The First Book of

Apocrypha Volume 0
by

2.0
Colin D
D.. Speirs

Intr oduction
Introduction CONTENTS
ONTENTS
There are always things left out of a rulebook for PAGE 1 INTRODUCTION
various reasons. Lack of space, lack of time to fully PAGE 2 C&S ESSENCE CLARIFICATIONS
test or perhaps the information isnt essential to the PAGE 2 NEW INTRODUCTION TO SCENARIO
main rules. Also, no matter how much testing and PAGE 2 & 3 NEW ENCOUNTERS FOR SCENARIO
rereading, there are always things that seem obvious PAGE 3 & 4 OPTIONAL COMBAT RULES
to those involved in the game but are not so to those PAGE 5 OPTIONAL SKILL RULES
coming to it fresh, and, of course, the inevitable PAGE 6 BALANCING THE GAME
missed typos. PAGE 7 & 8 DESIGNERS NOTES

The C&S Essence Apocrypha are collections of such

information. They will be irregular, and some things Chivalry & Sorcery Line Manager:
Stephen A Turner
first published in the Apocrypha, for example
snippets of campaign information, may be expanded Essence Line Manager:
on in future products. Colin D Speirs

If you have any questions or suggestions for future Chivalry & Sorcery is copyright Brittannia Game Designs Ltd 2011.
issues of the Apocrypha, please contact BGD at The authors assert the moral right to be identified as the authors of this
Marakush@aol.com with Essence Input in the work.

message title. Interior artwork by Andrew Hepworth used with permission.

I also put down random thoughts, including some
related to what I do with my RPG writing, as http://
www.its-them.me.uk/salienthurcheon/
Colin D Speirs
Chivalry & Sorcery and C&S are registered trademarks of Brittannia
Game Designs Ltd.
All rights reserved under UK and international copyright conventions.
All of the characters and places described in this book are ficticious and
any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely co-incidental.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be re-produced,
stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic or otherwise without the prior permission of the publishers and
the copyright owner except for the purpose of review.

