Knave Illuminated

A more complete rule-set for Knave

A 12 inch long rod about ¾ inches in diameter, with a button at one end.
Pressing this button will toggle the immovability of the rod, i.e. pressing it will
Knave
stick it in place, and pressing again will release it. Knave Illuminated is a more complete rule-set for Knave. Adding, sub-
Designer’s note: a less powerful, but still useful version is a single use rod, that can tracting and modifying rules is both expected and encouraged. Knave’s fea-
only be set in place, and won’t unstick. tures include:

A 10 foot length of rope that can turn to stone and back on a command of High compatibility with OSR games. If you have a library of OSR bestiaries,
some sort. While stone, it is extremely rigid, as stone would be, if the stone adventure and spell books, little or no conversion is needed to use them
breaks the rope is destroyed. with Knave.
Fast to teach, easy to run. If you are introducing a group of new players to
OSR games, Knave allows them to make characters and understand all the
rules in minutes.
A hand held figurine, taking ½ slot, takes of full slot unless stored with another
½ slot item. The figurine is of a monster, the figurine may be thrown to the No classes. Every PC is a Knave, a tomb-raiding, adventure-seeking ne’er-
ground where it will become the same monster as the figurine depicts. When do-well who wields a spell book just as easily as a blade. This is an ideal sys-
the monster dies it turns back into the figurine and falls to the ground. One tem for players who like to switch up their character’s focus from time to
use per day time and don’t like being pigeonholed. A PC’s role in the party is deter-
mined largely by the equipment they carry.
Abilities are king. All d20 rolls use the six standard abilities. The way that
ability scores and bonuses work has also been cleaned up, rationalized, and
Single use, due to the fact that no one has ever been able to figure out how to made consistent with how other systems like armor work.
pick it back up once placed. It is a flat flexible 12” diameter disk of film. Once
unrolled it is pressure activated. When pressed onto a surface it will create a Copper standard. Knave assumes that the common unit of currency is the
12” diameter hole, that is 10” deep or entirely through the object if less than copper coin (penny). All item prices use this denomination.
10” thick in that direction. Duration: thought to be permanent but have been A list of 120 level-less spells.
rumored to disappear over time, no one knows exactly how long they last. A random spell system. Taken and modified from Maze Rats.
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.
Provides exactly enough pairs of socks to equip the whole party, and then is Designer commentary. The rules include designer comments explaining
exhausted, the bag isn’t magical, the socks are. When worn they all provide the why each rule was written the way it was, to aid in hacking the game.
same chosen effect for D4 hours. You may choose: KNAVE ILLUMINATED contains additional designer commentary and ref-
Water-walking: walk on the surface of the water, tripping would be danger- eree advice.
ous!
Wall-walking: walk on the wall or any vertical surface.
Mountain-climbing: requires feet and hands, climb mountains with no
checks.
Fast-Animal-running: requires feet and hands, 3x run speed.
Air-walking: Floating 5’ in the air, but you can walk as if on the ground.
Coyote-walking: Can walk of cliffs and ledges, as long as you don’t look
down.
Sure footed: Can’t be moved unwillingly.

A cloth cloak, black as night, with stars ‘embroidered’ on it. May be worn over
armor, no armor bonus, still takes a slot. If the cloak is inspected, it looks like
13 of the stars can be removed, if one is removed it casts a magic missile at a
target, automatic hit, D4+1 damage. If the PC doesn’t know this yet and is
holding a star, as soon as their grip is loosened a tiny bit, it will fly straight for-
ward in a bright destructive flash. Once per day the user may pass an CHA

38 3
101. Summon Cube: Once per second, (6 times per round) you may summon Magic Items………………………………………………………………………37
or banish a 3-foot-wide cube of earth. New cubes must be affixed to the Create your own……………………………………………………………37
earth or to other cubes. List of magical items with generic names……………………………37
102. Swarm: You become a swarm of crows, rats, or piranhas. You only take Thanks……………………………………………………………………………39
damage from area effects; you may choose to do D6 damage per round.
103. Telekinesis: You may mentally move L items.
104. Telepathy: L+1 creatures can hear each other’s thoughts, no matter how
far apart they move.
105. Teleport: An object disappears and reappears on the ground in a visible,
clear area up to L×40ft away. Knave is a really interesting, and cool rule tool-kit. I think
106. Thaumaturgic Anchor: Object becomes the target of every spell cast its incompleteness is meant to drive your creativity and give
near it. you a kick in the pants to start hacking.
107. Thicket: A thicket of trees and dense brush up to L×40ft wide suddenly
sprouts up. I came to knave through the RPG zine A rasp of Sand. I
108. Time Jump: An object disappears as it jumps L×10 minutes into the fu- heard it being played on Dice Friends, it and the system it was
ture. When it returns, it appears in the unoccupied area nearest to where it designed in made me want to run it. So I did a google search to
left. find it for sale and bought it, and Knave as well.
