I've been using Knave whenever I want to run a published adventure as a one-shot or a short campaign with newbies. It's been nice for that, and I haven't found anything better for that. However, I always house-rule a bunch of it and have to convert a few things to make it work. Additionally, there a few things I just don't prefer about it. It's good at what it does.
I wrote
a system to replace Knave
for my use.
After printing, you'll have 3 very short books: a player book, a referee book, and a spell book.
Features
- B/X compatibility. Run modules/adventures without any conversion at all.
- Transition the characters and game world to B/X rules with little effort.
- Minimal rules barrier. Quick, smooth play for players who have not experienced an RPG before. No modifiers.
- Slot system for inventory.
- Some useful tables.
- Dungeon and wilderness creation procedures.
- Referee advice.
- No cleric, no thief. (It's easy to add them back in, of course.)
How to use this book
- The referee should read everything.
- The referee may create a campaign world, a hex map, and a dungeon to start a campaign, or just use a dungeon for a one-shot. The referee can use any B/X-compatible products in lieu of creating any of the above.
- The players should read the character creation page of the player book. They can reference the rest of the player book if they need to.
You can download it
here.