Octave

Octave is a 7-page rules-lite zeldalike RPG, designed for heroic, lighthearted sword-and-song fantasy adventures and adapted from Ben Milton's Knave. Many rules have been added, altered or removed to lean more into heroic fantasy than Knave's gritty sword-n-sorcery. It features:

• Randomly rolled but equally competent characters, encouraging you to try out adventurers you never would've thought to play
• Characters defined mostly by the equipment they carry, instead of classes; all progression is item-based
• Stamina rules inspired by Jason Tocci's Grave (another Knave hack) for streamlined combat maneuvers and spellcasting
• Less-lethal, more heroic death rules that keep the narrative moving forward despite being punished for failure, and have most death be a heroic sacrifice opted into by the player
• A lightweight villain system for the GM, which replaces death as a punishment for losing with villains moving their plans forward before you can stop them
• 28 spells divided into songs for heroes, and corrupting dark magic for villains and less scrupulous adventurers
• High compatibility with OSR adventures and bestiaries, just like Knave
• Items, magic and character traits all designed to capture the unique feel of the sword-and-song videogames it's inspired by

Like Knave, it's available as both a PDF and an editable document, making it easier to hack for your own purposes. The editable document uses the .odt file type and was made in Libreoffice, so you might have trouble editing it in other software.

Looking to run, play or discuss Octave with others? Try joining Level2janitor's discord server!