Knave from Questing Beast Games has been high on my list to check out. It’s short, it’s OSR (Old School Renaissance), and it’s mentioned as an amazing product in comment after comment. Because there’s a great deal of interest in the game (it’s a Mithral level seller at DriveThruRPG), I wanted to see what this project does right. Can you remake D&D and innovate in seven pages? Let’s find out.
You’re a Knave
This RPG is an OSR of the D&D persuasion but with some important streamlining: No classes, NPC and effect rolls can be done by the players or the GM, and a general trimming down of the bulk of D&D’s system. It’s not a complete game, it’s the rules for one. There are no monsters, just the rules for how to use OSR beasties, little magic, just the rules for how to use OSR spells, no adventures, just rules for how to develop your character as you level up. In seven pages, you get charts and directions, but the rest is up to you to develop and expand on.
7 Pages to Game
Let’s start this out the only way I can, it’s seven pages of content to review so I’m likely to giveaway the whole system instead of just hint and tease it like I should. I’m sharing too many details in trying to share the genius behind them. This is more of a game mechanics spoiler that it should be. I don’t normally ask in such a crass way, but I am giving away a great deal of the game for free, so, if you feel this RPG sounds good, I urge you to drop $2.99 on Ben Milton to get a copy for your gaming table (I bought my copy and I’m happy for it).
Hard sell done, let’s move onto the game.
This is a d20 OSR meaning the primary feature of the game is the primary feature of your character: Stats. Stats are titled Ability Defense (in place of Ability Score). Roll 3d6 and keep the lowest die. That lowest die’s result is your stat bonus (+1 to +6). Your stat is composed of that lowest die plus 10 to get your total. While first level Ability Defenses range from 11 to 16, most of your stats are going to end up as 11s and 12s with +1 and +2 bonuses. Creating some test characters I ended up with a Strength 12 (+2), Dexterity 11 (+1), Constitution 11 (+1), Intelligence 11 (+1), Wisdom 13 (+3), and Charisma 12 (+2) and another that was 15 (+5), 12 (+2), 12 (+2), 11 (+1), 12 (+2), 15 (+5). Your character starts life as the equivalent of what a hardy NPC would be in most RPGs.
Most of the stats are what you’d expect. However, Dexterity has been modified so it’s everything you associate with a Fifth Edition rogue save for bonuses to AC (called “Armor defense”) and range attacks. Wisdom picked up the Dexterity bonus to ranged attacks. This was a redesign effort, along with Intelligence being used for saves versus magic, to keep intellectual stats from being dump stats.
Hit points are low. I mean, don’t-spend-too-much-time-on-your-backstory low. Level one equals 1d8 HP. Level two equals either what you had at level one (with one additional HP) or 2d8, whichever is higher. Constitution does not impact your max HP. Healing, at least at low levels, is generous for an OSR. Armor modifies your Armor Defense (more or less AC) but your Dexterity does not impact the result.
There’s more to the game with options for actions such as Stunts. While there’s a paragraph about Stunts, they are only hinted at and mentioned, but not deeply defined. Instead, it’s the GM’s call as to what a Stunt is and what it can produce. The game has advantage with rules governing it, but not an explanation of the mechanic. In other words, it tells you when you get advantage, but not that advantage means rolling 2d20 and taking the better result. Items have wear and tear that come into play during crits of both types. There’s even a leveling system should your character be so lucky to make it up the ladder. The booklet contains two pages of charts ranging from character appearance to alignment to starting gear to henchmen wages per day.
Monsters are discussed and given rules in this RPG, but it does not offer any bestiary. Instead, you’re supposed to pull the creatures from other OSRs or AD&D. There’s simple conversion rules for the monsters. As an example, 4 HD monsters get +4 for most things. Anything about the OSR monster generally plays well in this RPG. The only real change is the AC and there’s directions for how to approach it.
Magic is a largely re-skinned like monsters and is meant to be taken from other OSRs. While there are spells, I feel you’d prefer the tried and true ones from other games. Levels, what a spell slot means, and saves are redone to make more sense within the context of Knave.
But, possibly the best piece of this is that Knave uses the “Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License: You are free to share and adapt this material for any purpose, including commercially, as long as you give attribution.” You want to write an adventure or product for Knave, it’s an option and, with its Mithral level sales, writing something for it taps into a nice size pool of fans.
Is Knave For You?
This is short, simple, pure OSR death. It’s suitable for epic magic or low magic campaigns. While compact, designer Ben Milton packs a lot of content in there for anyone that’s an OSR fan. This is not for first time GMs. Instead, this is for a GM that knows OSR and wants to get to its essence. Monsters and adventures will need to come from other sources, but the conversion can be done on the fly. Knave is the ruleset you’re looking for when you want easy old school that’s compatible with all of your B/X and AD&D products.
Knave from Questing Beast Games is available through DriveThruRPG.
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