The Knave's Life

You are a knave: a tomb-raiding, adventure-seeking ne'er-do-well with no class, no calling, and no better options. Nobody trained you for this. Nothing was promised to you. What you have is what you carry — a blade, a coil of rope, maybe a spellbook lifted from a dead wizard — and what you carry is exactly who you are.

Knave has no character classes. Fill your pack with spellbooks and you are the party's wizard, at least until the books run dry. Trade them for a mace and a shield and you are the front line. Your role at the table is a decision you re-make every time you pack your bag.

How a session runs

The referee describes where you are, plainly and honestly. You ask questions. You say what your knave does. Most of the time that is the whole game — no dice at all. Dice come out only when the outcome is uncertain and failure has consequences, and every d20 roll in the game works the same way: d20 plus one of six ability bonuses.

Danger is telegraphed, never sprung. If the referee mentions that the floor ahead is suspiciously clean, believe them. A clever plan that avoids rolling entirely is not cheating — it is the best move available, and this referee rewards it.

What to expect

• It is lethal. You start with 1d8 hit points. At −1 you are dead, and the remedy is rolling a fresh level 1 knave and rejoining the party as soon as possible. Caution, hirelings, and a good ten-foot pole will keep you alive longer than any character build ever could.
• Everything ticks down. Torches burn out, rations run out, each spellbook works once a day, and even your armor grinds away under critical hits. Managing that slow decay is the game.
• The world runs on copper. Every price is in copper pennies, at roughly honest medieval rates: a torch costs 1, a reading book costs 600, and a suit of full plate costs a small fortune. Treasure is the point of the expedition.

Where things live

The complete rules — including the designer's own notes on why each rule works the way it does — sit in the Rules folder, starting with @Missing file. During play, keep the @Missing file at your elbow: it is the entire game across five tabs. Character creation takes about five minutes, and it is next.