Survival and Advancement
Between fights, Knave is a game about clocks. Every one of them ticks in your disfavor.
Light, food, and sleep
- A torch burns for one hour; a candle or a flask of lamp oil burns for four. Darkness underground is not an inconvenience — it is how knaves die.
- Rations: one per day, each. A camp with no meal heals nobody.
- After a meal and a full night's rest, you recover 1d8 + Constitution bonus HP. Resting at a safe haven — a real bed behind a real wall — restores all of it. Details in @Missing file.
Hirelings
You may employ hirelings up to your Charisma bonus, paid by the day. They make morale rolls (2d6 against their morale rating) when they go unpaid, face extraordinary danger, or watch their employer die. Pay well and treat them better: a loyal torchbearer is worth more than a fourth spellbook.
Talking and running
Not everything in the dark wants you dead. When a reaction isn't obvious, the referee rolls 2d6 on @Missing file — from Hostile through Unsure to Helpful. Monsters check morale too: break half their number, drop their leader, or bloody a lone creature to half its HP, and the referee rolls to see whether they flee or parley. Fights in Knave end before extermination more often than not — in both directions.
Experience
You gain a level at every 1000 XP. As a guideline: 50 XP for low-risk accomplishments, 100 for moderate, 200 for high-risk work. The referee will tell you what a job is worth — genuinely, just ask. The rule, and the designer's alternatives, are in @Missing file.
Leveling up
When you gain a level:
- Roll a number of d8s equal to your new level. That is your new maximum HP — and if it comes out lower than your old maximum, take your old maximum +1 instead.
- Raise three different abilities by 1 point each, bonus and defense together.
Abilities cap at 20 defense / +10 bonus, and the climb runs about ten levels. There is no class feature waiting for you at any of them. There is only more of what you already are — and more room in the pack for what you want to become.