Chivalry & Sorcery

A fantasy-genre role-playing game¸ based on medieval Europe with the addition of elves¸ dwarves¸ etc. The original uses a complex system with skills and level-based advancement¸ including an involved combat system. The complex magic system mixes fantasy magic like fireballs with authentic alchemy¸ witchcraft¸ and enchantment. Mages must spend time enchanting materials and tracking degree of enchantment. Chivalry and Sorcery was one of the first fantasy role-playing games to be published. It originally came out as a single perfect bound volume in 1977 and was noted for the depth of the game material and the game's devotion to 'realism' over ease of play. In 1983 a revamped 2nd Edition was printed as a 3 volume boxed set. This was heavily revised from the original 1st Edition with the 'magick' system made simpler¸ but it still made use of a lot of material in the style of P.E.I Bonewitz's Authentic Thuamaturgy.
The 3rd edition introduces a unified mechanic (the Skillscape system) using 3d10: a percentile roll under skill for success¸ and a crit die determines quality of success/failure. There are min and max chances of success¸ but skill below min or above max counts by modifying the crit result. The Light rules are a simplified version of the 3rd edition rules (in a 40-page booklet). - A description fromdarkshire.netwith kind permission of John H. Kim
The 2nd Edition introduced a skill based system to go along with the class based system inherited from other fantasy RPG's of the period. Characters could choose from a bunch of skills¸ including things like Courtly Dance and Cooking Food¸ with a percentage chance of successfully completing a task. A character's success at using a skill was dependant upon the level of the skill which was purchased with Experience Points.
Many of the features that first saw the light of day in Chivalry and Sorcery became almost standard in many RPG systems of the Eighties. However there remained the image of Chivalry and Sorcery as a very complex RPG and this generally gave it the status of niche game system played by fanatics for detail. However the depth of the material continued to attract people who mainly used the game material adapted for their own worlds and other game systems. After a spurt of publishing that produced a number of supplements and a couple of adventures for the updated 2nd Edition the publishers¸ Fantasy Games Unlimited¸ let the game languish.