--- title: "Overview & Principles" slug: overview-and-principles parent: cairn published: true --- ## Overview & Principles ### Overview #### Neutrality The Warden's role is to act as a neutral arbiter and portray the rules, situations, non-player characters (NPCs), and narrative clearly. #### Classless A character's role or skills are not limited by a single class. Instead, the equipment they carry and their experiences define their specialty. #### Death Characters may be powerful, but they are also vulnerable to harm in its many forms. Death is always around the corner, but it is never random or without warning. #### Fiction First Dice do not always reflect an obstacle's difficulty or its outcome. Instead, success and failure are based on in-world elements and arbitrated by the Warden in dialogue with the players. #### Growth Characters are changed through in-world advancement, gaining new skills and abilities by surviving dangerous events and overcoming obstacles. #### Player Choice Players should always understand the reasons behind the choices they've made, and information about potential risks should be provided freely and frequently. #### Principles The Warden and the players each have guidelines that help foster a specific play experience defined by critical thinking, exploration, and an emergent narrative. #### Shared Objectives Players trust one another to engage with the shared setting, character goals, and party challenges. Therefore the party is typically working together towards a common goal, as a team. ### Principles for Players #### Agency - Attributes and related saves do not define your character. They are tools. - Don't ask only what your character would do; ask what you would do, too. - Be creative with your intuition, items, and connections. #### Teamwork - Seek consensus from the other players before barreling forward. - Stay on the same page about goals and limits, respecting each other and accomplishing more as a group than alone. #### Exploration - Asking questions and listening to detail is more useful than any stats, items, or skills you have. - Take the Warden's description without suspicion, but don't shy away from seeking more information. - There is no single correct way forward. #### Talking - Treat NPCs as if they were real people, and rely on your curiosity to safely gain information and solve problems. - You'll find that most people are interesting and will want to talk things through before getting violent. #### Caution - Fighting is a choice and rarely a wise one; consider whether violence is the best way to achieve your goals. - Try to stack the odds in your favor, and retreat when things seem unfavorable. #### Planning - Think of ways to avoid your obstacles through reconnaissance, subtlety, and fact-finding. - Do some research, and ask around about your objectives. #### Ambition - Set goals, and use your meager means to take steps forward. - Expect nothing. Earn your reputation. - Keep things moving forward, and play to see what happens. ### Principles for Wardens #### Information - Provide useful information about the game world as the characters explore it. - Players do not need to roll dice to learn about their circumstances. - Be helpful and direct with your answers to their questions. - Respond honestly, describe consistently, and always let them know they can keep asking questions. #### Difficulty - Default to context and realism rather than numbers and mechanics. - If something the players want to do is sincerely impossible, no roll will allow them to do it. - Is what the player describes and how they leverage the situation sensible? Let it happen. - Saves cover a great deal of uncertain situations and are often all that is necessary for risky actions. #### Preparation - The game world is organic, malleable and random. It intuits and makes sharp turns. - Use random tables and generators to develop situations, not stories or plots. - NPCs remember what the PCs say and do, and how they affect the world. - NPCs don't want to die. Infuse their own self-interest and will to live into every personality. #### Narrative Focus - Emergent experience of play is what matters, not math or character abilities. Give the players weapon trainers and personal quests to facilitate improvement and specialization. - Pay attention to the needs and wants of the players, then put realistic opportunities in their path. - A dagger to your throat will kill you, regardless of your expensive armor and impressive training. #### Danger - The game world produces real risk of pain and death for the player characters. - Telegraph serious danger to players when it is present. The more dangerous, the more obvious. - Put traps in plain sight and let the players take time to figure out a solution. - Give players opportunities to solve problems and interact with the world. #### Treasure - A Treasure is specific to the environment from where it is recovered. It tells a story. - Treasure is highly valuable, almost always bulky, and rarely useful beyond its worth and prestige. - Relics are not Treasure, though they are useful and interesting. - Use Treasure as a lure to exotic locations under the protection of intimidating foes. #### Choice - Give players a solid choice to force outcomes when the situation lulls. - Use binary "so, A or B?" responses when their intentions are vague. - Work together using this conversational method to keep the game moving. - Ensure that the player character's actions leave their mark on the game world. #### Die of Fate - Occasionally you will want an element of randomness (e.g. the weather, unique character knowledge, etc.). - In these situations, roll 1d6. A roll of 4 or more generally favors the players. - A roll of 3 or under tends to mean bad luck for the PCs or their allies.