Knave: Rules, Hacks, and Mechanisms of Folly

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Preface and Welcome

KNAVE is a rules toolkit created by Ben Milton for running old school fantasy RPGs without classes. Knave’s features include:

High compatibility with OSR games. If you have a library of OSR bestiaries, adventure and spell books, little or no conversion is needed to use them with Knave.

No classes. Every PC is a Knave, a tomb-raiding, adventure-seeking ne’er-do-well who wields a spell book just as easily as a blade. This is an ideal system for players who like to switch up their character’s focus from time to time and don’t like being pigeonholed. A PC’s role in the party is determined largely by the equipment they carry.

Abilities are king. All d20 rolls use the six standard abilities. The way that ability scores and bonuses work has also been cleaned up, rationalized, and made consistent with how other systems like armor work.

Optional player-facing rolls. Knave easily accommodates referees who want the players to do all the rolling. Switching between the traditional shared-rolling model and players-only rolling can be done effortlessly on the fly.

Copper standard. Knave assumes that the common unit of currency is the copper penny. All item prices use this denomination and approximate actual medieval prices.

Level-less spells.

Knave is available as a pdf from Drive-Thru RPG.

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Character Creation
1: Abilities
PCs have the six familiar abilities:
Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma.

Instead of the standard 3-18 ability score, however, Knave has two values:
Ability Bonus & Ability Defense

Ability Bonus: roll three individual six-sided dice and keep the lowest result. Most abilities will start with a Bonus of +1.

Add ten to each Bonus to determine the Ability Defense.

Example: You roll a 2, 2, and 6 for Strength. The lowest die is a 2, so your PC’s Strength has a bonus of +2 and a defense of 12. Repeat this process for the rest of the abilities.

You may swap one pair of ability scores.

2: Equipment
Every Knave begins with 2 days worth of rations and one weapon of your choice.
Roll the following dice to determine what additional equipment you begin with:
Armor: 1d20
Helmets and Shields: 1d20
Dungeoneering Gear: 1d20 & 1d20
General Gear: 1d20 & 1d20

3: Additional Values
Hit Points: 1d8
Healing Rate: 1d8 + CON Bonus
Exploration Speed: 120 ft. per Turn
Combat Speed: 40 ft. per round

4: Traits
Roll 1d20 for each of the following:

1. Physique
2. Face
3. Skin
4. Hair
5. Clothing
6. Virtue
7. Vice
8. Speech
9. Background
10. Misfortune
11. Alignment

I’ll provide you with the results. You’re welcome to replace any results you don’t like with your own inventions.

Choose a gender and a name for your PC, but don’t get too attached. It’s a dangerous world out there.

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Rules
Abilities
Some abilities are used a little differently than you may be used to:

Strength: Used for melee attacks and saves requiring physical power, like lifting gates, bending bars, etc.
Dexterity: Used for saves requiring poise, speed, and reflexes, like dodging, climbing, sneaking, balancing, etc.
Constitution: Used for saves to resist poison, sickness, cold, etc. The Constitution bonus is added to healing rolls. A PC’s number of item slots is always equal to their Constitution defense.
Intelligence: Used for saves requiring concentration and precision, such as wielding magic, resisting magical effects, recalling lore, crafting objects, tinkering with machinery, picking pockets, etc.
Wisdom: Used for ranged attacks and saves requiring perception and intuition, such as tracking, navigating, searching for secret doors, detecting illusions, etc.
Charisma: Used for saves to persuade, deceive, interrogate, intimidate, charm, provoke, etc. PCs may employ a number of henchmen equal to their Charisma bonus.

Item Slots

PCs have a number of item slots equal to their Constitution defense. Most items, including spellbooks, potions, a day’s rations, light weapons, tools and so on take up 1 slot, but particularly heavy or bulky items like armor or medium to heavy weapons may take up more slots.

Groups of small, identical items may be bundled into the same slot, at the referee’s discretion.

100 coins can fit in a slot.

As a general guideline, a slot holds around 5 pounds of weight.

Saving Throws
To make a save, add the bonus of the relevant ability to a d20 roll. If the total is greater than 15, the character succeeds. If not, they fail.