109. Summon Idol: A carved stone statue the size of a four poster bed rises I love the minimalist nature of Knave; depending on how
from the ground.
110. Time Rush: Time in a 40ft bubble starts moving 10 times faster. you count it there are between 2 and maybe 7 mechanics.
111. Time Slow: Time in a 40ft bubble slows to 10% of normal. … but its incomplete; it’s feels made for people who used to
112. True Sight: You see through all nearby illusions. play these games in the past, and want join the old-school re-
113. Up-well: A spring of seawater appears. naissance (OSR.) People newer to the hobby are going to have a
114. Vision: You completely control what a creature sees. hard time starting with Knave; rules and context are missing.
115. Visual Illusion: A silent, immobile, illusion of your choice appears, up
to the size of a bedroom. Ironically similar to the situation with the original D&D where
116. Ward: A silver circle 40ft across appears on the ground. Choose one if you didn’t have the context and institutional knowledge of
thing that cannot cross it: Living creatures, dead creatures, projectiles or war-gaming, the rules were reportedly incomprehensible.
metal.
117. Water Bubble: L large water bubbles float out in front of you anything
Since Knave for noobs sounded stupid to my ear, I decided to
encountering the bubble will be enveloped and unable to do anything, but light a metaphorical torch and illuminate the dark corners of
try to escape, DEX or STR save to escape. Each round enveloped they take the rules, fill in some of the gaps and discover some more op-
D4 Drowning damage. tions and knobs to tweak.
118. Water Whip: 2L charges | A source of water you can see will obey your Many of the tables in Maze Rats are very useful for Knave, I
command and become a ranged D6 Slashing weapon for one minute (10
rounds of combat). have modified the random magic generator tables and the ran-
119. Web: Your wrists can shoot thick webbing. dom monster tables for Knave.
120. X-Ray Vision: You gain X-Ray vision.

Your can roll on the entire table with a D6*D20.

The formula is (D6-1)*20 + D20, or use the table:
1 2 6 4 5 6
D20 D20 + 20 D20 + 40 D20 + 60 D20 + 80 D20 + 100

36 5
44. Gust: Creatures in a 20’ cone in front of you must pass a STR check or be
thrown directly away from you if they collide with anything they both take Ask them how they do it?
D4 Damage. The best, most useful and foundational tool available to the referee is to ask
45. Haste: Your movement speed is tripled. them how they do it. If they need prompting to start, you can prompt them
46. Hatred: L creatures develop a deep hatred of another creature or group with a pair of dichotomous behaviors, that shouldn’t be exactly optimal, but a
of creatures and wish to destroy it. plausible example of how to do the task.
47. Heal Wounds: Target gains LD4 HP
48. Hear Whispers: You can hear faint sounds clearly. Situations not plots
49. Hover: An object hovers, frictionless, 2ft above the ground. It can hold Pencil and paper role-playing games work much better when the referee
up to L humanoids. presents the players with situations to react to. The players will drive the plot
forward guided by the referee resulting in a story none of them would have
50. Hypnotize: A creature enters a trance and will truthfully answer L yes or come up with alone.
no questions you ask it.
51. Icy Blast: A 10’ cone of ice shards erupts from your hands, dealing 2D6
Frost damage.
Note on open rolling
A referee doesn’t have to be a slave to the dice. Rolling behind a screen, or oth-
52. Icy Touch: A thick ice layer spreads across a touched surface, up to erwise in secret, to preserve the ability to adjust rolls as the story requires, is an
L×10ft in radius. acceptable practice, albeit a big stretch in the OSR tradition. On the other
53. Illuminate: A floating light moves as you command. hand cheating rolls to beat or defeat, the player, is the worst thing you
54. Increase Gravity: The gravity in an area triples. can do, if you can’t resist the urge, then stick to open rolling, or just let the
55. Invisible Tether: Two objects within 10ft of each other cannot be players roll everything, (as it should be.)
moved more than 10ft apart. With that said, I find the restriction of having the players roll all rolls that con-
56. Iron Scales: Target gains +2 AD for L turns. cern their character is a quintessential example of the principle that “Restric-
57. Knock: L nearby mundane or magical locks unlock. tions breed creativity.” Let the randomness spark your creativity!
58. Leap: You can jump up to L×10ft in the air. Designer’s Note: I only roll in secret if they players shouldn’t be able to “know” or
59. Lightning Bolt: A bolt of lightning leaps from your fingers, target and meta-game the roll. i.e. any randomization relating to plot, etc. Any roll the players
all adjacent take 2LD10 electric damage divided among the targets. Any- can see, they probably should see. Use secret rolls to enhance the story, or the experi-
thing that took damage must pass a contested CON save, or is stunned for ence, don’t use them if they don’t. I mainly only roll in secret for encounters, encounter
D3 rounds. chance, encounter size, treasure, copper, gold, etc.
