Play report: Cairn open table, session 1
Spoiler alert for minor details about the opening of CAS-2 Rise of the Blood Olms.
We had our first session of Cairn at the Sword & Board on Thursday, February 26. Due to crossed wires, I couldn't promote it in time and only one player showed up but we went ahead and had a great session. Also, due to foggy memory, I forget how we navigated some of the procedures.
Character creation and prep
The first part of the session was for character creation and rule review. The player didn't know the system so we took our time with it. Per the player's request, I let them pick the background and background options, but had them role for bonds and omens. They created a Beast Handler. I had a few pre-gens and let the player control one of those as a second player - at random, they picked a Scribe, which also provided the hook for the adventure.
We then took some time to go over the rules, specifically the growth and advancement mechanics - in general, I want the players to be aware of the opportunities for development to take some of the pressure off me as Warden.
I'd originally intended to run CAS-1: Trouble in Twin Lakes but chose on the fly to run CAS-2: Rise of the Blood Olms because I thought it would be better for just two PCs. As a result, I hadn't prepared familiarized myself with the Wilderness Exploration procedures per the Twin Lakes's insistence that they wouldn't be required due to the short distances covered.
Play begins
CAS-2 has the players decide when they'd like to arrive at the site of the adventure and roll on how that pans out. I forget exactly what I rolled, but the characters rolled up soggy and late due to travel rolls. I expected the player to have the two PCs instantly go down to the caverns to take shelter but instead the chose to rig up shelter out of the previous expedition's blankets and some local vegetation - they made it very explicit that their Beast Handler was very cautious by nature. The player wanted their characters to take turns on watch that night, though the Wilderness Exploration procedures caution that a small party might not be able to rest adequately. As a result I rolled a die of fate, which resulted in the characters no resting adequately. I also rolled an encounter and got... a hostile Will-o-Wisp. Given the lack of Will-o-Wisp's attack, I just ruled that it kept the characters awake all night and dinged them the 1 fatigue for the next day.
The next morning they avoided the shaft down and instead followed the footprints from the camp down the dried river bed. The player's cautiousness came in handy again as they heard the hissing of the gas from inside the first chamber. Without knowing what caused it, they lit and hurled a torch into the chamber and blew it up, escaping the first trap.
That was fine and good, but then they decided to turn to the left and promptly encountered the second trap: the maddened High Lector Geteli waiting in ambush with his stalactite. Despite telegraphing the trap, the player didn't do much to evade the ambush and walked right between the boulders with the Beast Handler: I had them roll a DEX save to try to avoid the stalactite (I might not have, I figure the stakes are a little different with 1-on-1!). They failed the save, took Critical Damage, and failed the STR save. They used the Scribe NPC to pull the downed one by the feet, while Geteli leapt down to confront them. In one-on-one combat, the player tried to have the Scribe NPC attack to incapacitate Geteli rather than hacking and slashing in melee combat (a great choice, because the Scribe only has 1 HP and no armour). Using the rules for opposed checks, I decided the Scribe NPC was most at risk and had the player roll a DEX check. The first check failed and they took a hit from Geteli (succeeding their Critical Damage save), but tried again the next round and succeeded. As a result, I let them pull the Beast Handler free while Geteli was hobbled and unable to pursue.
At this point we had to make some decisions. The Beast Handler was too badly wounded to continue. If we had more players, I would have felt more comfortable having a replacement rolled for that PC. Instead, I ruled that they could limp back to a nearby village (after some initial first aid by the Scribe) and take some bed rest before returning to the caves to finish the crawl. That will require some fiddling with the rest of the module but, having only cleared one room, there's still plenty to come back to. The Beast Master and Scribe don't have much money, so I ruled that all any opportunity for downtime improvement was taken up with working for their accommodations.
The player's clever idea for the Scribe to go for incapacitation gave an opportunity for growth as well, which felt like a victory of Wardening experience. By being shrewd and analytical about combat, the Scribe would be able to try to incapacitate an opponent with a WIL save (their higher ability) rather than a DEX save. I now realize that could be a bit OP but, since it's for the NPC, I don't feel so bad about changing it after the fact.
Next sitting takes place March 12 and a few more players have RSVPed, so there should be more to report soon!
Takeaways
My biggest take-away so far is that the Growth mechanic could be better outlined in the player-facing material. I bought the Cairn boxed set (which is fantastic BTW)(also the Cairn Store site is down, hence the link) and would love it if the print copies of the player's guides also had more info on this mechanic to help prime the players to think about their own advancement rather than relying on the Warden to figure it out.
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