When it comes to RPGs emulating an authentic Medieval experience there are generally only two games that people go to; Pendragon and Chivalry & Sorcery. One could argue how authentic each of these are, but in general, they are far closer than D&D or anything else on the market.
Chivalry & Sorcery has been around nearly as long as D&D (1977 and 1974 respectively) and like many gamers my age we saw a lot of ads for it in the pages of Dragon Magazine, especially the Fantasy Games Unlimited 2nd Edition.
Currently, it is in its 5th Edition and is published by Brittannia Game Designs.
I am not going to review it today, but this is a gorgeous book. It is also a huge book at 600 pages.
I picked mine up from my FLGS a while back for some ideas on various campaigns, but now I am going to try it out on its own instead.
Brittannia Game Designs recently released the 5th Edition in a Print on Demand format AND a brand new "Basic Game."
The Basic Game is just about 80 pages and will cost you a whole $2.00. So well worth it for any D&D refugee.
I recently got my wife into the Showtime series "The Tudors," so maybe I could use that as an "in" for this game.
One of my favorites for world building.
ReplyDeleteAlso, it hooked me on the utility of placing the character in context within the game. WHat does their father or mother do, where did they grow up? Details like that assist me in moving from 'roll-playing' to role playing a character. So Gary's snarky comments in the DMG about why would a nobleman's son be adventuring, I believe were off the mark.
I bought the 2nd Edition, which I think was the first mass market edition, around 1977 or 1978. I did try some soloplay with it back during lockdown; but way too crunchy to keep me going.
I'm still using it to flesh out my Feudal Wilderlands setting over on Alesmiter, where I add the C&S social structure on top of the original City State of the Invincible Overlord setting.
Glen Moffat
ReplyDeleteThis is definitely a new and old favourite. During the Pandemic not only did I start anew with the 5th edition, I wrote a set of adventures that Brittania Games Design launched a Kickstarter and it will be published this year!.
It was also a game that started my wife and her two friends into this RPG thing. None of them had played any RPG and the detailed backgrounds helped them better understand their Character and its surroundings. Their setting is more middle Fantasy so less than a standard D&D and more than a strictly Chivalric C&S but that is the beauty of this system it supports all these and more types of worlds.
Enjoy and welcome to the world of C&S.