60. Liquid Air: The air around you becomes swim-able.
61. Lodestone: 2 charges | L+1 objects become strongly magnetically at- Make those stats matter
tracted to each other if they come within 10’. When you do make roll the dice make the stats matter. Are there multiple ap-
62. Magic Dampener: All nearby magical effects have their effectiveness proaches that could use different stats? If there is a situation that could be
halved. solved with strength, i.e. pushing through the door, or with wisdom, I.e. tim-
63. Magic Missile: L magic orbs burst from your hand and fly at the target ing when to go with when it is easy, then you should call for either. But since
doing LD4 + L damage total. there are only those 6 stats, make them matter when you ask for checks.
64. Marble Madness: Your pockets are full of marbles, and will refill every
round.
65. Masquerade: L characters’ appearances and voices become identical to a
touched character.
66. Miniaturize: You and L other touched creatures are reduced to the size
of a mouse.
67. Mirror Image: L illusory duplicates of yourself appear under your con-
trol.
68. Mirrorwalk: A mirror becomes a gateway to another mirror that you
looked into today.
69. Multiarm: You gain L extra arms.
70. Night Sphere: An L×40ft wide sphere of darkness displaying the night
sky appears.
71. Objectify: You become any inanimate object between the size of a grand
piano and an apple.
72. Ooze Form: You become a living jelly.

34 7
120 Level-less Spells Designer’s Note: An ability’s defense score is essentially its average roll. Requiring the
rolling side to beat the opposing defense allows contests to be settled more quickly,
If you prefer spells that are level-less and scale up as the caster becomes more eliminates the possibility of ties, and allows the game to be run with players doing all
powerful, use the list below. In the following spells, “L” is a number equal to of the rolling if they so choose, since the odds of success are the same no matter which
the caster’s level, an item is an object able to be lifted with one hand, and an side rolls.
object is anything up to human size. Unless otherwise noted, all spells with
ongoing effects last up to L×10 minutes, and have a range of up to 40’; if the Advantage and disadvantage
spell doesn’t use L, and is not an ongoing effect, it has L charges. If a spell di- If there are situational factors that make a save significantly easier or harder,
rectly affects another creature, the creature may make a save to avoid it (as de- the referee may grant the roll advantage or disadvantage. If a roll has advan-
scribed previously). Success reduces or negates the spell’s effects. tage, roll 2d20 and use the better of the two dice. If it has disadvantage, roll
1. Adhere: Object is covered in extremely sticky slime. 2d20 and use the worse of the two dice. Shorthand for advantage is [+], and
2. Alarm: An unnatural alarm audibly emanates from the area, the sound disadvantage is [-].
alerts and angers monsters that hear it. You attract either: an encounter roll Designer’s Note: The referee is of course free to impose positive or negative modi iers
with [+], LD4 1HD monsters or D3 + 1 LHD monsters. rather than use the advantage system, but most players seem to enjoy it and it simpli-
3. Animate Object: Object obeys your commands as best it can. It can walk ies the math.
15ft per round. Designers Note: some modules will ind it useful to allow advantages and disadvan-
4. Anthropomorphize: A touched animal either gains human intelligence tages to stack in some instances ex. [++], however in general, if a check or save gets a
or human appearance for L days. second advantage, it is probably not dangerous and should just pass. [++] or [--] is
5. Arcane Clubhouse: A knotted rope ‘ladder’ drops from a hole, that could more useful for encounter tables and such.
pass a man, located 10’ above you. Your magic servant will pull the rope up
after you if you choose, he can read your mind only for purposes of raising Item Slots
or lowing the rope. The Clubhouse is luxurious and fully furnished set of PCs have a number of item slots equal to their CON defense. Many items, in-
cluding spell-books, potions, light weapons, tools and so on take up 1 slot, but
rooms, brightly lit by magic. You can store 10 slots worth of Items in your particularly heavy or bulky items like armor or medium to heavy weapons may
clubhouse; all other items taken from the clubhouse will disappear when the take up more slots. Groups of small, identical items may be bundled into the
entrance closes. If anyone is still inside when it dissipates, they will appear same slot, at the referee’s discretion. 100 coins can fit in a slot. As a general
10’ above the ground and must make a DEX save or take D3 damage when guideline, a slot holds around 5~10 pounds of weight. 2 rations fit in a slot.
they hit the ground.
