Watching Yochai Gal’s actual play of Barrow of the Elf King showed me their commitment to objects defining characters. The adventurer’s gear is the basis for unlocking their backstory. The players are prompted to think about how certain items define them. Far more attention is paid to this, than some particularly low attribute rolls (I’ve argued for getting rid of attribute scores to emphasise this focus).
Cairn is self-described as a classless game. There is more role differentiation though than you get in ItO, as characters can effectively become “wizards” by filling their inventory slots with spell books. Unlike D&D, this doesn’t lock you into any career path. Characters can change their role in the party simply by switching out their inventories.
What then is the inverse of Cairn? Here I am going to suggest a way to define your character based on what you don’t carry. It’s empty inventory slots that influence your party role, rather than what fills them. As not having things is a pretty low bar to entry, I refer to this system as Beggar’s Choice.
In Cairn, not carrying much is often to your advantage. Casting spells expends inventory slots with temporary fatigue. Filling all your inventory slots is a bad idea, as it makes you vulnerable to attack. Carrying little therefore avoids bad effects, but it doesn’t give your character positive abilities in itself.
In Beggar’s Choice, not carrying much gear makes you good at roguelike things – effectively conveying actual abilities. Carrying 4 or less items makes you Fleet, meaning the highest probability of success at the following tasks
- Climbing
- Sneaking & hiding
- Dodging
- Sensing & setting ambushes
- Listening at doors
Your chances of succeeding follows Dreaming Dragonslayer’s “Tough-as-nails” resolution probabilities (below). Being Fleet will often amount to a 50% swing in your favour, as carrying more than 4 items begins to apply Detriments to your chances. If you want to sneak past a guard with a full backpack, that’s one Detriment. If there’s also a bright light source, that’s likely a further Detriment, swinging your odds from 75% to 25%.
Hopefully, the narrative sense of this is fairly obvious. It’s harder to climb a wall with a large backpack on. Even something like listening at doors is harder with a clanking backpack, while panting from exertion. It so happens that a lot of this coincides with conventional roguish abilities, as many simply relate to being dexterous.
The intention here is to fit with the OSR’s “all adventurers are rogues” mindset. In the Conan story The Tower of the Elephant, Conan’s actions are probably more in keeping with thief than a barbarian character build. He is deft at both stealth and climbing walls. It probably helps that his inventory is a sword and loincloth and not much else.
The idea of needing to specialise as a thief in order to sneak around has always struck me as a bit silly. I can’t picture a rogue’s guild drilling recruits in how to stand in shadows. Even if training would enhance such abilities, surely not wearing plate mail with a massive backpack would be the more decisive factor.
A Beggar’s Choice
I refer to the above as the inverse of Cairn, but it’s actually intended to compliment something like Cairn’s inventory system. On balance, having things should still be better than not having things. For many challenges in a dungeon, it will still be in your interest to lug around a spell book. And it’s always possible to stash your gear somewhere “safe” then come back for it later.
The idea is that powerful gear is hard to come by. In The 2nd Age game I’ve been working on with Panic Pillow, acquiring such items and being trained in their use involves aligning with Institutions in the game. Resisting this path makes you lighter on obligations, but also a pauper in terms of your gear.
I want to enable two distinct approaches to dungeon crawling within the same game system. You’re a party of desperate rogues, with little more than their strong beliefs, running from every foe they can’t sneak past. Or you're a band of tooled up conquistadors, purging a dungeon of life and loot, following the behest of their paymasters.
Hopefully, the narrative sense of this is fairly obvious. It’s harder to climb a wall with a large backpack on. Even something like listening at doors is harder with a clanking backpack, while panting from exertion. It so happens that a lot of this coincides with conventional roguish abilities, as many simply relate to being dexterous.
The intention here is to fit with the OSR’s “all adventurers are rogues” mindset. In the Conan story The Tower of the Elephant, Conan’s actions are probably more in keeping with thief than a barbarian character build. He is deft at both stealth and climbing walls. It probably helps that his inventory is a sword and loincloth and not much else.
The idea of needing to specialise as a thief in order to sneak around has always struck me as a bit silly. I can’t picture a rogue’s guild drilling recruits in how to stand in shadows. Even if training would enhance such abilities, surely not wearing plate mail with a massive backpack would be the more decisive factor.
A Beggar’s Choice
I refer to the above as the inverse of Cairn, but it’s actually intended to compliment something like Cairn’s inventory system. On balance, having things should still be better than not having things. For many challenges in a dungeon, it will still be in your interest to lug around a spell book. And it’s always possible to stash your gear somewhere “safe” then come back for it later.
The idea is that powerful gear is hard to come by. In The 2nd Age game I’ve been working on with Panic Pillow, acquiring such items and being trained in their use involves aligning with Institutions in the game. Resisting this path makes you lighter on obligations, but also a pauper in terms of your gear.
I want to enable two distinct approaches to dungeon crawling within the same game system. You’re a party of desperate rogues, with little more than their strong beliefs, running from every foe they can’t sneak past. Or you're a band of tooled up conquistadors, purging a dungeon of life and loot, following the behest of their paymasters.
I've shared a draft of my Beggar's Choice system here, intended to later plug into a version of The 2nd Age compatible with Cairn and ItO. Unlike both games, it has no ability scores whatsoever, replacing these with challenge rolls. My feeling is that this will still be compatible with a Cairn statted adventure, though play testing will prove this.
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