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For skills like Volley and Hack, you roll damage twice rather than have damage advantage. So you roll damage twice and take both totals rather than choosing the higher total.

If an adventurer starts with 1 Vigour, then their max Vigour is 1, meaning they’re more at risk of permanent death. The Warden may choose to allow a re-roll for characters with 1 Vigour, or it could become a more challenging adventure. Wardens can also choose to include ways to increase Vigour, through a relic or as a reward for slaying a powerful boss.

Sorry for the confusion. Drop me an email on colin@byodinsbeardrpg.com and I’ll send you a link for the EP.

Relics take up inventory slots but rings do not. However, you can only wear a maximum of two rings, one on each hand.

You gain Fatigue when using special skills, casting spells, and through some enemy attacks. Once your inventory is full, you can’t gain any more Fatigue or use abilities that cost Fatigue.

You can choose to fight with no armour or weapons but you’d only do 1d4 damage (unarmed) and you wouldn’t have any special abilities. You can absolutely choose to run a so-called speedrun build (naked with one weapon) to maximise the amount of special attacks you can use.

Thanks for sharing this, it’s awesome! Please release them on Itch and I’ll add a link to the Runecairn Itch pages.

I’ll leave up to you whether to charge or offer as PWYW (pay what you want) or for free—I’m happy with any of the options.

Thanks again!

Here’s a refreshed and updated trailer for 2025!

I’ve refreshed and updated the Runecairn trailer for 2025!

I built the Shoot table as it is for a number of different mechanical reasons:

1. Guns are rare in the Drifted World and gunslingers are even rarer.
2. Making gunslingers feel different and special compared to other Into the Odd classes.
3. Building the core combat mechanic around gunslingers and artefact guns.
4. Building in compatibility with other Into the Odd games that already have guns and firearms.

All this is also under the assumption that players would prefer to play as gunslingers with artefact guns for flavour and narrative reasons rather than optimising damage output and min-maxing.

Ultimately, there’s no right or wrong way to play and every table’s different. There’s no one design or solution that works for 100% of players, so folks should make the choice that suits their table the best.

Hope this helps clarify things.

That’s right, if you don’t reach your Objective, you keep rolling encounters until you eventually locate your Objective or reach 4 setbacks (at which point the delve fails).

The Bits and Mortar files for We Deal in Lead have now been updated. Thanks for the heads-up.

Hello and thanks for the kind words!

1. Ability score damage is there for wardens to implement and for future books. There are some monsters in the Bestiary that do ability damage, for instance. Your first thought was right about ability and fatigue. You need to make the save and you take a point of fatigue.

2. Think of Resilience as your ability to stay in the fight. That’s depleted first, then you take Strength damage when Res is 0. Having a full inventory reduces your Resilience to 0, it doesn’t kill you outright. Essentially, you’re overburdened by fatigue and have no more fight in you, therefore you’re easier to kill.

3. Perplexing Ruins and Chaoclypse on YouTube are both great resources for solo play, as is Stoneaxe Tabletop Gaming. The various Vaesen RPG books are great for creepy Scandinavian folklore and mythology. The Dictionary of Northern Mythology by Rudolf Simek is also a great reference book.

Hope this helps!

Thank you! Those fields are auto-filled and calculate according to what’s been ticked or entered in the relevant fields. So Resilience will add up Vigour and Vitality, etc.

The broad axe can replace any key item, really. It offers a slightly different approach with a 2-handed weapon rather than a 1-handed one. That’s the cool thing about key items and backgrounds—since backgrounds just determine what items you start with, you can essentially change your class by changing your key item. The broad axe would work well with someone used to playing a warrior, however. Hope this helps, thanks!

Gunslinger orders exist because I think it’s cool to be in a group of gunslingers, facing the dangers of the Drifted World together. Some elements are mainly intended to enrich the narrative experience rather than having a mechanical benefit.

Hello and thanks for the kind words!

1. This is a mistake on the example character sheet and I’ll be fixing it in an update.

2. This is to keep the option open for the future and to allow wardens to create new creatures with attacks that cause fatigue.

