I guess I found the answer. This probably is what the Cairn2E describes as a forest crawl. It is written that 10-15 pois can be visited by PCs in a single watch.
Hi there - this module was written before the 2e travel procedures were published, which is why it doesn't fully align with them. I would suggest making each trip from one point to another take 1 watch, and don't worry about weather (and if they get lost, they end up at a different point of interest). You can also extend the party's deadline and use the full 2e procedures - the aim is that they should feel some time pressure, but not be at serious risk of missing the opening doors.
I’m a brand new GM - only ran DnD 5e a couple times and my group wants to switch to something a bit more imaginative and less combat heavy so we chose Cairn.
I’m a bit confused as the when some of the tables should be used - mainly Minor Loot, Treasures, Relics, and Spellbooks.
As a GM, do I insert encounters where finding these items are possible?
Put the items in the encounters! As loot, something to fight/bargain over, etc. It's possible that some creatures don't understand what they have, whilst other creatures might want to harm the PCs to take items from them.
I downloaded your adventure and am excited to give it a go. I had one kinda random question, how does one print the booklet version, and or assemble it? Is there a place on the internet that shows the logic for this? Thanks!
No difference in content, simply optimised for whatever you're using to read it: Screen - horizontal pages for view on a computer/tablet Booklet - prints as a booklet that you can take to the table
Fantastic one shot adventure. I ran it twice, with first time players, and it worked great. Since it's open-ended, I added a plot twist: Marcos is actually an evil sorcerer who wants the spheres for himself and is using the PCs for his purposes. Each sphere they take, in addition to increasing the evil in the forest, time passes faster, pushing them several years forward with. When they leave the temple they find a scene of devastation.
I translated the map, since one of the group were kids, and printed the letter from Marcos as a diegetic handout, to add flavor to the adventure kickoff.
Great module. superb information design. I highly recommend this concise point crawl. Ran it today for my osr open table (using Old School Essentials): we finished the module in about 2 hours. Fun encounters, one dead PC.
I played this with 2 groups, one is full of experienced players, and the other was complete newcomers to RPGs. Everyone had a great time with both Cairn and this adventure.
I wasn't prepared enough to make use of the religious flavourings unfortunately, so I played up the forest as much as I could through improv. The highlight is easily the tavern for me, I managed to play the thing in a very unnerving manner, and nobody dared to open the door!
Glad both groups had a good time! In particular I'm pleased that it still 'works' with experienced players. Did both groups take a similar route or was there some variation?
The experienced group hasn't finished the adventure yet (they are about to head out from the tavern after spending a night there). The other group did not have time to leave the forest so i wrapped it up in a montage after they snatched some orbs.
With that in mind, both groups went to Old Ford -> Tavern, then the newcomers went to Secret Well -> Temple.
Another caveat here is that, based on the expected nights-spent-in-forest in the text, I had to prepare travel times which I would be using consistently so my players can plan. I decided that there would be 4 times of day (morning, midday, afternoon, evening), and travelling to a nearby location would automatically advance the time of day (as well as other meaningful activities like resting). This meant that the shortest route would take the party to the temple on the night before the equinox (assuming the players spent their first evening with a rest).
Amazing adventure, yyesterday I DMed for a group of 3 new players, it was the first time they played any role game, and it was a blast, we had so much fun, the adventure is really well designed and the handout map Is such a cool idea, since they loved it and they are hooked to find out how it continues I'll have to make up a follow up adventure, but I hope to see a second part in the future, well job and great writing, 9/10 for me.
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Hey, new Warden in the making here.
I am a littlle confused about how time works in Cairn and in this adventure in particular.
according to the wardens guide it is said that travel between points takes several watches (according the type of trail and weather etc.)
But if I do this here then the PCs would defenitelly miss the opening doors.
How did you handle this? Just ingore traveltime?
Hope this is not too obvious of a question >.<
I guess I found the answer. This probably is what the Cairn2E describes as a forest crawl. It is written that 10-15 pois can be visited by PCs in a single watch.
