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...

Deer Bust Pyramid   by Fenn Schroder Second installment random monsters made by me taking the robust random monster generator from the rpg Maze Rats , roll some up, and stat them for Knave . Monstrosity ensues. Check out the first batch o' beasties here .  Fungctopus  HD 2, AD12, M 6,  smash  1d6 Sentient fungus that usually sport eight-stalks covered in hardened spikes with a variety of muted colors. Above-ground, they look like a cluster of tentacles a few feet a part, but they are all connected to a central body just a foot under the dirt.  Sporespike Shower  - An explosive expulsion of sporespikes shower the area within a medium range, dealing 1d6+1 damage. Creatures hit must succeed a Constitution save, or grow 1d3 fungtopi from the wound 1d6 days later.  WormWood Butterfly HD 3, AD14, M 8, claws  1d3 Clawed, glowing, swarming butterflies that are both poisonous and highly hallucinogenic. Decaying Bite  - La...

An aromatic mix of finely ground tables featuring magically-adjacent items for all flavors of D&D, Knave, or your favorite OSR blend. All of these take up 1 Inventory Slot unless otherwise specified. You can find more fun items here . Books (one use per day) 1.  Book of Cranes . Tear out a sheet and make a Wisdom save. On a success, after 10 minutes you make an animated crane that fits in the palm of your hand and obeys your command. On a 1, the book loses its magic. 2.  Everscroll . It can roll out up to 1d6 pages of blank paper. 3.  Invisible Ink . Ink that can only be seen with red light. 4.  Magic Quill . Name someone and write a message on paper, parchment, or an otherwise dry surface. Only they can read it. 5.  Sheet of Immovable Parchment. Becomes magically fixed in place upon reading the words written on it out loud. Can hold up to 100 lbs. Reading it out loud returns it to normal. The parchment loses its magic if damaged in any w...

Although these tables were written with for  Knave , they are pretty much OSR compatible. Well, probably compatible with your preferred rules system too. It's not that deep. I just really love the idea of character specialization being done through their equipment and limited inventory space as opposed to special abilities gained upon levelling. I haven't played many role playing games that adopt that kind of advancement, but the one's I have (like Knave ) have been particularly fun.  More General Gear 1. Abacus 2. Bag of Flour ( 2 slots) 3. Ball Bearings 4. Basket 5. Bell 6. Block of Clay 7. Canteen 8. Catnip 9. Chest (2 slots) 10. Empty Pouches (3) 11. Flask 12. Flint & Steel 13. Handkerchief 14. Hourglass 15. Jar of Wax 16. Parchment / Paper (10) 17. Pitons 18. Set of Fancy Clothes 19. Set of Plain Clothes 20. Sledge hammer Martial Equipment 1. Knuckledusters . Brass or iron. Worn on hands 2. ...

Where I take the amazingly robust random monster generator from the rpg Maze Rats, roll up some keywords, and stat them for Knave. Monstrosity ensues. Throne Moth  HD 6, AD16, M 6,  bite  2d6 Six-winged behemoths that grow to the size of a small elephant. They can be found on the underside of the floating isles, and only fly near the ground during feeding season. They are so named due to the hardened cocoon they leave behind after its transformation that often bears a striking resemblance to a large and ornate chair or throne. Aggressive Camouflage  - When threatened, it extends its massive wings and rhythmically pulses and twitches in an effort to imitate the infamous six-eyed Vaz-Demon. Beacon Newts  HD 1, AD11, M 9,  bite  1d4-2 Salamanders that come in a variety of vibrant oranges and reds and grow to the size of an ordinary housecat. Harmless, for the most part, they sometimes dig up nega-crystals in search for food along the Malar...

Knave is a rules-lite tabletop rpg written by Ben Milton of Questing Beast  (and available here ). It's OSR compatible, incredibly easy to teach, and even easier to run. Between reading its seven-page rulebook, and rolling characters, you and your players will be dungeoneering and adventuring within minutes. For starters, it's a fairly standard d20+mod roll-over system (as in, roll higher than a target number). If you're experienced with Dungeons & Dragons 5e or Pathfinder , more than anything you're going to be spending more time unlearning  things than having to learn anything new. What I loved For being so lightweight, it's actually pretty hard to pick a feature that I love the most. Every mechanic and rule within the book has purpose and weight, and is balanced well within the system. Things just make sense. Each of its six traditional ability scores (Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma) share equal importance so there...

Knave is a great chassis of an rpg for modding and hacking, and it seems that the first thing that most game designers see is a need for class customization in an otherwise classless system. I'm no different. Here's a stab in the dark at trying to add a little more character customization. Knacks As characters level, they reveal themselves to either have obtained or show a natural knack for different aspects of dungeoneering. At levels 3, 6, and 9, instead of increasing three abilities by one point, they increase a single ability by one point and roll on one of the following tables. (I guess your players can pick one if they want, but rolling is usually more fun, and that's what matters).  Fighting       +1 boon on attack rolls        +1 boon on stunts        Deal damage equal to your Strength on a successful stunt       Ignore losing 1 point of quality on armor or extra damage when an attacker r...