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Knock! #1
Knock!
We gathered some of the most respected, most creative, and possibly weirdest minds of the old school roleplaying scene and compiled some of their best work to make this thick magazine. We made KNOCK! the messy, stuffed to the gills bric-à-brac we wanted. The book that earns its place on the easy-to-reach part of your gaming shelves.
It has everything you’d want from an old school slash adventure gaming publication: articles about the history of Dungeons & Dragons, reflections about genre and gameplay, some clever rules, a bunch of maps, tons of random tables and lists, 7 new classes, 7 new monsters, and 3 complete adventures.
It has everything you’d want from an old school slash adventure gaming publication: articles about the history of Dungeons & Dragons, reflections about genre and gameplay, some clever rules, a bunch of maps, tons of random tables and lists, 7 new classes, 7 new monsters, and 3 complete adventures.
212 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2020
7 people are currently reading
40 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
July 30, 2022
Full of typos, utterly useless for many, including me, but
gorgeous as hell.
gorgeous as hell.
September 21, 2022
A very enjoyable old school roleplaying magazine.
First things first, all of the articles in Knock! Issue 1 are available for free online. Not everything in this magazine would be immediately useful for every GM or every table or even every permutation and iteration of DnD and yet it is still so good.
From essay like articles such as "comparison of old and new DnD" to thematic random tables such as "D20 Magic helmets" to just insane amount of "useless magic loot" to new classes, new monsters and of course adventures this magazine has it all. Matter of fact while not a single table/GM would use all of the brick-a-brac inside but there is something for each table/GM in here that will be useful. Whether it is an idea, an adventure, a monster, a magic item, or a random table.
I have really enjoyed the article on the "borderlands" and especially the examination of the keep from the point of view of an archaeologist. It really opened up my eyes to different ways of looking not only at maps but also adventures and dungeons.
The layout is fantastic, the art is gorgeous and the each page just oozes love for the hobby, artistic talent and style.
If there was one negative thing, I would say that utilising every single bit of the magazine, specifically wrap around cover, would be it for me. The cover is already starting to be a little worn and I am always very careful with my books. I am hoping that it will keep as the adventure that is on the inside of the cover is a lot of fun and I would love to drop it into my world.
Would definitely be coming back to this again and again for inspiration.
First things first, all of the articles in Knock! Issue 1 are available for free online. Not everything in this magazine would be immediately useful for every GM or every table or even every permutation and iteration of DnD and yet it is still so good.
From essay like articles such as "comparison of old and new DnD" to thematic random tables such as "D20 Magic helmets" to just insane amount of "useless magic loot" to new classes, new monsters and of course adventures this magazine has it all. Matter of fact while not a single table/GM would use all of the brick-a-brac inside but there is something for each table/GM in here that will be useful. Whether it is an idea, an adventure, a monster, a magic item, or a random table.
I have really enjoyed the article on the "borderlands" and especially the examination of the keep from the point of view of an archaeologist. It really opened up my eyes to different ways of looking not only at maps but also adventures and dungeons.
The layout is fantastic, the art is gorgeous and the each page just oozes love for the hobby, artistic talent and style.
If there was one negative thing, I would say that utilising every single bit of the magazine, specifically wrap around cover, would be it for me. The cover is already starting to be a little worn and I am always very careful with my books. I am hoping that it will keep as the adventure that is on the inside of the cover is a lot of fun and I would love to drop it into my world.
Would definitely be coming back to this again and again for inspiration.
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October 25, 2024This is not a review of Knock (which I have and will review at some date) but of the RPG Wulfwald, which doesn't have a page but which is published (ironically) by Lost Pages, which is Paolo Greco, who is listed as one of the contributors to Knock.
How? A Bundle of Holding sale.
What? If you had to pin D&D to a time period, it would be some sort of fantasy high middle ages, with knights and plate armor--but with lots of other time periods and eventually cultures blended in.
This game says, let's do D&D as Iron Age Saxony from top to bottom. Which gives it a great, consistent feel: there are elves and dwarves and outsiders and saxons, but they're as Saxonry saw them (more or less, I'm not a scholar in this area). So the elves aren't ethereal spiritual tree people but hunter gatherers who live in the forest, etc. There's magic -- dwarven runes, elvish singing, terrible Saxon necromancy. And there's all sorts of monsters. So far, it's a bit of like those historical books that TSR put out (except those always tended towards low-to-no fantasy, which made my head hurt from a marketing angle).
But the game goes a bit further: we joke these days about how the average PC party in D&D is heavily armed wanderers -- "murder-hobos" is the term of art -- but this game takes that a little more seriously. In this game, we start the assumption that the PCs are outlaws, wolfheads, unprotected by the law, but useful to some lords as potentially deniable assets. So why do you go on adventures? Because if you're not useful to your lord, you'll be axed. And even more so: maybe you can work your way back into society by being anti-social. It's a neat little premise that cuts to the heart of this bit of weirdness around PCs.
Yeah, so? The copy I got was several nice booklets, each focusing on some different area (monsters, society, magic, rules), and that division was nice. And the game, well, I like reading about it, but I'm not sure I'll have call to play it any time soon.
How? A Bundle of Holding sale.
What? If you had to pin D&D to a time period, it would be some sort of fantasy high middle ages, with knights and plate armor--but with lots of other time periods and eventually cultures blended in.
This game says, let's do D&D as Iron Age Saxony from top to bottom. Which gives it a great, consistent feel: there are elves and dwarves and outsiders and saxons, but they're as Saxonry saw them (more or less, I'm not a scholar in this area). So the elves aren't ethereal spiritual tree people but hunter gatherers who live in the forest, etc. There's magic -- dwarven runes, elvish singing, terrible Saxon necromancy. And there's all sorts of monsters. So far, it's a bit of like those historical books that TSR put out (except those always tended towards low-to-no fantasy, which made my head hurt from a marketing angle).