E-mail: Marakush@aol.com

Facebook: Brittannia Game Designs Ltd

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 C&S Essence clarifications
It comes a shock to myself, but apparently I am not
infallible, so this section of the Apocrypha is to
expand on anything that needs a bit more attention,
or to correct mistakes.
Experience and impr oving
improving
attributes (pg 21)
Although there is not an explicit link on page 21,
there is a way to improve the physical statistics
(Strength, Agility and Constitution). To do that use
the Body Conditioning skill (page 7)
The Serpent of Paun-i-Tawe
Paun-i-Tawe
I added the Darken information to give context to the
non-human characters. There is a, mostly, written
Darken expansion, but it will be a while before that is
published. I hadnt considered by giving a scenario on
the Darken/Urtind border that it might be presumed
that it might be there to give the Queens
Falconeers a job, one of those things that catch you
out. So here is an intro that might suit the agents of
the Chancellor.
New Intr oduction
Introduction
The halls of the Chancellor in Rigdor is the working
place of Ili Ililnya, a rare female Orc in the service of
the Chancellor, a noted mystic who became a noted
jurist in the courts under the tutelage of Ingravain
himself.
A disparate group, you are shown to the study of Ili
by one of her guards, who looks you over and who
you might suspect of being a Falconeer himself, after
you are sat on padded benches in the impressive
room, a writing desk by one window, and a chest
open to show a rack of scrolls by the other.
Ili looks you up and down, turns her chair to face
you and sits herself down. Small beer and wine are
brought, along with dry cakes, and set on a low table.
Help yourselves to refreshments. I have a short tale
to tell you then you must go to the docks, there a boat
is waiting, the Sea Wings, a messenger boat. It will
take you Selmeron and from there you must pass
across the border into Urtind, or what was the border.
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The March Lords have taken it upon themselves to
cross also, only they do not go as a small group, as
you will, but in armed might.
What little word they have seen fit to send back states
that they cross only to quell rogue border BRans and
bandit captains of Urtind, and that they seek only to
pacify the area and do no harm to the inhabitants,
who they will return to Urtind when order is restored.
What they sent may be no more than the truth, but
intentions often go awry. You are to scout the area,
see if the people are being treated well, is there sign
of an intention to establish a new frontier. You must
go, not as Falconeers of the Queen, but as wanderers,
in search of employment. There are still merchants
crossing the border, there may be employment in the
armies, but you should refrain from announcing your
true allegiance except at utmost nee.
In Selmerron you will receive steeds and provisions
for enough days to see you across the border. Clothes
will be available, might I suggest you dress plainly and
serviceably.
This makes the adventure in Paun-i-Tawe an encoun-
ter during the investigation of the border conflict. It is,
of course, up to the GM how serious they wish to
make the incursion, is it an act of conquest or merely
quelling an area in near revolt against its King and in a
state of lawless banditry.
Other encounters could be
The Merchant
Kutyus is a Goblin merchant, a regular sight in the
more stable communities on the Urtish side of the
border for some years. He deals in goods such as low
quality spider-silk, not the highest quality for export
but a useful commodity, Snellken (an arborial mam-
mal) pelts and spiced, preserved meat and small
useful goods.
Although a Goblin he has been welcomed because of
the goods he brings and a reputation for fair trading.
Although he has always run the risks of bandits and
rapacious Lords, he travels with companions as
skilled with a cudgel as with a pack mule.
 However this time, the group find him beset by
Urtish, whether wandering bandits turfed out of their
castles or peasant suffering want in the after effects of
the war, depends on how the GM wishes to have the
invasion progress. He might be rescued by the charac-
ters, or they can let the Urtish have their way and deal
with them in whatever way they wish, afterwards.
The Temple in Urtind
For obvious reasons the worship of the Dragon
Goddess Shugaloth is extremely rare in the lands
outside Darken, and it has been the policy of the
Goddess not to proselytise, She achieved apotheosis
