So, if you loved original Knave, this is more than twice as Knave-y, and just delivers much more around the whole concept.

If you love random tables, this is packed with useful ones I know I will use in my own game on the fly.

And that’s something I want to highlight, is that I don’t run knave as a ruleset. I play Black Hack (one of the listed inspirations) but Knave is such a pure, focused, and simple set of rules that you can swipe and use th bits you like for pretty much any “old school” game where the rules are a toolkit for adventure gameplay.

That’s what I was already using knave and maze rats for, and how I will use this too - especially all the tables, probably the alchemy system, and even more on a re-read I am sure.

Very glad this is finally out and available.

Compared to other games of similar size, the price for a PDF does feel high to me, even after checking it out. It feels like it should be cheaper. That’s my only gripe. For the amount of the book that is made of tables - the curation and assembly is handy. But they are tables, and not altogether unique tables that aren’t pretty similar to other tables elsewhere for cheaper.

But I have definitely spent more on things I liked less, and I feel like I will end up getting sufficient use out of this material that I will end up getting more than my money’s worth, because I run a lot of games.

Kudos on the upgraded/expanded edition. A very good product that is useful and dense and usable at my table for sure.

Should have waited for a preview before buying, because what is promised is not what is delivered.

"Here, you will find a universe as rich with adventure and content as your imagination allows for," they say...

Other than 3 faction descriptions, your imagination will have to supply all the rest of whatever "Lionhardt" consists of as far as a setting.

"Within these pages are the rules to explore a vast, unforgiving galaxy filled with vile monsters and hordes of treasure waiting to be recovered," they say.

There are literally zero monsters described, and no treasures other that what you might use the very thin crafting rules provided to create yourself.

"Lionhardt is an OSR (Old School Revival) sandbox game with a unique twist: everything in the game can be handcrafted using the various crafting systems," they say.

There is nothing in the game - so it's not that it CAN be handcrafted, you MUST handcraft it because there is nothing else there.

"It is also focused on exploration, with numerous tables to not only generate infinite dungeons, but also to have the classic hex crawl wilderness exploration gameplay of the mid-80’s," they say.

There are no rules for exploration, nor combat, nor anything really. By "infinite dungeons" they mean a very basic random table. By hex crawling, they mean a single table of simple bare descriptors.

There is nothing new here, and there are many works that are better than this at what it claims (and fails) to be.

Excellent simple but very thorough set of hexcrawl generators and even more beyond that to help fill in the blanks. could even be used for solo create-as-you play material with minor adaptation. A great companion book for any minimal ruleset like Black Hack or Knave. Ive looked at tons of this kind of product and this one is the goldilocks - not just vague suggestions but real tables and procedures. But also not excessively complex or overly crunchy. Love it.

I love this supplement. I am a Black Hack DM for 2+ years running, 3 weekly games. I have some players reaching level 10, which is "Retire and become an influential NPC" level in my sandbox setting.

This set of rules and ideas is exactly what I wanted - years ago, I read a blog post about handling settlements as though they are characters with stats, and conflicts between them like a contest of attributes. This makes it so I don't have to make up the details myself, lol.

If you run Black Hack and love the loose and flexible framework for handling old school D&D-like play, this adds in the domain-level game in the same kind of vein. I like it a lot. I will probably use it as-is, and then mod it in play just like I've done with BH and other supplements for it.

Well worth the $6 if you want to run that kind of game, or have players that want to do that kind of play in your game.

I was gifted a copy of this by one of the creators based on a comment I left in a discussion group about what I like to see in an adventure scenario. But for the value inside, I would have been happy to pay full price. I've paid a lot more for a lot less.

Context:

I run an open world sandbox game, where 3 different groups are playing on the same world map in 3 different weekly sessions.

So I want short scenarios that are creative, no fluff or excess lore. Stuff that I can drop into existing areas with ease, in-between larger adventures, or even to string together into a larger scenario.

The quick quests in this book fit the bill. Varying levels of challenge, small focus, all meat and potatoes that I can take from prep to game table with a minimum of work and there isn't one in here I wouldn't use if it fit the action at the table for the coming week.

So along with things like "one page dungeons" and "five room dungeons" I will be adding this to my DM folder for side quests or adventure seeds.

If you need a ton of hand-holding and pre-keyed maps and boxed text and all that, this isn't for you - or rather, you will have to do a lot of work yourself.

However, if you're a good improvisor, have the resources or skill to connect this with maps and fill out the skeleton and muscle of each scenario here to the needs of your game, there is phenomenal value in this product.

Looking forward to Volume 2. I'll take all of this that you've got.

A tremendous work. If you like old-school play, this volume covers a whole other arena of gameplay when your sessions grow past the first set of "dungeon" complexes in walking distance of their starting town.

