Laughing Leviathan

Please don't actually burn any books. It's just a dumb metaphor. So What Is This About? For awhile now, I wanted to alter how I run both magic and magic items in Knave. I love the level-less spells. I love that they take up an inventory slot via a spellbook. However, as much as I love the trope, I wasn't in love with the idea of magic being restricted to the bookworm archetype who is forever bound by the weight of having to lug around an entire knapsack worth of books (I mean come on, that is pretty awesome). So, as a quick fix, and to open up magic spells so that any young adventurer can get their hands on them, as dangerous as that may be, I've done a little ritual of my own and conjured up this button:   Generate Magic Item Items in the Future This is just the first iteration of my magic item button. Hopefully, when I finish my  Squirepunk    full Knave hack in the future, I'll have an even shinier button to present with that. For this versi...

The Mighty Level XP HD AV* ST Slots Groups Raises 1 0 1+2 11 5 1 2 - 2 2,000 2 11 6 1 2 1 3 4,000 3 12 7 1 2 1 4 8,000 4 13 8 2 3 2 5 16,000 5 13 9 2 3 2 6 32,000 6 14 10 2 3 3 7 64,000 7 15 11 3 4 3 8 128,000 8 15 12 3 4 4 9 256,000 9 16 13 3 4 4 10   512,000 10 17 14 4 5 5  Might characters rely on their melee combat skills and heroic strength. They can for example be warriors, guards, brigands, knights, bounty hunters, or barbarians. Whenever their attack puts an enemy at zero or negative hit points, they may use the momentum of that action to attack another, adjacent enemy. This requires a separate roll.     Mighty characters may use the same combat options as everyone else, but they also have slots for unique and powerful combat techniques or fighting styles called...

I love mini-games.  You can play them in real life, you can inject them into taverns and pubs in your game, and they can serve as a nice change of pace between haggling with Kings and slaying Dragons (or slaying Kings and haggling with Dragons, depending on how your campaign is going). Here's three for you to steal and play with in-game or out. I've used these in pub settings, for carousing during downtime, or even for the BBEG to wager the macguffin against the PC's souls.  King's Keep A deception / gambling game in the same vein as Liar’s Dice or Pirate’s Dice.  Setup : Both players have a cup and four dice (4d6).  Gameplay : Play begins when both players secretly roll three of their dice (3d6) via the cup. After seeing what they rolled in secret, both players roll the fourth dice (1d6) out in the open. Then, on a count to three, both players simultaneously do one of the following:  Yell “Keep" and keep the dice that was publicly rolled.  Yell ...

Living Armor Level XP HD AV* ST Slots Groups Raises 1 0 1+2 11 5 1 2 - 2 2,000 2 11 6 1 2 1 3 4,000 3 12 7 1 2 1 4 8,000 4 13 8 2 3 2 5 16,000 5 13 9 2 3 2 6 32,000 6 14 10 2 3 3 7 64,000 7 15 11 3 4 3 8 128,000 8 15 12 3 4 4 9 256,000 9 16 13 3 4 4 10   512,000 10 17 14 4 5 5 A Living Armor is a full set of plate armor that has had a human spirit magically bound to it through powerful eldritch means, leaving the lifeless flesh behind. The Living Armor is held together through magical tethers that blend both arcane magicks and the lifeforce of its host. Although empty, their helmets emit a light where eyes wou...

Being trapped in a magical forest that wants to eat or enslave you until you love it has never been so fun! I am pleased to announce that I'm finally releasing this little adventure out into the wild on  Drivethrurpg  and  Itch.io . I'm not DONE -done with it, and will still probably make edits and updates and additions in the future, but it's finally at a point where I want to share it with everyone else.  The adventure started out as something I was calling a decadungeon : a twelve-sided 3d map, so that the actual forest itself was a non-euclidean space that connected various locations together in a non-linear fashion. You can get the rough drafts of the maps here. Over the course of writing, and after a few playtests, I realized as novel as it looked and sounded, it didn't really help make the adventure more fun to play, and in the end that's really all that matters to me. I'll definitely use that for a future adventure though, so don't fre...

The Marked Level XP HD AV* ST Slots Groups Raises 1 0 1+1 10 6 1 2 - 2 2,000 2 10 7 1 2 1 3 4,000 2+1 11 8 2 2 1 4 8,000 3 11 9 2 3 2 5 16,000 4 11 10 2 3 2 6 32,000 4+1 12 11 3 3 3 7 64,000 5 12 12 3 4 3 8 128,000 6 13 13 3 4 4 9 256,000 6+1 13 14 4 4 4 10   512,000 7 13 15 4 5 5 Marked characters share a special relationship or bond with either a Patron : a higher power, deity ,  or mysterious supernatural force far beyond their grasp. Sometimes they undertake these bonds willingly, while others fall into these connections through less than blessed means. They have received some type of gift or curse from a being many magnitudes more powerful than themselves. In addition to choosing a vocation, the Marked chooses what higher power they have a relationship with, and each day ...