Here because Bob World Builder talked about Cairn and now I’m scouring RUclips for more. Really appreciate your notes in helping me to disentangle 5e from my approach to simpler systems.
Story is always key for me, the mechanics are a process by which you measure success. The easier rules are to pick up the quicker you can get imaginative players into playing. Looking for a system I can move my players to after we've finished our DnD campaign and this is looking like a strong contender.
Excellent point. Also, because the shorter rules focus on what you can do, not what you can't, it encourages imaginative solutions. We've been playing since the 70s, and this is hands down the most fun we've had!
Interesting. I like the inventory system and how fatigue takes up slots. Making fatigue analogous to a physical item in inventory also makes tracking it easier I bet.
Indeed, and it makes for some interesting choices around whether or not to cast that last spell or make that last special attack at the risk of opening yourself up to big damage
I'm also a 'Bob World' pilgrim lol. Thank you for summarizing the video at the end as well; let's me feel as though I've tangibly grown as a person. "Wow, I remember 4mins ago when I DIDN'T understand how fatigue worked" haha
This is absolutely where I like to live in terms of games. Too much crunch is just that.. too much. D&D feels too much like the players are demigods rather than adventurers... Some of the OSR mechanics seem a bit much as well. So I really like where the NSR style design sits.
Great series Colin! Enjoying this mechanics breakdown. Rules lite for me...though tracking critical fail for enemies, as a solo player, feels a bit fiddly sometimes
The thing that I think odd with the scars system in Cairn is that you take a scar before you take any damage... which just seems counterintuitive to me. Also, the maker of Cairn has said on discord that he has run 100 games of Cairn and only had people get scars 10 times in 100 games. Because I am using Cairn for one shots, I'm inclined to let people roll on the scars table when they take a critical hit, whether they succeed on their critical hit roll or not... so that players can experience some growth a little more often. Maybe it will turn out to be too often, but we'll see. Cairn is a great starting place for an easy fast paced homebrew game.
Unless I’m overlooking it, the game doesn’t go into detail as to what happens with the accumulation of fatigue. The idea of fatigue is wonderful but is there an ultimate consequence for gaining fatigue?
In Cairn, every point of Fatigue takes up a slot in your inventory, which limits your ability to carry items and cast spells. As well, if your inventory is completely full, your HP is reduced to 0; this exposes you completely, meaning any attack hits your STR directly and triggers critical damage.
I'm generally very impressed with the approach of Cairn, but Scars seems off for me because the name, frequency and consequences are a bit odd. I would rework the scars table to instead reflect getting critical damage, and the results would always be negative. I would add one more table and track cumulatively lost hit protection which would lead to positive results. I get that it adds two components, but this just doesn't make sense to me otherwise. I think it's largely my background in Judo, and a few chronic injuries, which causes me to reject it. I'm also a bit disturbed that strength doesn't impact damage. It's easy enough to fix, but it seems like a strange thing to minimize for efficiency. My favorite aspect is the warden advice. It's good reading for new GMs.
The great thing about Cairn is how adaptable it is. The changes you suggest are easy to implement and run at your own table. Could be certain weapons (like a 2 handed maul) give bonus damage if your Str is above a certain score. Runecairn has Str requirements on some weapons, meaning you need to be strong enough to even wield them.
Since there's no levelling in Cairn, scars are a good way to represent character progression, since there's a chance your stats increase. Your scars reflect your growth and experience.
@byodinsbeardrpg I like the concept, but I'm not sure how u like the mechanics. I read Cairn 2e scars and they seem a little wild, like rolling 3d6 for a stat and taking the new roll if it's higher, or adding 1d4 to a stat, or adding 2d6 to your HP.
unlike video games, ttrpgs let you take or lose whatever mechanics fit or dont ... its sad to see new or recent player struggle so much with such nonsense as rules and restrictions ... just let your imagination fly free and do as we vets do : addapt whatever you want to make everybodies play style enjoyable for everybody around the table
Here because Bob World Builder talked about Cairn and now I’m scouring RUclips for more. Really appreciate your notes in helping me to disentangle 5e from my approach to simpler systems.
