Guide
Getting started
CaRdPG is a skill-based RPG played on a board where everything is a card: you, the trees, the ore in the hills, the wolves in the wood. There are no classes and no experience points. You get better at what you do.
Pick a start
When you make a hero you choose a starting archetype. It only sets your first skills, stats and kit. Every hero can learn every skill later by using it.
| Archetype | Stats (STR/DEX/INT) | Starting skills | Gold |
|---|---|---|---|
| Warrior | 50/35/15 | Swordsmanship 35, Tactics 30, Parrying 25, Healing 20, Lumberjacking 10 | 60 |
| Mage | 25/25/50 | Magery 40, Meditation 30, Foraging 20, Alchemy 15, Swordsmanship 10 | 60 |
| Ranger | 35/50/15 | Archery 40, Tactics 25, Lumberjacking 15, Carpentry 15, Animal Taming 15, Healing 10 | 60 |
| Artisan | 50/25/25 | Mining 35, Smelting 35, Blacksmithing 35, Lumberjacking 20, Carpentry 15, Swordsmanship 15 | 150 |
Everyone starts with a Hatchet, a Pickaxe and a Fishing Pole, and knows the Mend spell. Mages also know Spark, Weaken and Frost Bolt.
A world also has a pace (how fast skills rise) and a game mode (what you lose when you die), both chosen when it's made. See Your hero and Death.
Havenbrook
You begin in Havenbrook, the town in the middle of Havenbrook Meadows. Walk into a building to go inside.
- Quest Board: Warden Maera and the main story, plus board quests, work orders and bounty contracts.
- Blacksmith: The Iron Anvil. A forge and anvil stand beside it.
- Shop: Havenbrook Provisions.
- Inn: The Gilded Trout. The hearth counts as a campfire for cooking.
- Wizard's tower: Tower of the Arcane, with an alchemy table. Reforges uniques.
- Temple: heals you, cures poison and brings ghosts back to life.
- Bank: keeps your gold and spare items safe.
- Training Grounds: dummies and practice spots that raise any skill to 10.
The ground around town is safe: only rabbits and deer spawn within 11 tiles of the gate.
Your first hour
- Talk to Warden Maera at the Quest Board. Her first errand walks you round the town.
- Visit the Training Grounds to get any skill you care about to 10.
- Chop pine, mine iron and pick herbs near town. Every vein looks the same until you strike it.
- Smelt and forge at the smithy, or cook at the inn. Crafted goods sell for far more than raw ones.
- When the rats grow bold, follow the main story into the Rat Warrens.
Where next
The lands get harder the further you go from Havenbrook. Each one has a level range, and a land more than 6 levels above you is marked Dangerous.
- Havenbrook Meadows, levels 1–5, and Whisperwood, levels 4–11, are free to play.
- The other five lands open with a one-time purchase. See Playing together.
The world map shows every land, waystone, dungeon and legend's lair.