I've created printable (and editable) pregens of all 20 Cairn 2e backgrounds. These took way longer than they should have.

drive.google.com/file/d/1lscZ...

Writing Modules For Cairn Writing adventures for Cairn RPG is very similar to writing for other OSR systems, with a few additional tweaks. Before reading further, see my previous post...

As a follow-up to last week's post about writing modules, I wrote another post on writing adventures for Cairn, and how that might be different than other OSR systems.

newschoolrevolution.com/writing-modu...

Energy Coin Adventure Design A mental model to frame up adventures.

⚡ NEW BLOG POST! I'm back talking about adventure design, this time laying out a mental model for 'energy' inside of an adventure. It's a simple and effective way to categorize elements inside of the scenario and look for stagnation and chaos. Check it out! ⚡

www.mindstormpress.com/energy-coin-...

Play Style Preferences: Widdershins Worldbuilding A blog post talking about my ideal campaign structure for an Adventure game of the OSR play style.

Dolmenwood is good, though it has a lot of non-human character options that can slow down onboarding due to unfamiliarity.

I do briefly go over how I would do Dolmenwood while minimizing these things, and why, in this blog post.

widdershinswanderings.bearblog.dev/playstyle-pr...

Live at Gary Con XVIII: Vault of the Drow YouTube video by Between Two Cairns

Presenting our live recording of Between Two Cairns at Gary Con XVIII!

@bradkerr.net, @betterlegends.bsky.social and I review D3: Vault of the Drow by Gary Gygax in another Gamer Blast from the Past!

youtu.be/I_zrshbGR34?...

Patrons received this video early.

Cairn 2e Adventure Anthology 1 - Flip Through and Review YouTube video by WatcherDM

youtu.be/GnApAmrF2Rw

60 systems and 600 sessions. 3 years in the life of a TTRPG meetup. - Pointless Monument I found 436 people who wanted to play TTRPGs in-person near me. Here’s how I did it and the 10 tips I learned along the way. In late 2022 I moved

Blogpost: I've often mentioned the local meetup I run in conversations on here and elsewhere. Now, after 3 years, here's an overview of how I did it and what we've been playing.

pointlessmonument.blot.im/60-systems-a...

🚨TTRPG KEYSTONE ADVICE ALERT🚨

If you are a person who runs or plays roleplaying games, please read this. Internalise it. It'll save your table from aggressively wasting each other's valuable play time!

1/

rootring is live! rootring is a curated webring for TTRPG blogs: a place to wander from site to site, discover new writing, and follow the blogosphere.

Have been working on a new project for blog discovery. It's now live!

Check out rootr.ing! A new small hub and webring for ttrpg blogs. Read about here:

elmc.at/rootring-is-...

While working on a more substantive project, I got to thinking about a maladaption I've noticed in many referees. Then a few hours later, a friend of mine did the exact thing I was thinking of right in front of me. So I wrote about it.

www.paperspencils.com/referee-sabo...

RATLINGS NOT HALFLINGS: Or Why Beast Folk Are Better Than Demihumans I bought some  tengu  from  Reaper  the other day just because I've always enjoyed corvid-folk and thought they would be a good miniature to...

It’s hard to truly understand the immortality of an elf as a human player, but not hard to understand the mortality of animal-folk- therefore:
icastlight.blogspot.com/2026/03/ratl...

Teaching Cairn to Kids Lessons learned about teaching the OSR play style to middle schoolers using Cairn Second Edition.

I wrote about my experiences teaching Cairn to middle school kids, but my advice works just as well for adults as it does for adolescents.

widdershinswanderings.bearblog.dev/teaching-cai...

What's next for 3d6 DTL?
Well...
#NSR #OSR #TTRPG @bastionland.bsky.social

d100 - Some More Specific Concealed or Secret Doors A nother Random Table Resource to assist Referees with those often-under-specified Secret Doors. Some Dungeon Maps neglect to describe the...

d100 - Some More Specific Concealed or Secret Doors
Detail for when a Dungeon Key is found to be Lacking
blog.d4caltrops.com/2026/02/d100...
#osr #randomtables #ttrpgs

It couldn't have gone to a better cat! Well done!

DA2: Temple of the Frog | Between Two Cairns Get more from Between Two Cairns on Patreon

Today on Between Two Cairns, @bradkerr.net, @betterlegends.bsky.social and I review DA2: Temple of the Frog by Dave Arneson and David J. Ritchie, and answer a mootsack question (and then some!).

www.patreon.com/posts/151652...