Story is always key for me, the mechanics are a process by which you measure success. The easier rules are to pick up the quicker you can get imaginative players into playing.
Looking for a system I can move my players to after we've finished our DnD campaign and this is looking like a strong contender.
Excellent point. Also, because the shorter rules focus on what you can do, not what you can't, it encourages imaginative solutions. We've been playing since the 70s, and this is hands down the most fun we've had!
Interesting. I like the inventory system and how fatigue takes up slots. Making fatigue analogous to a physical item in inventory also makes tracking it easier I bet.
Indeed, and it makes for some interesting choices around whether or not to cast that last spell or make that last special attack at the risk of opening yourself up to big damage
I'm also a 'Bob World' pilgrim lol. Thank you for summarizing the video at the end as well; let's me feel as though I've tangibly grown as a person.
"Wow, I remember 4mins ago when I DIDN'T understand how fatigue worked" haha
This is absolutely where I like to live in terms of games. Too much crunch is just that.. too much. D&D feels too much like the players are demigods rather than adventurers... Some of the OSR mechanics seem a bit much as well. So I really like where the NSR style design sits.
The fatigue idea is very interesting.
One of my favourite mechanics, works well for a risk/reward tension.
Great series Colin! Enjoying this mechanics breakdown. Rules lite for me...though tracking critical fail for enemies, as a solo player, feels a bit fiddly sometimes
One subtle thing about using all your slots and having no hp is that you can't gain scars, since you are already at 0 hp.
True, and every subsequent attack lowers your Strength and triggers critical damage
The thing that I think odd with the scars system in Cairn is that you take a scar before you take any damage... which just seems counterintuitive to me. Also, the maker of Cairn has said on discord that he has run 100 games of Cairn and only had people get scars 10 times in 100 games. Because I am using Cairn for one shots, I'm inclined to let people roll on the scars table when they take a critical hit, whether they succeed on their critical hit roll or not... so that players can experience some growth a little more often. Maybe it will turn out to be too often, but we'll see. Cairn is a great starting place for an easy fast paced homebrew game.
Unless I’m overlooking it, the game doesn’t go into detail as to what happens with the accumulation of fatigue. The idea of fatigue is wonderful but is there an ultimate consequence for gaining fatigue?
In Cairn, every point of Fatigue takes up a slot in your inventory, which limits your ability to carry items and cast spells. As well, if your inventory is completely full, your HP is reduced to 0; this exposes you completely, meaning any attack hits your STR directly and triggers critical damage.
I'm generally very impressed with the approach of Cairn, but Scars seems off for me because the name, frequency and consequences are a bit odd. I would rework the scars table to instead reflect getting critical damage, and the results would always be negative. I would add one more table and track cumulatively lost hit protection which would lead to positive results. I get that it adds two components, but this just doesn't make sense to me otherwise.
I think it's largely my background in Judo, and a few chronic injuries, which causes me to reject it.
I'm also a bit disturbed that strength doesn't impact damage. It's easy enough to fix, but it seems like a strange thing to minimize for efficiency.
My favorite aspect is the warden advice. It's good reading for new GMs.
The great thing about Cairn is how adaptable it is. The changes you suggest are easy to implement and run at your own table. Could be certain weapons (like a 2 handed maul) give bonus damage if your Str is above a certain score. Runecairn has Str requirements on some weapons, meaning you need to be strong enough to even wield them.
I'm not sure how I feel about scars.
Since there's no levelling in Cairn, scars are a good way to represent character progression, since there's a chance your stats increase. Your scars reflect your growth and experience.
@byodinsbeardrpg I like the concept, but I'm not sure how u like the mechanics. I read Cairn 2e scars and they seem a little wild, like rolling 3d6 for a stat and taking the new roll if it's higher, or adding 1d4 to a stat, or adding 2d6 to your HP.
unlike video games, ttrpgs let you take or lose whatever mechanics fit or dont ... its sad to see new or recent player struggle so much with such nonsense as rules and restrictions ... just let your imagination fly free and do as we vets do : addapt whatever you want to make everybodies play style enjoyable for everybody around the table
Exactly. Stick with what works for your table and leave out what doesn't. Every table is different and has different requirements.