6. Arcane Eye: You can see through a magical floating eyeball that flies Designer’s Note: Using item slots makes encumbrance simple enough that players will
be willing to track it. Slots are also the key to character customization, as a PC’s gear
around at your command. helps determine who they are. Raising CON, therefore, will probably be a priority for
7. Astral Prison: An object is frozen in time and space within an invulnera- most characters.
ble crystal shell.
8. Attract: L+1 objects are strongly magnetically attracted to each other if
they come within 10 feet.
Reactions
When the PCs encounter an NPC whose reaction to the party is not obvious,
9. Auditory Illusion: You create illusory sounds that seem to come from a the referee should roll 2d6 and consult the following table.
direction of your choice.
10. Babble: A creature must loudly and clearly repeat everything you think. 2 3-5 6-8 9-11 12
It is otherwise mute.
11. Beast Form: You and your possessions transform into a mundane ani- Hostile Unfriendly Unsure Talkative Helpful
mal.
12. Befuddle: L creatures of your choice are unable to form new short-term Surprise
memories for the duration of the spell. Surprise is often handled with a D6, the rate for PCs is determined by the situ-
13. Bend Fate: Roll L+1 d20s. Whenever you must roll a d20 after casting ation and can be impossible, i.e. having a lit torch or other light source in a
the spell, you must choose and then discard one of the rolled results until dungeon will make it impossible for the PCs to surprise a monster. Surprise
they are all gone. for monsters is sometimes included in old-school bestiaries.
14. Bird Person: Your arms turn into huge bird wings. If either side could surprise the other Roll the D6 for the appropriate chance;
15. Body Swap: You switch bodies with a creature you touch. If one body n.b. generally you try to roll equal or under the ‘chance’ ex. 3/6 would mean a
dies, the other dies as well. 1,2 or 3 on a D6 would pass.
16. Boiling blast: You produce a 10’ cone of super heated boiling water, D10 Designer’s Note: don’t roll surprise every time, only roll it when being surprised possi-
+ 1 damage, effected targets must pass a DEX save to reduce damage to 1. ble or reasonable. Replace or combine this with perception, explained below. You can
roll surprise irst then perception if surprise is won against the PCs, the PCs just hear
NPC if surprise is lost. Reversing the order, “do the PCs hear or detect the NPC?” Per-
32 9
 pushing an enemy off of a ledge). The referee is the final arbiter as to what
stunts can be attempted in a given situation.
Designer’s Note: Stunts are normally resolved with a contested roll, but others might
require a straight save, or require that you hit the creature irst and then make either
Random Spell System kind of save, depending on the di iculty. Advantage and disadvantage may be given
You can roll the spell all at once if you roll a D12 and 2 pairs of D4 and D8, to any of the rolls above to further adjust the di iculty.
that are different colors, and designate a color for the first and the other for
the second component. I like to choose the lighter or brighter color as the first, Advantage in Combat
and the darker or blacker as the second. Characters can gain advantage in combat by attacking a target that is unaware,
Step 1: roll a D12 to ind your spells formula in this table: on lower ground, off balance, disarmed, distracted, or tactically disadvantaged
1. Physical Effect + Physical Form 7. Ethereal Element + Physical Form in any significant way. The referee, as usual, has the final say.
2. Physical Effect + Ethereal Form 8. Ethereal Element + Ethereal Form When a character has advantage against an opponent on their combat turn,
3. Ethereal Effect + Physical Form 9. Physical Effect + Physical Element they may either apply [+] normally to the Attack, or Stunt roll, or make an at-
4. Ethereal Effect + Ethereal Form 10. Physical Effect + Ethereal Element tack and a stunt attempt, without advantage on either roll.
5. Physical Element + Physical Form 11. Ethereal Effect + Physical Element
6. Physical Element + Ethereal Form 12. Ethereal Effect + Ethereal Element Critical Hits and Quality
During an attack roll, if the attacker rolls a natural 20 or the defender rolls a
Step 2: Find your elements, roll D4*D8 for each table. The D4 chooses the column, and natural 1, the defender’s armor loses 1 point of quality and they take an addi-
the D8 chooses the row.
tional die of damage (of the weapon’s type). If the attacker rolls a natural 1 or
the defender rolls a natural 20, the attacker’s weapon loses 1 point of quality.
At 0 quality, the item is destroyed. Each point of quality costs 10% of the item’s
Animating Dividing Illuminating Reflecting cost to repair.
Attracting Duplicating Imprisoning Regenerating In defensive situations if the piece of armor with the least quality is affected
Binding Enveloping Levitating Rending first (i.e. helmets and shields,) choose if tied for lowest.