1d20+Bonus > 15 = Successful Save!

Opposed Save
1d20 +Bonus > Opposing Ability Defense

You may roll with Advantage or Disadvantage, if circumstances so dictate.

Initiative
Roll 1d6. On a 1-3, enemies act first. On a 4-6, PCs act first.
Reroll initiative each round.

Melee Attack
1d20 + STR Bonus > Opponent’s Armor Defense

Ranged Attack
1d20 + WIS Bonus > Opponent’s Armor Defense

Alternatively, an attack roll can also be resolved by the defender rolling a d20 and adding their armor bonus, hoping to roll a total greater than the defense of the ability the attacker is using. If they succeed, the attack misses. If they fail, the attack hits.

1d20 + Armor Bonus > Attacker’s STR/WIS Defense

Stunts

Stunts are combat maneuvers such as stunning, shoving, disarming, tripping, sundering armor, and so on. They are resolved with a versus save. They may not cause damage directly, but may do so indirectly (for example, pushing an enemy off of a ledge). The referee is the final arbiter as to what stunts can be attempted in a given situation.

Advantage in Combat
If you gain strategic advantage over an opponent you may:
A.) Apply advantage to your attack roll or stunt against that opponent
or
B.) Make an attack and a stunt attempt in the same round against that opponent, without advantage.

Critical Hits and Quality
Critical Hit: add die of damage (of the weapon’s type)

Fumble: Attacker’s weapon or Defender’s armor loses 1 quality. At 0 quality, the item is destroyed. Each point of quality costs 10% of the item’s cost to repair.

Healing

After a meal and a full night’s rest, PCs regain lost hit points equal to a d8 plus their Constitution bonus. Resting at a safe haven restores all lost HP.

Advancement
In deference to the pace of PbP gaming, we’ll use milestone advancement.

When a PC gains a level, they roll a number of d8s equal to their new level to find their new HP maximum. If the result is less than their previous maximum, their maximum HP increases by 1. They also raise the defense and bonus scores of 3 different abilities of their choice by 1 point. Abilities may never be raised higher than 20/+10.
...
You can also raise abilities randomly if you want. My preferred method is to roll a d20 for each ability, in any order, raising that ability by 1 if the roll is less than that ability’s Defense. Keep cycling through the abilities, stopping when three abilities have advanced, and skipping any abilities that have maxed out. In this method, natural talents will tend to advance faster than weaknesses, which makes PCs more varied and specialized.

Magic

Spells are cast out of spell books, which must be held in both hands and read aloud. Each spell book can only be used once per day. Importantly, each spell book only holds a single spell, and each spell book takes up an item slot, so if a PC wants to be able to cast a wide variety of spells, they’ll have to fill most of their inventory with spell books.
…
PCs are unable to create, copy or transcribe spell books. In order to gain new spell books, PCs must adventure for them, by either recovering them from dungeons or looting them from other magicians.
…
When a spell allows for a save, make an opposed Intelligence save against the defender’s relevant ability, usually Dexterity for ranged attack spells, Constitution for life-draining spells, Intelligence for mind-altering spells, or Wisdom for Illusions.

Spellbooks don’t need to be actual books. They can also be talismans, charms, runestones, enchanted candles, magically fermented cheese, a sprite trapped in a bottle, etc.

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House Rules
Chases
The pursued may choose to drop an item, such as food or treasure. If it is something a pursuer desires, roll morale to see if the pursuer is distracted from the chase.

Roll an opposed Dexterity save between the pursuer and the pursued with the lowest Dexterities.
1d20+ DEX Bonus vs. opposing DEX Defense

The difference between the roll and the Defense is awarded to the victor. The first side to gain 5 points has one, either catching their quarry (if the pursuers) or escaping (if the pursued).

Death & Dismemberment
When a PC reaches 0 hit points, they are unconscious for one hour before dying. If they are healed during this time, roll on the table, below.

1 Dead
2 Dismembered. Pick your least favorite arm, leg, or eye.
3 Weakened. -1d4 to STR.
4 Shaken. -1d4 to DEX.
5 Sickly. -1d4 to CON.
6 Addled. -1d4 to INT.
7 Rattled. -1d4 to WIS.
8 Disfigured. -1d4 to CHA.

