Knave and Kin (aka Races/Ancestry/Species)

The school year is starting up, and the "D&D" group at the town library has grown past my ability to run it solo. Unfortunately, our library in the year of our Lord 2024 can't do what my childhood library did in 1983 and just set aside two tables in the children's area every Saturday from when they opened until 1:00 for we little chaos goblins to do what we wanted with the funny dice: there needs to be an adult involved, preferably running the game, so that parents can feel reassured that their little chaos goblins are being supervised and the library can track their usage metrics. 

Fortunately, another grown up has stepped up and is willing to run. With 17-20 kids on the contact list, we're dividing it up so each grown up (and I use that term in the loosest, most biological sense) is running 2 games, alternating weeks. I'm continuing my 13th Age game for one, and for the other, I'm introducing Knave. Ben Milton explained that he designed the game for 5th graders to immediately start playing, and while I am running for rising 7th graders and up there have been kids who had consistent problems with their character's mechanics and crunchy bits: a problem Knave solves by not having any. 

But Knave is also designed for easy modification, and while the game itself is classless and raceless, I figure there's a good chance kids will ask about playing elves and dwarves and so on. I could go into a long discussion of the humanocentric nature of the pulp fantasy stories that inspired the earliest versions of D&D, but... naah. Give the kids what they want (this is why I have a Centaur Fighter/Wizard in my 13th Age game and one PC being the wizards cat familiar in my D&D B/X game). 

So here is what I have wacked together for Kin. Why 'Kin'? Because I'm willing to entertain the complaints against 'race', despite being an old white guy myself, but I really don't care for 'species' as it sounds too scientific to my ears. Is that perhaps a Tiffany Problem when it comes to language? Perhaps. But Kin feels right, so I'm running with it. Here's the two pager I put together for this. 

(and are all my rules mods written on landscape paper with four columns designed to be folded into a digest sized book? Do you even have to ask?)

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Kin Basics in Knave

Being an ultralight, classless OSR design, Knave does not have default kin. However, I know my young players are likely to ask for something, given how integral it is to the concept of contemporary D&D. To accommodate this, I have developed the following rules for playing non-human PCs.

Abilities: Kin may have ability penalties or ability minimums. Ability penalties make it possible to start play with a negative ability, applied in the same cases as a positive score; negative CON reduces items slots and wounds before death. An ability minimum means you must dedicate 1-3 starting points to that ability to play this kinfolk.

Kin Enemies and Allies: Most non-humans have kin enemies. Entire parties of that kin make reaction rolls (p. 19) with that enemy with 2d4. When not all of the party is that kin, reaction rolls are made with 1d6+1d4. Some kinfolk have allies for whom reactions are naturally positive. Any parties where some member has a kin ally rolls 1d6+1d8 for reactions. Treat results of 12+ as 12. Otherwise, this is an advantage or disadvantages on social tests.

Senses: Many Kinfolk have minor sensory advantages over humans. This is never darkvision but may include low-light vision, that doubles the visible radius of candlelight. Otherwise, senses are treated as an advantage on a check involving the sense. (Hearing is the sense used in surprise tests p. 19)

Size: Kin may be small or, rarely, large. If not listed, they’re Medium, encompassing everything from dwarf to just under ogre sized. (Andre the Giant was large; Arnold Schwarzenegger? Medium.) GMs will adjudicate non-standard sizes as an advantage or disadvantage as circumstances require. In general, size will apply to stealth, hiding, fitting through small spaces, and for feats of general strength where mass and leverage can be brought into play. (Size lets kin with a minimum of ability changes.)

Combat: My ruling is unarmed melee does 1d4-2 damage (0-2 pts). Some kinfolk have natural weapons that do 1d4 damage unarmed. It is not possible to power attack with natural weapons. No kin gain bonuses to hit in combat (that is covered by minimum STR/WIS).

Careers: Some Kinfolk replace one of their careers with a kin-career, which will provide 3 pieces of starting equipment and advantage on checks for things associated with their kinfolk’s culture.

Magic: Kin that tend to magic use have a minimum INT and use spellbooks as per normal. Some races have an inherent ability to create magic. This is treated as having a permanent Chaos Spellbook (p21) and is always paired with a negative CON, so the lost equipment slot balances the effect of having an extra spell per day that can’t be lost to wounds. Roll 1d6 for spell formula (p. 27) so wizard names aren’t involved.)