Blossoming Expanding Opening Repelling
Consuming Fusing Petrifying Sealing Designer’s Note: The slow degradation of their gear is another resource clock ticking
down during long dungeon raids alongside hit points, spells, torches, and so on.
Creeping Grasping Phasing Shielding
Crushing
Diminishing
Hastening
Hindering
Piercing
Pursuing
Spawning
Transporting
Shields must be Sundered
Any PC carrying a shield may choose to sunder (break) it in order to negate
the damage of one attack. The Armor bonus from carrying a shield will be ob-
viously be lost until the PC can find and equip another one.
Acid
Amber
Ember
Fungus
Obsidian
Oil
Slime
Stone Leadership, Morale and Perception
Bark Glass Poison Tar Monsters and NPCs all have a morale rating, usually between 5 and 9, maxi-
Blood Honey Rat Thorn mum of 10. When they face more danger than they were expecting, the referee
Bone Ice Salt Vine will make a morale roll by rolling 2d6 and comparing the result to the NPC’s
Brine Wood Sand Water morale rating. If the roll is higher than the rating, the NPC will attempt to flee,
Clay Lava Sap Wine retreat, or parley. Morale rolls can be triggered by defeating half of an enemy
Crystal Moss Serpent Wood group, defeating a group’s leader, or reducing a lone enemy to half HP. Other
effects may trigger a morale roll at the referee’s discretion.
Perception rolls use leadership, i.e. how vigilant, how careful, how observant,
is the character performing. If the PC fails the roll, they don’t get any informa-
Altar Cloak Key Spear tion, or give them bad information if you want to be mean.
Armor Colossus Mask Swarm
Arrow Crown Monolith Tentacle Designer’s note: If the ideal OSR game only considers rolls to be backup for player
Beast Elemental Pit Throne imagination, then Knave is screaming for a perception mechanic to employ, choosing
Blade Eye Prison Torch between INT and WIS on any given situation feels mostly meaningless; leadership
makes a great replacement, its a di ferent kind of roll, and it incorporates both INT
Chain Fountain Sentinel Trap and WIS
Chariot Hammer Servant Wall
Claw Horn Shield Web Hirelings also make morale rolls when they aren’t paid, their employer dies, or
they face extraordinary danger. Morale may also be improved by paying
hirelings more and treating them well.

30 11
 Traps
Ambush Encircle Manipulate Swarm Traps of the step-on, or landmine, category should be reserved for dungeons,
Call for support Evade Mock Target leader they should activate randomly, 2/6 is a traditional chance. Traps should also
affect monsters, at the same rate as PCs. Monsters shouldn’t be able to avoid
Capture Gang-up Order minion Target nearest traps, unless the particular monster reasonably should be able to avoid them.
Charge Gather strength Protect leader Target strongest Intelligent creatures for example, might have placed the trap, or avoid it after
Climb foes Go berserk Protect self Target richest getting hit once.
Create barrier Harry Scatter foes Target weakest Designer’s Note: This method allows monsters to reveal traps to the players, if they
Deceive Hurl foes Stalk Toy with are so lucky; also allowing the players to use the traps o fensively against the monsters
Disorient Immobilize Steal from Use terrain in the dungeon, it also lessens the sting if they do get hit by one, since they may have
noticed triggering a trap without getting hit by it. Be careful with these kind of traps
they can become unfair and unfun.
Inspiration
Designer’s Note: I ind this table to be one of the harder ones to use, but it can still Inspiration is an optional rule pulled from modern role-playing games. If a
spark creativity on occasion. player does something that the referee finds clever, exceptional, or otherwise
reward-able, give the player an inspiration token, that can give [+] to any roll
Alien Educated Honorable Obsessive the player wants.
Aloof Embittered Humble Paranoid
Notes for referees: Whether or not you use this rule and how you decide to apply the
Bored Envious Jaded Polite rule will a fect your game; is inspiration one-per-player or one-per-party, or must
Cautious Erudite Jovial Psychopathic players use inspiration before the roll. Allowing post hoc use of inspiration is very use-
Cowardly Fanatical Legalistic Sophisticated ful as a mutual fudge; i.e. a better result would serve the story better, both the player
Curious Forgetful Megalomaniac Touchy and the referee want to see this result, and this method still preserves the possibility of
Devious Generous Meticulous Unimpressed failure, meaning stakes are still relevant, the players won’t feel they cheated, or were
cheated.
Distract-able Hateful Mystical Vain
Advancement
Whenever a PC accumulates 1000 XP, they gain a level. As a guideline, PCs re-
ceive 50 XP for low-risk accomplishments, 100 XP for moderate-risk accom-
plishments, and 200 XP for high-risk accomplishments. The referee should
Designer’s Note: Monsters don’t need to have a weakness, and some of these weak- freely notify the PCs of how much XP different objectives are worth when
nesses are hard to use. asked.