3. They’re meant to be used right away but this can depend on the warden. If you’ve got a fresh group of prentices who’ve just become gunslingers, they might have to learn the skills from a different gunslinger.

4. Yup, these will be fixed.

Thanks and all the best.

Typically a remnant would hold one soul, but this can vary according to how difficult it was to find, etc. You can break a soul remnant with your hands, though wardens may choose to make it more difficult for rarer remnants. They can also accidentally break, leading to interesting situations in the middle of a fight.

Runecairn Bestiary has been nominated for Best Monster at the 2024 ENNIE Awards!

Vote here: https://vote.ennie-awards.com/vote/2024/ballot.php?category_id=15

Here’s a quick overview of Runecairn from the How to Be a Great GM channel!

Yup, I still plan on updating the ashcan and turning it into a more polished version. That’ll probably be later in the year but everyone who has this version will get the new one too!

Apologies, the paper version used to be print friendly but that was over-written. I’ve uploaded a new paper version of the character sheet PDF. You can also download it directly from the Runecairn website:

https://runecairn.byodinsbeardrpg.com/sheet/

Thanks!

The hardcover books have arrived from the printer and they look GREAT! Here’s a quick flipthrough and look at both versions.

Yup, it was designed to be played with one Warden (GM) and one adventurer (player).

Check out this actual play with PlusOneExp to see it in action:

Nope, but I’ve just updated it to include player-facing maps for the town and dungeon!

Yup, I’ll be sending out PDF links for BackerKit pre-orders after cards are charged in April.

This manner is the Vigour Roll method. I’ll look to clarify this in a future update, thanks!

Thanks for the heads-up! I’ve updated my reply (above) with the answers.

Thanks! I didn’t want people who already owned it to lose out on updates.

Awesome, great to hear you enjoyed it!

1. You can fire all six shots into one target; I’d make a call that it would deal max damage (8 on a d8).
2. Gunslingers are skilled enough to be able to pick and choose targets, even when using Fan the Hammer. Blast effects targets in short range (ie. in the same room or across the road).
3. You only need to roll on the Shoot table once when using a special ability (like Fan the Hammer) but you’ll roll damage for each shot.
4. You roll the standard damage die for the gun (ie. d8 for six shooter).

That’s correct, it’s a shorthand to say “if you fail this roll you’ll be deprived.”

Hi all, here’s a topic where I’ll be posting Runecairn reviews and actual plays. You can find them at the following YouTube playlist:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMM-_Btq0jhTI1t-5FMAuN9n8nvjy-WWa

Hey there! I totally get it, sometimes paring down descriptions and information can make things more difficult. Apologies!

You’re spot on with diminished and enhanced attacks. If an attack is diminished, no matter the weapon or attacker, the damage is reduced to d4. Likewise, if an attack is enhanced, the damage is increased to d12.

For damage advantage, you roll the damage die twice and take the higher result. So, if you rolled a d6 twice and get 3 and 6, you’d take the 6 for damage.

I hope this helps clear things up. Thanks and all the best!

I sat down for a chat with The Weekly Scroll and then ran them through a cave delve, randomly generated using the delve generator!

Here I go through what’s new in the upcoming Runecairn Wardensaga Remastered, launching on Kickstarter on 23 January.

This is correct, though it’s up to the Warden’s discretion whether the enemy uses more than one attack every round and the adventurer can attempt to use a Reaction to avoid/deter the first two attacks (club and ground slam).

Yup, the PC goes first unless surprised.

Yes, monsters can have multiple attacks but the same rule that applies to PCs applies to monsters: if attacking the same target, roll damage for each attack and take the highest single result.

No worries!

Hi Aidan, thanks! I do plan on transcribing everything for easier editing when I flesh out the full book next year.

I will add a plaintext/markdown version of the current descriptions to accompany the PDF, since I know my handwriting is pretty undecipherable sometimes, apologies. I’ll look to add it to the download in the next few weeks. Thanks!

Here’s a video where I talked through my design process for Omega City and created some areas live.

Yup, thugs should have 9 STR. The example was written before I’d firmed up the monster stats. I’ll correct it in a future update. Thanks!