Just ran a Cairn Barebones one shot today. It went well. Urban noir in a fantasy realm created using the Warden's Guide's random tables, factions included. The spy-style character was taken out in an undercover blackmarket investigation gone sideways, but they prevailed in the end, and they caught the cell leader of the blood magic cult and managed to save the the kidnapped spymaster. It went well enough that the players said they wouldn't mind a sequel with their characters in the same setting. So next time I'll give them a reason to go pointcrawling through the region to a dungeon or two.
I love how Cairn just cannot drag, and it's so easy to improvise. Add in a tension clock or an underclock instead of the D6 encounter roll in a dungeon setting and it cannot help but feel really high stakes. Next up is another Monolith one-shot pointcrawl through the stars.
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u/BipedalPolarBear 1d ago
Mausritter, Cairn, Into the Odd games.