as the Queen of Darken, and as She does not have an
expansionist policy, no matter what the current
events, she sees no reason to foster worshippers
outside her temporal bounds.
The Temple, however, is not entirely wedded to this
policy. The Hierophant has send small groups of
priests, accompanied by protectors no doubt re-
cruited from the Hierophants Guard, to survey the
new territories in preparation for the setting up of
Temples, conversion and, of course, taxation, with
the usual rule that the Tax is higher for non-believers
than believers. The priest could be encountered on
the road, in a village or as the attackers or victims of
an ambush.
Supply column
The group encounter either a column of troops and
supplies coming from Darken, or foragers looking to
live off the land, from either Urtish or Darkic forces.
They may chat to the characters, invite them to travel,
or attack.
Peaceful Life
Especially in the lands already bypassed by the
advancing Darkics, the may encounter normal life,
farming, fishing, a little hunting, legal or otherwise.
They may be wary, but will be willing to trade and
swap news. If the group is mostly comprised of non-
humans, the villagers may seek to avoid the group.
A burned out castle
The castles on the frontier vary, some are still wood
and turf, with only the keep made of stone, some are
more substantial. The group find their path takes
them by a burned out stronghold. Who owned it?
Who slighted it? Does anyone dwell in the ruins?
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Optional Combat rules
Combat in C&S Essence is designed to be quick and
simple, with a few options to bring in some sense of
reality. Despite the traditional image of knightly
combat being unsophisticated hacking about the
manuals of arms at the times show a sophisticated and
agile style of combat that evolved with the times.
Moreover, since the 10th Century steel making had
advanced so that the labourious pattern welding
method, used in Viking and Japanese weapons, was
no longer necessary.
If you find the current C&S Essence combat system
too limited, then here are some more rules you can
use to make combat even more realistic, but also
brutal and deadly. Player Characters are given a bit of
a break as they are meant to be heroes, a bit more
capable than the average.
THE GREAT BLOW
This is an option only available to Knights. A Great
Blow is a smashing blow that will break the most
protective of armour. It sacrifices overall damage over
time, for something that will get through no matter
what.
A Great Blow costs 2 blows, in which case it is aimed,
or it can be a Wild Swing for 1 blow but at -3 chance
to the Skill Chance (unless a two handed weapon).
If a Wild Swing fails (rolls over the Skill Chance) and
it is successfully dodged, then the attacker must roll
versus their agility to avoid being turned around with
their back to the defender.
DISARM
As the name suggests, one combatant tries to disarm
the other. They must declare this as their attack. No
damage is done if successful, instead the damage is
used in a contest of skill versus the weapon skill of the
opponent.
RECOVERING A WEAPON
Recovering a weapon takes 2 blows and a successful
skill check. An opponent can attack you in order you
to stop you recovering your weapon. If you still try to
recover the weapon then any defence you make is at -
5 to your Success Chance.
 SHIELD BASH
Although called a shield bash this can also be per-
formed with a two handed weapon if the fighter holds
it in such a way as to brace it and use it to try and
knock their opponent off their feet.. This attack must
be declared. If successful there is a Strength + 5
contest vs either the Agility or the Strength of the
target for the victim to stay on their feet.
SHOCK
Falling large distances, having bits lopped off ones
body or having crossbow bolts suddenly pierce your
body is a traumatic experience, either emotionally or
due to massive blood loss. When someone is
damaged then if the damage (after armours Damage
Protection is subtracted) is over their CON then they
have to check against shock.
To resist shock the player needs to roll a resistance
roll between the damage inflicted vs the (higher of
CON or DIS) +10 for a hero (e.g Player Characters,
major villains) or +5 for lesser NPC. If they fail the
roll then they are suffering from shock. A player
character or major villain is out of action for (30
Con) Combat rounds and they lose 1 point of damage
per round until they receive medical attention. If the
person is a non-player character then they are out of