The entries in Bold will need to be rolled for in some way, or may refer to the magic
table below. Designer’s Note: This is the way I run advancement because it’s simple and easy to
understand. Of course, swapping in milestone advancement, session advancement, or
Bells Flattery Mirrors Sunlight an XP-for-coin system works perfectly well. If using XP-for-gold or silver, note that a
Birdsong Flowers Mistletoe Tears gold piece is 100 copper, and a silver piece is 10 copper.
Children Gifts Moonlight True Name Designer’s Note: Early D&D awarded XP equal to 75% of the value of treasure found;
Cold Gold Music Valuable Mate- awarding XP for inding treasure can encourage players to do other things than sim-
rial ply ighting things. Combining advancement methods will change the advancement
Cold Iron Heat Phylactery curve, and the speed of advancement.
Competition Holy Icon Physical Element Weak spot
Rituals Weapon type When a PC gains a level, they roll a number of d8s equal to their hit dice, nor-
Conversation Holy Water mally equal to the new level, to find their new HP maximum. If the result is
Deformity Home cooking Silver Wine
Wormwood less than their previous maximum, their maximum HP increases by 1.
They also raise the defense and bonus scores of 3 different abilities of their
choice by 1 point. Abilities may never be raised higher than 20/+10.
Monster Targeting Designer’s Note: You can also raise abilities randomly if you want. My preferred
method is to roll a d20 for each ability, in descending order, raising that ability by 1 if
1: Closest 2: Random 3: Most damage 4: Spell-casters the roll is less than that ability’s defense. Keep cycling through the abilities, stopping
when three abilities have advanced, and skipping any abilities that have maxed out. In
5: Most armor 6: Least Armor 7: Toughest 8: Weakest

28 13
Monster Base Magic
Roll once or twice and combine results; Roll D6, D4, and D8, use the D6 to choose the The spell lists from any old-school RPG will work perfectly well in Knave,
appropriate animal table, the D4 selects the column, D8 selects the row: provided that they go up to 9 th level. There are many free lists of classic spells
available online.
1-2: Aerial 3-4: Terrestrial 5-6: Aquatic
Designers Note: I tend to use level-less spells usually the random method cribbed from
Maze rats, or the level-less spell list. I tend to like this style of play better than the
choose from a spell list sort. Though some published modules might assume access to
such a spell list.
In Knave, PCs may only cast spells of their level or less, so a level 3 PC could
Albatross Eagle Locust Peacock only cast spells of level 0 to 3. Spells are cast out of spell books, which must be
Bat Falcon Magpie Pelican held in both hands and read aloud. Each spell book can only be used once per
day. Importantly, each spell book only holds a single spell, and each spell book
Beetle Firefly Mantis Rooster takes up an item slot, so if a PC wants to be able to cast a wide variety of spells,
Butterfly Flamingo Mockingbird Sparrow they’ll have to fill most of their inventory with spell books.
Condor Flying Squirrel Mosquito Swan Designer’s Note: It’s always seemed odd to me that spell levels don’t correspond to PC
Crane Goose Moth Vulture level in most OSR games. Well, now they do. I also took the abstract notion of spell
Crow Gull Owl Wasp slots and turned them into something concrete; PCs can cast as many spells as they can
Dragonfly Hummingbird Parrot Woodpecker physically carry. Boost CON if you want your PC to carry around that mobile library.
PCs are unable to create, copy or transcribe spell books. In order to gain new
spell books, PCs must adventure for them, by either recovering them from
dungeons or looting them from other magicians. The higher the level of the
Ant Elephant Ostrich Sheep spell book, the rarer and more valuable it is. PCs openly carrying high level
Ape Ferret Ox Slug spell books are likely to be hounded by bandits and wizards looking to “ac-
Badger Fox Porcupine Snail quire” them.
Bear Giraffe Rabbit Snake When a spell allows for a save, make an opposed INT save against the de-
Boar Goat Raccoon Spider fender’s relevant ability, usually DEX for ranged attack spells, CON for life-
Caterpillar Horse Rat Squirrel draining spells, INT for mind-altering spells, WIS for Illusions, CHA for psy-
Centipede Human Rhinoceros Tiger chic, telekinetic or mind altering spells and STR for binding or similar spells.
Chameleon Mole Scorpion Wolf Designer’s Note: Note that spell books easily can, and should be skinned as rune
stones, clay tablets, potions, scrolls, or whatever else its your setting or campaign. If
you wanted a more dangerous, low-magic setting for example, you could make spell
books potions or scrolls that are only used once and then lost forever. The random spell
Alligator Frog Narwhal Seal generator, modi ied from Maze Rats, found below can be useful to make spells.
