Knights of Pen and Paper 2, called Knights of Pen and Paper II on the Start Screen, is a sequel to the game Knights of Pen and Paper, the second entry in the Of Pen and Paper published by Paradox Interactive. Kyy Studios took over development of this sequel. It was released on May 13, 2015 for iOS and Android, and on October 20, 2015 for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux through Steam.
As in the original game, the sequel allows the player to control the game master and two to five players in a send-up of a fantasy game campaign, with twists here and there. The Framing Device is that the Game Master, after a disastrous session with a 2nd Edition-playing Munchkin, decides to get his friends to play a 1st Edition campaign with him.
Gameplay is largely the same as in the original, though with many tweaks: players now pick a race (human, elf, or dwarf) in addition to their character and class, and three primary attributes (Body, Senses, and Mind) are now present, which govern secondary attributes that previously were determined by equipment and skills.
This game provides examples of:
- Action Initiative: The Initiative stat makes it likelier for a character to act first, and is tied to the Senses attribute. Notably, Thieves, Hunters, and Druids all have a passive ability that increases their Initiative.
- Allegedly Free Game: A slightly downplayed version with the free mobile version. Instead of locking content behind gold purchases, most locked content is unlocked with gems that can either be bought as in-app purchases, or be very slowly acquired through watching sponsored videos.
- Armor and Magic Don't Mix: With the exception of some special armors (as well as the Cloth Armor in the mobile version), body armor lowers its wielder's Energy in exchange for hefty damage resistance, making it a poor choice for mages and other skill-reliant characters. The Rocker however ignores Energy penalties from equipment, making him a good candidate for Magic Knight classes.
- Bare-Fisted Monk: Monks have a skill that increases their damage output for every empty hand slot. Combine with the Jock's extra hand slot for a strong fighter.
- Big Bad: The Paper Knight, complete with Beard of Evil, is the nemesis who contends with our players. Or at least that it seems, as the DM actually started the conflict because he prefers to rather play the 1st edition.
- Boring, but Practical: The Cleric, despite having little offensive presence, is a must-have for nearly every party due to their ability to restore Health and Energy for the party.
- Draw Aggro: The Threat stat makes characters with a high amount of it be likelier to take damage, and is tied to the Body attribute. In particular, Warriors have two abilities that increase their Threat, Paladins have one, and Ninja have one that decreases their Threat.
- Extra Turn: The Druid's passive ability has a chance of granting them a bonus action per round, in addition to increasing their initiative.
- Fighter, Mage, Thief: Aside from the classes themselves, the three main stats each correspond to one archetype (Body for Fighters, Senses for Thieves, and Mind for Mages).
- Fire, Ice, Lightning: The Mage's skill list: Frostbite (ice-based, deals heavy damage and stuns a single target), Fireball (fire-based, deals moderate damage and inflicts Burn on surrounding targets), and Chain Lightning (lightning-based, deals moderate damage to a row of targets).
- Geek Physiques: Like in the original, the DM is chubby and pimply, though the more detailed graphics make it clearer.
- Hopeless Boss Fight: At a certain quest, once you reach Mountains of Ascent, you'll fight the Paper Knight and his gang. While his gang members can be technically knocked out, the Paper Knight himself has almost hundred thousands of health in which no way you'll be able to cut through in time, not to forget that he could just do so much damage that he could just kill your party members in a single hit.
- Instant Awesome Just Add Ninjas: The Ninja class (which is the first class you can unlock through playing the game) is present.
- Item Crafting: Replaces the Blacksmith as the way to upgrade or create new equipment.
- Jack of All Stats: The Druid class has even modifiers for all three attributes. In addition, they have a buff skill, an offensive skill, and a debuff skill.
- Magic Knight: The Paladin and Druid stand out in particular. The Paladin is a Combat Medic that can also function well as a tank, and the Druid can boost their body stat temporarily, inflict stun to a row of enemies, and negate damage to a party member.
- The Man Behind the Man: The DM himself. Downplayed, however, in that he's an Anti-Villain at worst who simply wanted to continue playing the 1st Edition.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Natch. The Alchemist resembles Mario and the kappas from the Ori-Gami campaign are thinly veiled Ninja Turtles, for starters.
- Once Upon a Time: The first words of the game:Once upon a time in the world of Paperos...
- School Tropes: The characters this time are a Breakfast Club-esque group of students. In particular:
- Foreign Exchange Student: Added in an update; his special ability grants him added experience.
- Goth: Her special ability allows her to be revived without paying gold.
- Lovable Jock: The Jock has an extra hand slot, allowing him to be an excellent frontline character.
- Pom-Pom Girl: The Cheerleader's special ability allows the party to recover Health and Energy whenever she uses the defend command.
- Token Rich Student: The Rich Kid's special ability grants him extra gold earned from quests and battles.
- Skippable Boss: The Troll can be skipped if you're willing to pay 15000 Gold. Otherwise, you must defeat him, which definitely won't be easy. The GM lampshades that it is better to bribe him.
- Status Effects: There are 7 of them in total, and usually are recovered from by successfully making a saving throw of a certain attribute at the start of each turn. Being able to somehow inflict all statuses on one enemy inflicts "Sudden Death", which will instantly kill them.
- Stun, which causes the character to lose a turn, and will automatically fail all attribute rolls until recovered from automatically after losing a turn.
- Burn, which deals constant damage per turn until recovered from. Multiple sources of Burn will stack to increase damage taken until recovered from. Saving Throw: Senses
- Wound, which causes the character to take damage each turn, halved each turn afterwards. Wound can be stacked in the same way as Burn. Any health restoration to a character under this status will reduce the Wound amount instead of recovering health. Saving Throw: Body
- Rage, which prevents the user from doing anything but using a basic attack. Saving Throw: Mind
- Confusion, which makes any action from the character to randomly select target (including allies and self), unless the action can only affect themselves. Saving Throw: Mind
- Weakness, which halves the character's damage dealt, and prevent them from dealing critical hits. Saving Throw: Body.
- Poison, which drains Energy per turn and halves its amount afterwards, unless Energy runs out, in which the character starts losing Health instead. [[note]]This does not apply to Monsters as they have no "Energy" and can use abilities as they want, so they will take Health damage per turn if failing the roll.[[note]]. Any Energy recovery will be nullified to reduce poison. Poison can stack upon re-infliction, similarly to Burn and Wound. Saving Throw: Body
- A Taste of Power: The game starts you off in control of the Level 99 Paper Knight curb-stomping a Tarasque. Lampshaded, of course.
- Three-Stat System: The game has Body (governs health, energy, and physical damage), Senses (governs critical hits and Action Initiative), and Mind (governs energy and magical damage), each corresponding to one of the Fighter, Mage, Thief archetypes. Each character and class has a base amount of each stat which can be further modified by equipment.
- Villain Forgot to Level Grind: Several bosses that you fought on main story quests might reappear again as sidequest bosses, but their stats remain the same as before. This can be egregious on the case of Deno Fevil, who previously serves as a Wake-Up Call Boss, and by the time you have to defeat him again, your party will be likely much stronger than before.
- Wake-Up Call Boss: The Troll might be a Skippable Boss if you pay 15000 gold, but if you don't, he'll be difficult to defeat as he has health regeneration, deals a lot of damage, and has high Body attribute, that resists statuses that require Body roll failures to inflict them.
- Wutai: Ori-Gami, is most likely based on a mix of Feudal Japan and China, as it also features monsters such as Oni.
- Wolfpack Boss: In a certain Sidequest later, turns out that The Troll brought up friends, meaning you'll have fight three of them.
