technology,’ a quick and really easy method of burning, blasting, and otherwise crushing opponents which they cannot destroy by mere wit and superior tactics.

“ Far too many players who have Magick Users assume a blithe complacency about the subject. “ The first rule when dealing with Dragons is to do everything possible to avoid them.” (p.115) And that’s a good thing, because they become a kind of walking nightmare, and not the fun kind. So dungeons won’t exist, because the church or king will get them. Myths and legends about such a place and what is to be found in it soon become common knowledge.” (p.105) Nor is it possible to keep such a dungeon complex secret for long. A large concentration of loot will attract the King, a personage always in need of money. A large concentration of ‘evil’ will attract the Church and might bring down a ‘Crusade’ against it. “ The mere fact that a ‘dungeon complex’ exists within a larger world means that there is a natural limit to what it can and will contain.

“ Because of the constant escalation in the numbers and the power of ‘magical’ spells, the dungeon expedition has become a form of walking nightmare to player and dungeon master alike.” (p.64) To a young D&D fan, circa 1978, C&S seemed like a systematic attempt to drain everything fun from D&D and replace it with an educational exercise. Plus, you have a fanciful notion of chivalry-something more than the church’s public service campaign aimed at getting a ruling class of murderous, mounted thugs and warlords to behave.

You have fair ladies, honorable knights, church-bound clerics, and boot-licking peasants. C&S needed the micro-text to reach the goal of offering “the most complete rule booklet ever published.”Ĭ&S feels like half role-playing game, and half broadside against the decadent practices of some other game, which I won’t name but which has the initials D and D. I presume most of the passages in the original C&S draft began, “Actually, in a real feudal society…,” but that the editors cut for space. To be fair, the game features a cherry-picked version of feudal realism that dwells on historical customs drawn from the Society for Creative Anachronism. I imagine the published text was typewritten and then reduced to half size.

You can tell that C&S is as serious as a legal contract because it’s written in the same, punishing 6-point courier as a contract’s fine print. A page from first edition Chivalry & Sorcery