This can result in PCs having negative ability Bonuses. These losses are permanent, and can only be recovered as a result of powerful magic or through ability increases from advancement.

Exhaustion
Adverse conditions, such as going without food, water, rest, sleep, or proper protection from the elements, cause a PC to accrue Exhaustion. Each instance of Exhaustion takes up one Item Slot and imposes a -1 penalty on all rolls.

Preparing Rations from Monsters
Parties with strong stomachs and daring palettes may turn to slain monsters as a source of food. A dead monster has a 1-in-6 chance of being usable for victuals.

Simply butchering a monster provides 1 meal per HD. This food will spoil in one day.

To prepare longer-lasting rations takes HD hours, and begins with a 1-in-6 chance of success, adjusted for access to each of the following:

Preparing Rations
Clean Water: +1
Cooking Gear: +1
Fire: +1
Salt: +1
Insufficient Time: -4

Success results in 2xHD rations.

Failure indicates that the food is spoiled. Consuming spoiled food necessitates a CON Save to avoid food poisoning (1d6 damage).
Note that eating some monsters, especially highly magical ones, may have potential side effects.

Wooly Neanderthals are particularly adept at preparing rations from Mammoths. They begin with a 2-in-6 chance of success, and produce 1 week’s worth of rations per HD. Non-neanderthals can consume Mammoth rations (it's delicious, when prepared properly), but they need a lot of fresh water to go with it, and an extraordinary amount of chewing.

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Weapons
Light
Dagger, Cudgel, Sickle, Staff, etc. (d6 damage, 1 slot, 1 hand, 3 quality)
Medium
Spear, Sword, Mace, Axe, Flail, etc. (d8 damage, 2 slots, 1 hand, 3 quality)
Large
Halberd, War Hammer, Long Sword, Battle Axe, etc. (d10 damage, 3 slots, 2 hands, 3 quality)
Ranged
Sling (d4 damage, 1 slot, 1 hand, 3 quality)
Bow (d6 damage, 2 slots, 2 hands, 3 quality)
Crossbow (d8 damage, 3 slots, 2 hands, 3 quality)

Armor
Shield (Defense +1, 1 slot, 1 quality)
Helmet (Defense +1, 1 slot, 1 quality)
Gambeson (Defense 12, 1 slot, 3 quality)
Brigandine (Defense 13, 2 slots, 4 quality)
Chain (Defense 14, 3 slots, 5 quality)
Half Plate (Defense 15, 4 slots, 6 quality)
Full Plate (Defense 16, 5 slots, 7 quality)

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If you're interested, I've made a layout document of the KNAVE rules, plus some extras.

KNAVE LAYOUT

This is not a replacement for buying a copy from Ben Milton on OBS. It's cheap, and he deserves the support. But if you have a hankering for a little breathing room in your rules layout, this might suffice.

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Death and Replacement Characters

Oh No! You're character's dead!

That’s okay! It was probably hilarious, and maybe it wasn’t even your fault. It’s really dangerous around here. Fortunately, you took the time to prepare a spare. If convenient, the DM may have your new PC imprisoned or awaiting surgery in Encounter Area ***REDACTED***. Otherwise, consult the table below.
1d8 HOW DOES MY NEW PC SHOW UP?

• 1. Swallowed by a colossal transplanar worm back in home dimension, proved to be indigestible, deposited in the Underworld
• 2. Formerly held under mind control by Chaos godling, now broken free and slowly recovering original personality
• 3. Employee of sorcerer from Fort Enterprise exploring a cave for spell components, fell down a fissure and woke up lost in the Underworld
• 4. Member of rival party sent by Krofax just hours before, comrades destroyed by sudden cloud of poisonous gas while off relieving self in alcove
• 5. Knocked on the head by wind-swept debris, picked up by an eldritch tornado, and dropped into the Underworld following a spectacular and uselessly prophetic dream sequence
• 6. A doomed fling with a vampire ended abruptly at the outset of what was supposed to a romantic holiday in the Underworld; now free of spell and disgusted with self
• 7. Got really drunk and fell asleep in the street, woke up tied in a sack on the back of a lizard-driven cart trundling down the Devil’s Highway
• 8. The wizard said he was teleporting me to the Big City; boy, did he screw up

The above table is optional. There may be several rival parties in various states of disrepair wandering the Underworld, and we can always replenish our numbers from that stock. And I'm absolutely open to any weirder ideas you might have.

