The Red Book is a trade mark of Gamestuff Inc and is the unauthorized edition of Chivalry & Sorcery (C&S) role playing game. Its name was given by the red cover of the 1st edition. All successive Red Book editions took the same design; especially the 5th and 6th editions, also known as Phoenix and Chimera versions, which have the same cover and font typing. C&S was originally created by Edward E. Simbalist

Edward E. Simbalist

Edward E. Simbalist was a role-playing game designer. Two of the most famous games he designed are Chivalry & Sorcery with Wilf K. Backhaus and Space Opera with A. Mark Ratner & Phil McGregor. He was Canadian and lived in Edmonton. He also was a teacher at .-Books written or co-authored by Edward E...

 and Wilf K. Backhaus in 1977 and first published by Fantasy Games Unlimited (FGU), an american editor. The 2nd edition was also published by FGU (1983), the 3rd by Highlander Designs (1996) and the 4th by Brittannia Game Designs (2000).

C&S: the Red Book

Published in 2000 by Wilf Backhaus and Hugh Tyreman. This free download pdf was published by Gamestuff Inc, a gaming company based in Camerose, Alberta

Alberta

Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...

. C&S Red Book was a reprinting of the original 1977 edition of C&S with a bigger font and some minor additions. This e-book was produced with a distinctive red cover and was produced under license from Wilf K. Backhaus, Maple Leaf Games Ltd (the game company of Ed Simbalist who died in march 2005) and Brittannia Game Designs Ltd (BGD) by Gamestuff Inc. At that time Simbalist and Backhaus parted since Wilf Backhaus did not take part in the writing of C&S4.
This edition is the only authorized version. All successive editions are unofficial and have the same cover than the first edition published by FGU in 1977 (see image above).

C&S5: Phoenix

Published in 2009, another version of C&S was released online. This version, referred by some as 1.5 edition, appears to be an update of the Red Book of 227 pages (C&S1 was 122 pages with the same typo). The many references to Middle Earth's Tolkien universe and the Black Magick spells that disappeared since the 3rd edition show obviously that the authors wanted to get back to the basic roots of the spirit of the original edition. The cover is a copy of the original 1st Book edition cover art emphasizes the will to stuck back to C&S1.

Changes made from the original C&S RedBook:

• 3 new classes (Spy, Inquisitor, Dark Knight)
• new clerical fighting orders
• plagues & diseases
• new weapons for monsters
• new drugs & poisons
• the inquisition
• the Opus Dei
• Druidism
• Druidic cults & Deities
• Elves, Dwarves & Hobbits lifestyles
• new spells & Black Magick
• the magicians part 3
• new magic weapons & armors
• new magic items
• extended monsters descriptions
• new monsters
• designing monsters
• Archaeron

C&S6: Chimera

In 2011, another unofficial edition of 338 pages was released as a free downloadable pdf. This version, thus referred as 1.6 edition, contains the last writings of Wilf Backhaus who died in October 2009 and the full supplement "Arden", one of the nations in the Archaeron campaign of the designers of Chivalry & Sorcery that was first published by FGU in 1979. This edition kept the original game's mechanic but focused on background stuff such as Demonology

Demonology

Demonology is the systematic study of demons or beliefs about demons. It is the branch of theology relating to superhuman beings who are not gods. It deals both with benevolent beings that have no circle of worshippers or so limited a circle as to be below the rank of gods, and with malevolent...

. At that time, the official 5th edition was still in development. The relationship was so tensed between the C&S trademark owners and the players who enjoyed the supposed latest work of Wilf Backhaus that an entire topic dedicated to the 6th edition on the C&S fans forum was deleted. When C&S6 was issued, BDG was very upset and tried to protect its trademarks.

Changes made from C&S5 Phoenix:

• new elven races (Noldor: High elves, Sindar: Grey Elves and Nandor: Wood Elves)
• 2 new religions: paganism and wotanism
• the place a women in the feudal society
• the free companies
• the exorcist, new character class
• the saints
• churches of Evil for Dark Knights
• the Summoner, a new type of magician
• occult books
• backfire table
• symbols of guard
• circles of power and summoning
• spells of summoning
• Demonology: infernal origin, hierarchy in hell, the Watchers, possessions, Cardinal pacts
• Angelology: angelic hierarchy, angelic appearance, archangels, powers of angels
• the medieval cities
• new monsters
• the full supplement of Arden with original maps

External links

• C&S review
• Gamestuff Inc. homepage