Hail and well met, Knight!
Knight is a rules light storytelling and roleplaying game in the tradition of Arthurian romances.
It is inspired by Welsh myths, a Once and Future King, and other fantastic tales of romantic chivalry.
In this game, your players are knights. Perhaps they may be a valourous tourney knight, a skillful hunter, or a master of occult lore. Perhaps they are honourable to a fault, or a base churl, willing to do whatever is needed for the greater good. Each player have a house, a fief, and a family who support them, but have dreams and ambitions and stories of their own that affect the story.
Whoever they create, your players are a part of Avalon - a fantastic land of magic and myth. They may slay monsters, drive back raiders, uncover sinister plots, woo a person on behalf of another to ensure an alliance, or die in a duel with their true love.
What binds your knights together is a symbol of hope - the High Queen, Caellia PenLlew. In a land beset by evils both large and small, will you be the knights that save Avalon?
This game is designed to welcome any who wish to strap on armour and fight for glory. There are no limitations in the setting or lore, with many types of faith, ideal, sexuality, and gender able to work within the setting.
An important part of the game is their first character is not their last. This is a game of dynasty, and as the knights age, retire, or die, they will take on the mantle of the next heir of the house. Only after they have played three generation is the campaign over.
The Rules
Knight is a simple, modern system that combines elements of Into the Odd with storytelling principles from Powered by the Apocalypse and Forged in the Dark games. The rules are designed to be simple, fast, and require no referencing in play, and focus on player collaboration and narrative input.
Resolution for conflict and amount of effect is fast, rolling only two dice, with players being involved in the narration of their actions.
Features of KNIGHT
- Straightforward, easy to understand rules that do not require referencing during moments of tension or action.
- A game about telling a story together, where all players contribute to build the world and people inside it who in turn becomes the focus of future adventures.
- A campaign set over multiple generations, where the stories are told over years and decades.
- A shared map created over the campaign to help build a world of knights, glory, and honour.
- Stunning and evocative art from classical painters to assist envisioning the isle of Avalon and it's people.
- A House sheet, where you create a map of your own fief and track the members of your household and the adventures they have.
- Optional index-card battle rules for those who like to play their battles out on the table.
- Multiple play styles - a 3 age campaign, an 80 year campaign, and solo play.
- Optional rules to help adjust for your table's needs.
A Game for the story focused GM
Knight is designed under modern, storytelling game principles of player involvement and collaboration. Running Knight is as simple as taking the intended action of the players, choosing the dice they will roll depending on the situation they are in, and using results of the dice to present a narrative.
Key differences from other games are -
- A mixture between more traditional adventuring and shared world creation, where players and GM roll on a table and tell stories about their dynasty which in turn create more adventures.
- A light prep system, where the players and GM share the responsibility for the actions and events of the NPCs of the world - again, prompting potential future quests and conflicts of interest that they have created - increasing the interest and focus at the table.
- The game is shared and collaborative with the GM's load, so there are many opportunities for players to take over the narrative to describe their actions.
- A campaign ending point that the game is building to, keeping the game focused and thematic for the setting of romantic chivalry.
Armoured Gaming Youtube Channel
I talk about the game here!
Actual Play
Check out character creation and worldbuilding for the game!
Quotes from Playtesters and Readers
As someone who reads a lot of less talked about RPG's, Knight is simultaneously one of the most interesting and innovative yet fundamentally easy to understand RPG's I've read in a while. It also slots well into a less explored niche of fantasy RPG and one that fascinates me.
- Riley
It was such a delight to read through Knight. It filled me with nostalgic feelings about King Arthur back when I was just little. We played a test game and thoroughly enjoyed it. It was like watching Excalibur, but at our table. I thoroughly enjoyed this and can not wait to be running this game for other people.
- Shayne @ Bea_DnD
I was really surprised how accessible Knight is, without sacrificing role play and agency.
Knight really does a great job of making you feel part of the big picture, and you are more than a single character and can bring real change to your world.
- Luke
Knight is collaborative worldbuilding and storytelling. The pacing is deceptively relaxed for such an engaging and dangerous game. I've never felt like I've achieved so much while not collecting XP or loot. Glory and reputation are far better rewards!
- Brett
Immediately I was captivated by the direct contribution to an expanding game map & story continuation through family trees. As a TTRPG newcomer, KNIGHT provided a rewarding, simple and fun system. I'm eager to see how the campaign's House dramas unfold.
- Sam
A Second Edition
The original game has already been successfully crowdfunded and fullfilled. For those who purchased the original, there are significant additions and improvements that will enrich your game.
- An additional 40 pages with layout, content and artistic improvements.
- Additional clarity around glory, magic, the faith, and pagan religions in Avalon.
- Guidance for the Three Ages campaign framework
- Guidance around how to integrate magic and magical knights into the game
- A how to do a Great Penllew campaign model, removing the three ages and playing through the entire game.
- Solo rules now integrated into the book
- Index card battle rules now integrated into the book.
- A end of book spread designed to keep all of the rules on two pages for reference during the Fief phase.
Where did this game come from?
I'm Mark, and this game has been several years in the making! I was searching for a game about knights and dynasties. Having read the other games in the setting, but finding none of them were quite what I was looking for, decided to combine some of the quick dice resolution from the OSR field with the improv storytelling that comes out of narrative story gaming. As I love games such as Blades in the Dark, I saw a lot of potential in breaking the game into phases, and added the shared worldbuilding initially as an aid to the game - and found it significantly focused the game on things the players loved.
What I'd created quickly grew a life of it's own, with a number of successful playtests and excited players. Soon enough I found myself learning layout programs and the basics of visual design, and eventually, after many months of learning and understanding the writing and printing business, it is done.
