Cairn 2e Playtest: Update One

Summary

A few weeks ago I released the Player’s Guide playtest, an 80+ page rulebook for the upcoming Cairn 2nd edition. Since that time, I’ve received a flood of positive (and occasionally negative) feedback, including typos, questions about some of the new rules and procedures, play reports, and so on.

This has all been extremely helpful to say the least, and as such we are ready to release the first updated PDF, incorporating much of what we’ve learned from the community. Once again, sign-up here if you’d like to get notified about future releases, the Kickstarter, and so on.

Get The PDF

The URL is actually the same as the old playtest! Have at it.

Changes

Here is an incomplete list of what to expect:

General Fixes

• Typos, mostly in Backgrounds
• Fixed items missing petty and bulky tags
• Merged Inventory Rules with Character Creation
• Rewrote Hirelings creation process
• Rewrote character creation intro, changed subheadings
• Renamed Ability Scores to Attributes… everywhere?
• Collapsed marketplace items into groups for maximum flexibility
• Clarified weirdness with carts/donkeys
• Lots of little things

Combat

• Clarified Scars (fingers crossed)
• Clarified Critical Damage
• Rewrote rounds/turns in Combat, esp. around “Initiative”

Procedures

• Rewrote/clarified Dungeon Turns
• Rewrote dungeon movement/actions
• Rewrote dungeon events table triggers
• Rewrote/simplified dungeon exploration cycle
• Clarified Difficulty in Wilderness Exploration
• Removed references to Surprise
• Removed extraneous Panic from Wilderness Exploration
• Rewrote/simplified wilderness exploration cycle
• Clarified “Getting Lost” in Wilderness Exploration (e.g. 1-in-6, 2-in-6)

Feedback

This time around I’ve created a more formal feedback intake process. Here is what we are looking for right now:

• Obvious typos
• Rules clarification
• Play reports

Additionally, we are asking that feedback is only submitted in one of two ways:

• By filling out this form (given the format, this is the best way to submit typos or rules clarifications).
• As a post or comment in the Cairn Discord’s dedicated 2e-feedback forum (this is the ideal place for play reports).