Chivalry & Sorcery

Reading RPG
I read way more RPGs and game play aid material than I can ever use. Call it a sub-hobby, or whatever. Sometimes I borrow ideas from my reading and it will show up in a game I am running. Sometimes the material just serves as inspiration, inspiration to do better, inspiration to be more creative, inspiration to continue to be excited about this great hobby. Chivalry & Sorcery (C&S) is one of those early (1977) first generation games that attempt to improve on the white box. I have never played C&S, but I have read through it's 6-point type content many times and continue to be inspired by it.
According to gamer legend, Ed Simbalist and Wilf Backhaus were playing white box and wanting more, more medieval feel, more realism, more on what their PCs were doing when not swinging swords and casting spells. So they created answers in the form of their own game. The authors went to GenCon with a variant of the white box in hand hoping to interest TSR in publishing it, maybe as a supplement like Greyhawk, maybe as a stand-alone game like Empire of the Petal Throne. TSR had done both. As the story goes, Mr. Simbalist and Mr. Backhaus changed their minds about offering their game, titled Chevalier, to TSR and instead signed on with Fantasy Games Unlimited. The resulting rewrite became C&S.
C&S seems to take the medieval part of the white box subtitle seriously. The LBBs nominally use the European middle ages as a reference point with regard to castles, royalty, weapons and armor. White box is more heavily influenced by myth and sword & sorcery literature, but the game does derive from Chainmail, a set of miniature rules for medieval era wargaming. C&S is clearly a reaction to white box and its authors make several references to "other games" which do things in a manner inconsistent with either history or logic, such as the "dungeon crawl". The historic feudal period is described in C&S terms of knighthood and social obligation and social class can determine many aspects of the PC. There is an emphasis on the players familiarizing themselves with the medieval "mindset" and attempting to play their characters using such "mindset".  Presumably this means with deference for one's social betters and keeping to one's station in life, acting in a chivalrous manner and paying close attention to honor and piety. Default religion in C&S is the medieval catholic church.
The authors state early on that their own campaign is loosely set in France in the year 1170. C&S is not strictly a game about role-playing history, however. The view presented of feudal Europe leaves out the oppression and other unpleasant aspects of the period altogether and portrays a somewhat romanticized and sanitized view of the period. Also, elves, dwarves and hobbits straight out of Tolkien are available as PCs with no real explanation of how to logically insert such anachronisms/fantasies into the historic milieu. With it's magick system and list of creatures, C&S is firmly in the fantasy RPG category of games, but one that seeks to take a much more realistic view of the medieval feudal components.
C&S advertises itself as the most complete game available and I think I understand what they mean by this claim.  C&S is often described as three games in one. The grand campaign, as they call it, is somewhat innovative in that the PCs play out their "ordinary" lives interacting with the environment, making alliances and acquiring favors, honor and wealth.  They engage in romance, establish families and ties to NPCs. It is this level of play that I assume the author's direct their comments about staying in a medieval "mindset". There is a set of miniatures rules to play out army conflicts on the tabletop using miniature figures grouped into units. And third, there is the adventure or roleplaying game where PCs may engage in treasure hunts, wilderness and dungeon adventures in a manner similar to typical white box play.
C&S offers the hobbyist a somewhat more rounded, complete play experience, provided the players are willing to put forth the extra effort demanded by such a game. C&S requires a bit of homework on the part of the players in order to familiarize themselves with the differences that existed within medieval society and thinking. It requires additional roleplaying effort to "stay in character" when playing the "medieval" PC. In an effort to be more realistic, the mechanics of combat and magick are more complex than in games such as white box. The grand campaign probably requires more playing time than traditional campaigns because one presumably plays out many aspects of the PCs "lives" that are generally glossed over.
In C&S authors Ed Simbalist and Wilf Backhaus have striven to take the roleplaying experience beyond the white box on several levels, completeness, realism and complexity of combat, immersion in the feudal society of a romanticized middle ages and in the process have written a game that I find enjoyable to read containing many cleaver game innovations and much good advice for referees of any fantasy RPG.