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Knaves, fancypants

I've prepared a new layout document of Ben Milton's Knaves.

Knaves is a great, light rules set that has an extremely elegant core mechanic while retaining total compatibility with OSR material. It's pretty much the rpg of my dreams.

This document contains the complete rules, plus a bunch of useful hacks from the community, plus a few of my invention, plus some useful resources from Ben Milton's previous effort, Maze Rats.


EDIT: I've updated the layout to fix errata and make a few tweaks. Further, I've made 3 variations:

 KNAVES TABLET LAYOUT
The Tablet Layout is meant for scrolling on screens, and contains hyperlinks.

 KNAVES SPREAD LAYOUT
The Spread Layout is set up to print on Letter-sized paper.

 KNAVES A4 LAYOUT
The A4 Layout is set up to print on A4 paper, and is probably the most elegant of the three versions.


This is presented with generous permission from Ben Milton, and should in no way be an excuse for not purchasing a copy of Knave from Drive-Thru RPG. It's inexpensive, and deserves your support. Also, Ben's layout is 100% more efficient to print out for reference at the table.

Let me know if you see any mistakes or areas for improvement!

Knave at Drive-Thru RPG
Ben Milton's Blog

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Comments

  1. SolOSRMay 1, 2019 at 5:22 PM

    This is great. The only room for improvement I can think of adding would be a longer bestiary (with random encounter tables) and a treasure table using the copper standard. I don't know what else I would need that's not already in this book. Thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  2. LindenJuly 21, 2020 at 2:46 PM

    I really like this layout. I am a big believer in taking RPG material and making it your own—both content-wise and layout. Layout is so important for how a game plays at the table.

    I have also made a one-page hack of Knave and Maze Rats which can be found on my blog below

    https://lapidaryossuary.blogspot.com/2020/07/knave-rats-my-one-page-hack-of-ben.html

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. PulpatoonerJuly 22, 2020 at 3:46 PM

      Linden, thanks for the link! I like your one-pager!

      Delete
  3. Adrian HammerNovember 10, 2020 at 10:34 AM

    May I ask how you did the layout for this? I really really like the format of the design commentary as a sidebar, and the examples having pictures for the dice size.
    Not sure why I missed this work of yours...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. PulpatoonerJanuary 11, 2021 at 4:30 PM

      Thanks! I laid this out in InDesign. I made the dice in Illustrator. The big advance in my rudimentary layout skills for this document was making use of a baseline grid, which really helped the body text and the sidebars look cohesive.

      Delete
  4. Matt HelpsMarch 14, 2021 at 11:37 AM

    awesome document. Although can hardly read most of the text especially the side bars. Any chance you can make a pdf that has bolder text? cheers.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. PulpatoonerMay 6, 2021 at 8:35 AM

      My thinking was that people could zoom in on the pdfs, but as my aging eyes are sympathetic to the desire for larger text. Maybe I'll get a chance to make a for-the-olds version this summer.

      Delete
  5. UnknownJune 3, 2021 at 11:46 AM

    You've done a wonderful thing here. Thank you :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. xarop_pa_tossJune 11, 2021 at 2:29 PM

    Hey, I love the layout you did for Knave and I'm really interested in using this at the table, however it's a nightmare to print in booklet format...

    It looks great in the PDFs and I haven't tried full A4 size (too big to have multiple copies at the table), but when trying to print in a booklet format on a laser printer, the sidebar text becomes basically unreadable and the main text is very hard to make out. I've tried bumping it to 1200dpi but no luck.

    Have you successfully printed it in booklet format?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. PulpatoonerMay 5, 2023 at 8:33 PM

      Thanks for the comment, and apologies for the printing issues! I've only used it as a pdf, myself.

      Delete
  7. Jill_JoMarch 19, 2023 at 8:32 AM

    Really like these optional rules. When can we get larger text or A5 booklet version?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Jill_JoMarch 19, 2023 at 8:34 AM

      Almost can't read those small sidebar kind frustrating

      Delete
    2. PulpatoonerMay 5, 2023 at 8:36 PM

      Yeah, other commenters have mentioned their frustration with the sidebar text. Given that Ben Milton is currently kickstarting the second edition of Knave, I don't expect to revisit this project, but I'm curious to see if he has integrated any of these optional rules (many of which come from his own products) into the new version.

      https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/questingbeast/knave-rpg-second-edition?ref=user_menu

      Delete

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