action until they receive medical attention and they
lose 3 points per round. If an NPC rolls a 20 on
their roll to resist shock then they have died instantly.
USING FIGURES IN A COMBAT
If using figueres to note where everyone one is in
combat then, for the ground scale is 1 metre/yard = 1
inch/2.5 cm on the table. I tend to use hex maps for
this, with figures using 1 inch diameter round bases or
square bases, either 20mm or 25mm to a side.
Movement is in hexes per turn at a walking pace. Any
turn to any facing takes one extra movement point.
Each figure (character) has 5 movement points unless
wearing maille, plate and maille or full plate when the
movement points are reduced to 4. In addition when
wearing full plate there is a cost of 1 FP per turn.
Each movement point equals 1 hex of movement.
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REACH OF WEAPON
In the main rules, the reach of a weapon and how
hard it is to wield it are abstracted into the damage
done and the number of blows the character has.
However weapons have different reaches, a spear can
reach out further than a dagger giving the shield-
maden with a spear a good chance to spit the
berserker with a dagger before the berserker gets
close. Otherwise why create the pike, a spear so long
that if anyone mocks you for fighting with fish you
can stab them from the other side of the road.
Its not as simple as that, of course. It never is. A two
handed weapon is shortened by the very fact that the
hands are often spaced apart on the shaft or the grip
is shifted in use, for example a halberd might be drwn
back towards the holder to use the haft like a
quarterstaff in a parry. However if you want the extra
complication of taking not of reach then we aim to
please.
Short (S) weapons are considered to be effective in
close combat. The bases have to be touching or the
attacker and defender must be in adjacent hexes.
Someone with a short weapon has to close into
someone with a longer weapon.
Medium (M) weapons have a reach of 1 yard. They
can attack with 1 clear hex between attacker and
target but if the attack is successful then the attacker is
considered to have stepped forward so that the bases
are now touching.
2H/Long weapons. These can attack with one clear
hex between attacker and defender. If the attack is
successful then the attacker can keep the gap between
him and the defender. They are at a disadvantage
against someone who is close with a short weapon.
If a defence is successful then the defender can
choose to step forward into base to base contact or to
step back to put a gap of one hex between both. For
someone who has a two handed or long weapon to be
defending against an attacker with a short weapon
then obviously they must be close. In that situation
the defender has a penalty of -2 to any defence,
unless they spend an extra blow or fatigue point to
shift their weapon to a more suitable stance. In either
case until they open up the distance between
themselves and the person with the short weapon
they have a -2 when attack, except the shield bash
(see above).
 Optional Skill rules
TAKING A RISK
A character can take a risk. For every 5 points they
reduce their Success Chance by they get +1 bonus to
the actual roll. However remember that whilst this
may increase your chance to beat an opponent it also
increases the chance of failure, especially as any
adjusted roll of 20 or over may mean a Critical failure.
If the Success Chance is decreased below 25 by risk
taking then you do not get an enhanced critical.
EXERCISE CAUTION
Sometimes when a character is using a skill, there are
possible dire consequences, for example a thief risks
detection if the victim wins the contest of skills.
(Actually, more than detection, detection followed by
whatecver dire punishments the local law has for
thieves).
To guard against the dire consequences the character
can Exercise caution by reducing their Skill
Chance. It is always the GMs decision as to whether
caution is appropriate. They have a lower chance to
succeed but, if they fail, the dire consequences do not
automatically occur. After the failure the winner must
roll a separate roll against the skill that was tested or in
some cases against a skill that would be subsequently
tested. For every point taken from the losers Skill
Chance reduce that next roll by 1.
Example
Jurgen Smite is not adverse to the redistribution of
wealth, as long as it restributes to him. He has seen
the coin purse of a merchant less concealed in the
merchants robes than the owner had oped.
However, the merchant looks a bit of a bruiser and
