Basic Principles
Core Concepts
Neutrality. The Warden’s role is to portray the rules, situations, NPCs, and narrative clearly while acting as a neutral arbiter.
Classless. A character’s role or skills are not defined by their class. Instead, a character defines themselves by their experiences, equipment, background, and by their own ingenuity.
Death. Characters may be powerful, but they are also vulnerable to many forms of harm. Death is always around the corner, but it is never random or without warning. Combat is not necessarily a fail state. This game aims to create just as much tension in the moments before swords are drawn, as in the moments when arrows fly, blades strike, and spells singe.
Fiction First. Dice do not always determine an obstacle’s difficulty or the odds of its outcome. Instead, success and failure are arbitrated by the Warden in dialogue with the players, based on in-world elements. However, some systems in this document use dice as prompts to inform the fiction.
Growth. Characters are changed through in-world advancement, gaining new Careers, Skills, and abilities by surviving dangerous events and overcoming obstacles.
Player Choice. Players should always understand the reasons behind the choices they’ve made, and information about potential risks should be provided freely and frequently.
Principles. The Warden and the players each have guidelines that help foster a specific play experience defined by critical thinking, exploration, and an emergent narrative.
Shared Objectives. Players trust one another to engage with the shared setting, character goals, and party challenges. Therefore the party is typically working together towards a common goal as a team.
Expanding the Foundation. This document is an expansion of Cairn. It aims to provide several systems and toolkits to serve as ‘Advanced’ Cairn. If any of the parts of this book seem to be lacking context, refer to the full Cairn rules by Yochai Gal.
Principles for Wardens
Information
- Provide useful information about the game world as the characters explore it.
- Players do not need to roll dice to learn about their circumstances; they can always ask questions.
- Be helpful and direct with your answers to their questions.
- Respond honestly, describe consistently, and always let them know they can keep asking questions.
Preparation
- The game world is organic, malleable, and random. It evolves intuitively and can make sharp turns.
- Use random tables and generators as inspiration
- Develop situations, not stories or plots.
- NPCs remember what the PCs say and do and how they affect the world.
- NPCs don’t want to die. Infuse self-interest and will to live into every NPC’s personality.
Narrative Focus
- Emergent experience of play is what matters, not math or character abilities.
- If players put genuine effort into a certain aspect of the world, reward them.
- Pay attention to the needs and wants of the players, then put realistic opportunities in their path.
- A dagger to your throat will kill you, regardless of your expensive armor and impressive training.
Danger
- The game world produces real risk of pain and death for the player characters.
- Telegraph serious danger to players when it is present. The more dangerous, the more obvious.
- Put traps in plain sight, and let the players take time to figure out a solution.
Choice
- Give players a solid choice to force outcomes when the situation lulls.
- Use binary “so, A or B?” responses when their intentions are vague.
- Work together using this conversational method to keep the game moving.
- Ensure that the player character’s actions leave their mark on the game world.