Revised Knights, Mounts, Renown

Howdy!

The road to revision is a long one, and I've hammered out the basic idea for how knights work in the upcoming Revised Edition. Although, it might be more apt to call it Advanced, as the project will be more granular and nuanced than the current 1st edition of K&Q while still being broadly about the same sorts of things. These rules are optional and intended for playtesting and are a preview of the design direction that I will be taking Of Knights & Quests next edition. As mentioned earlier, it really will be a case of basic versus advanced rules overall: the original edition will still be available for purchase.

First up, I've added renown to the game. Points by any other name, the 1st Edition of K&Q is roughly balanced but also has minimal variables. As I add things to the game and expand options, it can make the bookkeeping onerous (especially with things like mounted models counting as double of the base model in the current rules). Points are clear and simple: a mounted knight errant is 4 points, and that's 1/3 of the 12 available for a small game. It decouples the double restrictions on heroes and kings, as well: now they are limited in quantity only based on the Initiative Deck, but you could pay the points if you wanted and run a King (6 points), a Hero (4 points), and a knight errant or champion (2 points) in a small game. You'd be outnumbered, yes, but that's the stuff epics are made of!

Knights are split into knights errant who specialize in completing quest tasks and knights champion who specialize in fighting. This means that your basic knight comes in two flavors. Being a hero is an upgrade to a knight, and grants one of several heroic abilities like an improved attribute or the ability to punish foes who dare to leave honorable combat!

Kings are still the singular figures of peerless distinction, being a further upgrade for a hero and granting them one of the unique kingly gifts in addition to their heroic ability. Mounts have received a review and are more nuanced coming in light, medium, and heavy varieties.