OSR: New Knave Campaign

Rietikon, the Pfaff Lake, the Biber Hills, and region

I started a new campaign with 2 players who've never touched a TTRPG before. Old friends of mine. We have played boardgames, videogames, and consumed plenty of adjacent media together over the years, but never made the jump. Why? Who knows... The prompt came from one of them, so I proposed a game of Knave to test the waters (5e was being pushed, but I gently turned that down, arguing that there are better ways to get started in the hobby).

Blatantly ignoring the common advice of starting directly at the dungeon, I picked a short mystery and provided seeds and rumors, to give them a sandbox in the form of a tiny hexcrawl they could explore in future session. An excuse for me to spend 30 minutes playing with Hexkit to create the map above. They were immediately hooked and really got into the game. Asking clever questions, investigating and getting invested in the fiction. We will be picking things up again with future sessions.

Premise

A recent natural catastrophe in the Biber hills, South of the hamlet of Rietikon, has provoked brutal landslides. Incessant rain and floods. With it, Beastmen have spilled like vermin, causing turmoil in the region. Adventurers want to be first to the site, under the rumor that ancient ruins and dungeon mounds have been resurfacing from beneath the hills after the change in landscape. The promise of treasure and ancient relics, if they are cunning enough to avoid the Beastmen

A day of travel away from Walfalkon, Rietikon sits by the Pfaff Lake. The body of water borders with the neighboring Kingdom, and has fog and constant lightning at its center, a phenomena that for decades has been plaguing the body of water in a mysterious way.

To the South-West, there are deadly marshes and other settlements (and adventures) to be had. Same with the road traveling to the North along the lake.

What I plan to do

• The PCs have arrived at Rietikon, a hamlet with ~50 inhabitants and a few moving pieces. A starting town that can be expanded and fleshed out, under the jurisdiction of Walfalkon. Not enough to overwhelm them.
• Each hex in the map is 1 mile, so the starting area is fairly small and tractable.
• Have created hex events and population tables for the (h)exploration. Sprinkled a bit of faction play and sites to bring it together.
• Picked up several starting dungeons and modules, as well as a dungeon I just created for the occasion. Depending on what players end up doing, we could continue with:
• Tomb of the Serpent Kings
• Bone Marshes
• Tower of the Stargazer
• Dragon Skull of Xaxalar - a little dungeon I created