Hi there - this module was written before the 2e travel procedures were published, which is why it doesn't fully align with them. I would suggest making each trip from one point to another take 1 watch, and don't worry about weather (and if they get lost, they end up at a different point of interest). You can also extend the party's deadline and use the full 2e procedures - the aim is that they should feel some time pressure, but not be at serious risk of missing the opening doors.
I’m a brand new GM - only ran DnD 5e a couple times and my group wants to switch to something a bit more imaginative and less combat heavy so we chose Cairn.
I’m a bit confused as the when some of the tables should be used - mainly Minor Loot, Treasures, Relics, and Spellbooks.
As a GM, do I insert encounters where finding these items are possible?
Put the items in the encounters! As loot, something to fight/bargain over, etc. It's possible that some creatures don't understand what they have, whilst other creatures might want to harm the PCs to take items from them.
I ended up running this last night for four first time players and everyone had a blast! The Tavern and Great Oak were the highlights from my group.
I downloaded your adventure and am excited to give it a go. I had one kinda random question, how does one print the booklet version, and or assemble it? Is there a place on the internet that shows the logic for this? Thanks!
Sorry, I got it figured out. Thanks.
Great looking one-shot, can't wait to run it! QQ: What is the difference between the screen and booklet files?
No difference in content, simply optimised for whatever you're using to read it:
Screen - horizontal pages for view on a computer/tablet
Booklet - prints as a booklet that you can take to the table
Fantastic one shot adventure. I ran it twice, with first time players, and it worked great. Since it's open-ended, I added a plot twist: Marcos is actually an evil sorcerer who wants the spheres for himself and is using the PCs for his purposes. Each sphere they take, in addition to increasing the evil in the forest, time passes faster, pushing them several years forward with. When they leave the temple they find a scene of devastation.
I translated the map, since one of the group were kids, and printed the letter from Marcos as a diegetic handout, to add flavor to the adventure kickoff.
Thanks for making this little fun adventure!
The time skip idea is fantastic, and that map/letter look great! Glad you all had fun!
Great module. superb information design. I highly recommend this concise point crawl. Ran it today for my osr open table (using Old School Essentials): we finished the module in about 2 hours. Fun encounters, one dead PC.
Wonderful! Thank you for the kind words, and pleased to hear it works just as well in OSE.
I played this with 2 groups, one is full of experienced players, and the other was complete newcomers to RPGs. Everyone had a great time with both Cairn and this adventure.
I wasn't prepared enough to make use of the religious flavourings unfortunately, so I played up the forest as much as I could through improv. The highlight is easily the tavern for me, I managed to play the thing in a very unnerving manner, and nobody dared to open the door!
Glad both groups had a good time! In particular I'm pleased that it still 'works' with experienced players. Did both groups take a similar route or was there some variation?
The experienced group hasn't finished the adventure yet (they are about to head out from the tavern after spending a night there). The other group did not have time to leave the forest so i wrapped it up in a montage after they snatched some orbs.
With that in mind, both groups went to Old Ford -> Tavern, then the newcomers went to Secret Well -> Temple.
Another caveat here is that, based on the expected nights-spent-in-forest in the text, I had to prepare travel times which I would be using consistently so my players can plan. I decided that there would be 4 times of day (morning, midday, afternoon, evening), and travelling to a nearby location would automatically advance the time of day (as well as other meaningful activities like resting). This meant that the shortest route would take the party to the temple on the night before the equinox (assuming the players spent their first evening with a rest).
Amazing adventure, yyesterday I DMed for a group of 3 new players, it was the first time they played any role game, and it was a blast, we had so much fun, the adventure is really well designed and the handout map Is such a cool idea, since they loved it and they are hooked to find out how it continues I'll have to make up a follow up adventure, but I hope to see a second part in the future, well job and great writing, 9/10 for me.
Thanks so much! Pleased you all had such a good time - delivering that kind of experience to completely new players is exactly what I was aiming for.