By Mark Beren.

Knight is currently on Kickstarter if you wish to back it.

The Kickstarter’s goal is aimed at getting print products rolling. If the campaign doesn’t succeed, the product will still be available on DriveThruRPG. The Demo booklet is already available here. Please go take a look at it.

This game wastes no time jumping straight into the action. Character generation is right up front. What are you? Initially, you’re a knight in shining armor, literally. The game says you may take on other character personas later, but initially you’re a knight. There you go.

From there, we jump straight into stat generation. Roll or pick a name, coat of arms, age, faith/spirit patron, description, attributes, and skilled area. This is one of the only games I’ve ever seen in my life where your character starts with two family members who are your dependents. Name your fief. (The fief is your kingdom. Super important later on.) Starting equipment rounds out the character creation.

The game takes a turn at this point that very few other games do.

The section entitled “Create your Avalon” is a fairly unique feature. I think it’s one of my favorite things to do, being a longtime GM, to have the players decide on the map before the game starts. It goes into detail on what must be included in the kingdom and where your fief fits in.

There are three phases to the game- Quest, Fief, and Free Play. The quest phase involves doing cool knightly stuff such as slaying dragons, rescuing princesses, fighting battles, etc. The knight may usually go on one quest per year.

The fief phase is another thing that makes Knight unique. I really enjoy this because I liked 2nd Ed AD&D Birthright with its kingdom turns. This is similar in that the knight characters must deal with the macro level issues of their kingdom.

Free phase is, well, any of the above. After 10 phases, your character retires, generates an heir, and time goes on until the heir is old enough to jump in. The character’s glory determines if tales of the character’s mighty deeds live on.

Let’s talk about some things that this game does or doesn’t do.

First, it’s not like most other fantasy TTRPGs. There are no classes. In fact, other than the main character being a knight, there is little guidance in character creation or mention of what other players have for characters. I think the designer might want to mention that earlier in the game.

One thing Knight does very well is player safety. The section titled “Collaborative and Safe Storytelling” is something I think should find its way into almost every TTRPG book known to humans. It is very concisely written and refreshing to see someone managed to fit it into an 81 page book. A+ on that!

Knight does a great job of laying down the basics early on. It even covers mass combat using index cards. How many games get to do that? It’s also apparently possible to lose the knight during one of these mass battles or at the very least permanently injured. Overall, the fief turns are pretty cool.

I really felt like the GM isn’t really as vital as they might be in other TTRPGs. As a lifelong GM, I don’t necessarily rush to embrace GM-less games. Knight does a pretty good job of GM-less play as long as the other players are willing to jump into the descriptive duties. It might be advantageous to play with a group of players who have GM experience. This game puts a strong emphasis on collective storytelling.

The history and people of Avalon are beautifully detailed in this game. System aside, the story of Avalon side of this game is remarkable. It’s obvious Beren has studied the subject in detail and knows what he’s talking about. As a big King Arthur fan, myself, I admire that a great deal.

The system itself is an interesting blend of Powered By the Apocalypse and Forged in the Dark games. I like the turn taking and collective GM aspect. I think there could be a little more structure toward the non-knight player characters. It’s possible the character books for the other roles are on the website, https://fullyarmouredgames.pixpa.com/knight1 I haven’t been able to access it yet.

Conceptually, I would like to see a similar game done with samurai. That’s just me, though. There’s a great deal of potential in Knight to carry over into other games, systems, and expansions. Overall, I think this game has a lot of good ideas I recommend giving it a look if you get a chance.

Thanks for stopping by. I appreciate it. More reviews to come. June is looking packed full of excitement.