Knave 2e Review - RIB03

Knave 2e Review

Disclaimer: I have yet to play this with a group of people nor have I touched the first edition.

TLDR: Knave 2e shines the most in terms of ease of use. It’s a brilliant way to get an old school game going in a matter of minutes and hooks the players quickly with intuitive systems.

        Knave 2e is, in the author’s own words, “an exploration-driven fantasy RPG and worldbuilding toolkit, inspired by the best elements of the Old-School DnD movement.” There are really two things of note in that description, an emphasis on exploration and trying to incorporate the OSR movement. We’ll touch on both of these but first some background is in order.

        The Knave system was developed by Ben Milton who runs the Questing Beast YouTube channel, which is a must-watch for anyone even remotely interested in OSR style games. I’m going to assume, dear reader, that you are familiar with the OSR movement and style of play, but if not, here is a brief primer that does a pretty good job of letting you know what these sorts of adventures feel like (written in part by Milton himself). Milton’s former work includes Maze Rats, an open sandbox adventure generator that relies primarily on random tables, and The Waking of Willowby Hall, a zine adventure that’s included in ‘The Best’ from tenfootpole (that’s a big deal).

        Suffice it to say that Milton has quite the pedigree when it comes to designing TTRPG products, and probably a good number of connections due to his YouTube channel (the copy of Knave 2e I possess was published by Jacob Hurst and Swordfish Islands, after all). The book itself is pretty well made, I backed the premium edition from the Kickstarter and it looks just like the picture above though the material is cloth with gold foil, the dungeon layout is embossed on the cover, adding some texture. Some part of me regrets not getting the standard version for the art by Peter Mullen, who also did the interior artwork, but I’m happy with my choice and to support such a great creator. Milton put out an overview video on his YouTube channel showcasing the premium edition 2 days ago at time of writing, I very much recommend checking it out. In the video he says that the black-on-black dungeon motif on the premium edition is because “there’s no light in there, you gotta bring your torch,” which is a statement that unreasonably makes me like my copy more.

        Let’s talk about the book itself, first and foremost, the biggest issue in my opinion is one of formatting. The book is perfectly legible, and actually overall the formatting is pretty smart, but the text is a little too close to the inner gutter for my taste. I know it’s not a big deal and that the only way to remedy that would mean more pages and subsequent costs but it’s a bit of a hassle to keep the physical copy open. It uses a sewn binding and comes in at 5.5x8.5 inches and 80 pages, making it really damn convenient to take with you wherever you need. The book’s “control panel” layout reduces the need for flipping by confining most if not all info to one or two page spreads, while the end sheets have practically all the information you need to play the game by providing quick reference.

        The introduction to the book shouts out not just D&D but Blackmoor and Braunstein as well (the Questing Beast channel has some fantastic videos detailing both, which I’ve linked). It goes on to state that this system is open-ended, that it should be compatible with basically any idea hobbyists have come up with in this design tradition within the last half century, and that nothing is sacrosanct. The end of the book has the designer’s commentary, which dedicates about a paragraph to each section explaining why they turned out the way they did and calling out some inspirations for certain mechanics. In the designer commentary, Milton states that Knave arose out of a hack of Basic D&D created for a 5th grade after school club. He wanted to make something that players could jump into within a few minutes and that since then the game has expanded into what it is now.

        After the introduction there is a spiel on tables, this is to tell the reader immediately about the seminal feature of the book. There are multiple d100 tables spread throughout it, used for various purposes but overall they are meant to generate aspects of the world either on the fly or in prep. I actually really like these tables, one of my favorites is the activities table for encounters, which details what a creature may have been doing before the party interacts with them. This choice was inspired by The Dark of Hot Springs Island and it’s a good one, an easy way for the GM to make the world seem more alive. Not only does the variety allow for a huge amount of plot generation, but these tables can also reference other tables, kicking things off even easier for the GM and players alike. For example, when stumbling across a monster you can roll on the activities table and there’s a small chance of landing upon ‘Mission’. This has a page number next to it which brings you to the d100 missions table, setting a potential scene where a monster is doing much more than simply celebrating or eating (though these simple choices also present ample opportunity for a keen GM). The tables also allow for creative and quick monster and spell generations, making for very dynamic gameplay elements.

        A list of GM and player ‘duties’ or tips precedes the player creation section. These do a good job of giving individuals a feel for an OSR style game in a succinct manner, without confusing them or throwing around terminology and history. Anyone who, for example, has only looked at modern D&D before this and is picking it up can tell pretty quickly that this is a different style of game and they can see how in a very quick manner, as each of these duties is printed in bold and followed by, usually, only a sentence or two of explanation.

