I never had a copy of Chivalry & Sorcery. I had heard about it when I picked up roleplaying back in the early 80's, but no one in my group owned a copy. Heck, no one in my group had seen a copy outside of a game store. I do remember the ads in Dragon Magazine. The ads seemed to me to infer the game was damn complicated. The ads were probably right.So, here we are, nearly 30 years later, and I am the proud owner of a previously owned copy of Chivalry & Sorcery. It's a beat up copy, that appears to be well used, but I question how well read it actually was. It seems that a previous owner underlined and otherwise marked up the first 10 1/2 pages and then just stopped. Which I can understand, as this looks like a textbook, and the font is damn tiny.
Unlike Tunnels & Trolls, this is not a line I'll be looking to complete, but I did need to actually see what all the fuss was about.
I'm not sure if I'll ever read thru this whole thing myself, but if I do, it will be in very small chunks ;)
Yeah, I didn't start playing RPGs until 1984 and didn't have a FLGS until 1987, so I missed the C&S ship. I've always wondered, though. I actually liked the two games I missed out on the first time around when I tried them out late in life (Traveller and Pendragon).
ReplyDeleteC&S is a fascinating game, a veritable snapshot of a part of old school gaming culture that doesn't get talked about much nowadays and really ought to be. I'm not tempted to play it, but it's enlightening to read.
ReplyDeleteHi guys,
ReplyDeleteI am old school and have played C&S since 1983 right up until this very day with the same group in the same house for the past 28 years!!!
Although I do own C&S 1st edition we play the 2nd edition simply because we found it first and played it first. However, 1st edition has some great stuff that we also use all the time.
This game might be old school and dated but it offers a huge amount of valuable information for any gamer. Also, if you are patient and can focus you can play this system easily. I would say it provides the best and most grittiest combat there is. Also, the magic and clerical rules are awesome and was the basis of many other systems that popped up much later.
I strongly recommend this system to anyone wanting to play a game that is more detail than gloss. Also, we have a forum devoted to C&S if anyone wants to come over and find out more:
http://chivalrysorcery.myfastforum.org/index.php?sid=f50c6cdc4a6803b426b880ec7bc5acb3