Amoeba Hippopotamus Newt Shark Designer’s Note: hold spells, could be psychic (CHA) or physical (STR) in nature, a
referee could choose to use either to lavor a spell, or let the target decide between CHA
Angler-fish Jellyfish Octopus Shrimp and STR.
Beaver Leech Otter Squid
Clam Lobster Penguin Swordfish
Crab Manatee Platypus Turtle
Dolphin Manta Ray Salamander Walrus
Eel Muskrat Sea Urchin Whale

26 15
 armor value system. Descending armor value systems are common in other OSR sys-
tems.
3Roll D8 to determine your PC’s starting and maximum hit points. A PC’s
All monsters from OSR bestiaries should work as-is in Knave with no major healing rate is D8+ CON bonus. Their exploration speed is 120’ per explo-
conversion needed. Here are some guidelines. ration turn, and their combat speed is 20’ per round.
Hit Dice/Hit Points: All monster hit dice can be assumed to be d8s unless Designer’s Note: All hit dice are assumed to be d8s in Knave, for PCs, NPCs, and
otherwise specified. To get the monster’s hit points, roll randomly, or just monsters. This simpli ies the game and keeps things compatible with the stats in most
multiply the number of hit dice they have by 4 (or 5 if you’re feeling mean.) OSR books. Note that a PC’s CON bonus is not added to their hit point rolls. Referees
You may need to adjust the number of Hit Dice. can allow players to re-roll 1s or 1s and 2s once to aid in survive-ability. Referees who
Designer’s Note: I prefer to roll for the monsters hit points, since this adds more vari- don’t want starting PCs to be quite as fragile might want to allow starting HP to be
ance to the combats. When giving the monster descriptions to the players, I like to be rolled as D4+4. Another option is to add the PCs CON bonus to their HP on creation
able to describes them as being scrawny (low hp), beefy (high hp), or average (mid hp). only, or just roll HP as D8+1.
I like to use the numbers to inform my descriptions of damage as well, without having Designer’s Note: I reduced the movement speed since most old editions of d&d reduced
to give concrete information about the amount of hp left. movement speed based on how much gear they are carrying, and instead of complicat-
Armor: Monster AC (if ascending) is identical to Armor defense. If the AC is ing the rule-set with that, I simply took the speed of a fully burdened character, since
descending, subtract it from 19 (if it is from OD&D or B/X D&D) or from 20 most PCs tend to ill their slots.
(if it is from AD&D) to find its ascending equivalent. 4 Determine leadership, equal to 2 + CON + WIS + INT. This is uses your
Attack Bonus: Any attack bonus given is unchanged, and can be added to starting stat bonuses; it does not update each level. Maximum of 10 in any
both melee and ranged attacks. If an attack bonus is not given, assume that it is case.
the same as the monster’s number of hit dice. Sometimes listed as THAC0 X
(+19-X)
5Invent or roll the rest of your PC’s traits, such as their physique, face, skin,
hair, clothing, virtue, vice, speech, background, and alignment, using the ran-
take the bonus (+) if given, or AB = 19 – THAC0. dom tables on the following page. Choose a gender and a name for your PC,
Damage: Damage remains the same. but don’t get too attached. It’s a dangerous world out there.
Morale: Morale rating remains the same. Designer’s Note: Randomizing most of a PC’s traits speeds up character creation, but it
Saves: Since OSR monsters usually don’t come with ability scores, assume that also has the e fect of creating surprising, unique characters that most players wouldn’t
monsters have ability bonuses equal to their level, with the corresponding abil- think to invent or play.
ity defenses. If there is an obvious outlier, note what stat should be called out.
i.e. STR 15/+5, or INT 19/+9
Surprise: Unchanged, but optional
Example: A typical 4 HD monster would have a bonus of +4 and a defense of 14 in all
of its abilities by default, unless modi ied by the referee.
Designer’s Note: Due to the uni ied 1-to-10 scale of Knave, monsters and NPCs essen-
tially add their hit dice or level to any attacks or saves they make. Obviously this
should be adjusted by the referee when it doesn’t make sense.
Generic monsters
For your humanoid enemies, like humans (bandits, pirates, etc.), orcs, elves,
dwarves, goblins, halfling, etc. Choose appropriate values for hit dice, armor
and weapons i.e. HD 1-2 | AC 10-12 | Save 11-12 | Cudgel D6 Blunt. Give
them some flavorful abilities. For example orcs usually show up in large num-
bers e.x. D20+20.
