Cairn

by Yochai Gal, Cosmic Orrery (Illustrator), Jim Parkin (Editor)

Cairn is an adventure game for one facilitator (the Warden) and at least one other player. Players act as hardened adventurers exploring a dark & mysterious Wood filled with strange folk, hidden treasure, and unspeakable monstrosities.

Based on Knave by Ben Milton and Into The Odd by Chris McDowall, Cairn is an attempt at making Into The Odd semi-compatible with popular OSR settings like Dolmenwood. Character generation is quick and random, classless, and relies on fictional advancement rather than through XP or level mechanics. The game itself is rules-light but functional, leaving most rulings up to the Warden.

Genres: Role Playing Games, Fantasy, Gaming, Games, Medieval, 21st Century

24 pages, Paperback

Published October 31, 2020

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is solid set of rules for a 20 page rules book.
I really like the conversion of HP to define Hit Protection. Instead of HP being a number that is reduced with each hit, it's a threshold. If damage exceeds that threshold, the character recives a scar. Which could be scratch or a mortal wound depending on the total damage done. I really liked this rule and it worked well in the session I played.
(Edited: grammar, HP explanation)

[Seth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m not even sure how I found this game but it’s free and it’s totally changed my perspective on RPGs. The second edition is even better (the dungeon and wilderness procedures are great) but this book is so nice and simple. When I discovered it I printed out my own copy and used a needle and thread to give it its own spine. I’ve only played a handful of times but I can’t wait to play more. I love the tone and style of cairn I love how simple the rules are and I love the emphasis on fiction over meta gaming and power gaming

[Benjamin]

How? Found at the Round Rock Library in their RPG section.

What? An OSR distillation of fantasy rpgs, largely combining elements from Into the Odd and Knave. (This is the common definition online; I haven't yet read either of those.) So: PCs have no classes, fewer stats than D&D, anyone can cast a spell if you have a spellbook, and casting causes fatigue, which takes up an inventory slot. There's a few monsters in here, lots of random tables for generating the look and personality of a PC, and several pages up front on design philosophy and how to be a good GM and player in this game. All in 24 packed but legible pages.

Yeah, so? I... don't know enough about the history and play of rules-light OSR fantasy RPGs to say anything smart about what this game is good at vs. other games in this space. But I do love that I can look over at a discussion on Reddit called "Cairn vs Glaive vs Brave?" and the top two comments are by Cairn author Gal saying Cairn isn't really like Knave mechanically, so play that if you want that experience; and the creator of Brave following up, saying to steal whatever you like from Brave to make your own table experience what you want it to be.

I would say the core philosophy of Cairn is that it is fiction first: there's no leveling system and no classes, so what you can do is defined a bit by what your character in the story learns to do (or what magic you acquire). Which is interesting as an OSR outgrowth, where a lot of the emphasis is put on randomness and DM vs. player tensions.

Though, for future investigation, the discussion tends to be: Cairn is a hack of Into the Odd, which was a hack of (Original) D&D (hence the "ODD" of the title), which had an industrial setting; Cairn takes that one-page, three-stat mechanics and turns it back into a medieval-ish fantasy, though that setting is more implied than described here, e.g., there are root goblins and hooded men.

Also, I can't pass over one innovation with Cairn, which is that it is free under a Creative Commons license, so available to hack or write for by anyone.

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really incredible little game. As someone with mostly experience in DnD 5e with a few jaunts into other medium-ish-weight ttrpgs like Vampire the Masquerade, Monster of the Week, etc, and a bit of experience with the one-page side of things, I was skeptical of this low-but-not-nothing approach to designing a game. Reading through this, though, I was impressed by how Gal was able to provide just enough detail to spark the imagination without constricting the flow of gameplay or limiting what the players and GM can do in collaboration.

And after running this for the first time, that's probably the best way to describe it in comparison to the stalwarts of the genre: collaboration. The lack of firm rules means you should probably avoid playing with anyone who's likely to want to rules-lawyer or get too set on a single idea, but I really enjoyed how the game was able to provide a framework for creative back and forth between the players and the GM. I'll definitely be looking for more opportunities to bring this to the table.

