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
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
I'm a simple man - Netflix's Edgerunners has rekindled my interest in the Cyberpunk aesthetic (though I've loved and revisited it many times already over the last decade). Here are a few byte-sized ideas I put together for running something Cyberpunky in Into The Odd, Electric Bastionland, Cairn and similar games. Image: Cyborg Yakuza self-tuning … Continue reading Various Cyberpunk Musings for Into The Odd-Style Games
I'm in the midst of playtesting Block, Dodge, Parry, and I'm doing so with a 1-on-1 campaign with a friend. The campaign centers around a dethroned noble trying to seize back control of the land he lost, and in the most recent arc, he has arrived in a border city in order to gain some … Continue reading Intrigue & Investigation: A System for Urban Suspense
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
📖 This post is an expansion on my previous post.Read Mass Combat: Expanding the Army Rating system from Barbarians of Lemuria for the full context! Image credit: Casualty of War by Camille Sule I've added a casualty calculator to my original worksheet. This means you can work rising casualties into your calculation! In this case, … Continue reading Mass Combat Expansion: Casualties
Most of my systems and posts are about adding interesting, meaningful choices to TTRPG procedures that tickle the players' sense of risk and reward. This particular system was originally written for ships at sea, but can be repurposed just as well for on-foot encounters in the wilderness - or spaceships venturing into parts unknown. This … Continue reading Oh? You’re Approaching Me? Closing The Distance in Dungeons & Dragons Encounters
My drafts are filled with posts about mass combat systems. There are various ideas I really like (such as an infantry>cavalry>archery counter triangle, moving troops, Into the Odd warbands etc. etc.), but I can't really get them to stick together in a way that I liked. That's when I gave the Army Rating system from … Continue reading Mass Combat: Expanding the Army Rating system from Barbarians of Lemuria
