Prismatic Wasteland posed a neat challenge to start the new year with: In January 2024, come up with a new resolution mechanic for a TTRPG and give it a name. So, here we go! Squeeze Your Skills I've always loved the simplicity and elegance of 24XX by Jason Tocci. I'm going to combine it with … Continue reading New (Year’s) Resolution Mechanic: Squeeze Your Skills
Block, Dodge, Parry does not have a bestiary - yet. This is mostly because I find the monsters detailed in Cairn more than sufficient. However, I was recently contemplating an undead-outbreak-focused campaign, which would put a lot of focus on the lowly Zombie. How would I 'adapt' the zombie to be a center pillar for … Continue reading Zombies for Cairn/Block, Dodge, Parry
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 came across Cyber by Oskar Świda recently, a really neat cyberpunk version of Cairn. Since I've been playing a lot of Cyberpunk 2077 recently, and since I already made some firearms rules in the past and since I already made some new weapon tags for fantasy Into The Odd/Electric Bastionland/Cairn, I figured I'd combine … Continue reading Locked & Loaded: More Firearms for Modern Into The Odd & Similar games
I recently experimented with using pixel art to create a lo-fi (and pretty comfy) aesthetic in Foundry VTT. Let me lay it out for you! What I MadeWhy I Made ItHow I Made ItThe Pixel Art ItselfMaking The MapIntegrating it into your VTTResources Some more sample maps: And a dungeon example, based on a One … Continue reading Going Retro: Using Pixel Art on your Virtual Table Top
At the heart of Block, Dodge, Parry, the system that I'm writing, lays the Career & Skill system. The basic gist of this system is that it should be really easy to come up with a broad backstory or prompt ("A soldier who lost his favorite horse and is now a wandering minstrel, singing songs … Continue reading Block, Dodge, Parry: Careers & Skills
First off: I'm making a thing! I'm working hard on combining, tweaking, expanding, and upgrading my Cairn-related posts into a full publication. It aims to be both a toolbox you can pick-and-choose from, as well as a neat way to combine everything together to get a sort-of Advanced Cairn, if you will. I've dubbed this … Continue reading Modular Magic for Cairn
Be it for a fantasy city, superhero game, or space station, these mechanics will help you flesh out 'walking the beat' for your party of law-keepers. Intersperse this with big, landmark cases - murder, heist, kidnappings etc.! Image: The Siege: Inside Town by Francis Goeltner The Stats Of A District First, determine the size of … Continue reading Nothing To See Here: City Guard Patrol Shifts for TTRPGs
I'm a big fan of Emmy Allen's Duels in OSR rules, so I made a small adaption for it to suit a game I'm running at the moment. Image: Senat by Pascal Quidault I also love OSR tendencies to just leave out any dialogue- or social stats & mechanics, leaving it to the actual players … Continue reading Hostile Negotiations: A Conversational System for Into The Odd/Cairn
Image credits: Merciless by Vlad Marica I've started playtesting my aforementioned Dodge, Block & Parry system! I've tied it into the Weapon system as well, and it's working quite good, so far! Design Notes Fight back makes combat even more lethal, by allowing for essentially a double attack (attacking in response to the enemy => … Continue reading Dodging, Blocking & Parrying in Practice
