Explaining Cairn RPG Scars Within the Fiction

In my time playing Cairn, I’ve come up with a few handy shortcuts and mental procedures to help me narrate combat. However, for the longest time, I had some trouble making scars fit in.

At their core, they’re negative outcomes that, when overcome, give your character a chance to grow. You may, for example, mend your newly broken arm to reroll your HP. Yet, not every broken limb yields the same reward, does it? As all Cairn players know, scars are tied to a very specific condition:

If damage to a PC would reduce their HP to exactly 0, look up the result on the [scars table] based on the amount of HP lost in the attack.

So if you ever get walloped, hamstrung, or deafened (all of which are scar outcomes) outside of combat, it’s not the same as getting walloped, hamstrung, or deafened as a consequence of reaching exactly 0 HP following an attack. I mean, sure, nothing stops the Warden from treating them the same, but that’s not the rule. What could possibly set them apart? Or: how do you explain the scars mechanic outside of the rules and within the fiction?

At a high level, what happens during combat largely depends on the PC’s final amount of HP. If you have HP left at the end of a turn, you’re unscathed. If you don’t and you received damage in excess of your HP, then you got hurt. And I wager not just hurt, but seriously so. It’s messy, it’s bloody… fail your next STR check and this might be how you go down.

It then follows that the scar system must be the middle ground: no, you could not evade the attack, yes you got hurt, but hey, you learnt. I often imagine it as a misstep from which you could not fully recover in time. The important part is: unlike when you get “just” hurt, you noticed your mistake. If you manage to survive, you will not repeat it.

I like this framing because it makes it easy to spin narratives that neatly complement scars as a mechanic. It explains the immediate consequence, the long-term improvement, and why not every broken limb is the same.

Next time someone’s HP reaches exactly 0, maybe don’t just announce the hit: describe the mistake that led to it.

“Jonas assumes a defensive stance, ready to block. Unfortunately, they fail to take into account the swiftness of the skeleton, unencumbered by meat. A quick course correction later and bang, the mace puts a dent in their helm. It’s a rattling blow. Maybe they’ll learn something from it.”

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Paying the Joesky tax:

d6	You find a curious-looking bottle…
1	It’s shaped like a boomerang, and works like one too. If filled, it leaves an uninterrupted trail of liquid on the ground. Roll a d8 when you throw it. On a 1, it breaks before it can return.
2	It’s opaque and with a wide neck. Whatever you put inside never comes out again. Occasionally, it whispers things it wants to swallow. Humor it or random stuff will disappear. If held onto for longer than an hour, you need a successful WIL save to get rid it, repeatable once a week.
3	It’s gilded and smells of roses. A whiff of its scent will turn any conversation in your favor, provided your interlocutor fails a WIL save. 3 uses. Recharge: employ it as a rose vase for a day.
4	It’s made of the thinnest glass you’ve ever seen. It’s very fragile, but worth a lot to some. DEX save on jumps and other sudden movements or it breaks (d4 damage from the shards, even when in the backpack).
5	It’s spherical and vibrates slightly, producing a gentle hum. When open, it records sounds when facing up (up to one hour) and plays them back when facing down. Playback flushes the bottle’s memory. During recording, loud noises will break it.
6	It’s cylindrical and very tall. Mist slowly forms inside. Liquids poured into it will quickly boil and turn into vapor. When filled with enough smoke, opening the bottle produces a loud bang, shooting physical contents outward in a cone. d8 blast damage. Beware: it may randomly uncork itself.