Cairn Second Edition
/ productsRulebooks and adventures for Cairn Second Edition, a classless fantasy RPG by Yochai Gal about expeditions into a dark and mysterious forest. Players start with the Player’s Guide, which contains the rules, quick random character creation, and expanded backgrounds. The Warden will reach for the Warden’s Guide, featuring the world of Vald, generators, and procedures for exploring forests and dungeons. The ready-to-play hexcrawl What Haunts the Harwood saves you prep time for your first session. Cairn is a great fit for D&D players looking for lighter rules and a more dangerous world. You can find related systems under Do podivna, and the entire genre in the OSR category.
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How to start with Cairn 2E
The Player’s Guide (88 pages) is all you need to play. It includes the rules, character creation, backgrounds, and basic procedures. Everyone at the table can have their own copy since it's thin and affordable.
The Warden’s Guide (192 pages) is the book for the GM. It contains tables and procedures for creating forest crawls, pointcrawls, and dungeons, as well as a bestiary, spellbooks, relics, and a description of the world of Vald.
For your first game, add a pre-made adventure. What Haunts the Harwood is a 24-page hexcrawl around the village of Almsville, where the mayor's son has gone missing and an ancient evil is stirring in the woods. You can find dice for it in our RPG dice sets.
How is Cairn different from D&D
Characters have no classes. What you can do is determined by your gear: if you want to cast spells, you need a spellbook. Instead of experience points and levels, your character changes based on what they experience in the game. Combat is fast and deadly, so caution, planning, and negotiation pay off. The second edition adds illustrated backgrounds (e.g., Kettlewright, Outrider, Jongleur), bonds, and omens that connect your character to the world right from creation and give you your first plot hooks.
FAQ
Is Cairn Second Edition available in Czech?
No, the rulebooks in our offer are in English. You can try a similar style of game in Czech with Knave: Second Edition.
Do I need both rulebooks?
Players only need the Player’s Guide. The Warden’s Guide is only needed by the GM, especially if they want to build their own world and adventures.
Can I use adventures from the first edition?
Yes. The core rules remain the same, so modules for 1E will run with only minor adjustments.
Is Cairn suitable for beginners?
Yes. The rules are short, character creation takes only a few minutes, and the GM resolves most situations with common sense rather than flipping through the book.
Guides
What is the Old School Renaissance in RPGs?
In this article, we look at how the term OSR originated, what it originally meant, and how its understanding has shifted over the roughly 15 years since its inception. full article...
Non-fiction journalism 27. 3. 2023 Jiří Petrů 21 min
An Overview of Mark of the Odd RPGs
Are you drawn to minimalist RPGs? We've prepared a comprehensive overview of games built on the Into the Odd system. Find your favorite genre! full article...
10. 7. 2026 Jiří Reiter 21 min