I know, I know, I keep talking about the Bloggies.

But I built an archive of all the past Bloggies Awards. If that's your kind of thing, take a look!

You can also grab yearly OPML files of all nominees for your RSS reader.

bloggies.org

Resonant, with Dave Kenny | Ansible Uplink Get more from Ansible Uplink on Patreon

This week on Ansible Uplink, @magnum-galaxy-games.itch.io joins me to review the @spacepenguinink.bsky.social Mothership publication, Resonant by @weirdwonder.bsky.social

www.patreon.com/posts/151622...

Designing Lore Blocks An alternative to stat blocks designed for The 1 HP Dragon.

It's been a couple years since Reach of the Roach God was published, and I'm still thinking about how it pulled off stat blocks without stats.

It's a load-bearing piece of tech that's criminally underused.

www.explorersdesign.com/designing-lo...

The Bloggies 2026 A yearly celebration of blogging in tabletop roleplaying games.

Oh, you thought The Bloggies were over? The Bloggies haven't ended. They might never end.

Vote in the Bonus categories this week!

Ballot: forms.gle/d6YbnUqiuypv...
www.explorersdesign.com/bloggies-2026/

Cairn: Barebones Edition is available in Hardback, Perfect Bound, Stapled, and Coilbound from Lulu!

And they all look great!

www.lulu.com/search?sortB...

On The Hill | Between Two Cairns Get more from Between Two Cairns on Patreon

Today on Between Two Cairns, @bradkerr.net, @betterlegends.bsky.social and I review On The Hill by M. Allen Hall, and answer a mootsack question.

www.patreon.com/posts/150510...

Bloggies Breakdown: Round 3 After the third Bloggies Blog Bath: Who won? And by how much?

We're in the final round of The Bloggies gladiatorial arena. You can find the results (with pie charts!) and round 4 voting form in the link below.

There was a significant uptick of votes this round. Neat.

The Bloggies 2026 A yearly celebration of blogging in tabletop roleplaying games.

🚨BLOGGIES 2026 REMINDER🚨

Remember to vote for your favourite TTRPG internet writing of the past year, friends. We are in the semi-finals for the five main categories already!

www.explorersdesign.com/bloggies-202...

The Bloggies: Advice Round 2 Welcome to The Bloggies. You're currently voting in the second round of the Advice bracket. What's in this category? This category includes advice for play, prep, publishing, and more. What are The B...

Round 2 of the Bloggies is underway! Read, digest, vote!

Advice:
tinyurl.com/y6z7b5tn

Critique:
tinyurl.com/4x8erzrr

Gameable:
tinyurl.com/bpaz4bcb

Theory:
tinyurl.com/2s3fwehe

Meta:
tinyurl.com/ymnbudv2

The Bloggies 2026 A yearly celebration of blogging in tabletop roleplaying games.

This is your nightly invitation to read through The Bloggies and vote on your favorite rpg blogs from last year.

If you haven't participated already, that's okay. You can jump in now and vote on one or more matchups. You might even walk away with new ideas or house rules in the process.

🧙‍♂️🗳️👇

So many masterpieces have fallen too soon.

Please keep voting! May the best posts win!

Two big stone heads with ruby eyes. Text: "Tabletop Gaming Convention. Between Two Cons. Norse Hall, Portland OR. June 26 - 27 2026. Betweentwocons.com for more information".

Between Two Cairns is organizing a gaming convention in Portland, OR. Please come! betweentwocons.com @betterlegends.bsky.social @yochaigal.bsky.social

We Read The Bloggies (@WeReadTheBloggies) • Episodes We’re volunteers turning Bloggies-nominated blog posts into audio. So you can enjoy them anywhere, in a more accessible format.

Also, if you forgot to do your Bloggies homework but have some listening time today, there's a podcast for that.

podcast.bloggies.org/@WeReadTheBl...

Bloggies PSA! Round 1 of all 5 initial Categories is open until 7 AM EST. Not just Advice.

Advice: forms.gle/LApoXPh7cVhy...
Critique: forms.gle/5Qvwxxsvyhq8...
Gameable: forms.gle/WjPxMyQunpPZ...
Theory: forms.gle/VSa1fwjYLcrk...
Meta: forms.gle/R26nY7qm7DaA...

Vote for your favorites. PSA over