the local law punishes thieves by branding.
Milo decides to exercise caution. His usual Skill
Chance is 21, he decides to take five from that. He
believes that, while strong, the merchant is not as
sharp as him.
In the subsequent contest, Milo loses. He is not
detected, however, the merchant must roll again,
with -5 from his detection chance, the merchant
fails and walks only, slightly discomforted but
unaware why.
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His confidence slightly shaken, Milo follows the
merchant to his house, which contain the offices.
After everyone has gone to the evening meal,
climbs over the wall and makes his way into the
office itself, where he finds a chest. Milo suspects
that the strongbox is trapped, so, again, he exer-
cises caution, which makes it harder to pick the
lock. (He takes a -4 penalty to the lock). Not having
properly searched the chest he finds out that the
lock is a false one, and he risks springing a poison
trap. However the GM decides that the trap IS
sprung, but that the penalty is applied to the traps
chance to poison Milo.
DISTRACTIONS
In the purse cutting example above Milo could have
been helped by someone else using an unrelated skill,
using the assisting rules on the top of the second
column on pg 11 of the C&S E rulebook.
This is for such circumstances as jugglers or a staged
duel distracting the target. Use the mechanics of the
assisting to handle this.
In the example above, the mercenary fighters
Adelbrecht and Eachan stage a duel with many
flourishes and elaborate moves, trying to attract the
merchant that is Milos target. Eachan has the higher
weapon skill, at 16, so a quarter of that is added to
Milos chance.
TAKING A RISK
A character can always take a risk, reducing their
chance to succeed, but, hopefully, increasing their
chance to roll higher. For every 5 points they reduce
the Success Chance
Chance, they get +1 to the actual roll.
However remember that whilst this may increase your
chance to beat an opponent it also increases the
chance of failure, especially as any adjusted roll of 20
or over may mean a Critical failure. If the Success
Chance is decreased below 25 by risk taking then you
do not get an enhanced critical.
Taking a Risk and exercising caution are mutually
exclusive, if you do one, then you cannot do the
other.
 Balancing the Game Its the same for contested skills. There the test is
against another person, possibly the long dead maker
You might have noticed C&S essence didnt contain of some fiendish trap or bejewelled puzzle box, or
any What is a role-playing game or How to be a combat. There are mechanisms to allow cooperation
Games-master(GM) sections as is traditional. The between characters to try and overcome formidable
reason being that I didnt imagine that anyone would opponents, or the GM can adapt to the situation.
be coming to C&S Essence without such experience.
I believe being a GM is an art, rather than an umpire Perhaps the bejewelled puzzle box conceals a clue,
for a rigid set of rules, an RPG is not a wargame. but the characters cant open it. They want to just sell
it as a curio. Fair enough, let them, but perhaps the
In a traditional level based RPG there is an obvious person they sell it to can open it, and is willing to sell
mechanism in place to set challenges in the game that the information to the players. The trouble is, they
the characters should be able to tackle. It doesnt might be willing to sell the information to others, and
always work, but the level confers the idea of the that could make the task more complicated.
ability of the character. With Essence the contest of
skills of characters gives one way to gauge the If you find your challenge is too easy then you can
challenge and match like with like, but modifiers promote enemies to heroes, and use superior
including the Difficulty Numbers exist to allow the numbers to combine against players. Puzzles might
GM to fine tune. become tricker, though I am a fan of creating real
puzzles and letting the players solve them.
A very simple challenge does not mean that it is
negligible, it means that it is a challenge, but one that
puts only the slightest difficulty in the way of the
person. For example, if you wanted to read a
newspaper headline, but the paper was upside down,
then you could read it, but you would be slower.
However the caption under the picture with the
minuscule print might be a tougher challenge, but still
only average, you might miss a word or two. The
greater the skill, the less that challenge will be
relatively.

