Cairn Warden's Guide - Second Edition

Cairn is an adventure game for one facilitator (the Warden) and at least one other player. Players act as hardened adventurers exploring a dark & mysterious Wood filled with strange folk, hidden treasure, and unspeakable monstrosities. Character generation is quick and random, adventures are tense and reward careful exploration, and combat is frantic and deadly. 

Cairn was written with the following design philosophies in mind:

• Neutrality - The Warden’s role is to act as a neutral arbiter and
  portray the rules, situations, non-player characters
  (NPCs), and narrative clearly.
• Classless - A character’s role or skills are not limited by a single class. Instead, the equipment they carry and their experiences define their specialty.
• Death - Characters may be powerful, but they are also vulnerable to harm in its many forms. Death is always around the corner, but it is never random or without warning.
• Fiction First - Dice do not always reflect an obstacle’s difficulty or its outcome. Instead, success and failure are based on in-world elements and arbitrated by the Warden in dialogue with the players.
• Growth - Characters are changed through in-world advancement, gaining new 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 togethertowards a common goal, as a team. 

The Warden’s Guide includes tools, tables, and advice for running Cairn, with procedures to generate content that fits into the Vald setting or any fantasy world of your imagining. The following chapters offer resources and detailed instructions for creating immersive adventures, with an emphasis on dynamic gameplay and rich worldbuilding. With these pages anyone can craft unique, challenging experiences that engage and captivate players.
This book is a player's guide. The players will need the Player's Guide to play the game.

All the digital files are available for free here.

Writing: Yochai Gal
Editing & Development: Derek B.
Copy Editing: Yossi Krausz
Layout, Design & Example Maps: Adam Hensley
Cover Art: Bruno Prosaiko
Interior Illustrations: Amanda Lee Franck
Bestiary Art: Roque Romero
Character Sheet: Licopeo

A5 perfect-bound softcover book, 192 B&W pages.
*PDFs will be emailed once the physical item ships.