New Art Revealed!

Yesterday, I mentioned that Jeff Laubenstein has been drawing additional art for the Villagers of Cairn Bicycle-brand Playing Card Kickstarter. Jeff has graciously agreed to add more art for Cairn because he believes in this project strongly, and he's fitting it in and around his other, paying gigs. This benefits the Cairn RPG by adding more artwork, as well as making it a bit easier for us to publish the book. All of us on the SoulJar Team (Alyssa, Jack, jim, and myself) want to thank Jeff for his contributions. I think it's safe to say that Cairn would have a very different look without him.

Isn't this lady groundhog beautiful? In the Cairn RPG, you must choose two professions, which gives you a range of options. You can choose two complimentary professions, like warrior/marksman, which would allow you to fight equally well with both sword and bow. Or how about priest/healer, giving you access to spells that deal with both Harmony and health? You could choose two different kinds of profession, to make you more well-rounded. Like rogue/acrobat -- climbing, sneaking, tumbling, and jumping. Or how about a barbarian/druid, a defender of the forests and the old ways? Lastly, you could choose to go completely crazy and pick two professions that really have nothing to do with each other, like paladin/minstrel or acrobat/enchanter.... What do you think our friend lady groundhog is?

Why do we call this "The Awakened Villagers of Cairn" Kickstarter? Well, first of all, as many of you know, the animals were Awakened by The Bright Ones after the gods destroyed humanity for their hubris. Humans kept mucking about with the gods' design for the world, and generally not being very nice to each other. The Bright Ones hope that the Awakened animals can do better. Secondly, one of the changes we made to the Cairn RPG is to focus solely on the town of Cairn. After all, that's the name of the game. This ties you to a place and the community at large. You are a villager of Cairn, an animal of consequence; will you be famous or notorious? You are going to be able to influence the development of the town through your adventures -- will Cairn prosper and grow? Will the town have enough nuts to survive the winter? What are those pesky moles up to, anyway? From a gameplay perspective, this makes it simpler to come up with stories and give them focus.

We have a few more pieces of new art from Jeff that we can't wait to reveal. We've decided to add t-shirts to the Kickstarter, as well as a PDF coloring book. And fans of suggested quite a few other things that we're considering, too. So come on over and join us. We here at SoulJAR love our fans and want to hear from you.

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