        If somehow a player didn’t get how different this is before, then they definitely will after player creation. There are 6 stats, ranging from 0-10, each emphasizes a stereotypical fantasy class, and the player starts with only 3 allottable points. This game is classless but the way these points work in conjunction with checks is a pretty handy replacement, there’s also no ‘dump stat’ because the game makes an effort at keeping each stat as useful as possible in their own right. It may lack in flavor but the time saved is massive and really the game should still play in a manner that supports OSR style roleplay. I won’t dig into checks too much here but one bright point is reversibility, it’s possible with this system to make all roles be on the player’s side of things for checks, though whether you use this feature or not depends on how your table feels about it. At the very least it’s a further step in easing GM-side upkeep. The game also, for the most part, eliminates checks that involve perceived knowledge. All common knowledge within the world is known as well as career specific knowledge, everything else must be learned.

        Taking a note from Electric Bastionland, players can choose a career from a d100 table to acquire a set of equipment. There’s not much of note here but a full party should get enough variety to not have to go shopping or spend much time in making choices before going out into the world at large. Milton also notes that gear such as expensive armor cannot be resold for high amounts because it’s tailor made, none of the starting equipment should be monetarily exploitable by default.

        The way that damage and death work in this game is pretty cool and borrows from too many esteemed inspirations for me to list out here (it’s only 5 things but this is already long). Players start out with 1d6 HP and 10 + CON item slots. When HP is depleted, or when a hit deals direct damage, then players start taking on wounds. These fill up item slots and once all slots are filled, a PC dies. I think that this mechanic is great for instilling tension while keeping the game so exploration focused, as well as being simple to grasp very quickly for players. The only caveat to this sort of system is that it leads to early level PCs being a bit tough to kill, in a technical sense this calls the OSR style of the game into question, making it more like an NSR that bleeds into being truly old-school styled after an adjustment period. This does wonders for fulfilling the ‘pick up and play’ goal, though one has to wonder if it lulls players into a false sense of security early on. I think this poses a challenge for GMs to effectively balance the difficulty curve but setting clear expectations, as the book does in the beginning, also helps.

        Traveling through the overworld and dungeons involves the use of a hazard system at the end of every watch or turn, respectively. Admittedly this seems like standard fare but it blends well with all the d100 tables strewn about and helps make the experience all the more dynamic. The travel system relies on 6 mile hexes, with a day being separated into 6 4 hour watches, 3 during the day and 3 at night. The 6 mile hex was chosen, in part, due to a pretty nice blog post from The Hydra’s Grotto detailing some of the mathematical consequences of using such a system. Knave 2e also attempts to speed up dungeon delving. A turn is 10 minutes and hazards are rolled for at the end of each. The dungeons revolve around light sources, searching, and ‘weight’ though really what it means is item slot management. There are three potential light sources: candles, lanterns, and torches. These have their own advantages and disadvantages but the system is intuitive enough and promotes the idea of gathering loot and hauling ass pretty well (not as well as Shadowdark, but at least here longer dungeons can be tackled earlier).

        The combat in this system isn’t complex at all, interestingly enough it borrows from DCC and TLoZ: BotW of all things, so what that means is that weapons can break. I think that’s an interesting choice and adds some spice to item slot/wound management. High rolls also grant additional actions in an attempt to make the game more cinematic. This, coupled with the option for a player to do double damage for a weapon break make for some cool moments to experience.

        The spell system is a bit more unique, the book gives you 100 that are meant for utility and potential indirect damage, the rest have to be generated with tables. This is pretty cool because it allows for personalization of spells (and even further, a spell generated by one character can leave a legacy if you catch my drift), and the system doesn’t rely on spell levels though in the case of importing from other sources, the INT stat simply dictates what you can and can’t cast to avoid obvious overpowering. The game also takes further cues from DCC to allow for a relic/patron deity based magic system. This allows for some real fun but suffers from the need for effective negotiation between GM and player, as does the alchemy system.

        We’re almost done, all that’s really left worth covering in my opinion is the warfare, buildings, money, and downtime systems. I won’t dig too deep into this but the warfare system is pretty neat. There’s a recruitment system and this combined with buildings makes for a potential faux-simulationist style of play that can be really engaging for those that want these large scale elements without dealing with a lot of math. The warfare system specifically is meant to resolve mass battles and skirmishes in minutes and relies heavily on how the system uses money. There are no denominations, only one base currency and some good rules of thumb for its consequences. The system really makes it so that large asset acquisitions really only come about from quests and connections instead of outright purchases. The monetary system is also how you level up characters, as you must spend money in town on downtime, which is accompanied with its own effects and consequences.

        Overall Knave 2e is a lot of fun. It’s a small book, you can get games going very fast, there’s little need for prep, and there’s enough depth for players to get hooked rather quickly. This system really shines, as does any system, in the hands of a competent GM. I didn’t talk about time systems here because I didn’t see 1:1 being talked about but I think that in the right way this system can really be a lot of fun for long and complex campaigns with an ease that a lot of systems struggle with.

Nikhil Saxena

Founder, Destrier Studios

https://linktr.ee/destrierstudios