But the game goes a bit further: we joke these days about how the average PC party in D&D is heavily armed wanderers -- "murder-hobos" is the term of art -- but this game takes that a little more seriously. In this game, we start the assumption that the PCs are outlaws, wolfheads, unprotected by the law, but useful to some lords as potentially deniable assets. So why do you go on adventures? Because if you're not useful to your lord, you'll be axed. And even more so: maybe you can work your way back into society by being anti-social. It's a neat little premise that cuts to the heart of this bit of weirdness around PCs.
Yeah, so? The copy I got was several nice booklets, each focusing on some different area (monsters, society, magic, rules), and that division was nice. And the game, well, I like reading about it, but I'm not sure I'll have call to play it any time soon.
June 6, 2022
I think it's impossible to dislike any publication that refers to itself as a 'bric-a-brac.'
Knock! is a miscellany of material for and by OSR (Old School Renaissance) gamers. It harkens back to the days of the 70s and 80s when D&D was dangerous and conquering a dungeon felt like surviving a war. Knock! includes essays on theory as well as plenty of gameable material and trippy art. It looks a lot like a Mork Borg book and that's probably intentional, being as Mork Borg is one of the OSR leaders at the moment.
It's hard to describe other than Knock!'s yearly releases as adoringly looked-forward-to by OSR-heads. It's a beautiful package. So rather than try to put that into words, I'll just describe my favorite thing in the book: The random table for results if your players try to eat the chaos spawn monster's corpse.
Not all the results are bad. There's even good odds of something beneficial happening. Unless you eat the guts. The table makes sure you know that if you eat monster guts, you're disgusting. It's a table that you'd never think to make for yourself but the second you see it you wonder why. And it's guaranteed to go over well if it comes out in play.
Knock! is a miscellany of material for and by OSR (Old School Renaissance) gamers. It harkens back to the days of the 70s and 80s when D&D was dangerous and conquering a dungeon felt like surviving a war. Knock! includes essays on theory as well as plenty of gameable material and trippy art. It looks a lot like a Mork Borg book and that's probably intentional, being as Mork Borg is one of the OSR leaders at the moment.
It's hard to describe other than Knock!'s yearly releases as adoringly looked-forward-to by OSR-heads. It's a beautiful package. So rather than try to put that into words, I'll just describe my favorite thing in the book: The random table for results if your players try to eat the chaos spawn monster's corpse.
Not all the results are bad. There's even good odds of something beneficial happening. Unless you eat the guts. The table makes sure you know that if you eat monster guts, you're disgusting. It's a table that you'd never think to make for yourself but the second you see it you wonder why. And it's guaranteed to go over well if it comes out in play.
October 13, 2023
NOTE: This is a Table Top RPG game reference book filled with articles mostly from Game Masters, and geared towards the Old School Renaissance style of play (although a lot of it is inspiring for other TTRPGS as well) - I mostly do Fiction reviews so I figured it would probably be a good idea to point that out.
Okay, so I found this to be really inspiring and useful. I loved pretty much all of the ideas except on article had some ideas that I wasn't a fan of. I did start skim reading towards the end as I'm not much for reading a ton of stats or 100s of roll table options but I did read a good chuck of those things so that I could still get ideas.
I will for sure reference this book in the future for inspiration and I am excited to check out the rest of the books in the series!
Okay, so I found this to be really inspiring and useful. I loved pretty much all of the ideas except on article had some ideas that I wasn't a fan of. I did start skim reading towards the end as I'm not much for reading a ton of stats or 100s of roll table options but I did read a good chuck of those things so that I could still get ideas.
I will for sure reference this book in the future for inspiration and I am excited to check out the rest of the books in the series!
February 18, 2021
El primer número de Knock! es un delicioso compendio de artículos y recursos para juegos de rol en general y OSRs en particular, orientados principalmente a darle un punto de sabor adicional a cualquier mazmorreo casero. Es imposible leer diez páginas seguidas sin sacar al menos una buena idea. Y aunque lo leas de cabo a rabo y todo te parezca inútil, el libro sigue siendo una auténtica preciosidad.
January 12, 2024
Fantastic oddity, smallish in size but immense in ttrpg gaming material. Much love was put into the graphic design and layout of this volume. A prized possession. Gave it a re-read here today and found some potential ideas for a DnD game.
June 1, 2023
Good collection of articles, tables, creatures and adventures for tabletop role playing games, in the OSR side but with lots of ideas usable with any game system. Cool art too.
January 1, 2025
An outstanding collection of OSR inspiration and philosophy - volume 1 is amazing, and I can't wait to read volume 2!
August 6, 2024
There are a few gems but they're spread among quite a lot of fairly mediocre content. The essays are generally the best content and the random tables frequently among the least interesting.
Some of my personal favourite entries include:
What I Want In An OSR Game (Brooke Dailey, pg 8)
Get Your Gear (Good-deal Nobboc, pg 25)
Naming My Game (Ben Milton, pg 48)
Duels (Emmy Allen, pg 78)
It's A Trap! To Roll Or Not To Roll? (Vagabundork, pg 92)
Just Use Bears (Jack Shear, pg 144)
Some of my personal favourite entries include:
What I Want In An OSR Game (Brooke Dailey, pg 8)
Get Your Gear (Good-deal Nobboc, pg 25)
Naming My Game (Ben Milton, pg 48)
Duels (Emmy Allen, pg 78)
It's A Trap! To Roll Or Not To Roll? (Vagabundork, pg 92)
Just Use Bears (Jack Shear, pg 144)
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews