Knave Houserules

I intended to publish this shortly after Knave's release. Oh well, hopefully it'll be of interest to the growing community.

Houserules covered below the cut:

1. Odds of Success & Vocations
2. Death & Dying
3. Races
4. Backstab / Sneak Attack

The next post will cover Spellcasting and Cantrips. But first, some context.

Knave is a new rules framework (i.e. not a complete game) by Ben Milton. You can check out its product page or his  youtube video explaining some of its features and rationale.

@valzi has an excellent blog post listing various hacks, houserules, and resources he and others have made.

I've written a spreadsheet that randomly generates a 1st-level knave.

I think with some tweaks, Knave has real potential to appeal to people who otherwise wouldn't be into OSR games. Basically, I think a lot of people out there, perhaps introduced to D&D through streaming/podcasts or because friends are playing, are looking for a game that avoids the character build and tactical combat aspects of 5e, but who also want rarer lethality and more frequent spellcasting than the typical BX clone.

Knave could be the foundation for that game. It has enough mechanical similarity with 5e that it's easy to learn, but discards everything that bogs down the game (as judged by dead air on podcasts I listen to). Knave gets rid of, among other things:

• modifiers to damage
• bonus actions
• a skill list
• spell levels not lining up with character levels
• long-winded class abilities and spell descriptions
• any rules distinction between ability checks, attack rolls and saving throws
• proficiency bonus

So below the cut are some ideas to fulfil this design goal.

For now the following calls all d20 rolls "saving throws" in line with Knave regardless of whether they'd be an attack roll, saving throw or ability check in 5e parlance. I would change this for a published standalone product, but for a bunch of houserules I think consistency is important.

1. Odds of Success & Vocations

Earlier iterations of Knave had the standard "easy DC10, medium DC 15, hard DC 20" scale for unopposed saving throws that 5e uses. I assume Ben changed the final release to suit the OSR notion that characters should be played with cunning so that their plans rarely rely on rolls. Well that's fine, but I'm still houseruling the scale back in.

Note that while ability bonuses at 1st level run from +1 to the rare +6, Knave has no proficiency bonus equivalent. So they're in line with 5e's typical starting range of -1 to +4. And a knave who has maxed out Dex at +10 is equivalent to a 13th-level 5e character with 20 Dex rolling for something they're proficient in, or to a 5th-level character with Expertise.

So I don't want to give knaves a proficiency bonus. Instead I'll take a cue from Whitehack and say that each Knave has a starting background or vocation they write next to two of their ability scores. This could be as simple as "Brigand" or "Soothsayer", or something like "Acolyte of Tiamat" or "Former Squire to Sir Adalbert of the Eastwall Duchies".

If you're using optional race rules (see below), they still only get a vocation next to two scores, but the race can be part of their vocation -- "Disgraced Dwarven Palaeontologist", or one score could be racial & the other background, or some other way of mixing the two.

They roll saving throws with advantage if it involves one of those scores and relates to their vocation. Sometimes (not often, DC 15 is already tricky) they may have to roll with disadvantage. How closely it must relate is contextual -- for noncombat uses, be generous, for combat uses, be stricter.

e.g. a former Gladiator might get advantage on Wis tests to tell if an animal is tame/safe to approach, but not on Str tests for every attack. But they do get advantage if attempting a flashy, crowd pleasing combat stunt, while in an arena. An Elven Lordling gets advantage on Int tests to know the history of a recovered elven blade, but might have disadvantage to avoid being goaded into an honour-duel by a hated rival.

2. Death & Dying

I like 5e's death saving throw minigame, it produces some tense moments, particularly if no-one has any magical healing. It just needs some more consequences and be a little harder to win without intervention from others.
Use 5e's rules for dropping to 0 hp, with the following changes:

• Death saving throws are DC 10, or DC 15 on Hard or "meatgrinder" mode. Checks to stabilise are DC 10 by default (even in Hard Mode, otherwise there's little incentive to try and stabilise a fallen ally in the middle of combat). However, the DC to stabilise may vary for certain types of injury, e.g. a wound by a cursed weapon, or a needle smeared with medieval-era poison.
• Ignore the death by massive damage rules. Instant death (neurotoxin found in a crashed spaceship, walking into lava, the moon falling on you) kills you by GM fiat, not by them rolling a ton of d6 and checking the total against your maximum hp.
• Give players lingering injuries based on the number of failed death saves. I prefer determining the injury and its mechanical effect (if any) on-the-fly with player input, over rolling on a random table.
  
