Intangible Resources, a houserule for Knave

This is adapted from Throne of Salt's rules for Backgrounds. It's written for Knave, but is easily applicable for D&D.

A knave might have knowledge or social standing that they accrued before they join the campaign. These rules are intended for open-world, sandbox game with significant time spent in settlements. But in the event your dungeoncrawl one-shot spins off into a longer campaign, you can always go back and generate these resources for whichever knaves survive.

Generating a Knave's Resources

1. Add together your knave's Int, Wis, and Cha bonuses.

2. Roll that many d6. For every natural 1, put a point in Authority. For every natural 2, put a point in Renown, and so on.

3. Further increases or losses will come about as appropriate during gameplay.

Resource Roll Table

Die Result	Resource Type
1.	Authority - Influence within regions/social spheres where you have political power. May let you requisition resources, get better treatment from officials, etc.
2.	Reputation - As Authority, but where you don't have direct political power.
3.	Languages - Can you communicate with the goblins without resorting to pantomime? Can you decipher the ancient scroll? Can you understand the metaphor behind the sphinx's literary references?
4.	Secrets - Knowing the truth behind the curtain.
5.	Lore - Knowing the location of a forgotten temple, the properties of a legendary magic item.
6.	Divine Favour - Are you in good stead with the gods? Will they pull your arse out of the fire when your plan goes to shit?

e.g. Susan rolls up a new knave, getting Int +1, Wis +2, Cha +1. She then rolls four d6, and gets 1, 1, 6, 1. She notes an Authority score of 3, and a Divine Favour score of 1.

Susan decides her knave is the bastard daughter of the local lord. She cannot inherit title (hence turning to adventuring) but has almost as much social standing as a trueborn daughter would. She prays regularly but isn't particularly pious.

Using Resources

Some possibilities:

1. Roll-Under for Success. Roll a d6 when you want to draw on a resource. A roll equal or below your rating is a success.

2. Burn a Point for Success. You cannot roll, the only way to draw on these resources is to permanently cross off a point.

3. Burn a Point for Advantage. Permanently cross off a point to gain advantage on an ability score roll. You can retroactively use this on a roll you have failed.

4. Roll Under or Burn. Roll a d6, as with variant 1. If the roll fails, you may decide to succeed anyway by burning a point, as with variant 2.

The referee should decide on one of the above variants, or mix and match depending on situation and the risks/rewards.

e.g. you might decide that "the cheesemonger is having an affair with the town priest" is a pretty mundane secret, knowable with a d6-roll-under against Secrets. The True Name of a vengeful river spirit is a much more valuable secret that may require burning a point.

Consider:

• How long is this planned campaign? If it's only a few sessions, then perma-burning points may not be a meaningful resource.
• Are the players comfortable with the added complexity of remembering that ability score rolls are roll-high on d20 while want a high roll on a d20 while resource rolls are roll-low on d6?
• How often do you want players to solve problems with resources, compared with equipment or spells? Variant 4 is relatively powerful, and shifts the game to be more about managing social connections.
• How cool are you with a character who rolls a lot of one Resource effectively having a monopoly on that roll until they die or do something within the game fiction that reduces it? Requiring characters to burn Resource points is more likely to let everyone contribute.
• Depleting Resources eventually means characters will need to adventure specifically to regain social capital.

Note that adding Resources to the game should never take away the ability of any knave to bribe the town guards, find information in a library, or any other action resolvable with an ability score roll. Ability scores are, after all, king.