Weapon Mastery for Knave 2e

Because I know you miss damage bonuses

I’ve been inspired by the Knavelands blog (https://substack.com/@johnctompkins) to start posting ideas I have for different game mechanic ideas for Knave 2e here. Knave 2e is a really cool game book that I wish had more fan discussion, so I guess I’ll be the change I want to see in the world.

Below is a system that allows PCs to increase the damage of their attacks to make their damage output slightly more similar to OSE and B/X style games.

WEAPON MASTERY

PCs have a number of weapon mastery points equal to their STR score. For each point of weapon mastery that a weapon type has, the damage of the weapon type improves its damage die by one step higher based on the dice progression below:

d2 < d4 < d6 < d8 < d10 < d12

LIMIT: Each weapon type may only have two weapon mastery points assigned to it.

BASE WEAPON DAMAGE: The base damage level for each of the five weapon types is listed below:

· Unarmed: d2

· Melee Weapon, One-Handed: d6

· Melee Weapon, Two-Handed: d8

· Missile Weapon, One-Handed: d4

· Missile Weapon, Two-Handed: d6

Example: A PC with 3 STR has three weapon mastery points. This PC assigns two weapon mastery points to the Missile Weapon, Two-Handed weapon type and one point to the Unarmed weapon type. This PC now does d10 damage with their two-handed missile weapons and d4 damage with unarmed attacks. The PC uses the base weapon damage dice for all other weapon types as listed above.

TRAINING (Optional): PCs do not automatically assign weapon mastery points gained after PC creation. Assigning a weapon mastery point to a weapon type after PC creation requires 1 month and a trainer (1000c). If no trainer is hired, the cost is only 250c (materials are needed to practice on) but the time needed is doubled.

Designer’s Commentary: The name and some aspects of this system (assigning points to weapons and their damage increasing) are inspired by the mechanic of the same name from the D&D Master’s Set and Rules Cyclopedia. Thankfully the maneuvers mechanic of Knave 2e’s combat system handles all the other fiddly bits that the Rules Cyclopedia’s weapon mastery system also includes (no disrespect intended!)

You may notice that a PC with STR 10 will eventually “max out” all of their weapon’s damage dice. I figure this is a feature, not a bug - STR is “The Fighter Ability” in Knave 2e, after all.

Letting PCs choose how they want to assign these points also allows PC’s who don’t max out their STR to still specialize their PC’s a bit with what weapons they prefer to use. Allowing the increasing of unarmed damage also allows for the existence of a sort of Monk-style character.

This rule might not be to your taste if you want to really dissuade combat, but for games where you want to match the PC “power level” of other OSR games this might do the trick.

Fight on! (and check out the Knavelands substack!)

(art is from the D&D Rules Cyclopedia)