Oathbound: Trials of Caernlun is out now! In this solo TTRPG, you take on the role of a knight venturing into the ancient, ensorcelled fortress of Caernlun in search of the mythical blade of the High Queen of the Chainlands, Selkyriane, who once called this fortress her home. Overcome monsters and obstacles in your Quest to become the champion of Caernlun and bring unity and peace back to the Chainlands!
Background
I began working on Oathbound sometime toward the end of 2023. Originally, the game was set to be built using the framework of Shawn Tomkin’s Ironsworn RPG (my favorite TTRPG). I got as far as a rough character creation system before putting it on the back burner, and, aside from Rogue Tower (my attempt at a TTRPG rogue-lite), I stopped creating games for release.
That all changed about two weeks ago when I read Skeleton Code Machine’s “Thematic Design in Dark Fort” post. I was immediately inspired and set down that day to write the first draft of what became Trials of Caernlun. An entire game flooded out of me, using the base of the old drafts of Oathbound. I played and edited and played again until the game felt like it was in a solid enough state to ask others to play it.
And play it they did! I sent out around a dozen play-test copies of the game and received some incredible feedback. Very few mechanical changes took place as a result of the play testing, though I will credit
for the addition of a dead-end roll on the Chamber Exits table, which gave rise to backtracking rules as well.More than anything though, the fine folks who play tested the game had fun. Some have even played it multiple times!
is even posting play reports from his adventures in Caernlun.I want to offer a heartfelt ‘Thank You’ to everyone who volunteered to give this little game a go.
Inspirations
As I mentioned above, the Skeleton Code Machine article on Dark Fort was the trigger for my mad rush of development. Dark Fort itself is a large inspiration to many of the mechanics in the game (particularly the 1v1 fights and map as you play).
Since
’s Kal-Arath released nearly a year ago (!) I’ve really latched on to the 2d6+mod(s) vs target number resolution mechanic. I know CG’s not the first to use it, and KA is not even the first game that used it that I’ve played. Perhaps it was the immense fun I had, the foreboding danger and thrill of victory, playing Kal-Arath all those months ago that made the mechanic appeal to me. Whatever the case, the 2d6 resolution mechanic is one of my favorites, and it made sense to use it here.It probably goes without saying that the King Arthur mythos is a huge influence on Oathbound. I wanted to keep with the themes of knighthood, chivalry, honor, and valor found so often in those tales. These themes will become more important in the sequel to Trials of Caernlun (which is currently in the works). Much of the lore of the game (the magic sword, the valiant leader, the castle, and the powerful wizard) all come from the well-known tales of Excalibur, Arthur, Camelot, and Merlin. But I didn’t want to create a setting that was merely an analog to Dark Age Britain.
Thus, the Chainlands were born. These floating islands, bound together by massive magical chains, are the result of a cataclysmic failure of the arcane. I can’t think of any other settings where the post-apocalyptic and medieval come together like this. I’m sure they exist, but I was rather excited about the concept when it came to me all of a sudden. To some degree, these floating islands are inspired by the latest Ironsworn supplement, Sundered Isles. The islands of the Chainlands are truly sundered, both from each other and from the seabeds far below. For a more detailed (but needing to be slightly rewritten) history of the Chainlands, check out the note I posted a couple weeks ago (HERE).
What’s Next?
In many ways, Trials is a combat test for the larger Oathbound project. I think its been relatively successful, considering the fun play testers have had. The next project I have in mind is a sequel to Trials. It will be a test of Oathbound’s travel mechanic, as well as tools to randomly generate your version of the Chainlands, either as you go or all at once. This will be packaged in an adventure I’ve taken to calling Winter’s Bastion. The members of the Dragon’s Den discord server have already seen snippets of my dev-notes for Winter’s Bastion, and more teasers will start rolling out once Trials is released fully.
If you’d like to join the discord and get to help shape early versions of Winter’s Bastion and, eventually, Oathbound itself, I’ve included an invite below.
Congrats Eric! On my way now to pick up a copy. 😊😊
Congats on this my friend. I cant wait to sit down and read through this later tonight. I've really been looking forward to this.