Knave 2nd Edition Review

Knave 2nd Edition is an 80 page, old-school-ish, RPG by Ben Milton. The art is by Peter Mullen. In my review of Nimble 5E, I talked about how much I like "heroic" level adventure. Knave is the opposite of that. Characters will begin play very weak. They will grow stronger, and that journey is a big part of what proponents of old-school style games enjoy the most.

  

  

Knave is classless, but characters will be able to perform functions analogous to class abilities based on their ability scores: Strength for Fighter abilities, Dexterity for Rogue abilities, Intelligence for Wizard abilities, Wisdom for Ranger abilities, and Charisma for Cleric abilities.

When you level up, you add points to your ability scores. That's it. You get better at the abilities associated with the scores that you improve. (Also, your scores are just the modifiers. So, every point makes a difference.) You can diversify or specialize as much as you want in the areas that you want. This is both remarkably simple and versatile.

Constitution isn't associated with any specific class abilities. It determines how much you can carry. Knave uses item slots, and characters can manage 10 plus CON items. That's it. But, (and this is so clever and awesome) if you run out of HP, then you start taking wounds. Wounds are possessions. Write the wound into an item slot describing what caused it, "Slashed with sword" for example. If you don't have room to add a wound, you have to drop something to make room.

Characters don't start with a lot of HP (1d6. I would house rule max of 6 at first level) but as mentioned, they have "wounds" in addition to HP. HP recovers fully overnight. Wounds only recover at a rate of 1 per night spent in a safe haven. Characters in Knave are squishy. The intent here is to encourage game play towards combat as a last resort.

Players can cast a number of Wizard spells per day equal to their INT. Spells require spell books which take up inventory slots. Players can acquire blessings from a divine patron equal to their CHA. Divine blessings are relic magic and work much differently than Wizard spells. I love that these two types of magic have been made so distinctive in Knave.

Spell books can't be made, they must be recovered as treasure. Divine blessings require a quest. Nothing in Rogue is simply "given out" when a character levels up. The things that you have must be actively sought after during the course of play.

Knave's monster stat blocks look very much like those of any old-school D&D module and it would be super easy to use any product published for early versions of D&D in combination with Knave's game play.

I like Knave. The systems are clean and everything makes sense. The game knows what it wants to be and the kind of experience that it wants to create, and it does this in an impossibly small package. A fraction of the book is dedicated to its rules while the rest is made up of various charts and tables of all sorts.

The tables are meant as inspiration enhancers providing the GM with sparks of ideas to create original and interesting content. Even if you never wanted to play Knave, I believe many would find the various charts and tables within its covers invaluable.

Knave is a perfect example of how a minimalist rules set can provide a play group with a foundation to go anywhere and do anything. These rules are so good. And, I haven't even talked about Peter Mullen's beautiful artwork. This book is gorgeous. Every illustration by Mullen is just fantastic.

I backed the Knave 2E Kickstarter and have the beautiful hardcover edition. I have come to appreciate printed books as collectable pieces of art, and Knave is certainly that. It's also a very good, very playable game (if my 40+ years of gaming experience tells me anything.) 

To get a master class in the overwhelming strength inherent in a simple design where less is definitely more, buy Knave 2E. You won't be sorry.