Verse*Knave

The Verse is...

Cosmic. The Verse spans an entire galaxy. Powerful factions control numerous systems and worlds. Megastructures are common. Travel between worlds is prevalent and quick.   

Baroque. Construction, clothes, and societies are extravagant.   

Science Fantasy. Science has surpassed everything we can imagine making its effects indistinguishable from magic. It is omni-present and ingrained.  

Post-war. The Great Cosmic War ended a century ago, but it left lasting marks on the Verse. All the powers, and much of the populace still remembers.  

Optimistic. This isn’t a grimdark future where there is only war. Factions are focused on rebuilding, expansion, exploration and discovery of past relics. Most conflicts are in defense and short lived.

You will play a Wanderer. Super-soldiers of the past war. Proxies of cosmic powers - active and forgotten. Wanderers are augmented beings far beyond galactic standard - though they might not even remember or recognize it. They can unlock the true potential within relics and may bind dust controlling AIs to gain supernatural abilities.

The Verse*Knave is...

A roleplaying game built using the Knave rules, so it is OSR compatible. Rules have been added to make characters are more versatile/powerful: they are all expected to have supernatural AI abilities, relics and wield free-form powers. But I have tried to keep the rules streamlined and simple in keeping with the minimalist design concepts.

• Core rules: 2.5 pg
• Powers: 1.5 pg + 1 pg generator tables
• Setting Rules: 3 pg
• Character Generator: 4 pg of tables
• AI abilities: 5 pg 

Acknowledgements

This work owes much to the indie games movement. It leans heavily upon the following sources:

• Knave by Ben Milton - paired down d20/OSR & talents/powers as gear
• 24XX by Jason Tocci - breaks
• Perilous Wilds/Freebooters on the Frontier by Jason Lutes - spell/creature/element tables
• Uncharted Worlds and Far Beyond Humanity by Sean Gomes - tags, backgrounds and origins

Cover by: Nick Ong / Norah Khor