Blessings: Some kin are culturally tightly tied with the divinity of their people. Such kinfolk always have an ability minimum of CHA 1, and the player may decide at the start of play if their character is in favor or disfavor with their kinfolk divinity. Being in favor means they begin play with a blessing but need to align themselves with their patron’s goals to keep it. Being in disfavor means that the PC not only loses the blessing, their kin become a Kin Enemy until they are back in their patron’s favor. (p. 32)

Humans: Humans have any additional advantages, but they also do not have any disadvantages. In the original versions of the game was based on the idea of worlds where humans were ascendant or dominant, with social and level restrictions to enforce human primacy. It’s up to the GM how humans interact with other kin.

Dwarves

Short of stature but broadly built, their society is at least partially subterranean with a focus on mining and craftsmanship. They fought ancient wars with goblins and kobolds for resources underground.

Hill Dwarf: spending as much time above ground as under it, these are cosmopolitan and versatile dwarves. Kin Enemies: Goblins, Kobolds; Senses: low-light vision; Careers: pick Miner or a craft career.

Mountain Dwarf: living almost entirely underground, where war against the goblins and kobolds is constant, these dwarves have a strong common guild culture Abilities: minimum STR 1; Kin Enemies: Goblins, Kobolds; Senses: low light vision; Careers: Dwarf (pickaxe, lantern, carving kit)

Deep Dwarves: abiding deep in the earth, they survive on their faith and their clan ties Abilities: Minimum STR 1, CHA 1; Kin Enemies: Goblins, Kobolds; Senses: low-light vision; Careers: Deep Dwarf (pickaxe, religious tract, clan amulet); Blessings: Mordin, god of Gold and Survival (can always retrace steps even in total dark, as long as they’re good with Mordin).

Elves

Long lived, slender of form, possessed of keen eyesight and a gift for magic, elves are one of the last ancient races, with a deep, and mutual hatred of orcs.

Wood Elf: living in deep forests, they are exceptional hunters Abilities: Minimum INT 1, WIS 1; Kin Enemies: orcs, dark elves; Senses: keen vision; Careers: select hunter or some other woods-based career.

High Elf: having dedicated ages to the study, these elves are inherently magical and broadly experienced. Abilities: Minimum INT 1; Penalty CON -1, Kin Enemies: orcs, dark elves; Magic: one Chaotic spell

Dark Elves: Living in the spaces underground, they are a cult for a demon goddess Abilities: Minimum WIS 1; Kin Enemies: other elves, deep dwarves; Senses: low-light vision; Careers: Drow (spider amulet, 50’ rope, lantern); Blessings: Lolth demon queen of spiders and mazes (advantage on climbing and rope use while they are good with Lolth).

Little Folk

Not so much a race as a category of fair folk that can be found in pockets around the world, secretive and shy, and possessed of their own enemies.

Halflings: short, stout, agrarians for whom anything seldom happens until everything happens Abilities: minimum DEX 1, Size: Small

Gnomes: an offshoot of dwarves who have the innate magic of elves Abilities: Penalty CON -1; Kin Enemies: kobolds; Senses: low-light vision; Size: Small; Combat: none; Careers: tinkerer (magnifying glass, tweezers, gears); Magic: one Chaos spell, always illusionary.

Surrah: cat people who are loathed by other magical animals. Abilities: None; Kin Enemies: magical animals; Senses: keen hearing; Size: Small; Combat: claws and bite do 1d4; Careers: cat (ball of string, several dead mice, catnip);

Nature Spirits

Not so much the embodiments of the natural world as the things that routinely dwell in it, these entities combine magic and the outdoors in impressive ways

Centaurs: Half human, half horse, have wild, half wise. Abilities: Minimum CON 2; Size: Large; Combat: 1d4 hooves

Satyrs: half man/half goat nature spirits, musical revelers Abilities: Minimum CHA 1 Penalty CON-1; Careers: Musician (pipes, paper, pen and ink); Magic: one Chaotic spell

Dryad: women born of trees, they go on walkabout before laying down roots Abilities: Minimum CHA 1, Penalty CON-1; Kin Enemies: spirits of other groves, Senses: sense plants; Careers: herbalist (herbs, sickle, herb manual) Blessings: the spirit of the groves (can disappear into trees/travel through when in their own or neutral groves).

Merfolk: with the blessings of their god they can walk among us for a time Abilities: Minimum CHA 1; Kin Enemies: elemental spirits, Blessings: the god of the rivers (become half fish when wet).