Cairn vs Rifts

Compare Cairn and Rifts side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.

	Cairn	Rifts
Genre	Fantasy	Post-Apocalyptic, Scifi, Fantasy, Horror, Superhero
Tags	Rules-Light, Classless, Deadly, Dungeon Crawl, Attacks Always Hit, Inventory Management, CC-Licensed Rules	Character Building, Combat-Heavy, Crunchy, Fear & Stress Mechanics, Gonzo, High-Power, Mana Points, Mecha, Superpowers, Tactical
Core Mechanic	Roll d20 equal to or under one of three attributes (STR, DEX, WIL) to make a save; 1 always succeeds, 20 always fails. Combat is simultaneous and attacks always hit: the attacker rolls a weapon die, subtracts armor, and applies the rest to HP. When HP reaches 0, damage spills into STR and triggers a Critical Damage save.	Combat and saving throws use a d20 plus bonuses, with high results overcoming a target number or opposing roll. Skills use d100 and succeed when the result is at or below the character's percentage.
Dice	d20, d4–d12	d20, d100
Complexity	Very Low	Very High
Accessibility	Very High	Medium
Runnability	Very Low	Very High
License	CC BY-SA 4.0	All Rights Reserved
Third-Party Publishing	Not yet researched	Noncommercial only — Palladium Books Internet Policy limited license
Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing.
Cost	Free	$$
Publisher	Cairn Press	Palladium Books Inc.
Year	2024	2005
Languages	English	English
Best For	Groups who want a fast, classless fantasy game where equipment defines the character, expeditions into the Wood are tense and lethal, and the GM can roll most of their prep from tables.	Groups who want long-form science-fantasy campaigns that move from a ruined Earth to other dimensions. The game suits tables whose GM will decide which parts of the broad setting a campaign uses.
Highlights	Inventory and Fatigue share the same 10 slots, so every spell cast, wound, or burden taken on competes with the equipment that defines a classless character. The Scars table turns surviving a near-death hit into permanent character development: a hit that drops a PC to exactly 0 HP rolls a unique injury or trait that often raises an attribute, making advancement a consequence of surviving danger rather than an XP track. Dungeon turns and three-watch wilderness travel each have their own resolution loop and event table, giving the Warden a structured procedure for both exploration modes instead of freeform improv. The Warden's Guide bundles procedural setting, faction, dungeon, and forest generators alongside the bestiary, so prep can be rolled rather than authored.	Occupational and racial class packages assign distinct abilities and advancement tracks, giving each archetype a different role in the party. Mega-Damage places many supernatural creatures and war machines on a separate durability scale beyond the reach of ordinary Structural Damage Capacity attacks. Rifts and ley lines make dimensional travel a standing feature of the setting, letting campaigns move between devastated Earth and other worlds.
Considerations	Starting HP is rolled on 1d6, so first-session characters can be killed by a single hit: Cairn assumes attrition and replacement rather than long heroic arcs. Combat is deterministic: attacks always hit and damage is rolled by the attacker, removing the to-hit decision space some tactical players want. There is no Charisma or Intelligence attribute and no fixed spell list: social conflict resolves through WIL saves, and a character's magical capability is shaped by which spellbooks the party finds rather than choices made at creation. Advancement comes through the Scars table rather than XP or milestones, so growth is a byproduct of surviving damage rather than a steady level-up curve.	Character creation combines rolled attributes with extensive skill selection, making first-time preparation lengthy. Combat asks each player to track an action economy, active defenses, and which damage scale applies. Magic and psionics use separate point pools and power procedures, adding class-specific rules to the shared system.