The latest update for Block, Dodge, Parry includes a system for wounds & injuries. Since it also works for base Cairn, I figured I'd dedicate a blog post to it! Art: Dragon's Breath 2 by Greg Rutkowski Adventuring is a dangerous profession. A way to reflect that is to use these rules for wounds. Wounds … Continue reading Wounds & Injuries for Cairn
A big distinction that's often made between modern RPGs like Dungeons & Dragons 5e and OSR RPGs is combat as war vs. combat as sport. Combat as war frames combat as, well, life-or-death. It's about surviving, not how you survive or what dirty tricks you had to pull to survive it. Combat as sport frames … Continue reading Defense & Survivability in the OSR, Cairn & Block, Dodge, Parry
Block, Dodge, Parry has received another update! Version 1.3 contains: A system to resolve Complex Tasks: for when a single roll or simply saying "you are able to do this" or "you are unable to do this" doesn't cover it, and when time (how long does it take) becomes a factor. Magical Gear that ties in a bit more … Continue reading Block, Dodge, Parry 1.3: Luck, Complex Tasks & Magical Gear
Adventurers must surely burn a lot of calories - but what's actually in those rations, especially when magical Elvish lembas bread isn't available? Image by Bert Bogaerts a.k.a. Bertdrawsstuff, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) I made a neat lil list of 35 different meals, that all answer the question "what am I … Continue reading Rationalizing Rations – What’s On The Menu?
I've been continuously working on Block, Dodge, Parry ever since it released - and version 1.23 is out today! A short overview of all the changes: Character Sheets are now available, both plain and form-fillable! Added optional Attribute-related rules to the Time, Gear, Skill dynamic. Added optional gear-related rules for Blocking & Dodging. These rules … Continue reading Block, Dodge, Parry – Version 1.23
Forgive the relatively low-content post, but I made some example characters to demonstrate how Block, Dodge, Parry works, and So, a central tenet of Block, Dodge, Parry is that character concept, backstory and in-game abilities are basically the same thing, allowing you to easily translate ideas into actual PCs. So, let's give that a try! … Continue reading Example Characters for Block, Dodge, Parry
This amazing blog post by @riseupcomus was stuck in my head - much like a song, ironically - and this article hopes to build upon the ideas a bit, and make it easy to integrate into non-Tolkien settings. Also, HIS MAJESTY THE WORM is shaping up to be amazing, so go check that out. Image: … Continue reading Songs of Adventure: Using Songs To Boost The Party in Cairn & Block, Dodge, Parry
In my previous post, I already lauded Cairn's WIP 2e Wilderness Exploration rules. They got me thinking - how would mounts, specifically horses, interact with this system? (I've also been playing Red Dead Redemption 2, and Arthur's confirmation that horses are, in fact, good boys/girls still rings in my head, so yeah). Image: Horse Riders … Continue reading Giddy Up – Horses for Cairn
Image: Breath of the Wild Study 3 by Anato Finnstark I spent quite some time during the recent holidays working on a new hexcrawl setting, as a sort of 'happy place'. Inspired by the tone of Breath of the Wild and Dragon Quest, I set out to create world of 'adventure is exciting!' and 'travel … Continue reading If You Smell What The Party Is Cooking – Gathering & Crafting in Cairn
Every now and then, you run into an idea that kinda rewires your brain (in a good way!) as you read it. For me, a recent occurrence of that was when I read Cyclic Dungeon Generation by Sersa Victory, based on Joris Dormans's 2017 roguelite Unexplored. As stated in the PDF, this blog article goes … Continue reading Making Meaningful Dungeons with Cyclic Dungeon Generation
