Knave Second Edition - Ben Milton

Another Kickstarter completed. This one was started in May 2023 in the wake of the OGL “stuff,” and is the largest Kickstarter I’ve been a part of. 11,003 of us backed it to the tune of $645,580. The game is available in print at swordfishislands.com . Standard hardcover is $35, and premium hardcover is $50. Not the biggest fan of Kickstarters that are full retail, but it’s OSR and don’t have many OSR games in my collection. And there may have been a little spite driving me as well. It’s all of 80 pages, but there is a metric tonne of stuff packed in the page count. The basic rules cover the inside of the front and back cover for real quick access on the more basic questions. There are also approximately 75 d100 tables throughout the book to help create the world. The rules start with Player and GM duties. GM duties include: create locations, let players guide the action, and keep the game moving. Player duties include: assist the GM, create and play your character, and take initiative. Ability scores and PC Creation take up all of 1 page. PCs start with 1d6 HP and have 3 points to spread over your 6 ability scores. Yes, some abilities will be zero. There is XP and level 2 is reached at 2,000 points and doubles thereafter. There are 3 watches for day, and that many for night. The artwork is very old-school. There aren’t officially any classes, so one can have a little more free reign on how they want to play their character. If playing a spellcaster type, you can cast as many spells as you have INT points. There is also relic magic, which is cleric type magic. For money, there is only coins. Common items are 5 coins, with rarer stuff being more expensive. There is a bestiary with some creatures included, though it wouldn’t be difficult to add any creature from any module, or even adapt said module to the game. This provides the basic framework to run the game, though you have to set up the world from the ground up and it is designed to be compatible with all versions of the world’s most well known game or any in general.