Random Monster Creation
The referee may want to create custom monsters, here is a way to do this. All
of the following are optional, if creativity strikes you go with it first. You will
want to choose a pattern, It can be as simple as rolling on the random creature
table below and assigning it traits you want. It is common to roll a random
spell or spell component (see Random Spell System later on) and combine it
with a random animal roll. You can roll twice on the animal table and combine

24 17
Shield (Defense +1, 1 slot, 400 Poor 10 1. Aggressive 11. Lazy 1. Alchemist 11. Magician
1 quality, 1 hand) Standard 50 2. Arrogant 12. Nervous 2. Beggar 12. Mariner
Helmet (Defense +1, 1 slot, 400 Noble 3,000 3. Bitter 13. Prejudiced 3. Butcher 13. Mercenary
1 quality) 4. Cowardly 14. Reckless 4. Burglar 14. Merchant
Gambeson (Defense 12, 1 slot, 600 Furs 5,000 5. Cruel 15. Rude 5. Charlatan 15. Outlaw
3 quality) Winter 100 6. Deceitful 16. Suspicious 6. Cleric 16. Performer
Brigandine (Defense 13, 5,000 7. Flippant 17. Vain 7. Cook 17. Pickpocket
2 slots, 4 quality) 8. Gluttonous 18. Vengeful 8. Cultist 18. Smuggler
Chain (Defense 14, 3 slots, 12,000 Travel rations (1 day) 10 9. Greedy 19. Wasteful 9. Gambler 19. Student
5 quality) Animal Feed (1 day) 3 10. Irascible 20. Whiny 10. Herbalist 20. Tracker
Half Plate (Defense 15, 4 slots, 40,000
6 quality)
Full Plate (Defense 16, 5 slots, 80,000 Chicken 10
7 quality)
Cloth (Defense 11, 0 Slots 50 Cow 100
1. Blunt 11. Mumbling 1. Abandoned 11. Framed
2 Quality) Dog, hunting 500
2. Booming 12. Precise 2. Addicted 12. Haunted
Dog, small but vicious 200 3. Breathy 13. Quaint 3. Blackmailed 13. Kidnapped
Donkey/Pack Horse 3,000 4. Cryptic 14. Rambling 4. Condemned 14. Mutilated
Sickle, Cudgel, Dagger, etc. 50 Goat 100 5. Drawling 15. Rapid-fire 5. Cursed 15. Poor
(D6 damage, 1 slot, 1 hand,
3 quality) Hawk 10,000 6. Droning 16. Dialect 6. Defrauded 16. Pursued
7. Flowery 17. Slow 7. Demoted 17. Rejected
Spear, Sword, Mace, Ax, 100 Horse, riding 10,000
8. Formal 18. Squeaky 8. Discredited 18. Replaced
Flail, etc. (D8 damage, 2 slots, Horse, war 100,000
1 hand, 3 quality) Ox 3,000 9. Gravelly 19. Stuttering 9. Disowned 19. Robbed
10. Hoarse 20. Whispers 10. Exiled 20. Suspected
Halberd, War Hammer, 200 Pig 300
Long Sword, Battle Ax, etc. Sheep 150
(D10 damage, 3 slots, 2 hands,
3 quality) 1-5: Law 6-15: Neutrality 16-20: Chaos
Great Sword, Great Ax, etc.
(D12 damage, 4 slots,
5,000 Bed, per night 5 Armor
2 hands, 4 quality) Private room, per night 10 A PC may forego armor to gain a random spell object, inform your referee so they
may generate the spell for you.
Sling (D4 damage, 1 slot, 50 Meal 20
1-13: Gambeson (Heavy Cloth or Leather) (12/+2)
1 hand, 2 quality, unlimited Hot bath 10 14-17: Brigandine (Leather + thin steel) (13/+3)
ammo) Stabling and fodder 10 18-19: Chainmail (14/+4)
Bow (D6 damage, 2 slots, 150 20: Half-Plate (15/+5)
2 hands, 3 quality)
War-bow (D8 damage, 2 slots, 350 Ship, high quality 7,200/ton
Ship, good quality 4,800/ton Forgone: Robe, wizard hat, and random spell object (11/+1)
2 hands, 3 quality)
Crossbow (D10 damage, 3 slots, 600 Ship, used quality 2,400/ton
2 hands, 3 quality) Ship, poor quality 1,200/ton
8,000 Raft 500 Only roll on this table if you chose to roll on the armor table.
Heavy crossbow
(D12 damage, 4 slots, 2 hands, Fishing boat 5,000 1-13: None (Hat)
4 quality, reload 1 action) Sloop 50,000 14-16: Helmet (+1 Armor)
17-19: Shield (+1 Armor)
Arrows (20) 50 Caravel 250,000 20: Helmet and Shield
Bolts (10) 300 Galleon 1,250,000
Heavy Bolts (5) 450
Quiver (capacity 20-10-5, 1 Slot) 100
22 19