KNAVE 2nd Edition 👀 RPG Preview

It’s killing it because the creator is deeply into rule books and like to simplify things for the greater good

I like to expand spellcasting in Knave slightly by giving characters a "mental inventory". (This is for Knave 1e so I need to change it for 2e's weird attribute stats.) Your have INT / 2 mental inventory slots. Important knowledge goes here. Mundane ideas like passwords, new languages, the names of important NPCs, etc. can eventually be committed to long-term memory, letting you clear them out of your mental inventory while still remembering them. (Stuff like languages or trade knowledge from character creation is already long-term memory.) Supernatural ideas like the name of a demon, the visage of an eldritch horror, or spells cannot be committed to long-term memory, they must sit in your mental inventory for you to remember them. They actually take time to *forget*. You can achieve blissful forgetfulness faster with nights of revelry. Spells in your mental inventory may be cast once per day. This achieves a few things: - Being a "wizard" who memorizes many spells requires a lot of INT as you'd expect. Even then, filling your brain up with spells leaves you addled and unstable. - It doubles as a sanity system, because some things characters don't want to know can be forcefully stuck in there by the GM. - Each party member needs to be selective about what their character remembers, which naturally makes note-taking a party-wide responsibility without being obnoxious. - Characters can train with NPCs to learn how to do neat stuff.

Knave 1st ed is well worth checking out. 7 pages of supremely streamlined awesomeness.

Been a long since I've stopped by... great video. I know that 5e is your bread & butter, but I'd love to watch more non 5e content from you. Take care and have a great day.

Currently running a Knave 1e/ICRPG/homebrew West Marches campaign and can confirm, Knave has made fantasy RPGs so simple and fun to run again.

While I understand feeling like there's not enough monsters, there's an interesting idea in the OSR space: Orcs vs. The Orc. Orcs are faceless boring green dudes. The Orc that's been attacking random passersby on the roads, looking for a good death? The one who The Kobolds know about because he's always got new shinies to steal? At least a little more interesting. Some GMs don't use a monster more than once.

I really appreciate this overview. Very well put together!

Glad to see the Knave 2e Kickstarter killing it, well deserved for everything Ben has done for old-school gaming.

I already ordered my Knave 2e, as a fan of Maze Rats and the OG Knave, can't wait! Thanks for the sneak peak!

I really can get behind item slots. It transforms the inventory from credits and debits or from being completely ignored to a strategic/story element. It's like going Final Fantasy inventory to Diablo 2.

This looks extremely old school. Especially a knight on a snail that answers questions 😂

I used to think OSR games like Knave were not for me. Then I gave it a shot, running a one-shot game (OSR is amazing for one-shots because of the 5 minute character creation) and never looked back. Knave is definitely one of my favorite systems in the genre.

Knave is so rad! I appreciate your checking it out. Knave and Cairn are both flipping cool. And they're super easy to use, especially in the OSR lane. Got a first time player with our group tomorrow and it's got to be Knave!

Another great system is Cairn. A 2nd edition is under development as well and it is totally free!

Nate, you gotta try an old school game with Gold for XP sometime! I played D&D for 20 years mainly getting XP for killing monsters (we became murderhobos), session (motivation lagged), or milestone (game revolved around guessing what the DM wanted us to do). Don't get me wrong, all of those games were fun, but recently I tried an OSR game with Gold for XP and having the incentive on getting the loot and getting out is awesome. Sometimes fighting is the best way to get the loot, but sometimes its the Worst Way! Take that 2hp wretch for a spin, I bet you'll find some creative uses for your letter of passage or that slab of bacon!

Thanks for covering this! Excited about the bundled materials being bundled with it - I'd been planning to get them on DriveThru RPG, but now I'm interested picking them up with the print version is Knave 2e.

Bought it! Love the original, can't wait to use the new version in my gameplay!

I'm really excited for this game. Something where I and the players can create a world from nothing with the tables. I plan on starting out in a small settlement and shaping who they are and the world as they slowly venture outside its walls.

Glad to see you were willing to call out the caveats about potential issues for beginners. I was wondering if this could be a good system to introduce players who are intimidated by the complexity of 5e. Speaking of avoiding intimidation, please keep up the non-Hasbro content to support indie creators. I bet you'll have something great for RPG Independence Month in July!

I just starting to get into dnd with a group of friends and your videos are the best I’ve seen your really helpful and walk us through things so thank you