Knave Resources

[Pulpatoon]

The official Knave rules are available for 3 bucks at itch.io or Drive-Thru. It's worth the money!

But, you can also use this full-version of the rules in a more spacious layout, created with full knowledge and permission from Ben Milton, for free: Knave, Fancy Pants Edition.

There are several Knave character generators out there, like Lawbreaker.

And here's a nice little bestiary.

[dmw71]

I just finished watching:

Knave 2e Dev Log (19:53)

I'm not overly familiar with the original version of Knave, but I am really liking a lot of what Ben has been detailing about his second edition.

A few topics that caught my interest:

1. 01:18 Simple character creation rules.
2. 02:21 I like the career system, and how your careers essentially replace a list of skills.
3. 03:18 I like how the ability scores roughly translate into a typical class. I'm highlighting this point in the discussion for Ben's take on wisdom, which I think is really clever.
   Note: I'll admit I'm kind of disappointed in myself for not considering this myself.
4. 03:45 I prefer human-centric games so I appreciate how that is the default in Knave, but there are rules included that would allow for the creation of the other races.
5. 03:54 I'm still not sure how I feel about the concept of experience points -- or, how they're awarded? Knave 2.0 primarily awards xp for treasure hunting (1 coin = 1xp).
   
   I also get the impression there's only a single "coin" when it comes to currency. I applaud the simplicity, but prefer a little variety so this will be an opportunity to house rule.
6. 4:41 Simple level advancement rules: you gain three new ability score points plus 1d6 hit points. (Note: All characters use 1d6 for hit points.)
7. 04:57 The slots and injury system is interesting. The slots are essentially encumbrance; how much can you carry?
8. 05:24 The slots also double almost as negative hit points in AD&D. Once your actual hit points are reduced to zero, any carry-over damage results in the reduction of that number of slots (via an injury). This reduces how much you can carry and also brings you closer to death (as death is reached once your run out of slots.
   I'm not surprised Ben incorporated a system like this in whatever rule system he worked on next; his 'Fixing Hit Points' video presented how three other game systems handled this, and all of them did something similar.
9. 05:46 I really like how he manages healing now. Your actual hit points recover quickly (e.g. full recovery per night rest); your slots recover slowly (e.g. one slot per night rest).
10. 06:08 It's not exactly new, but I like how there are rules for item breakage. Especially considering how rules-lite the system is.
11. 06:20 The checks system feels a bit new school, where you set a difficulty class, and success is met when the modified roll hits or exceeds that target number.
    
    His example at 07:01 of an arm wrestling competition between two characters with different strength scores was a nice illustration of how to use it. I think I like how the opponent difficulty class is the base number (11) plus any modifiers; instead of a modified roll versus a modified roll, which is very swingy. That you can reverse the rolls is pretty cool, too.
12. 07:30 I quickly grew to despise the perception skill. Like, really despise! So, I definitely support Ben's rules on searching. You automatically find what you're actively searching for -- or, you're automatically successful at finding clues if it's something not meant to be easily discovered.
13. 08:00 The enhanced 2d6 encounter tables for encounters will definitely produce extra variety which is really nice.
14. 08:27 The encounter activities table will also produce some nice variety as well. I know I've been casually working on an "ambient activities" list for NPCs, so I'm very excited to see this table!
15. 08:46, 14:17 I'm also excited to see how his piecemeal armor system works.
16. 08:59 I'm interested to see how this maneuvers instead of critical hits system works.
17. 09:26 Power attacks are interesting -- double damage, but your weapon breaks. I laugh at the image of a "fighter" filling their slots with different weapons.
18. 10:10 I think the relatively simple rules for overland travel are interesting. Essentially, after every watch (or four-hour segment of time) you roll 1d6 for some random event (e.g. encounter, fatigue, etc...). The signs table at 11:11 is pretty cool, though.
    
    I guess my "concern" with this simple system will be variety. Or targeted variety. I know I personally like to have different encounters or events based upon time (e.g. day/night) or environment (e.g. forest, mountains, hills).
19. 10:52 I like the weather table based on the season. This should produce some nice variety.
20. 11:36 The concept of dungeon shifts (or dungeon weather) is pretty cool. I just watched 'As Above, So Below' last night and I could (potentially) see a lot of different "shifts" the movie employed.
21. 12:10 The spellbook rules are pretty interesting. I haven't played Maze Rats either, but the random spell generation tables seem pretty cool. Very random.
22. 13:12 The love the inclusion of alchemy rules. And harvesting monster parts! Plus different tables for potion flavors and colors is cool stuff.
23. 14:52 As a former/future GM, I'm also a big fan of the worldbuilding details included in the ruleset; including cost-of-living details. Plus, a quick blurb about gifts and bribes.

Then GM stuff.


It's currently on its fifth draft (available only to paying members on the Questing Beast Patreon, which I am not -- yet), and there was no mention when it will officially be released, but I am very impressed.

[Pulpatoon]

Ben is particularly talented at identifying interesting aspects of gameplay and then paring them down into simple, elegant forms. This appears to have been honed during extensive playing with kids in his day-job as a teacher. He needed to make systems that could be taught quickly, keep focus on the most compelling parts, and keep out of the way when not needed.

I think I'm actually still a patron, but at some very small amount that used to be a tier and no longer gives me any benefits. I should up that! I'm very curious to get further into the details of Knave 2.