Example.
By luck and planning, Andrews character Miles of
Rigwelter is not only a fine Siege Engineer, but is a
nimble climber, a talent he finds useful in
scrambling up high places to see the lie of the land.
His unmodified success chance is 18. Most of the
other characters in the group have success chance
nearer to 12 or 13. So Miles is much more skilled
and the Gamesmaster might consider putting in a
couple of especially difficult climbs just for him, or
give him, as the first up a route, a harder penalty.
Those following him will benefit from watching
him and the differing abilities can be
accommodated without fudging too much.

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 Designers Notes
Essence start out as a manifestation of my warped
sense of humour. Back when the D&D 3rd edition
and OGL bandwagon was starting to roll, it was
suggested that BGD, instead of producing a new
C&S, jump aboard. C&S Rebirth was far along the
road and doing so would have meant abandoning a
lot of work and doing a lot, lot more to make C&S
d20 distinctive enough in the flood of OGL games to
come.
So over a weekend I ploughed straight into writing it.
I actually wanted it to be a single side of paper. I
couldnt do that without leaving a lot, lot out, and I
only made 4 sides of paper by using a tiny font size,
but I felt that was OK because the original C&S 1st
edition had used photo-reduction to cram stuff in.
I aimed to have the same Stats, improvable skills,
contested skills and basics of combat skill that C&S
had. I wasnt going to just trim down the existing
system or use a modified form of C&S 1 or 2, but I
felt that simple d20 versus STAT + SKILL could
demonstrate the subtleties of C&S well enough, even
if they didnt completely share them.
Example
The two stats used in determining the base chance of
a skill is better than a single stat. I did toy with taking
the average of the two, but decided against it for
simplicitys sake..
I definitely wanted a magic system that reflected the
way in which C&S Spells could be modified and
enhanced, although not in a way as frightfully
complex as Basic Magic.
I did not put in too many monsters because one of
the things that attracted me to C&S was moving away
from the D&D dungeon bash ethos with wackier and
wackier creations to entertain the players.
The situations and personalities are what should keep
the game going along, not ticking the entries in the
Observers Guide to Aberrations of Nature. I put in
the classics believing that GMs have their own
campaign and should put in those fantastic creatures
that suit their world.
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Though C&S Essence may have started as an
intellectual exercise, it turned out to be a quick
moving RPG that suited the limited time I had to play
games. I hadnt yet had the epiphany (it really was,
start of a session with the Pulp SF RPG derived from
C&S E and it just came to me) that would make it
play even faster, but I could handle the maths and it
worked. To the original barebones system, I added a
little more for a campaign I ran featuring characters of
various evil races in addition to those humans.
This was not an excuse to allow players to go around
having their characters perform evil acts, on the
contrary they were agents of the State, upholding the
law but with a bit of leeway from their Patron, the
Chancellor, in opposition to the forces of the religious
hierarchy. This set-up was, of course, partly inspired
by Dumass Three Musketeers and allowed me to try
out ideas for the Darken book (of which more later)
that I was also writing.
After events caused BGD to get put in abeyance for a
few years, I pottered about with the rules, at times
setting them within my own fantasy construct,
Borderlands, influenced by Dark Age myths and few
novels set then, but for reasons best known to myself
I never finished them. The system was updated with
lessons learned from that SF system, though I hadnt
got the handle on simplifying the magic that I wanted,
and Borderlands would need a lot more magic styles
to do it justice. So I never finished it.
In 2011 though, conversations with Steve piqued my
interest. I had already revamped an OOP SF
Skirmish game to my liking, and worked on a fantasy
wargame, set in self-same Borderlands, so I decided
to tackle C&S E again. Borderlands is mine, so I
started afresh with the original rules and updated
them until I had in my hand a PDF, all laid out with
the finest public domain graphics I had to hand, the
rules tweaked and slightly polished.
 However Steve had a better idea (first time for So instead of a violent confrontation, a patrol of Orcs
everything) , to make it more widely available via and humans might, in the traditions of soldiers
DriveThruRPG. Since it was me who nagged him throughout the ages, may choose not to fight, but eye
into trying that publishing route in the first place it each other warily as they pass by, maybe even share
would be daft to not join in. My only quibble was that news.
I did not think there was enough in it just with the
rules as they were. This idea is behind my approach to Darken, trying to
make a society that could work, not some Draconic
I added more of the information from the as-yet- mini-Mordor. Hopefully one day youll get a chance
unfinished Darken book, an adventure which I had to judge.
already and a quick and dirty skirmish game I had
been working on to allow largish melees without
getting bogged down. At this size I felt C&S Essence Coming soon
justified the price of a sandwich and a cup of tea. More ways to complicated combat
A High Fantasy Setting
And so to Darken. If you know me, and you dont, Rules for the Joust
well, you maybe, but those others over there dont, Priestly Miracles revisited
theyll know I have a very precious attitude for the More magic and creatures
sort of world that C&S should take place in, despite And possibly more!
my own original campaign world owning a bit to Elric.

Im almost as snooty with C&S as I am with Lord of

the Rings, and thats saying something. So I would
never have put in a Dragon ruled nation of orcs,
goblins and Dark Elves and then called it Darken.
Id have tried to sneak the idea past and probably
been too clever for my own good and relied on puns
that only I thought funny,

However Steve handed me Darken to flesh out, and

my evil characters campaign was designed, in part,
to allow me to try out ideas for it. I think what I wrote
all those years ago (Ive still to finish it) stands up and
makes it work, and transcends beyond the ooh look,
land of lots of evil things to slaughter land it could
have been.

An inspiration for that was Ed Simbalists article

Monsters are people too, one that influence my
ideas on how to run NPCs since I first read it. In the
essay he expounded the notion that non-human
intelligences are not just sword fodder to be
slaughtered on the characters road to greatness, but
that they have their own motivations, and may wish to
live rather than have bits of sharp metal inserted by
unsympathetic individuals.

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