A Place of Mystery and Treasure

Read Only Game
In Chivalry and Sorcery, authors Ed Simbalist and Wilf Backhaus write about a place of mystery or treasure as opposed to the dungeon found in other games (meaning white box, etc.). The difference is one of design philosophy as well as scale. The place of mystery or treasure can be anything, as can a dungeon, really. A tower, ruin, or other above ground structure, a mine, cavern, tomb or other underground complex, or a forest, island, or other place can serve as the location for adventure. The suspected presence of treasure may be the motivation to visit such place or there may be other "hooks" such as rescuing the princess from the tower.
What Mr. Simbalist and Mr. Backhaus seem to be arguing against in C&S is the megadungeon referenced in white box as simply "the dungeon" and which forms the centerpiece of many old school campaigns. The megadungeon concept is based on the campaign consisting of numerous trips into the multilevel dungeon to defeat monsters and traps and acquire treasure. The dungeon is designed by the referee with levels on which are found increasingly difficult challenges and correspondingly increased rewards in the form of treasure. The rationale for such dungeon is often a crazy old arch-mage who built it and stocked it with critters, traps and treasure, for some generally unknown reason. Such dungeons have been labeled "fun-parks" when each room basically presents a new challenge, often with a corresponding reward and the adventuring party moves from room-to-room much like a "fun park" patron moves from booth to booth overcoming the challenge at each and earning the reward. Often little thought is given to the relationship of any occupants of one room to another.
In C&S the authors state that the location of monsters, traps, and treasures should be logical and justified. Here we see the concept of realism applied to the design of the dungeon or other place of mystery. Thought should be given to how the dungeon operates as an environment for those resident monsters as well as the occasional adventuring PC. C&S advocates the campaign including several adventure sites rather than a single large dungeon. The places of mystery or treasure are each smaller than a megadungeon and may be completely explored in only a session of so of play. They are presumably part of some adventure storyline which gives the PCs reason to visit them and ties them into the greater milieu or Grand Campaign.
The creators of C&S state their goal of creating a game where the dungeon and wilderness adventure are only part of the game experience. Adventure can also be found in social interaction, feudal tournaments, formal warfare, politics and economics and C&S encourages players to explore these areas as well as in the places of mystery and treasure. I have never gamed C&S as a system, but many of the ideas found in this 1977 publication influence the way I play all other roleplaying and adventure games.