For those interested in running something with this system, I recommend A Fistful of Feathers which is available free and you can find a link on the Cairn website.

[J.M. (Joe) · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fiction driven ttrpg zine-style sourcebook that encourages collaboration and role playing over math and mechanics. It suggests using tables to fill out the possibilities and encounters, and emphasizes that treasure and encounters should be purposeful and make sense to enrich the narrative. The presented setting is medieval, low magic fantasy.

Cairn is a sparse, classless system and about as rules-light as it gets. A party can be up and running in about 15 minutes.

I’m giving it 3.5 stars rounded up.

[Leonardo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Among the plethora of rules-lite RPGs, Cairn manages to stand out thank to its uncompromising "rawness" and (to steal a key word from another reviewer) its distillation of the essence of RPGs. Although its system strips character creation, equipment, monsters, and magic to its bare minimum, it compensates with a very flexible and solid structure and its focus on character development over mechanical levelling. The combat/damage/scar system seems remarkably efficient and offers both possibilities for character development and for a grim recreation of the dangers and consequences of actual combat. For its part, the magic system is fascinating and demanding. Magic is available to every character, but it is neither easy to get hold of and wield or a straighforward and harmless solution to adventuring problems (no indiscriminately casting fireballs for Cairn). Just a little aside, this book might not be the best introduction to RPGs for novice players. Its sparse nature means it is better suited to more experienced and commited players who are ready to role-play their characters instead of relying the whole time on stat blocks and result tables.

[Pádraic · Rating 5 out of 5]

Maybe my favourite OSR variant thus far; simple but not so much that you're left scrambling in the gaps, speedy character creation, advancement that comes entirely from the fiction, easy breezy monster/NPC template, a straightforward inventory system that would be no hassle to track and also is basically the only thing you have to keep track of anyway, and all of it clearly explained and with design principles--and guidelines for GMs and players--stated at the front. Will absolutely be on the list of games I pitch to the group next time our options open up.

[Malum · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantasy adventure gaming distilled down nearly to its barest essence.

[Katrina Payne · Rating 4 out of 5]

So, suppose you wanted to get into ttRPGs but uh... balk a bit at how much the rulebooks for Pathfinder and D&D will set you back. As those books can cost a pretty penny. Let's not even go into all the books for GURPS

Well, this system, modelled similar as AD&D 2nd Edition, is a wonderful way to check out the various concepts present in ttRPG

It gives you a great set of games to work with--while not breaking the bank

Yes, it does scale things back a bit compared to other entries you can work with, such as 4 Against Darkness, White Box and Classic Dungeon systems... but that just means if you enjoy doing stuff with this, you can move up to stuff with White Box, 4 Against Darkness, etc., for a bunch of new features to play with in the game play

Due to how similar Cairn is with White Box and 4 Against Darkness--you can even "import" supplementary material into Cairn from those systems. You... will have to fudge several numbers and tables, however

[Itamar · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very slim, very concise adventuring RPG. It's quite amazing how much stuff can be squeezed into such a small book.
There's a lot that's left uncovered, possibly intentionally, as with a lot of OSR games, but I quite like the mood it propagates, even if it leaves a lot of questions unanswered, like "What is the world like?" "what are characters likely to do?" and "what happens to a character or enemy walking through the wall of fire spell?"

[Dougald · Rating 3 out of 5]

Its an RPG rulebook. I was reading it for ideas about gameplay.

[Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

D&D distilled.

[Joseph Riina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Low-ish-Magic Fantasy Into the Odd, but with Knave-like encumbrance rules. Seems like a good time

[Evo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun rules light OSR system.

[Joseph Adams · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting ruleset, going to try and find a group in the new year

[William · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this system. It’s lightweight, simple, and has the right amount of similarities and differences from mainline roleplaying games like Dungeons & Dragon to be both easy and worthwhile to learn. I personally wish it weren’t roll-under, but I do respect the simplicity this provides.