But wait! There's more! You have unlocked the following exclusive character options!

Citizen Lich
Once a powerful mage from a necromantic kingdom in the South, you have lost you power, your riches, and your position in a failed bid to become one of the lich elite. Now you must start over again with only a few scraps of magic.
Frail: Begin with maximum 1 HP. When you advance a level, you roll d4’s instead of d8’s for additional hit points.
Undead: You can be turned as other undead. You cannot benefit from normal or magical healing. You do not need to eat, drink, or breathe. You do not sleep, but require 6 hours of torpor each day.
Hard to Kill: Reaching 0 HP does not permanently kill you. As long as your entire body is not destroyed by fire or acid, you will regain 1 HP per day. At level 4, you regain 2 HP per day; at level 8 you regain 3 HP per day.
Starting Equipment: Ornate but threadbare clothes, walking staff, 2 spell books (spells determined randomly: roll d100 for each).

Wooly Neanderthal
You are a tall, long-furred native of the frozen lands of Mastodonia.
Mighty Thews: When rolling STR and CON, you may choose from the two lowest dice, instead of just the lowest. However, if your INT is over 3/13, you must swap it out with your lowest ability.
Neolithic: You eschew clothing, armor, or tools that you have not crafted yourself from stone and hide. Should you decide to adopt more advanced armor or weapons, they will cost 50% more due to your large size.
Mammoth Diet: The only food that is wholesome to your people is mammoth meat. You have advantage in preparing rations from mammoths. 1 week’s worth of mammoth jerky takes 1 item slot.
Wooly Hide: You naturally have an Armor of 3/13.
Starting Equipment: Stone Axe (d8 damage, 2 slots, 1 hand, 2 quality)
, water bladder, 1d6 weeks worth of mammoth-jerky, knapping stone (for crafting stone tools).

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Cave Otter
You are a black-furred, humanoid otter, adapted to subterranean waterways. You are carnivorous, and untroubled by eating decomposed carrion or creatures warped by Chaos.

Oily Coat: You have natural armor worth 3/13. Against oozes, slimes, jellies, and puddings it is worth 9/19.
Dexterous: When rolling your DEX score, you may choose from the two lowest dice, instead of just the lowest. However, if your WIS is over 3/13, you must swap it out with your lowest ability.
Natural Weapons: Claws (1d3) or Bite (1d6).
Playful: A WIS save may be required to resist the impulse to eat, frolic, or check out something disgusting.
Unusual Proportions: Armor must be specially commissioned at considerable expense.
Starting Equipment: none.

More info:
These beings descended from giant river otters and were genetically manipulated to grow to a maximum height of 6’, develop fully opposable thumbs, and heighten their maximum intelligence to human-like levels. Underworld otters speak Underworld common with moist, growly voices and are equally comfortable ambulating in bipedal and quadrupedal modes. They have no material culture.

Generations ago, the magic user responsible for their creation (Zaracanth, a noted Underworld celebrity) released the otters into the Black Ooze river valley, and callously washed his hands of all responsibility for their fate. The otters quickly adapted to their environment, dwelling in shore caverns and subsisting upon various river oozes and young basking sharks native to the Black Ooze river.

Save Versus Fun
Though deadly fighters, otters retain the fun-loving frivolity of their earthly analogs. An otter should never miss an opportunity to propel itself down an Underworld waterfall, douse itself in the foulest smelling swamp sloughs, or sample the flavor of monster meats in advanced states of decay. However, when such a course of action would obviously imperil itself or its comrades (in the middle of combat or when pursued by dangerous enemies, for example), the player must make a saving throw to avoid shirking its duty and indulging its powerful play impulses. DMs should impose this roll at their discretion and never fail to lavish approbations upon the player that reminds them of this potentially hazardous characteristic.