What I love as a DM is that it's very comprehensive, exceedingly detailed, and because I am a seat-of-pants game master, it's easy to strip down that complexity and just finally get how hex-crawling is supposed to work. How can you get the players to expore and uncover a world that doesn't exist yet, but will still make sense as you generate it in play.

Not only that, it has all the rules for interacting with what they find in a MACRO way. Establish your own settlements. Expand ones you find. Expand the borders of exsiting domains. Go to full on war.

This is all stuff I've seen before in a ton of different seperate and way less well organized works. This compiles all of that high-level gameplay in one volume, makes it super simple to use the way OSE is known for. I don't even play OSE specifically, but this is suitable to any D&D esque fantasy adventure game up to like, 2nd edition-ish, IMO. I use it with Black Hack no problem.

This thing operates like a missing Dungeon Master Guide for "well the players are bored with dragons in the dungeons, and want to take over the world. Can't say enough good stuff about this material. Super usable. Super useful. Great material to help your gameplay and game mastering uncover an actual living, breathing interconnected world.

Note: 100% get the "filling in the blanks" companion to this too. So much value. I realized that I got this book as part of a bundle, and my above review may also include praise for that book too, as they work together and I read them all at once.

A tightly focused and complete little D&D-esque game.

Like the company level mechanics.

Like the Troika-esque character background selection.

Like the meta game of party actions that can take place in town and in dungeons.

Will try this out solo with a party set up, a hex generator and a dungeon generator and see what happens.

Overall, very flavorful, and very swipable even if you don't want to play this game RAW.

Loved reading it. i know it will bring fun concepts to my solo stuff and also my weekly group games.

The only thing that wasnt for me was the inventory system - i already have rules for that i like better. But some folks might love it if they don't like the old school style. It's just as clever and interesting as the rest of the book - it was just the only bit i didnt see myself trying in my own games.

Loved this concept as a sort of minigame overlay on top of what I already play (Black Hack/Lavendar Hack).

Useful list of traits for monster hunters.

Very cool NPC generators tied to the monster hunt minigame through the wants characteristic.

I like the whole hunting/investigating angle where there is always a twist to the plot.

I feel like it would be very easy to exoand the monsters presnented here with other "boss" variations of basically any other monster from your game of choice.

I'm going to combine this with my normal hexcrawling gameplay where encountering strong monsters nearby towns will trigger a quest. Also psyched to combine this with the Monster Menu-all by Skerples which gives rules for weird effects from eating monsters you kill as well.

Anyway, maybe not what the author intended, but as a DM and solo player, I found a lot to love here. Very usable and inspirational and nothing to get in the way of getting down to playing with it.

Really liked this. Black Hack is my go-to game but what I love about this game is the stripped down vibe that really does make it feel like a rogue-like computer game of old.

The magic system is great, too. Easily worth the cost of the whole game if you want a simple non-vancian magic system for OSR style or BX gaming.

The very simple and barebones exploration rules look very serviceable, too. Very easy to adapt and modify if they get stale through heavy play, but that should take a while.

Would love to see this game grow with more options and possibilites added to the exploration engines provided.

Super solid - highly usable as-is, or as ideas to swipe for your own homebrew games.

I picked this up a while back, being a GM for several Black Hack based games, and I'm always checking out the spinoffs and supplements.

What I loved the most about this is the additional gameplay layer that operates at the party level. None of my current campaigns are in a position to switch to this minigame driven style...

However, I am seeing a lot of potential as a solo game. I like that the party level procedures provide a way for me to utilize a ton of other content creation randomizers I already have as a game inatead of just as preperarion tools.

I haven't played the game yet as-is, but on a read through, that part of the game in particular is something I've never seen handled as well and so simply.

Especially the handling of factions. As a GM, I love the concepts there as a way to evolve the setting through play. But it takes the burden off of me as auteur/mastermind and lets me referree a game i feel like a collaborator in, rather than a keeper of.

This has been the missing piece for me. I've been running Black Hack 2 games 3 times a week for 6 months now. The most tedious part was converting monsters. NOT because it was hard, but I'm lazy and and I am low om prep and long on improv.

This does almost all the heavy lifting for me, and Appendix D Conversion guidelines define something I was winging before and make it very easy to stat out encounter tables that came with the adventure or existing monster book.

Used it at the table once this week already. Again tonight and again on Thursday.

This is probably a decent buy for anyone starting out with Black Hack directly. Having to look up monster descriptions elsewhere might be annoying.

This a must-buy for people like me, D&D 2E kids who grew up and want a lighter but familiar game like BH2, and proably already have tons of old school Monster books around. I have Appendix D printed on one sheet and I put a copy in each of my hardback D&D and AD&D rulebooks, which are now off the shelf again.

Great work.