  • 0 failed saves: cosmetic & temporary, e.g. black eye, stiff back, sprained ankle
  • 1 failed save: lasts until next adventure, or is cosmetic but permanent, e.g. concussion, cool scar, slashed tendon
  • 2 failed saves: lasts months or is permanent, e.g. lost eye, amputated arm, destroyed balance sense
• An alternative approach: Death saves are DC 10, but failures don't go away once the character is stabilised or brought to positive hp. Failures last until the character is able to rest at a haven between adventures. Hard Mode: still DC 10, but death saves never go away, except possibly via powerful, long-lost magic or as a divine boon. In this mode, each failed save represents a lingering injury that never quite heals. At the GM's discretion, three failed saves may not indicate death, but instead a forced retirement at the end of the current adventure. The character becomes an NPC. Also at the GM's discretion, a character may be brought out of retirement for one last adventure. This is loosely inspired by Robin Hobb's Assassin and Tawny Man series, and may need some playtesting to determine whether 3 failed saves generates the right feel, or whether the number needs changing.

3. Races

Racial ability score modifiers should be limited to a single reroll (made after two ability scores are swapped). Though if you got rid of the ability to swap two scores, you could do something clever like have a race use the median d6, rather than the lowest, to determine a particular bonus.

I'd also let player interest & preconceptions guide what mechanical benefit exists for being a particular race. Or if there's even a desire to give races a benefit at all. Lots of 5e tiefling players never really care about casting hellish rebuke after all, they just want the cute horns and tail.

Some suggested races and a weighted d20 table:

Note: all Small races have two fewer item slots and cannot wield two-handed weapons

1-6.
Human
reroll any one
Pack Rat. You have two additional item slots.

7-8.
Dwarf
reroll Str or Cha
Stonecunning. You auto-sense depth, are entitled to Int saves to spot unusual construction even when not actively looking. This doesn't tell you the purpose of such construction (i.e. trap, secret door, Frank Gehry designed the dungeon...)

9-10.
Elf
reroll Dex or Int
Made of Magic. You have MP equal to your level. Casting spells depletes your MP before giving you Burn (see Spellcasting rules in next post)

11.
Gnome
reroll Con or Int
Small
Woodland Friend. Can speak to small animals and fungi, and understand their replies.

12-13.
Goblin
Small
Iron Stomach. You can eat most organic matter, no matter how spoiled. Excludes extracted/refined poisons.

14-15.
Halfling
reroll Dex or Cha
Small
Lucky. Reroll any natural 1 on a saving throw.
Second Breakfast. You need two rations per day.

16-17.
Orc
reroll Str or Con
Relentless. 1/rest can drop to 1 hp instead of 0.

18-19.
Rabbitfolk
reroll Dex or Wis
Small
Keen Smell. can smell things from 40 ft away, or further if they're particularly pungent. Can generally tell direction of smells.

20.
Selkie
reroll Con or Cha
Sealskin. Occupies one item slot, can be used to turn into a seal. Discuss with your players what happens (if anything) if someone steals the sealskin.

4. Backstab / Sneak Attack

One of the Knave playtests specifically said any knave could attempt a backstab. That snippet's gone, but I'd argue is still implicit in the following sentence from the Combat rules, "A bonus damage die of the weapon’s type may be added to the roll if the ideal weapon was used against an enemy type (for example, using a blunt weapon vs. a skeleton)."

So to attempt a backstab, a knave must devote an equipment slot to an appropriate weapon, e.g. a dagger, sap, stiletto, garotting wire, etc.

If the attack hits and the target has fewer Hit Dice than the knave's level, they're killed instantly. If the target has at least as many Hit Dice, the backstab deals two extra damage dice (not just one). Otherwise there's not enough incentive for attempting a backstab over attacking normally with a bigger weapon.

Some monsters, like a gelatinous cube, have homogeneous anatomy and are immune to backstabs. If the monster merely has freaky anatomy, the GM could call for an Intelligence save to identify weak points, or simply require the player to narrate what part they're attacking, and adjudicate appropriately until the players figure out where the monster is vulnerable.